Free Republic

The West may be divided on tariffs, but all countries can agree that protecting global navigation satellite systems from interference from China, Russia and Iran is a matter of extreme importance. Disruptions would pose an immense economic and national security threat, costing trillions of dollars daily, dwarfing any market disruptions from tariffs.Global navigation satellite systems are free services that send positioning, timing and navigation systems to phones, banks and other electric utilities. America has the global positioning system (GPS), Europe has Galileo and China has Bei Dou. But these systems are vulnerable. They depend on satellites, which can be damaged...

🚨🇺🇸 GPS DATA EXPOSES ASTROTURFING AT DENVER BERNIE-AOC RALLYThat massive Bernie Sanders and AOC rally in Denver? Turns out it wasn’t as “grassroots” as advertised.Despite claims of 34,000 attendees, GPS data analysis reveals the real number was closer to 20,000—still big, but not record-breaking.More revealing? A whopping 84% of those devices had shown up at nine or more other protests, including Antifa/BLM events, pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and Kamala Harris campaign stops.Over 30% had attended twenty or more.Data analysts say the crowd was anything but organic—the majority were tied to activist networks like Disruption Project, Indivisible, Democratic Socialists of America,...

A major US law firm, Morgan & Morgan, is facing scrutiny after two of its lawyers admitted to using artificial intelligence (AI) that generated fictitious case law in a lawsuit against Walmart. The incident in a Wyoming federal court highlights the potential pitfalls of relying on AI in legal proceedings and has prompted the firm to issue an urgent warning to its lawyers about the use of AI.

Federal agents nabbed a migrant Tren de Aragua gang crew holed up in a Bronx apartment — after tracking one of their ankle monitors to the hideout, sources told The Post. The Dec. 5 raid at an apartment building on the edge of Crotona Park landed seven alleged gangbangers in handcuffs, including a troublesome 28-year-old Venezuelan national who was wearing a court-ordered monitoring device that led the feds to the crew. “Better late than never,” quipped a law enforcement source who wondered why Jarwin Valero-Calderon was free despite at least three busts, a Nassau County conviction and a federal deportation...

Modern tractors rely on precise GPS coordinates to navigate fields. But with charged particles distorting radio signals from GPS satellites, some of them started acting erratically, stopping abruptly or weaving back and forth. "I would guess 80 percent or more of all farmers in the Midwest use at least basic GPS for something — whether it's auto-steer or yield mapping," John Deere service manager Ethan Smidt told SpaceWeather. "At least 50 percent of all farmers are VERY reliant on GPS and use it on every machine all year long." During particularly violent solar storms, charged particles fill the Earth's ionosphere,...

How many are repeats from the other rallies? Good question, 6122

Sandia National Laboratories’ four-channel, silicon photonic single-sideband modulator chip, measuring 8 millimeters on each side and marked with a green Sandia thunderbird logo, sits inside packaging that incorporates optical fibers, wire bonds, and ceramic pins. Credit: Craig Fritz, Sandia National Laboratories ==================================================================== A milestone in quantum sensing is drawing closer, promising exquisitely accurate, GPS-free navigation. Peel apart a smartphone, fitness tracker or virtual reality headset, and inside you’ll find a tiny motion sensor tracking its position and movement. Bigger, more expensive versions of the same technology, about the size of a grapefruit and a thousand times more accurate, help navigate...

I have a full grown, 80 lb. Black Lab and 3 odd shaped acres.He's stud, rambunctious and a handful for my 100 lb. wife.I've seen an ad about a GPS system and research shows me they're not new and with a number of variable features.If anyone has any pragmatic information, I'd like it.

The Global Positioning System runs the modern world.… But it is under daily attack. This year alone, researchers say, more than 60,000 commercial flights have been hit by bogus GPS signals, which can confuse pilots.… The American GPS network that was once the gold standard is at risk of becoming a relic as Chinese, Russian and European systems modernize.

