Free Republic

Breakthrough evidence likely reveals the final resting place of the HMS Endeavour. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nearly two years after an Australian research team made the claim that a Rhode Island shipwreck was Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour, the team says they have more evidence to back up their assertion. A Rhode Island-based research group originally said it was too premature to call the shipwreck Cook’s vessel. New findings regarding the pump well and bow further point to this ship in fact being HMS Endeavour. Residents of New England and those with British ties are once again in a scuffle. This time, the debate...

This holographic concept could explain a mystery about black holes, but the math may not represent reality.As theoretical physics delves deeper into the fundamental nature of reality, we’re left to grapple with the questions it leaves us. For example, some physicists claim that our universe is merely an illusion, a product of quantum machinations happening in a lower-dimensional setting—in other words, a hologram. Black Holes May Be Evidence The trouble began with those bothersome boogeymen of the cosmos, black holes. On the surface (and careful readers will be rewarded later with the realization that this is a pun), black holes...

So, Elon Musk isn’t your ideal corporate leader, and you want to delete Twitter? You’re not alone. Since the Tesla CEO completed his $44 billion acquisition of the social media site in late October, Twitter may have lost more than one million users, according to estimates from Bot Sentinel, a company that tracks behavior on Twitter. If you’re concerned about hate speech and disinformation, or you’re just not excited about the potential of shelling out cash to secure your blue checkmark, simply avoid the platform altogether. We’ve got you covered for both how to delete your Twitter account and where...

On a four-mile rural road eerily nicknamed the Devil's Promenade, just off the old Route 66 in the north-east corner of Oklahoma, a paranormal mystery has puzzled spirit seekers for more than 100 years. The Hornet Spook Light – a mysterious, basketball-sized glowing orb named for the former town of Hornet – has been appearing in the night sky here since 1881. No-one knows what this peculiar, smouldering ball of light signifies, where it comes from or what it's composed of. Even the Army Corps of Engineers have concluded that it's a "mysterious light of unknown origin". It moves, spinning...

Intelligent Life Really Can’t Exist Anywhere Else Hell, our own evolution on Earth was pure luck. In research published in 2020 from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, scientists study the likelihood of key times for evolution of life on Earth and conclude that it would be virtually impossible for that life to evolve the same way somewhere else. Life has come a very long way in a very short time on Earth, relatively speaking—and scientists say that represents even more improbable luck for intelligent life that is rare to begin with. For decades, scientists and even philosophers have chased...

A team of international scientists compared the temperature of cosmic gas farther away from Earth (and, therefore, farther back in time) to younger gases nearer to our planet and to the present day. According to their calculations, in the past 10 billion years, the mean temperature of these gases has increased by more than 10 times,

President Donald Trump, when asked about a new Pentagon task force for studying UFOs, replied that he would look into it—and then began boasting about the power of the U.S. military. Some observers saw this as Trump touting his funding of the Department of Defense, while others saw it as a threat to extraterrestrial beings. In an interview on Sunday, Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Trump, “Can you explain why the Department of Defense has set up a UFO task force? Are there UFOs?” “Well, I'm going to have to check on that,” Trump replied. “I mean, I've heard...

The amazing feat only happened once. In 1985, a F-15A Eagle fitted with a classified missile shot down an aging weather satellite. The test of the Anti-Satellite (ASAT) was considered a huge success. Task & Purpose has published a rare interview with the pilot who flew the mission 35 years ago. ============================================================================================== One of the most remarkable feats of military engineering during the Cold War was the shootdown of an actual satellite by a fighter jet. The incident was the first and only use of the AGM-135 anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon. Although anti-satellite weapon development slowed after the end of the...

A key F-35 safety system is sustaining damage in Air Force service, forcing the office that overseas the F-35 program to recommend flight restrictions. Under the new guidelines, F-35 jets should socially distance from lightning, maintaining a distance of least 25 miles. The faulty systems could cause a F-35 hit by lightning to literally explode in midair. ================================================================================================= The F-35 Lightning II strike fighter is temporarily barred from flying near actual lightning. More than a dozen Air Force F-35s were discovered with damage to a system designed to prevent catastrophic damage from lightning strikes. The damaged systems place the aircraft...

Now it’s Unpopular Mechanics. Popular Mechanics magazine has come under fire after publishing a detailed guide on toppling monuments. “Bring that sucker down without anyone getting hurt,” the article posted Monday encourages readers, promising the best advice on “how to topple a statue using science.” Author James Stout says his article is inspired by the worldwide attacks on “problematic monuments” tied to the “legacy of racism” amid ongoing protests. “Should you happen to find yourself near a statue that you decide you no longer like, we asked scientists for the best, safest ways to bring it to the ground without...

