Free Republic

This latest experiment was performed near a telecommunications tower on the Säntis mountain in Switzerland that is frequently struck by lightning - roughly 100 times a year, although the tower itself is protected by a lightning rod. The results from the study found the lightning flowed almost in a straight line near the laser pulses, but the lightning strikes were more randomly distributed when the laser was off. While this study is not the first attempt to direct lightning paths it is the first to show it can be done. The scientists have attributed this to the high power laser...

A Japanese whaling firm unveiled vending machines offering whale sashimi, whale steak and whale bacon in Yokohama on Tuesday (Jan 24) in hopes of reviving sales of a food long in decline and shunned by many supermarkets. Wearing a whale-shaped hat, Kyodo Senpaku President Hideki Tokoro greeted prospective customers at the firm's latest unmanned store - a trio of vending machines in Motomachi, an upmarket shopping district home to fashion boutiques and artisan bakeries. The firm has recently set up two similar outlets in Tokyo, plans to open a fourth in the western city of Osaka next month, and hopes...

NEW YORK, NY — Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has unveiled their new mascot, an adorable glob of platelets who goes by the name "Clotty". "See? Blood clots aren't scary!" said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla as a smiling Clotty danced onto the stage. "Welcome to Pfizer, Clotty! Let's get one of these little guys into every home in America!" While Pfizer initially pushed back against evidence tying the vaccine to blood clots, the company has decided to instead embrace it. "We are so excited for Clotty to help us put a friendly face on heart attacks and strokes," said Pfizer CEO Albert...

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is arguing she should remain in her position because she can best convince Donald Trump not to run third party in 2024, according to a new report. The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer reported this week that McDaniel is trying to fend off challengers to her leadership by claiming Trump could form his own third party. Harmeet Dhillon and MyPillow’s Mike Lindell have both been floated as potential replacements to head the RNC.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill this week to stop non-citizens from voting in local elections in Washington, D.C. The legislation comes in response to a newly passed law in the nation’s capital that gives non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, the right to vote in municipal races. “Allowing non-citizens, including aliens occupying our nation illegally, to exercise a right reserved for American citizens not only violates the constitutional principles our nation was founded upon, but also naively invites foreign meddling in our elections,” Cruz said in a press release. “Voting is a privilege and the tool by which American citizens...

The New York Times has long ago abandoned any pretense of being an actual news source and has settled into its role as the foremost propaganda arm of the hard Left, capitalizing upon the fact that there is still a considerable number of people in the U.S. and around the world who still think that the Times can be trusted to report events impartially and accurately. In reality, the only thing the Times is good for is revealing what the political and media elites are thinking, and a Friday opinion piece dropped a bombshell, in the Times’ muted, bloodless Voice-of-the-Ages...

“Diversity” and “Divisiveness” are perhaps our most important cant-words in both meanings of the word: “sanctimonious and hypocritical talk,” and “language peculiar to a specified group or profession and regarded with disparagement,” as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it. That certainly fits the political and media industries, which trade in duplicitous language that distorts the meanings of words in order to construct narratives that serve their ideological preferences and gain leverage over their political rivals.For the “woke” Left, there are few goods greater than “diversity,” and not many worse crimes than being “divisive,” an offense limited to Republicans. But the...

Only 48 percent of registered voters say the nation is suffering from a border crisis and only 45 percent of adults strongly blame President Joe Biden, according to a new poll by YouGov. The poll comes after Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, quietly imported roughly one migrant worker for every American who turned 18. That massive migration shifts much wealth to Wall Street because it slashes wages and salaries for Americans, and also inflates the cost of housing and autos. The poll results show that “it is not enough [for GOP politicians] to just say, ‘We’re gonna build a wall,’...

Its just like The Federal Reserve to be cutting US money growth as US jobs cuts accelerate. The latest US money growth numbers are out and they are daunting. M2 Money growth YoY is now negative at -1.8%. M1 money, a narrower defition of money, is now down -3.6% YoY. This is happening as the labor market is seeing a wave of layoffs. We are just the stepping stone for The Fed. As The Fed ponders inflation versus job growth, its a case of “Him or Me, What’s it going to be?”

On December 26, the Iranian chess player participated in the World Rapid Chess Championship in Kazakhstan with her head uncovered, a silent protest that is a very serious offense in her native country. After the photos circled the world, she announced her intention to settle in Spain. Her story represents the cause of freedom that so many Iranian women are fighting for One day, Sara Khadem will have to explain some very complicated realities to Sam, her 10-month-old son. Like why she decided to compete in the 2022 World Rapid Chess Championship in Kazakhstan with her head uncovered. These days,...

