Free Republic

The James Webb Space Telescope peered 13.4 billion years into the past and found a black hole-sized conundrum. The oldest supermassive black hole astronomers have ever seen is gorging messily on the heart of its host galaxy, which may ultimately doom the black hole along with its prey. In the process, this ancient black hole — or at least as it looked 13.4 billion years ago — may offer important clues about how the universe’s first supermassive black holes formed and grew. University of Cambridge astrophysicist Roberto Maiolino and his colleagues recently used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) instruments...

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 5033, located about 40 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). The galaxy is similar in size to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, at just over 100,000 light-years across. (Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the center of this image is a monster young star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun that is blasting powerful ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds, carving out a fantasy landscape of ridges, cavities, and mountains of gas and dust. (NASA, ESA, and STScI)...

Scientists find that studies promoting an end to meat consumption in favor of vegetarian or insect consumption are fatally flawed and destructive to human health. Instead, meat has always been a staple of the human diet and societies that have little access to meat suffer huge health issues. Anti-meat rhetoric is nothing more than globalist propaganda to degrade the human population on planet earth. ⁃ Technocracy News Editor

Washington (AFP) – Bottled water is up to a hundred times worse than previously thought when it comes to the number of tiny plastic bits it contains, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said Monday. Using a recently invented technique, scientists counted on average 240,000 detectable fragments of plastic per liter of water in popular brands -- between 10-100 times higher than prior estimates -- raising potential health concerns that require further study. "If people are concerned about nanoplastics in bottled water, it's reasonable to consider alternatives like tap water," Beizhan Yan, an associate...

Nearly 80 years ago, a ship that had been dedicated to "sin" was destroyed by a violent storm. The anchor of the SS Monte Carlo lost its hold and the vessel ended up lying ruined on a beach near Coronado Shores, California. A mess of slot machines, furniture and whiskey bottles was thrown from the ship and stunned beachgoers happily helped themselves to the alcohol and gambling equipment. Only two caretakers were on board at the time and were both rescued. Nobody stepped forward to claim ownership of the ship, which had hosted some outrageous parties in international waters, because...

In the same way that scientists have studied Antarctica for what insights could prove valuable for a Mars mission, the Whale-SETI group said its studies with humpback whales can help them develop “intelligence filters” used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A team that includes a UC Davis professor and a scientist with SETI, the organization that searches the cosmos for signs of alien intelligence, has cited a breakthrough here on Earth – a 20-minute “conversation” with a humpback whale in the wild. The Templeton Whale-SETI group said its findings on what it calls “non-human intelligence communication” could help in...

When you think of a fast food chain, the usual suspects come to mind: McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, KFC, Burger King. In recent years, the restaurant industry has changed to referring to fast food places as quick-service restaurants (QSR), and the new-ish hybrid of fast food and casual-dining restaurants (like Applebee's) is called fast casual. Where the definitions blur is with regional fast food chains, meaning a QSR that usually started out in a particular state as a mom-and-pop shop and gained a devoted following thus enabling them to grow. Sometimes it's a few stores that don't cross state lines. Other times,...

he veteran mechanic Scotty Kilmer has warned motorists thinking of buying an electric car to be careful not to damage the battery or face expensive repair bills. The popular YouTuber has worked on cars for over 55 years, and regularly posts videos helping viewers buy the right car for them and avoid issues. In one of his latest videos, Scotty warns that a lot of car insurance companies are scrapping electric vehicles with damaged batteries. He advised: "Here's yet another reason not to buy an electric car, because many insurance companies are now totalling electric cars with even minor damage...

It was basically 1984 every year. It was basically 1984 every year. 1. Running errands with your parents — or going to your sibling's events — was boring AF because you had no cell phone or Game Boy to pass the time with.

DIY (Do It Yourself): Furnace Air Conditioning Saving Project. I've moved into a new home in a retirement community and don't want big bills to replace my furnace A/C down the line. I also don't like the idea that my energy bills may go up significantly with the global climate change policies that many are embracing. What can I do? DIY (easy): Powered Furnace Filter - $149 Amazon. Improves air flow by 30% (lower heat/cooling bills), captures much finer/more particulate matter saving the furnace A/C down the road. DIY (Moderate): Nest 3rd Generation or equivalent Wi-Fi Thermostat - $206 Amazon....

