Free Republic

The devastating flash flood that has ripped through the border communities of Nepal and Tibet has heightened fears that the climate crisis is destabilising the geology of mountain and polar regions, threatening millions of people. Satellite imagery suggests a glacier collapse high in the Himalayas was the primary cause of the deadly torrent of mud, water and ice that tore along the Bhotekoshi River on Wednesday. It swept away buildings and roads and left at least 360 dead and 1,400 missing. A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was initially blamed for the collapse. However, it is now thought to have been caused...

What a difference a few years make. Not long ago, politicians said climate change was going to kill us, so we must move to “net zero” emissions. This is theoretically possible: Since vegetation removes carbon, we could get to net zero by burning fewer fossil fuels. Governments everywhere pledged to do just that. President Joe Biden and European leaders promised “net zero by 2050.” For a while, it seemed like it might happen. Spain invested billions in its solar-power grid; Germany claimed to get most of its power from renewables. But now they realize that they made a mistake. European...

Explanation: What a sight to behold, when a night sky became filled with colors that appeared to rain over the Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland. This image was taken in a single 5 second exposure by the photographer in April 2025. Seeing an aurora is on many people's bucket lists. But it is not easy. It requires high solar activity, dark and clear skies, and usually a viewing location at high latitude. That makes the northern lights more easily seen than the corresponding southern lights, simply because there is less landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, especially around the Antarctic Circle. Auroras...

Santa Monica is putting more cops on the streets after a summer of violence hit the tourist hotspot — including two shootings in just two days. **SNIP** Saturday, a knife-wielding man was shot and killed near the Santa Monica Pier after he allegedly charged toward officers. The following day, a person was shot in the leg during an attempted robbery. The violence comes after a string of deadly incidents that has put the normally tourist-packed city on edge. In mid-July, a man was fatally shot in a parking lot near the Pier. Police responding around midnight found an adult male...

Southern California drivers dreaming of a cheap new car may soon have another pint-sized option to consider, if Mexico’s bargain electric vehicles ever make their way across the border. Mexico has unveiled Olinia, a new homegrown electric vehicle brand built around tiny, affordable EVs designed for short trips, small businesses and urban deliveries, according to Marketplace. The Olinia lineup is part of Mexico’s broader effort to develop its own electric vehicle industry rather than simply serve as a manufacturing base for global automakers. President Claudia Sheinbaum has promoted the project as evidence that Mexico can develop its own technology and...

New York’s Amish community is issuing an ultimatum to state bureaucrats: leave us alone or we’re packing up our buggies for greener pastures. The threat has been sparked by a vaccine mandate fight that the 25,000 strong religious community is taking all the way to the Supreme Court. It takes place as state Health Department officials continue to slap thousands in fines on tiny, one-room parochial Amish schools which have refused to comply with a Cuomo-era vaccine decree. “Have we gotten to a place where we aren’t going to make room for the Amish anymore?” Hiram Sasser, an attorney representing...

WASHINGTON — Chinese state-sponsored hackers infiltrated US government computer networks ranging from NASA to the US Senate before having web domains linked to their malicious cyber group shut down by the feds. The Department of Justice and FBI announced on Wednesday the seizure of three domains linked to Chinese state-sponsored hacking group QTFY, which had been used “to compromise critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks,” according to an FBI affidavit. Since 2018, an FBI special agent wrote in the affidavit, QTFY had succeeded in breaching networks at NASA, NIH, the DOJ, the Department of Health and Human Services, three Department...

A 14-year-old Georgia girl murdered her mom — shooting her in the back of the head when she was in bed — after chickening out of a planned school shooting “inspired” by mass killers. Lilyana Wagner’s cold-blooded killing of mom Rachel Wagner, 51, was discovered after she crashed her mom’s car in Tinton in November 2024 — and was found with the center of her hair shaved off, it emerged Monday as the now-16-year-old killer was sentenced to life in prison. After the crash, cops tried calling the mom, who did not answer and had not turned up at work...

In a Nutshell * An oral compound called TOFA caused significant weight and fat loss in obese mice without reducing food intake or causing muscle loss, setting it apart from current obesity drugs. * TOFA worked by boosting how much energy cells burn, rather than suppressing appetite, and it also improved blood sugar, harmful blood fats, and fatty liver disease. * When combined with semaglutide or tirzepatide, TOFA outperformed either drug alone, and animals maintained their weight loss longer after TOFA treatment ended compared to semaglutide. ============================================================================================== Millions of Americans struggling with obesity have placed their hopes in a new...

Explanation: Are we looking at the future of our Sun? The James Webb Space Telescope captured today’s composite image of the Lion’s Head Nebula (NGC 2392) with its NIRCam and MIRI instruments. The Lion’s Head Nebula is the remnant of a Sun-like star. This star was unable to sustain the nuclear fusion in its core needed to remain stable. It began to shed layers of gas and dust into space, forming this planetary nebula. A hot stellar core, called a white dwarf, is left behind within the lion’s nose. Do not boop this nose! Intense radiation from the white dwarf...