Vice President Kamala Harris has been eerily quiet about President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal, causing at least some Republicans to believe Harris could be angling to push Biden out of the way for a shot at the Oval Office. Though Harris has delivered several public statements since the scandal was leaked to the press on January 9, she has neither supported Biden nor condemned any wrongdoing. Her public comments during this timeframe have largely remained on script, ranging from global warming, Venn diagrams, electricity, school buses, and the southern border invasion.

President Joe Biden’s pick for a top human rights position is withdrawing her nomination after opposition from a Senate Republican who questioned her support for Israel. “At present, I don’t see a path forward for confirmation, and after 1 ½ years, it’s time to move on,” Sarah Margon said in the statement first shared with Politico. “I will continue to work on democracy and human rights, and am grateful to President Biden and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken for their confidence in me and the honor of a nomination.” A former Capitol Hill staffer and Washington director for Human Rights...

Officials in Australia have confirmed that the nation’s first openly gay Olympic bobsledder, Simon Dunn, died suddenly at age 35.Dunn’s body was reportedly found at his home in Sydney on Saturday. Police do not feel the death is suspicious and are going on the assumption that there is a medical reason for the passing, according to Yahoo Sports.Ruby Rose Management confirmed the news with a statement saying, “About 10 am on Saturday, January 21, 2023, police were called to a unit on Crown Street, Surry Hills, after reports the body of a man had been found inside. The body is...

Matt Gaetz joined Steve Bannon on the War Room to discuss the Deep State’s reaction to the unfolding Biden classified document scandal. Gaetz recalled how Americans, who saw the Russian Collusion sham for what it was, were branded conspiracy theorists. “Meanwhile, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were saying that Donald Trump was a Russian agent and that they had more than circumstantial evidence that he was a Russian agent,” Gaetz said. “Well, guess who the Russian agent was? The FBI counterintelligence chief in New York who was involved in investigating Trump taking money from Oleg Deripaska,” he pointed out. Gaetz...

The UK ONS admitted that the misinformation spreaders got it right and their stats are wrong. Which means that the COVID vaccine might not be helpful after all. Executive summary Norman Fenton, Martin Neil, Clare Craig and Scott McLachlan authored a letter to the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) pointing out serious flaws in their data. These flaws would make the unvaccinated look worse than they really are. The regulator agreed they were right. [Editor’s note: An honest regulator is a rarity. This would NEVER happen in the US.] Bottom line: The UK government can’t prove the vaccines work....

San Francisco 49ers rising star Brock Purdy is on the brink of making history. The quarterback could become the first rookie to lead his team to a Super Bowl appearance. He’s the latest rookie quarterback to guide his team to a conference championship. While Purdy has also won each of the seven games he’s started, he’s receiving praise for another reason – putting faith first. The former Iowa State standout has been open about his religion. After being thrust into the 49ers’ matchup against the Miami Dolphins in December, Purdy said he just trusted in God. "You go out there,...

The unvaccinated knew what we didn't. Some of them said too little. Most said nothing at all. A lot of blood is now on their hands.

What possible reason could there be for so many classified documents?In 2022, a woman named Asia Janay Lavarello, a civilian employee of the Defense Department, took materials that included classified documents to both her home and hotel room to help write a thesis project she was working on. She was fired, fined, and sentenced to three months in prison. In 2021, Izaak Vincent Kemp, a contractor with the Air Force, was found to have 112 classified documents among the papers in his home, “[d]espite having training on various occasions on how to safeguard classified material.” He was sentenced to a...

A McDonald's in Indiana accidentally handed drive-thru customer Josiah Vargas all its deposit money instead of his sausage muffin. Vargas uploaded a video to TikTok where he was confused, then agonized over returning the money. [Warning: Language] VIDEO AT LINK.................. "Why would you guys do this to me? You know how bad I want this money?" Vargas asks. However, Vargas did the right thing and carried the money back into the store. "I really want to give you a hug," an employee is heard saying, and then she does. He said McDonald's gave him a $200 reward for returning the...

Never forget that the New York Times kicked off disease panic in the United States in late February 2020, about a month after China had locked down Wuhan and violated its citizens’ rights to associate on a massive scale. Two weeks earlier, the World Health Organization sponsored a Western junket that was attended by Fauci’s deputy assistant and others. They came back and declared that lockdowns are great and should be adopted by all governments. The first media outlet in the United States to amplify this China communist propaganda was the New York Times. On Feb. 27, 2020, Donald G....