Free Republic

Microwaving Saddam: New weapons likely to see combat Prototypes could paralyze Iraqi militarySpace-age warfare may be used in attack against Baghdad regimeEd Blanche Special to The Daily StarSaddam Hussein may be in for a shock - literally - after telling US President George W. Bush to do his worst in the looming war against Iraq. It seems possible that his command network will become the first target of high-power microwave (HPM) weapons, probably carried by cruise missiles or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These squirt pulses of high-frequency energy that can knock out electronic and communications systems in milliseconds, scrambling computer...

"I test the Army’s new 30×42mm Precision Grenade Rifle and break down how it’s changing infantry combat. The Squad Support Rifle System or SSRS 30mm grenade launcher. It fires ammunition from airburst rounds to counter-drone and anti-armor munitions, this weapon delivers insane accuracy and firepower. Here’s why it might replace traditional grenade launchers like the M203 and M320 and M32 and become the squad’s most lethal system." Cappy Army

A tech investor who shaped the Trump administration’s pro-industry artificial intelligence policies will depart the White House at the end of the month. Sriram Krishnan has informed administration officials that he plans to leave his post as the White House senior policy adviser for AI to start an outside institution that will influence technology policy, according to a person familiar with his plans.

I started out asking Copilot about a news story that identified an organization as racially segregated, and ended up having a very interesting discussion about AI's political biases. I've skipped the initial parts of the conversation and omitted identifying details, because I don't know it's not racist, and that's not the point of posting this here. My point is to identify the grave situation conservatism is in with AI, and how to have useful discussions anyway. User: Since journalists have been dominated by those whose politics align with a single political party [rephrased], do you really think it's fair to...

For nearly thirty years, Lycos occupied a strange corner of internet history. It started as a search engine project in the early web era and grew into a portal packed with hosting services, personal websites, and email. Lycos launched its email service in October 1997, at a time when having an email address still felt novel rather than mandatory. At the olden times of 1997, they had partnered with USA.NET (NetAddress) to offer a co-branded free email service to its portal users, before ditching it in favor of their newly acquired proprietary platform (MailCity) in 1998.For many users, an @lycos.com...

In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, Florida announced Monday it was going after OpenAI and chief executive after the state says its ChatGPT model caused irreparable harms. “The 83-page suit alleges that OpenAI allowed ChatGPT to aid and abet mass shooters, encourage people to take their own lives, degrade users’ critical thinking skills and addict minors to a tool that feigns human compassion,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “This litany of harms is driven by Defendants’ insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes, despite knowing the danger of ChatGPT,” reads the suit filed by Florida Attorney General...

President Trump posted several mock-up images of the “drone port” he hopes to build at the top of the proposed White House ballroom over the weekend — while taking a jab at the judge who is trying to delay construction. “The DronePort at the White House Ballroom will be, perhaps, the most sophisticated anywhere in the World!” Trump boasted on Truth Social. “It will safeguard our Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C., long into the future. “Judge Richard Leon should stop playing games with America’s Security! If anything happens, he will be held responsible for the Death and Destruction caused to our...

***New research has revealed that one in five boys aged 12-16 is either in or knows of a boy their age who is in a romantic relationship with an AI companion. A report carried out by men’s organisation Male Allies UK and published last month spoke with more than 1,000 boys aged 12-16 in focus groups *** The findings make stark reading: eight in 10 boys (85 per cent) have had a conversation with a chatbot, with 43 per cent saying they talk to bots so they can ask questions without feeling embarrassed. More than a quarter (26 per cent)...

The Pegasus team from the Aris student space initiative has generated a stable detonation wave with its engine. Robin Wyss / Aris Space ========================================================================= Students in Switzerland have recently tested an experimental rocket engine that is capable of generating 20,000 detonation waves per second, the same propulsion concept explored by NASA and Japanese researchers for future space missions. The so-called rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) is powered by propane and liquid oxygen. It was built by the Pegasus team, a student project within the ARIS (Academic Space Initiative Switzerland) at ETH Zurich. The third-year students spent nearly a year developing...

C-SPAN coverage features cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding the impact of screen time and classroom technology on youth. In his testimony, Dr. Horvath warned lawmakers that Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform previous generations across cognitive measures like attention, memory, and general IQ. He argued that introducing digital devices into learning environments has actively contributed to this cognitive decline, as human brains are not biologically wired to learn from screens. This is the first generation in human history that is getting DUMBER...

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the home of Harvard University. This was Cambridge last week: And this was Cambridge on Monday: A slew of liberal activists descended upon the Cambridge City Council in recent weeks to get the city to disable its gunshot detection devices, which help police pinpoint where gunshots are coming from to better respond to shootings. Police Commissioner Pauline Wells begged the council on Monday not to deactivate the devices, citing multiple recent cases where lives have been saved due to the system, but to no avail. More from the Harvard Crimson on April 30: In a presentation Wednesday,...

