Free Republic

The Hidden Cost of Convenience: What We Lose When Technology Becomes Our ServantFor most of human history, progress meant learning more. Each new tool expanded capability, extended reach, and added to the skills a person needed to function in the world. But our relationship with technology has changed. Increasingly, progress means we know less while outsourcing more.Artificial intelligence pushes this shift further than any tool before it, and the coming wave of humanoid AI robots will accelerate it. These machines won’t simply take over hard labor—they’ll take over the small daily tasks and judgments that once formed the foundation of...

... for the last 500 years, if you were a nation that wanted to get rich, the way you did it was you built a bunch of ships, you loaded them full of soldiers and guns and horses, and you sailed from Europe, to the New World, and you took their stuff. You took their gold, you enslaved their people, you forced people to work in the gold mines and that sort of thing. That’s how Europe got rich. That’s how the UK got rich. And so that’s the historical pattern for 500 years. 500 years of colonialism. And then...

Ordinarily Tim Adkinson, a trucker, sleeps in the back of his vehicle. But on a warm night at the end of March, he checked into a hotel in Austin, Texas. He had dressed up smartly: white linen shirt and chinos, hair brushed forward in an attempt to mask his receding hairline. On his wrist he wore a yellow paper wristband. This accessory was meant to signal to the people he’d meet that evening that he was single, open to dating and, most importantly, looking to procreate—a lot. “I’m 32 years old and I haven’t had any kids,” Adkinson told me....

Just ran across this - 16 minutes - President Donald J. Trump on the GHWBush #77 Aircraft Carrier - lot of football on - just thought I'd share. ;-) US Navy Shows Off Insane Maneuvers in Front of Donald Trump US Navy Shows Off Insane Maneuvers in Front of Donald Trump

For too long, merit has taken a back seat in American higher education. Under the banner of DEI, admissions policies at many institutions have prioritized demographic balancing over academic excellence. But the pendulum is swinging back. A growing number of selective universities—including Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale—have recently announced they will once again require standardized test scores for admission. These decisions reflect a broader reappraisal of merit-based criteria, driven not just by partisan pressure but by internal reviews of academic outcomes and fairness. The message is clear: Excellence matters, and the most promising students deserve a fair shot. Increasingly, qualified students...

Within academia, there seems to be a growing consensus that the peer-review system—once the backbone of academic scholarship—is broken. But is it irreparably so? Perhaps. At the very least, the breakdown of its current form is worth exploring. However, rather than abandoning the entire endeavor, we believe we have a novel solution. First, though, let us examine where the system went wrong. In the Middle Ages, most scientific research was self-published, as scholars shared their findings among themselves. But, as the profession grew, that became impractical, and the scientific journal was born as a way of disseminating information. A scholar...

British Prince Andrew and UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed. Andrew may go into a gilded life in exile. As the former Duke of York is massacred daily by an unstoppable flux of scandals, he is facing the prospect of being evicted from the 30-room Royal Lodge that has been his residence for more than 20 years. Prince Andrew always maintained that he held a ‘cast iron’ lease of the mansion, until it became public that he only paid ‘one peppercorn a year’ in rent. The agreement stated that the Crown would have to pay Andrew around £558,000 ($742,000) if he gave...

US scientists have, for the first time, made early-stage human embryos by manipulating DNA taken from people's skin cells and then fertilising it with sperm.The technique could overcome infertility due to old age or disease, by using almost any cell in the body as the starting point for life.It could even allow same-sex couples to have a genetically related child.The method requires significant refinement - which could take a decade - before a fertility clinic could even consider using it.Experts said it was an impressive breakthrough, but there needed to be an open discussion with the public about what science...

A new report by the Lancet published August 3 reiterates what media repeats daily: plastics are causing diseases, dementia and death. But the article makes it obvious that it is not the manufacturing or use of plastics; it is the recycling. Their solution is more Green spending, not less. No reversal. Burying plastics is safe and easy but never discussed because it would save money. Big Green interests have made trillions of dollars browning the earth and they refuse to stop. When did worldwide panic and spending dramatically accelerate? Buried within these top 100 facts about the green energy carnage...

No Republican is safe from CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s wrath, not even former President and quintessential moderate George H.W. Bush. According to Colbert and actor Jeremy Strong on Thursday, “we risk losing essentially everything” to climate change, and it is Bush’s fault. Colbert teed up Strong, “You have a documentary about our burning world.” An appreciative Strong took the opportunity to promote the project, “Yeah, I executive produced an incredible documentary called The White House Effect that is coming out on Netflix at the end of next month. It’s coming out on Netflix on October 31,...

