Free Republic

More like a verdant rug than a forest or pasture, the humble moss packs a surprising lot of punch for being such a small plant. In an amazing new study, researchers have only just discovered how vital this diverse group of itty-bitty botanicals is to ecosystems around the world...Sampling mosses from over a hundred sites across eight different ecosystems, Eldridge and colleagues estimated populations of the plant cover a staggering 9.4 million square kilometers in the types of environments surveyed. This is comparable to the size of China or Canada.Ancestors of all today's living plants, these ancient organisms are more...

Grasses, shrubs and mosses are growing and expanding around Mount Everest and across the Himalayan region as the area continues to experience the consequences of global warming, researchers have found. Scientists from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom used satellite data to establish increases in subnival vegetation -- plants that grow between the tree line and the snow line -- in the Himalayas. Using NASA Landsat satellite data from 1993 to 2018, remote sensing scientists measured "small but significant" increases in vegetation cover across four height brackets between 4,150 and 6,000 meters (13,615-19,685 feet) above sea level. "There...

Eating like a caveman meant chowing down on woolly rhinos and sheep in Belgium, but munching on mushrooms, pine nuts and moss in Spain. It all depended on where they lived, new research shows. Scientists got a sneak peek into the kitchen of three Neanderthals by scraping off the plaque stuck on their teeth and examining the DNA. What they found smashes a common public misconception that the caveman diet was mostly meat. They also found hints that one sickly teen used primitive versions of penicillin and aspirin to help ease his pain. The dental plaque provides a lifelong record...

Bungling police raided the home of an elderly couple after they mistook the smell of a common garden plant for cannabis. Ivor and Margaret Wiltshire bought 'moss phlox' four years ago for £2 and spread it through their front and back garden. But the plant - which grows vivid pink flowers in the spring and looks nothing like cannabis - gives off a pungent aroma similar to the drug. vor and Margaret Wiltshire have launched an official complaint against the police after they raided their home because a garden plant smelled like cannabis The smell was so strong the couple's...

What's making the mini crop circles? Snails? Millipedes? A mysterious circular pattern on moss-covered logs has scientists scratching their heads. Last winter, researchers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park discovered the symmetrical bull's-eye pattern on patches of liverwort (a close relative of moss) growing on pine trees that had died and fallen on the ground. At this point, biologists aren't sure what causes the circles. Some have suggested snails, while others have speculated millipedes. "Immediately, we thought of snails," said Keith Langdon, chief biologist with the Smokies. "But snails graze in a zigzag pattern. We can't find records of...

New Civil War I believe Trump will win this election battle and his next of his four years will be like the American Civil War (1860-1864). It will be four years of Trump waging Civil War II mostly against big business, Big Tech (Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.), the deep state and the mainstream media. It will not be typically a battle involving geography, as North vs. South in the first Civil War (despite the idea of coastal vs. flyover territory). It will be a battle mostly fought in the courts. It will be a battle to preserve the intuitions that...

What is the validity of history found in the Bible? Is it fact or fiction? What does the hard evidence really have to say about the foundational story of the Old Testament: the Exodus out of Egypt? An in-depth investigation by documentary filmmaker Timothy Mahoney searches for answers to these questions amid startling new finds that may change traditional views of history and the Bible. Filmmaker Timothy Mahoney begins with the question, “Is the Bible just a myth, or did the archaeologists get it wrong?” He decides to tackle this issue with a deliberate scientific approach. After examining the details...

The most repeated prophecy in the entirety of the Gospel record is often hidden behind the definitive article. The definitive articles from the Greek text have been translated: THIS, THAT, and THE - but they all definitively define THE PROPHET who was prophesied by Moses. This is THE PROPHET the Almighty promised to send, and THAT PROPHET is the one who would speak only that which he heard from heaven. It is THIS PROPHET that we must shema (hear and obey). There is not a more repeated prophetic declaration in the Gospel record than the recognition that Yeshua is THAT...

For Judges to judge, there must be a standard against which all actions are judged. The Book of Judges is preceded by Moses’ reiteration of the Torah just before the nation of Israel proceeds into the Promised Land. The law, the standard of righteousness by which Israel is to govern themselves as a people, is repeated and amplified one last time before the death of Moses. It is in this final instruction of Moses that we find the context to the Book of The Judges, which is a prophetic shadow picture of the day and hour in which we live.