Free Republic

"The first shotgun we have is the Benelli M4 drone guardian. This shotgun is based on the famous Benelli M4, but what makes it special is the advanced impact barrel, which has a series of overboards, forcing cones, and extra-long choke tubes to maximize the velocity of our tungsten shot. This tungsten shot was specially designed for drone use. It's a very hard material, and it gives us that penetrating capability at about 100 meters. We can take down class one, class 2 drones at about 100 meters using the Benelli M4 with the Norma Adler shotgun shells. We also...

As AI development rapidly expands, people are replicating paid-for desktop and mobile apps with free apps, potentially changing the future of legacy software. Last week, a Reddit user named Brandon Thomas shared a project called “ArtCraft” – essentially a free rebuild of the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes programmes such as Photoshop and Adobe PDF. The recreated services have been named PhotoCraft and PdfCraft. This software package usually costs individuals $779.99 per year if paid upfront or $69.99 per month on an annual contract. Earlier this week, ArtCraft also released copies of the Microsoft Office suite. As with the Adobe...

WUSF Public Media reported that the state pays contractors up to $18 an hour... Florida does not permit hunters to use firearms to kill the snakes, so capturing them requires close contact... They could also earn $50 for a python measuring up to four feet, followed by another $25 for each additional foot With a $10,000 grand prize for the person who humanely killed the highest number. Aycock recalled capturing one measuring 17 feet... He and his wife had to manoeuvre around the animal before he could secure its head and prevent it from lunging at them.

Patience and Jarod Blocker are rare for their age. The Gillette couple has a passion for classic pre-64 Winchester Model 70 rifles. Planning for next year's Winchester Arms Collectors Association show in Cody, Patience says, "It's going to be bad-ass."

So, admit it, you'd get a kick out of listening to "Little Duece Coup". Here it is.1978, Wheatland CA, rice-fields country--driving on Hwy 99, you have to close your windows because of pesticides in the rice paddies-- north of Sacramento, south of Marysville-Yuba City; Hancock Gas Station. (Hwy 99, Tule fog, "Death Alley", UC Davis Med Center Sacramento had the #1 trauma E.R. in the world in the late 1970s, until it was defunded, E.R. Surgeons as skilled as "battlefield" trauma surgeons in Beirut, Lebanon or Northern Ireland.)I can't find a photo, but the station had a standard, baked-enamel gas...

A group of professional skydivers with Skydive Milwaukee were getting ready for their jump when they spotted a small plane crash into a cornfield near East Troy Municipal Airport on Sunday afternoon. One of the skydivers, John Bechtel, recalled the moment in an interview with WSMV, saying of the other plane, He kind of banked up a little bit, and then he disappeared behind the trees. We were all sitting there waiting for him to show back up somewhere and he never did. We all just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Did we just see a plane crash?'...

For nearly two decades, Lesney Products ruled the world's pockets and playrooms. Born in a bombed-out London pub garage after the war, this British firm turned die-cast metal into pure childhood gold, selling hundreds of millions of tiny cars under the Matchbox name and building a monopoly so complete that "Matchbox" became the generic word for toy car itself, the way "Hoover" meant vacuum cleaner. Their factories in Hackney and Kentish Town ran round the clock, their sales curves only pointed skyward, and their executives believed, with total conviction, that no one could ever touch them. Then in 1968 an...

The 2026 Dog Photography Awards have recognised photographers from around the world, with around 1,900 entries submitted from 50 countries. The competition says it aims to highlight the work of established dog photographers alongside emerging talent, with images judged across six categories: Portrait, Action, Studio, Dogs & People, Documentary and Open. The 2026 prize pool includes €2,500 ($4,000 AUD) in cash and an engraved trophy. Katie Brockman from the United States was awarded the title of Dog Photographer of the Year for her portrait of a pit bull, a species she describes people holding complicated feelings for.

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

A team scanning a boat-shaped hill in eastern Turkey has announced that new radar images show a large man-made structure underground, not just natural rock. On Wednesday, private research group Noah’s Ark Scans released a preliminary report about their work at the Durupınar Formation in Turkey, claiming that the 515-foot boat-shaped mound contained a 'man-made object.' The scans were conducted by Dr Khosrow Bakhtar, an engineer who spent decades building detection systems for US defense agencies, including the Air Force, Navy and NORAD. He used a system he invented called BakhtarRadar, originally developed to find buried tunnels and hidden structures,...

