Free Republic

South Korean researchers have developed a new technique for creating synthetic diamonds — and they think they’ve only scratched the surface of its potential. Synthetic diamonds: Aside from jewelry, diamonds are used in drilling, manufacturing, healthcare, quantum computing, and more. The cost and uncertainty of finding the right kind of diamonds in nature inspired scientists to see if they could make them in the lab. In the 1950s, a team at General Electric pulled it off using a process called “high-pressure high-temperature” (HPHT), which mimics the conditions that create diamonds in nature. This process is still used to make 99%...

This is an interesting find though it’s not clear how significant it is yet. A Chinese virologist submitted a complete genetic sequence for the coronavirus to a US database two weeks before China turned over a nearly identical sequence to the world. At the time, no one recognized the significance of the submission and it was deleted because some technical information was not included in the submission.The sequence was submitted by Dr. Lili Ren, an accomplished virologist at the Institute of Pathogen Biology of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, China, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party...

"We must firmly resist this racist, anti-communist witch hunt and remain committed to building an international peace movement," said Code Pink and ANSWER Coalition. On Monday, anti-war organizations across the United States issued an open letter to reject a trend that targets China and to call on people to reject what they call the "new McCarthyism." "From The New York Times to Fox News, there's a resurgence of the Red Scare that once shattered many lives and threatened movements for change and social justice," said the letter titled "McCarthyism is back: Together we can stop it." It warned the new...

An inexpensive, environmentally friendly technique for lithium recycling could help ensure we have enough of the valuable metal to power the clean energy future — if it works as well in the real world as it does in the lab. The challenge: Transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) is a key part of combating climate change, and because lithium-ion batteries can store a lot of energy for their size, they’re our best option (so far) for powering them. The lithium needed to create those batteries is a finite resource, though, and mining it is environmentally destructive. Demand for lithium extends beyond...

The green energy group behind a study cited in Consumer Product Safety commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.'s call to ban gas stoves has partnered with the Chinese government to implement an "economy-wide transformation" away from oil and gas. Colorado-based nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute, which published the December study that attributes 13 percent of U.S. childhood asthma cases to gas-stove use, is hardly staffed by an objective group of scientists. The organization is demanding "systemic change and economy-wide transformation" to address a climate crisis it says we must go to great lengths to avoid. In 2013, for example, the Rocky Mountain Institute...

Although this has not yet been announced officially, the news has already been leaked: Tomorrow, July 17, the Archlayman of Chicago, ‘Cardinal’ Blase Cupich, will announce that the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP) will be shut down in Chicago effective August 1. The ICKSP is a Traditional Latin Mass community founded in 1990 that uses only the Roman Missal of 1962. It is one of the so-called “Ecclesia Dei communities”, meaning they have always been in full communion with the Vatican II Church and are operating on the basis of the indult granted by “Pope” John Paul...

The 13th century Trisulti Charterhouse in the province of Frosinone, central Italy.The Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which is working with President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon to found an academy in Italy to defend Judeo-Christian civilisation, today fought off the Italian government’s latest attempt to remove the academy from an historic abbey near Rome. DHI chairman Benjamin Harnwell, who has always protested his innocence in the face of the state’s accusations, said the court action to remove him from the Trisulti Charterhouse has been entirely politically motivated. “The Ministry of Culture simply wanted me out because I proudly work...

Students at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will be required to participate in a diversity training seminar this winter. The university told students recently that they will not be permitted to register for their spring courses until they complete the diversity training program. According to a report by Campus Reform, students at MIT will be now be required to participate in a diversity training session before they are able to enroll in their spring courses. “You will have a registration hold placed on your account and will be unable to register for IAP and/or spring 2021...

Has America spent the last few hundred years misunderstanding the Declaration of Independence? That's what Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, believes. According to Allen, the paragraph beginning 'We hold these truths to be self-evident' has been misinterpreted thanks to a rogue period that was not in the original document. And that could completely transform our understanding of how the Founding Fathers viewed the role of government, The New York Times reported.

