Free Republic

They say “never meet your heroes…” And if you’ve spent any time online lately, you’ll see why that advice keeps coming up. In one viral thread, people were asked to name celebrities that are portrayed as nice in the media, but are actually jerks in real life. Personal encounters were quickly shared by restaurant staff, airport workers, crew members, and people who just happened to bump into someone famous during their day. Like the time someone claimed Drake got into a screaming match with a restaurant manager. Or the many comments about Kourtney Kardashian being dismissive and rude to service...

President Trump debuted what appears to be a noticeably darker hairstyle Friday, sparking a social media firestorm as he arrived in New Jersey for the weekendThe shift from his signature blond to a brunette shade caught Americans off guard, with millions commenting online about the dramatic changeTrump recently pushed back on wig allegations, pointing to a windy 2024 campaign rally as proof his hair is 100% realPresident Donald Trump turned heads Friday when he stepped off Air Force One in New Jersey with what looked like a dramatically darker hairstyle. The commander-in-chief, known for decades for his signature blond hair,...

A GHOST WRITER is haunting the English language. The linguistic spectre can turn its hand to prose, poetry, journalese and corporate jargon. It is frightfully versatile: you can get it to mimic Shakespeare’s sonnets or a schlocky beach read; Ernest Hemingway’s taut prose or the office-printer manual. It is frightfully fast, churning out thousands of words a minute. (Hemingway rarely produced as many in a day, and required much more booze.) Wordsmiths are spooked. AI writing is everywhere. It is in your inbox and on your LinkedIn feed. It is all over the internet, drafting more than a third of...

Terrifying footage shows a Russian drone hunting a street vendor in Ukraine – as Moscow intensifies its drone and missile attacks against the country. The nerve-wracking video, which has sparked allegations of war crimes from Ukrainian officials, shows a vegetable vendor being chased around his van stand by the low-flying craft before it explodes just as he dives behind his vehicle. The vendor, a man in his 50s, survived the blast but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries, officials said. An explosion occurring between two vehicles, with the Ukrainian National Police emblem visible in the corner.A Russian drone taunted and hunted...

It was just after 5 a.m. on a Monday morning when Christian Faith Madison stepped onto an Alabama interstate and into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The 29-year-old mother and accountant was pronounced dead at 5:31 a.m. in middle of Interstate 22 in Jefferson County on June 9, 2025. Madison’s death was one of many cases reported as a “pedestrian fatally struck” in the Birmingham area. Attorneys representing the executor of her estate and Madison’s young son say her death was no accident. They say Madison died by suicide after months of encouragement from ChatGPT. A wrongful death product...

When New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data centers via executive order, it became the nation's first statewide ban. It will likely be popular. Polls find widespread opposition to data centers, and the objections seem to be growing. Around 70% oppose the construction of a new artificial intelligence data center in their area, with 48% strongly opposed. Only 27% favor it. Even in Texas, the energy-rich state with the most data centers, Gov. Greg Abbott has called for a ban on new developments in rural areas. The panic surrounding data centers is highly reminiscent...

Violent threats against AI companies are rising and spilling over into real-world security incidentsSAN FRANCISCO—A security guard at Anthropic rushed to stop the man sneaking into the lobby of the world’s most-valuable AI startup.The man had entered by following closely behind a badge-swiping employee. He showed the guard an envelope marked with the name of a top Anthropic executive. The executive was “going to be killed,” he told the guard, and he needed to warn someone, according to records of the April 15 incident viewed by The Wall Street Journal.The encounter, which took place five days after an attempted firebombing...

You’ve spent years building a body of work. Your methods, your frameworks, your unique perspective. So when you use AI to write new content in different formats, the last thing you want is for it to undermine everything you’ve created. But that’s exactly what happens when large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok insert their telltale phrases into your writing.Large language models change fast. The giveaway signs of ChatGPT-generated content from 2023 are mostly gone. Lengthy introductions, ethical consideration paragraphs, words like “delve” and “landscape” have been trained out or flagged by savvy users. Even the signs that...

What if every U.S. state were a person you could meet on the street, in a diner, out in the wilderness, or behind a smoky grill? This coast-to-coast collection imagines exactly that—one woman for every state, each captured in a moment that reflects her home’s spirit, culture, quirks, and contradictions.

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