Our low-budget Pittsburgh Pirates have locked themselves in to their first 50% win season since 2018 . . . with three games to go. Even though they are out of the playoffs, they could actually finish the season better than two American League teams still contenting for a playoff spot. Isn't this progress?

Apple is making a much clearer bet on local AI computing with its latest Mac mini and Mac Studio desktops. Announced on August 25, 2026, the new machines are built around Apple’s new M6 and M5 Ultra chips, with the company emphasizing on-device AI, AI agents, large language models and professional workloads rather than treating AI as simply another feature. The new Mac mini starts at $899, while the Mac Studio starts at $2,499. Both are available for preorder, with availability beginning September 22. The bigger story, however, is not just faster Macs. Apple is increasingly positioning its desktop hardware...

Hacking a weak computer system does not equal global doomsday. The news has been full of articles recently about how we’re all going to die by 2030, 2027, or insert your year number. (The piece then quotes from an article from another source... and then continues.) For starters, we can discount the AI supervirus threat. AI doesn’t have to develop a doomsday virus, that world killing doomsday virus was already developed by the Aussie CSIRO in 2001 – who then promptly went on to tell everyone how to replicate their work. Aussie researchers stumbled across a simple genetic hack which...

Tony Lee "TJ" Wiggins Jr., 32, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder, tampering with physical evidence and possessing a weapon as a felon. Prosecutors said Wiggins was the gunman who killed Damion Tillman, Brandon Rollins and Keven Springfield outside a Dollar General in 2020. In his opening statement to the jury on Monday, Assistant State Attorney Ralph Guerra said Tillman went into the discount store on July 17, 2020, to buy a few items before heading out with his friends to go fishing. Guerra said surveillance video showed the defendant inside the store at the same time...

The founder of the world’s biggest weekly car show was killed Saturday when his McLaren slammed into a tree in California, split in two and burst into flames in a horrific early-morning crash. James Wehr, 27, the owner of South OC Cars and Coffee, died in the wreck along with another driver, whose identity had not been released. The deadly crash happened around 12:20 a.m. at the intersection of Culver Drive and Deerfield Avenue in Irvine, police said.

ASPEN, Colo. — Mountain Rescue Aspen responded to two climbing fatalities in less than a week. On Sunday, a climber died after falling on Castle Peak, south of Aspen. On Sept. 2, another climber was killed after falling off Maroon Peak. The Elk Mountains are very rocky, loose shale that’s crumbly and moves a lot,” said Jeff Edelson with Rocky Mountain Rescue. “It’s unfortunate to see two climber deaths in one week in one range. If we look back at our historical data, unfortunately, we do have a couple of deaths a year on average in our range. Sometimes they’re...

# CHAPTER ONE ## Welfare Check Deputy Caleb Mercer had spent enough years wearing a badge to understand that Saturdays had their own personality. Friday nights belonged to drunks, domestic arguments, teenagers who had borrowed more courage than judgment, and grown men who somehow reached forty without learning that nothing good followed the sentence, *Watch this*. Sunday mornings were quieter, particularly during deer season and football season, when half the county was either in church, in the woods, or sitting in front of a television. Saturdays fell somewhere in between. People had time to notice things on Saturdays. They noticed...

My goodness, my Guinness! A massive haul of 70,000 pints of Guinness was stolen in the dead of night — sending British police on a desperate hunt for the missing stout. The two trailer loads of beer, valued at $155,000, were snatched last Monday from an industrial park in Runcorn, near Liverpool, according to the Cheshire Constabulary. The Guinness, destined for pubs, was brazenly taken by two drivers who pulled up to the depot and hauled away the trailers carrying 800 barrels of the dark, creamy Irish beer. “It is famously said that ‘Guinness is good for you,’ but that...

Ok look. I have been a daily devotee and frequent supporter of this once-wonderful site for years. Since 1998 FR has had an open tab on all of my desktops for frequent, hourly, reads and commenting. But. My personal visits are down to a few times a week because life changes and i don't get to my desk too often, and this site has become largely unreadable on cell phone screens. It gives me a headache trying to read articles and comments. I believe many others have this opinion and experience. Daily Views are way down and God bless you...

Watch the trains. Stay for dinner. That is the whole idea, and it is not open yet. I organized an Indiana company—Dave’s Depot & Diner LLC—so the name would be clean. There is no land under contract, no steel in the air, and no one should read this as a grand opening. What follows is the purpose and the goal, stated so a stranger can decide whether the thing is serious. I have spent a long time beside railroad tracks with something to eat. The train fills the world and then the quiet comes back. In South Bend there is...