Free Republic

Five hundred kilometers above the Earth, a small spacecraft is waiting patiently for permission to return home. The autonomous return capsule, made by startup Varda Space Industries, of Torrance, CA, was meant to have landed in the remote Utah desert early in September. It would have been the first commercial space company to return a drug made in space to Earth, in this case a few grams of the HIV and hepatitis C antiviral ritonavir. Instead, the satellite, about the size of a large trash can and code-named Winnebago 1, continues to orbit the planet at nearly 30,000 kilometers per...

In August 2022, more than one-fifth of the 1,000 rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group toward Israel failed and landed in Gaza. These rockets caused one-third of the 44 deaths recorded.

This big cat is still on the lam. Weeks after three leopards escaped from an eastern China safari park, one is still at large — and the park is under fire for keeping the breakout a secret. Residents who live near the Hangzhou Safari Park — not the park itself — first alerted authorities that the animals were on the loose after noticing them around the tony Jinyuan Villa area near the park, according to an announcement from the Fuyang District government, CNN reported. Only after a formal search was started, a full week after the animals were first reported...

Ben Stiller is no fan of President Trump, but even the Tropic Thunder and Zoolander actor isn’t offended enough by Trump’s 20 year-old cameo in his comedy film about a male model to remove it. During his interview on the “The New Abnormal” podcast, the Hollywood celebrity revealed that certain people have been pushing him to get a tiny scene featuring the current president and his wife Melania removed from the 2001 comedy. Though Stiller dismissed these requests to remove the former businessman’s appearance from Zoolander, claiming he’s not worried about it because that was a different time.

NBC’s medical drama New Amsterdam had an unusual diagnosis this Tuesday in the episode, “Sabbath.” After Dr. Helen Sharpe finds her 13-year-old patient Cephas has four benign tumors growing in his stomach and that the boy has elevated levels of stress hormones, psychiatrist Dr. Iggy Frome determines the tumors were caused by racism. As the surgeon operates and removes the four tumors from Cephas, he warns the tumors could come back and might not be benign next time. Iggy realizes Cephas feels isolated and threatened all the time after asking him a series of questions that measures a person’s level...

United Airlines is giving "Star Wars" fans a travel experience they’ll never forget. The airline carrier has joined forces with the iconic film franchise to unveil a "Star Wars"-themed aircraft, just in time for the December release of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Customers will get to fly the friendly galaxy starting next month inside one of United’s Boeing 737-800, featuring a re-designed onboard experience and external paint design. The airline will also offer "Star Wars"-themed amenity kits and launch its latest safety demonstration video featuring characters from the new film, according to a press release.

Update for Aug. 24: Astronaut Anne McClain has issued a statement refuting the claims of her estranged spouse. Read the full story here.The closely-guarded private life of a NASA astronaut burst into the spotlight in a New York Times report Friday (Aug. 23) on a messy divorce battle involving American astronaut Anne McClain that has apparently led to claims of identity theft against the space flyer. The incident is rooted in a bitter separation with McClain's spouse, Summer Worden, the Times report continued. According to Worden, her bank account was accessed without her permission from a NASA-affiliated computer network, prompting...

The comic magazine's ability to rib culture, politics, and business shaped the boomer mentality, and we should be grateful.The comics community is abuzz with the news that Mad magazine will, after two more issues, cease publication of original material and abandon newsstand distribution, becoming a reprint title available only in comic book shops (with the exception, Hollywood Reporter reports, of one special issue a year of new content). Mad began life as a comic book in 1952, the brainchild of then-obscure New York cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, published by William Gaines' E.C. Comics. Through his work in Mad's formative years and...

One of the main indicators used by economists to measure the health of the nation’s economy is housing starts – the number of private homes being built around the nation. In 2018 housing starts fell in all four regions of the nation, representing the biggest drop since 2016. While many economists point to issues such as higher material costs as a reason for the drop in housing starts, a much more ominous reason may be emerging. Across the nation, city councils and state legislatures are beginning to remove zoning protections for single-family neighborhoods, claiming they are racist discrimination designed to...

A NASA technology demonstration may still be viable on the lunar surface.A NASA piggyback experiment may have survived the April 11 crash of Israel's Beresheet moon lander, experts said... The NASA payload, known as the Lunar Retroreflector Array (LRA), is a technology demonstration composed of eight mirrors made of quartz cube corners that are set into a dome-shaped aluminum frame. These mirrors are intended to serve as markers for other spacecraft, which can use them to orient themselves for precision landings.

