Free Republic

Explanation: What's happening at the end of that street? Pictured here are not auroras but light pillars, a phenomenon typically much closer. In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually, these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground and are sometimes known as a crystal fog. These small ice crystals may then reflect not the Sun but ground lights....

As New York approaches the Green Energy Cliff, developments are starting to come more quickly. When last I addressed the subject on March 6, there had just been “leaked” a three-page memo from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to the Governor’s office, revealing that implementation of what New York calls its “cap and invest” program — actually, an artificial scarcity program intentionally designed to drive prices up and impoverish the people — would cost every New York household thousands of dollars in increased energy costs. (I put the word “leaked” in quotes because most knowledgeable...

As tensions grow between the United States and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Air Force has launched A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircrafts to target boats that are ambushing ships through the essential waterway. During a Pentagon briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said, “The A-10 Warthog is now engaged across the southern flank, targeting fast-attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz.”

For years, turning 65 with a blood pressure reading above 130 meant one thing: medication. A new analysis of the 2025 American Heart Association guidelines shows that this practice is changing, finding that roughly 10 percent of older adults previously flagged for treatment may no longer meet the criteria, a move experts say prevents overtreatment, but one that carries its own risks. The 2025 guidelines marked a significant departure from the 2017 AHA guidelines, which recommended treatment for all adults over 65 with blood pressure at or above 130/80 mmHg. The updated 2025 guidelines replace that blanket approach with one...

Explanation: What would it look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth in 2005 on its way in toward the planet Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft orbit around Mercury from 2011 to 2015 has conducted the first complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER peered back at its home world. MESSENGER is...

A US rocket scientist vanished without a trace on a Los Angeles hike eight months before retired Air Force Gen. William McCasland disappeared under eerily similar circumstances — and the two had a close professional connection. Monica Reza went missing on the morning of June 22, 2025, in the Angeles National Forest while hiking with two experienced companions who were exploring the popular Mount Waterman Trail, according to a Facebook page dedicated to finding her. Volunteers and authorities searched the area for months using helicopters, radar, droves of hikers, and dogs — but have found no trace of Reza, 60,...

Two more nations signed on to a letter Saturday strongly condemning Iran’s partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz – isolating the Islamic Republic diplomatically as it seeks to apply maximum economic pressure by bottling up oil shipments. The two latest to join are Australia and the United Arab Emirates – one of Iran’s Gulf neighbors who has been bombarded with missile attacks from Tehran – bringing the total to 22 countries. Earlier signatories were the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan, whose Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters Thursday that she informed President Trump what her country...

Gov. Kathy Hochul is finally admitting that the “climate” law she’s long supported is toxic to New York’s economy and to “affordability” — but she only wants to delay the death sentence. We’ve warned for years that the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act is leading the state to disaster — and for no purpose except to honor the delusions of green extremists and further the political ambitions of first Gov. Andrew Cuomo and now Hochul. Neither one ever admitted the fundamental idiocy; even now, when she says “a climate policy that leaves working families behind is not a...

Explanation: Spiral NGC 1300 and elliptical NGC 1297 are galaxies that lie on the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus (The River). At 70 million light-years distant or more, both are members of the Eridanus Galaxy Cluster. About 100,000 light-years across, at lower left in this sharp, galaxy group photo NGC 1300 is seen face-on with a prominent central bar and grand, sweeping spiral arms. Like other spiral galaxies, including our own barred spiral Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 1300 is thought to have a supermassive central black hole. A contrast in appearance and slightly more distant, NGC 1297 is the...

Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson has sued the LPGA and USGA for its policies that prohibit biological males who underwent male puberty from competing in women's competition. The LPGA said in a statement it was aware of the lawsuit and would "let that process play out on the proper forum." "The LPGA’s gender policy was developed through a thoughtful, expert-informed process and is grounded in protecting the competitive integrity of elite women’s golf," the statement said. The USGA and LPGA changed gender policies for events in 2025 and beyond, declaring that players must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned...

In A Nutshell: Researchers developed a breath test that detects bacterial infections by measuring a carbon-13 signal produced when bacteria consume specially tagged sugar compounds injected into the bloodstream. In infected mice, the signal tracked bacterial load in real time and dropped sharply after antibiotic treatment, suggesting the test could tell doctors whether a drug is actually working. The approach successfully detected infections in multiple tissues, including muscle, lungs, bone, and blood, using portable, inexpensive equipment. All findings are currently from animal studies, and significant testing in humans is still needed before the method could reach clinical use. Antibiotic resistance...

