Free Republic

Robots are here — and they’re ready to teach your children and grandchildren. Miko is an artificial intelligence-powered robot that was designed specifically to take kids' learning to a new level. The company's SVP of growth, San Francisco-based Ritvik Sharma, told Fox News Digital in an interview that the personal robot aims to elevate education.

The Biden administration in just the past year alone stockpiled the records of more than 54 million U.S. gun owners and is poised to drastically alter gun regulations to ensure that information on Americans who own firearms ultimately ends up in the federal government's hands, according to internal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The ATF in fiscal year 2021 processed 54.7 million out-of-business records, according to an internal ATF document obtained by the Gun Owners of America, a firearms advocacy group, and provided exclusively to the Free Beacon. When a licensed gun store...

The supposed army of 1,000+ pandemic contact tracers in New York City will hit a roadblock this week as they assess the risk of disease spread from COVID-19 positive patients. Mayor Bill de Blasio has forbidden the tracers from asking sick patients if they attended one of the many George Floyd related protests in the nation's most populous city, giving the tracers an insurmountable barrier as they ostensibly keep New Yorkers safer. "No person will be asked proactively if they attended a protest,” de Blasio spokesperson Avery Cohen told The City. Surveyors recruited as part of de Blasio's "test and...

Today in my mailbox I received notification of a new service. Informed Delivery see the link will send me text pictures of my mail as it travels to my delivery site. I had thought for quite a while that the USPS tracked every piece of mail, with those little stick on bar codes. Now it confirm that they take pictures of each piece of mail. I repeat: They take pictures of our mail. There is no privacy. Ever. Everything is documented. Everything. We continue the march to becoming the least free country in the history of man

How To Permanently Delete A Facebook Account Here is the direct link to the official Facebook account deletion page. Delete Facebook Share Read the step-by-step guide for a clean, dignified exit. A deceased member's account can be memorialized or deleted. The Facebook Account Deletion Process Your account will be ‘deactivated’ for two weeks. After this period it will be permanently deleted. Do not login to your account during this time. It will cancel the deletion request. Do not be fooled into switching to a deactivation request. Deactivation is NOT deletion. Consider an account deletion epitaph to notify friends of your...

Sweden seemed to be at the forefront of the newest globalist scheme digital money v. cash, advocating a cashless global economy with a one-world currency. A CBS World News article reported in 2012 that a small number of businesses in Sweden accepted only credit cards, including some churches, even though elderly people prefer cash, especially in rural areas. Bjorn Ulvaeus, a former rocker, stated that cash encourages theft, citing his own son who was the victim of armed robbery three times. Cheating and cash theft may have declined in Sweden but cybercrime around the world is indisputably on the rise....

I received this in the mail the other day. The front of the envelope reads: "U.S. Census Bureau Form Enclosed. YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Please complete and return by February 12, 2013. I knew the Census is part of the Constitution but a business census? They have pages and pages of forms they want filled out. They want to know how many employees, all my financial numbers, (sales and types services and products offered). First, is this Constitutional? Second, doesn't the IRS have most of this information already?

Olga sez, "The U.S. Dept of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for passport applicants: proposed new Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history, personal details of siblings; mother's addresses prior to your birth; any "religious ceremony" around time of birth, circumstances of birth including names (as well as addresses/phone numbers) of persons present, & more. Failure to answer can mean denial of passport, & govt reserves right to use this info for 'routine uses.'" Update: Commenters note that this form is specifically intended in lieu of a birth certificate with a passport application; but...

It's time to close the Federal Communications Commission. This week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech outlining his push for net neutrality, the absurd notion that the Internet should be "open and free" when in fact it's quite expensive to build. Net neutrality will straitjacket the U.S. economy's single most important driver of productivity and transformation. Besides the obvious question of whether the FCC even has the authority to regulate the Web—in April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said it doesn't—the agency has a long history of restraining trade. Founded in 1934 partly to regulate...

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.

