Free Republic

The birth of Jesus Christ is the one of the most significant events in all of history and when we understand the truths regarding the true date of his birth it will thrill and inspire your heart. Tradition has made December 25th the birthday of Jesus. but the Bible clearly reveals he was not born on that day. It was not until the 4th century after Christ that December 25th began to be celebrated as the day of ChristÂ’s birth. It was the old pagan holiday celebrating the winter solstice and the birth of the sun god and celebrated when...

The allocation of culpability for the violence that resulted in the tragic death of Heather Heyer at a protest/counter-protest rally in Charlottesville, VA by the media last week really should not have come as a surprise. In the case of Republicans, the news-cycle will consisted of the following phases: If the violence is perpetrated by a hate group(s) whose members are racists, anti-Semites, and white supremacists, first, implicitly tie the Republican Party and its leaders (or if it is President Trump, explicitly) to the offending hate group; secondly, insist he or she publicly renounce the group; third, if the Republican...

Whaddyathink? Any insights?

Total solar eclipse is one of the most fascinating astronomical phenomena. Thousands and sometimes millions of people, as it was in case of the last total eclipse visible in central Europe, travel to the narrow band of totality to enjoy fleeting beauty lasting few minutes only. Even people without any knowledge in physics and astronomy realize during the total eclipse that our Sun is definitely not a boring light source of a round shape shining down from the heaven but an extremely interesting living star which occupies surprisingly large part of the sky. Astonishing series of scientific discoveries were made...

(Cullowhee, NC) Preparations for the the upcoming August 21st solar eclipse are in high gear at Western Carolina University. The school is located within the zone of totality in the mountainous part of the state. Afternoon classes will be cancelled and festivities on the Central Plaza will include Native American moon dancers, performance art and the Tasty Tofu Taco Truck, locally known as T4. But there are some students who will be refusing the eclipse and have demanded the University provide a safe space for them during the event. So far three groups have separately approached University officials with concerns...

A giant star near the center of our galaxy hints, once again, that Albert Einstein was correct about gravity. A group of astronomers in Germany and the Czech Republic observed three stars in a cluster near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Using data from the Very Large Telescope in Chile, among others, the researchers tracked how the stars moved as they went around the monster black hole. One of the stars, called S2, showed slight deviations in its orbit that might indicate relativistic effects, scientists said. If the observations are confirmed, then it...

When the sun came up on May 28 in the year 585 BCE, the Medes and Lydians were still at war. They had been at each other’s throats for years, and it looked like there was no end in sight for their conflict. But something extraordinary happened on the battlefield that day, which changed everything. This episode also features an interview with Dr. Fred Espenak, an astrophysicist, and scientist emeritus at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

The Boston Globe has managed to politicize the literal sun and moon. An article by reporter Matt Rocheleau published Tuesday asks if the upcoming solar eclipse is “throwing shade at Clinton supporters,” as he claims the “ideal viewing spots” for the upcoming eclipse happen to be in places that supported President Trump in the 2016 election: There are about 240 counties roughly along the central path of the eclipse, a 70-mile-wide trail extending across the country where people will be able to see a total eclipse, meaning the sun will appear completely obscured by the moon. And about 92 percent of those...

On August 21, sky-watchers across America will see the face of the sun disappear behind the moon’s disk, turning daylight to darkness, and allowing the planets and stars to suddenly reveal themselves against an otherworldly false night. Temperatures will noticeably drop, crickets will begin to chirp, and perplexed birds will retreat to their nests. The gossamer jets and streamers of the sun’s corona will suddenly be visible to the naked eye, and all 360 degrees of the horizon will glow like an eerie sunset. On that date, a 70-mile-wide path spanning from South Carolina to Oregon will experience the “Great...

On August 21, for the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will cut through the entire continental United States. It’s going to be awesome. If you’re in the bull’s eye center of the moon’s shadow known as the totality — the sky will go dark for a few minutes in the middle of the day, stars will appear, birds will become confused and start chirping their nighttime songs. And it’s all because of a cosmic coincidence: From the Earth, both the moon and sun appear to be roughly the same size. Most of the country will see...

