Free Republic

In the mountains of Pontos in Anatolia another Byzantine / Roman state clung on for years after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. But, the Empire of Trebizond was conquered by the Ottomans on August 15, 1461, after over 250 years since it became independent from Constantinople. They had been a unique Roman refuge in Anatolia, surviving the threats of Seljuks and Mongols. They remained as the rest of Anatolia was conquered by the Turks. But they had got on the list of targets of Sultan Mehmed II, and they were destined to be under the rule of Constantinople again...

On the field, Super Bowl LX looked a lot like the last time the Seattle Seahawks won the NFL championship. Indeed, Sunday’s 29-13 win over the New England Patriots called to mind Seattle’s 43-8 drubbing of the Denver Broncos in early 2014, when the Seahawks’ defense smothered an overmatched opponent in a game that never really had a competitive phase. How fitting, therefore, that the real estate company Redfin — much to the chagrin of users on the social media platform X — gave Super Bowl viewers a commercial reminiscent of the race-mongering of President Barack Obama’s years, albeit with...

Recorded over three sessions between 1949 and 1950, Miles Davis’ ‘Birth Of The Cool’ is a landmark jazz album. The history behind the recording of the music that would ultimately become Miles Davis’ Birth Of The Cool album, released in 1957 by Capitol Records, is fascinating, complex, and the subject of some creative confusion, but there is absolutely no doubting the brilliance and the importance of this record. In 1947, Miles Davis was playing in Charlie Parker’s quintet, having replaced Dizzy Gillespie, who had left in 1945. Davis recorded with Parker for the Savoy and Dial labels, and his...

The Queens of the Stone Age frontman appears on a new episode of the podcast ‘Norah Jones Is Playing Along.’Norah Jones and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age have shared a tender cover of Frank and Nancy Sinatra‘s “Somethin’ Stupid” for an upcoming podcast episode. On a new episode of Norah Jones Is Playing Along, the duo performed the cover of “Somethin’ Stupid,” written by C. Carson Parks and made famous by the father-daughter duet version. Homme’s appearance on the podcast will air February 10. In the latest episode of Norah Jones is Playing Along, the two...

At least one GOP lawmakers is calling on the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to take action after Bad Bunny’s shocking and vulgar halftime lyrics were translated from Spanish to English. As TGP reported, on Sunday night, Hispanic entertainer Bad Bunny performed at the halftime show at Super Bowl LX. Commissioner Roger Goodell and his team picked this anti-American act, who no one has heard of and most people cannot understand, to play at the Super Bowl this year. This was infuriating to millions of Americans. And that is when TPUSA stepped in and decided to hold their own halftime show....

A kerfuffle ensued during the Detroit Pistons - Charlotte Hornets game after a foul was committed.

Television bassist Fred Smith died Thursday of unspecified causes at the age of 77. The news was announced on the band's Instagram page. Jimmy Rip, who has served as Televison's guitarist since co-founder Richard Lloyd's departure in 2007, noted on his own post that Smith had fought an unspecified illness "long and hard these last few years." Smith joined Television in 1975 and appeared on all three of their studio albums, including the 1977 masterpiece Marquee Moon. Prior to that, Smith was also the founding bassist in Blondie, departing the Debbie Harry-fronted group before they began their recording career. Read...

Time for Ozempic to walk the plank? Top dietitians in Australia this week are waving a red flag about an unforeseen impact of the GLP-1 class of weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. In a new systematic review of existing research, led by professor Clare Collins of the Newcastle School of Health Sciences in New South Wales, Australia, it appears that very few global trials of the drugs have taken into consideration what and how much patients are eating while using them. This, experts have said, means many patients have been functionally malnourished — sometimes developing serious vitamin deficiencies...

“U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote, posting on social media. However, unlike Hess and a few other American athletes, hockey stars Brady and Matthew Tkachuk had a different perspective on competing for Team USA. “I mean, this is able to represent the U.S. at this stage in the Olympics is one of the greatest...

While the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots gear up for football's biggest night, a different kind of roster was ready for the spotlight in Puppy Bowl XXII.

