Free Republic

An exploration of Rome's travels in the far east. Get "The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization" https://mdsh.io/invictahistory and use code "Invicta" for 10% off.In this history documentary we seek to answer how far to the east did the Romans go? In previous episodes we covered the preceding links between the east and west which had been formed. Now we follow Roman traders into India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, China, and beyond! How Far East Did the Romans Go? (India, Vietnam, China?) DOCUMENTARY | 29:11 Invicta | 1.66M subscribers | 131,135 views | February 1, 2026

Explanation: What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human? Then you might be the Opportunity rover exploring Mars. Opportunity explored the Red Planet from 2004 to 2018, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured here in 2004, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow. Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background. Caught in a dust storm in 2018, Opportunity stopped responding, and NASA stopped trying...

A new 3D map of Uranus is shedding light on one of the solar system's most mysterious planets. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scientists observed the ice giant for nearly a full rotation, revealing the inner workings of its upper atmosphere for the first time. The team, led by Paola Tiranti from Northumbria University, mapped out the temperature and density of ions in the electrically–charged layer that sits 3,100 miles (5,000km) above the cloud tops.

Modern smart watches can measure an array of health indicators. Step counts and heart rates sit at the simpler end, while VO2 max and blood-oxygen levels are mainly of interest to committed health nuts. The newest addition to the category is heart-rate variability (HRV).As its name suggests, HRV measures not how quickly the heart beats, but how regularly spaced those beats are. With heart rate a lower score is usually better, other things being equal, since it suggests a high level of cardiovascular fitness. When it comes to HRV, though, a higher number—that is, a more irregular pattern—is generally what...

Explanation: Only two days after the February New Moon's annular eclipse of the Sun, a slender lunar crescent poses above the western horizon after sunset in this wintry twilight skyscape. Its nightside faintly illuminated by earthshine, the young Moon is joined by three bright planets in the mostly clear, early evening skies above the village of Kirazli, Turkiye. Inner planet Venus appears closest to the horizon. Near the beginning of its 2026 performance as planet Earth's evening star, brilliant Venus is seen through the warm sunset glare near picture center. Straight above Venus, innermost planet Mercury is easy to spot...

Iranian police officers are gang-raping imprisoned female protesters and then cutting out their uteruses to cover up the horrific torture – before shipping their lifeless bodies home to their families, according to a shocking new report. Prisoners suspected of participating in the nationwide anti-regime demonstrations that shook the nation last month are being terrorized, raped, and slaughtered daily by groups of militant police officers behind bars, an Iranian source told News Nation. “I am most worried about the people who got arrested,” the source, who witnessed the massacre of protesters, said. “They are raping men and women in jail. They...

During his lifetime, Newton kept his theological works highly private, which may have been in part to avoid conflict with the Anglican Church. The two were at odds because the Church preached the doctrine of the Trinity, something which Newton strongly rejected under the belief that God has no equals. When Newton died in 1727 without a will, a pair of distant relations took possession of all his private papers, and chose to keep the work hidden from the public because they were devout Anglicans who didn't want to publicize what they saw as heretical material.Snip Newton reached his end...

Explanation: "A ghost in the Milky Way…” says Christian Bertincourt, the astrophotographer behind this striking image of Barnard 93 (B93). The 93rd entry in Barnard’s Catalogue of Dark Nebulae, B93 lies within the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (Messier 24), where its darkness stands in stark contrast to bright stars and gas in the background. In some ways, B93 is really like a ghost, because it contains gas and dust that was dispersed by the deaths of stars, like supernovas. B93 appears as a dark void not because it is empty, but because its dust blocks the light emitted by more...

NASA today released its final investigation report on the causes behind the Starliner thruster issues during that capsule’s only manned mission in ISS, issues that almost prevented the spacecraft from docking successfully and could have left it manned and out-of-control while still in orbit. Starliner docked to ISS in 2024.You can read the report here [pdf]. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman made it clear in his own statement that the Starliner incident was far more serious than originally let on. “To undertake missions that change the world, we must be transparent about both our successes and our shortcomings. We have to...

This morning, EPA released the official Federal Register version of its Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding as to motor vehicles. The Federal Register cite is 91 F.R. 7686. This official version of the Rescission, in printed, single-spaced and triple column format, is only 111 pages, versus the 436 pages the previous preliminary version; however, the text appears to be substantially unchanged. It only took literal minutes for the first lawsuit challenging the Rescission to get filed. Here, via the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a copy of a Petition that they say was filed today...

