Free Republic

Camp Mystic has announced its plan to reopen next summer with new safety measures after more than two dozen people were killed in floods at the all-girls Texas summer camp earlier this year. Twenty-seven children and camp counselors died after slow-moving thunderstorms in Kerr County caused the Guadalupe River to flood. In a message to parents issued Tuesday, the camp said it is preparing for next summer's event at their newer Cypress Lake location, which is "completely independent from the older Guadalupe River camp…” The camp said it has taken steps to enhance security at the location, including installing over...

Hoo boy. Sometimes, you might do something so embarrassing, so humiliating, that you want to hide in the closet. The prestigious science journal Nature may be thinking about doing that right about now, because on Wednesday, they officially retracted an influential 2024 climate report that predicted gloom and doom, death and misery, and impending economic catastrophe. As is the case with so much of the leftist climate narrative, their wild claims were quite simply unproven:In April 2024, the prestigious journal Nature released a study finding that climate change would cause far more economic damage by the end of the century...

If that snowstorm felt unusual for this time of the year, it was. Saturday was the snowiest November day ever recorded in Chicago, according to the National Weather Service. The storm dumped over 8 inches of snow on parts of the city. O’Hare International Airport got 8.4 inches as of Sunday morning, and Midway had 6 inches, forecasters said. But the storm isn’t over yet. The area’s winter weather advisory was extended from 6 a.m. to noon Sunday. “A band of snowfall is moving across Chicago, bringing a quick coating of snow again,” Weather Service meteorologist Zachary Yak said. “We...

There are sunken treasures, and then there is the legendary shipwreck of the San Jose. Considered by many to be the ‘Holy Grail’ of shipwrecks, we have been reporting on the explorations of the massive treasure since November 2023: The San Jose Galleon, the ‘Biggest Sunken Treasure in History’, Hasn’t Been Salvaged Yet – But It’s Already Causing Dispute in Court. The remains of the Spanish galleon San José, estimated to be worth nearly $20 billion, has been located off the coast of Colombia. pic.twitter.com/Tsb02Cgu87— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) December 16, 2023This week, it was reported that Colombian scientists have recovered...

Scientists say they have captured the first direct acoustic evidence of lightning on Mars — tiny crackling electrical discharges triggered by swirling dust devils and storms, picked up by a microphone on NASA’s Perseverance rover. A French-led team reported in the journal Nature that it found 55 episodes of what it calls “mini lightning” — brief, static-like sparks inches long — hidden in 28 hours of rover audio recorded over nearly four Earth years. The faint pops and crackles, barely audible amid howling wind and dust grains pinging the microphone, occurred almost exclusively during the Red Planet’s dustiest, windiest days....

A strong winter storm is set to hit parts of the US Midwest and Great Lakes region this weekend, threatening flight delays and road safety for millions after the holiday. Winter Storm Watches are now in effect across Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota, impacting around 50 million Americans. Forecasters warned of potentially heavy snowfall, with accumulations of 6–12 inches or more possible in many areas, especially north of Interstate 70 and along and south of Interstate 90. The heaviest snow is currently expected across central and northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, southern and eastern Wisconsin,...

The Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia, located about 500 miles from the capital city of Addis Ababa, erupted on Sunday for the first time in about 12,000 years. The eruption was not too devastating as such events go, but it did release an enormous plume of ash, which rode the subtropical jet stream and quickly expanded to cover parts of Yemen, Oman, India, and Pakistan. Air India announced it canceled at least 11 flights on Tuesday due to concerns over the cloud. “The affected altitude is between 8.5 kilometers (5.2 miles) and 15 kilometers above the sea level,” said Mrutyunjay...

You may be better off traveling throughout the 'ocean state' via boat. (Credit: Mark F Lotterhand on Shutterstock) ============================================================================ In A Nutshell * Rhode Island has the worst roads in America, with 37.2% of major roads in poor condition and nearly 14% of bridges deteriorating * Washington state leads the nation in pothole complaints at 61.67 per capita, about 60% higher than Michigan’s rate * High spending doesn’t guarantee results: Pennsylvania spends $820 per capita on maintenance but still has 17.3% of roads in poor condition * Poor roads cost drivers hundreds of dollars annually through tire wear, suspension damage,...

Experts warn drought and water mismanagement have made the city's development unsustainable Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has suggested his country's capital will need to be moved from Tehran due to ecological unsustainability in the city. Speaking at a meeting in Qazvin, the president warned that relocating the capital would become unavoidable given the overcrowding and water shortages in the city of 9.7 million. His government has proposed the underdeveloped Makran region in southeastern Iran as a possible new location. "When we proposed relocating the capital, we lacked the budget - otherwise it might have happened," Pezeshkian told officials. "People said...

A new “grass to gas” agricultural biomethane plant is set to provide enough energy to heat two pharmaceutical manufacturing sites by the end of next year. The state-of-the-art plant is being launched by Carbon AMS in Duleek in County Meath today. The plant is a partnership between the anaerobic digestion company, local farmers and biopharmaceutical company Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease. Carbon AMS is focused on the production of biomethane in Ireland by converting “grass to gas” through anaerobic digestion. When operational, the plant will cover 100% of the heating needs of Alexion’s two manufacturing sites in Dublin and Athlone by...