Science or Control? A Reflection on Climate Change and Scientific AuthorityThe Climate Crisis: From Ice Age to Apocalypse In the 1970s, the fear was global cooling—scientific articles and media coverage warned of an impending ice age. That didn’t happen. Soon, the narrative shifted to global warming. When the planet didn’t burst into flames, the terminology changed again to climate change—a catch-all that could explain any weather event: rain or drought, heat or cold, snow or its absence. Every shift came with new studies, new headlines, and always the same conclusion: We’re to blame. But the Earth’s climate has always changed....

New research reveals that climate fairness calculations have long favored wealthy, high-polluting nations by letting them delay urgent action while shifting responsibility onto vulnerable countries. Credit: Shutterstock Scientists have uncovered a hidden bias in climate pledges that rewards big polluters and penalizes vulnerable nations. Past calculations allowed high emitters to dodge responsibility and delay action. The new approach emphasizes historical responsibility, demanding steep cuts from wealthy countries and funding for poorer ones. Climate Goals Under Scrutiny Climate efforts are falling short of the Paris Agreement’s targets. To stay on track, each country is expected to contribute its ‘fair share’ of...

The Great Experiment and How It Ends: A Return to Nature, Purpose, and PartnershipIn the last several decades, Western society has launched what could be called a Great Experiment: a full-scale reengineering of the human relationship structure that has served civilization for thousands of years. The traditional roles of men and women have been dismantled, the institution of marriage devalued, and the idea of long-term partnership often treated as optional, or even regressive.This experiment was built on the promise of personal freedom: that women could have it all—career, independence, and family—on their own terms, and that men could be liberated...

Climate Change, Control, and the Question of Trust For as long as humans have walked the Earth, we have adapted to the forces of nature. Our species has survived ice ages, scorching droughts, violent storms, and even near-extinction events. We’ve done so not because we controlled nature, but because we learned to live with it — to adjust, to innovate, and to endure. Our greatest strengths have always been our intelligence and our adaptability. So when we’re told today that climate change represents an existential crisis, one that can only be solved through radical restructuring of our lives, our freedoms,...

On Tuesday morning, Capitol Hill was rocked by the release of a never-before-seen military surveillance video showing what appears to be a glowing orb, an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), shrugging off a U.S. Hellfire missile like it was a paper airplane. The 100-pound air-to-ground missile literally bounced off the craft, barely leaving an impact, before the UAP shot away at impossible speeds. The shocking footage, captured by an MQ-9 Reaper drone off the coast of Yemen on October 30, 2024, was unveiled by Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) during the latest congressional hearing on UAPs. Burlison wrote: Below is the video...

Beijing is set to display a range of previously unseen advanced weaponry during a military parade in Tiananmen Square on September 3, signaling its growing military prowess amid heightened tensions with the U.S. over the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. Satellite imagery circulating on social media indicates that the parade, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, will showcase several new anti-ship missiles, including the YJ-15, YJ-17, YJ-19, and YJ-20, with “YJ” standing for “Ying Ji” or “Eagle Attack.” Some of these missiles are believed to be hypersonic, capable of traveling at speeds exceeding five...

This bizarre resident of the deep sea is certainly one of the most unique creatures we've ever seen. Imagine traveling through the darkest depths of the ocean around 2,000ft down where everything around you is pitch black. You shine your torch into the gloom and something catches your eye. As it gets closer, you realize that this is no ordinary fish - you can see straight through its head! Meet the barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) - a creature so bizarre that if there weren't pictures and videos of it you could almost believe that it was something completely made up....

Just a reminder that AI isn't up to planet crushing intelligence yet. I asked perplexity.ai, "Who is the woman in the attached photo?" The AI responded:The woman in the photo is Marilyn Monroe. This iconic image is from the famous scene where she sings "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The style of her dress, hair, and the classic vintage microphone are all signature elements from that performance. After I pointed out why that couldn't be the case, it suggested maybe Lauren Becall. Without a clear identifying feature, it is not possible to definitively...

Apparently, there's an exhibit at the Smithsonian – inside the National Museum of American History – that asks visitors to give their opinions on transgender athletes. Not only that, but the exhibit is sponsored, in part, by sports apparel giant Nike. Jillian Michaels, one of the original "fitness influencers" and a staunch defender of women's sports, brought it up during a segment on CNN, asking why the exhibit exists and why it is promoting a false claim. "[The exhibit]… talks about how it's complex to do gender testing in sports. It's not complex. It's basic science," Michaels said. "Is it...

My startling chat with Grok Grok tries to serve Elon Musk, the aggressive censors at X, and me X deleted several of my posts with no explanation. Instead of complaining to X, I contacted Grok and asked why my posts were being vaporized. We communicated for 45 minutes, which resulted in more than 25 pages of single-space copy! People wonder what AI is all about. I can report that Grok does everything super-fast. He (she if you prefer) does not make grammatical or spelling mistakes. Like me, he loves alliteration. Whatever you say, he weaves that into his conversation so...