Free Republic

Wrecked Russian fighter jets are being found with rudimentary GPS receivers "taped to the dashboards" in Ukraine because their inbuilt navigation systems are so bad, the UK's defense secretary, Ben Wallace, said. Speaking at the National Army Museum in London, Wallace commemorated those who died in World War II and called Russia's invasion of Ukraine "senseless and self-defeating." He added there was evidence suggesting Russian military hardware was being pushed to breaking point by the invasion. "'GPS' receivers have been found taped to the dashboards of downed Russian Su-34s so pilots knew where they were, due to poor quality of...

This is a 12 minute video of some guys testing Sawyer brand permethrin spray for tick protection.

Samsung Electronics is preparing to increase prices for chip contract manufacturing in the second half of this year which comes as no surprise given skyrocketing cost pressures eating away at the company’s margins. Samsung’s contract-based chip prices are set to increase between 15-20% given the level of manufacturing complexity, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter, adding the new pricing model has been discussed and negotiated with clients. Samsung’s decision comes as the cost of energy, raw materials, equipment, freight, and labor are rapidly soaring. The move was “inevitable,” said Masahiro Wakasugi, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. Another component driving...

A Florida teenager told a sheriff's deputy who pulled her over that getting arrested had been on her 'bucket list since high school.' Janiya Shaimiracle Douglas is facing charges of fleeing and eluding police, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. Douglas, 19, was arrested on the morning of May 12 at 9:48 a.m. at 58000 Card Sound Road, Key Largo, Florida. Dosh attempted to flag down the car using his lights and siren but the car continued on initially before stopping at an intersection. The statement then reads: 'The suspect stated getting arrested was on her bucket list since...

A new paper by the Institute of Economic Affairs has proposed the need for an “innovation principle” to guard against over precaution when faced with innovative new products entering a market. To illustrate this, the paper discusses the varying regulatory treatment of reduced risk nicotine delivery products in different countries. The paper suggests that this varying treatment has created a series of natural experiments by which to judge which regulatory approach – from the liberal on the one hand and the prohibitionist on the other – to determine which leads to the most beneficial outcomes. The authors liken the less-than-perfect...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly placed his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter on hold pending an investigation into bot accounts on the platform. The stock has plummeted more than 15 percent in pre-market following Musk’s announcement released on his Twitter account. In a follow up post, Musk added that he is “still committed to the acquisition.” Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has tweeted that his deal to purchase Twitter is currently “on hold” while an investigation into the number of bots and spam accounts on Twitter is completed. Twitter claimed in a recent filing that less than...

San Francisco’s famed Bay to Breakers footrace is perhaps best known for its zany, welcoming energy. Participants making the 7.5-mile trek are dressed in elaborate costumes or in the buff, power-walkers and stragglers are encouraged to join in and even inebriated runners (though not officially encouraged) can partake in the festivities.

The current conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated how strengthening alliances and attracting new partners, a central part of the current Department of Defense (DoD) National Defense Strategy, is one of the most important ways the United States can keep our citizens safe. As part of this broader effort, the DoD has prioritized foreign military sales to ensure our allies and partners have the tools that they need to defend our common interests. Improved policies and practices have lowered costs and introduced competitive financing opportunities which have been yielding results. In fiscal year 2019, the DoD maintained sales of more than...

Russia is having to use computer chips intended for home appliances to repair its military hardware due to the impact of US sanctions. "We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian military equipment on the ground, it's filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators," commerce secretary Gina Raimondo told the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Raimondo recently met with Ukrainian officials who told her that they found parts from refrigerators and commercial and industrial machines when searching captured or abandoned Russian tanks. Raimondo told the committee that exports of US technology to Russia have fallen...

“‘And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words’” (Matthew 6:7). If we’re honest, all of us have been guilty of repetitive prayers—before meals, at prayer meetings, before bed—with little or no thought to what we are saying or how God feels when He hears us do that. But such prayers are offensive to God and should be to us as well. We should understand, however, that Jesus here is not forbidding the repetition of genuine requests. In His parable of the midnight...

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God has sworn by an oath to give us a new heart, one that is inclined to obey. God promises us not only to give us this new heart, but to write his commands on our hearts. In other words, he promises to cause us to know him. God told his people about this incredible work he would do in the Old Testament. He said, “Then I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their...

