Free Republic

It’s the latest blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and its efforts to compel Google and Meta Platforms Inc. to negotiate payments with local publishers under the Online News Act, due to come into effect on Dec. 19. Google’s move comes about a month after Meta similarly dismissed the regulations and said that it will continue blocking users in Canada from seeing news on Facebook and Instagram to avoid running afoul of the law. Google already threatened to remove links to news, and tested blocking such content for a small percentage of users in Canada earlier this year. On...

This isn't exactly the machine uprising we were expecting.Chipotle’s social media accounts can be on the nose sometimes, with memes about sweater- and spooky- seasons, respectively; with rhetorical graphics about how a burrito would wear its pants; and with an oddly terrifying corncob-human hybrid called “Corn Lad.” But earlier this week, @Chipotle went serious on Instagram, providing a preview of Hyphen, its “collaborative robot” (or cobot), which it said was currently being tested to make burrito bowls and salads beside its fully human coworkers. “Around 65% of Chipotle’s digital orders consist of bowls or salads, so with Hyphen on board,...

LOS ANGELES — According to sources, federal agents confronted a group of Antifa rioters who were in the middle of burning down a courthouse so they could ask them if they'd seen any dangerous MAGA around. "Hey friends, you see any of them dangerous MAGA around?" a special agent later identified as David Friedkin reportedly asked while attempting to shield his face from the blaze. "It is imperative that we find them before they do something dangerous like calmly walk inside a federal building or vote for the wrong presidential candidate." Witnesses claim one of the Antifa rioters was kind...

The Grace Hopper Celebration, which bills itself as a the world’s largest conference for women in computing, was recently swamped by men. The influential career fair for women opened itself to disaster by welcoming “non-binary” attendees to be inclusive of the LGBT community — an invitation men accepted in large numbers. Event organizers became frustrated by the sea of men, accusing male attendees of “lying” about their gender identities, with the event’s chief impact officer complaining, “Unfortunately — some of you are taking interview slots right now, from women who need them. Some of you are standing in line, talking...

I've used several email programs in the past. Mozilla's, Outlook, yahoo. Right now I use gmail because my late wife and I used it for so much that I had to consolidate stuff to work on an assortment of issues. If they still work as easily I should be able to put in the SMTP settings and have the emails all imported into whichever email program. Does that still apply? I'd like from FR folks a few suggestions that are user friendly and as insulated from leftist manipulations as one can get. Thanks.

Forget the conventional wisdom about firing irreplaceable employees. Because if your employees aren’t irreplaceable, you’re doing something wrong. Credit: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock“The graveyards,” General De Gaulle once ironically observed, “are full of indispensable men.” Maybe so, but the same may not be so easily said about organizations whose success did depend on irreplaceable managers and staff.Take, for example, Apple. Under Steve Jobs it created the iPod, iPhone, App Store, and iPad — products and services that ranged from radical departures to entirely new concepts.Under Tim Cook? What his Apple has introduced to the marketplace are copycat items: A streaming service,...

MOSCOW, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Russia's communications watchdog plans to block Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) from March 1 next year, a Russian senator for the ruling United Russia party said on Tuesday. Demand for VPN services soared after Russia restricted access to some Western social media after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Senator Artem Sheikin said an order from the Roskomnadzor watchdog would come into force on March 1 that would block VPNs. "From March 1, 2024, an order will come into force to block VPN services providing access to sites banned in Russia," Sheikin...

French Emperor Napoleon III would use a unique set of aluminum cutlery only for his most honored dinner guests.Normal guests had to contend with gold utensils.In the middle of the 19th century, aluminum was more scarce and desirable than even gold.As a result, aluminum bullion bars found a place among the national treasures of France, and aluminum jewelry became a symbol of the French aristocracy.Aluminum, known by its atomic number 13 on the periodic table, is a ubiquitous element, yet it mainly exists intertwined in complex chemical compounds and not in its metallic state.The complex procedure of transforming aluminum compounds...

New York, NY, October 4, 2023 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) issued the following statement today regarding recent developments with X/Twitter: “In light of recent events, it feels like a useful moment to clarify the ADL position on X and its leadership. "As we have noted in our research over the past several years, X – along with other social media platforms – has a serious issue with antisemites and other extremists using these platforms to push their hateful ideas and, in some cases, bully Jewish and other users. "We appreciate X’s stated intent over the last few weeks to...

Conservative conspiracy theorists are apparently convinced that an upcoming emergency broadcast is going to turn everyone with a Covid-19 vaccine into zombies. FEMA's national Emergency Alert System — recognisable by the startling beep heard on the radio or television prior to an announcement — will test its delivery capabilities on Wednesday at approximately 2.20pm est. The test will include both the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. While the EAS will be broadcast to radios and televisions, the WEA will be sent to mobile phone users bearing the text “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert...

