Free Republic

While public discourse is consumed by a deluge of executive orders and scandalous exposés of waste and corruption, the Trump administration, with Elon Musk’s United States DOGE Service (USDS) at the helm, is quietly executing a radical AI-driven overhaul of federal operations.The recently established USDS, whose goal is to “[modernize] Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” has instead handed Musk and his allies unprecedented control over federal technology strategy — with little scrutiny and even less accountability.What was pitched as a reasonable efficiency initiative is rapidly escalating into a full-scale AI revolution, one that raises serious...

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Donald Trump would continue to work at “break-neck speed” when Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle asked about the president’s swift pace during Tuesday’s press briefing. Boyle and Axios co-founder Mike Allen received the first two questions of the first briefing of the second Trump adminsitration after Leavitt announced a “new media seat,” which is situated where White House press secretary staff usually sits. “You laid out several of the actions that President Trump has taken. Obviously, it’s a stark contrast from the previous administration, the break-neck speed from President...

More than any other equation in physics, E = mc² is recognizable and profound. But what do we actually learn about reality from it? ===================================================================== This 1934 photograph shows Einstein in front of a blackboard, deriving special relativity for a group of students and onlookers. Although special relativity is now taken for granted, it was revolutionary when Einstein first put it forth, and doesn't even describe his most famous equation, which is E = mc². - Public Domain ====================================================================== Key Takeaways: * First introduced way back in 1905, Einstein’s most famous equation, E = mc², put forth the mathematical formula...

If some California legislators have their way, your car could soon scold you if you exceed the speed limit. On Tuesday, the state Senate passed SB 961, a bill sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener. The bill requires passive speed governors to be added to all new cars manufactured or sold in California by 2032. Speed governors would alert drivers with “audible and visual signals when they exceed the speed limit by greater than 10 miles per hour,” a press release from Wiener’s office said.

Being proved right isn't always fun. Just weeks after my warning in the March issue that our modern high-tech cars are tracking us and sharing data with manufacturers, cops, and parties unknown, came a report of soaring auto insurance premiums because of snitching vehicles. The consequences get worse from there. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your snoopy ride from contacting the mothership. Your Driving History May Be Transmitted and Stored "Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry," Kashmir Hill reported this month for The New York Times. "Sometimes this is happening...

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) — It seems former President George H.W. Bush felt the need for speed in the waters off Maine, where he kept a nearly 1,000 horsepower speedboat. And for the right price, someone else can experience its excitement. The vessel is set to go up for auction on Thursday during the 2024 Presidential Salute auction in Houston, said Hutton Higgins, a spokesperson for the George & Barbara Bush Foundation. Proceeds from selling the 38-foot (11.5-meter) speedboat “Fidelity V” will be used to expand offerings at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum and The Bush School of...

Drivers may soon get speeding tickets without ever talking to an officer, if a bill gets approved authorizing speed limit cameras. The program would give speeding drivers a ticket by using speed cameras and an automatic billing system, according to Assembly Bill 645. "The speed safety system shall capture images of the rear license plate of vehicles that are traveling 11 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit and notices of violation shall only be issued to vehicles based on that evidence," the bill states. Fines would start at $50 for going 11 mph over the posted...

Graham Sykes from Bedale has set a new 1/8th-mile record on his motorcycle...It uses "steam-based science" to achieve incredible speeds with zero emissions...See the blisteringly fast bike accelerate to 163.8mph at an airfield in the UK...[Includes "steam" video!]

Save Share Bank runs are always extraordinary. But the first bank run of the social media age has been something else. The speed with which Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday night under the staggering weight of $US42 billion ($63 billion) of withdrawals, and then had its depositors bailed out on Sunday night in similarly short order, is in part due to the power of social media, and the speed with which information travels across it.

The average top speed of a zebra is believed to be up between 35 and 43 miles-per-hour. A camel has a top speed of up to 40 miles-per-hour and can hold a 25 miles-per-hour pace up to an hour long. Today, Evangeline Downs, typically occupied by horses, hosted an event to put the top speed of camels and zebras to the test. WINNER! WINNER! Tammy’s Grocery on Jefferson Street in Lafayette sells winning scratch off ticket Director of Operations at Evangeline Downs Anthony Breaux says they have been planning an event like this for several years before finally getting the...

