Free Republic

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

A team scanning a boat-shaped hill in eastern Turkey has announced that new radar images show a large man-made structure underground, not just natural rock. On Wednesday, private research group Noah’s Ark Scans released a preliminary report about their work at the Durupınar Formation in Turkey, claiming that the 515-foot boat-shaped mound contained a 'man-made object.' The scans were conducted by Dr Khosrow Bakhtar, an engineer who spent decades building detection systems for US defense agencies, including the Air Force, Navy and NORAD. He used a system he invented called BakhtarRadar, originally developed to find buried tunnels and hidden structures,...

Our low-budget Pittsburgh Pirates have locked themselves in to their first 50% win season since 2018 . . . with three games to go. Even though they are out of the playoffs, they could actually finish the season better than two American League teams still contenting for a playoff spot. Isn't this progress?

Apple is making a much clearer bet on local AI computing with its latest Mac mini and Mac Studio desktops. Announced on August 25, 2026, the new machines are built around Apple’s new M6 and M5 Ultra chips, with the company emphasizing on-device AI, AI agents, large language models and professional workloads rather than treating AI as simply another feature. The new Mac mini starts at $899, while the Mac Studio starts at $2,499. Both are available for preorder, with availability beginning September 22. The bigger story, however, is not just faster Macs. Apple is increasingly positioning its desktop hardware...

Hacking a weak computer system does not equal global doomsday. The news has been full of articles recently about how we’re all going to die by 2030, 2027, or insert your year number. (The piece then quotes from an article from another source... and then continues.) For starters, we can discount the AI supervirus threat. AI doesn’t have to develop a doomsday virus, that world killing doomsday virus was already developed by the Aussie CSIRO in 2001 – who then promptly went on to tell everyone how to replicate their work. Aussie researchers stumbled across a simple genetic hack which...

Tony Lee "TJ" Wiggins Jr., 32, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder, tampering with physical evidence and possessing a weapon as a felon. Prosecutors said Wiggins was the gunman who killed Damion Tillman, Brandon Rollins and Keven Springfield outside a Dollar General in 2020. In his opening statement to the jury on Monday, Assistant State Attorney Ralph Guerra said Tillman went into the discount store on July 17, 2020, to buy a few items before heading out with his friends to go fishing. Guerra said surveillance video showed the defendant inside the store at the same time...

The founder of the world’s biggest weekly car show was killed Saturday when his McLaren slammed into a tree in California, split in two and burst into flames in a horrific early-morning crash. James Wehr, 27, the owner of South OC Cars and Coffee, died in the wreck along with another driver, whose identity had not been released. The deadly crash happened around 12:20 a.m. at the intersection of Culver Drive and Deerfield Avenue in Irvine, police said.

ASPEN, Colo. — Mountain Rescue Aspen responded to two climbing fatalities in less than a week. On Sunday, a climber died after falling on Castle Peak, south of Aspen. On Sept. 2, another climber was killed after falling off Maroon Peak. The Elk Mountains are very rocky, loose shale that’s crumbly and moves a lot,” said Jeff Edelson with Rocky Mountain Rescue. “It’s unfortunate to see two climber deaths in one week in one range. If we look back at our historical data, unfortunately, we do have a couple of deaths a year on average in our range. Sometimes they’re...

# CHAPTER ONE ## Welfare Check Deputy Caleb Mercer had spent enough years wearing a badge to understand that Saturdays had their own personality. Friday nights belonged to drunks, domestic arguments, teenagers who had borrowed more courage than judgment, and grown men who somehow reached forty without learning that nothing good followed the sentence, *Watch this*. Sunday mornings were quieter, particularly during deer season and football season, when half the county was either in church, in the woods, or sitting in front of a television. Saturdays fell somewhere in between. People had time to notice things on Saturdays. They noticed...

