Free Republic

Recognizing that Classical Music has implied White Supremacy for centuries is hard for those that study the art form. In fact, that correlating The Met’s continued programming of dead white men to the rise of White Supremacist tendencies in America is not a far stretch is starting to become apparent to those that follow and review the company’s season announcements. Of course Italian Opera traditions are rich and are the backbone for many composers, but when an American institution, founded on the grounds

Speaking at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards in London on Monday, British Horseracing Authority (BHA) chief Nick Rust said the sport needs to question whether it has a problem with “unconscious bias”. The betting industry bigwig slammed figures which showed that nine in 10 of the 265 nominations received for the awards, which mark the contributions of around 6,000 people who work in Britain’s horse racing and breeding industries, were from a white British or Irish background. “We need to look at what lies behind this and ensure far better representation across the various minority groups in future...

Days after South Korea’s chief proponent of regulating cryptocurrency, Jung Ki-joon, was found mysteriously dead in his home, South Korea apparently has decided not to crack down further on trading in bitcoin and other cybercurrencies. On Tuesday, Choe Heung-ski, chief of South Korea’s Finance Supervisory Service, told reporters that the government would support cryptocurrency trading rather than heavily regulating it or banning it completely.

The damage from the actions of citizens of PRC in Primorye amounted to more than 50 million rubles. They face a lengthy imprisonment if convicted. Citizens of China are jailed before trial in Primorye for attempting to illegally export a large batch of wild animal parts, including the endangered Amur tiger, as well as firearms, ammunition and amber to the PRC, PRIMPRESS reports citing the press service of the Amur Tiger Protection Center. According to the experts, the main part of the contraband are the derivatives of at least five individuals of the Amur tiger (clad skins, 18 claws, bones...

Apple releases macOS 10.13.3 supplemental update with with Telugu text bug fixes Apple has released macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update with a fix to CoreText wherein a Telugu character could crash text apps. Apple addressed a memory corruption issue via improved input validation. macOS 10.13.3 Supplemental Update is available via Software Update. Apple releases iOS 11.2.6, watchOS 4.2.3, and tvOS 11.2.6 with with Telugu text bug fixes Apple has released iOS 11.2.6, watchOS 4.2.3, and tvOS 11.2.6 with fixes to CoreText wherein a Telugu character could crash text apps. Apple addressed a memory corruption issue via improved input validation....

If America cannot have reasonable gun control, can we at least stop criminals from weaponizing pizza? This is one of no fewer than 45 questions that will run through your mind while viewing the below story, a context-free excerpt posted in a local Nextdoor neighborhood forum. What the tale of the infamous Pizza Bandit of Minneapolis lacks in substance, it makes up for in visuals. As captured and shared by the (consistently wonderful) Best of Nextdoor Twitter account, these images of a pizza slice "strategically" wedged in front of a motion sensor light has the subject line "Suspicious activity." Anyone...

Conservatives are demanding that ‘concealed-carry’ language hitch a ride on any bill to strengthen background checks. President Donald Trump’s tentative embrace of a narrow background-checks bill is about to hit a towering hurdle: members of his own party. The White House is signaling support for a bipartisan bill that would enhance reporting of violent criminals to the FBI’s background-check database in order to stop them from buying firearms. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) is trying to round up support for it along with the White House — a formidable duo from a party that typically shuns any talk of...

Is your handset doing its best? Alvaro Reyes via Unsplash _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ After a year or two, your trusty smartphone may not race along at the same speed it used to. You might feel like it has slowed down a little, but before you go in for an upgrade, you should be more scientific about your hunch. To know for sure whether there's a drop-off, here's how to run some benchmarks and speed tests on your phone—and boost its performance if it falls short. Benchmark basics On personal computers, benchmarking has been around for years. Benchmarks are tests that measure the...

The Long Now Foundation’s clock is a symbol for multi-generational thinking Jeff Bezos wants us all to be good ancestors. The Amazon supremo just tweeted that installation has begun on one of his pet projects of the last decade, the 10,000 Year Clock, also called the Clock of the Long Now. Designed to stay accurate for that huge time period, the giant clock will tick once a year, moving its century hand every 100 years, and send out a cuckoo once a millennia – just 10 times in its life. And it costs US$ 42 million. What is Bezos thinking?...

Watchdogs upheld two complaints from viewersA "dangerous" TV ad showing a woman chewing gum while playing football has been shown the red card. Watchdogs upheld two complaints from viewers who feared the ad for Wrigley's Extra might encourage kids to carry out the "dangerous practice" of chewing gum while playing footie. The ad, which was seen last September, was found to be in breach of rules regarding children plus harm and offence. It was banned from being shown again, and Wrigley's - based in Devon - were warned not to show people chewing gum while playing sport in any future...

A Japanese company is planning to build the world's tallest wooden skyscraper with 90 percent of the building made of wood. Sumitomo Forestry says its wooden high-rise — dubbed the W350 — will be 350 meters tall and the planned structure will be a hybrid of mostly wood and steel. The 70-storey building, expected to be built in Tokyo, will comprise of stores, offices, hotels and private homes, the company noted in plans released earlier in February. Sumitomo Forestry, which notes on its website that "happiness grows from trees," said it aimed to create environmentally-friendly, timber-utilizing cities which "become forests...

Managerialism’s ideal is a society in which every individual has an equal chance to develop and realize his merit and be rewarded by society for it. This is a process of individual transformation and empowerment. Networking and mentoring programs build personal skills toward increasing personal value, self-affirmation, and self-realization. Diversity training is a transformative educational experience which both explores the self and creates cultural competencies. Even white men can gain marketable interpersonal skills and realize multicultural character ideals through diversity.

It’s a new year and I’ve got a new gym membership. I went the other morning. It was 8 degrees outside. And every woman in there was wearing skintight, Saran-wrap-thin yoga pants. Many were dressed in the latest fashion — leggings with patterns of translucent mesh cut out of them, like sporty doilies. “Finally,” these women must have thought, “pants that properly ventilate my outer calves without letting a single molecule of air reach anywhere else below my belly button.” Don’t get me wrong. I have yoga pants — three pairs. But for some reason none of them cover my...

Scientists searching space for intelligent life already have a difficult job, but some are now saying their task is being made even tougher because of digital currencies like Bitcoin. “We’d like to use the latest GPUs (graphics processing units)… and we can’t get ’em,” Dr. Dan Werthimer told the BBC. The chief scientist of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI Project, says the surging demand for GPUs from cryptocurrency miners is leaving the computer chips in short supply. “This is a new problem, it’s only happened on orders we’ve been trying to make in the last couple of months,”...

Disney-Marvel’s “Black Panther” is re-writing the record books, topping “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” for the second-highest four-day domestic opening of all time, with $242 million at 4,020 North American locations. The superhero pic set a record for top Monday domestic gross ever, with $40.2 million, edging the previous high set by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at $40.1 million. The Monday total came in $7 million above the studio’s projections and lifted the four-day haul to $242 million. “Black Panther” has grossed the second-highest four-day total of all time, behind only “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at $288.1 million...

Credit: University of Notre Dame ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ o stop the spread of cancer, cancer cells must die. Unfortunately, many types of cancer cells seem to use innate mechanisms that block cancer cell death, therefore allowing the cancer to metastasize. While seeking to further understand cancer cell death, researchers at the University of Notre Dame discovered that the activation of a specific enzyme may help suppress the spread of tumors. The findings, published in Nature Cell Biology, demonstrate that the enzyme RIPK1 decreases the number of mitochondria in a cell. This loss of mitochondria leads to oxidative stress that can potentially...

The Thunder Child is a high speed, wave-piercing boat that's built to be uncapsizable. The boat was designed by Safehaven Marine for use by Navy, law enforcement, and other groups who sail in high-pressure situations. The boat can fit 10 crew members on board and has a sleeping cabin. It's built to absorb shocks from rough seas. But by far the most impressive thing about the Thunder Child is its ability to right itself even if it is completely capsized. The video below explains how. There are a few factors that allow this boat to sail through any conditions without...

A recent article in The Guardian dons the foreboding title "Robots will destroy our jobs — and we're not ready for it." The article claims, "For every job created by robotic automation, several more will be eliminated entirely. ... This disruption will have a devastating impact on our workforce." According to an article in MIT Technology Review, business researchers Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee believe that rapid technological change has been destroying jobs faster than it is creating them, contributing to the stagnation of median income and the growth of inequality in the United States. If technology is destroying jobs...

Cryptocurrencies are a nascent asset class and could fall violently at any time, the founder of blockchain network Ethereum warned on Saturday. "Reminder: cryptocurrencies are still a new and hyper-volatile asset class, and could drop to near-zero at any time," Vitalik Buterin said on Twitter. "Don't put in more money than you can afford to lose."

Chicago, IL – A local jewelry store owner said she has been “horribly defamed” by law enforcement officers and “Trump supporters” who want to put her out of business, after she criticized the funeral of slain Chicago Police Commander Paul Bauer in a social media post on Friday. “This funeral seems overkill to show respect to a member of the biggest gang in the city...chicago police,” Sherri Bourdage, owner of Bourdage Pearls wrote on her private Facebook page. “I look at all the money they are spending on this funeral while ignoring suffering kids.” “They literally take the funding...