Free Republic

There are already more than 101 million working age Americans that are not employed and 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that has a job. So what in the world are we going to do when robots start taking millions upon millions more of our jobs? Thanks to technology, the balance of power between employers and workers in this country is shifting dramatically in favor of the employers. These days, many employers are wondering why they are dealing with so many human worker "headaches" when they can just use technology to...

Hillary Clinton remains the presumptive Democrat nominee for president on 2016, and if polls are to be believed, has an excellent chance of being elected. One of the most shocking elements of her past is the access the Chinese government was given to advanced missile technology during what she herself referred to as the “co-presidency” she and Bill Clinton held from 1993-2001. ~snip~ (Doug) Ross has realized that one person could make public this information, and has laid out his case for doing so in an open letter that we reprint here with permission. For the complete letter with pictures,...

A new study from the Center for Immigration Studies asks whether or not there is a shortage of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers in the United States, and their resounding conclusion is "no". The report released today and written by CIS researchers Steve Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that there are more than 5 million native-born Americans with an undergraduate degree in STEM, but not working in STEM with another 1.2 million degree holders not working at all. Additionally, there are 1.6 million foreign-born residents with an undergraduate degree in STEM that are also not working in STEM...

The idea that we need to allow in more workers with science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”) background is an article of faith among American business and political elite. But in a new report, my Center for Immigration Studies colleague Karen Zeigler and I analyze the latest government data and find what other researchers have found: The country has well more than twice as many workers with STEM degrees as there are STEM jobs. Also consistent with other research, we find only modest levels of wage growth for such workers for more than a decade. Both employment and wage data...

Appearing to confirm rumours of a $3.2 billion Apple buyout, the Beats co-founder says the Forbes rich list has changed "in a big way".

This morning I saw a lovely stained glass window, pulled out my smartphone, snapped a photo, and shot it around to friends. It’s so automatic now that I don’t even think about it. It’s like a motor skill. But wait just a moment. Also this morning, I was at the drugstore and saw a wall of film for sale, the kind you shove into a camera, send off for processing, and get glossies in return. Who does this anymore? Some people apparently. We are in the transition phase from one type of technology to another, and such stores find it...

While the 1970s are known for some terrifying fashions and the human indignity of the Disco Era, the decade (with some assists from the previous generation) also gave us some amazing technological advancements that many of us take for granted today. Here are ten that changed the world:1. Microwave Ovens Before the 1970s, our only option for heating up leftover pizza was the conventional oven and we didn’t have the luxury of 4-minute microwave popcorn (gross as it is). Though the “Radarange” was first sold in the United States in 1947, it wasn’t until the ovens became affordable for...

In a nondescript hotel ballroom last month at the South by Southwest Interactive festival, Andras Forgacs offered a rare glimpse at the sci-fi future of food. Before an audience of tech-industry types, Forgacs produced a plate of small pink wafers -- "steak chips," he called them -- and invited people up for a taste. But these were no ordinary snacks: Instead of being harvested from a steer, they had been grown in a laboratory from tiny samples of animal tissue. One taster's verdict on this Frankenmeat? Not bad, actually. "It was delicious. It tasted like a thin piece of beef...

Technological change is not a tide that lifts all boats in our economy. The truth is that it’s more like a tsunami. It threatens to overturn all the boats and drown their occupants, sparing only the lucky few who have already reached safety in the hills. That’s the kind of admission you won’t often see here in the pages of Xconomy. The X in our name, after all, stands for exponential, a reference to the stunning pace of technological progress and economic growth over the past 75 years—growth attributable largely to advances in computer hardware and software and the organizational...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will take public comments before moving forward with a new set of net neutrality rules that sparked controversy when they were leaked in a news report earlier Wednesday. The FCC will release a proposal soon to reinstate net neutrality rules that would allow broadband providers to negotiate with content providers for preferential treatment, an agency official confirmed Wednesday.

