Free Republic

When Isaac Newton inscribed onto parchment his now-famed laws of motion in 1687, he could have only hoped we'd be discussing them three centuries later. Writing in Latin, Newton outlined three universal principles describing how the motion of objects is governed in our Universe, which have been translated, transcribed, discussed and debated at length. But according to a philosopher of language and mathematics, we might have been interpreting Newton's precise wording of his first law of motion slightly wrong all along. Virginia Tech philosopher Daniel Hoek wanted to "set the record straight" after discovering what he describes as a "clumsy...

If you’re interested in really being depressed, read the coverage of the controversy involving the state representative in Montana who is a man pretending to be a woman. Or in our words, a "hemale." Conservatives, Christians and normal people have completely lost the culture when a newspaper in Montana, of all places, apes the jargon, euphemisms and outright lies that permeate and sustain the "transgender movement." The Independent Record — the newspaper in Montana’s capitol of Helena — might as well be The New York Times when it comes to covering the insanity of the transgenderist’s genital mutilation and chemical...

Spacecraft and satellites could in future be launched into space without the need for fuel, thanks to a revolutionary new theory. Dr Mike McCulloch, from the University of Plymouth, first put forward the idea of quantised inertia (QI) – through which he believes light can be converted into thrust – in 2007. He has now received $1.3million from the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a four-year study which aims to make the concept a reality. The QI theory predicts that objects can be pushed by differences in the intensity of so-called Unruh radiation in space, similar...

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that President Obama’s inertia on whether to launch airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria is part of an overall foreign policy failure that is empowering China, North Korea, Russia and other rival nations. “It’s all related,” Rogers, R-Mich., told “Fox News Sunday." “The world sees the United States as withdrawn.” Rogers said the president’s apparent disengagement or slow response is the reason China has engaged U.S. pilots and Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved into eastern Ukraine without fear of consequence. “U.S. foreign policy is...

So far, the Senate has confirmed 14 of the 549 senior federal positions that President Trump needs to run the government and who need Senate confirmation—Cabinet secretaries and people who run the departments, bureaus, agencies and the rest of the government. The rest of the government is being run by career bureaucrats and a few Obama holdovers. There are another 120 vacant federal judgeships and, of course, the Neil Gorsuch nomination to the Supreme Court. Each requires Senate approval. White House staff is busily choosing and vetting candidates for the rest of the positions, and there undoubtedly will be many...

Scientists Claim To Tap The Free Energy Of Space by Richard Walters ("For the People" magazine) Physicist Bruce DePalma has a 100 kilowatt generator, which he invented, sitting in his garage. It could power his whole house, but if he turns it on, the government may confiscate it. Harvard educated DePalma, who taught physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 15 years, claims that his electrical generator can provide cheap, inexhaustible, self sustaining and non polluting source of energy, using principles that flout conventional physics and are still not fully understood. His N machine, as it is called, is...

I wrote this for Remnant Review in 1977. Multiply dollar figures by 4 to correct for price inflation. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From about the middle of June 1976, through January 3, 1977, I was serving my country on a full-time basis, meaning that I was deep into the Federal trough, but not paying Social Security taxes. When it is all said and done, not paying Social Security taxes for seven months was probably the single most important benefit I received for my stay in government service. This should serve...

Progress Toward the Dream of Space Drives and Stargates by Paul Gilster on May 23, 2011 by James F. WoodwardI first wrote about James Woodward’s work in my 2004 book Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration, and have often been asked since to comment further on his research. But it’s best to leave that to the man himself, and I’m pleased to turn today’s post over to him. A bit of biography: Jim Woodward earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at Middlebury College and New York University (respectively) in the 1960s. From his undergraduate days, his chief...

In a questionnaire put out by the Associated Press last week, Michigan congressmen Fred Upton (R-7th District), Mark Schauer (D-8th District) and Gary Peters (D-9th District) all expressed support for "stronger emission controls and fuel efficiency standards on cars and trucks." But some transportation experts say this will lead to higher fatality rates in Michigan and nationally. "There have been many studies showing that these standards will result in more deaths," said Steven Milloy, an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the author of the book Green Hell. "Lighter cars are associated with higher fatalities, period." All three...

The simple common belief that UFOs propagate with anti-gravity lift and “known gyroscopic” principles is not correct. That is what may have misguided country after country as they have tried to mimic UFO propulsion and navigation. What really induced engineers to develop the computer models is that simple anti-gravity lift and propulsion systems were not taking them anywhere. Soon they realized that anti-gravity is the secondary dynamic force. The computer models were showing that the flight trajectories were too flexible for any gyroscope driven just with anti-gravity lift. The model brought engineers to look into something called “inertia of an...

WE MIGHT have had a faster response to Katrina, and prevented the 9/11 attacks altogether, if only we'd followed the advice of Dick the Butcher. Dick the Butcher is the character in Shakespeare's play Henry VI who says: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Dick is a repulsive character. Shakespeare's point is that lawyers are vital to the functioning of civilized society. They are the oil in the gears of commerce, the engine of democracy. But when we have too many lawyers, and we pay them too much deference, that oil can turn into sand.

How does a cat land on its legs when dropped?ANSWER 1: Cats have the seemingly unique ability to orient themselves in a fall allowing them to avoid many injuries. This ability is attributed to two significant feline characteristics: A “righting reflex” and a unique skeletal structure. The “righting reflex” is the cat’s ability to first, know up from down, and then the innate nature to rotate in mid air to orient the body so its feet face downward. Animal experts say that this instinct is observable in kittens as young as three to four weeks, and is fully developed by...

In a commercial that ran during the Christmas-New Years holidays a few years ago, the husband was trying to keep an old car patched up, while the wife wanted him to get a new one. At the end, the wife asks: "Should an old acquaintence be forgot?" And she answers emphatically, "Yes!" No group is more in need of forgetting old political ties and making some new ones than blacks. The black vote has been almost an automatic monopoly of the Democratic Party for years. Yet the dominant forces among Democrats have agendas that are directly contrary to the interests...

The events began to unfold on the morning of June 5, 2002: Almost nine months after the terror attack on New York's World Trade Towers, the United States launched an attack on the strongholds of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Thus began the war scenario in the simulation game conducted by the School of Government and Policy at Tel Aviv University, headed by Prof. Zeev Maoz. But from that point on, the game branched out into surprising directions that left even the experienced players gaping. About two weeks ago, the participants met for three days at Kibbutz Nir Etzion. Overlooking an...