Free Republic

Acouple of weeks ago, the winning entry of the annual Nikon Small World in Motion contest was embroiled in a controversy, with experts alleging the undisclosed use of AI in creating some parts of the video. At the time, the winner, Ning Xu, an optical engineer at Tsinghua University, and Nikon Instruments Inc. maintained that he only used AI for image enhancing, which fell within the competition policy. Nikon had also noted that “this particular use of AI—as a tool for enhancement of microscopy-generated source data, not for image generation from scratch—to be in compliance with the rules set forth...

The structure was concealed just beneath the forest floor in the foothills of the eastern Taunus Mountains, on the northern outskirts of Frankfurt, according to a September 25 announcement from the Hesse State Office for Monument Preservation. The temple is rectangular and measures about 16 feet long. Inside, it appears to have contained a smaller, square chamber with just three roughly 20-inch-thick walls, Thomas Kurella reports for Hessenschau... Archaeologists unearthed this temple during ongoing excavations of the Kapersburg fort -- a Roman military fortification thought to date back to the second century... likely constructed under the reign of Emperor Trajan...

“What if?” That’s a question you may have asked yourself at times throughout your life. What if something happened or didn’t happen is often the query. I won’t go into detail about all the “what ifs” I’ve questioned myself about in my life. I could write lots of columns on that question alone. No one wants to read about that, for sure! When it comes to American history, though, I’ve often thought about that question — wondering how history would have been different had this or that happened or not happened. What if George Washington had not had fog to...

The Democratic Socialists of America are demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire police Commissioner Jessica Tisch following a controversial shooting by ICE agents in the Bronx last week. In a scathing online statement, the DSA called on its most high-profile member to get rid of the city’s top cop and disband two elite NYPD units. “We demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and use every power available to him to drive ICE out of New York City,” it said. “ They demanded that the city abolish police strategic response and community response teams. The lefty organization cried...

WASHINGTON — New York blew off 16,000 Trump administration ICE orders to detain suspected heinous illegal migrants accused or convicted in more than 50,000 criminal charges, disturbing new data show. The Department of Homeland Security said the municipalities across the Dem-driven state have refused to comply with its detainment requests 16,070 times since President Trump re-entered office fewer than two years ago — refusing to hand over criminal migrants suspected or convicted of everything from murder to kidnapping and sexual assault. “While sanctuary politicians continue to release dangerous criminals onto their streets, our brave law enforcement officers will continue to...

Should we or shouldn’t we celebrate Columbus day? Every year the debate rages around this time whether the expansion of European civilization into the western hemisphere was a positive or negative development in human history.Of course Columbus himself was a complex figure, and there is much to love or hate about him depending on one’s point of view. The leftward side of the debate points out Columbus’s greed, ambition, pride and at times cruelty.And yet on the other side , one must admire the bravery, tenacity, and Columbus’ willingness to venture at great risk. Columbus also had a pious side...

After making All About Eve, receiving twelve Oscar nominations and winning six (including best picture and best director), writer and director Joseph Mankiewicz directed a film that got no Oscar nominations and has languished in the back forty of his career. It's a comedy where one of the leads attempts suicide and characters spend long stretches discussing death and morality. You might say that they don't make them like this anymore but the truth is that they do – there's no shortage of modern comedies where the tone lapses all over the place (Downsizing, Don't Look Up, JoJo Rabbit) and...

Can we still see evidence of the Bible today? Biblical archaeology uncovers ancient objects that help connect the people and the events of the Bible to the real world. Join Dinesh D’Souza on a thrilling journey through thousands of years of biblical history, available as a full-length documentary or a 12-part series.

Rare evidence of medieval Rome's thriving community of Anglo-Saxons has been found close to the city's Palazzo della Rovere near the Vatican, according to a statement released by the University of Cambridge. The team has unearthed 20 coins, including 19 silver pennies and one halfpenny, minted by a son and grandsons of the Anglo-Saxon king -- and first king of England -- Alfred the Great. Scholars have long known about the Anglo-Saxon enclave in Rome. There are modern place names that preserve this legacy, including the embankment between the Tiber and the Vatican that is still called the Lungotevere in...

A fugitive wanted for nearly 14 years in the alleged kidnapping and shooting of an Iowa woman was arrested in San Diego after authorities said he reinvented himself as a popular chef under a fake name, even appearing in local news segments while hiding from law enforcement. Brian Anthony Williams, 50, was arrested Tuesday at Miss B's Coconut Club in Mission Beach, California, where he had been working under the name "Troy Williams," the U.S. Marshals Service said. Williams had been wanted since 2012, when he and several others allegedly kidnapped, assaulted and shot a woman before abandoning her in...

