Free Republic

MethaneSAT, an $88 million satellite backed by Jeff Bezos and led by the Environmental Defense Fund to track global methane emissions, has been lost in space after going off course and losing power over Norway. "We're seeing this as a setback, not a failure," Amy Middleton, senior vice president at EDF, told Reuters. "We've made so much progress and so much has been learned that if we hadn't taken this risk, we wouldn't have any of these learnings." Reuters reports: The launch of MethaneSAT in March 2024 was a milestone in a years-long campaign by EDF to hold accountable the...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) - Authorities in Colorado said two groups of people began attacking each other with cookware as a fight broke out at an apartment complex. Police in Colorado Springs said they received 10 calls early Tuesday morning as what started as a disturbance between the groups grew into an all-out brawl, beginning inside the building before spilling out into the courtyard. A Colorado Springs lieutenant said one of the groups of people said they were “jumped” in the stairwell inside the building. Then, police claim video shared on social media showed the second group of people...

June 19 (UPI) -- Animal rescuers were called to a Buffalo Wild Wings eatery in Iowa to wrangle an unusual visitor: a live chicken. The Animal Rescue League of Iowa shared a photo on social media showing a chicken at the front door of the Buffalo Wild Wings on Southeast 14th in Des Moines

During the 19th Dynasty (ca. 1295–1186 b.c.), the village of Deir el-Medina, on the Nile's west bank in Upper, or southern, Egypt, was home to a community of civil servants and artisans who built and decorated the royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Scholars are on unusually familiar terms with these people. "As expert scribes and draftsmen, they left quite a lot of writing," says Egyptologist Rob Demarée of Leiden University. At the site, archaeologists have excavated tens of thousands of texts written on papyrus and ostracons -- discarded pieces of pottery or stone used like scrap...

June 17 (UPI) -- A New York zoo is asking for the public's help to locate a wallaby that escaped from the property. Grace and Glory Animals, an animal education zoo in Oswego, said the wallaby, named Mac, escaped just prior to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

MADISON, Wis. -- An apartment occupant reportedly used tequila to marinade a home-cooked turkey Sunday evening, causing the oven door to "blow open." According to the Madison Fire Department, the 911 caller said they were cooking a turkey in the oven for eight minutes when the oven door "blew open." Firefighters arrived at the 5000 block of Old Middleton Road at 6:16 p.m. to check the oven. A thermal imaging camera was used, and firefighters opened the oven, which had blue flames that came out. The oven was removed from the apartment, and the occupant said they have used this...

June 11 (UPI) -- A Florida bear seen enjoying a resident's hot tub and taking a long backyard nap was later captured and relocated with the help of doughnuts. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the bear was spotted in a Punta Gorda neighborhood on Sunday.

Long before the days of electricity and fridge freezers, meat was preserved by smoke. A new study suggests the practice could stretch back almost 2 million years, and may even be a primary reason our ancestors started making fires in the first place. While the generation of flames is inextricably linked with the rise of humans, in the earliest days it would've required significant time and effort to ignite and keep fires lit. The benefits of preserving meat may have been a key reason why that time and effort was worth it. The study is the work of two researchers...

It rained sharks in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last month after a small hammerhead shark fell from the sky and interrupted a local disc golf game. The unexpected disc golf hazard was actually a bird’s lost lunch. Teeing off on 11 at Splinter [Disc City Golf Course] and saw an osprey carrying something over us,” Marlowe wrote. “Two crows chased it into a tree where it dropped its prey.” In the photos, the shark appeared to be a little more than a foot long. While hammer throws may have been in the forecast for the golf outing, a hammerhead certainly...

The largest male white shark ever tagged by the research group OCEARCH is close to the coast of North Carolina as it migrates northwards. Contender, a nearly 14-foot long adult great white male shark, was first tagged by OCEARCH in January 2025. He was first spotted off the coast of Georgia, then spent time near Florida. For the past several weeks, he has been moving northward, with his tracking device pinging multiple times off the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina. On June 11, his tracker pinged just 22 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras. OCEARCH said in...

