Free Republic

Residents of Lilliput, one of the islands of “Gulliver’s Travels,” dubbed Gulliver “man-mountain.” In the plight for his freedom, “said man-mountain” promised to, “be aiding and assisting to our workmen, in helping to raise certain great stones.” Perhaps a figurative stone is the weight of the political moderates. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) the senator, as opposed to John Fetterman the candidate, seems to be doing this in a Sen. Joe Manchin-esque (D-W.Va.) manner. We might want to start calling the 6-foot-8 Fetterman man-Manchin. Capturing the politically murky middle is a difficult task, particularly in a journalistic environment where extremes get clicks....

Seventy years after the Korean War ended, veteran Earl Meyer is still waiting for his Purple Heart. The 96-year-old Minnesotan can still feel the shrapnel that remains lodged in his leg that he says happened when his platoon came under heavy fire in June 1951. Doctors have said it’s too close to his sciatic nerve to remove. In recent years, at the urging of his daughters who he only opened up to about his war experiences as he got older, Meyer decided to apply for a Purple Heart, but he has repeatedly been denied as decades have faded positive proof.

Researchers used artificial intelligence to extract the first word from one of the first texts in a charred scroll from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which has been unreadable since a volcanic eruption in AD 79 — the same one that buried nearby Pompeii...The Vesuvius Challenge, a contest with $1,000,000 (£821K) in prizes for those who can use modern technology to decipher the words of these scrolls, has awarded a 21-year-old undergraduate student at the University of Nebraska $40,000 (£32.8K) for being the first to read a word from one of the ancient Herculaneum scrolls.Luke Farritor, who is at...

Take a spin through the conservative media ecosystem - or listen to most of the Republican presidential primary field - and you’ll learn one major takeaway: The “woke mind virus” has fully infected America’s largest corporations. A non-exhaustive list of companies that personalities on Fox News have derisively called “woke” over the last couple years - for reasons spanning featuring trans people in ad campaigns to running corporate DEI programs - includes Bud Light, Hershey’s, Pizza Hut, Walmart, Nike, Kaiser Permanente, Chick-Fil-A, the whole airline industry and the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Naturally, conservative influencers are taking the opportunity to...

M&M’s, a Mars, Incorporated product, published a press release announcing a rebrand centered on the brand’s commitment to inclusion and global belonging. As another brand taking steps to increase societal impact (e.g., the effort includes creation of the M&M’S FUNd to track the brand’s impact on its mission, which will offer resources, mentorship, opportunities and financial support in the arts and entertainment space to help ensure people have access to experiences where everyone feels they belong), perhaps it is time to pause and reflect on the need for brands to make such a shift and then promote it. When the...

M&M’s has added a new “spokescandy” to their cartoon character lineup, designed to “represent acceptance and inclusivity.” The character is the first new addition to the lineup in a decade. “Designed to represent acceptance and inclusivity, our newest member is known for her earnest self-expression,” the brand said in a statement. “Keen self-awareness, authenticity and confidence are the driving forces behind Purple’s charm and quirky nature. She joins the legendary cast of M&M’S characters, who recently were given a refresh with updated looks and more nuanced personalities back in January.” In January, the brand gave the Green candy a makeover...

.. Yet Massachusetts political elites should instead see (These stories of alienation and angst) as a flashing neon warning sign that our ultra-blue political culture is bleeding purple at the grassroots—a slow-but-steady drip, drip, drip that seems likely to be accelerated by fallout from the pandemic and economic pressures....And in a state with only 460,000 registered Republicans, Donald Trump won more than a million votes—twice. ... There’s also been backlash among parents against long-standing efforts to bring sexual health education to public schools, a topic that began bubbling up again after Boston and Worcester adopted new curricula last year. Mayra...

Researchers at Cambridge University have developed a video game which teaches people how to spread misinformation about Covid-19. The aim of Go Viral! is to make it easier for players to spot fake news in the future.

UPSTATE, S.C. (WSPA) – While driving around town you may have noticed an increase in street lights around the Upstate that are turning purple. 7 News’ Kristen Cheatam reached out to Duke Energy and they said this change in color is due to a manufacturer defect with their LED Lights. According to the statement, Duke Energy has been upgrading many of their older and less efficient lights with LED lighting over the past few years. Several hundreds of these white, street lights across the Upstate are now malfunctioning causing the lights to gradually turn deep purple. Other utility companies across...

