Free Republic

Nearly 2 million Muslims from across the globe have converged on Saudi Arabia for the annual five-day Hajj. Iran is boycotting this year's Hajj, citing Saudi “incompetence” and a poor response by health and safety officials. Masses of Iranian Shi'ites have instead converged on the holy Iraqi city of Karbala for an alternative pilgrimage. During last year’s pilgrimage, several hundred Iranians were among at least 2,000 people crushed to death in a stampede in Mecca. This is not the first time Iran has boycotted the Hajj, but it comes at a time when tensions with rival Saudi Arabia are at...

Orthocarbonic acid – a name which was inspired from the fact that the molecule’s appearance resembles a swastika. As chemical compounds go, it is quite exotic, and chemists are still not sure how to create it under laboratory conditions. But it just so happens that this acid could exist in the interiors of planets like Uranus and Neptune. According to a recent study from a team of Russian chemists, the conditions inside Uranus and Neptune could be ideal for creating exotic molecular and polymeric compounds, and keeping them under stable conditions. The study was produced by researchers from the Moscow...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx hi tech robotic explorer blasted off this evening in spectacular fashion from the Florida Space Coast on a ground breaking 7 year sampling trek to Asteroid Bennu and back to gather grains of 4.5 billion year old alien sand that could potentially reveal significant answers to the origins of life on Earth. The Earth departure for NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft began with an on time engine ignition from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket shortly before a crystal...

Using a network of hacked smartphones, attackers could overwhelm a whole state's 911 system with endless calls, shutting out a huge portion of legitimate callers. The approach, known as a denial of service attack, "is a significant threat to the availability of 911 service," wrote researchers Mordechai Guri, Yisroel Mirsky and Yuval Elovici in the paper. The researchers looked at the state of North Carolina and created a model based on its 911 system. In the US, emergency response systems are run at the state or local level. If hackers compromised 6,000 smartphones with malicious software, they could make enough...

Joseph and Lisa Brown, better known as Jazz and Jojo, have made clowning a major part of their livelihood. "We want to make kids laugh and adults laugh and ease worries away for the day or the hour that we're there or the two hours that we're there," said Lisa. She’s been a professional clown for 14 years. Joseph, a clown school graduate, is in his 25th year as a clown. "That shows you how much that I have put into it and have enjoyed the career that I've had being Jojo the clown," said Joseph. For the Forsyth County...

Musk tweeted about the loss of the Falcon 9 hours after the incident, noting that the explosion appeared to originate "around upper-stage oxygen tank" but the cause was "still unknown." SpaceX provided more updates about the incident on Sept. 2. Then, Musk's account went quiet until about 12:30 a.m. EDT this morning (0030 GMT), when he began tweeting actively about the explosion. "Still working on the Falcon fireball investigation. Turning out to be the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had in 14 years," Musk wrote. "Important to note that this happened during a routine filling operation. Engines...

When Bethesda showed off Fallout 4 at E3 2015, the biggest surprise of all was that user-created mods would be coming to both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for the very first time. It took some time, but Bethesda was finally able to bring mods to Xbox One in May — just a month after their were made available on PC. ... “After months of discussion with Sony, we regret to say that while we have long been ready to offer mod support on PlayStation 4, Sony has informed us they will not approve user mods the way they should...

“We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis," the post continued. "The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours, the difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it’s gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that." Police were alerted to the vehicle when an officer...

”I mean to each his own, something I wouldn’t do,” O’Neal said on Fox and Friends on Wednesday. “I don’t really have a say on it but I would never do that. My father was a military man and he protected this country — uncles are in law enforcement, they go out and work hard every day. Just, you know, there are other ways to get your point across.” He also questioned the timing of the protest, given that Kaepernick had just lost his starting position as quarterback. ”Again, my thing is, you have to enter onto the scene one...

“A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today. Let’s get them ready for tomorrow,” one ad read. The ads were intended to celebrate the aspirations of young people, but fell short of the goal, the company said in an apology on its Twitter account. “An actor yesterday. A botanist today. Let’s get them ready for tomorrow,” another ad read. The bank, which is based in San Francisco and has its largest employment hub in Charlotte, tweeted out an apology Saturday. The bank said it gave $93 million last year in support of the arts, culture and education. We offer our sincere apology...

