Free Republic

A new mobile phone app will enable visitors to view the Acropolis in Athens in all the grandeur it would have appeared in during the 5th century BC. The new app uses cutting-edge virtual and augmented reality technology, together with artificial intelligence and 5G to recreate the form of the Acropolis in its heyday. In addition, an artificial intelligence assistant will be able to answer questions about the site. The most iconic portions of the Acropolis, together with some prominent exhibits at the Acropolis museum will now be accessible as a virtual digital representation, allowing visitors to compare the ancient...

While special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, some of the key people in creating the Russia-collusion narrative themselves have ties to a foreign nation. Both the Democratic National Committee as well as Fusion GPS—the company hired by the DNC and the Clinton campaign to research the Trump campaign—were using Ukrainian sources in their efforts to discredit Trump. Serhiy Leshchenko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, was a common thread involved in Democratic opposition research efforts into former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort. Leshchenko, along with Artem Sytnyk, the...

The cup was likely used in a wine symposium when Pericles was in his twenties, and the six men who drank from it scrawled their names as a memento, experts say. A cup believed to have been used by Classical Greek statesman Pericles has been found in a pauper's grave in north Athens, according to local reports Wednesday. The ceramic wine cup, smashed in 12 pieces, was found during building construction in the northern Athens suburb of Kifissia, Ta Nea daily said. After piecing it together, archaeologists were astounded to find the name "Pericles" scratched under one of its handles,...

In the last three months, we've been reduced to something like the ancient Athenian mob — with opportunistic politicians sometimes inciting, sometimes catering to an already angry public. The Greek comic playwright Aristophanes once described how screaming politicians — posing as men of the people — would sway Athenian citizens by offering them all sort of perks and goodies that the government had no idea how to pay for. The historian Thucydides offers even more frightening accounts of bloodthirsty voters after they were aroused by demagogues ("leaders or drivers of the people"). One day in a bloodthirsty rage, voters demanded...

1) Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. ............Mark Twain 2) I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. ........Winston Churchill 3) A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. .............George Bernard Shaw 4) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. ............G. Gordon Liddy...

Our political system does not compete with with institutions which are elsewhere in force. We do not copy our neighbors, but try to be an example. Our administration favors the many instead of the few: this is why it is called a democracy. The laws afford equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, but we do not ignore the claims of excellence. When a citizen distinguishes himself, then he will be called to serve the state, in preference to others, not as a matter of privilege, but as a reward of merit; and poverty is no bar. ......

Kurdish groups unite as Turkey watches, warily Anticipating US action against Baghdad, two Iraqi Kurdish factions will meet Friday. By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor AMMAN, JORDAN – With the prospect of an American-orchestrated regime change in Iraq growing closer, rival Kurdish factions in northern Iraq – key potential allies of the US in any military action – are burying their differences. The joint Kurdish parliament will reconvene Friday in the Kurdistan National Assembly building in the city of Arbil. High on the agenda is the consideration of a new constitution that lays out the...