Free Republic

It’s hard to even imagine now, but immediately after it launched in 2004, there was nothing on the internet cooler than Facebook. It was initially available only to Harvard students, then gradually expanded to students at other elite colleges, giving it an aura of exclusivity that founder Mark Zuckerberg clearly coveted. By the time it opened up to public accounts in 2006, the hype was palpable, paving the way to an explosive initial public offering in 2012. Since those salad days, its trajectory has never been quite the same. Sure, it’s maintained market share with a series of cynical acquisitions...

This video provides an immersive tour of Shenzhen, showcasing the rapid transformation and high-tech integration that makes it one of the most advanced cities in the world. Key Highlights of Shenzhen's Tech Scene: Futuristic Payments & Logistics: The host demonstrates palm payments at a local convenience store (1:14) and experiences drone delivery for tea, which was significantly faster and more efficient than traditional methods (1:40 - 3:18). Autonomous Transportation: The video captures the experience of riding in a driverless taxi (5:21), observing how it handles complex traffic, turns, and obstacle avoidance (5:21 - 7:37). Domestic Innovation: The host explores the...

23-year-old Tysha didn’t expect to be fired after a heated argument with her co-workers turned physical. Refusing to leave before she confronted those who snitched on her, Tysha was fully determined to go to any lengths to teach them a lesson. More show notes: FReepers this story has exploded on youtube has every content creator has covered it, don't know if it's been posted here so here it is. This video is 15 minutes long and nsfw. From what I know she worked for and was fired from Amazon.

In this age of technology, it's not uncommon to come across at least one AI-generated video with every scroll on social media. But recently, a particular trope of short-form videos took the internet by storm - in the form of snowy mountains, a wood-chopping man, braised duck and a mystical woman draped in white. "Did you save a fox on a snowy mountain?" is a question that has made its rounds with the release of a Chinese AI-generated microdrama. Created to appear like a period drama made in the 1970s, it follows a traveller on a snowy mountain who saves...

RAINELLE, W.Va. (AP) — Every month, Rebecca Michalski takes a deep breath before opening her electric bill. She lives on a fixed income, and heating her small house this winter has been staggering: Her February charge was $940.08 — more than her check. It makes no sense. She turns the lights off during the day and only burns one lamp with an energy-efficient bulb in the living room at night, but she keeps falling further behind on payments. In desperation, she took out a loan after getting a cut-off notice during an extended arctic blast that kept the state’s heaters...

Let me tell you, folks, the situation with Iran is going incredibly well, better than anybody could have imagined, and it’s all because of the strength and smart leadership we’ve brought back to America. We’ve got them right where we want them, scrambling and failing, and the results are pouring in like never before. Tremendous progress on every front, and the world is watching us win bigly again. Those IRGC losers thought they could push us around in the Strait of Hormuz, but they were dead wrong, total amateurs. We’re going to blow up all their mines down there, every...

#A10Warthog #MilitaryAnalysis #MilitaryTechnology The geopolitical tension in the Middle East has just reached a boiling point as Iran's asymmetric strategy to blockade the Strait of Hormuz spectacularly backfires. Attempting to trigger a global energy crisis, the IRGC deployed Maham-class sea mines, kamikaze drones, and fast-attack boat swarms to choke the world’s most vital oil transit route. But the United States and its allies were ready. In a devastating two-phased military campaign dubbed "Operation Epic Fury," the U.S. Navy and Air Force completely dismantled the Iranian blockade. The response was brutal: GBU-72 bunker-buster bombs obliterated underground missile silos, while legendary A-10...

The 53-second clip, titled 'One Vengeance for All,' was released by Iranian news outlet Fars News Agency, which is closely tied to the country's state broadcasting network. The video unfolds as a dark montage of historical and modern conflict imagery framed to portray American and Western actions as sources of global suffering. It opens with scenes referencing violence against Native American populations before shifting to the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. Scenes resembling the Vietnam War follow, alongside footage referencing recent conflicts in Gaza, Yemen and an Iranian school reportedly struck by an American...