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is set to open early next year. […] The institute is being built on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The centerpiece is a full-scale representation of the U.S. Senate Chamber. …

Forget about the 1 percent versus the 99 percent. It’s really more like the 0.000001 percent versus everybody else. A tiny group — mostly comprising the Obama White House, a bunch of Washington Democrats, progressive economists, and the media elite — continues to fixate on income inequality as America’s greatest challenge. Most everybody else, the 99.999999 percent, sees things differently. Surveys continue to show Americans most worried about jobs and economic growth, not the income gap between the top and bottom. It’s a rational view given new employment data from the government. The January jobs report showed only 113,000 net...

It's real! Photo thanks to TahariRider. Recently I noticed that many of the Islamic supremacists on Twitter were sending out identical tweets. When I asked the rabidly antisemitic pro-Hamas propagandist Linda Sarsour about it, she admitted that she and others were all working from the same talking points:

Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) has a post on the Hill’s Congress Blog highlighting a bizarre new regulation from the EPA requiring some gas stations to sell at least four gallons of gasoline at a time. It affects those that pump both E10 and E15 (gas with 10 percent or 15 percent ethanol) through the same hose. Since E15 is pretty terrible for small engines and old cars (Sensenbrenner says it’s “like metal in a microwave for a small engine”), the theory is that when customers whose engines cannot handle it are buying gas,

The White House announced today that colleges and universities will also be forced to join religious employers in instituting the new HHS mandate that requires them to provide coverage for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions. The Health and Human Services Department released information Friday afternoon saying college student health care plans will be treated like employees’ plans — making them subject to the mandate the Obama administration put in place that has upset pro-life groups for its violation of religious liberties. The decision means college students — who already get abortions at the highest rate compared with...

There is a lot of talk, during these pre-presidential election days, of whether Republicans should stick to fiscal policy issues or include social issues as well in their platforms. Liberals are attacking fiscal/social conservatives, and some “establishment” Republicans are also criticizing their socially conservative colleagues, fearful that Independents will be turned off by the thought that Republicans are appearing rigid, strict, and hard. Political strategy aside, however, what often strikes me about these debates, which always seem centered on how conservative Republicans are trying to force their social views on the nation, is that liberals do it all the time...

Catholic bishop addresses Mormon Institute students    ‘Our Shared History, Our Shared Values, and Our Shared Challenges’ By David HoefferlePublic Affairs Director, Southern Arizona Published: Monday, March 28, 2011   TUCSON, ARIZ. Calling it a “historic occasion,” Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson encouraged Latter-day Saints and Catholics to stand side-by-side in their joint responsibility to protect freedom of worship throughout the world. Bishop Kicanas, past vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and current chairman of the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services, presented a stirringly inspirational young adult fireside as the...

A groundbreaking ceremony has been slated for early next month for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Dorchester. The ceremony is to be held at the future site of the institute, next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, a statement from the institute said.

As one walks the streets of Medellin’s communas, it is striking how much more developed these poor and crime-ridden neighborhoods are compared to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, the barrios of Cuidad Juarez, or shantytowns of Johannesburg. The hilly streets are wide and paved, and electricity, gas, and water are provided to over 90 percent of the population. Yet, despite the impressive public-goods distribution and other laudable shift in policies in Medellin over the past decade, homicides and other violence have increased again. With pervasive urban crime increasingly a 21st century phenomenon and urban "ungoverned spaces" posing important threats...

But groundbreaking in spring The founding president of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate yesterday said he is giving up on seeking federal funds for the legacy project, $30 million short of the total the institute has requested from Congress. “We had this request in and we felt that either we get it this year or we don’t, and we’re not going to go back,” said Peter Meade, president of the institute. “I doubt we’re going back to ask for any more. The institute, a $150 million project to honor the liberal lion, already has nabbed $38...

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate today unveiled renderings for its approximately $60 million site, which is expected to break ground in Dorchester this fall. The institute will be located next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum on the University of Massachusetts-Boston campus. [Snip] Sen. Kennedy envisioned the institute as a living, breathing, constantly evolving bipartisan center that would reflect his passion for education, history and civic engagement. The institute hopes to raise $125 million to cover the building expenses and start an endowment, Meade said. Federal earmarks worth $38.6 million have already been...