Scarlett Johansson left nude photos of herself on her computer. A hacker grabbed them and sent them to gossip websites. A Pennsylvania high school issued laptop computers to students and then remotely activated the laptops' cameras to watch the students when they were away from school. On my computer, a program called Disconnect reveals that my favorite websites spy on me and track what I like to read, what I browse, what I buy. Privacy is almost a thing of the past. As I explain on my show this week, I follow the advice of "experts." I buy anti-virus software...

'Terminator' coming alive as agency explores humanoids 'for Earth applications'While the federal government’s increased use and advocacy of drones over U.S. skies is widely known, its promotion of another technological advancement has received less attention: the accelerated deployment of “humanoid robots” into American society. WND has discovered that NASA is recruiting help from industry and academia to speed up the commercialization of such robotic humanoids “for Earth applications.” Among the applications is warfare, the agency said. NASA said technical hurdles remain before sending human-like machines into combat operations and other “hazardous and remote environments.” Among the obstacles are “object recognition/detection”...

A week after California State Senator Mark Leno (D-CA) proposed a bill requiring a kill switch for smartphones sold in the state, federal lawmakers have put forward a similar bill. On Thursday, US Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced national legislation to require a way to disable smartphones remotely. The goal is to deter theft and protect consumers, but this defense against thieves might come with greater vulnerability to hackers, according to a mobile industry trade group.

For smartphone fans around the world, things really started to get interesting over the past couple of months. First, Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S5 flagship smartphone in late February, revealing a smartphone that was quite impressive and touted a number of great new features, but failed to live up to the hype stirred up by dozens of rumors. Then, HTC unveiled its own flagship phone, the HTC One (M8), and launched it the very same day.

Children's perplexed reactions to a Sony Walkman have been caught on camera, with the majority frustrated at operating clunky buttons over a touch screen. Los Angeles-based filmmakers Benny and Rafi Fine asked volunteers aged six to 13 to guess what the bulky device was, with suggestions including a 'walkie-talkie' or 'boombox'. 'What is this?' one nine-year-old girl quizzed as she investigated the Eighties-era cassette player, while another exclaimed 'I'm not going to give up, I'm a survivor,' as she determinedly tried to figure out how it worked.

Entrepreneurs and investors say Silicon Valley's fast-growing financial ties with Russia's tech sector are being slowed down by current political tensions between the White House and the Kremlin. "It's safe to say a lot of investors here are taking a step back to see how the situation will unfold," said Alexandra Johnson, who manages a $100 million venture fund called DFJ VTP Aurora, a Menlo Park, Calif., branch of Russian bank VTB.

A pair of white jeans is a spring must-have, but it's certainly not the most practical piece of clothing you can own. One small misstep— sitting on a dirty chair, spilling just a couple drops of coffee — and your crisp pants have a huge stain that may not only ruin your day, but could ruin those jeans forever. White jeans are gorgeous, but only when they look flawless. Now, one premium denim brand has a solution to the dirty-jeans dilemma: a specially formulated, stain-resistant coating guaranteed to repel potentially damaging liquids like coffee, soda, and yes, even red wine.

https://startpage.com/eng/top-ten-ways-startpage.html

One of the primary narratives associated with comprehensive immigration reform has nothing to do with the millions of low-skill workers that would be granted an opportunity to compete against Americans for jobs. As a letter sent to the president and Congressional leaders signed by more than 100 chief executives of major tech companies and trade associations indicates, there is a shortage of highly-skilled American labor that drives reform as well. Yet as The Atlantic’s Michael S. Teitelbaum reveals, that narrative is a lie.“A compelling body of research is now available, from many leading academic researchers and from respected research organizations...

Surpassing California for the first time, Texas is leading the nation in technology-related exports, according to a new report. State companies that make computers, semiconductors and communications equipment, among other products, exported more than $45 billion in products in 2012, according to the TechAmerica Foundation, a tech industry lobbying firm. That was driven by Texas’ 7 percent growth — about $3 billion — in tech exports from 2011. Tech exports supported nearly 1.5 million jobs nationwide and about 331,000 jobs in Texas, according to the report. California, meanwhile, declined 2.8 percent, to $44.8 billion in technology exports. Technology exports accounted...