Free Republic

Mount Ontake in Japan rises 3,067 meters above sea level — a windswept giant standing head and shoulders above densely forested hills. This ancient volcano is a popular trekking site. A trail traverses its ash- and boulder-strewn ridges. There are several huts and a shrine. On September 27, 2014, hikers took advantage of a blue sky and gentle wind. At 11:52 a.m., over a hundred of them stood on the summit, eating snacks and taking photos. Disaster struck with little warning. The windows and doors of a nearby hut rattled, vibrated by a low-frequency shock wave inaudible to humans. People...

Explanation: What would it look like to circle a black hole? If the black hole was surrounded by a swirling disk of glowing and accreting gas, then the great gravity of the black hole would deflect light emitted by the disk to make it look very unusual. The featured animated video gives a visualization. The video starts with you, the observer, looking toward the black hole from just above the plane of the accretion disk. Surrounding the central black hole is a thin circular image of the orbiting disk that marks the position of the photon sphere -- inside of...

Converting America’s medium- and heavy-duty trucks to electric vehicles (EV) in accordance with goals from the Biden administration would add massive costs to commercial trucking, according to a new analysis released Wednesday. The cost to switch over to light-duty EVs like a transit van would equate to a 5% increase in costs per year while switching over medium- and heavy-duty trucks would add up to 114% in costs per year to already struggling businesses, according to a report from transportation and logistics company Ryder Systems. The Biden administration, in an effort to facilitate a transition to EVs, finalized new emission...

Safety concerns around electric vehicles continue to mount with Australian fire and rescue services in New South Wales stating they might have to make a “tactical disengagement” of a trapped car accident victim if the battery is likely to explode. Australian journalist Jo Nova covered the story, which was first mentioned in the EV blog The Driven, and commented: “They say the first responders need more training as if this can be solved with a certificate, but the dark truth is they’re talking about training the firemen and the truck drivers to recognise when they have to abandon the rescue.”...

An ancient necropolis discovered near Naples, Italy was used to bury the dead about 2,800 years ago, around the time the city of Rome was founded about 100 miles (161 kilometers) to the northwest.The discovery gives researchers a rare insight into the Iron Age cultures that existed before the Roman domination of the region. The astonishing finds near the town of Amorosi, about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Naples, include 88 burials in "pit tombs" of both men and women.The men were typically buried with weapons, whereas the women were often buried with bronze ornaments, including bracelets, pendants, brooches...

It was unearthed by metal detectors Finn Ibsen and Lars Danielsen who were conducting survey work in a field outside Ringsted, a city on the island of Zealand, 50km southwest of Denmark's capital Copenhagen.The bronze fitting, known as a bracket, was given to Museum West Zealand... It's about 2.7 centimetres in diameter and made of a bronze alloy.The mini portrait dates to about 200 CE. This places it at roughly the same time as the Roman emperor Caracalla...Caracalla often "dressed with the same style and believed he was Alexander the Great reincarnated," Oldenburger adds. "Caracalla is also the only emperor...

Explanation: What happens when a black hole devours a star? Many details remain unknown, but observations are providing new clues. In 2014, a powerful explosion was recorded by the ground-based robotic telescopes of the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (Project ASAS-SN), with followed-up observations by instruments including NASA's Earth-orbiting Swift satellite. Computer modeling of these emissions fit a star being ripped apart by a distant supermassive black hole. The results of such a collision are portrayed in the featured artistic illustration. The black hole itself is a depicted as a tiny black dot in the center. As matter falls...

New Is Not Always Better: Why There’s Wisdom in TraditionImagine a scientist who decided to reject every scientific experiment or study that had come before him and would trust only scientific principles that he demonstrated with his own experiments.Naturally, he would completely handicap himself. In his arrogance, he’d accomplish very little with his science, since he’d be hard at work re-demonstrating every scientific discovery ever made, many of which build on each other. He could never hope to repeat what generations of scientists (many of them much smarter than he) had accomplished over hundreds of years. But if he wasn’t...

(Credit: Northrop Grumman/DARPA) The Manta Ray prototype uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) has successfully completed initial full-scale tests in an ocean environment, according to an update that appeared at the website of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Built by aerospace and defense technology giants Northrop Grumman, Manta Ray’s first ocean tests were carried out off the coast of Southern California between February and March 2024, featuring submerged operations that allowed each of the new UUV’s modes of control and propulsion to be engaged. An extra-large glider UUV designed to carry out long-range and long-duration missions in undersea environments, DARPA’s...

A new study of metal ore deep inside the moon is offering fresh evidence that Earth's natural satellite was formed by an ancient planet crashing into Earth long ago. This long-theorized interplanetary collision — which scientists believe occurred some 4.5 billion years ago — saw a Mars-sized planet named 'Theia' slice itself into hot lava fragments upon impact with the Earth. While some of Theia's planetary remains appear to be buried as dense and massive 'blobs' deep underneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean's tectonic plates, scientists said evidence for where the rest of Theia went after this crash had remained...