WASHINGTON—President-elect Joe Biden is set to be sworn in as president on Jan. 20 amid unparalleled security measures and the pandemic lockdown, making it one of the most untraditional inaugurations in U.S. history. Like many predecessors, Biden is going to be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol building. But the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, which normally draws hundreds of thousands of Americans, has been canceled, to be replaced by a virtual parade. Inaugural balls have been canceled as well. The viewing stand near the White House has been dismantled, making this event likely the smallest inauguration in...

LOS ANGELES, California — Joe Biden continued his attacks on President Trump after speaking at a union conference on Friday afternoon, calling the president "unhinged" and saying he was "concerned" over what he will do next. "We gotta get something straight: All this talk from the president about corruption comes from the most corrupt president we've had in modern history. He's the definition of corruption," Biden said at the Unions for All Summit hosted by the Service Workers International Union in Los Angeles, California. He added: "I worry about what he's going to do, not about me and my family....

COAL GROVE, Ohio (CNN Newsource) - The water in Coal Grove, Ohio turned purple overnight! The purple water impacted hundreds of people in Lawrence County.

A well-funded and subversive leftist movement of teachers in the United States threatens to tilt the political balance nationwide in the direction of Democrats across the country as Republicans barely hang on in key states that they need to hold for President Donald Trump to win re-election and for Republicans to have a shot at retaking the House and holding onto their Senate majority. This teachers union effort, called #RedforEd, has its roots in the very same socialism that President Trump vowed in his 2019 State of the Union address to stop, and it began in its current form in...

America the Beautiful sings of "purple mountain majesties," but after deadly Hurricane Michael passed through Florida's panhandle, it was the skies that turned an eerie purple.... Reporters and residents shared images of post-storm skies ranging from a light lavender to a deep violet, and it turns out there's a scientific explanation for the unusual hues.

‘Previously unreleased Prince music is “coming soon,” estate adviser Troy Carter tells Variety, although he declined to specify any further details about the recordings. “He was a guy who practically lived in a recording studio, and once we started going through [the unreleased material] we really started finding some gems,” Carter, who is also Spotify’s global head of creative services, said earlier this month. “I heard some music the other night that was pretty mind-blowing and we’re getting some stuff mixed right now. We’ve got great projects in the works that I’m excited to talk about. “So the answer is...

Purple, the same color as sour grapes, is not the color of unity. Purple is a color dividing America Up until 2008, American voters sent presidents to the White House. Some presidents were better than others, but at least they arrived as presidents. In 2008, American voters elected a community organizer as president, kicking off a new era in which activists would continue to be elected as presidents.

George Soros’ direct involvement in spreading the unrest in the United States triggered by the recent victory of Donald Trump amid the US elections is hardly a secret to anyone now. A financial analyst of Live Trading News, Paul Ebeling, is convinced that the Clintons, who both received millions of dollars in campaign contributions and Clinton Foundation donations from George Soros, were, in fact, helping to launch Soros’s Purple Revolution in America.

"Have a look at that dark purple blob on the left, there." With those words, scientists aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus uncovered a marine mystery: a small purple orb tucked halfway under a rock off the coast of California. Researchers are so far stumped as to what the colorful, bumpy little ball might be. Their best guess is that it might be a gastropod (a mollusk such as a snail or slug that belongs to the class Gastropoda) called a pleurobranch — and possibly a new species.

Sen. Karin Housley says that she plans to introduce a bill Monday hoping to make the color Minnesota's. Housley says she's a huge Prince fan and that seeing the world lit up in purple makes her proud. She says Prince was special and "he was ours."

Lindsay Hasz and her husband were recently enjoying a rare evening without kids when they decided to dine at Issaquah's Montalcino Ristorante Italiano. Hasz ordered the frutti di mare, a traditional Italian medley of seafood and shellfish. Then she bit into something unexpected. "It was quite jarring," she said. "In fact, I thought I almost broke my tooth it was so hard." Inside the meat of a clam on her dish she found what looked like a pearl. "I thought maybe it was an earring from an employee in the kitchen and it fell into my dish," Hasz said. She...