My goodness, my Guinness! A massive haul of 70,000 pints of Guinness was stolen in the dead of night — sending British police on a desperate hunt for the missing stout. The two trailer loads of beer, valued at $155,000, were snatched last Monday from an industrial park in Runcorn, near Liverpool, according to the Cheshire Constabulary. The Guinness, destined for pubs, was brazenly taken by two drivers who pulled up to the depot and hauled away the trailers carrying 800 barrels of the dark, creamy Irish beer. “It is famously said that ‘Guinness is good for you,’ but that...

Ok look. I have been a daily devotee and frequent supporter of this once-wonderful site for years. Since 1998 FR has had an open tab on all of my desktops for frequent, hourly, reads and commenting. But. My personal visits are down to a few times a week because life changes and i don't get to my desk too often, and this site has become largely unreadable on cell phone screens. It gives me a headache trying to read articles and comments. I believe many others have this opinion and experience. Daily Views are way down and God bless you...

Watch the trains. Stay for dinner. That is the whole idea, and it is not open yet. I organized an Indiana company—Dave’s Depot & Diner LLC—so the name would be clean. There is no land under contract, no steel in the air, and no one should read this as a grand opening. What follows is the purpose and the goal, stated so a stranger can decide whether the thing is serious. I have spent a long time beside railroad tracks with something to eat. The train fills the world and then the quiet comes back. In South Bend there is...

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

I noticed a discrepancy between a NASA public relations web page and the NASA Horizons App, which models the trajectories of solar system celestial objects. I wrote to NASA twice, once to an online generic "ask NASA" page and once an email to individuals at NASA with cognizance of the issues. I know NASA get a lot of crank emails, and understand why they do not have time to reply to all of them. I am not convinced my email is a crank missive. Read it and tell me what you think. I am most reluctant to criticize NASA, but...

Driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as youth centres and pubs, an increase in remote working and rising loneliness – 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely “always, often or some of the time”, – paid social events are now in vogue. “There hasn’t been anything that feels authentic to helping people meet people,” “The first place people in their 20s and 30s turn to when trying to make friends is Facebook groups, But they’ve ended up becoming a noticeboard for people who’ve, say, lost their dog or want to sell their bed.” Into this gap...

We should be concerned about young men's physical and mental healthA new documentary, "Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere," hit number one on Netflix this spring, spotlighting the influencers who exploit young men and monetize their insecurity. One way they do this is through looksmaxxing apps. Imagine a 15-year-old taking a selfie. Seconds later, an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm returns its verdict: 6.3 out of 10. Underneath, a list of repairs: improve your canthal tilt, sharpen your jawline, raise your facial harmony, increase your masculinity. He has just been told, by something that sounds like science, how far his face sits...

An 11-year-old schoolboy from Cambridge, Illinois, has made history by becoming the world’s youngest male to curate a museum. Anderson Taylor earned the Guinness World Records title after opening the Cambridge Natural History Museum when he was just nine years and 340 days old on August 10, 2024. Anderson is the museum’s sole owner and curator and has built a collection featuring fossils, minerals, gems and taxidermy animals. Anderson’s journey began in 2022 after a family trip to Scotland. A visit to the Staffin Dinosaur Museum inspired his fascination with creating a museum of his own. “When I went to...

This week: deep thoughts.

A hydrogen-powered streamliner has become the world’s fastest hydrogen vehicle, reaching an average speed of 406.32 mph (653km/h) over two runs on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. The JCB Hydromax’s run was verified by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, motorsport’s international governing authority, and stands as the fastest speed ever recorded by a hydrogen combustion engine. Andy Green, a 64-year-old former Royal Air Force officer who already holds the world’s outright land speed record after topping 760 mph in an earlier run, drove the Hydromax to the new mark. The run more than doubled the previous hydrogen combustion record of 185.5...

This is not a joke. Surprisingly, the Internet Web Domain DSA.COM is up for sale. I don't know how long it's been available, or who is the current owner. It's being brokered through GoDaddy's domain sales subsidiary Afternic. Latest suggested price is only $1250. which is pretty cheap for a domain like that. So what would you do with it? It would make a great parody site. Or put up some good political articles that run counter to the DSA's positions. Or maybe just post a bunch of funny political memes. Check it out: https://dsa.com will take you to the...