Free Republic

Woke Microsoft has added a Pride flag to the widgets board located on the taskbar of Windows 11 to demonstrate its allegiance to the LGBT agenda. Here’s how to disable it. GeekerMag reports that Microsoft has added a Pride flag to the widget board of its newest operating system, Windows 11, as a gesture of support for Pride Month. The decision appears to be an effort by Microsoft to display its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The company believes in the woke LGBT agenda to such a degree that it does give users the option to remove the pride flag...

In Japan, an estimated 1.5 million people — many of them young men — now live in complete isolation. The problem has grown so severe that the Japanese have a term for it: Hikikomori, one who literally withdraws from society. SNIP During a recent interview with Chris Williamson, a British podcaster based in Austin, Texas, the political economist Nicholas Eberstadt discussed the fact that 7 million men of prime working age are currently without employment and not seeking jobs. Many of these men, said Eberstadt, spend inordinate amounts of time indoors, totally withdrawn from society.

Today, the press is seen by large numbers of Americans as only selectively truthful—slanted toward a particular point of view, usually one that is both secular and progressive. A 2022 Gallup poll found that just 7 percent of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the media, and 27 percent have “a fair amount.” Meanwhile, 28 percent of U.S. adults say they do not have “very much confidence” and well over a third have none at all in newspapers, TV, and radio.“Notably,” Gallup reported, “this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust...

Recently, the White House decided that appointing an unqualified, politicized leader is perfect for tackling the complex issue of AI regulation. Kamala Harris, who has now become the AI czar, will likely lead America into a very gloomy future. The nation must correct this blunder before it’s too late. We can only solve a problem by asking the right questions and Harris and the polarized Congress are clearly unable to do so. The United States must replace her with an unbiased committee of experts who can protect and fully develop effective AI regulations. It should also shield decisions moving forward...

What unifies our team at Xbox is the desire to make gaming a place where everyone feels welcome to play. One of the ways we can help members of LGBTQIA+ communities to feel invited to play is through increased visibility & representation in video games. Representation is a vast and multifaceted topic: it can mean more LGBTQIA+ characters, more story moments featuring LGBTQIA+ themes, or even creating worlds LGBTQIA+ players can feel at home in. For us, it includes empowering our LGBTQIA+ team members to create the kinds of change they’re hoping to see in our games and in the...

An environmental compliance specialist allegedly tried to hire a hitman to murder the wife of a man she had met on Match.com. Melody Sasser is said to have placed an order using a website called Online Killers Market to hire a hitman to kill Jennifer Wallace, the wife of a man she had met online. In an affidavit seen by DailyMail.com prosecutors shared details of a transaction made in January of this year concerning the alleged murder for hire scheme. Authorities were first made aware of Sasser's alleged scheme in April, when a foreign law enforcement agency notified the Department...

Celebrating the ongoing movement to protect and advance equality for LGBTQ+ communities around the world, Apple is introducing a new Pride Edition Sport Band accompanied by a matching watch face and iOS wallpaper. Through these efforts, Apple supports and brings awareness to LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations that are working to bring about positive change, including Equality Federation Institute, an advocacy accelerator that is building a network of state-based LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations in the U.S., and GLSEN, an education organization working to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Additional advocacy organizations Apple supports include...

An expert and entrepreneur in the field of artificial intelligence warned that while the new technology has the potential for massive benefits, it could also prove "too powerful and too disruptive" for humanity, expressing doubt about the federal government's ability to address such a challenge. Kevin Baragona worked as a software engineer but recognized the potential impact of AI, which led him to start DeepAI in 2016 to help bring the new technology to fruition. The free online service is growing rapidly, with users increasing tenfold over the past year. DeepAI was the first company to offer an online AI...

Former Defense Secretary General James Mattis famously said, "PowerPoint makes us stupid." Like many among today's top military brass, he sees our culture's addiction to PowerPoint as a threat to the efficiency and effectiveness of our armed forces. Similarly, many CEOs have banned PowerPoint from their meetings, including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Twitter's Jack Dorsey, LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and the late Steve Jobs. Smart leaders hate PowerPoint because business presentations straitjacket meetings into a slow-moving linear direction. This discourages conversation and discussion, turning the other attendees into passive chair potatoes. PowerPoint--when used as designed--reduces attention, understanding,...