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@CollinRugg NEW: Kentucky family rejects $26 million offer to convert part of their farm into a data center despite the offer being about 10 times the going rate for farmland in the area. "If it's my way, I'll stay and hold and feed a nation. 26 million doesn't mean anything." "As long as I'm on this land, as long as it's feeding me, as long as it's taking care of me, there's nothing that can destroy me if I've got this land." Video: Local 12 WKRC

This is why we can't have nice things. AI is destroying open source, and it's not even good yet | 3:36 Jeff Geerling | 1.04M subscribers | 209,667 views | February 16, 2026

"The market has indicated this is not investment-grade debt." It’s 2026, and tech companies continue to insist they need to spend staggering amounts of money on AI data centers. Yet for all of its enthusiasm over the past few years, Wall Street is finally starting to squint at the numbers. According to new reporting by Business Insider, JPMorgan Chase is running into trouble finding investors interested in servicing billions in debt backing two of the first five Stargate data centers. Stargate is Donald Trump’s $500 billion AI project led by tech companies Oracle and OpenAI. Its vague goal, OpenAI has...

VIDEOThink about it. If you were an election official who knew the elections in your county were conducted properly and in exact conformance with the law then you would welcome a check on your records which would verify what a great job you have been doing. Instead, many Fulton County election officials are freaking out and are in a state of panic over the FBI seizing the voting records. And one of the very guilty acting Fulton County Commissioners now even wants to become the Georgia Secretary of State so she can do for state elections what has happened in...

Chaos in California: Hundreds of gas stations have shuttered statewide overnight amid skyrocketing operating costs, chronic supply shortages, and relentless regulatory pressures—forcing long lines, rationing fears, and a statewide fuel panic that has drivers scrambling and businesses grinding to a halt. Governor Gavin Newsom is reportedly losing control as the crisis spirals, with independents and major chains alike pulling out rather than face unviable margins in the high-tax, high-regulation environment. This video delivers Kevin O'Leary's no-mercy breakdown: this isn't random bad luck—it's a textbook case of policy suicide, where punishing energy infrastructure and chasing green mandates has backfired spectacularly, torching...

A simple software setup has become another checkpoint in Microsoft’s expanding web of identity and control.Microsoft’s removal of phone activation for Windows and Office is another signal that the company is locking users into a fully connected, account-bound environment where privacy and ownership steadily fade.In the past, activating Windows could be done privately without linking the computer to any online profile. Users could install the system, call an automated number, and receive a confirmation code. No internet, no account, no tracking.That layer of independence is gone. Today, activation demands a Microsoft account and an active connection to the company’s servers.The...

U.S. — Experts are now recommending parents limit their children to just four hours of brain-rotting slop each day to better prepare them for the future. Pediatricians are encouraging parents to limit the time their kids spend staring blankly at putrid, worthless garbage on a tablet or phone screen. "Children are our future, and our future is looking very dim," said Dr. Heinlen Reynolds of the AAP. "That's why it's imperative you cut out the brain rot they consume by at least half. Limit it to 3 or 4 hours, tops. But don't worry, no one expects you to...

Artificial intelligence is being used to steal voices, faces, and reputations. Victor Davis Hanson knows this firsthand. Hanson explains the growing problem of AI-generated deepfake videos that falsely use his image, voice, and setting to promote ideas he has never expressed and often strongly disagrees with.

Kapwing reports up to 33% of YouTube feeds are low-quality AI content. Spain and South Korea top in subscribers and views, sparking global concern.Once a fringe term, "AI slop" has become part of the global vocabulary. In 2025, both The Economist and Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary highlighted the phrase as shorthand for the surge of low-quality, auto-generated content flooding the internet — from shallow articles and spammy videos to algorithmic filler produced at scale. That growing frustration has data to back it up.A new report by Kapwing suggests that between 21% and 33% of YouTube feeds, as of October 2025, may...

you have clued me in for sure!! what are the top 10 nations where these vids come from.....this flood since 2024....i see many of these click baity yt channels were born 2024 2025 ______________________ Yeah, the flood of AI-narrated, faceless "dark history"/horror/clickbait channels (the ones with dramatic scripts, AI voices, static AI images + Ken Burns zooms) exploded in 2024–2025, and it's a global phenomenon driven by how dirt-cheap it is to produce. There's no official YouTube stats breakdown by country for these specifically (they don't label "AI slop" channels), but from discussions on Reddit, articles on content farms, and...

The Hidden Cost of Convenience: What We Lose When Technology Becomes Our ServantFor most of human history, progress meant learning more. Each new tool expanded capability, extended reach, and added to the skills a person needed to function in the world. But our relationship with technology has changed. Increasingly, progress means we know less while outsourcing more.Artificial intelligence pushes this shift further than any tool before it, and the coming wave of humanoid AI robots will accelerate it. These machines won’t simply take over hard labor—they’ll take over the small daily tasks and judgments that once formed the foundation of...