Free Republic

The roots of cognitive decline later in life may begin in childhood, a major new study suggests.Researchers discovered that the experience of childhood loneliness is strongly linked to accelerated cognitive decline and a significantly higher risk of dementia in people 50 and up. The critical factor was the subjective, emotional feeling of loneliness itself, which sharply increased dementia risk even for those who had friends. Crucially, the link persisted even for those who were no longer lonely as adults, suggesting the damaging effects of early-life isolation can cast a long shadow over the brain's health.While loneliness at any age is...

While many argue that "modern art" began in the 1800s, could it actually have started with Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, nearly a century before?What is "modern art"? It seems like a simple question, but critics and art historians have quarrelled about it for decades without agreement. Nor is there any consensus about which artwork marks the turning point between "traditional" and "modern".Many point to the 1800s – and paintings like Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863) by Édouard Manet, Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844) by JMW Turner,...

My yellow lab has been obsessive about chewing the top portion of his back, right paw. The only thing working is a cone with a 3" extension but he keeps plowing into things. We've tried bandaging, salmon oil on his food, probiotics, topical creams, wipes etc. but nothing outside of the cone is working on keeping him from getting at his back foot.

https://babylonbee.com/news/bible-scholars-pauls-third-letter-to-corinthians-was-rejected-for-clearly-being-ai-generated OXFORD — After much deliberation, an international team of Bible scholars has recently determined that an alleged third letter of Paul to the Corinthians was rejected for being obviously AI-generated. According to Lee Stokes, the lead researcher and expert in Koine Greek, the style, composition, and syntax of pseudo-Third Corinthians were patently AI-generated. "We first started to get a bit suspicious when we read the ending to the letter," Stokes told reporters. "The last words of the epistle are: 'Here's a draft for III Corinthians which reflects Paul's pastoral heart and his call for the Corinthians to endure in...

Explanation: If this is Saturn, where are the rings? When Saturn's "appendages" disappeared in 1612, Galileo did not understand why. Later that century, it became understood that Saturn's unusual protrusions were rings and that when the Earth crosses the ring plane, the edge-on rings will appear to disappear. This is because Saturn's rings are confined to a plane many times thinner, in proportion, than a razor blade. In modern times, the robotic Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn frequently crossed Saturn's ring plane during its mission to Saturn, from 2004 to 2017. A series of plane crossing images from 2005 February...

A city in California will rename a street in honor of Charlie Kirk, the pro-life conservative speaker and activist who was assassinated. Westminster City Council voted 4-1 this past week to rename a portion of All American Way as Charlie Kirk Way, honoring the late conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA as a champion of free speech and civic engagement. The change applies to street signs along the section of All American Way between Westminster Boulevard and 13th Street, which runs parallel to the Vietnam War Memorial. Kirk’s name will appear in 3-inch font below the official street...

Fred Goldman may be closer to finally receiving payment from OJ Simpson’s estate nearly three decades after winning a wrongful death judgment against the former football great who was acquitted of killing his son. Malcolm LaVergne, the executor of the Simpson estate, has accepted Goldman’s creditor claim for $57,997,858.12 plus ongoing judgment interest, TMZ reported on Saturday. The news site reports that the figure was agreed to following negotiations between the estate and Goldman, whose son Ron was killed alongside Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, in June 1994.

Saudi Arabia is undergoing a historic transformation — shifting its power base from oil to artificial intelligence. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is investing billions to turn the kingdom into a global AI hub, building vast data centers, launching tech firms like Humain, and partnering with U.S. giants such as Nvidia and Amazon. Through megaprojects like NEOM and a national AI strategy, Saudi Arabia aims to become the world’s third-largest AI power, redefining its identity from energy exporter to digital innovator. As oil pipelines give way to data networks, the kingdom’s next empire may rise not underground, but in the...

Trump’s lawsuit over the BBC’s doctored Jan. 6 clip now threatens to turn the broadcaster’s license-fee crisis into a full-blown reckoning over trust, bias, and billions.It costs £174.50 a year to obtain a BBC license for a color TV. Technological atavists who are bargain-hunting can snag a license for a black and white TV for only £58.50 per year. For the year ending March 2025, the license fee raised £3.8 billion, 65 percent of the Beeb’s total income.There is growing resentment about the fee. “Some people ask,” said one news report, “why they should be forced to pay for the...

If we’re being honest, it could just be that immigration is a lucrative issue for the bishops, while defending the unborn is not.America’s Catholic bishops are once again focusing their energies on immigration concerns, subtly undermining the Catholic Church’s teachings on the subject, while highlighting their hypocrisy on the defense of the unborn.The bishops might have a little more moral credibility on the issue had they authored a similar letter lamenting the never-heard cries of children boiled alive by saline solutions.Last week, 216 members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted in favor of publishing a “special message”...

