Free Republic

A meteorite that recently crashed through the roof of a U.S. home has been found to be older than Earth itself, according to scientists. NASA confirmed the object blazed across the Georgia sky in broad daylight on June 26 before exploding. A fragment from the meteorite struck a house in McDonough, where researchers from the University of Georgia later conducted an analysis. According to CBS, their examination revealed the meteorite likely formed around 4.56 billion years ago — approximately 20 million years before Earth came into existence. The dramatic event was witnessed by hundreds across Georgia and neighboring states, many...

In the hazy impressions of memory, some may even recall it fondly: The AOL dial-up internet service that those of a certain age associate with the World Wide Web is coming to a close. The company, also known by its “You’ve got mail” greeting and the CD trial discs — so many CDs — made the announcement on its website. “AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet. This service will no longer be available in AOL plans,” the web provider said. Absent the wireless signals of the modern day, dial-up connected to the...

I was reading our favorite (ahem) online encyclopedia and noticed something interesting: that the Dems completely dominated the House since the 1950s until circa 1994. How did they pull that off? We're talking 40-50 years until that Republican "revolution". Now I know why it was named as such. What lessons can we learn? It's well before my time but figured FR might know the historical answer! Is it something to do with how districts are/were apportioned which is actually very topical and in the news right now?

Violet, 5, wants to know: what was life like before refrigerators? And Ellinor, 6, asks: how did they make ice in the old times? In this episode, we learn about the history of ice harvesting and the industry that built up around it, where ice cut from lakes in New England was shipped to as far away as India and the Caribbean.

The oldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, denounced the possible parole of the Palestinian man convicted of killing his father in California in 1968. "I understand that there are differing views about ending the sentence of this killer, including within my own family. But emotions and opinions do not change facts or history," former congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II said. "The prisoner killed my father because of his support of Israel," Kennedy wrote in a separate statement. "The man was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Yet he now may walk free, no doubt to the cheers of those who...

As the war in Gaza continues to unfold, essential questions about Russian and Iranian support for Hamas remain. They include whether Russia played any role in providing support to Hamas ahead of its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Russia has maintained a relationship with Hamas for more than 17 years, since the group’s leaders visited Moscow in March 2006, just weeks after taking power in the Gaza Strip. In the ensuing years, President Vladimir Putin repeatedly invited Hamas’ political and military leadership back to the Russian capital. Russia has not limited itself to building a relationship with Hamas’ political leaders....

The term "British Palestine" refers to the period of the British Mandate for Palestine, which lasted from 1920 to 1948. During this time, Britain administered the territory that had been part of the Ottoman Empire. The name "Palestine" was used as the official name for this geopolitical entity. There has never been a 'Nation or Country' of Palestine. It is a region that was designated in times before the Common Era. The earliest known references to the region are found in Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions from the 12th to 8th centuries BCE, using terms like "Peleset" and "Palashtu" to refer...

The dispersal of archaic hominins beyond mainland Southeast Asia (Sunda) represents the earliest evidence for humans crossing ocean barriers to reach isolated landmasses. Previously, the oldest indication of hominins in Wallacea, the oceanic island zone east of Sunda, comprised flaked stone artifacts deposited at least 1.02 million years ago at the site of Wolo Sege on the island of Flores. On Sulawesi, the largest Wallacean island, previous excavations revealed stone artifacts with a minimum age of 194,000 years at the open site of Talepu. Now, archaeologists from Griffith University show that stone artifacts also occur at the nearby site of...

Recently, a mysterious discovery has resurfaced on social media, reigniting debates and curiosity worldwide: the so-called "lost city" said to lie beneath the waters off the coast of Cuba. More than 20 years ago, this underwater site first caught the attention of archaeologists and scientists, but it has remained largely unexplored since. Given the renewed interest online, we’ve taken a closer look at the international reports and expert opinions surrounding this fascinating -- yet still unconfirmed -- find that could potentially rewrite parts of human history.In 2001, a Canadian research team reported finding massive stone structures deep beneath the ocean’s...

NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is a silver-spoon socialist shamelessly living in a dirt cheap rent-stabilized apartment – and it’s time to move out, fed up neighbors and critics told The Post. Mamdani, 33, who rakes in $142,000 a year as a state assemblyman and whose wealthy family includes his filmmaker mom and professor dad, has been living in a $2,300-a-month, one-bedroom pad in Astoria — galling facts that reached critical mass Saturday. “It’s unfortunate that he supports policies that are great for the fortunate few [who] get these apartments,” said Jerry DeFazio, 33, a mechanical engineer who lived in...