A two-hour launch window opens Thursday at 7:05 p.m. for the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V-411 rocket. Over the next two years, OSIRIS-REx will travel to the 1,650-foot-wide near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu. The spacecraft will then spend two years studying the asteroid and collecting a pristine surface sample for return to Earth in September 2023, the first U.S. mission to do so and the largest sample of an extraterrestrial body since the Apollo missions.

Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies will approve a constitution for a new system of government in northern Syria next month, a top Kurdish politician said, defying a Turkish incursion aimed at curbing Kurdish influence in the area. The new system will be established in parts of the north where Kurdish groups have already carved out autonomous regions since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, alarming Turkey which fears the rise of Kurdish influence on its border. "We have decided to convene a meeting of the founding assembly of the federal system at the start of October, and...

Her disappearance sparked a massive manhunt, with searchers using helicopters, horses and an army of volunteers, and even ground-penetrating radar. She was never found and was presumed dead. The cold case took a new twist Tuesday when the FBI and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department announced they were excavating at three sites on a hillside near the dormitories. The search is centered on the giant “P” in a hillside sign that stands for Cal Poly. Officials said they picked the locations based on the activities of human decomposition dogs. ... Sheriff’s investigators along with a specialized FBI team...

Cuba's Communist government is filtering mobile phone text messages for key words such as "democracy" and "human rights" and then blocking them... ... Eliecer Avila, head of opposition youth group Somos Mas, which participated in the investigation, said 30 key words that triggered the blocking had been identified but there could be more. "We always thought texts were vanishing because the provider is so incompetent, then we decided to check using words that bothered the government," he said. "We discovered not just us but the entire country is being censored," he said. "It just shows how insecure and paranoid the...

A father and son who have spent 15 years making crop circles under the cover of darkness have revealed the painstaking process involved in leaving their intricate designs across the countryside. Terry, 46, and Jack, 20, from Salisbury, revealed secrets behind the mysterious patterns on condition of anonymity and do not wish to give their surnames. ... Jack was only five when Terry began designing formations but did not actively participate until he was 11. He said the process was exciting but exhausting. 'I usually feel done by the time I've walked into the field, but once you get a...

A biracial family in Wichita, Kansas, was shocked when, on Monday, they were hit with an unsigned letter that said they were doing their neighborhood “a great disrespect” because of the presence of their children. “We have noticed there are some black children at your residence,” the note read. “Maybe you are running a daycare or these are your children. In either case, we have put our house for sale. This neighborhood does not need any blacks in it.” “There is a reason for saying the other side of the tracks. That is where these people belong. You have done...

Recently killings of Islamic State commanders by veiled women have forced the terror group to make an exception to its strict dress codes for women. Iraqi forces and its U.S.-led coalition allies are in the process of squeezing the terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, out of territory it has held since 2014. “A local source in the Iraqi province of Nineveh announced on Friday, Sept. 2, that the terrorist group has released an order, based on which no woman is allowed to be wearing niqab or burqa when entering the security and military centers,” Iran Front Page...

Tiarah had been working towards her Masters degree at St. John’s University. “She had a bright future ahead of her and was taken much too soon. The entire University community sends our thoughts and prayers to the Poyau family during this difficult time,” said St. John’s University President Conrado Gempesaw. Tiarah wrote publicly about her love for traveling abroad. “My greatest achievement was in Spring of 2014 when I studied abroad in Paris, Rome, and Seville. Apart from being able to get away for a while, I was given the opportunity to push my limits and be responsible for my...

Tim Marlow, the artistic director of the Royal Academy of Arts, said it was a unique event. He said: "I've seen a shed blown up in the name of art, I've seen fireworks, I've seen artists bury themselves, I've seen the trace of an artist shooting himself in the hand or nailing himself to a car, but actually I've never seen anyone collaborate with so many people in such an extraordinary and exciting way, to make a commemorative replica of a skyline 350 years ago and then set fire to it."

Andy revealed his younger brother Evan Stromer, 24, was also in critical condition at the hospital due to diabetes complications. Evan survived the night in the intensive care unit, but in the morning he flatlined. Andy concludes his post, “It’s going to suck wandering this real world without my little brother. But at least he got to meet my son. Ad Victoriam little Brother. I’ll see you in the wasteland.” ... Fallout 4 dev Bethesda saw Andy’s Reddit post, and some time in the last two months and they sent him a care package. But that’s not all they did....