Free Republic

The idea of a target-influenced fuze was not new; similar fuzes for bombs and rockets existed at the outbreak of World War II. The proximity fuze functions as a small radio station in the shell’s nose. The basic components are a vacuum tube (six inches long and three inches in diameter) a battery, and a radio transmitter and receiver; a small glass tube filled with electrolyte solution acts as the battery. After the shell is fired and begins rotating, centrifugal force pushes the solution to the outside of the tube, where a chemical reaction occurs with small pieces of metal...

X is for... In 1895, the physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays, a groundbreaking moment in medical history which would lead to myriad improvements to people’s health. Perhaps one overlooked benefit though was in relation to mental health, specifically of those tasked with making alphabet books. How did they represent the letter X before X-rays? Xylophones, which have also been a popular choice through the twentieth century to today, are mysteriously absent in older works. Perhaps explained by the fact that, although around for millennia, the instrument didn't gain popularity in the West (with the name of “xylophone”) until the early...

The British Empire and other major European powers did not significantly enrich themselves through slavery and colonialism but rather may have taken a net loss as a result, a report has asserted. Contrary to narratives pushed by ‘anti-colonialism’ academics and promoted by leftist talking heads, Western capitalism was not built off the backs of colonialism and slavery, fresh research from Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs claims. The head of Political Economy at the IEA argues that while some select elite families within Britain and other colonial powers profited immensely during the time, such gains were not felt...

* An adult male named Rakus chewed a plant used by people in Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation, then applied it to an injury on his right cheek * Photographs show the animal’s wound closed within a month without any problems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rakus, a Sumatran orangutan, is seen two months after he started treating himself with a medicinal plant at a protected rainforest area in Indonesia. Photo:Safruddin/Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour via Reuters AsiaSoutheast Asia Wild orangutan seen using medicinal plant to treat wound, scientists say An adult male named Rakus chewed a plant used by people...

A 'cursed' wooden steamship that vanished in Lake Superior in 1909 with 14 crew members on board has finally been discovered. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society say they found the Adella Shores after it went missing on May 1, 1909, in Whitefish Point, Michigan. Adella Shores - which locals feared had been cursed after its sober owners christened it by smashing a bottle of water on its hull rather than booze - was found more than 40 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in over 650 feet of water. The 195-foot ship was built in Gibraltar, Michigan, and weighed in...

Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy. In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl. Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato – who was known as a disciple of...

Sweden kicks off for spring with a traditional night of songs and bonfires on April 30. Walpurgis Night, “Valborg” in Swedish, is the last day of April, spent in celebration of spring and community spirit. Dating back to the Middle Ages, it was initially the Germans who brought the festive tradition to Sweden, in honour of the 8th century German saint, Walpurgis. In medieval times, April 30 marked the end of the administrative year; local merchants and craftsmen celebrated by dancing and singing in anticipation of spring. It was also a significant day for peasants and farmers, who attended the...

Amateur archaeologists have unearthed five human skeletons missing their hands and feet under the former home of the Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair military headquarters in present-day Poland. The remains, believed to be that of a family, were discovered as part of a dig at the site near the north-eastern town of Kętrzyn, where Nazi leaders spent large stretches of the second world war. Mystery surrounds the chilling find, first reported by Der Spiegel, including the identity of the victims, the circumstances of their burial, and whether the Reichsmarschall knew the bones were there while he...

Commemorating the 49th Anniversary of the fall of Saigon with the Vietnamese Veterans Association, members of South Australia’s veterans’ community, and the broader Vietnamese community.

While we don't like to talk ill of the dead, new physiological analysis has found that the king of the dinosaurs was not so smart after all. It upends previous research that last year likened the brain and neuronal composition of the Tyrannosaurus rex to that of a primate. It's been a rough year or two for the long extinct dinosaur. First, we questioned their teeth, finding that those iconic chompers could very much have been smaller and hidden behind lips, and now an international team of paleontologists, behavioral scientists and neurologists have concluded that the T. rex wasn't smarter...

The papyrus had been buried under metres of ash at the house, believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, after Vesuvius erupted in AD79 and scholars have spent the last 250 years painstakingly trying to find a way to read its contents, The Times reports. Now Professor Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa and his colleagues have used techniques, including shortwave infrared hyperspectral imaging, which picks up variations in the way light bounces off the black ink on the papyrus, to decipher the document. Professor Ranocchia described the scroll as 'the oldest history of Greek philosophy in our...

