Free Republic

No serious art collection today is complete without a genuine Rembrandt. Born in 1606, the son of a miller, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn revolutionized painting, famously capturing the very souls of his subjects through his portraits. But the life of this Baroque genius was as dramatic as his art. Plagued by tragedy and family struggles, the art titan died at 63, lonely, poor, and misunderstood. This documentary journeys back to his Dutch roots and offers an intimate look at the groundbreaking conservation effort, "Operation Nightwatch," underway at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. New Technology Reveals Hidden Secrets Behind Rembrandt's Masterpiece |...

A routine training flight by the U.S. Navy’s E-6B Mercury “doomsday plane” captured the attention of sky-watchers this week in Colorado. The four-engine command-and-control plane based on Boeing Co.’s 707 airliner on Wednesday took off from Travis Air Force Base in California and circled over Denver before continuing on to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. It was apparently the hour-long racetrack holding pattern that turned the heads. “Did you see this today?” a newscaster at the KMGH, the local ABC affiliate, asked during a broadcast. “There was this plane just circling the metro, circling and circling, and many of...

As US President Donald Trump mulls striking Iran's nuclear facilities, one of America's "doomsday planes" made a flight to Joint Base Andrews in Washington on Tuesday night. According to the New York Post, the E-4B Nightwatch - a plane designed to protect the Secretary of Defence and other national security officials and keep the government operating in the time of nuclear war - was spotted by flight trackers. The aircraft departed from Bossier City, Louisiana, on Tuesday evening and landed in Maryland around 4 hours later, after a long, winding route. What is a "doomsday plane"? A "doomsday plane" is...

A U.S. Air Force E-4B “Nightwatch” aircraft — commonly known as the “Doomsday Plane” — landed at Joint Base Andrews late Tuesday night following a highly irregular flight path from Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana. The flight sparked speculation given the plane's historical role during major national or global crises. Formally designated as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC), the E-4B is built to serve as a mobile command post for the President and top military officials in the event of nuclear war or other catastrophic events.

US forces have deployed the “Doomsday Plane” amid fears of war with Russia as tensions look ready to snap over Syria. Just after US President Donald Trump told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to “get ready” for a missile strike the feared aircraft took to the sky. US forces put a Boeing E-4B Nightwatch plane into the air from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Indiana. The Nightwatch – also known as the Doomsday Plane – is an airborne nuclear war command centre. It would allow the US to maintain a chain of command in the event of a major war and...

Two bugle calls, framing a symbolic night watch at a cenotaph… it’s not a bad way to spend a couple of minutes every year Ritual is an old human activity and some of the best ones operate at a more or less unconscious level combining symbolism with myth and belief. Our basic Remembrance Day rituals on November 11th seem right and fitting, and they evolved that way in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Our Remembrance Day observation combines elements of classical Greece and Rome, a Christian hope of resurrection, and practices that probably go back to pre-historic...

New life has been breathed into Dutch master painter Rembrandt's 'Night Watch', the famous dark-toned 17th-century painting of city guards gathering to march For more than three centuries, the identity of the men depicted in the massive portrait hanging in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum have been unknown, but a Dutch historian now claims to have identified them all. The painting, some 363 cm by 437 cm, is considered the Rijksmuseum's most famous painting. The Rijksmuseum said on Wednesday retired historian Bas Dudok van Heel has identified the men after years of research. "It is great for both the museum and the public...