Free Republic

Dark earth, the strange patches of black soil rich in nutrients that cause plants to grow at accelerated rates, while also capturing unusually high amounts of carbon from the air, is one of the Amazon rainforest’s greatest mysteries. Since these patches of dark earth were first discovered by European colonizers in the 1880s, debate has raged over their origins, with ideas ranging from the natural to the artificial. Variants of this dark, nutrient-rich soil have been found in a range of locations around the world, and are most often associated with the accumulation of materials in soil after long periods...

During the 4th-century, a remarkable artifact was produced by Roman artisans that exhibits optical qualities so unique they have baffled scholars for centuries. Known as the Lycurgus Cup, it is one of the most unusual examples of glassworking ever produced by the Roman Empire, as it is made from dichroic glass—a material that appears to exhibit an entirely different coloration when light passes through it—causing it to look green when illuminated from the front but appearing a striking amber-red when illuminated from behind. The artifact’s unique name refers to its depiction of King Lycurgus, who, according to mythology, attempted to...

Senior Airman John Linzmeier/U.S. Air Force via AP Over the decades, many United States Air Force aircraft have gone into the famous boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, but few have come out again. The warbirds there are generally there for the long haul, and no matter how well prepped for storage, it seems likely that many of them, after a few years, are no longer recoverable. Now, though, we learn that one warbird has emerged, phoenix-like, from the boneyard. It's a B1B Lancer, known to the crews as the "Bone." Formerly named Rage, the rebuilt, refitted, refurbished...

…Most other nations dutifully adopted SI, changing road signs and packaging and teaching the metric system in schools. Even the United Kingdom, which had lagged for years, mostly embraced the system in an effort to keep pace with other European Union nations. (Since the U.K. left the EU, metric opponents there have argued the nation should stop using metric units, a controversial proposition that has yet to be adopted.) Despite international adoption and increasing federal policy encouraging the use of metric units, the U.S. continued to drag its feet. Resistance was fueled in part by industrialists who argued the system...

A hantavirus outbreak aboard a luxury cruise ship that has left three people dead is veering into the fringe. Online, a growing number of social media users are floating ivermectin as a possible treatment for the rare infectious disease, which can cause life-threatening heart and lung complications. Yes, you read that right — the antiparasitic drug used in livestock that became a pandemic-era flashpoint after being touted by media figures, politicians and even some doctors as a Covid cure is back in the spotlight. “Hantavirus is a RNA virus, and ivermectin should work against it,” Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a...

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong informed employees in an early morning message Tuesday that the cryptocurrency exchange would eliminate roughly 14% of its workforce — about 700 jobs — as the company restructures around artificial intelligence. Armstrong shared the memo publicly on social media shortly before 7 a.m., telling staff the cuts were necessary as AI rapidly reshapes how work is done across the tech industry. The billionaire co-founder said impacted employees would receive additional details within the hour, though some workers later said their access to company systems had already been limited by the time the email landed. “I...

Long-serving Charlotte, North Carolina Mayor Vi Lyles, who faced calls to resign after urging compassion for the deranged vagrant accused of brutally stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska aboard a city train last year, announced she will leave her post just six months after being re-elected. The five-term Democrat, 73, said in a press release that she would resign June 30 and would not be seeking another term next year when her term ends, but offered no concrete reason for her sudden and unexpected departure. “Serving as Charlotte’s mayor has been the honor of my life. I am proud of our...

Archaeologists uncovered the 11,000-year-old site near Saskatchewan in western Canada, saying it confirms that highly organized societies existed in the region far earlier than previously believed. Excavations uncovered stone tools, fire pits and toolmaking materials, suggesting the area was a long-term settlement rather than a temporary hunting camp. Charcoal layers also indicate that early Indigenous inhabitants practiced controlled fire management, aligning with longstanding oral traditions. The team also uncovered remains of the extinct Bison antiquus, a massive species that weighed up to 4,400lb and likely served as a key hunting target for the ancient civilization. Dr Glenn Stuart of the...

Germany is so far gone that even immigrants have their own jokes about themselves all being on welfare while the natives work to pay for their lifestyle.

Yes, the United States effectively inherited the existing institution of slavery in the territory acquired through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 from France (which had briefly reacquired it from Spain in 1800). The U.S. did not introduce slavery there as a new practice; it was already well-established under prior colonial rule, and the transfer preserved the property rights of slaveholders. Historical Context of Slavery in the Louisiana Territory * French origins: France introduced chattel slavery to the Louisiana colony starting in the early 1700s, importing enslaved Africans (beginning around 1710) to support plantation agriculture, alongside some raids on Native American...

