Free Republic

ChatGPT and other intelligent language tools are bad at picking stocks – but that doesn't mean there's not a role for AI in the world of investing, according to Bridgewater's co-CIO. Greg Jensen said Monday that while large language models like OpenAI's chatbot are "awful" at reading the market, the world's largest hedge fund is using them to produce hypotheses that are then tested through rigorous statistical analysis. "If somebody's going to use large language models to pick stocks, I think that's hopeless – that is a hopeless path," he told Bloomberg's "Odd Lots" podcast. Bridgewater is instead "combining large...

Years for US/nato to catch up even to current Ukrainian artillery ammo usage, starting from now...

Bethany Mandel has gotten a lot of traction for an interesting story: A small Lithuanian clothing company that sells “traditional” dresses decided to “partner” with a bearded male influencer to help market its clothing. Real women, many of whom were stalwart customers, were not happy. However, if those same women had carefully perused the website in advance, they wouldn’t have been surprised. The woke clues were all there. Son de Flor’s motto is “Timeless Linen Dresses with a Story.” If you scan the company’s Instagram page, you’ll see picture after picture of women in traditional dresses that provide full coverage...

Anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy broke into double digits in the Republican primary race, the latest Echelon Insights survey found. Similar to other national surveys, the poll finds former President Donald Trump with a strong lead in the primary race at 49 percent support. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis falls 33 points behind with 16 percent support. Ramaswamy comes in a close third place at ten percent support, just six points behind DeSantis, making him the only other candidate to break into double-digit territory.

Federal Judge Terry A. Doughty issued a temporary injunction on Independence Day blocking members of the Biden administration from having further contact with social media companies during a censorship trial. The judge, an appointee of President Donald Trump, is presiding over a case brought by Missouri and Louisiana challenging federal efforts to block alleged misinformation about the coronavirus and elections on social media.

At first, it was scary: A bag of white powder was found in the White House’s West Wing, causing the Secret Service to do a partial evacuation. However, once it became known that the white powder in the White House was cocaine, that opened the way to some interesting questions. Is there a Biden staffer (or more than one) who uses cocaine while working for a person who is theoretically the most powerful man in the world? Or has Hunter Biden, an acknowledged serious drug addict who’s allegedly “clean” and who’s been hanging around the White House lately, relapsed? The...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Sheetz convenience store is celebrating the Fourth of July holiday by dropping gas prices. Today, the price of gas has dropped to $1.776 per gallon for regular, mid-grade, E85 (flex fuel), Unleaded 88, and premium fuel gas. The special Independence Day offer is set to last all day, according to the company, or until supplies runs out.

Matthew 8:23-27 Friends, in this wonderful story of the calming of the storm at sea, we witness some of the spiritual dynamics of fear and trust. The disciples stand symbolically for all of us journeying through life within the narrow confines of the fearful ego.When they confront the storm and the mighty waves, they are immediately filled with terror. Similarly, when the trials and anxieties of life confront the ego, the first reaction is fear, since there is no power beyond itself upon which it can rely. In the midst of this terrible storm, this inner and outer tension, Jesus...

[Catholic Caucus] Analysis of motives behind Francis appointing Victor Manuel Fernandez to the Doctrine of the FaithCaminante - WandererBuenos Aires July 3, 2023A few weeks ago, when we learned of the appointment of Archbishop García Cuerva as the new Archbishop of Buenos Aires, I commented in this blog that Pope Francis had already let go of Bishop Tucho Fernández's hand. A reader sent a comment saying that, in reality, the Supreme Pontiff was reserving Tucho for Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith. I did not publish the comment because I do not publish nonsense. And in view of the...

Baseball bat-wielding gangs of children are mugging mothers and nannies on the school run in the latest crime wave to hit San Francisco. Last week Noe Valley, also known as “stroller valley” because of the growing population of young families, endured 11 phone robberies that are believed to have been carried out by the same gang who are targeting women picking up children from school. One woman was reportedly hit with a baseball bat, while another was punched in the face, before the offender ran to a getaway car and drove off. There has been a 11 per cent increase...

Police have identified the suspected gunman in the Philadelphia mass shooting that left five men dead and two children injured as 40-year-old Kimbrady Carriker. Carriker of Philadelphia was arrested shortly after the killing spree on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday in the Kingsessing neighborhood of Philadelphia, police said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Five men between the ages of 16 and 59 were killed in the shooting. The fifth victim wasn't found until four hours later when an unnamed man returned home and found his 31-year-old son dead in the living room, his body riddled with bullet...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A bus carrying migrants from a Texas border city arrived in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday for the second time in less than three weeks. The office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was not formally notified but became aware on Friday of the bus dispatched from Brownsville, Texas, to L.A. Union Station, Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said in a statement.

SOMEONE'S GETTING FIRED at the US Navy for posting photo of US Pacific Fleet saluting Russian fighter jets and a Soviet destroyer on 4th of July (American Independence Day Holiday). Whoever runs the account underestimated Internet's Eagle Eye, so good they figured out they're Russian from the equipments' silhouette alone! IntelRepublic https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1676252717323354116

President Biden’s approval rating took a dip in June, while his overall approval remains under water, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Monday found. The survey found 45 percent approving of Biden in May. That figure decreased to 44 percent in June. Meanwhile, the total disapproval has remained consistent at 54 percent over the past two months. Notably, that figure reflects a four-point increase from the 50 percent who disapproved of the 80-year-old in April. Further, the 44 percent approval in June reflects a four-point drop from the 48 percent who approved of Biden in April.

California's reparations task force wants state lawmakers to ban the arrest and prosecution of people who violate laws against public urination and other "public disorder offenses," the task force said in its final report released last week. The call to end police enforcement of laws, including those that prohibit public urination, is among the official policy recommendations listed in the final report, which contains 40 chapters and runs well over 1,000 pages. "A signification [sic] proportion of law enforcement contact with the public relates to low-level, non-violent offenses. Thus, for example, law enforcement is frequently tasked with enforcing public disorder...

The fifth victim in the Philadelphia mass shooting that left five dead and two children injured on the eve of the Fourth of July was found hours later at home by his father. Families had been enjoying the festivities in the neighborhood of Kingsessing when the gunman wielding an AR-style rifle and handgun opened fire on his unsuspecting victims. Five men between the ages of 16 and 59 were killed in the shooting. The fifth victim wasn't found until four hours later when an unnamed man returned home and found his 31-year-old son dead in the living room, his body...

Republicans are split on whether their presidential contenders should embrace a federal 15-week ban on abortion as the party tries to find its footing on the issue going into 2024. In a radio ad released Thursday in Iowa, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) vowed to back a national 15-week ban on the procedure. That ad followed a call last week from former Vice President Mike Pence, who urged the other candidates to embrace a federal 15-week ban.

New audio translation backs up claim Kerry gave Zarif secret info on Israel By DAN VERBIN https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/305351?utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

A gunman wearing a helmet and carrying an “AR-15 style rifle” was caught on camera at the entrance of an upscale Las Vegas apartment complex before an armed employee of the building opened fire and stopped him in his tracks. Questions on how the incident played out remained unanswered for days as media coverage was minimal despite the worker having foiled what appeared to be a mass shooting attempt, Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Amy Swearer claimed.

A shooting erupted hours after a local festival ended on Fourth of July weekend in Texas, leaving at least three people dead and eight others wounded, officials said. Violence broke out at about 11:40 p.m. Monday in the Como neighborhood in southwest Fort Worth, where 11 people were shot hours after the neighborhood’s annual ComoFest had ended, WFAA reported.