Free Republic

Maybe this hiker should have Googled where he could buy a paper map. A hiker had to be rescued via helicopter in British Columbia after he got lost — because he followed a made-up trail on Google Maps. It was the second time in two months that a hiker got lost relying on the high-tech map app ... stranded on a cliff on the backside of Mt. Fromme, just north of Vancouver, after attempting to reach the peak’s summit. A pair of rescuers were brought in by air and dropped into the heavily forested area during the Nov. 4 rescue....

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has improved its detection of cosmic events by overcoming quantum noise through advanced “squeezing” technology. This breakthrough will increase its detection rate by 60 percent and pave the way for advancements in quantum technology and physics. Researchers using LIGO achieved a landmark in quantum squeezing. In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, made history when it made the first direct detection of gravitational waves, or ripples in space and time, produced by a pair of colliding black holes. Since then, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded LIGO and its sister detector in...

Cheating on college campuses has always been an arms race. But ChatGPT has upended the balance, and now no one knows for sure what or who is on the level. Is a BA worth anything if it’s all BS?Scott Limmer has been a defense attorney in Nassau County for nearly a quarter of a century. Solidly built, with salt-and-pepper hair and a booming Long Island accent, Limmer is the kind of guy who can make anyone feel comfortable, including the criminal defendants who are the bread and butter of his practice. Or at least they used to be. Lately, college...

In March, Senator Rand Paul blocked an attempt to ban TikTok from being used in the United States. This week, he did it again. Ten months ago it was Republican Senator Josh Hawley who wanted a ban. On Wednesday, it was Hawley again. Hawley requested unanimous consent to pass his bill that would basically prevent TikTok from being used in the United States by imposing sanctions on TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Limited, citing alleged privacy violations he believes constitute a national security threat. Paul objected, thinking the ban was a stupid idea. He pointed out that banning the app, which...

The mogul also spoke to the need for more deals with the Disney-Charter bundle: “All media better figure out how to get together with old distribution and save each other’s ass."Liberty Global chairman John Malone said he was “ringing the alarm” on big tech’s entrance into the media ecosystem, saying they will “erode” the broadcast industry. Speaking at the Paley Media Summit in Manhattan Wednesday, Malone, a billionaire investor, pointed to Amazon’s purchase of Thursday Night Football as an example of an “upside down regulatory world,” which he said allows tech platforms like Amazon, who have deep pockets and don’t...

The robotic arm, confusing the man for a box of vegetables, grabbed him and pushed his body against the conveyer belt, crushing his face and chest... According to Yonhap, the robot was responsible for lifting boxes of peppers and transferring them onto pallets. The man had been checking the robot's sensor operations ahead of its test run at the pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province, scheduled for 8 November, the agency adds, quoting police. The test had been originally been planned for 6 November, but was pushed back by two days due to problems with the robot's sensor.

18GB of RAM in a smartphone? It's no secret that modern Android phones often pack unnecessary specs - I'm looking at you, 108MP cameras and 4K screens - and the new Nubia Red Magic 7 Pro brings some more. This is a new gaming phone from a company that's made quite a few at this point (hence the '7' in the name), so you'd think it'd know exactly what gamers need. Well, what they apparently need is more RAM than your average gaming PC. That's right, the newly-unveiled Red Magic 7 Pro comes in a few configurations, and they top...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, could be under heavy fire for an audio recording of her alleged profanity-laced tirade towards a staffer because she is a woman of color, a new report suggests. The Houston Chronicle pondered if the representative is getting more backlash for the recording because she is a Black woman. The reporter quoted experts who said women of color have been held to higher standards than men, suggesting that if Jackson Lee was a man, she would not be on the receiving end of such backlash. Texas newspaper Current Revolt published audio it obtained of Jackson Lee...

Gmail has gotten to the point that it regularly locks me out of my accounts for a week or more. Im tired of them using phony security concerns to track my location, accounts, devices, etc. Looking for free accounts for personal use. Interested in hearing about your experience using other emails, both the pros and cons. What are your suggestions?

Artists have been fighting back on a number of fronts against artificial intelligence companies that they say steal their works to train AI models — including launching class-action lawsuits and speaking out at government hearings. Now, visual artists are taking a more direct approach: They're starting to use tools that contaminate and confuse the AI systems themselves. One such tool, Nightshade, won't help artists combat existing AI models that have already been trained on their creative works. But Ben Zhao, who leads the research team at the University of Chicago that built the soon-to-be-launched digital tool, says it promises to...

