Free Republic

Gregory Washington, George Mason’s first Black president, runs a university that prizes diversity. That has made him a target of the Trump administration.Gregory N. Washington, the first Black president of George Mason University, remembers the tumult on campus as he began his new job in 2020.It was the era of Black Lives Matter, and students were protesting over the man the school is named after, a complicated Virginia historical figure and slaveholder. Demonstrators were demanding that a statue of Mason on campus be torn down, Dr. Washington said.Five years later, George Mason’s statue remains intact, and politics are once again...

Florida is host to a variety of invasive species, largely thanks to its history in the exotic pet trade. However, there’s one amphibian you may want to keep an eye out for, as it could prove dangerous. That’s the cane toad — also dubbed the “Bufo” toad — which was originally brought to Florida in the 1930s as part of a pest control program, according to the UF/IFAS. At the time, cane toads were used to eat beetles threatening sugar cane crops in the state, though the initial population didn’t survive this attempt. Instead, around 100 of these toads were...

Crafting a resume can be a stressful affair, and job seekers often rack their brains thinking of ways to stand out from other candidates. One TikToker, who goes by the handle Justcreatingmything, decided that the best way to apply for a job at F&B company BreadTalk would be to do a little arts and crafts. In a video uploaded last Monday (Sept 1), he showed how he had made a 'sponge cake' as his application for the bakery. "Everyone sends resumes... I sent BreadTalk a cake," he said in the caption. To create the 'sponge cake', he took a yellow...

Charlie Sheen is being accused of sodomizing a then 13-year-old Corey Haim on the set of the movie 'Lucas.' According to the National Enquirer, a now deceased Haim had told others about how he was allegedly raped as a minor by Sheen, who was 19 at the time, while filming the 1986 movie, including former actor, Dominick Brascia, who went on the record about what he says Haim told him. 'Haim told me he had sex with Sheen when they filmed 'Lucas,' Brascia, told the Enquirer. 'He told me they smoked pot and had sex. He said they had anal...

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Harvard Scientist Avi Loeb are calling for NASA to monitor the Manhattan-sized interstellar object 3I/ATLAS as it passes the sun on Halloween Eve to ensure it does not drop off “mini probes” that could invade Earth. Luna (R-Fla.) and the Ivy league astrophysicist appeared together on a podcast and called for both the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Jupiter’s Juno probe to adjust their current courses and monitor the object that NASA has deemed a comet. “If we are visited by a technological object like 3I/ATLAS — it could either visit us or release some mini-probes...

Germany’s beer market is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by changing consumer preferences and the evolving tastes of younger generations. While traditional beer consumption is declining, the demand for alcohol-free alternatives has surged, signalling a shift in the country’s long-standing beer culture. In the first half of 2025, German beer sales fell by 6.3%, amounting to a reduction of around 262 million litres and bringing total consumption to roughly 3.9 billion litres. This represents the steepest decline in the domestic beer market since 1993, excluding non-alcoholic products. Economic pressures, rising prices, and shifts in social habits, particularly among younger consumers,...

I>She credited Carl Sagan with inspiring her beliefs. Alex OchoEmma Stone says she believes in aliens. The Oscar-winning actress made the confession on Thursday (Aug. 28) when she and director Yorgos Lanthimos appeared at the press conference for their new film Bugonia during the 2025 Venice International Film Festival. When asked by a reporter whether she believes in a “higher intelligence looking upon us,” Stone gave a surprising take on the matter. “I don't know about looking down on us,” Stone said at the one-hour, 24-minute mark of the video linked here. “One of my favorite people that has ever...

A mysterious manuscript hidden for centuries in Shakespeare’s childhood home has just been reattributed—and it wasn’t written by who everyone thought. =============================================================== Portrait Of William Shakespeare. Credit: Britannica | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel A centuries-old manuscript once thought to be the work of William Shakespeare’s father has been reattributed to his sister, Joan Shakespeare Hart, in a new peer-reviewed study published in Shakespeare Quarterly. The findings challenge longstanding beliefs about the Shakespeare family’s religious affiliations and offer a rare glimpse into the intellectual life of a woman previously all but erased from history. The research, led by Dr....

Charlie Sheen is done censoring his truth. The former “Two and a Half Men” star, 60, revealed he’s had sex with men, which began when he started smoking crack. “I flipped the menu over,” Sheen reveals in his upcoming Netflix documentary, “aka Charlie Sheen,” out on Sept. 10, about his same-sex bedroom experience. The actor revealed he’s done hiding his sexual encounters with men. Sheen revealed that his first encounter happened while he was using heavy narcotics, like crack, and he struggled to come to terms with his actions. These days, he’s owning it.

Even now, after all the progress that has been rammed down our throats, men who identify as women face the oppression of being “misgendered” — i.e., of being regarded as what they objectively are: (video on link, try not to laugh) They still expect us to feel sorry for them. That is the main weapon they wield against us to facilitate their relentless bullying.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: * Fossilized footprints in Saudi Arabia show human traffic on the cusp of a subsequent ice age. * Like carbon dating, scientists use isotopes and context clues to calculate the approximate age of fossils. * These human prints were surrounded by animals but not hunted animals, indicating humans were just thirsty. ======================================================================== A uniquely preserved prehistoric mudhole could hold the oldest-ever human footprints on the Arabian Peninsula, scientists say. The seven footprints, found amidst a clutter of hundreds of prehistoric animal prints, are estimated to be 115,000 years old. Many fossil...

