Free Republic

The brother-in-law of Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have engineered the greatest transfer of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups in the history of the United States. Tony West, who is the husband of Harris’ sister Maya, served as the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division and awarded massive settlements to groups aligned with the Democrats, even when the Department of Justice appeared to be winning the cases, The New York Post reported. “Until 1977, Congress had to approve any settlement of a civil suit against the Federal government over $100,000,” The Post reported. But facing numerous cases the...

I want a recommendation for a high definition camera that I can mount on my window, plug in, and use to stream my bird feeders on line. Because I'm that dull! I have 10 feeders and would love to share them with friends in real time. So it has to go to the internet and I have to figure out how to get it there. I expect it is not a you tube thing. All advice appreciated!

No Copilot, no ads, no bloat, no AI — and seven extra years of official support. It sounds too good to be true, but there's a reason most haven't heard of it. Microsoft won't advertise it, and you're highly unlikely to stumble across it by accident, but there's a version of Windows 10 that drops the ads, the AI, and will be officially supported for years to come — long after most are forced to upgrade to Windows 11. For those unaware, Windows 10 is due to be retired by Microsoft on October 14, 2025. Beyond this date, the operating...

By stripping batteries and hacking Android phones with open-source Linux, researchers built submersible data hubs for AI-powered image recognition. Researchers hacked 15-year-old smartphones into tiny servers that outperform Raspberry Pi at a fraction of the cost. Kadri-Ann Kivastik/ Via Eurekalert ======================================================================== A team at the University of Tartu’s Institute of Computer Science has shown that obsolete mobile phones can be wired together to do the sort of heavy data processing normally reserved for expensive server farms while keeping thousands of handsets out of landfills. Led by associate professor of pervasive computing Huber Flores, the engineers stripped the batteries from four...

I saw a social media post and if you have a newer car, enter the VIN and see what the insurance company, manufacturer and government have on you. It's mind blowing. You just need you VIN. There are ways to opt out of all the snooping.

Microsoft is saying hello to the Black Screen of Death error message instead.The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) has held strong in Windows for nearly 40 years, but that’s about to change. Microsoft revealed earlier this year that it was overhauling its BSOD error message in Windows 11, and the company has now confirmed that it will soon be known as the Black Screen of Death. The new design drops the traditional blue color, frowning face, and QR code in favor of a simplified black screen.The simplified BSOD looks a lot more like the black screen you’d see during a...

A Queens woman found what looked like a phone buried in her front lawn — but it wasn’t just lost property. Mary Kehoe, who’s lived in her Forest Hills home for 35 years, spotted the strange device outside. It looked like an Android phone wrapped in black tape, with only the camera exposed — like it was made to watch, not call. “Why us? I had lots of things going through my head as to why they chose our lawn but realized we are in the middle of the block,” Kehoe told KTVZ 21. Experts warn that these kinds of...

All great things must come to an end, and such is the story of Big Balls. You've done well, Big Balls! You've done well. 19-year-old Edward Coristine had a short run at DOGE, but he made the best of his time. He helped reduce federal spending, and also addressed the widespread fraud and abuse within our federal government. Big Balls was going to study at Northeastern University, but it seems that plan may be no more. He's a former Neuralink employee and also founded Tesla.Sexy LLC. And while we're going to miss him at DOGE, we wish him the best...

States and local governments would be limited in how they can regulate artificial intelligence under a proposal currently before Congress. AI leaders say the move would ensure the US can lead in innovation, but critics say it could lead to fewer consumer protections for the fast-growing technology. The proposal, as passed by the House of Representatives, says no state or political subdivision "may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems or automated decision systems" for 10 years. In May, the House added it to the full budget bill, which also includes the extension of the...

Last week, In-N-Out filed a lawsuit against online prankster Bryan Arnett, who posed as an employee at multiple local restaurants, took orders from unsuspecting customers and made lewd comments while wearing In-N-Out-branded clothing. In the video, which has since been restricted to private viewing, Arnett, a resident of Fillmore, is seen interacting with customers and making comments that In-N-Out says damage the chain’s reputation. The pranks themselves were purportedly captured on Easter Sunday, at a time when the restaurants were closed, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit also accuses Arnett of asking customers if they want their food made “doggy style,”...