Moms for Liberty has, in recent years, been a major player in America’s culture wars. The group has been behind the drastic increase in book ban attempts across the country, influenced local leaders to implement anti-LGBTQ+ policies, and railed against educators and others in communities, smearing them as child abusers. In 2023, Moms for Liberty held its annual convention in Pennsylvania, sparking widespread protests. Now it has set its sights on the state’s many school boards. There are 500 different districts spread over Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, and ahead of next week’s elections in the state, HuffPost found that Moms for...

The popular toy has undergone a 21st century upgrade - and now uses artificial intelligence to communicate with deceased relatives beyond the grave. The Ouija board has undergone a 21st century makeover, with the popular toy moving to the online realm and using AI (artificial intellience) to contact deceased relatives. Grandma and Grandpa have to say can head on over to the official Ouija website to pose their pressing questions. For example, the Ouija correctly named Edgar Allen Poe as the author of "The Raven" but didn't identify smaller details correctly (for example, the board didn't know that the Raven...

A gene from Denisovans makes people predisposed to mental health issues The gene was passed down to humans about 60,000 years ago in Asia Humans having sex with a now-extinct subspecies they met in Asia some 60,000 years ago could be the reason you have depression, a new study has claimed. Researchers discovered a gene variant linked to the crossbreeding of humans and Denisovans which they believe affects our mood. Those with the variant have lower levels of zinc in the body - a nutrient which studies increasingly show is associated with mood and happiness. Scientists said SLC30A9 is the...

After boys shared faked pornographic images made of female classmates, both the school and the local police began investigating When girls at Westfield High School in New Jersey found out boys were sharing nude photos of them in group chats, they were shocked, and not only because it was an invasion of privacy. The images weren’t real. Students said one or more classmates used an online tool powered by artificial intelligence to make the images, then shared them with others. The discovery has sparked uproar in Westfield, an affluent town outside New York City. Digitally altered or faked images and...

CNN — Cornell University has canceled classes Friday to acknowledge the “extraordinary stress” its campus has been under as one of its students is accused of making violent antisemitic threats against Jewish people at the college, where unease over the Israel-Hamas war has been escalating for weeks. A junior at the university, 21-year-old Patrick Dai, has been arrested and federally charged in connection with a series of online posts over the weekend which threatened to kill and harm Cornell’s Jewish students, New York prosecutors say. Dai appeared in federal court Wednesday on a charge of making a threat using interstate...

Huawei is moving ahead into the 5.5G era, a marked advance over current 5G networks and a practical halfway house on the road to 6G. Also known as 5G-Advanced, 5.5G promises big improvements in factory automation, autonomous driving and various other applications. At the company’s 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum held on October 10-11 in Dubai, Huawei’s President of Wireless Solution Cao Ming announced “the industry’s first full-series solutions for 5.5G,” which he said “will help operators deliver full-scenario tenfold capabilities and enable ultra-high energy efficiency, spectrum utilization, and O&M [operations & maintenance] efficiency.” Huawei has been working on 5.5G...

Joe Biden placed hundreds of dollars worth of overseas calls on a phone line paid for by his son Hunter, according to an email unearthed by DailyMail.com. The foreign phone calls were revealed in an AT&T email sent to Hunter’s Rosemont Seneca consultancy business account on February 18 2018. The email, addressed to Joe but sent to Hunter, said that more than $300 had been racked up for overseas phone calls on a number ending 3535, which other texts on Hunter’s abandoned laptop show was being used by his father. The 2018 calls were made just days before Joe received...

$50 per year. $5 per year.

Apple could see one of its leading products barred from being imported into the United States sometime around Christmas unless the White House steps in or a patent dispute is resolved. The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last week that specific models of the Apple Watch breach patents held by the medical gadget designer Masimo. The company now has 60 days either to resolve the matter or face an outright ban. The current patent series, as they stand, only apply to Apple Watch models from the Series 6,7, 8, and 9 collections since they contain the medical trackers that appear...

So in retirement I'm looking to find things to fill my day but also provide my brain some growth. I created this game that will be on mobile devices soon. You can play it in your browser now. I'd love any feedback you have. It's feature complete at itch.io. Just click on the little graphic to start the game. -Casual play for a high score and pumpkins can combine to make a great pumpkin. -Challenge mode is just like Casual play, however, instead of getting time to choose where to drop your veggie you get a couple seconds as it...