Free Republic

The House has renewed its push on legislation that would ban TikTok if its Beijing-based parent company doesn’t divest from the popular social media platform, escalating the fight over the hot-button issue. The TikTok legislation, which was included in a package of bills that would send aid to Ukraine and Israel, could become law as soon as next week if Congress moves quickly. In March, the House passed legislation that would require ByteDance, TikTok’s parent, to sell the platform within six months, or face a ban in the United States. But some senators, including the Democratic Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman...

Microsoft and OpenAI are reportedly planning to build a $100 billion data center and supercomputer that could lead to the creation of AIs far more capable than anything possible today.Power hungry: Soon after investing its first $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019, Microsoft set out to solve one of the biggest challenges facing the AI firm: the need for a lot of processing power to train and run its generative AIs. That led to the creation of a custom supercomputer at Microsoft data centers in Iowa.“These supercomputing systems are really the lifeblood of our research,” Katie Mayer, who manages the...

In an unprecedented achievement, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force, has announced that through its “ACE” program the X-62A “VISTA” has become the first autonomous fighter jet in the world to successfully engage in aerial dogfighting maneuvers against a manned F-16. This historic event marks a significant milestone in applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in combat scenarios, highlighting a radical advancement in military aviation technology. “The X-62A Team demonstrated that cutting-edge machine learning-based autonomy could be safely used to fly dynamic combat maneuvers,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall...

53,332 views Apr 13, 2024 From stools to tools, this montage is just scratching the surface of how Atlas is getting better at manipulating it's world. We’re excited to show everyone the progress we’ve made, and look forward to continue to share the journey ahead with our next generation Atlas humanoid robot. VIDEO AT LINK.....................

Dozens of people around the world have been arrested after police disrupted a UK-founded website scamming victims on an industrial scale. LabHost, a site set up in 2021, tricked as many as 70,000 UK victims, obtaining 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PINs worldwide, the Metropolitan Police said. It was created by a criminal network and enabled more than 2,000 users to set up phishing websites designed to steal personal information such as email addresses, passwords and bank details. Criminal subscribers could log on and choose from existing sites or request bespoke pages replicating those of trusted brands such as banks,...

Google has fired 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the company’s business ties with the Israel government, The Post has learned. The pro-Palestinian staffers — who had donned traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday — were terminated late Wednesday after an internal investigation, Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow said in a companywide memo. “They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers,”...

I've been viewing FR for well over twenty years, and the majority of the time I've used Google Chrome as my preferred browser on a Samsung tablet. Recently, FR font displays have appeared extremely small, even with font and zoom settings adjusted to maximum size. It's only that way on FR using Chrome. I can switch to Firefox and everything is fine, but was wondering if anyone else was having any similar problems.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission on Tuesday issued a stark condemnation of the apparent capture, abuse and killing of a wolf in Sublette County. Meanwhile, Gov. Mark Gordon is “monitoring the situation.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Screenshots from a video clip provided exclusively to Cowboy State Daily show Daniel, Wyoming, resident Cody Roberts kneeling over and kissing the muzzle of a weak and injured wolf in the Green River Bar in Daniel on Feb. 29. No reproduction without permission. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While meeting Tuesday in Riverton, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission issued a statement starkly condemning the apparent...

Google workers led sit-ins at headquarters from coast-to-coast, protesting the tech giant's contract with the Israeli military and the company's alleged complicity in the Israel-Hamas war. Tech workers at both Amazon and Google have long-protested Project Nimbus, which is Google and Amazon’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military. The tech workers, who organized the group "No Tech for Apartheid," said that the Israeli miliary will use Google technology for "genocidal means." "It’s clear that the Israeli military will use any technology available to them for genocidal means," the group said in a recent statement. "Google workers do...

An online predator who pressured a boy 4,500 miles away into raping a toddler has been jailed for 18 years - while the teenager he groomed will serve 50 years in the United States. Twisted Nicholas Hatton, who had a huge stash of child abuse images, took advantage of the boy from the age of 12, Chester Crown Court heard. The teenager, who had been in contact with Hatton for several years from 2014, told officers that he had been coerced into sexually abusing the two-year-old family member on camera. As a result of his confession, the boy has since...

Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. Or so said Steve Jobs when he announced iPhone in 2007.But I’m talking about a different revolutionary product. A foundational product that forever changed how everyone on this planet gets to where they need to be. Today, I’d like to tell you about the Etak Navigator, a truly revolutionary product and the world’s first practical vehicle navigation system.Here’s a picture of it:At the time, it was considered out-of-this-world. This is what Silicon Valley’s San Jose Mercury News said about it:The Etak Navigator launched 39 years (!) ago...

A staff member at Vardag's accidentally opened the file of a couple referred to in court papers as Mr and Mrs Williams, when trying to apply for a final divorce order for a different client. Vardag's applied three days later to rescind the order but judge Sir Andrew McFarlane dismissed the application. The firm's head Ayesha Vardag said the judge's decision effectively meant "the computer says no, you're divorced". Court papers say that Mrs Williams applied for divorce in January 2023 following 21 years of marriage. The mistake was made by solicitors acting for Mrs Williams on 3 October last...

BaTTeRi aims to automate the EV charging process with robots that roam parking lots.In 2007, Israeli electric car infrastructure startup Better Place toyed with the idea of a robotic arm at its charging stations to plug a cable into the charger on one end and the car on the other, making the process less messy for drivers. The team’s initial enthusiasm dimmed, however, as the cost for building such a sophisticated system soared and the idea was dropped. Sixteen years later, another Israeli startup is again attempting to automate the charging process. Tel Aviv-based BaTTeRi plans to set loose...

SNIP The situation unfolded when Christina sent her boss a text message after finding out she was the “lowest paid in the whole team” despite having worked at the company the longest and being in one of the most senior roles. The staff member said it didn’t matter who told her and asked if it was true. “It absolutely does matter. This is not an appropriate topic of discussion for the workplace,” Elliot responded. Askins slammed this response, telling his followers that it is completely legal to discuss pay with your colleagues and to “never let a company tell you...

In this video we're talking abour GEOFENCING and GEOTIMING and how it could stop your car from going where you want, when you want, and it applies to all cars after around 2016. Scary stuff. #News #EV #BigBrother

Some Apple Vision Pro users are finding that the virtual-reality headset isn’t so easy on the eyes, after all. Emily Olman got her $3,500 device in February and told MarketWatch that it gave her two black eyes after she wore it for the first time for about an hour. “I wasn’t able to use it very much the first few weeks because the fit was just off,” said Olman, chief media officer at Hopscotch Interactive, who is based in Kensington, Calif. Olman creates videos with the device for commercial and residential real-estate clients. She added that she had “like, superdark...

(Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) Levitation is the kind of superpower many researchers would love to get their hands on. While there are a number of ways to fight the forces of gravity, few are suitable for the kinds of ultrasensitive devices that would benefit from floating untethered in a vacuum. Led by a team from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan, a team of researchers have found a way to shield thin wafers of graphite as they hover freely above a grid of magnets, making them far less susceptible to currents that interfere with...

“Well, a testicular eclipse is probably not something you had on your bingo card, but here we are. As you likely know by now, Monday was the big day for the Solar eclipse, and many states in the US were in the path of the “total eclipse,” as were other countries around the world. In fact, folks near Torreón, Mexico, got to experience “totality” for one of the longest periods of time, lasting 4 minutes and 28 seconds, according to NASA. Wikipedia explains that the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, was a total solar eclipse visible within a band...

The fastest data delivery rate ever achieved using specific wavelength bands in fiber optic technology has been reported by an international team of researchers, who say they sent information 4.5 million times faster than the average home broadband will allow. According to researchers at Aston University in Birmingham, England, who participated in the experiment, a series of new technologies they developed allowed them to successfully transfer data at an astonishing rate of 301 terabits (301,000,000 megabits) per second. Remarkably, the Aston team says the breakthrough that achieved these impressive data transfer rates used only standard optical fiber. The team says...

An artificial intelligence-powered chatbot created by New York City to help small business owners is under criticism for dispensing bizarre advice that misstates local policies and advises companies to violate the law. In responses to questions posed Wednesday, the chatbot falsely suggested it is legal for an employer to fire a worker who complains about sexual harassment, doesn’t disclose a pregnancy or refuses to cut their dreadlocks. Contradicting two of the city’s signature waste initiatives, it claimed that businesses can put their trash in black garbage bags and are not required to compost. At times, the bot’s answers veered into...