Forget your TikTok influencers and Ibiza super-clubs. Sweden’s hottest DJ is an 81-year-old great-grandmother who refuses to slow down the beat. Madelein Mansson, better known to her glitter-soaked fans as DJ Gloria, has become the unlikely star of Stockholm’s nightlife scene. She will not even spin a record unless you are over 50. Sweden’s nightlife revolution: proving the party doesn’t stop at 50 Sweden has long been famous for exporting pop powerhouses such as ABBA, Avicii and Zara Larsson, but DJ Gloria is proof that the nation’s music scene is not just a young person’s game. In fact, Stockholm’s ageing...

One of the writers of 2022’s Lightyear is doubling down on the decision to put a lesbian kiss in the Disney-Pixar animated film amid conflicting reports about whether or not rap icon Snoop Dogg apologized for his comments critical of LGBT content in children’s media. Lightyear, a failed Toy Story spinoff purporting to present the “real” movie on which Tim Allen’s iconic Buzz Lightyear was based (voiced in the 2022 film by Chris Evans), drew flak from family groups for featuring an on-screen kiss between two female “married” characters. The display of LGBT “representation” was largely relegated to just one...

In July 2025, the U.S. unemployment rate was at 4.2% — which, historically speaking, is rather low. But that doesn’t mean that all job seekers are thriving.An NBC News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that the unemployment rate among men ages 23 to 30 with a bachelor's degree has reached 6%. By comparison, the unemployment rate among women with a bachelor's degree in that same age range is 3.5%.During the pandemic, the term “she-cession” was created to illustrate just how unfavorable the economy was for working women at the time. Now, with many young men struggling to find...

Facetotectans (aka y-larvae) have been a mystery since their discovery in the 1800s. Scientists are unsure of what they grow up to become, but we now know where these crustaceans fit in the tree of life. This image shows a cypris larvae, or y-cyprid. Credit: Niklas Dreyer Y-larvae, mysterious crustaceans related to barnacles, may be parasitic and are key to understanding barnacle evolution. When most people think of barnacles, they imagine shell-like organisms clinging to boats, docks, or even whales. Yet some barnacles go far beyond passive attachment — they can actually invade and take over their hosts. “Instead of...

A shooting game between two friends in Texas has taken a tragic turn, with one dead and the other arrested for his murder. Sean O'Donnell, 37, and Aaron Prout, 34, were taking turns shooting at each other with a rifle while wearing a kevlar helmet inside a Houston home on August 17. The game unfolded at a home on Pennington Hills Drive in the northern outskirts of the city, but it went horribly wrong when O'Donnell allegedly fatally shot Prout, an English military veteran. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said deputies were called to the home and 'found an adult...

Six weeks after Ozzy Osbourne's death, Roger Waters has criticized the heavy metal legend for bringing "hundreds of years" of "idiocy and nonsense" into the culture, prompting an angry reply from Osbourne's son Jack. While speaking to the Independent Ink podcast in the video embedded below, the Pink Floyd legend spoke about how pop culture figures can distract people from important political issues. While roleplaying as an unspecified person of power, he imagined how the nefarious process might work: "How can we push this to one side? I know how to do it! We'll do it with Taylor Swift or...

Oh hey, that thing that never happens happened again. CANADA: A trans-identified male has been arrested after breaking into a family's home and sexually assaulting their toddler.Daniel "Dani" Senecal, who uses "she/her" pronouns, was recently released early from prison for a previous child sex attack.https://t.co/YoeG9gyQlI— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) September 2, 2025On Sunday, August 31, police and paramedics were called to a home near Crowland Avenue and York Street in Welland for a medical assistance call involving a young child. When emergency first responders arrived, they discovered the front door of the home showed signs of being forced open and the child...

The ability to recall foundational, personal life events is a function of autobiographical memory, but these memories are often known to fade and change over time. Childhood experiences become less distinct, emotional memories fade in strength, and many details are forgotten. In rare cases, however, some individuals can recall specific names, dates, and events with unusual accuracy and emotional detail. This rare ability, known as hyperthymesia or autobiographical hypermnesia, enables individuals to recall a large number of life events in exceptional detail. A new case study from the Paris Brain Institute highlights the complexity of this condition. A Different Kind...

A new Berklee-sponsored study’s findings are ... not good.Researcher Lara Pellegrinelli and students at The New School compiled data from more than 200 jazz education programs for the 2021-22 academic year. The study, which was published by the Berklee College of Music earlier this week, measures the imbalance of female-identified employment in higher education. The full report is available online. The report — “Jazz Counts: Measuring the Jazz Faculty Gender Gap in Higher Education” — shows that out of more than 3,000 academic and staff positions, 15 percent were held by female-identified educators. That number decreased to eight percent...