The social media platform TikTok recently banned a hashtag called #SkinnyTok after European regulators warned it was promoting unrealistic body images and extreme weight loss. The company had seen an onslaught of content featuring emaciated-looking young women peddling tips on how to drop weight quickly. Now the hashtag may be gone, but eliminating this kind of harmful content is not that simple. There's still no shortage of people — on TikTok and other social media platforms — spreading unhealthy information on how to eat fewer calories and get very, very thin. Research shows that consuming this type of content on...

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) issued a statement on Tuesday, declaring that the Islamic Republic’s firm and coordinated military response to the Zionist regime’s recent aggression ultimately forced the enemy—and its regional and Western supporters—to unilaterally halt their offensive operations. According to the statement, following the orders of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Iranian forces responded decisively and courageously to every act of hostility. The retaliatory operations included a powerful missile strike on the U.S. military base at Al-Udeid in Qatar and extensive attacks targeting positions across the occupied Palestinian territories. The...

Why does Bahnschrift SemiBold Condensed font look great (quite condensed but highly legible) in Word 2000, but does not look as "Condensed" in a Libre Office Spreadsheet?

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED! Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and...

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a threat summary in a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin Sunday following Saturday's strikes on three key-nuclear facilities in Iran. "The ongoing Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States," the DHS statement said. DHS also said, "low-level cyber attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks."

Calling 911 is meant to save lives. But the emergency service, and others like it, are also viewed as ripe targets for criminally minded cyber-attackers, according to a new federal assessment – and any vulnerability in those critical networks can expose victims to a multitude of dangerous ripple effects. The analysis, compiled by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and obtained by ABC News, outlines concerns that the Emergency Service Sector can be exploited and mined for sensitive data, in turn hampering medical and law enforcement services and posing an ongoing threat to personal information and public safety. "Cybercriminal exploitation...

The Democratic mayor of Tennessee’s largest city, who has been accused of obstructing federal immigration efforts, defended his office’s decision to publicly dox the names of immigration officers. Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s defense came even after the names of federal immigration officials were removed from a public immigration report detailing a month’s worth of immigration-related interactions between local police and federal immigration authorities. Initially, the public report detailed immigration officers’ names, but following backlash over the move the names were taken down. “I wouldn’t say it was an endangerment process, I would say they may have some concerns – I’m...

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is being mocked mercilessly over a slew of bizarre social media posts that resurfaced as the Israel-Iran war broke out — including his musings about treating a woman right and even being “naughty&playful” as a school kid. The odd posts date back at least a decade and are in stark contrast to the anti-Israel and war rhetoric that now fills the social media feed of the 86-year-old leader and most senior cleric in the extremist Islamic Republic. In one from 2013, Khamenei recalled his awkward school days. “I went 2school w/a cloak since1st days;it...

Federal workers frequently violated work-from-home policies under the Biden administration, a government watchdog revealed in a report released Friday. The “rampant telework abuse” was the result of “compliance failures and weak internal oversight” at former President Joe Biden’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM), according to the agency’s inspector general, which sampled the badging data, timesheets and remote-work agreements of dozens of federal employees. “Under the previous administration, OPMʼs telework and remote work policies were mismanaged and oversight was virtually nonexistent,” OPM Acting Director Chuck Ezell said in a statement. “That era of telework abuse is over,” Ezell declared. “At President...

After the death of my sister, I was pulled into the troubling world of AI-written obituaries. This is what I learned about grief, scams and the people behind the words. ==================================================================== My sister had only been gone for a few hours and the AI afterlife had already devoured her. Jamie went into the hospital with stomach pain on a Friday last January. By Tuesday morning, she had passed away from an aggressive lymphoma at 36. Later that afternoon, my mom got a text about a suspicious obituary my aunt saw online. The errors jumped out immediately. Her cause of death...