More than 70 percent of people who were affected by the Palisades Fire in California from January are still living in temporary housing, according to a report. A survey conducted by the Department of Angels surveyed “2,300 fire-impacted residents across” Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Times. The survey found that 75 percent “of surveyed Pacific Palisades residents and 67% of surveyed Altadena residents are in temporary housing.” […] California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has been reported as attempting to shift attention away from the Pacific Palisades fire, which “destroyed 7,000 structures and killed 12 people in the...

Lawmakers are racing toward a mid-December deadline, with Republicans hoping to present side-by-side legislation with Democrats’ plan to extend ACA subsidies.President Donald Trump has again promised a “far better and far less expensive” alternative to the Affordable Care Act, and Republicans are rushing — again — to deliver one.For weeks throughout the longest government shutdown in history, Trump avoided negotiating with Democrats on the health care concerns fueling their standoff. Now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are speeding toward a self-imposed deadline of mid-December to hold dueling health care votes.Democrats maintain the simplest and most popular option is...

"The Lost Bus" is a film directed by Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, United 93, most of the Jason Bourne films) and tells the true story of school bus driver Kevin McKay (played by Matthew McConaughey) who rogered up to go pick up a load of kids to be evacuated from a local school during the devastating 2018 Paradise Fire, the worst in California's history.One of those films that definitely deserved a better reception than a quick, limited theatrical release only to get dumped on Apple TV.Seriously, one of the best, most gripping movies I've seen in a long time and...

Come trick-or-treat season or any time you’re presented with a choice from a candy jar, selecting just one chocolate bar from the mix is about as difficult as picking a favorite child (or so I’ve heard from parents). Sweetness levels vary widely, as does the source of the chocolate, the mix-ins or fillings, the texture, and more. To help us narrow down the competition and build a shortlist of the best bars for s’mores, snacking, and sneaking into cakes, we called up a handful of our favorite culinary pros from coast to coast for some sweet talk. Read on to...

Having a cat as a pet could potentially double a person's risk of schizophrenia-related conditions, according to an analysis of 17 studies. Psychiatrist John McGrath and colleagues at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia looked at papers published over the last 44 years in 11 countries, including the US and the UK. Their 2023 study found "a significant positive association between broadly defined cat ownership and an increased risk of schizophrenia-related disorders."

Insurance companies challenged GOP orthodoxy on Obamacare. It’s not going well.The pressures facing insurers and pharma are emblematic of tensions across corporate America as companies scramble to navigate an administration that has upended traditional levers of influence and free market orthodoxy while triggering a record windfall for K Street, Washington’s lobbying corridor.“This president has decidedly chosen to bring insurance and pharmaceutical industries to the table, to make them do things they don’t want to do. That’s a really different world,” said Peggy Tighe, a former insurance representative who now lobbies for providers and patient groups at Powers Law.Two roads diverged...

Researchers have analyzed a sample of DNA believed to belong to Adolf Hitler, which they say reveals the dictator of Nazi Germany had a genetic marker for a rare disorder that can delay puberty, according to a new documentary. The research, which took more than four years to complete, was led by geneticist Turi King, a professor at the UK’s University of Bath who is known for identifying the remains of King Richard III. King said she verified that a piece of material taken from a couch in the bunker where Hitler shot himself in 1945 was soaked in the...

Irate Trump supporters have slammed Saturday Night Live for its brazen skit mocking the president's response to being named in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Saturday night's cold open sketch sparked outrage among conservative critics for depicting Donald Trump inadvertently admitting to a damning relationship with the disgraced sex trafficker. 'You people are sick!' one X user reacted to the five-minute satirical segment. 'Hope [Trump] sues the hell out of them,' another chimed in. 'SNL makes fun of Trump. Water is wet. Predictable and boring,' one critic bluntly called out the show. Set at a press conference, Trump, played by James...

The arrests of MLB and NBA players could be just the tip of a massive iceberg.The sports world was rocked again this week when two pitchers for Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians were arrested on charges related to gambling. Coming on the heels of the recent indictments of numerous current and former NBA players and a head coach on similarly disturbing allegations in October, the already heated debate about increasingly widespread legal wagering on pro sports has intensified. The overriding concern is about the potential damage it will cause among bettors, not to mention those consuming sports simply for pleasure,...

Police say the 53-year-old man was cleaning his shotgun when his dog accidentally set it off, shooting him in the lower back.SHILLINGTON, Pa. — A 53-year-old man shot in the lower back by one of his dogs is expected to survive, police say. The shooting happened Tuesday, Nov. 11 around 11 p.m. in Shillington, Pennsylvania. Shillington Police Department Captain Michael Schoone said the man was cleaning his shotgun when one of his dogs jumped on the bed and the gun went off."He's not sure what stage of cleaning he was in at the time, so it's unsure if the dog's...