1. Spam Calls Spam calls may see a decline as baby boomers dwindle. People have become more tech-savvy and have access to advanced call-blocking and filtering technologies. Additionally, regulatory efforts and increased awareness are aimed at reducing spam calls, making it less likely for future generations to experience the same level of nuisance and intrusion.

Computer Chronicles was a show on PBS back in the 1980s. This episode features, among others, an interview of Gary Kildall, the inventor of CP/M, an 8-bit operating system which preceded QDOS and MS-DOS, both of which were based on CP/M. Kildall was the founder of Digital Research Inc. (DRI).

A boatful of illegal migrants invaded the elite playground of Malibu, California, where the average home sells for a jaw-dropping price of $3.4 million. ABC7.com reported the landing, which delivered roughly 25 illegal migrants into California: MALIBU, Calif. (KABC) — Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are investigating a panga boat that sunk off the Malibu coast on Wednesday. The U.S. Coast Guard got a call around 7:30 a.m. regarding the 25-foot-long vessel, which is often a type of boat used by human and drug smugglers. Authorities found a debris field with life jackets and gas cans, but...

Only a small share of millionaires say they feel wealthy,.. Persistent inflation has taken a toll on most Americans’ financial security, making it harder to feel well off.. What does it take to be rich? “The short answer is more... Feeling “rich” is increasingly elusive. Even among millionaires, only 8% would characterize themselves as wealthy these days. Roughly 60% of investors with $1 million or more of investable assets said they are more likely upper middle class, ... Even doctors, lawyers and other highly paid professionals — also referred to as the “regular rich” — who benefit from stable jobs,...

Antiviral drugs are generally considered to be a 20th century invention. But recent research has uncovered an unexpected facet to your immune system: It can synthesize its own antiviral molecules in response to viral infections. My laboratory studies a protein that makes these natural antiviral molecules. Far from a modern human invention, nature evolved cells to make their own “drugs” as the earliest defense against viruses. How antivirals work Viruses have no independent life cycle – they are completely dependent on the cells they infect to supply all the chemical building blocks needed to replicate themselves. Once inside a cell,...

As The Post's Liz Sly recently noted, the war in Syria has become a tangled web of conflict dominated by "al Qaeda veterans, hardened Iraqi insurgents, Arab jihadist ideologues and Western volunteers." On the surface, those competing actors are fueled by an overlapping mixture of ideologies and political agendas. Just below it, experts suspect, they're powered by something else: Captagon. A tiny, highly addictive pill produced in Syria and widely available across the Middle East, its illegal sale funnels hundreds of millions of dollars back into the war torn country's black market economy each year, likely giving militias access to...

A Starbucks barista’s secret note on a cup to a young female customer offering to “intervene” after a man started talking to her has generated heated debate online. Texas woman Brandy Selim Roberson first shared the story in a viral Facebook post last year. She praised the employee for stepping in when her 18-year-old daughter was approached by a man she didn’t know while studying by herself at a Corpus Christi location. The message on the cup read, “Are you okay? Do you want us to intervene? If you do, take the lid off the cup.” SNIP Author Rachel Wilson...

WiFi is electromagnetic waves in the 2.4 and 5 GHz ranges. It’s the same thing as the light you see, only it can penetrate walls due to its much longer wavelength. Just like light (and echolocation) these waves also reflect off various surfaces and, when reconstructed properly, can be used to create an image.

This is a shipping container. It’s used to transport large amounts of goods on boats and on trains. By itself, it’s pretty boring. But with a little imagination, the shipping container becomes a cheap, reliable building block that can be used to build chic little getaway homes and castles of majesty alike!

On a quiet cul de sac in suburban Los Angeles, the installation of Martin Guevara and Grace Kuo's prefab accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, caused quite a stir in the neighborhood. "It was like a block party," said Guevara, 68. "All of our neighbors came out to watch." Guevara was referring to a prefab ADU designed and built by Villa Homes; the 850-square-foot home was craned over the couple's existing home and placed into position in their backyard in the South Bay last year. "It was in two halves," said his daughter Melanie Guevara, 33, who lives in the ADU...