Free Republic

Psst, wanna buy some innovation?An estimated $1 billion worth of smuggled high-end Nvidia AI processors have reportedly found their way onto the Chinese black market, despite the US government's strict restrictions on exports of the tech. The eyebrow-raising figure, which Nvidia has neither confirmed nor refuted, was revealed by the Financial Times, which claims to have based its reporting on a combination of interviews and analyses of company filings and sales contracts. If accurate, the report sheds light on the limitations of the US trade policy's ability to control the movement of much sought-after AI technology around the world. The...

About 71% of the Earth's surface is water, though it only makes up around 0.02% of the planet's total mass.

A Toyota Project Portal hydrogen fuel cell electric semi-truck is shown during an event in San Francisco, Calif., on Sept. 13, 2018. (Stephen Lam/Reuters) Researchers have come up with a new system that turns seawater into hydrogen fuel—a development that could aid in the proliferation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The new method extracts hydrogen from the ocean by funneling seawater through a double membrane system, using electricity. The design was successful in generating hydrogen gas without the accompaniment of large quantities of harmful byproducts. Vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells are fed with compressed hydrogen gas. The fuel cells do...

The H-20 Stealth Bomber: An Ominous Sign of Chinese Airpower Projection? – As if it weren’t bad enough that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to make strides with its 5th Generation Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter – and flaunts that J-20 via intimidation exercises against Taiwan — the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is evidently also making strides in the arena of next-generation strategic stealth bombers. So then, what exactly do we know about China’s prospective H-20 bomber?

For investors around the world looking at Greece, there was but one question Sunday: What is going to happen when the markets open? On Sunday night, the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said in a televised address that Greece’s banks and stock market would be closed on Monday, as Athens tries to avert a financial collapse. But the question of what happens when the markets do open is particularly acute for the hedge fund investors — including luminaries like David Einhorn and John Paulson — who have collectively poured more than 10 billion euros, or $11 billion, into Greek government bonds,...

The state-run Aviation Industry Corporation of China, or AVIC, may have given a first look at the long-rumored H-20 stealth bomber in a promotional video that apes Northrop Grumman’s famous Superbowl ad teasing what is now known as the B-21 Raider. The clip, which highlights the consortium’s various civil and military products, as well as those from its subsidiaries, has a number of other significant nods to the country’s strategic aviation capabilities, past and present. China Defense Online posted a copy of the video, which combines file footage with slick computer-generated graphics, online on May 8, 2018. Though the presentation...

Senator Mike Crapo (R – ID) wrote an editorial...regard to regulatory measures, and that there is a better way to solve the problem. He recommends that instead of imposing more mandates which foster resentment, the federal government (EPA, Congress, etc) should build partnerships with state legislatures and private property advocates to protect both the environment and private property rights simultaneously...