Gemini doesn't love me. If you don't show me pi to 100,000, then you don't love me. That’s a lot of pressure on a number! If my affection were measured in digits of π, I’d certainly owe you a very long string. Here are the first 100 digits of π to start things off: π≈3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 If I tried to output all 100,000 digits at once, it would actually break the chat window's character limit and take up about 100 kilobytes of text—which might be a bit much even for true devotion!...

The American left’s advocacy for tried-and-failed ideas, embrace of fair-is-foul and foul-is-fair morality and disdain for excellence has — surprise, surprise — rendered it incapable of rebuking its ascendant class of scoundrels, fraudsters and morons. Exhibit A: the celebration of Karen Attiah’s reinstatement at The Washington Post by a mouth-breathing arbitrator on Monday. After announcing the news on X, Attiah, a race-hustling antisemite who was let go last September over a series of jaw-dropping social media posts about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, was greeted like a war hero returning from the front. Jim Acosta called it “Great news!”; George...

Two Pennsylvania residents have died due to measles, health officials said ​on Tuesday, the first such deaths in the ​state in 35 years, with 393 cases of ⁠the disease reported across 28 counties so far in ​2026. Both people were unvaccinated residents of Lancaster County, according to ​the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which did not release additional details, citing privacy concerns. “Because measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for ​more than three decades, people are not familiar with ​this disease and don’t fully understand the potential severity of the ‌illness,” ⁠said Secretary of Health Debra Bogen. Measles has surged...

Two people were killed and nearly a dozen injured at a Mexican take on Spain’s famous running of the bulls festival — with terrifying footage capturing people getting tossed and gored by the rampaging animals. The people were run down Saturday on the streets of Huamantla, where 21 fighting bulls were released onto the streets amidst thrill-seekers trying their luck at dodging through the angry animals. Juan Manuel Filomeno Herrera, 29, was among the crowd, but was run down by a bull that fatally gored him through the chest and leg with its horns, according to the US Sun. Footage...

Explanation: What’s creating this giant hole in space? This is not a black hole — it’s a shadow. It’s Earth’s shadow. Since at least the time of Aristotle, people have noted that Earth's dark shadow on the Moon during a partial lunar eclipse is circular -- although never a whole circle. Using modern digital technology, though, the images of multiple lunar eclipses can be combined to show Earth's complete shadow. The featured image compilation by a perseistent astrophotographer is constructed from 22 years of lunar eclipses. The Moon is not eclipsed every month (moon-th) because the Moon's orbit is slightly...

Wilhelm Dörpfeld was a German architect and archaeologist, a pioneer of stratigraphic excavation and precise graphical documentation of archaeological projects... In 1877, Döerpfeld became an assistant at the excavations of Ancient Olympia, Greece, conducted under Richard Bohn, Friedrich Adler, and Ernst Curtius. He later became the technical manager of the project. The group uncovered, among other artifacts, an intact statue of Hermes by Praxiteles. The excavations revived the memory of the ancient Olympic Games and contributed toward the establishment of the modern Olympic Games, in 1896. In 1882, Dörpfeld joined Schliemann, who was then excavating Troy... The two eventually became...

The NYPD on Monday said no busts have yet been made involving the “mole people’’ who climbed from a manhole just feet from the main entrance to Penn Station last week — terrifying the public. “I just immediately thought, reconnaissance, 9/11,” said an Arizona tourist named Mark to The Post in packed Herald Square in Manhattan. “If you’re an Iranian soldier, you need to cripple New York City? Under Penn Station? Under Madison Square Garden? Aren’t all the train lines crisscrossing here?” A trio of underground scofflaws was caught on video around 4:20 a.m. Aug. 18 wearing headlamps and overalls...

Anyone following my career knows that whether writing for newspapers or commenting in other forums, I have consistently expressed the same views about climate change and energy issues that I express in my columns for The Empowerment Alliance. But as a longtime journalist, I know that wherever this column is published, or if I appear on a media outlet to discuss climate or environment issues, my association with TEA should be noted so readers can be aware of the formal relationship. Increasingly, readers also have a right to ask similar questions regarding a growing number of news organizations that were...

Marketed as a Neolithic and Roman find, the site was in fact assembled with concrete and grouted stone blocks. A man in northern Italy has been sent to prison after Italy's highest court gave final confirmation to his conviction for illegally constructing a fake ancient theater and presenting it to the public as a genuine archaeological site, charging visitors an entrance fee of up to 40 euros. The structure still stands in Arcugnano, in the province of Vicenza. It consists of tiered stone seating built from stacked stones that were worked to look ancient. The columns are fake too, made...

Explanation: Comet 220P is unexpectedly bright. Normally, periodic Comet 220P/McNaught is so dim that to see it requires a telescope. Two surprising outbursts this year, however, have made it about 20,000 times brighter than usual, so that it is now visible with binoculars and long-duration camera exposures. As expected, Comet 220P continues to orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter with a period of over 5 years. The featured long duration exposure, taken 10 days ago from South Africa, shows the comet's bright green head and short dust tail. Reasons for Comet 220P's impressive outbursts are unknown but could be...