A man in Thailand who went on a violent rampage at a temple in the Chonburi province died after being impaled by a Buddha statue. On Feb 27, the 49-year-old man, who went by the name Ek, had taken methamphetamine in the temple with his friend - a monk at the temple who goes by the name Best, reported Thai media outlet Thaiger. Ek then attacked Best with a fluorescent tube. While the latter ran away to seek help, Ek went on to smash statues in the temple, before fleeing into the main hall. When the police arrived at the...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its first-ever lab-grown fish for sale in the United States — based entirely on data submitted by the manufacturer. Wildtype, a California-based food tech company, is now approved to serve its cell-cultivated coho salmon.This FDA approval makes Wildtype the fourth company cleared to market lab-grown animal products in the country. The salmon is now available on the menu at Kann, a high-profile Haitian restaurant in Portland. The company plans to roll out its “salmon” in four additional restaurants in the coming months, followed by a broader launch into the food-service sector.What FDA...

Ms. Bass struggled amid criticism of her initial response to the Los Angeles fires in January. The opposition over President Trump’s immigration raids have offered her an opportunity. For the past three days, Mayor Karen Bass has been a high-profile figure across Los Angeles. She turned up at parking lots where federal officials had conducted immigration sweeps. She posted updates on social media seeking to reassure embattled immigrants that the city would fight for them. She held a news conference at City Hall to rally her constituents and assail President Trump for deploying the National Guard. “It’s the last thing...

A pet zebra has escaped in Tennessee, stunning drivers as it repeatedly raced down residential streets — even bringing a busy interstate to a standstill. The still-at-large animal was spotted several times across Rutherford County, southeast of Nashville, on Saturday, and sheriffs say the animal remains at large, unless its owner has found it and not reported it. Dodging vehicles and narrowly avoiding getting hit, the pet caused havoc when it ran along a busy Greater Nashville interstate over the weekend. The zebra broke loose on Saturday, just a day after its owner purchased it, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office...

Ice in Texas caught an illegal alien hiding in a tree.

May 29 (UPI) -- Pigeon pandemonium erupted on a Delta flight from Minnesota to Wisconsin when two birds took flight in the passenger cabin. Tom Caw, a passenger aboard Delta Flight 2348 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., said the first pigeon flew through the passenger cabin during preparations for take-off on Saturday. The bird was removed by baggage handlers, but a second pigeon came out of hiding once the plane left the terminal. "It was on the floor, strutting down the aisle. Somebody near me reached down to try and grab it,...

“Bee” on alert. Roughly 250 million bees escaped into the wild when a commercial semi-truck rolled over in Washington state, prompting officials to warn locals to stay away from the area. The truck was hauling 70,000 pounds of honey bee hives when it overturned in a rural part of Whatcom County, just north of Seattle near the Canadian border, around 4 a.m. Friday, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office.

May 23 (UPI) -- A cow was found alive on an Australian beach after being carried up to 11 miles by floodwaters. Layla Philipson found the cow alive on the sand on Old Bar beach, on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.

An Iranian man who says he can stick any object to his body has broken a spoon-balancing record for the third time. Abolfazl Saber Mokhtari first claimed the record for most spoons balanced on the body in 2021 with 85 – smashing the record of 64 that came before him. He then broke his own record in 2023 with 88 spoons, and returned again this January with his new total of 96.

Cops have made a surprising discovery in what appeared to be ordinary bales of hay. A shocking series of photos have shown how sheriff's deputies uncovered a human smuggling operation after discovering multiple undocumented immigrants hidden inside meticulously altered hay bales during a routine traffic stop in Texas. The disturbing discovery was made on Monday afternoon when Fayette County Drug Interdiction Sergeant Thumann pulled over a white Ford F-250 towing a gooseneck trailer loaded with round hay bales on Interstate 10 near Flatonia. What appeared to be an ordinary agricultural load then turned into a major bust. On closer inspection,...