Free Republic

A Biden nominee faced questioning over a past tweet she sent attacking a Republican senator. During a hearing Wednesday, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) brought up a tweet from 2015 that was sent by Beth Prichard Geer, who was nominated to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) board. “As you stated in your written testimony, you believe one reason you should be confirmed to serve in the TVA is because of your ability to ‘build relationships and work together,’ is that correct?” Ernst asked. Geer responded, “Yes, that is correct.” “And you believe civility is a fundamental aspect of your role on...

UK researchers have developed a VR experience called gameChange that takes patients on virtual visits in everyday settings, guided by a virtual coach. It allows them to virtually take part in day-to-day scenarios such as buying a coffee, waiting at a bus stop or visiting a doctor. In trials, the technology proved beneficial even for patients who have experienced the most challenging psychological problems due to psychosis. It could soon be offered as a form of therapy on the NHS, replacing the need for a real-life therapist. gameChange targets a problem that is common in people diagnosed with psychosis –...

Twitter has made a small but significant change to how deleted tweets are shown when they’re embedded in third-party websites. Since at least the end of March the social media network has started showing a blank box on external sites when an embedded tweet has been deleted. It’s a big change from how Twitter used to handle deleted-yet-embedded tweets, when it would preserve the original unformatted text. With this recent change, that text is now gone, leaving a hole inside any story that embedded it. Twitter is using its embedded Javascript to blank out the tweets. To see the original...

"Welcome to Horizon Worlds, a social experience where you can explore, play and create. With new worlds in the making, you can join together with people around the world in ever-expanding adventures and amazing experiences. Discover new places with friends, solve interactive puzzles or form teams to compete in action-packed games. You can even design worlds of your own or get to know other members of the community and be inspired by their creations. In Horizon Worlds, you're not just a visitor. You're part of what makes it great."

My neighbor lady was told that her 20 year old LG vx8300 phone was coming to an end in December. (3g) Well she saw, and bought one of those bundles on HSN that has 1500 min/dat/text along with a Samsung smartphone.(A02s)She wants to keep the same phone number from the old phone and I thought that I could help her. Yea well ... that ain't working out so well!🙄All of the "transfer your phone number" instructions I have run across deal with the more modern smartphones, not these 20 year old flip phones!😬Is there any way to do the "keep...

“What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!" So went the chant that echoed across the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, in November as the city played host to COP26. While world leaders met in the summit's heavily fortified "Blue Zone," out on the streets and around Glasgow, the climate justice movement thrived -- organizing rallies, marches and public assemblies. Climate activists have historically been portrayed as everything from destructive and disruptive extremists to delusional hippies. They're outdated and unfair stereotypes that ignore the diversity of people who are trying to secure a livable planet for future...

A flood of families are canceling their Disney memberships — from amusement parks to Disney+ streaming — over the woke entertainment company’s leftist, LGBTQIA+ agenda, with one parent noting, “Walt would turn over in his grave” if he saw what Disney has become. Loyal Disney consumers and saying the company has gotten out of control with its wokeness in recent years and now they believe there’s a left-wing political agenda in virtually every facet of the company — from its movies, streaming service shows, to its theme parks and other offerings from its entertainment and media conglomerate. Last year, Disney...

BERKELEY, Calif. — If, in the fall of 1987, you found yourself at the University of California, Berkeley, and you made your way through the sloping, verdant campus to Moffitt Library, you could walk through the doors and take two flights of stairs down to the basement. Turn right and you would find a door tucked in the corner — room 224, though the placard isn’t written in braille. After unlocking the door using a key with a ridged top, you’d walk through a small lobby with tables, chairs, and a “sofa” made of seats pulled from a van. The...

Over the weekend, Twitter locked me out of my account for stating the obvious fact that Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health, is a man. The corporate press, Big Tech, and even the U.S. government all refer to Levine, 64, as a “trans woman.” But this only means he dresses and presents himself as a woman, and asks the rest of the world to indulge him in what amounts to at best a flight of fancy, and at worst a dangerous delusion. And for the most part, the world obliges. But there is no way around the stubborn...