Families hoping to make memories on a cruise were unknowingly surrounded by alleged child predators working aboard the ships, according to law enforcement officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection boarded five cruise ships, including a Disney cruise docked in San Diego, between April 23 and 25 as part of ongoing Child Sexual Exploitation Material enforcement operations, a CBP spokesperson told The California Post. “After boarding the vessels and interviewing 26 suspected crew members from the Philippines, one suspected crew member from Portugal, and one from Indonesia, officers confirmed all subjects were involved in either the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or...

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into a radical Northern Virginia prosecutor who allegedly discriminated against US citizens by offering preferential treatment “only to illegal alien” criminal defendants. The DOJ notified Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano on Wednesday that it is looking into potential civil rights violations related to his office’s plea bargaining, charging decisions and sentencing policies. “Under my leadership, the Civil Rights Division will not allow local prosecutors to pick and choose winners based on their immigration status,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement. “This investigation will uncover whether this prosecutor is putting...

While criticizing a recent speech, Ocasio-Cortez took issue with what she claimed was Rubio’s statement that America’s cowboys came from Spain. “My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain,” she said in her criticism of Rubio’s speech. “And I believe the Mexicans and descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that.” The History Channel reports that America’s cowboy culture stretches back further than America itself, to the era of Spanish colonialism. “Hundreds of years before there was the American cowboy, there was the vaquero,” it says, referring to expert horsemen...

"Any woman born in the samurai status group was a 'female samurai' even if she never picked up a weapon, just as any man born into that status group was a samurai, no matter how wimpy/untrained/etc. he may have been," Sean O'Reilly, a professor of Japan studies at Akita International University, told Live Science in an email.It's unclear how often female samurai fought in battle, however. Women who fought in battle are sometimes called "onna-musha," which translates to "women warriors.""I must say, as an historian, that onnamusha -- female warriors -- were probably not as frequent or as militarily significant...

WASHINGTON — President Trump enacted a sweeping new counterterrorism strategy aimed at crushing threats “at home and abroad,” with a heavy focus on drug cartels, Islamist terror groups and violent political extremists inside the US, a top White House official said on a press call Wednesday. Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, described the 16-page framework as an “America First counterterrorism” blueprint centered on protecting the homeland by aggressively dismantling threats before they reach US soil. In line with the “Donroe Doctrine,” the strategy’s first priority is the “neutralization of hemispheric terror threats” — placing cartels squarely in the...

President Trump has issued a statement on the passing of CNN founder Ted Turner, and it is quite different from other deaths of noted rich liberals. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Turner, the left-wing billionaire who founded CNN, died today at the age of 87. In addition to founding CNN, Turner was a prominent philanthropist who once donated $1 billion to the United Nations. Turner also gave $1.3 million to Democrats and Democratic causes throughout his life. No cause of death has been revealed yet, but Turner announced in 2018 that he had Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder....

The history of the Trojan horse is probably one of the most famous stories ever told. A gigantic wooden horse is loaded with Greek soldiers and presented to the Trojans as a gift. Unsuspecting, they swallow the bait and pull the horse into the city. Under cover of darkness the Greeks slip out of the horse and open the gates to their comrades. Only hours later the mighty Troy goes up in flames. But what if the myth of the horse is not true at all? New, groundbreaking findings show that one of the most famous stories of all time...

Last week, the FBI raided 22 shady day-care businesses in Minneapolis, Minn., as the federal government expanded its investigation of social-services fraud there. On Monday, Vice President JD Vance added Columbus, Ohio, to his fraud task force’s agenda in the wake of a new report alleging a billion-dollar Medicaid scam. Both investigations were spurred by the dogged work of citizen and independent journalists like Nick Shirley in Minneapolis and Luke Rosiak in Columbus, who knocked on doors and interviewed dozens of supposed service providers to uncover the truth about fraudsters who may have bilked the federal government of billions. And...

Former President Barack Obama’s presidential library is hocking pricey merch shaped like the unsightly Chicago tower — as the project’s architects revealed the former commander-in-chief himself was behind the “Death Star” design that’s been widely mocked since construction began. Ungainly lapel pins that “capture the silhouette” of the Obama Presidential Center are going for $30 in the online store. “The pin represents the intersection of bold design and global leadership,” the website reads, noting the proceeds go to the Obama Foundation “to inspire, empower and connect people to change their world.” Each pin is “handcrafted from unfired paper clay,” and...

A team of astronomers in Japan has detected a thin atmosphere around (612533) 2002 XV93, a trans-Neptunian object about 500 km in diameter — an object far too small and cold to retain one. An artist’s conception of the trans-Neptunian object 2002 XV93. Image credit: NAOJ. “In the cold reaches of the outer Solar System lie thousands of small objects known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) because they lie outside the orbit of Neptune,” said Dr. Ko Arimatsu from Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory and colleagues. “A thin atmosphere has been observed around Pluto, the most famous TNO, but studies of other TNOs...