Free Republic

Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday afternoon for meetings with senior officials, receiving no significant honors upon his landing and preceded by loud warnings from the Foreign Ministry to avoid challenging the Communist Party on its belligerent policies. Blinken is expected to stay in China for three days, beginning his journey in the economic heart of China, Shanghai, and then traveling north to Beijing to meet top officials. According to the State Department, Blinken is expected to address a wide variety of international issues, many of them not directly relevant to China such as “the...

ROME — Pope Francis has blamed Mongolia’s current cold spell on global warming, insisting the overheating environment is a “global social problem.” Following his weekly Angelus address Sunday, the pontiff said he is close to the population of Mongolia, “affected by a wave of intense cold, which is causing serious humanitarian consequences.” This extreme phenomenon, which has occasioned the death of over 600,000 livestock, is “a sign of climate change and its effects,” the pope told the estimated 20,000 gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.

surge of stranded electric vehicles, predominantly Tesla cars, has overtaken the Oak Brook Supercharger station in Chicago, as a severe cold snap renders many EVs powerless and immobile. Fox 32 reports that the recent wave of freezing temperatures in Chicago has taken a significant toll on EVs, causing an unusual scene at the Oak Brook Tesla Supercharging station. This station, along with many others around the Chicago area, has been crowded with dead Teslas, as owners face difficulties in charging their vehicles​​.

As an electrical engineer, the most glaring problem with EVs is that we simply do not have the grid capacity to power a national EV fleet. A few months ago some colleagues and I did the analysis for California – Australia is similar. In order to create the same “power to wheels” as currently provided by gasoline and diesel, California would need to double its generation capacity.

A surge of stranded electric vehicles, predominantly Tesla cars, has overtaken the Oak Brook Supercharger station in Chicago, as a severe cold snap renders many EVs powerless and immobile. Fox 32 reports that the recent wave of freezing temperatures in Chicago has taken a significant toll on EVs, causing an unusual scene at the Oak Brook Tesla Supercharging station. This station, along with many others around the Chicago area, has been crowded with dead Teslas, as owners face difficulties in charging their vehicles​​.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had his helmet shattered on a hit from Miami Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott during Saturday night's frigid AFC wild-card playoff game. The Chiefs still won 26-7. With a game-time temperature of minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit, the game was the fourth-coldest in NFL history, and it was unclear whether the temperature made the shell of Mahomes' helmet more brittle than usual. Regardless, the reigning league MVP was left with a fist-sized chunk of plastic missing from just above his left eye after the clash of helmets on a 13-yard scramble deep in Dolphins territory. Rarely do...

Sunday's wild-card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills is being postponed until Monday at 4:30 pm ET, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Saturday.A full travel ban is being issued in Erie County beginning at 9 pm on Saturday, Hochul added. The area expects to see 2-3 inches of snow per hour during the height of this weekend's winter storm.New York's governor said the storm will be at its fiercest in south Buffalo on Sunday afternoon, per CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones. The wild-card matchup was slated to kick off at 1:00 pm ET.

Some 20,000 people in the cities of Klimovsk, Lyubertsy, and Podolsk, in the Moscow region, have been left without heating for days — some of them for weeks — as temperatures have dropped below -25C last week, Russian Telegram channel Baza reported. Local authorities declared an emergency. “Due to sanctions and overblown military spending, Russia does not have enough resources to spare for annual checkups of its outdated housing and utilities sector,"

everal cities in Minnesota, including Duluth and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are facing challenges in transitioning their public transit systems to zero-emission electric buses due to operational difficulties in subzero temperatures, which significantly reduce the buses’ range. The efficiency of lithium-ion batteries decreases in cold weather, impacting the buses’ ability to hold a charge and provide adequate warmth for passengers during winter. Other factors such as increased rolling resistance and less effective regenerative braking system in cold temperatures also affect the buses’ performance. Metro Transit spokesperson, Drew Kerr, said, “Using garage chargers alone, electric buses can...