A major highlight of Thanksgiving is the menu, but the big meal can come with a lot of wasted food. Experts say a pinch of extra planning can ensure more gets eaten. Roughly 320 million pounds (145 million kilograms) of food will be wasted at Thanksgiving this year, according to ReFED, a nonprofit that tracks food waste. ReFED says that’s largely because people prepare more food than is needed for the meal and then don’t finish the leftovers. “That is essentially like five meals each for all of the food insecure people in the U.S.,” said Yvette Cabrera, food waste...

This fundraiser is for the birds. Power-hungry “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) cooked up a new way to have her cake and eat it too this Thanksgiving – by tying her annual turkey giveaway to her massive reelection campaign enterprise. And critics are crying fowl. “Thanksgiving is two weeks away,” the self-described “Bronx girl” wrote in an email pitch last week. “Will you chip in $5 or anything you can today to help us bring the joy of the holiday season into homes around NYC this year?” But clicking on the contribution link sends people directly to a campaign...

Rivers are shrinking, lakes are disappearing, and entire nations are facing the risk of mass migration due to extreme drought. Iran, Iraq, Syria, Türkiye, Jordan, and Yemen are all struggling with the worst water crisis in modern history. Yet one country stands almost completely immune: Israel. In this video, we explore how Israel turned seawater into its main source of drinking water, how it recycles nearly 94% of wastewater, and how it created one of the most efficient agricultural systems in the world—right in the middle of the desert. Why Israel Never Runs Out of Water? The Desert Nation That...

Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms over the Southern California region caused flooding and dangerous conditions on Friday. The National Weather Service said a double-barreled low-pressure system is over the region. Rainfall rates across the southern part of Los Angeles and Orange counties are approaching an inch per hour. A CBS LA Next Weather Alert will remain in effect through the rest of the day for widespread rain and the potential for dangerous driving conditions. The alert is meant to warn communities about a weather event that may disrupt daily routines. An NWS flash flood warning is in effect for parts of...

The ice giant Uranus is pictured shining against the blackness of space. Its blue surface is marked by lighter clouds and an equatorial band, while a large pale cloud hovers over its polar region. A Hubble Space Telescope view of Uranus captured in February 2019 (Image credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. Wong and A. Hsu (University of California, Berkeley)) ============================================================= November is the best month of 2025 to catch a glimpse of the distant ice giant Uranus as it shines at opposition, though you'll still need a telescope if you hope to...

A new breakthrough shows that some of biology’s most fragile molecules can persist far deeper into the past than scientists ever imagined. By decoding ancient gene activity from Ice Age remains, researchers have opened a window into the real-time biology of long-extinct animals. Credit: Shutterstock =========================================================================== For the first time, researchers have uncovered Ice Age RNA preserved within permafrost mammoth tissue, offering a rare glimpse into real-time gene activity from tens of millennia ago. Researchers at Stockholm University have, for the first time ever, isolated and sequenced RNA molecules from woolly mammoths that lived during the Ice Age. The team...

Washington's Mount Rainier has suddenly awoken and is buzzing with almost nonstop activity for days, stoking fears that an eruption could come soon. This towering stratovolcano looms over more than 3.3 million people across the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, threatening to cripple entire communities with ashfall, flooding, and catastrophic mudflows if it erupts. Since Saturday, Mount Rainier has been experiencing constant vibrations beneath the surface, thousands of tiny tremors blending into one another. The constant seismic rumblings were detected by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), where seismometers on Mount Rainier have recorded three straight days of nearly nonstop, high-energy seismic...

An artist’s impression of a large red star releasing a bright, explosive burst of light. Swirling red and orange patterns surround the star, suggesting intense activity. In the background, a smaller blue planet appears with a faint, wispy trail extending away from it, indicating its atmosphere being blown off. The scene is set against a dark space backdrop dotted with stars. Credit: Olena Shmahalo/Callingham et al. Astronomers have, for the first time, confirmed a colossal coronal mass ejection from a distant star, a blast so powerful it could strip the atmosphere from any nearby planet. Astronomers using the European Space...

Skepticism about climate change has resurfaced, as some experts claim the exact causes of global warming remain unclear and that the policies addressing it are motivated more by money than by science. Richard Lindzen, Professor Emeritus of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has spent decades studying atmospheric science. He told the Daily Mail that the public hysteria surrounding global warming isn't actually based on realistic data. Climate change is the term used to describe Earth's warming, mainly as a result of human activity, such as burning coal, oil and gas. Scientists and climate activists have warned that...

The National Weather Service released updated rain totals on Sunday morning after a major atmospheric river storm drenched Southern California this weekend, and the storm is not over just yet. NWS officials’ most recent data was put out just after 8 a.m. Sunday. As of that time, it was still raining in much of SoCal, meaning that rainfall rates will likely rise as the day goes on.