A drone called the T-600 -the same name as the Terminator - successfully launched a torpedo from the sky. BAE Systems demonstrated the feat during a NATO training exercise, which saw a human controller fly the quadcopter strapped with the torpedo from a dock and over the ocean, where it let the weapon drop. The electric-powered, car-sized T-600 has a payload capacity of 441 pounds, tops speeds of 87 miles per hour and has a range of up to 50 miles. The demonstration aimed to showcase the anti-submarine warfare capabilities of the T-600 and its potential for automated logistics, resupply,...

TikToker Isabella Veronica Hardy couldn’t wait to show her followers the stylish makeover she’d given her husband’s gaming system — but wound up angering gamers everywhere when it was revealed she’d defaced a limited-edition PS4 console worth hundreds of dollars used. “Wrapping my husband’s ugly PS4 in white to match my white aesthetic room,” Hardy wrote in the beginning of the video, narrating in a voiceover. She lamented that the Playstation, which she described as an “ugly, blue thing,” has been bothering her for months. So, eight months pregnant and “nesting,” she decided to cover the offending article with contact...

The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligenceThe family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence, claiming it had been informed of the collapse but failed to update its navigation system. Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, according to a lawsuit...

You have already read 0%Do you love Linux because of its user-friendly, exceptionally secure, heavy-duty, and open-source, making it easy to customize and maintain? If so, you’re not alone.It is no wonder that Linux has captured the lion's share of the IT market. Business leaders and IT decision makers have poured their trust into Linux and prefer it for almost every business use case, and today, ZDNet reports that 96.3% of the top web servers run on Linux. The downside is that attacks on Linux are steadily rising, as cybercriminals have come to recognize the OS as an increasingly viable...

In the parallel universe of last year’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Dr. Demento encourages a young Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) to move away from song parodies and start writing original songs of his own. During an LSD trip, Al writes “Eat It,” a 100% original song that’s definitely not based on any other song, which quickly becomes “the biggest hit by anybody, ever.” Later, Weird Al’s enraged to learn from his manager that former Jackson 5 frontman Michael Jackson turned the tables on him, changing the words of “Eat It” to make his own parody, “Beat It.” This got...

Wrinkles, crinkles and sags are just a few signs of aging that most men and women (even Botox buffs) can expect to see creep up on their faces as the years turn into decades. But rather than merely bracing themselves for the radical, yet predictable maturation of their physique, one specialist argues that middle-aged adults who are able to see what they will look like in 20 years might be motivated to make healthier and wiser decisions for the future. “The ability to time travel — albeit in our own minds — can help us manage our emotions and improve...

When 16-year-old Shreya Nallamothu from Normal, Illinois, scrolled through social media platforms to pass time during the pandemic, she became increasingly frustrated with the number of children she saw featured in family vlogs. She recalled the many home videos her parents filmed of herself and her sister over the years: taking their first steps, going to school and other “embarrassing stuff.” “I’m so glad those videos stayed in the family,” she said. “It made me realize family vlogging is putting very private and intimate moments onto the internet.”

A former investigative journalist with ABC News and father-of-two girls has been sentenced to six years in jail after he was found guilty of possessing child porn. James Gordon Meek, 53, was sentenced to 72 months in prison after he was caught sending and receiving sexually explicit content involving prepubescent minors while visiting South Carolina in 2020. Federal prosecutors had initially pushed for the disgraced journalist to receive between 12 and a half and 15 years. Meek joined ABC News' Washington bureau as an investigative producer in 2013 and was based in Virginia returned to Virginia with an iPhone containing...

Researchers have pioneered a technique for swiftly and efficiently reconstructing the full quantum state of entangled particles, utilizing advanced camera technology to visualize the wave function of two entangled photons in real time. The innovative method is exponentially faster than previous ones, taking minutes or seconds instead of days, and holds the potential for advancing quantum technology by enhancing quantum state characterization, quantum communication, and quantum imaging techniques. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A new technique based on advanced camera technology demonstrates a rapid and efficient way to reconstruct the full quantum state of entangled particles. Researchers from the University of Ottawa, working together...

"I REALIZE IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN OVERNIGHT, BUT THE LITTLE THINGS — REACHING UP TO MY CHIN, BEING ABLE TO TOUCH MY OTHER HAND, RUB MY CHEEK WHEN I HAVE TO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "It was a Sunday afternoon," Keith Thomas, a 45-year-old Long Island native, told us of his accident. "I dove into the wrong side of the pool, and I blacked out." The next thing he knew, Thomas says, he was being airlifted to a nearby hospital; it was July 2020, just a few months into the pandemic, and he'd badly broken his neck at the C4 and C5...