As questions remain as to what happens next for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike after a botched execution attempt last week, her accomplice and former boyfriend has at least another five years before his next parole hearing in the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Tadaryl Shipp, 49, was 17 years old when he, Pike and another person tortured and killed Slemmer, their classmate from a vocational school, in a crime with "satanic elements" that still haunts investigators 31 years later. Prosecutors accused Shipp of holding Slemmer down when she tried to escape her attackers...

Former state trooper John Nagel pointed the finger at his opponent, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and the Democratic Party for allowing Somali American gang-linked violence to escalate in the Twin Cities. Residents of Eden Prairie and surrounding Twin Cities suburbs have been left fearing for their safety after a string of gang-related incidents this month, including the shooting of two teens outside an Eden Prairie High School football game and more than 100 shell casings recovered in a Bloomington neighborhood. "Where is Ilhan Omar in all of this?" Nagel, a Minnesota native who spent 30 years as a state trooper,...

Democrat socialist Abdul El-Sayed has made a lot of braindead comments regarding football over the years, and throughout his campaign for state senator in Michigan. El-Sayed once connected American football to toxic masculinity and the transatlantic slave trade, but he's also pandered by embracing the NFL and Detroit Lions in his campaign messaging. In a 2021 essay in response to then Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden, El-Sayed wrote, "The toxic masculinity at the heart of America's most popular sport — and men's sports culture more generally — is way deeper than a few emails." In separate remarks, he...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As demonstrators, including the headline-grabbing CodePink agitators, descend on the nation’s capital late Saturday afternoon for a “coordinated global day of action” against Israel, they will join a worldwide wave of marches and planned disruptions that may appear to be unfolding independently. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday, anti-Israel demonstrators carried signs deploying emotionally charged language against Israel, including one featuring a Palestinian flag and a bloodied hand with the message, “STOP GENOCIDE.” Nearby, two women carrying mock machine guns flanked a cardboard image of a handcuffed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a noose around his...

Nothing stirs the heart like a movie that captures the spirit of a nation. From tales of courage in war to stories of everyday people standing up for what’s right, patriotic films remind us of the values that shape America—freedom, resilience, and unity.These movies, spanning decades and genres, celebrate the grit and hope that define the American experience. Whether they’re set on battlefields or in small towns, they spark a sense of pride and inspire us to reflect on what it means to be American.15. ‘The Right Stuff’ (1983)Warner Bros. Pictures This epic dives into the early days of America’s...

After years of uncertainty, delays, and preparations, we finally have a timeline for when the historic SS United States will be sent to the bottom of the Gulf.Late on Friday night, October 9, 2026, officials in Okaloosa County, Florida, announced that the legendary ocean liner is scheduled to be deployed as the world’s largest artificial reef during the second week of November 2026.The ship will be sunk approximately 22 nautical miles, or 25 miles, southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida.While an exact date has not been announced, county officials say the operation will be weather-dependent, meaning the timeline could change.This...

A bar ethics complaint has been filed against New York Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly making prejudicial statements about the “Cornell 7” in the days before being appointed special prosecutor to look into criminal charges for the Ivy’s Chi Phi frat members, The Post has learned. Two days before she was appointed special prosecutor to reopen an investigation into a 2024 alleged gang rape at Cornell University’s Chi Phi house, James posted on social media: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.” “To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand...

A weapon discovered in 2023 on Mount Geumseong in southwestern South Korea has been identified by researchers from the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage as a Hwangja Hwatong, a handheld gunpowder weapon that fired arrows or pellets, ZME Science reports. The 600-year-old bronze weapon measures about nine inches long and weighs about two pounds. Engravings on the handle record the weapon’s name, weight, manufacturing supervisor, craftsman, and an incomplete date. When researchers compared the inscription with historic records of firearm production, they determined that this weapon was made in either 1377 or 1437. “It comes from a crucial...

When the Term “Liberalism” ChangedA great transformation of the meaning of liberalism in this country manifested itself with the election of Franklin Roosevelt to the Presidency in 1932. Instead of emphasizing individual freedom and (concomitant) limited Constitutional government, the term now referred instead to a doctrine of ever-expanding government control over the economy, including higher taxes and more regulations. (This transformation of the term’s meaning was discussed by the legal historian Ronald Rotunda in a 1968 essay titled "The Liberal Label: Roosevelt's Capture of a Symbol.”) During the 1932 campaign, incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover – hardly an advocate of...

According to a statement released by the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), a study conducted by scientists from UCSB and Stanford University has determined that the forager-farmer Tsimané people of lowland Bolivia and the hunter-gatherer Hadza people of Tanzania have highly diverse yet similar gut microbiomes, sharing more than 1,200 bacterial species. More than 60 percent of these bacterial species are rare or absent in the microbiomes of people living in industrialized populations. The researchers were surprised because the Hadza consume mammals, birds, fish, and foraged fruits and vegetables, while the Tsimané eat more fiber in the form of...