Two fundraisers for the hundreds of laid-off Washington Post (WP) journalists have exploded as the far-left newsroom struggles. As of Monday morning, the GoFundMe campaigns have raised over $700,000 after the layoffs were announced on Wednesday, Business Insider reported. Post reporter Rachel Siegel was among those in the newsroom’s union who organized one of the fundraisers. “A separate GoFundMe page for the Post’s international employees has also raised almost $200,000 with about 2,100 donations. The fundraising push for international staff was set up by the Post’s Tokyo bureau chief, Michelle Lee. The funds will be disbursed to laid-off international employees...

Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — appears to have deleted all of his Instagram posts after his Super Bowl halftime show at Sunday’s Super Bowl LX. The “Me Porto Bonito” singer’s Instagram account, boasting 52.6 million followers, shows no profile image, zero posts and zero people that he is following at the time of this writing. While the reason for this remains unclear, Bad Bunny’s removed Instagram content comes after the conclusion of his Super Bowl halftime show which resulted in fans taking to social media to bash the NFL for featuring the “boring”...

On the afternoon of Oct. 4, 1918, American artillery hit a ravine in France's Argonne Forest. The rounds were falling directly on roughly 500 U.S. soldiers that had been trapped behind enemy lines for two days. Maj. Charles Whittlesey, a New York lawyer commanding the surrounded force, had one way left to stop the bombardment. His life and the lives of his men now rested on a lone carrier pigeon. That bird, a black check homing pigeon named Cher Ami, flew 25 miles through gunfire with a message attached to his wounded leg. The flight helped save hundreds of American...

Super Bowl viewers were left 'sickened' after social media users began circulating English translations of Spanish lyrics from Bad Bunny's music following his headline-making halftime performance. Following the show, critics branded the content 'pure degeneracy' and questioned why the NFL put the global superstar on its biggest stage. The backlash erupted hours after the show, when conservative commentator Megan Basham posted screenshots of translated lyrics, which she described as 'the most obscene lyrics ever to be performed at a Super Bowl halftime.' In his track, Safaera, Bad Bunny boast about explicit sexual acts, drug use and casual hookups, with repeated...

In 2021, a unit of healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson announced “a leap forward”: It had added artificial intelligence to a medical device used to treat chronic sinusitis, an inflammation of the sinuses. Acclarent said the software for its TruDi Navigation System would now use a machine-learning algorithm to assist ear, nose and throat specialists in surgeries. The device had already been on the market for about three years. Until then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had received unconfirmed reports of seven instances in which the device malfunctioned and another report of a patient injury. Since AI was added...

Candace Owens is accusing TPUSA of inflating their view counts for the halftime show.

Walk the streets of any major metropolitan area and pay attention to what is communicated in the public sphere. Look especially at advertising, signage, and other messages that bombard you in public spaces. You can learn a good deal about the mindset of the people who run that society by observing such things. More specifically, a culture that is insane, or in the process of going insane, will give it away in what it features in privileged public spaces. These are its most essential values. On a recent visit to New York City, I did a little research in this...

William Holmes McGuffey (September 23, 1800 – May 4, 1873) was an American professor and college president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, one of the nation's first and most widely used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.

California’s already sky-high gas prices are expected to surge after Valero abruptly shuttered its Benicia refinery amid a spiraling “oil crisis,” a new report claims. The Benicia refinery began shutting down on Saturday, four months earlier than planned, a former Valero manager told the California Globe Tuesday. US gas prices: national average of $2.883 with California's average at $4.368, and a legend for retail prices ranging from $2.370 to $4.404. The closure will cause the state’s already sky-high gas prices to soar, a new report said. Thermal imaging showed the facility went cold as the Crimson Pipeline – which transports...

DENIM AND DIVIDENDS: Actress Sydney Sweeney joined American Eagle Outfitters Chairman and CEO Jay Schottenstein at the NYSE to ring the opening bell. The appearance celebrates the American Eagle brand and follows the viral success of the “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign.