Free Republic

With so much hype about the future of AI safety, it can be easy to overlook the harms AI is causing in the here and now. On the consumer side, the impact generative AI has on the developing mind is becoming increasingly clear: students are losing critical thinking skills as chatbots become cognitive crutches, spurning human friends in favor of AI companions, and even turning to self-harm when their AI-relationships go awry. Few tech executives have acknowledged these urgent harms. Instead they’re choosing to push a narrative around the hypothetical threat of a runaway “superintelligence” which humans can no longer...

With just over three weeks left before early voting, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Thursday challenged his GOP opponent Ken Paxton to a debate moderated by Fox News’ Bret Baier. “Texans deserve to make an informed choice in this really critical race, so I’m challenging Ken Paxton to a game on his own turf,” Talarico said during an interview at The Texas Tribune Festival. “He’s been running from accountability his whole life. It’s time to stop running.”

The Supreme Court cleared the way on Friday for the Trump administration to implement its overhauled immigration database, which it says is aimed at combatting voter fraud, in time for November’s elections over the dissent of the liberal justices.

...satellite imagery shows the jet has not been seen since at least May 17. The aircraft in question, which originally carried the U.S. Air Force serial number 61-7980, was the last Blackbird produced and the last one to fly, taking to the skies for the final time in 1999. NASA has now provided TWZ with the following statement in response to our queries for more information about SR-71 tail number 844: “NASA has a long history of pushing the boundaries of experimental aviation, and we continue to explore opportunities to build on that legacy. As Administrator Isaacman has said, we...

Today's topic: The Old West.

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I'm working family genealogy tonight and researching my First Cousin twice removed. She was born in February 1898 in Fleming, Saskatchewan, Canada. She died at age 102 in 2000 in Vancouver, British Cloumbia, Canada. I never met her. I found that she passed her high school entrance examination in July 1912 when she was 14 years old. That got me to thinking "How odd...no automatic advancement to high school in Manitoba in 1912? How did entrance exams work in Canada back then?"Sure enough, the entrance exams were tough! (see below) I had no idea how hard it was to get...

A pro-transgender counterprotester told supporters of Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham that they "should have been aborted" outside the Fever’s game against the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday night. The man delivered the remark through a bullhorn while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word "abortion," as Cunningham supporters gathered outside Target Center for a rally in support of protecting women’s sports. Another counterprotester used a bullhorn to repeatedly call XX-XY Athletics — a women’s sports apparel company that opposes biological males competing in women’s sports — a "hate group." NCAA softball player Kendall Kotzmacher, who attended Thursday’s rally, told OutKick...

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin sensationally claimed on-air that she was the lone holdout juror who forced a notorious NYC cannibal killer to be found not guilty by reason of insanity — but multiple sources from the time directly refute her story, The Post can reveal. “Several jurors questioned afterwards said one holdout juror was principally responsible for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict,” Hostin read aloud from a New York Times article from the 1991 trial on Tuesday. “That was me,” she asserted. SNIP But 35 years ago, jurors told The Post, Newsday, the Daily News and the...

Our low-budget Pittsburgh Pirates have locked themselves in to their first 50% win season since 2018 . . . with three games to go. Even though they are out of the playoffs, they could actually finish the season better than two American League teams still contenting for a playoff spot. Isn't this progress?

Starbucks plans to close 250 North American stores later this week. It is the second big round of store closures under Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last September, Starbucks closed 627 stores in North America and Europe and laid off 900 non-retail employees. In a letter to employees, Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said the locations targeted either aren’t delivering acceptable financial results or can’t provide the kind of experience that Starbucks wants for customers and employees. The company didn’t say Thursday which coffeehouses will close or how many are located in...

1. Hopium Last week Tim talked with Jesse Lehrich, who walked through a scenario where the D’s wind up with 54 Senate seats a few weeks from now. 54. That’s crazy. But not as crazy as it sounds. There is a path. All Dems have to do is run the table on the Big 5 races,1 win a gettable Iowa, and then luck into Kansas. Hell, if you want an even bigger hit of the dragon, you can get to 56 seats if there’s a backlash to Darline Graham in South Carolina and Dan Osborn overperforms in Nebraska. What would...

Reporters for CNN, MS NOW and Politico were blocked from entering the White House complex Thursday morning, hours after a DC federal judge ruled President Trump’s ban on the three media outlets was likely unconstitutional. In an eight-page order, US District Judge Tim Kelly told administration officials to immediately return reporters’ press passes that were confiscated Saturday and blocked enforcement of Trump’s ban for 14 days. However, an unidentified Politico journalist, CNN correspondent Betsy Klein and MS NOW reporter Laura Barrón-López were denied entry after presenting themselves at a Secret Service checkpoint.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing sources, that shipping giant UPS was sending a cockpit canopy and weapons bay door to the U.S. from Australia in late May when it was diverted. The F-35 is a fifth-generation stealth fighter made by Lockheed Martin, and Washington controls the sale of these aircraft only to its closest partners and allies. A $24 billion sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia was approved last week, but some lawmakers in Congress have already expressed concerns over the technology finding its way into Chinese hands. SNIP

The US has warned southern states of a possible Moscow attack that would see Russia fire 600 km-range drones from commercial ships at Spain, France and Italy. We examine what is known and how the threat is mounting. US intelligence services have shared a report with several European countries pointing to a possible Russian operation using drones against targets in Spain, France or Italy, according to Spanish media. The information was first revealed by journalist Xavier Colás — a former Russia correspondent — in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. It traces the origin of the alert to CIA director John...

President Donald Trump's ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico suffered a setback Thursday after a federal judge ordered the administration to restore White House access to the outlets. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order Thursday blocking the ban and ordering White House officials to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore" the outlets' hard-pass press credentials while their legal battle continues. The order will be in effect for 14 days. Kelly wrote that the outlets had shown they were likely to succeed on their claim that their White House "hard passes were revoked without constitutionally adequate due...

Very inconvenient for the "our elections are safe and secure" crowd. No joke, a Utah postal worker has been indicted for allegedly yeeting more than 300 mail-in ballots into a church parking lot dumpster right before the state's June primary. Damon Matai Seei, 34, of Payson, was working his route in Eagle Mountain when he apparently tossed the ballots in a dumpster. He allegedly tossed the ballots along with other mail, so we're not entirely sure whether he hates elections, hates his job, or just had a bad day. (It was Pride Month, for goodness' sake, the worst time of...

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My outlook on the upcoming mid-terms is bleak. With so many Socialists running throughout the United States, one would think that this is a great time die for the Republican candidates to talk about the U.S. Constitution. Instead, it seems that once again, the Republicans are steadfast in their ways to give this election to the Democrats. What say you fellow Freepers?

CNN Staffers Panic over Paramount Merger: ‘Bloodbath Coming,’ Newsroom Is ‘Like a Funeral’ CNN news anchor Jake Tapper (C), flanked by Univision's news anchor Ilia Calderón (R), waMandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Simon Kent23 Sep 20263,997 2:47 Paramount’s looming acquisition of CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly sending shivers down the collective spines of news gathers at the 46-year-old legacy outlet. As Breitbart News reported, Paramount reached a deal with 12 state attorneys-general Monday that surmounted a major hurdle to closing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery which will now go ahead. This clears the way for...