A man says he was forced to hack into a domestic Indian airline's website to find his missing luggage. Nandan Kumar, 28, called IndiGo - a low-cost carrier - for help, after realising that he had swapped his bag with a co-passenger. But after IndiGo refused to help him trace the other person, Mr Kumar said he was able to retrieve information about him from the airline website. IndiGo told the BBC that "at no point was the IndiGo website compromised". Mr Kumar says he's not a professional hacker, but had to "do something" to retrieve his luggage. In a...

Investors in GameStop are back on board a volatile roller coaster more than a year after the so-called "meme stock" phenomenon nabbed headlines in early 2021. While GameStop's recent highs are not nearly as close to the surge last year (when its stock hovered around $400 a share at one point), experts have said the company's stock price far exceeds what the retailer is actually worth. "It's hard to make this argument that the price is worth more than $80," said Kevin Mullally, an assistant professor of finance in the College of Business at the University of Central Florida. On...

After previously canceling its in-person E3 2022 event, the ESA has now informed its partners that there will be no digital event equivalent this year either - meaning E3 2022 has fully been canceled. The news broke via a tweet from Razer PR lead Will Powers, who said that an email had been sent out announcing the cancellation of a digital E3 event. IGN has independently verified the contents of the email as well.

Chrome OS isn’t just for Chromebooks now. It’s not pleasant seeing a once-beloved laptop (or desktop) computer slowly slide into obsolescence as it gets too old and tired to keep up with the demands of modern-day computing, but Google has now provided an option for these ailing machines in the form of Chrome OS Flex. Chrome OS Flex is the standard Chrome OS that runs on Chromebooks, in a form that you can install on computers that aren’t Chromebooks. The idea is that the lightweight operating system won’t weigh your old device down to the same extent as Windows or...

Google on Tuesday released Chrome 100, an iteration of the popular browser that can trip up websites that weren't written to handle three-digit version numbers. It's a problem that, though rare, also affects people using Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge. The problem crops up because developers sometimes try to adapt their websites for particular browser versions. Browsers share their version number through a short text description called the user agent string, but website scripts sometimes extract just two of the three digits in the version number. Problems can include websites not working at all or showing a popup erroneously saying...

There are 10 types of people. Those that understand binary and those that do not. --Ray Roton Old programmers never die... They just decompile. -- Peter Dick Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen. -- Edward V. Berard, "Life-Cycle Approaches" I haven't lost my mind, I have it backed up on tape somewhere. -- Unknown CChheecckk yyoouurr dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh!! -- Unknown Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. -- Donald Knuth Beware of programmers who carry screw drivers. -- Leonard Brandwein PCMCIA...

Back in the day, just about everything that used a battery had a hatch or a hutch that you could open to pull it out and replace it if need be. Whether it was a radio, a cordless phone, or a cellphone, it was a cinch to swap out a battery. These days, many devices hide their batteries, deep beneath tamper-proof stickers and warnings that state there are “no user serviceable components inside.” The EU wants to change all that, though, and has voted to mandate that everything from cellphones to e-bikes must have easily replaceable batteries, with the legislation...

This is hilarious. If you got a January 6th cousin in DC jail, you need to get him this very tiny phone so he can communicate. So fun video but real for those in lock-up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xouEd5cVE8

If you get a text message that looks to be from yourself, don't click on it. That's the sage advice of experts and of Verizon, which has received numerous complaints about customers getting spam text messages that seem to come from their own phone numbers. Verizon's community [customer?] forum includes a thread published on Sunday that details a recent increase in "spoof" texts informing recipients that they've paid their March bill and can get a free gift by clicking a link. "We can't block ourselves..........what's the solution Verizon?" asked one customer of the wireless giant.

In a secret chat room run by a group of Russian-affiliated cybercriminals, a hacker expressed excitement about a plan to attack and disable more than 400 U.S. hospitals. “There will be panic,” the hacker wrote, in Russian. The hacking enterprise, called the Trickbot Group by federal prosecutors, and its affiliates had already collected hundreds of millions of dollars by shutting down emergency rooms, city governments and public schools since 2018. Security researchers and U.S. officials say the internal conversations amount to the most complete and candid public look yet at the operations of a criminal ransomware enterprise. A malware developer...