Last week’s leak of a draft decision from the Supreme Court was an unprecedented break from tradition and trust, but it is sadly emblematic of the state of our nation’s government today. The federal government’s dysfunction continues to degrade public trust in our institutions. Among the top issues affecting the American public in 2022, there is no better example than inflation to demonstrate the ongoing dysfunction of our federal government. In the early days of 2021, after nearly a year of economic chaos stemming from the global pandemic and government-imposed shutdowns, the federal government passed yet another massive bill known...

Kathy Barnette, a rising candidate in the Pennsylvania Senate Republican primary competing against Trump-endorsed Mehmet Oz and former Treasury Undersecretary David McCormick, will get a six-figure boost from the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) and its partner super PAC, Women Speak Out PAC. SBA List – which endorsed Barnette on Monday – is set to launch a six-figure digital ad campaign in Pennsylvania to support the candidate, who is a veteran and author. The ad is expected to contrast Barnette with John Fetterman, the Democrats' presumed nominee. The ad is part of a $2.3 million campaign against...

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has adopted a new definition of “woman” that would reportedly allow male-to-female transgender residents to demand inclusion as women in jails, homeless shelters, and domestic violence shelters. The ordinance, passed by a 3-2 vote on April 26, and ratified on May 10 by the same margin, adopts the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty adopted in 1979. The treaty was signed by then-President Jimmy Carter in 1980, but it was never brought to the Senate for ratification. But the ordinance goes further, expanding the definition...

Consider the mindset of your stereotypical Silicon Valley computer nerd: hyper-intelligent, introverted, socially awkward, often weird. Consider also what they are tasked to do for their day jobs. They dissect the ambiguous statements of natural language into the deterministic logic that a machine can “understand.” The resulting tangles of logic are often huge, more than any human mind can contemplate at once. So a large part of the job is organizing that logic into hierarchies so a human can focus on manageable chunks at a time. And even then, the more chunks one can hold at a time, the better....

Is there really any country left that has not had a case of Covid-19, when even an Antarctic outpost wasn’t safe? There are only two left now since North Korea is reporting its first ever case. According to state-run media reporting on the outbreak of fever, KCNA said, “up to 187,800 people are being isolated and treated.” “A fever whose cause couldn’t be identified explosively spread nationwide from late April,” the report said, according to the Daily Mail. Six people died, including one individual who tested positive for Covid-19. North Korea on Thursday confirmed its first-ever case of Covid-19, with...

The US Senate yesterday confirmed the reappointment of Jerome “Slowhand” Powell as Federal Reserve Chairman. The good news? Atlanta Fed’s Flexible CPI YoY cooled to 20% in April. The bad news? Flexible prices are still growing at 20% while wages are growing at 5.5% YoY. On the export front, export prices are cooling and were at 18% YoY in April, down slightly from March. Import prices cooled to 12% YoY as The Federal Reserve has slowed asset purchases. I would have preferred President Biden appoint a serious Federal Reserve Chairman liked Stanford University’s John Taylor (of Taylor Rule fame). In...

Official Ukrainian statements, independent news reports, local social media, and RF state-controlled news platforms on Friday said UAF advance elements had closed on Ukraine’s border with Russia at multiple locations, Fighting according to those reports was in progress for the Ukraine-side border villages of Lipsy, Vesele, Kozacha Lopan’, Pitomik and Russki Tishy, all to Kharkiv’s north. ….snip Video images made public by the RF state-controlled news platform Readovka on May 13 showed scattered mortar or artillery strikes purportedly hitting fields and homes near the Solokhi, some 10 km inside Russia. There was no outside confirmation of the bombardment, but...

KEY LARGO, Fla. - A 19-year-old South Florida woman who fled from law enforcement in the Florida Keys told the deputy who caught up to her that getting arrested was on her "bucket list." Janiya Shaimiracle Douglas, from Homestead, was charged with fleeing and eluding, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said. The deputy spotted the woman's Toyota sedan "speeding and driving recklessly" just before 8 a.m. Thursday morning on Card Sound Road in Key Largo. He turned on his lights and siren but said the driver did not immediately stop.