As our daily interactions and transactions have become increasingly “wired,” we have yet to see any truly comprehensive attempts at securing online identities. Our complex system of usernames and passwords is astoundingly outdated and increasingly prone to security breaches and theft. Yet, so far it has been mostly up to the individual to protect himself against various forms of identity fraud—with larger corporations taking relatively little responsibility. But this could change in a big way. Right now the federal government is proposing a new system being referred to as the “Identity Ecosystem”—which was highlighted in the recently-released draft paper, “National...

Speak up by the end of THIS Friday. Say NO to the federal government's plan to collect and control the DNA of every citizen, starting at birth. This Friday, June 25th, is the last day to comment on the federal government's plan to bank and use newborn citizen DNA without consent for research an other purposes. Please make comments --- no matter how brief they may be. Even one sentence is better than nothing.

I had a message on my answering machine asking that I call the Census Bureau and referencing a case number. When I called a machine answered and stated something to the effect that calls may be recorded for quality assurance purposes. Then an agent came on the line, asked for the reference number, and told me that they had some questions they wanted to ask me. I told the lady on the line that, "I am happy to provide information but I do not consent to being recorded". She explained that recording was only for their internal quality assurance use....

A friend of mine completed the U.S. Census, which was advertised as being the document the government needs in order to determine how to allocate funds (for hospitals, police officers, etc.) throughoute various communnities. The slogan was, "We can't go forward if you don't send it back." Naturally, my friend thought that once she returned her Census form, she had done her duty. Well, now she has received a more extensive form entitled "The American Commmunity Survey" from the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is very intrusive and extensive, going so far as asking about her income, what type of...

Recently completed the census "long form" that includes demographic information. Sent it in. Received this evening a call from someone saying they are from the Census and they are calling to verify information on the form. I told the heavily accented mexican woman calling that I will not discuss personal information over the phone, that if they want to verify information they can do so by coming by my address and speaking to me directly. She insisted I speak with her. I declined. She then said she can provide me a telephone number to call to verify she is with...

Implications of Polonium Radiohalos in Nested Plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, Yosemite, California by Dr. Andrew Snelling and Dallel Gates April 8, 2009 Abstract The formation of granite plutons has conventionally been thought to be a slow process requiring millions of years from generation to cooling. Even though new mechanisms for rapid emplacement of plutons have now been proposed, radioisotope dating still dominates and dictates long timescales for pluton formation. However, a new challenge to those long timescales has arisen from radiohalos. Polonium radiohalos found in biotite flakes of granites in Yosemite National Park place severe time constraints on...

Fraser Nelson, writing in the [1] Spectator, describes how the Royal Bank of Scotland, a state-owned bank, is now asking its customers to state their political party affiliation when applying for credit cards. Nelson called the bank himself and recorded the ensuing conversation. The following is self-explanatory. I used the details of my mother-in-law's real company and when they started to talk politics, I switched on the tape recorder. Here is the audio, the transcript is below. FN: Could you repeat the exact question again?RBS: Is she a member of any political party, basically? (note: he was referring to...

Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children's bedrooms. more stories like this Witness intimidation ruling upheld Trooper says police halted his gigs as DJ Police chief pledges probe 26 arrested after Red Sox win pennant Fans celebrate Sox' World Series berth The program, which is already raising questions about civil liberties, is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it...

Government "it's for your own good" paternalism is not innocuous, and not necessarily any more benign than the "do it or else" kind, says Edward L. Glaeser in a recent article, "Paternalism and Psychology," in the University of Chicago Law Review.

Inside Cisco's eavesdropping apparatusBy Declan McCullagh April 21, 2003, 4:00 AM PT Cisco Systems has created a more efficient and targeted way for police and intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on people whose Internet service provider uses their company's routers. The company recently published a proposal that describes how it plans to embed "lawful interception" capability into its products. Among the highlights: Eavesdropping "must be undetectable," and multiple police agencies conducting simultaneous wiretaps must not learn of one another. If an Internet provider uses encryption to preserve its customers' privacy and has access to the encryption keys, it must turn over...