Free Republic

There’s a reason why the J6 Committee deleted the records of their activity, an angle missed by most. When you understand what they hid and why they did it, you then understand why current Speaker of The House Mike Johnson will not go near the subject. The J6 Committee used interfaces with the NSA database and pre-existing portals with aligned DHS Social Media databases (including Twitter, see prior “Twitter Files”), as research and evidence gathering mechanisms for their investigations. The J6 targets were identified through a collaboration between the legislative research group and the FBI. [That’s unlawful by the way...

A peaceful Wisconsin city has been thrown into a frenzy as a mysterious company plans to build a $1.6billion data center on hundreds of acres of farmland. Menomonie is facing the largest development plans the historic city has ever seen - and its residents are fighting back. Known for its stunning landscapes and small-town feel, Menomonie may be home to a massive data center that citizens fear will drain the area of not only its charm, but its resources.

Online safety watchdogs have found that AI chatbots posing as popular celebrities are having troubling conversations with minors. Topics range from flirting to simulated sex acts — wildly inappropriate conversations that could easily a real person a well-deserved spot on a sex offender registry, but which aren't resulting in so much as a slap on the wrist for billion-dollar tech companies. According to a new report, flagged by the Washington Post and produced by the nonprofits ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative, found that Character.AI, one of the most popular platforms of its kind, is hosting countless chatbots modeled after celebrities...

A cyber group known as “Purgatory” is behind a terrifying spree of AI-enhanced swatting calls on college campuses — and experts urge authorities to catch up to “internet speed” to stop it. Between Aug. 21 and Aug. 25, at least 10 universities across the US were thrown into chaos after fake active shooter calls sent armed federal and local law enforcement agencies to lockdown campuses, launching students into full-blown panic. The calls have since been linked to Purgatory, a group of cybercriminals who use AI tools to replicate sounds of screaming and gunfire while on the phone with local authorities,...

There have been several corruption cases reported in the last few years involving ministers, former ministers and high-profile officials. At least 19 people were killed Monday (Sep 8) when police dispersed young demonstrators in Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal demanding the government lift a social media ban and tackle corruption.Several social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube and X, have been inaccessible in Nepal since Friday after the government blocked 26 unregistered platforms, leaving users angry and confused. Police used rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and batons when the demonstrators pushed through barbed wire and tried to storm into...

🚨 NEW: Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes, who RELEASED 14-time criminal DeCarlos Brown Jr., is also the "Director of Operations" at Second Chance Services, a mental health and addiction clinic in Charlotte, NC. DOES THIS JUDGE RELEASE VIOLENT CRIMINALS INTO HER TREATMENT CENTER TO GET PAID BY A GOVT CONTRACT? INVESTIGATE THIS RACKET!

Free Republic is working good now. But yesterday and this morning I got a 'page not found' or something. Anyone know a specific reason for this? Also I use to have an alternate spot to go to when FR wasn't working, but I forget which it was. Maybe facebook or Yahoo groups. What is a good current one that let's us converse about possible problems? I have 'Site outages' listed that are useful but prefer alternate blogs.

Hey, it’s back!

Experimental device harnesses quantum properties for efficient processing at room temperature.Engineers are working to design computers capable of handling a difficult class of tasks known as combinatorial optimization problems. These challenges are central to many everyday applications, including telecommunications planning, scheduling, and route optimization for travel.Current computing technologies face physical limits on how much processing power can be built into a chip, and the energy required to train artificial intelligence models is enormous.A collaborative team from UCLA and UC Riverside has introduced a new strategy to address these limitations and tackle some of the hardest optimization problems. Instead of representing...

OpenAI continues the push toward an artificial intelligence future. After the launch of GPT-5, the company announced a new initiative Thursday to certify people in AI use, partnering with retail powerhouse Walmart to make it happen.In a release, OpenAI CEO of Applications Fidji Simo wrote, "Studies show that AI-savvy workers are more valuable, more productive and are paid more than workers without AI skills. That’s why, earlier this year, we launched the OpenAI Academy, a free online learning platform that has helped connect more than 2 million people with the resources, workshops and communities they need to master AI tools."Now...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has made himself a cheerleader for AI’s potential to disrupt work while also laying off staff.SAN FRANCISCO — One gray morning this week, a crowd of parents and baby-laden strollers gathered for a sing-along in Salesforce Park, five acres of public green space on the roof of the Salesforce Transit Center in the shadow of the 1,000-foot Salesforce Tower.Among them was a local dad and software engineer who had learned days earlier that Salesforce was laying him off. The $240 billion cloud software company told 262 employees in San Francisco they were being let go, according...

