Free Republic

The Romans may have loved their pets just as much as we do, yet with no internet on which to upload photos of their furry companions, the ancients had to make do with mosaic portraits of their beloved animals laid into their villa floors. An extraordinary example of one such pet-themed artwork has recently been discovered in what was an affluent household in Adramytteion, located beneath the modern settlement of Ören in Türkiye. Dated to the late second or early third century CE, the Roman-era residence consists of three mosaic-paved halls set around a central atrium. Within the north hall...

Energy groups are pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul to restart Indian Point’s dormant nuclear reactors as part of a new ad blitz for “Climate Week.” The Democratic governor’s face will appear on a billboard on a truck alongside the message “open up Indian Point, or the heat goes out and the light goes out.” Westchester County’s Indian Point was closed in 2021 under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo after years of pressure from anti-nuke activists and politicians who worried that its location just 40 miles out of Midtown would mean disaster in the case of a meltdown. But Hochul is leading an...

The tomb in which Tutankhamun's mummy was discovered in 1922 may originally have been built for a different ruler, before being adapted to house the remains of the Boy King following his untimely death... in 2015 British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves proposed that she may be lurking in a concealed room beyond the walls of Tut's tomb... Previously, a number of experts -- including Howard Carter, who first uncovered KV 62 -- had noted that it seems rather small for a royal burial chamber. Reeves then pointed out that the structure is a "left-turning monument", and therefore conforms to the architectural...

A new study has proposed the existence of a hidden solar system planet candidate that is smaller and closer to Earth than the infamous, hypothetical Planet X. This new world, dubbed "Planet Y," could be around the same size as Earth and may exist alongside another popular Planet Nine candidate; potentially bringing our solar system's planetary tally to 10, if both can be confirmed. Did the Sun Pull a Rogue Planet into the Solar System? | 10:19 Territory | 123K subscribers | 146,224 views | September 21, 2026 Narrated by Mathew McQuinn

Explanation: When does a nebula look like a comet? In this crowded starfield covering over two degrees within the high-flying constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), the eye is drawn to the Cocoon Nebula. A compact star forming region, the cosmic Cocoon punctuates a nebula bright in emission and reflection on the lower right, with a long trail of interstellar dust clouds to the left, making the entire complex appear a bit like a comet. Cataloged as IC 5146, the central bright head of the nebula spans about 10 light years, while the dark dusty tail spans nearly 100 light years....

For decades, many scientists have confidently dismissed the vast majority of the human DNA as useless evolutionary garbage. Yet a recently published scientific paper in Cell, one of the world’s most prestigious biology journals, declares a “paradigm shift” against the idea that huge portions of the human genome are merely “junk DNA.”After the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, a startling discovery was made. Only about 2 percent of the entire human genome codes for proteins. Scientists naturally asked, what is the other 98 percent doing?Evolutionary biology was ready with an answer. For decades, they had claimed that the...

Explanation: If you went outside at the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun's position change? A visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at noon near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK. In the foreground are the Callanish Stones, a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age. It is not known if...

While digging in their backyard, an accidental archaeologist in Denmark unearthed 18.5 kilograms (40.7 pounds) of silver treasure. The chance discovery is the largest known silver hoard from the Viking Age in the country and could prove invaluable in understanding this chapter of history. The treasure trove consists of 700 silver objects, including silver bars, bracelets, dozens of coins, a small Thor's hammer, and various cut objects. These kinds of silver artifacts were often used as a means of payment and a store of value... Around 320 of the objects were found within the original clay vessel, while the rest...

President Trump’s new Greenland security deal comes just 17 days after a US-based company quietly closed a deal to purchase a Greenland mining company that would produce more than a third of the world’s rare earth magnet supply outside of China. On Sept. 1, Greenland Mines, a NASDAQ listed US-aligned firm headquartered in North Carolina, closed a deal for the Sarfartoq Rare Earths Project in southwest Greenland. The company announced that it planned to produce NdPr oxide – a compound of neodymium and praseodymium used in the manufacturing of magnets for EVs and wind turbines, as well as defense capabilities....

A deranged driver allegedly drove his car onto the sidewalk near the White House and demanded to speak to President Trump, causing a wild scene in D.C. The man allegedly drove near the security barrier on the sidewalk at the corner of 16th Street and H Street at Lafayette Square around noon Saturday, triggering a massive law enforcement response. Metropolitan Police Department officers, members of the military and Secret Service officers rushed to the scene, The Sun reported. The man was allegedly demanding he speak to President Trump as he was being arrested, seemingly unaware that the commander in chief...