The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending new speed limiter technology. According to a CNN Business report, an electric car equipped with this intelligence speed assistance program knows the speed limit wherever the particular car is traveling. A video demonstrating this speed-limiting program on the CNN Business website showed New York City Deputy Mayor of Operations Meera Joshi is driving a vehicle equipped with the program. While demonstrating the speed limiter program Joshi, formerly FMCSA’s acting administrator, said, “I’m pressing the pedal, but you see actually the number is going down.”

What in the world is going on? In the past, we were told that monkeypox was not a major concern because it was so difficult to spread it from person to person. But now monkeypox seems to be spreading like wildfire. On May 7th, the very first case in the western world in 2022 was confirmed in the United Kingdom. Now here we are less than two weeks later and there are now dozens of confirmed and suspected cases in eight different countries outside of Africa. Yesterday, I discussed the cases that have popped up in Spain, Portugal and the...

BEIJING (AP) — Erin Jackson became the first Black woman to win a speedskating medal at the Winter Olympics. A gold one, at that. Jackson won the 500 meters Sunday with a time of 37.04 seconds, giving the American speedskating program its first medal of the Beijing Games and first individual medal since 2010. But this one meant much more than national pride. The 29-year-old Jackson, a former inline skater who switched to the ice shortly before the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, joined fellow American Shani Davis as the only Black athletes to win long-track speedskating medals at the Olympics. Now,...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg assured that "the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure legislation will not go down the tired old path of providing more lane-miles of roads and bridges that has been the traditional transportation strategy in the past. Traveling on roadways is one of the most dangerous things most Americans do on a regular basis. Reducing this travel will be the core objective of my plan." "The first prong of my plan will be to get people out of their cars," the Secretary said. "This means making alternatives to driving crucial. We need to improve crosswalks, add...

High speed carrier turns, click here => https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Q8P049-2Q

WILLIAMSPORT — Shane Burkett has been watching the Interstate 81 Potomac River bridge work from the cab of a tractor-trailer. Now that the new third lanes are open in each direction, the semi driver likes what he sees. "I think it's great. I-81 is a massive highway. ... It's a big help having that third lane now," the Williamsport resident said. The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration formally announced completion of the $104.6 million project Thursday. The work, which has been years in the making, widened the interstate from two lanes to three lanes in each direction from...

SSC announced a customer-owned Tuatara set a new production-vehicle land-speed record of 316.11 mph. The run took place on Oct. 10 on a seven-mile stretch of State Route 160 in Nevada and required a two-way average with both runs within an hour of each other to account for wind and gradients; a public road; street tires; street fuel; and satellite tracking. The car was stock...with a four-point seating harness and no roll cage...the team overfilled the Cup 2 tires with nitrogen...the active rear wing was locked in top-speed mode so it couldn't retract or angle for braking if anything were...

There's a new record in Cannonball land: Drivers Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt announced today that they completed the cross-country drive from New York City to Los Angeles in 25 hours, 39 minutes, narrowly beating a claimed "sub-26-hour" record publicized in May and besting their own record of 27 hours, 25 minutes that was announced in November 2019. Toman and Tabbutt's November attempt kicked off a spate of copycat record-chasers, many of whom took advantage of reduced traffic during COVID lockdown to set cross-country times that would seem impossible under normal driving conditions. An unnamed trio wedged a giant auxiliary...

At age 12, Keegan Sobilo of New Baltimore carefully tucks his legs and arms into a fire suit, pulls on a helmet and climbs into a race car that exceeds 80 mph. He has been doing this since age 8. "I’d stand underneath the grandstand, and whenever somebody would get close to Keegan on the track, I’d have to walk away," said his mother, Hillary Sobilo, 46, a kindergarten teacher at Cleveland Elementary School in Port Huron.

On Monday, during an interview with the Des Moines Register, 2020 presidential hopeful mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg said drug possession should not result in jail time. Buttigieg said, “Incarceration should not even be a response to drug possession. What I have seen is while there continues to be all kinds of harms associated with drug possession and use, it is also the case that we have created in an effort to deal with a public health problem, we have created an even bigger problem — a justice problem, and it’s own form of a health problem when...