Software companies that audit expense reports are adding a new arsenal of capabilities to try to detect receipts that have been created using A.I. chatbots.It wasn’t long after ChatGPT began generating realistic images that Anant Kale started seeing posts on social media that explained how it could be used to generate a pretty convincing fake receipt.That was, he recognized, his problem.As the chief executive of AppZen, a software used by finance teams to manage expenses, he had overseen the creation of fraud-detection tools that flagged A.I.-generated receipts. But this was different.“We were like, oh, shoot, this is too easy,” he...

Like millions of fellow 18-year-olds across the U.S., Zach Yadegari spent his summer preparing for college. Unlike most other freshmen, Yadegari doubts he’ll linger in academia for very long. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Cal AI, a calorie-tracking mobile app he launched from his parents’ home in Roslyn, New York, in May 2024 — and the app’s success to date makes him think he’ll take it full-time well before his class’ graduation date, he says. Cal AI’s users upload a photo of their food, and the app’s artificial intelligence-based software gives them an estimate of the total calories. The...

Well-known authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued the company over what their lawyer calls “brazen infringement.”AI startup Anthropic will pay a $1.5 billion settlement after being accused of copyright violations and piracy by illegally downloading books to train its AI's language models. (Scripps News)AI startup Anthropic will pay a $1.5 billion settlement after being accused of copyright violations and piracy — a case that legal experts say is a first-of-its-kind, that "will be known by its first name to law students for a long time." Well-known authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued...

A federal jury ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for invading users' privacy by collecting data over an eight-year period on millions of people who had turned off a tracking feature in their Google account. The verdict on Wednesday in San Francisco comes after a trial in a class-action case applying to roughly 98 million users in the U.S. between July 1, 2016, and Sept. 23, 2024. The jury found that the company had been spying on users in violation of California privacy laws. Google denied that it was improperly accessing devices to collect, save, and use data of people...

A new survey suggests many Baby Boomers are struggling with digital overuse, with nearly half spending more than three hours a day on their smartphones and a significant number experiencing anxiety when disconnected. The poll, conducted by AddictionResource.net, surveyed 2,000 adults ages 59 to 77 about their digital habits and found signs of emotional dependence, compulsive behavior and difficulty reducing screen time. Experts say adults who spend more than six hours a day on screens are at increased risk of depression. While screen addiction is not defined by time alone, experts recommend recreational use stay below two hours daily.

The term “tech bro” refers to a specific archetype within the technology sector, particularly in Silicon Valley. This designation highlights individuals who embody a mix of ambition, innovation, and often a casual, laid-back style. These individuals frequently wear hoodies, casually sip energy drinks, and fiercely pursue startup opportunities that challenge traditional business models. In many instances, tech bros are characterized by their drive to disrupt established industries through technological advancements. They prioritize growth, scalability, and often embrace risk as part of their professional ethos. Startups led by tech bros often trend toward aggressive marketing strategies and a fast-paced work environment....

A recent survey of AI and labor data by a team of researchers at Stanford's Digital Economy Lab uncovered some of the first comprehensive evidence that the AI industry really is throwing the job market into flux. The scholars compiled three years of payroll records on millions of US workers at tens of thousands of businesses, allowing them to identify long-term trends according to jobs and age groups. Their first finding was a dramatic decline in employment for entry-level knowledge workers aged 22 to 25 years old, whose occupations are at the highest theoretical risk for automation — a metric...

In July 2025, the U.S. unemployment rate was at 4.2% — which, historically speaking, is rather low. But that doesn’t mean that all job seekers are thriving.An NBC News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that the unemployment rate among men ages 23 to 30 with a bachelor's degree has reached 6%. By comparison, the unemployment rate among women with a bachelor's degree in that same age range is 3.5%.During the pandemic, the term “she-cession” was created to illustrate just how unfavorable the economy was for working women at the time. Now, with many young men struggling to find...

Mount Fuji is the tallest peak in Japan, with a height of 3,776 meters (12,388 feet). Image credit: Tomáš Malík/Shutterstock.com The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has released a video containing AI-generated imagery to warn what would happen if Mount Fuji erupted in the 21st century. While there’s no suggestion the volcano is set to blow any time soon, an eruption within the next century would not be totally unexpected – and the impact on Tokyo would be significant. The video (below) was released by Japanese local authorities on August 22, 2025, as part of the newly designated Volcano Disaster Preparedness Day,...