Explanation: Also known as the false dawn, a luminous band of zodiacal light is captured in this dark night skyscape. The serene view was recorded just before the beginning of astronomical twilight during September's star party at the remote Hanle Dark Sky Reserve, Ladakh, India, planet Earth. At about 4,500 meters altitude, the dark sky reserve presents a haven for hardy stargazing and astrophotography enthusiasts. While meteors streak through the night, bright planet Jupiter appears immersed in the faint zodiacal glow near the eastern horizon. Follow the zodiacal band toward the zenith to find open star cluster M44 and a...

[snip] Uranus has 29 confirmed moons. Only one spacecraft has ever visited the planet -- and that was in 1986 for just a few hours. Yet in the last two years alone we have discovered a brand new moon, found hidden oceans beneath multiple moons, and revealed that the dark sides of its largest moons are on completely the wrong hemisphere. In this video we break down every weird moon of Uranus -- from a world with the tallest cliff in the entire solar system, to a moon with a single mysterious bright ring sitting alone on an otherwise pitch...

I will never understand how large numbers of seemingly intelligent people got the idea that they were going to save the world by forcing the closure of all the functional parts of the energy system of the U.S. Nor will I ever understand how enough of those people got themselves into positions of sufficient political power to put their wacko energy ideas into effect. And yet, by the time President Joe Biden and his minions had left office in early 2025, such people, operating deep in the administrative state (and with the apparent blessing of a demented President), had managed...

He’s the Doogie Howser of the dorms! A 13-year-old Long Island whiz kid with an Einstein-level IQ has been accepted to NYU’s master program — after overcoming cancer and Tourette’s syndrome, according to school officials and his mom. Pint-sized prodigy Joe Petraro-Hyppolite plans to study sports medicine at the university next fall and will likely be the school’s youngest grad student ever, according to reports. “My IQ is 168,” Joe Petraro-Hyppolite, of East Rockaway, told CBS. “Whenever I tell people, it’s like, ‘Oh, Young Sheldon, Doogie Howser.’” By comparison, Albert Einstein’s IQ is believed to have been around 160, which...

WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Friday that all 50 states along with Puerto Rico and DC have opted into his “most favored nations’’ drug-price initiative to lower prescription costs for Medicaid recipients. The president strong-armed 26 major pharmaceutical companies into enacting the special drug pricing for federal agencies to match the rates paid in eight other high-income nations, including Canada, Germany, Japan and the UK. “They all succumbed to the dollar,” Trump said of the US states and others who have now joined what he called his “GENEROUS” initiative, passing along the cost saving to state-administered Medicaid programs covering roughly...

Explanation: The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, Messier 33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy. M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other's grand spiral star systems. As for the view from the Milky Way, this sharp telescopic...

0:00 Proximity of Stars 1:28 110 AU Range 5:00 HD 7977's Oort Cloud Disruption 10:08 Scholz's Star Stars that Brushed Past the Solar System | 12:44 Territory | 122K subscribers | 408,226 views | August 8, 2026

Researchers used Anthropic’s Claude technology to break into OpenAI’s ChatGPT systems, underlining the immediate dangers of AI even as regulators fret over its long-term risks. The effort, part of a bug-hunting program, was the latest in a series of cybersecurity breaches aided in large part by fast-developing AI technology, The Wall Street Journal noted. Axios cited business executives and ex-government officials voicing worry over AI-powered cyberattacks threatening critical infrastructure, while The Washington Post noted the Pentagon’s “antiquated computer networks” had resulted in an explosion of cybersecurity risks. As a new research paper put it, recent breaches have been the result...

Named Leopardus tilcayo, the new cat looks not unlike a leopard that shrank to the size of a house kitten. A new cat has been discovered in Bolivia, the first time in more than a century that scientists have confirmed a new feline species in the world. Named Leopardus tilcayo, after the word by which locals referred to it, the cat weighs roughly five pounds, is spotted with a slender body and has a light brown coat patterned with dark rosettes, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology. It looks not unlike a leopard that shrank...

Is it the peak of arrogance that we just assume we can make a rule, or a series of rules, that have any chance of constraining a superintelligence? The linked interview is thought provoking. https://youtu.be/QkpOFlj604s