Free Republic

Rich Shelton loves airplanes and San Francisco, which shows in all his beautiful photos. He was able to take this incredible image of a Blue Angels' F/A-18 zooming through the Golden Gate bridge at Fleet Week in San Francisco.

In February 2014, while promoting his World War Two film, The Monuments Men, Hollywood A-List actor George Clooney declared that Britain should send the Elgin Marbles back to Greece. Despite claiming they came from the Pantheon in Rome rather than the Parthenon in Athens (and also that they had been taken by Lord "Eljin"), he felt that returning them was now appropriate. This was fiercely controversial territory. However, once the furore had died down, most people wrote it off as a kooky PR stunt. Until last week, when it emerged that George Clooney’s new wife, Amal Clooney, a lawyer specialising...

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled a 2,000-year-old commemorative stone inscription dedicated to Roman Emperor Hadrian, which researchers say sheds light on the Jewish revolt against the ancient empire.

Has anyone purchased any of McNaughton's art work? If so, was it lithograph or giclee? Were you satisfied?

Another of the old Minolta classics to play with. It's a constant f4.5, highly rated for IQ and really compact. This may just be my new favorite walkaround lens.

Piotr Naskrecki was taking a nighttime walk in a rainforest in Guyana, when he heard rustling as if something were creeping underfoot. When he turned on his flashlight, he expected to see a small mammal, such as a possum or a rat. "When I turned on the light, I couldn't quite understand what I was seeing," said Naskrecki, an entomologist and photographer at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. A moment later, he realized he was looking not at a brown, furry mammal, but an enormous, puppy-size spider... (click image to enlarge)

Another week is almost behind us, but not before we sneak in one last round of nifty paid iPhone and iPad apps that are currently on sale for free. Yesterday’s list brought us seven solid apps worth a combined $35 (hurry and you can still download a few of them for free), and now we have another seven apps to share with you that normally would cost you another $35 all together, but right now every single one of them can be had for free.

Hidden for more than 90 years beneath the rolling sand dunes of Guadalupe, California, an enormous, plaster sphinx from the 1923 blockbuster movie "The Ten Commandments" has been rediscovered and is now above ground. The public will be able to see the sphinx on display as early as next year, once it has been reconstructed a necessity since it became weather-beaten during its stint beneath the sand, said Doug Jenzen, the executive director of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center, who oversaw the recent excavation.

Josh Sundquist said, “When life hands you lemons, make awesome Halloween costumes.” That’s just what these folks did, using a physical disability to take cosplay and Halloween costumes to a new level.

“Two images, one with a short exposure time, one with a longer one, were combined to capture the whole dynamic range of the scene, from the bright parts of the solar arrays to the dark comet and the dark insulation cladding the Rosetta spacecraft,” the European Space Agency stated. It’s quite the zoom-in after the last selfie that Philae produced for the public in September, which was taken from 31 miles (50 kilometers) away. The spacecraft is expected to make the first touchdown ever on a comet next month. Rosetta, meanwhile, will keep following 67P as it gets closest to...

What is a Lady Rizo show all about?

Archaeologists digging through a vast ancient tomb in Amphipolis in northern Greece have uncovered a floor mosaic that covers the whole area of a room seen as the antechamber to the main burial ground. The mosaic, 3 meters (10 feet) long and 4.5 meters (15 feet) wide, depicts a horseman with a laurel wreath driving a chariot drawn by two horses and preceded by the god Hermes. According to a Culture Ministry announcement on Sunday, Hermes is depicted here as the conductor of souls to the afterlife. The mosaic is made up of pebbles in many colors: white, black, gray,...

WASHINGTON – Ancient cave drawings in Indonesia are as old as famous prehistoric art in Europe, according to a new study that shows our ancestors were drawing all over the world 40,000 years ago. And it hints at an even earlier dawn of creativity in modern humans, going back to Africa, than scientists had thought. Archaeologists calculated that a dozen stencils of hands in mulberry red and two detailed drawings of an animal described as a "pig-deer" are between 35,000 to 40,000 years old, based on levels of decay of the element uranium. That puts the art found in Sulawesi,...

Spectacular footage of F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets as they takeoff and land aboard an aircraft carrier. Impressive footage of the aircraft as they fly at low levels above the water, conduct banking and rolling maneuvers at high speed, and make high speed passes over the carrier in tandem formation and Bombing in Syria. Filmed from the cockpit and pilot point-of-view. Film Credits: Lt. Ian Schmidt, Lt. J.G. Michael Hatfield, Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jared King

Just a link. http://pulptastic.com/thought-fashion-sense-bad-discovered-god-help-us/ Yes, the images are "Safe for Work" .. Just not recommended for viewing after a meal.

Cintas has released the names and locations of the top 10 public potties for its 13th annual America's Best Restroom contest and the excitement over who will be named winner is palpable. “We’ve assembled an engaging field of unique public restrooms and expect a lot of spirited competition,” said John Engel, Cintas senior marketing manager in a news release. On the list of best public facilities is the Trail Restroom in Austin, Texas, which was designed by Miró Rivera Architects in partnership with the city of Austin. Located on the Ann and Roy Butler Hike–and–Bike Trail at Lady Bird Lake,...

There’s more to this country than just knowing your capitals!

Cats possess many odd quirks and habits, but one of their most endearing qualities is their love of windows. It seems like once they find a good window perch, they won't leave for hours! Why is that?   The feline affinity for windows can be attributed to many factors. Cats are curious observers, and let's face it, the strange outside world is probably a lot more interesting than the interior of a house. After all, why would a cat want to observe his or her human sitting around doing absolutely nothing (e.g. melting into a couch and gluing their eyes...

Apparently some of the young, in addition to not reading, can’t even be bothered to watch a classic film, even when they purport to have an interest in films. John Nolte at Breitbart gives us the grim details: Monday we learned that a 25 year-old taking graduate-level journalism classes at New York University had no idea what an editorial was. Today we learn that “most” of the students taking a film class at Georgetown University have never seen “Gone with the Wind.” [W]hen I asked 13 students in a Georgetown University film class if they’d seen it, most either hadn’t...

Inspired perhaps by Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, scientists have recently developed several ways—some simple and some involving new technologies—to hide objects from view. The latest effort, developed at the University of Rochester, not only overcomes some of the limitations of previous devices, but it uses inexpensive, readily available materials in a novel configuration. "There've been many high tech approaches to cloaking and the basic idea behind these is to take light and have it pass around something as if it isn't there, often using high-tech or exotic materials," said John Howell, a professor of physics at the University of Rochester....