Opinion The scientific community celebrated April 14 as World Quantum Day to raise awareness of quantum science’s impact across diverse fields The world of science is on the cusp of a transformative era driven by the burgeoning field of quantum technology. Quantum science is founded on several key principles that underpin the behaviour of particles and systems at the quantum scale. The term “quantum scale” refers to the realm of physics that deals with phenomena occurring at very small scales, typically at the level of atoms, subatomic particles and fundamental particles. It encompasses the principles of quantum mechanics, which govern...

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...

GPS is being blocked across swathes of Israel in order to disrupt missiles and drones, as tensions rise with Iran. Iran has vowed to respond after a strike on its consulate building in Syria on Monday - which Israel was widely believed to be behind - killed 13 people, including a senior general. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also announced it was halting all leave for soldiers serving with combat units. It comes a day after reservists were called up to bolster air defence units. Israeli authorities seem to believe an Iranian response is imminent and could come as soon...

Commercial air crews are reporting something “unthinkable” in the skies above the Middle East: novel “spoofing” attacks have caused navigation systems to fail in dozens of incidents since September. In late September, multiple commercial flights near Iran went astray after navigation systems went blind. The planes first received spoofed GPS signals, meaning signals designed to fool planes’ systems into thinking they are flying miles away from their real location. One of the aircraft almost flew into Iranian airspace without permission. Since then, air crews discussing the problem online have said it’s only gotten worse, and experts are racing to establish...

I am appearing on The Space Show today at 12:30 pm EST with Pete Wilhelm. Pete worked at the Naval Research Lab from 1959-2014 and knew many space pioneers including Wernher von Braun and Elon Musk. He has great stories. Listen live on the website or download a podcast.

Two people and their dog were found dead at Banff National Park on Saturday after a grizzly bear attack. A GPS device alerted Parks Canada on Friday night, indicating a bear attack was happening within the Red Deer River Valley region west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch in Canada’s Banff National Park... Due to poor weather conditions, an emergency team reportedly could not fly to the location via helicopter, so they traveled by ground during the night. When the team arrived at the scene, they reportedly found two individuals who were deceased and ... The victim’s identities have not been...

A North Carolina woman is suing Google after her husband died after driving off a collapsed bridge while following GPS directions, according to a lawsuit filed this week. Philip Paxson died after driving off "an unmarked, unbarricaded collapsed bridge" on the night of Sept. 30, 2022, in Hickory, his widow, Alicia Paxson, said in the suit filed in Wake County on Tuesday. Paxson was not aware the bridge had collapsed and was following GPS directions from Google, which had not been updated, the lawsuit says.

It’s taken 400 years of scientific discoveries to make it possible for anyone to find his location anywhere on the globe using GPS.With the letters GPS, we instantly recognize an innovation that has revolutionized our lives. The concept was born half a century ago in a sweltering room at the Pentagon over Labor Day weekend in 1973.That’s the genesis of the concept for a constellation of platforms orbiting the Earth, transmitting radio signals to determine location. Many years of calculation, experiment, and miniaturization led to the Navigation Signal Timing and Ranging (NAVSTAR) satellites that became known as the Global Positioning...

A 9K33 Osa SAM System is hit by HIMARS about 50 kilometers from the frontlines in Kherson. (Very interesting discussion in comments.)

French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday. Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers' charter, though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only 'dozens of cases a year'.

After nearly five months of waiting, an alarm activated on Michael Cove’s radio, a sign his study was working. To hunt pythons, an invasive predator in the Florida Keys, Cove and fellow researchers have been strapping GPS collars to opossums and raccoons. When one was eaten by a python in September, researchers programmed the device to notify them from within the snake’s stomach.... According to a ScienceDaily study, the number of raccoons, opossums and bobcats in the Everglades all dropped by at least 87 percent between 1997 and 2012. The same study found that marsh and cottontail rabbits and foxes...