One of the joys of writing about business is that rare moment when you realise conventions are shifting in front of you. It brings a shiver down the spine. Vaingloriously, you start scribbling down every detail of your surroundings, as if you are drafting the opening lines of a bestseller. It happened to your columnist recently in San Francisco, sitting in the pristine offices of Anthropic, a darling of the artificial-intelligence (ai) scene. When Jack Clark, one of Anthropic’s co-founders, drew an analogy between the Baruch Plan, a (failed) effort in 1946 to put the world’s atomic weapons under un...

Remember that old Gmail account you set up to collect spam a long time ago? It could get caught in a Google security purge of epic proportions. Learn why and when it's happening – and how to protect your Google emails, files, videos and more from disappearing into the digital ether.Gmail accounts and more on the chopping blockLast week, Google quietly posted a hugely consequential safety and security update to its company blog The Keyword. In the update, Google noted that their users crave safety and security, and that accounts unused for long periods of time are more likely to...

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had uncovered an American espionage operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using sophisticated surveillance software.

Elon Musk Reveals Line of Code Used to Censor Tweets Containing Certain Key Words Twitter owner Elon Musk revealed that engineers at the social media company discovered a line of code, which was more than ten years old, which appeared to suppress tweets containing specific words. During an interview with The Babylon Bee, editor-in-chief Kyle Mann asked Musk: “One of the craziest things you did when you took over Twitter was start releasing the Twitter files,” he began. “Who takes over a company and then says, ‘Look, how horrible all this stuff is that’s going on’?” “If we’re not going...

Belk is targeting children as young as 2 with transgender pride merchandise. Until Tuesday, the department store chain’s website was selling a boys’ T-shirt that displayed the words, "So happy to be me," and featured a blue, pink and white happy face — the colors of the transgender pride flag. The shirt was removed from Belk's website just hours after Fox Business reached out asking if it was aware of the merchandise. The company did not provide a statement by press time. "Show support with this kids Pride graphic t-shirt. Our toddler and youth t-shirt is soft and durable for...

“Boycott Target,” a song released by rappers Forgiato Blow and Jimmy Levy, has hit the top of the charts on iTunes, surpassing country music stars Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen, as well as superstar Taylor Swift. The song by Christian rapper Forgiato Blow and Christian singer Jimmy Levy, “Boycott Target,” was released on Thursday and has since surpassed Taylor Swift’s “Hits Different,” Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” and Luke Combs’ “Fast Car.” It is currently the #1 song on iTunes. On Twitter, the music video has already racked up 4.4 million views. WATCH: VIDEO AT LINK............... After releasing the song, Levy...

The National Eating Disorders Association disabled its chatbot, named Tessa, due to the “harmful” responses it gave people. “Every single thing Tessa suggested were things that led to the development of my eating disorder,” activist Sharon Maxwell wrote in an Instagram post. The chatbot was set to become the primary support system for people seeking help from the association, the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to eating disorders. Tessa, described as the “wellness chatbot,” was trained to address body-image issues using therapeutic methods and limited responses. However, the bot encouraged Maxwell to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, count calories,...

In true Michael Scott fashion, two Hawaii tourists followed their GPS right into the water. On April 29, a tourist drove a Dodge Caravan into the Honokohau Small Boat Harbor in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, according to Hawaii News Now. Christie Hutchinson, who was at the harbor after sailing with a group of friends and her husband, posted a video of the event on social media. She said the two tourists were using GPS to find a manta ray tour and may have been confused because there was a car on the ramp to pull a boat out of...

Scientists and tech industry leaders, including high-level executives at Microsoft and Google, issued a new warning Tuesday about the perils that artificial intelligence poses to humankind. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement said. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist known as the godfather of artificial intelligence, were among the hundreds of leading figures who signed the statement, which was posted on the Center for AI Safety’s website. Worries about artificial intelligence systems outsmarting humans and...

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This professor is traveling the country with simple advice for an uncertain future: Be more human. He says the key to survival is knowing how to solve problems—and knowing which problems to solve. He urges math nerds to focus on creativity, emotion and the stuff that distinguishes man from machine and won’t go obsolete. As artificial intelligence gets smarter, the premium on ingenuity will become greater. This is what he wants to drill into their impressionable young minds: Being human will only be more important as AI becomes more powerful. After his talk, I asked how his message to a...