MI5 suspected that the German founder of Rolex was a Nazi spy, the Telegraph can reveal. Formerly classified documents at the National Archives show how secret service agents feared Hans Wilsdorf should be blacklisted due to his “strong” sympathies for Adolf Hitler’s regime. The Second World War papers, dated between 1941 and 1943, state that Wilsdorf was “most objectionable” and “suspected of espionage”. The file also suggested the businessman may have made much of his decision to offer British prisoners of war (POWs) free Rolex watches despite his real intentions being anything but patriotic. The papers – many stamped from...

West Milford's Jen Pawol made history Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. The former standout catcher from North Jersey became the first female umpire to work a Major League Baseball regular season game.

Lawyer and Democrat lobbyist Nathan Daschle discusses the Democratic Party in the wake of the 2024 presidential election. “After the 2024 elections, I think the Democrats have had to reflect a little bit on what at least some people call the woke agenda,” Mr Daschle said. “I’m not even sure if that term is fair because underlying it are some legitimate sensitivities and some legitimate concerns, but I do think that the Democrats after 2024 did take a hard look at themselves.”

Archaeologists in Croatia have unearthed the remains of a 1,800-year-old watchtower that was erected to help the Romans defend the "limes" -- the border along the Danube River that marked the frontier of the Roman Empire.Roman artifacts revealed at the site, including military equipment, brooches and ceramic vessels, indicate that the watchtower was constructed in the late second century A.D. and used in the third century A.D., the team reported...During the Marcomannic Wars (circa A.D. 166 to 180), Roman soldiers under the rule of emperor Marcus Aurelius fought several peoples -- including the Germanic Marcomanni who lived north of the...

Many enemies of Israel, including some in the United States Congress, see the U.S.-Israel relationship as one-sided. This is true of Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who, in interview with Steve Bannon earlier this month, stated, “I’m entering amendments to strike 500 million more dollars for nuclear-armed Israel. .... The $500 million Rep. Greene is speaking of is for missile defense cooperation, and the U.S. Defense Department is a major beneficiary of Israeli research and development. As a result of the experience Israel has garnered from employing various missile defense systems — such as the Iron Dome, David Sling, and Arrow...

California state Sen. Sabrina Cervantes honored transgender high school athlete AB Hernandez after Hernandez won multiple girls state titles at the end of May. The trans athlete, who competes for Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside County, California, was the subject of a ceremony at the Jurupa City Council Friday where the athlete was recognized for winning first place in the girls high jump and triple jump May 31. Cervantes was present to give Hernandez two certificates on behalf of the California state senate and delivered a speech recognizing the athlete's championships. "We just want to take a moment this...

There are not many people who have survived a nuclear attack. There is only one person who officially survived two. On this day, 80 years ago, young engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi was telling his boss about the horrors he had seen in the Japanese city of Hiroshima when the room went blindingly white. "I thought the mushroom cloud had followed me from Hiroshima," he told UK Newspaper, The Independent. Yamaguchi was an engineer with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yamaguchi, then 29, was in Hiroshima for a business trip...

A violent eruption under Greenland’s ice exposed a secret lake and left a crater the size of a city. Credit: ESA | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel A hidden lake beneath Greenland’s Harder Glacier unexpectedly erupted, unleashing a powerful surge of water that carved a massive crater in the ice. The dramatic event caught researchers off guard, as water surged upward through thick ice, creating a profound impact on the glacier. Over just ten days, the lake released 23.8 billion gallons (90 million cubic meters) of water, equivalent to nine hours of Niagara Falls’ full-force flow. A Violent Flood...

What if we sent a probe to explore a black hole? One astrophysicist believes it. Black holes are among the most enigmatic and mysterious objects in the Universe, and our understanding of them is still limited by the extreme challenges of studying them. However, a new proposal, published in iScience, from astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University in China might open an unprecedented path to exploring these mysterious phenomena. Black Holes as Cosmic Laboratories The black hole’s gravitational field is the most intense in the universe, so much so that not even light can escape its grip. While scientists have...

Speaking about Bonhoeffer to a reporter in 1970, Bethge said, “Americans make him a saint without seeing him as a man who had a dirty job to do.” Namely, plotting Hitler’s assassination and the overthrow of his tyrannical government. “Yes, he is a modern saint,” Bethge continued. “But it has little to do with the old idea of sanctity and purity. He was a man of action whose sharp theological insights and Christian responsibility compelled him to act decisively in the real world of dirt, difficulty and danger.” The primary weakness in Komarnicki’s depiction of Bonhoeffer is that, as played...