When pitting professions against each another, some may judge how much it informs and brightens someone’s day stacks up against a career that saves lives. Here’s the full list: Emergency medical technicians and paramedics Nurses Physicians Firefighters Teachers Farmers/ranchers Scientists Police officers Engineers Military Social workers Counselors Water treatment plant workers Trash and recycling collectors Electricians Lawyers and judges Construction laborers Pipeworkers/plumbers Postal Service mail carriers Carpenters Janitors and building cleaners Morticians, undertakers, and funeral directors Legislators/elected officials Journalists/reporters Clergy Artists Web developers Customer service representatives Transportation security screeners Chief executives Waiters and waitresses Taxi drivers and chauffeurs Recreation and...

Investigation by Chinese authorities finds He Jiankui broke national regulations in his controversial work on gene-edited babies. The scientist who announced last year that he had produced the world’s first gene-edited babies has been fired by his university. The decision, announced on 21 January by the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, in China’s Guandong province, follows a report of findings from an investigation into He’s work by provincial health authorities. A probe by the Guangdong health ministry found that He broke national regulations against using gene-editing for reproductive purposes, Chinese state media agency Xinhua reported on 21...

Xinhua's first English AI anchor makes debut at the World Internet Conference that opens in Wuzhen, China Wednesday.

Gab has spent the past 48 hours proudly working with the DOJ and FBI to bring justice to an alleged terrorist. Because of the data we provided, they now have plenty of evidence for their case. In the midst of this Gab has been no-platformed by essential internet infrastructure providers at every level. We are the most censored, smeared, and no-platformed startup in history, which means we are a threat to the media and to the Silicon Valley Oligarchy. Gab isn’t going anywhere. It doesn’t matter what you write. It doesn’t matter what the sophist talking heads say on TV....

CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer on Tuesday suggested Tesla CEO Elon Musk take a medical leave of absence from the embattled electric car company, citing the embattled billionaire’s recent “self-destructive” behavior. “I’m worried about the guy,” Cramer told Squawk on the Street panelists. “Medical leave is fine. I think the board puts him on medical leave. That’s not a sin.” “A healthy Elon Musk is something that can take the stock higher,” he added.

Two professors argue in a newly published anthology on “feminist nutrition” that “athletic performance” and “longevity” are simply “Western values.” “Critical Nutrition: Critical and Feminist Perspectives on Bodily Nutrition”—one of 16 chapters in the book Food & Place: A Critical Exploration—was written by Temple University professor Allison Hayes-Conroy and her sister, Jessica Hayes-Conroy, who teaches a “Feminist Health” class at a small college in Upstate New York. "It is rare, in the myriad calls for eating fresh fruits and vegetables, to see strikes and boycotts mentioned in the same breath as ‘healthy.’" Tweet This In the chapter, the Hayes-Conroy sisters...

In an email to the student body, a Gonzaga University administrator cautioned that Cinco de Mayo has become "full of cultural appropriation," directing them to a flyer listing "alternative" ways of celebrating the holiday. "Don't you dare put on that 'sombrero,'" the flyer tells students, suggesting that they "donate to organizations working for immigrant rights" rather than have a party. Another option is to "support AUTHENTIC Mexican businesses" run by "actual Mexican people," though it cautions that "CHIPOTLE DOESN’T COUNT."

Legendary astronaut John Young, who twice ventured into space in pioneering two-man Gemini capsules, orbited the moon and then walked on its cratered surface before commanding two space shuttle missions, including the program’s maiden flight, has passed away. NASA confirmed the death early Saturday in a posting on Twitter: “We’re saddened by the loss of astronaut John Young, who was 87. Young flew twice to the Moon, walked on its surface & flew the first Space Shuttle mission. He went to space six times in the Gemini, Apollo & Space Shuttle programs.” Tweeted astronaut Terry Virts: “Rest In peace John...

An intermediate-range missile launched by North Korea last April crashed into a town near Pyongyang, possibly causing an explosion and casualties, The Diplomat reported on Wednesday. The IRBM was launched April 28, 2017 near Pukchang Airfield in South Pyongan Province and was the third in a series of failed launches that month, the report said. The missile crashed into the city of Tokchun after one minute of powered flight, the report said. The explosion caused "considerable damage to a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings," the report said, citing a U.S. government source with knowledge of the program. The secretive...

The head of Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education, Donna Riley, argued in a recently published academic journal article tough engineering courses only serves to uphold “white male heterosexual privilege.” According to a report from Campus Reform, Riley, in an astonishing feat of vague postmodern writing, published an article in the most recent issue of the academic journal Engineering Education in which she argued that the concept of academic “rigor” is used as a means to exclude students from marginalized groups from academic communities.