Free Republic

Explanation: Discovered by accident, this manuscript page provides graphical insight to astronomy in medieval times, before the Renaissance and the influence of Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho de Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo. The intriguing page is from lecture notes on astronomy compiled by the monk Magister Wolfgang de Styria before the year 1490. The top panels clearly illustrate the necessary geometry for a lunar (left) and solar eclipse in the Earth-centered Ptolemaic system. At lower left is a diagram of the Ptolemaic view of the Solar System with text at the upper right to explain the movement of the planets according...

While Germany and Austria were the first countries to use DST in 1916, it is a little-known fact that a few hundred Canadians beat the German Empire by eight years. On July 1, 1908, the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario—today's Thunder Bay—turned their clocks forward by one hour to start the world's first DST period......Germany introduced DST in 1916. Clocks in the German Empire, and its ally Austria, were turned ahead by one hour on April 30, 1916—two years into World War I. The rationale was to minimize the use of artificial lighting to save fuel for the war effort.Within...

The parents trusted the doctor that their unborn child was healthy and were looking forward to the birth of their daughter. But then the shock: the girl is born without a left arm. The left chest and shoulder area is also misformed and the collarbone shortened. The desperate parents wondered: How could the gynaecologist overlook this malformation during ultrasound examinations? He even noted twice that the fetus has both arms and legs. The parents complained to the Carinthian specialist. “The doctor had overlooked the child’s severe disability. If the diagnosis correctly made the parents, the parents decided to abort," says...

The infamous Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years and forced her to endure unimaginable abuse, may soon walk free. Fritzl was sentenced to ‘life’ in prison in 2009 after admitting that he had held his daughter Elisabeth prisoner under his house for over two decades and forcibly fathered seven children with her. He was only caught after staff at a hospital became suspicious when attending to his and Elisabeth’s eldest daughter during an emergency visit. His sentence is currently being carried out at Stein Prison in Austria, a high-security facility for mentally ill...

If you inherited $27 million dollars, what would you do? For Austrian heiress Marlene Engelhorn, 31, she's determined to give it all away. "I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything for it," she said in a statement, per BBC. "And the state doesn't even want taxes on it." (In 2008, Austria got rid of its inheritance tax.) Engelhorn is descended from Friedrich Engelhorn, a German industrialist who, in 1865, founded BASF, a chemical and pharmaceutical company. Engelhorn's grandmother, Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto, was estimated to have a net worth of around $4.2 billion. This week, Engelhorn...

Several Muslim suspects have been arrested in France, Germany and Austria for allegedly planning Christmas terror attacks, according to reports, which say there’s a “very high level of terrorist threat” from Islamic terrorists in France. Spain is also on alert.In France, five men, aged 20 to 23, were apprehended in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Le Parisien reported, saying French intelligence services had been surveilling the men for links to criminal terrorist associations and they were found scouting Strasbourg Christmas market.A video filmed at the market featuring one suspect saying, “And there, we shoot,” was found during a raid. These men are believed to...

A pro-vax doctor has blown the whistle to warn the public about the soaring cases of side effects she’s seeing from the Covid mRNA injections. Dr. Cornelia Tschanett has apparently had a crisis of conscience after administering up to 4,000 shots in her practice. However, the Austrian doctor says that roughly ten percent of the people she injected have come back to her suffering from side effects. Tschanett admits that she came to the chilling realization that she couldn’t “continue to vaccinate here” after a teenager she vaccinated suffered heart failure. Instead, the health professional is now raising the alarm...

All flights were grounded at Munich’s airport Saturday after a winter storm dumped snow across southern Germany and parts of Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, affecting travel across the region. After initially announcing a halt in air traffic until noon on Saturday, the airport later announced flights would be canceled until 6 a.m. Sunday. Other airports in the region, including in the Swiss financial capital, Zurich, also announced weather-related delays and cancellations. Trains to and from Munich’s central station were also halted, Germany’s national railway said, advising passengers to delay or reroute their journeys. The news agency dpa reported...

Travel was halted across Europe Saturday as heavy snow blanketed cities and freezing temperatures set in following a week of deadly early-season storms. Flights were grounded in Munich and Dublin Saturday after a winter storm dumped snow across southern Germany and parts of Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, disrupting travel across the continent.

Fires were set at the Jewish area of Vienna’s Central Cemetery which was also vandalised with swastikas and Hitler graffiti on Wednesday in the latest outburst of antisemitism in Europe. The President of the Jewish Community of Vienna Oskar Deutsch revealed on Wednesday that the Jewish section of Austria’s most famed cemetery was targetted by antisemitic thugs, who set fire to the vestibule of the Jewish ceremonial hall in the cemetery, the Kurier newspaper reported. The outside walls of the building were scrawled with red graffiti, including a depiction of the Nazi swastika symbol as well as the name of...

Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would make a great president of the United States in recent comments. “I feel like I would make a great president,” Schwarzenegger said in a recent interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). “But I feel that, at the same time, everything I’ve accomplished was because of America.”

Vienna seemed like a no-brainer destination for my solo-moon for several reasons. Firstly, it's incredibly safe — in fact, Austria is the fifth-highest country on the Global Peace Index, which measures the level of societal safety and security. Considering that I'd be traveling without my partner and that I'm a woman, this was important to me. Vienna is also known for its legendary coffeehouse culture, impressive local wineries, and rich musical history — all major draws for me as a latte lover, wine enthusiast, and professional musician.

A ‘Beer Party’ in Austria is polling at 12 per cent ahead of the Vienna state election. Founded by Dominik Wlazny (known by his stage name of Marco Pogo) in 2015, the party is looking to woo voters with promises of a beer fountain in the capital city and an allocation of one barrel of beer per household per month. They will also slap a 50 per cent tax on Radlers – beer crafted with juice – and launch a Radler buyback programme that allows punters to exchange Radler beers with “real beer”.

The Manhattan D.A. recently issued a criminal seizure warrant for ‘Girl With Black Hair’ in the possession of Oberlin College’s Allen Museum. Court records in a civil case reveal that the college has been fighting at least since 2006 against return of the drawing. This is in contrast to the college’s repatriation of an item of Native American craft returned to the Nez Perce tribe in 2002. Are items stolen from Jews during the Holocaust less worthy of return than items obtained from Native American tribes? ... Oberlin College was in the news recently after a drawing, Girl With Black...

An remarkably well-preserved child's shoe from the Iron Age has been found in Austria.The discovery was made by archaeologists from the German Mining Museum in Bochum during excavations at Dürrnberg near Hallein, in an area that was mined for rock salt during the Iron Age...The entire shape of the shoe, as well as string used to fix it onto the child's foot, can still be seen.It is made of leather and is the equivalent of a child's 12.5 size shoe today...Shoes dating from the Iron Age have been found before but the child's shoe is of particular significance, the press...

Russian scientist Dr. Dmitry Fedyanin seemed to die doing what he loved. German officials say the 34-year-old expert in ultra-violet light and a senior research fellow at the Nanooptics Department of Siegen University in Germany fell to his death Berchtesgadener Alps National Park after following his hiking app over a cliff. Fedyanin’s body was found at the bottom of Hoher Laafeld peak, which sits at about 7,000 feet. Fedyanin was using his hiking app to make his way down the mountain but the route he was taking didn’t have paths and the app “sent him over mountain precipice.” “Our investigators...

An Austrian supermarket reopened following a three-day closure to clear the store due to an alleged sighting of a spider with a deadly bite that could also cause an hourslong erection. The Penny Markt in Krems an der Donau closed Tuesday after the store manager spotted the spider in a banana box and immediately called the fire brigade to investigate. The manager described the spider as about 4 inches long and colored black and red. The authorities initially suspected it was a banana spider, but previous cases of spiders in bananas from South America have identified the spider specifically as...

WASHINGTON — A bombshell FBI informant file containing a $10 million bribery allegation against President Biden and his son was released Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley, showing that a Ukrainian oligarch claimed he was “coerced” into making the payoff. The owner of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, Mykola Zlochevsky, told the FBI informant in 2016 during a meeting at a coffee shop in Vienna, Austria, that “it cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden,” according to the redacted FD-1023 form. “Zlochevsky made some comment that although Hunter Biden ‘was stupid, and his (Zlochevsky’s) dog...

An elaborately carved, U-shaped stone trophy was returned to Mexico after it nearly went up for sale at an Austrian auction house, the Art Newspaper reported Wedneday. The trophy, which resembles a yoke and is carved from sedimentary stone, is an ornate representation of the protective gear worn around players’ waists during the Mesoamerican ball game pelota. The artifact was recovered by the Mexican Embassy in Austria prior to the sale with help from Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico City, according to a statement from...

Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)More Two years after autocratically condemning those who refused to wear facial masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Hollywood star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger apologised for his tone-deaf comments. “Screw your freedom,” Schwarzenegger declared during an interview with retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and CNN senior global affairs analyst Bianna Golodryga, labelling those who adamantly challenged the government’s draconian measures as “schmucks.” The Hollywood star went on, “There are still people that live in denial. There are still people that don’t believe in...