Planet watchers have plenty to occupy themselves this month. Mars, being too close to the sun, is the only naked eye planet that is not observable. Jupiter will be the first “star” that becomes visible after sunset. It will be low in the southwest. It is so very bright that it can be seen in twilight, but how soon can you detect it? It can be fun to test just how early you can see it. The moon passes close to Jupiter on July 28 making for a pretty grouping. Saturn is up all night this month. It doesn’t get...

FORT HUACHUCA - Ted Forte, Ken Duncan, and Bob Gent met at Colonel Smith Middle School recently and young astronomers observed the planet Venus, the moon, and the sun through their telescopes. The trio also brought the Planetary Science Institute's meteorite kit, and student scientists studied pieces of Mars and a rare and beautiful Pallasite meteorite. Later that evening, they drove to Faras Elementary School near Douglas, and Rick Burke joined Forte, Duncan, and Gent. “The seeing was good, and we observed the moon, Jupiter and other wonders of the night sky,” Gent said.

American astronauts may be walking on Mars in the next eight years, or ideally the next four, if President Donald Trump has his way. But the new timetable has baffled experts in space travel. (AUDIO-AT-LINK) The surprise announcement — or rather instruction — took place this week during a live video conference between President Trump and veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson, who is currently aboard the International Space Station. During the conversation, Trump asked Whitson when it would be possible to send a human to Mars. She gave a careful and detailed answer explaining that a trip to the Red Planet...

Shaq, a college graduate, defended Kyrie, saying: “It’s true. The Earth is flat. Listen, I drive from coast to coast, and this sh*t is flat to me. You mean to tell me that China is under us? It’s not. The world is flat.” One of Shaq’s podcast co-hosts refuted his assertion by saying, “We’ve seen the Earth from satellite imagery.” Shaq replied by saying that could be manipulated. To buttress his statement, Shaq pointed to the inaccuracies taught in school, such as the theory that Christopher Columbus had discovered America.

Shia Labeouf just can’t catch a break can he? His first attempt at setting up a 24/7, 4-year livestream was abandoned by the Museum of the Moving image after barely a month. The museum cited Shia’s arrest after he allegedly assaulted a Trump supporter, but others speculate it was the growing number of people that threatened to report the museum for violating their tax exemption status by banning Trump supporters from the installation. LaBeouf then relocated it to a Holocaust museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico but that was also quickly shut down in less than two weeks after shots were...

The hunt for potentially habitable planets outside of our solar system is one of the most exciting frontiers of science, and you can become a part of it without ever having to leave the comfort of your own home. This week, MIT and Carnegie Science Institute released a huge dataset containing close to 61,000 measurements of over 1600 stars. These measurements contain data that could potentially identify thousands of new exoplanets, many of which might be Earth-like in their nature. Unfortunately, the MIT and Carnegie Institute team simply doesn’t have the capacity to trawl through all of this information,...

The scientific community remained silent for too long, accepting populism into the strict environment of cold blooded facts. The old have betrayed the young, teaching them that facts should not always come first. On the contrary, facts are the only relevant aspect in science.

The Supermoon on November 14, 2016, will be the closest a Full Moon has been to Earth since January 26, 1948. The next time a Full Moon is even closer to Earth will be on November 25, 2034 (dates based on UTC time).

Here are a few ways that humanity may be able to leave the cradle of Earth. The field equations of Einstein’s General Relativity theory say that faster-than-light (FTL) travel is possible, so a handful of researchers are working to see whether a Star Trek-style warp drive, or perhaps a kind of artificial wormhole, could be created through our technology. But even if shown feasible tomorrow, it’s possible that designs for an FTL system could be as far ahead of a functional starship as Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th century drawings of flying machines were ahead of the Wright Flyer of 1903....