Free Republic

Germany is working on a ‘bunker plan’ including a smartphone app to direct citizens to the nearest shelter in case of an emergency, a report claims, after Russian President Putin said he reserved the right to bomb the allies of Ukraine. The Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe — it really rolls off the tongue — better known as the BKK or the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance has embarked on a project to figure out where the country’s remaining bomb shelters are and how many are still fit for use. As well as now long-neglected facilities designed...

ESA's orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has re-discovered an ignored celestial gem. The object in question is one of the youngest and brightest supernova remnants in the Milky Way, the corpse of a star that exploded around 1000 years ago. Its shape, age and chemical composition will allow astronomers to better understand the violent ways in which stars end their lives. Exploding stars seed the Universe with heavy chemical elements necessary to build planets and create life. The expanding cloud of debris that each explosion leaves behind, known as a supernova remnant (SNR), is a bright source of X-rays and radio...