Anyone that’s ever enjoyed a cold slice of pizza for breakfast knows that food doesn’t need to be hot or fresh to be really, really good. In fact, a lot of dinners that are intended to be eaten warm actually taste better the next day as a cold meal straight from the fridge. Anything with lots of sauce and cheese and spices is a sure bet for leftover success—no reheating necessary. This isn’t just an opinion, though. There’s actual science to back it up! According to the Institute of Food Technologists, your leftovers continue to have chemical reactions that create...

Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) — Testimony will begin Thursday in the cold case murder trial of Timothy Williams, who was arrested in 2020 for the 1984 rape and murder of 14-year-old Wendy Jerome. Both sides presented opening statements Wednesday, with new details of Jerome's death coming to light for the first time since she was killed nearly four decades ago.

There’s much to look forward to at the start of winter. The holiday season starts winter off with a bang, while outdoor enthusiasts know their chances to hit the slopes and ski and snowboard are just beginning. Sports fans know January marks the return of the National Football League playoffs, while travelers who need a little winter warmth often designate February as a month to soak up some sun in a faraway locale. With so much to do each winter, it’s especially problematic when you come down with a cold. However, winter tends to be cold and flu season in...

Covid patients are becoming harder to distinguish from those suffering from allergies or the common cold, doctors say. The most common symptoms of the virus are now sore throat, sneezing or congestion — the same as RSV, asthma or a pollen allergy. For comparison, in the early stages of the pandemic, Covid had very distinct symptoms - such as a dry cough and a loss of sense of smell or taste. Dr Erick Eiting, vice chair of operations for emergency medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, which was hammered hard during the pandemic, said virtually every Covid patient in...

Cold activates a cellular cleansing mechanism that breaks down harmful protein aggregations responsible for various diseases associated with aging. A research team has now unlocked one responsible mechanism. Professor Dr. David Vilchez used a non-vertebrate model organism, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and cultivated human cells. Both carried the genes for two neurodegenerative diseases that typically occur in old age: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington's disease. Both diseases are characterized by accumulations of harmful and damaging protein deposits—so-called pathological protein aggregations. In both model organisms, cold actively removed the protein clumps, thus preventing the protein aggregation that is pathological in...

by Samantha FosterElectric cars have been increasing on American roads, partly because of massive government tax-incentives, and also because of looming mandates to ban gasoline-powered vehicles from states such as California. While total vehicle sales fell in 2022, EV sales grew by a whopping 65%. About 5.8% of the new cars Americans bought last year were electric with roughly 800,000 leaving the lot over the course of the year, according to the Kelley Blue Book. And Cox Automotive is forecasting that EV sales will hit 1 million in the U.S. for the first time in 2023 Widespread discounts and goverment...

Michael Burry ('The Big Short' guy, Libertarian-Conservative) posted this tonight, in light of the Chinese BalloonGate and his view of our constant manipulation by elites.YouTube: NENA | 99 Red Balloons [1984] (Official HD Music Video)

Northern mountains could get up to 30 inches of snow in some areas Friday through Saturday.. Coloradans are in for some serious winter weather this weekend and early next week. Some areas of the northern mountains could get up to 30 inches of snow by Saturday, and Denver and the plains could see wind chills of -20 degrees Sunday through Tuesday. Starting Friday afternoon, snow will intensify over the Park Range, including Rabbit Ears Pass, and portions of the northern Front Range mountains like Medicine Bow and Rocky Mountain National Park. Snowfall rates could be as high as three inches...

He's got heat meters fixed to the pipework. Room temperature monitors. And gadgets tracking how much electricity his solar panels are generating. The jewel in the crown of this system, though, is a recently installed heat pump. "It's like a geek's paradise, really," says Mick Wall of his 1930s semi-detached house in Sheffield.

Extremely cold temperatures across the region have created extraordinary demands on the power system. We are asking businesses and the public to help by immediately reducing electricity use as much as possible without sacrificing safety.

The bitter cold accompanying this powerful winter storm broke some long-standing record lows for parts of Montana and Wyoming. Casper, Wyoming, saw its coldest day ever on Thursday as temps plummeted to a bone-chilling 42 degrees F below. It was also a Casper record for Dec. 22, with the old record of 33 below set in 1983. Other areas breaking records Thursday included Riverton, Wyoming, which dropped to 31 degrees below, shattering a 24-year record.