You used to look to Popular Mechanics to figure out how things worked or if you were a nerd intrigued about building things. Now, even Popular Mechanics has become subsumed by the leftist mania. They recently ran an article from James Stout whose bio describes him as a Ph.D “historian of anti fascism in sport and runs a nonprofit that uses exercise to empower Indigenous people to live healthier and happier lives.” Stout wanted to share with us and Popular Mechanics readers ‘scientific’ instruction on how to take down statues that you don’t like without getting hurt. “How to Topple...

Originally, we were seeing the usual list of subjects being attacked, mostly in the form of Confederate Civil War monuments. But since then, it’s spread to everything from bronze images of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Spanish Conquistadors. Tearing down a sizable, heavy monument can be hard work, however, and potentially dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Stepping into the breach this week is the magazine Popular Mechanics. Author James Stout offers up some “helpful” advice on how to understand all of the physics involved and the most efficient way to accomplish the task. The title seems...

We’ve finally found somebody more pathetic than sports journalists who won’t stick to sports: science journalists who won’t stick to science. Okay, okay, you can argue that they haven’t done that since they got climate change religion. And you’d be right. But now Popular Mechanics is aiding and abetting vandalism. On June 15, it published “How to Topple a Statue Using Science.” Really. Actually, the title of the browser tab is “How to Remove a Racist Statue.” The distinction is a good idea. You don’t want our fine young Year Zero-ers accidentally erasing, say, an abolitionist. According to PM’s James...

(snip) a cryptic startup called SpinLaunch starts suborbital test flights of a rocket that is launched using an enormous centrifuge. Here's the gist: A centrifuge the size of a football field will spin a rocket around in circles for about an hour until its speed eventually exceeds 5,000 miles per hour. At that point, the rocket and its payload will feel forces 10,000 times stronger than gravity. When the centrifuge finally releases the rocket at launch speed, it should, practically speaking, fly through the stratosphere until it fires its engines at the periphery of our atmosphere. (snip) SpinLaunch hopes its...

A stunning new panoramic image of the Milky Way is revealing all sorts of fresh insight. The image shows the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, stretching about 600 light-years across, and reveals never-before-seen details of the Arches cluster, which is densest star cluster in our galaxy. And that bright white splotch in the middle of the image? That's the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, which is illuminated on all sides.

How do you get machines to perform better? Tell them they could croak at any minute. In a new paper from the University of Southern California, scientists say that “in a dynamic and unpredictable world, an intelligent agent should hold its own meta-goal of self-preservation.” This idea invokes the design concept of a survival game, where a finite number of resources is given to a set number of players and they must find an equilibrium or eliminate their competitors. The gorgeous 2018 card game Shipwreck Arcana is a great example of a cooperative survival game: To win, at least one...

Russia’s state nuclear agency has launched a new icebreaker, Ural, as part of the country’s plans to dominate the newly warming Arctic region. The nuclear-powered ship is one of three new icebreakers commissioned by Moscow to navigate waters choked with sea ice and smash its way through if necessary. The ship, Ural, is the third in the class of three Project 22220 icebreakers. The ship was constructed by the Baltic Shipyards of St. Petersburg and will be handed over to Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear agency, in 2021. The Project 22220 ships are 173 meters (567 feet) long and 34 meters (111...

E15 fuel has been certified for sale in the United States and is slowly beginning to show up at filling stations. Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know about this new fuel option. What is E15 and why should I care? E15 is shorthand for gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol. The reason it's a big deal is that ethanol is fairly corrosive to rubber and certain metals, so it can cause damage to vital components. Ethanol also attracts and bonds with water from the air, and that water can separate out inside the tank due to...

When a new supercar arrives, the motor gets the glory. Which is as it should be—anytime an automaker throws big money into designing an exotic spaceframe and 200-mile-per-hour bodywork, it needs muscle to match. The wrong engine, meanwhile, can sink a supercar's reception and reputation (look at the Jaguar XJ220 for a lesson in how a whole car suffers if it's got a weak heart). Aston Martin can't be accused of skimping on the heart of its new halo car, the $3.2 million, out-of-this-world Valkyrie. The new supercar's motor spins out 1,000 horsepower on its way to an 11,100 RPM...

Viewing the Incredible Hulk with the naked eye may be a little tricky. Because the comet got so close to the sun and broke up from solar heat, it's rapidly fading from view. Also, thunderstorms and clouds in various parts of the country may impede vision of the comet. However, experts don't rule out another eruption in the coming days, which could make the comet brighter in the night sky. Additionally, Paul Chodas, the manager for the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Live Science the comet may be visible later in August ― around...