The solar project is destroying the Joshua trees…to save the Joshua Trees from “climate change.” There are a lot of essential lessons real environmentalists can learn from this post. I have offered post after post proving that the Earth’s climate has continually changed. Any temperature rise observed from reliable temperature stations is likely cyclic and part of the world’s warming after an intense period of glaciation. I have noted repeatedly that carbon dioxide is a life-essential gas in trace amounts, and data shows it has no significant role in global warming. I have highlighted that fossil fuels and nuclear energy...

The Biden administration is being ridiculed for hypocrisy as it touts 'energy savings' at federal buildings that are nearly empty of workers - and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm recently celebrated the Biden administration's efforts to reach net-zero emissions from federal buildings by establishing a rule outlawing the use of fossil fuels on-site. 'The Biden-Harris Administration is practicing what we preach,' Granholm said in a statement about the rule. 'Just as we are helping households and businesses across the nation save money by saving energy, we are doing the same in our own federal buildings.' But...

Q has reminded us repeatedly that together, we are strong. As the false "narrative" is destroyed and the divisive machinery put in place by the Deep State fails, the fact that patriotism has no skin color or political party is exposed for all to see. 3038 Mar 12, 2019 2:55:14 PM EDTQ !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 4fe510 No. 5643022>Decide for yourself (be free from outside opinion).>Decide for yourself (be objective in your conclusions).>Decide for yourself (be true in your own beliefs).>Decide for yourself (be open to following the facts).>Decide for yourself (be strong in defending your beliefs).>Decide for yourself (be resistant to...

Since the COVID scare worked so well for the left, could a climate lockdown be next? We all vividly recall the absurd COVID lockdowns. While they had no effect on the spread of illness, the imposed restrictions certainly proved that a large segment of the population was easily compelled to come to heel and submit to the government’s outrageous demands. Given the facts I provide in my new book, Climate Cult: Exposing and Defeating Their War on Life, Liberty, and Property, such a scheme should come as no surprise, especially given that the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats are priming...

This MAGA-loving bikini model is suiting up to support Donald Trump — trading the pool for the podium as she lends her ample assets to the Republican National Committee as a new spokeswoman. Elizabeth Pipko, a 28-year-old born-and-bred Manhattanite, told The Post she’s happy to trade her signature “New York uniform of dark black” for red, white and blue as she helps the rebranded RNC try to re-elect the former president in November. “The things he’s been through have been unreal. A lot of people look at what he’s up against every day and see his real character,” the Sports...

New so-called "FLiRT" COVID-19 variants have quickly become the most dominant in the United States, and authorities are monitoring their rise as summer approaches. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of the two members of the “FLiRT” group, KP.2, is now No. 1 among strains nationally, accounting for about 24.9 of all current infections. The JN.1 strain had been dominant in the US before the emergence of KP.2. Both variants are offshoots of the highly contagious Omicron strain. The No. 4 variant in the US, KP.1.1, which makes up 7.5 percent...

Explanation: This is how the Sun disappeared from the daytime sky last month. The featured time-lapse video was created from stills taken from Mountain View, Arkansas, USA on 2024 April 8. First, a small sliver of a normally spotted Sun went strangely dark. Within a few minutes, much of the background Sun was hidden behind the advancing foreground Moon. Within an hour, the only rays from the Sun passing the Moon appeared like a diamond ring. During totality, most of the surrounding sky went dark, making the bright pink prominences around the Sun's edge stand out, and making the amazing...

Archaeologists have unearthed a sprawling ancient Roman cemetery in southern France containing 1,430 graves and evidence of funerary banquets held in honor of deceased family members.Excavations of the cemetery, called the Robine necropolis due to its proximity to a canal of the same name, began in 2017 ahead of construction work in the city of Narbonne. The funerary complex was "remarkably well-preserved," having been buried beneath a 10-foot (3 meters) blanket of silt during flooding of the nearby Aude River, according to a translated statement.The graves and artifacts date to between the end of the first century B.C. and the...

Ahram Online reports that a fortified royal retreat has been uncovered at the Tel Hebwa site, which is located in North Sinai. Mohamed Ismail Khaled of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the mudbrick structure was likely used during the 18th Dynasty reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1479–1425 B.C.). The structure’s entrance, located on its northern side, led to a large hall with three columns, added Hisham Hussein of Sinai Antiquities. This room connected to a smaller hall with entrances flanked by columns. The thresholds of entrances to these rooms were also uncovered, along with the thresholds for small...

Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient Greek helmet from burial mounds in southern Croatia, shedding new light on the history of the Illyrians, a tribal people from the eastern Adriatic and the Balkans.Near the village of Zakotorac on the Peljesac peninsula, approximately 70 kilometres northwest of Dubrovnik, a team of archaeologists, led by Hrvoje Potrebica from the University of Zagreb, uncovered various artefacts, including lavish jewellery and a Greco-Illyrian helmet.The helmet is the second of its kind found in the area, following a similar discovery in 2020. Both items date back to the 5th or 6th century BC, a period when...