Explanation: The defining astronomical moment of the equinox today is at 14:46 UTC (March 20). That's when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving north in its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky, marking the beginning of spring for our fair planet in the northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. Then, day and night are nearly equal around the globe. In fact, both day and nighttime exposures from a spring equinox at the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, are used in this composited skyscape. Over 1,000 images were taken with a fisheye lens and merged...

Date: March 20, 2026 Source: University of Sydney Summary: The largest review of medicinal cannabis to date found it doesn’t effectively treat anxiety, depression, or PTSD—despite millions using it for those reasons. Researchers warn it could even make mental health worse, raising risks like psychosis and addiction while delaying proven treatments. Some limited benefits were seen for conditions like insomnia and autism, but the evidence is weak. The findings are fueling calls for stricter oversight as cannabis use continues to rise. Cannabis Fails for Mental Health A sweeping new analysis finds medicinal cannabis doesn’t work for anxiety, depression, or PTSD—and...

Pregnant Chinese women have turned a tropical paradise into a maternity ward — pumping out babies who automatically become US citizens daily. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a US territory northeast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, has been flooded with so-called “birth tourists” since 2009 when then-president Barack Obama introduced a visa-waiver program for Chinese nationals. China-watchers estimate about 1,000 companies offer birth tourism to the Northern Mariana Islands, other US overseas territories and even the US mainland. They claim a gob-smacking 1.5 million American babies are being raised in China by Chinese parents who’ve participated...

Uncover the sunken remains of a 4th-century basilica in Turkey. Submerged beneath the waters of Lake Iznik for hundreds of years, the church could reveal crucial insights into the early days of Christianity. Join a team of international researchers as they travel back through time—and grapple with Turkey’s many earthquakes, which could sink the structure deeper at any moment. Sunken Basilica Reveals Glimpse of Early Christianity | Full Episode Secrets of the Dead | 55:35 PBS | 1.69M subscribers | 23,809 views | March 18, 2026

Explanation: Even if you live with your head in the clouds, you won’t find a jellyfish like this one very often. The featured image shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on March 4. The launch happened 52 minutes before sunrise, and the second stage rocket exhaust plume was high enough in the sky to catch the light of the rising sun, while the photographer was still in the dark. This combination of light and shadow, possible at dawn or dusk, makes the exhaust, mostly water vapor and carbon dioxide, appear as a glowing cloud....

Curators at the Fitzwilliam Museum noticed that an image of a jackal on a 3,300-year-old Egyptian papyrus had been modified with white fluid, according to an ArtNet News report. The modified picture was found in a copy of the Book of the Dead made for a royal scribe named Ramose, whose tomb was discovered by William Flinders Petrie in 1922. The image shows Ramose placing his hands on the body of a jackal, identified as Wepwawet, a god of war and hunting. Bold, white lines had been applied to either side of the jackal's body and the upper halves of...

Whoopi Goldberg cheerfully confessed she bar hops as a way to fulfill her sexual needs. On Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” Goldberg noted, “A woman wrote an article in Cosmopolitan, admitting that she fantasizes about being single even though she’s in a very happy longterm relationship.” “She writes that sometimes, she finds herself missing the days of casual flings and bar-hopping,” Goldberg continued as the audience giggled. The “Ghost” actress then turned to her co-hosts for a reaction, to which Joy Behar responded, “Do you miss those days?” Goldberg quipped, “I am single,” adding, “Yeah, I bar hop, I go...

ZME Science reports that Shlomi Katzin of the University of Haifa discovered a three-foot-long Crusader-era sword encrusted with shells and sand while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s Dor Beach. The Israel Antiquities Authority soon granted permission to recover the object from the seabed and transfer it to the University of Haifa. A CT scan at a nearby hospital revealed that the sword’s iron blade is severely corroded, yet enough of it survives to indicate that it was likely forged in Europe and belonged to a Frankish knight. “Swords were precious objects, and therefore were carefully cared for and...

The world spent fifty years and hundreds of billions of dollars building Strategic Petroleum Reserves so that no geopolitical rupture could fully sever modern civilization from energy. The United States alone holds just over 400 million barrels of crude oil in salt caverns beneath the Gulf Coast. On March 11, 2026, the International Energy Agency authorized a record 400-million-barrel emergency release from member-country reserves, the largest coordinated drawdown in the Agency’s history. Energy insecurity has institutions, stockpiles, and doctrine. Fertilizer insecurity does not. No country appears to maintain a fertilizer reserve system remotely comparable in scale, doctrine, or strategic importance...