Free Republic

Big Tech, federal agencies, and corporate media are working together to undermine the country and control your thoughts. It’s tempting to look at Big Tech, corporate media, and federal agencies as distinct industries and entities with their own goals and organizational structures, but that’s not the right way to analyze them in 2024. In reality, they are just different systems within the same organism, similar to how eyes, ears, and legs are all part of a human body. They have different roles and functions, but all are subordinate to the same overarching goal: total power. In 2024, these entities all...

BuzzFeed has announced plans to lay off dozens of employees after selling Complex to live-video shopping platform NTWRK, a little more than two years after buying the business. The sale will form a “new and wide-ranging destination for the future of commerce and media,” BuzzFeed said in a Feb. 21 press release announcing the $108.6 million all-cash deal. Under the deal, an additional $5.7 million will be earmarked for use of the company’s New York offices, severance costs, and other employment-related costs. The company said the sale of Complex is expected to enhance its profitability and allow for greater focus...

Vice Media will lay off hundreds of employees and stop publishing on its website, the company’s leadership announced this week. CEO Bruce Dixon said, “It is no longer cost effective to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously,” in a memo sent to employees and shared with several media outlets Thursday. Vice is the latest in a slew of digital media companies that have been forced to lay off staff as a cost-cutting measure in an increasingly tough digital advertising market, increased fragmentation across the media landscape and fast-changing news consumption habits.

A major cellphone outage affected users across the US early Thursday — even stopping some police departments from being able to receive 911 calls.AT&T seemed to have experienced the largest number of issues, with nearly 32,000 reports at around 4:30 a.m., according to data from DownDetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from sources including user-submitted errors on its platform.More than 800 service outages were also reported on T-Mobile and Verizon, although a spokesperson for the latter put it down to users reporting problems trying to call people with other services.Others reported issues on smaller carriers including Boost Mobile,...

Google has apologized for what it describes as “inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions” with its Gemini AI tool, saying its attempts at creating a “wide range” of results missed the mark. The statement follows criticism that it depicted specific white figures (like the US Founding Fathers) or groups like Nazi-era German soldiers as people of color, possibly as an overcorrection to long-standing racial bias problems in AI. “We’re aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions,” says the Google statement, posted this afternoon on X. “We’re working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately....

When my iPhone suddenly stopped working 12 months ago, my immediate reaction surprised me. There I was, out of the loop on social media, nearly impossible to contact, but instead of feeling nervous or overcome with FOMO, total and utter relief flooded my veins. Like, according to PC Mag 67% of millennials, I’ve tried and failed to spend less time on my phone. I’ve downloaded all of the productivity apps, tried making rules and systems, and read books about breaking bad habits — to no avail. No matter what I did, I was still averaging three hours and at least...

Seems every week there’s another article out about people being Concerned over the possible dangers posed by artificial intelligence (AI for short). A lot of the tech people involved in developing it are asking for some government guidelines and regulation, Somehow, they can’t seem to slow down on their own. Can’t afford to let someone else get it first, you see. The big worry is that somehow, any AI might determine that its goals are not in line with those of humans, and it will take over the world. The one movie that’s constantly referenced is The Terminator (1984), in...

Scientists pursuing fusion energy say they have found a way to overcome one of their biggest challenges to date — by using artificial intelligence. Nuclear fusion has for decades been hailed as a near-limitless source of clean energy, in what would be a game-changing solution to the climate crisis. But experts have only achieved and sustained fusion energy for a few seconds, and many obstacles remain, including instabilities in the highly complex process. There are several ways to achieve fusion energy, but the most common involves using hydrogen variants as an input fuel and raising temperatures to extraordinarily high levels...

Disgraced YouTube mommy blogger Ruby Franke wept in court as she was sentenced to up to 60 years in prison for brutally abusing two of her own children in a 'concentration camp-like setting'. Franke, 41, pleaded guilty last year to four counts of child abuse after one of her young children escaped and alerted a neighbor to their suffering. She was sentenced to between one to 15 years in prison for each count - up to 60 years in total - at Utah 5th District Court on Tuesday. How much time she will spend in jail will be determined by...

The U.S. government on Monday said it will give GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion as part of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act to boost domestic chip manufacturing. That comes amid reports that the Biden administration could provide more than $10 billion in funding to Intel. Intel and especially GlobalFoundries rose Tuesday on the news. Please watch the video at Investors.com - Market Rally Faces Nvidia Test; Super Micro, Lennar, Weatherford In Focus GlobalFoundries will use the funds to expand and improve its existing fabrication plant in Malta, New York, as well as build a new fab on that Malta campus. It'll...