The remains of Col. Ralph Puckett, Jr., the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Korean War, lay in honor Monday in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Puckett Jr., born Dec. 8, 1926, died at his home on Monday, April 8. He was 97. Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Tuesday, April 16, that Congress would honor the fallen Medal of Honor with the prestigious reception. "The extraordinary valor of Colonel Ralph Puckett, Jr. represents the best of the 1.7 million Americans who left home to fight for freedom in the Korean War,"...

Authorities have finally identified the remains of a New York City teenager coined "Midtown Jane Doe," after her grisly murder spawned a decadeslong cold case investigation. A recent breakthrough owed to advanced forensics linked her DNA to the mother of a woman killed on 9/11. Jane Doe was identified as Patricia Kathleen McGlone, who was just 16 at the time of her death and had previously lived and attended school in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Investigators believe she was murdered during the latter half of 1969, or, potentially, at some point in early 1970, said Detective Ryan Glas...

Hugh Gallagher explored what he called FDR’s Splendid Deception in his 1985 book of that title. In the title Gallagher was referring to FDR’s concealment of the polio-related paralysis that struck him in 1921. Gallagher was also a polio victim who understood the pain underlying Roosevelt’s efforts. Researching the book, Gallagher found that among the 35,000 photographs of Roosevelt at his presidential library, only two featured him in his wheelchair. Media of the day cooperated by ignoring his polio. Roosevelt himself went to extraordinary lengths to convey the impression that he could walk. “[T]he overwhelming fact about [FDR] is that...

The Hamas 7 October massacre echoes previous pogroms in Palestine – notably the Safed pogrom of 1834. In this masterful analysis, published by the Fondation pour l’Innovation Politique, Georges Bensoussan identifies the rejection of moves to reform the dhimmi status and introduce equality between Muslims and non-Muslims as one of the primary causes of Arab hostility towards Jews. The conflict became islamised in the 1920s, and Arab anti-Zionism then drew on the antisemitic themes contained in the notorious Russian forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Pen and ink sketch by Samuel Manning in 1873, showing Jews praying at...

The pocket watch of the richest man on the Titanic – recovered when his body was fished out of the Atlantic seven days after the tragedy – was sold a record-breaking £1.175 million yesterday. The timepiece belonged to John Jacob Astor IV, a US business magnate who was among more than 1,500 people who died when the ship struck an iceberg in the early hours of April 15, 1912. His 14-carat gold Waltham watch was sold at Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in Wiltshire for a record-breaking £1.175 million, six times the guide price, matching the record paid for...

King Charles’ health conditions are progressively deteriorating, leading Buckingham Palace officials to keep a regularly updated plan for his impending funeral — preparations for which started the day after Queen Elizabeth was buried, insiders said. The 75-year-old monarch has remained largely out of the limelight since announcing his cancer prognosis in February to hide his declining condition, with multiple sources telling the Daily Beast the situation is “not good.” “Of course he is determined to beat it and they are throwing everything at it. Everyone is staying optimistic, but he is really very unwell. More than they are letting on,”...

The 1960s were some of the most significant years in American history. The decade saw the Civil Rights Movement and a rising counterculture that reimagined the shape of the American social fabric. Pop music exploded like never before with the British Invasion led by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, but the ’60s were also an intense era of war and political violence. AdvertisementThe decade’s most monumental moments tend to be widely covered, and the sheer number of historic events during this time almost create the impression that every moment was imbued with turbulence. But while the tumult of the decade...

Trees are believed to have originated hundreds of millions of years ago. Ever since, evidence of these ancient plant sentinels has been in short supply. Now, a new discovery of uniquely 3D tree fossils has opened a window into what the world was like when the planet’s early forests were beginning to evolve, expanding our understanding of the architecture of trees throughout Earth’s history.

Something about one of the floor tiles in his parents’ newly renovated European home seemed extremely strange. That’s because the man who made the discovery, a dentist, recognized the bizarre, out-of-place object he had just found. The unusual discovery was made when Reddit user Kidipadeli75 noticed a floor tile located in a portion of the home leading out onto a patio area that seemed to have something very strange embedded in it. Naturally, he did what anyone would do in our modern era of internet sleuthing: he posted an image of the oddity online. The curious object in the photo...