Live Science reports that excavations at an ancient farming village near Eilsleben in northern Germany have uncovered intriguing new evidence about interactions between the region's preexisting hunter-gatherers and Europe's earliest farmers. Archaeologists believe the site served as a kind of frontier outpost for the first wave of Neolithic agriculturists who migrated to central Europe from Anatolia and established the site around 5375 b.c. Recent fieldwork has uncovered houses, burials, pits, and cultural material belonging to the so-called Neolithic Linear Pottery culture, or LBK. However, archaeologists were also surprised by the presence of patently Mesolithic objects, including a deer skull headdress,...

Richard Feynman’s physics reveals why aliens cannot reach Earth. From the absolute limit of the Speed of Light to the Fermi Paradox, discover why Interstellar Travel is impossible and why we are truly alone in the universe. …

Explanation: Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In fact, dwarf galaxy IC 2574 shows clear evidence of intense star forming activity in its telltale reddish regions of glowing hydrogen gas. Just as in spiral galaxies, the turbulent star-forming regions in IC 2574 are churned by stellar winds and supernova explosions spewing material into the galaxy's interstellar medium and triggering further star formation. A mere 12 million light-years distant, IC 2574 is part of the M81 group of...

New York's Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez’s highest‑profile outing on the world stage yet at the Munich Security Conference last week has sharpened speculation about her long‑term political ambitions. Newsweek has reached out to Ocasio‑Cortez via email for comment. Why It Matters Ocasio‑Cortez’s emergence on an international platform comes as Democrats begin to look beyond President Donald Trump's time in office and toward a generational reshaping of party leadership. How seriously she is taken as a future contender is increasingly reflected in both betting odds and prediction markets. What To Know Ocasio‑Cortez’s trip to Germany marked her most prominent international appearance...

Explanation: Cradled in red-glowing hydrogen gas, stars are being born in Orion. These stellar nurseries lie at the edge of the giant Orion molecular cloud complex, some 1,500 light-years away. This detailed view spans about 12 degrees across the center of the well-known constellation, with the Great Orion Nebula, the closest large star-forming region, visible toward the lower right. The deep mosaic also includes, near the top center, the Flame Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula. Image data acquired with a hydrogen-alpha filter adds other remarkable features to this wide-angle cosmic vista: pervasive tendrils of energized atomic hydrogen gas and portions...

A Paleolithic teenaged boy whose remains were discovered in northwest Italy's Ardene Candide cave in 1942 immediately earned the nickname Il Principe, or "the Prince," because of the richness of the grave goods found in his 27,500-year-old burial. Researchers noticed that he had also suffered traumatic injuries to his upper body, but at the time they were unable to establish exactly what had happened to him. According to a statement issued by the University of Montreal, an international team of researchers has finally determined that the young man was likely attacked by a bear. The team reexamined the boy's skeletal...

Jamie Kennedy has slammed anti-ICE celebrities who preach from glitzy Hollywood red carpets about authoritarianism while being protected by security guards. The 55-year-old comedian appeared on Jack Osbourne’s “Trying Not to Die” podcast on Tuesday, calling out liberal stars who cry about living under a so-called “fascist regime” while they are “literally guarded.” He said “when you have actors from the red carpet of an award show” saying stuff like “we’re under a fascist regime” and cries of “authoritarianism,” they couldn’t be more clueless. He added: “You can’t say you’re under authoritarian rule when you’re literally being authoritarian.” Kennedy claimed...

Research led by Scott Duncan (Auckland University of Technology) and Melody Smith (University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau)In A Nutshell Play isn’t just for kids: Playful adults cope better with stress, feel more positive emotions, and report higher life satisfaction. Design matters: Cities and social norms often discourage adult play, but embedding playful spaces into everyday life could boost community well-being. It’s a mindset, not a toy box: Adult play is about curiosity and spontaneity, whether through humor, movement, creativity, or social interaction. Play strengthens relationships: It builds empathy, emotional intelligence, and even bridges generational divides. Somewhere along the...

OpenAI's GPT-5.2 has derived a new formula for gluon interactions, overturning assumptions of zero amplitude and advancing theoretical physics. For a long, long time physicists treated this interaction as a cosmic impossibility — a mathematical dead end so absolute it was taught almost with the certainty of Newton's laws and the elegance of Einstein's equations. Zero, in quantum physics, isn't a shrug; it's a verdict. And this particular verdict had stood unchallenged for decades. But every so often, science gets a jolt — a falling apple, a bending beam of starlight… or, in 2026, an AI model that refuses to...

Explanation: Some comets are regular guests of our solar neighborhood; others come by only once, never to return. We won’t have another chance to see Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś), which is currently making its way through the inner Solar System. The hyperbolic orbit of this comet indicates that it will likely become an interstellar traveler. Comet Wierzchoś is today near its closest approach to the Earth, passing roughly the same distance from the Earth as is the Sun. The featured 30-minute exposure was taken last week in Chile and shows a 5-degree long ion tail as well as three shorter...