Historical coins are much more than just pieces of jewelry for collections and exhibitions and are of particular interest for research. The University of Trier has had a collection of mainly ancient coins for several years. The more than 500 copies have now been digitized and made accessible in portals. “The digitization of coin collections is a great benefit for science. Integration into databases and permanent access to a large number of coins opens up new options for research, but also for teaching,” explains Prof. Dr. Frank Daubner, the ancient historian responsible for the collection at Trier University. Researchers can...

Biometrics are transforming the way we travel. The technology, which identifies travelers using unique physical traits like fingerprints and faces, is becoming more common at airports in the United States. As a result, time-consuming rituals that once required repeated ID checks — such as bag dropping, security screening and boarding — are getting easier and faster. Some experts believe that this will be the year that biometric use, primarily facial recognition, becomes standard at many airports. The technology offers several advantages: enhanced security, quicker processing of passengers and a more convenient airport experience. It also raises concerns about privacy, ethics...

The far-right social media network Gab now hosts a Hitler chatbot, sparking fears over AI’s ability for online radicalisation. There is no point arguing with Adolf Hitler, who only self-victimises and is, unsurprisingly, a Holocaust denier. This is not the real Hitler risen from the dead, of course, but something equally concerning: an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot version of the fascist dictator responsible for the mass genocide of European Jews throughout World War II. Created by the far-right US-based Gab social network, Gab AI is host to numerous AI chatbot characters, many of which emulate or parody famous historical and modern-day...

Daniel Williams, come pick up your junk.For more than six months, a parade of unsolicited Amazon packages — large and small, cheap and expensive, free or fraudulently billed — have arrived at John DeFiore’s rural Woodside home, addressed to a mysterious Mr. Williams.“It’s like the Twilight Zone,” said DeFiore, 61, an electrical engineer who is meticulous about his online shopping habits and credit card use.“We don’t want any of this stuff,” he said. “It’s not ours. We have everything we need.”Online shopping offers near-infinite choice and convenience. But it has also created a global gathering place for digital crooks, fraudsters...

"THE CART IS SO FAR AHEAD OF THE HORSE, IT’S LIKE HOW DO WE REIN IT BACK IN WITHOUT CAREENING OVER THE RAVINE?" You may remember a series of lawyers who have attempted to use AI tools in court — and were subsequently embarrassed and sanctioned when the chatbots screwed up, sometimes even inventing plausible-sounding cases that didn't actually exist. So consider this: how would you feel if your doctor did the same thing, feeding your symptoms into an AI system to diagnose what's wrong with you? That's a looming question, Politico reports in a fascinating story, that's currently stressing...

NEO 2003 SD220 on screen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How can humans protect the Earth from "devastating asteroid and comet impacts?" According to the National Academies and their 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, ground based astronomical radar systems will have a "unique role" to play in planetary defense. There is currently only one system in the world concentrating on these efforts, NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar, part of the Deep Space Network (DSN). However, a new instrument concept from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) called the next generation RADAR (ngRADAR) system will use the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope...

The influence of Pythagoras in mathematics and philosophy remains strong today, as do the Themysteries surrounding the great Greek philosopher. Like philosophy and religion, the science of mathematics can change the way we perceive the world and has a massive impact on our lives. Pythagoras’ philosophy influenced both Plato and Aristotle, and through them his ideas were fundamental in Western philosophy. In his life 2,500 years ago, the Greek philosopher combined philosophy, mathematics, and religion, and his work and ideas are still influential to this day. The Pythagorean theorem remains fundamental in mathematics, and is taught in schools across the...

My new essay is here: https://nautil.us/what-physicists-hav...We've seen a lot of headlines in the past year about how dangerous AI is and how overblown these fears are . I've found it hard to make sense of this discussion. If only someone could systematically interview experts and figure out what they're worried about. Well, a group of researchers from the UK has done exactly that and just published their results. What they have found is, not very reassuring. Let's have a look.The paper is here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/...AI experts make predictions for 2040. I was a little surprised. | 6:57Sabine Hossenfelder | 1.13M subscribers...

Ireland’s media regulator Coimisiún na Meán (Media Commission) has said it is ready to assume new EU online safety powers from tomorrow. It has been tasked with enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Ireland. All EU member states are required to have designated a “Digitial Services Coordinator” by 17 February to implement the DSA in their specific countries. Under the new rules, online platforms will have to do more when it comes to removing harmful content and tackling the spread of disinformation. Companies face fines of up to 6% of global turnover for violating the rules and could be...

A former Meta engineer, his data scientist wife, and their 4-year-old twins were found dead inside their $2.1 million California home. Police investigating the incident are treating it as a murder-suicide. Anand Sujith Henry, 37, allegedly shot dead his sons and fatally shot his wife, Alice Benzinger, before turning the gun on himself, according to KTVU. The couple was found dead inside the house with gunshot injuries besides a 9mm pistol and a loaded magazine inside the bathroom after police were called on for a welfare check on Monday. The former Meta engineer’s two sons were found dead inside one...