INTRODUCTION On April 29, 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders convened a 75-minute panel in the US Capitol on “the existential threat of AI.” Two of the four panelists were Chinese government affiliates: Zeng Yi, Dean of the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance, and Xue Lan, a Tsinghua University professor who chairs China’s national AI governance expert committee and serves as a Counsellor of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. From a US Senate platform, Xue called the US-China AI race “an inaccurate narrative” and argued for “safe zones” of cooperation on AI safety. The event was...

This video provides an immersive tour of Shenzhen, showcasing the rapid transformation and high-tech integration that makes it one of the most advanced cities in the world. Key Highlights of Shenzhen's Tech Scene: Futuristic Payments & Logistics: The host demonstrates palm payments at a local convenience store (1:14) and experiences drone delivery for tea, which was significantly faster and more efficient than traditional methods (1:40 - 3:18). Autonomous Transportation: The video captures the experience of riding in a driverless taxi (5:21), observing how it handles complex traffic, turns, and obstacle avoidance (5:21 - 7:37). Domestic Innovation: The host explores the...

On April 14, a Chinese battery startup backed by one of the world's largest automakers rolled the first A-sample all-solid-state battery cells off a production line in Guangzhou....The company is targeting GWh-scale output by the end of 2026, twelve to eighteen months ahead of where Toyota’s timeline stood at the start of this year. The silver market has not priced this in.... ...Greater Bay Technology’s A-Sample Changes the Timeline Greater Bay Technology (GBT) is a battery startup backed by GAC Group, China’s fourth-largest automaker by volume. On April 14, GBT confirmed that A-sample all-solid-state battery cells are now rolling off...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced this morning that it has made agreements with eight leading tech firms to deploy their AIs on its classified networks.An initial press release sent out this morning listed seven firms: Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, SpaceX, NVIDIA and Reflection, a newer startup backed by NVIDIA. Later today, the Pentagon CTO’s office posted on X that “Oracle has officially agreed to join the list of AI companies deploying frontier capabilities on the Department’s classified networks.”Some of the companies are already on contract, a Pentagon spokesperson told Breaking Defense, while others are still finalizing the details.“These...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Federal taxpayers helped build a $2.2 billion solar plant — now electricity customers are on the hook to keep it running. The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant, a sprawling facility near the California-Nevada border built with billions in federal support during the Obama-era economic stimulus program, is stuck in a costly dilemma. Both the Trump and Biden administrations — along with the utility company that buys its power — have sought to shut it down, saying it underperforms, produces expensive electricity and has been overtaken by cheaper energy sources. But California regulators have refused to allow it...

The most effective influence operation in 2026 is the one that does not look like an influence operation. Most Americans, when they think about Chinese influence at all, picture something cinematic. They picture a senator on a stage in the Capitol, flanked by two advisors to the State Council of the People's Republic of China, nodding along to a discussion of how the United States should slow down its own AI industry. That happened on April 29, 2026, when Bernie Sanders convened Xue Lan and Zeng Yi for an event titled "The Existential Threat of AI and the Need...

The prototype thruster is enclosed in a condensable metal propellant (CoMeT) vacuum facility at NASA's JPL. NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA engineers recently tested a next-generation electric propulsion system that could one day power a crewed mission to Mars. NASA fired up a prototype of its electromagnetic thruster inside a vacuum chamber, reaching power levels of up to 120 kilowatts—the highest achieved in U.S. tests of an electric propulsion system. That’s over 25 times the power of the electric thrusters aboard the current Psyche mission, which launched in 2023 on a journey to explore a metal-rich asteroid. VIDEO AT LINK.......... “Designing and building...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: While bones can regrow themselves when they break, teeth aren’t so lucky, and that leads to millions of people worldwide suffering from some form of edentulism, a.k.a. toothlessness. Now, Japanese researchers are moving a promising, tooth-regrowing medicine into human trials. If the trial is successful, the researchers hope the drug will become available for all forms of toothlessness sometime around 2030. The average adult human body contains 206 bones—the hardened mixtures of calcium, minerals, and collagen that provide the biological scaffolding that walks us through our day. While we may not...

Are you ready for your car to decide if you’re fit to drive? If not, you’d better buckle up. A federal mandate declares new vehicles must have in-car surveillance for 2027 models onward that can decide if a person is fit to drive and can make the car inoperable via a so-called “kill switch.” And don’t count on brushing your teeth or gargling with Listerine to work around the driver monitor if you’ve had one too many. Most new cars won’t make the determination via breathalyzer, but infrared cameras continually monitoring potential impairment cues. They include pupil size, head movements,...