Free Republic

Twitter unveiled a feature called Birdwatch on Monday meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially misleading tweets. Not content with their silencing and censoring the views and opinions of people like Donald Trump, Twitter now turns to the Twitterverse to enlist them to do their dirty work for them. Censorship will become a group effort, where no opinion will be allowed except for the opinion of the group. This is exactly what George Orwell warned would happen one day in America, that day is now...

Hello, I was unsure how to get in touch so I thought this might get a mod's attention. It seems my posts are now being held back. If I have violated a rule I am sorry. If posting less can restore what I consider to be a great website that would be great. I believe in your mission and as a monthly donor put my money where bandwidth is, so to speak. Happy to back off posting a little, it's just your site is a little addictive. Did not mean to upset.

Last year’s Super Bowl, between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, was shown in 4K, for Fox’s broadcast of the game. But this year’s game won’t be, according to a report Thursday. The Verge reported, based on confirmation from CBS Sports Digital, that Super Bowl LV will not be streaming in 4K or HDR. CBS told the site that it “remains committed to offering more live sports in 4K and HDR in the future.” Why not? It appears to be due to a delay in deployment of the technology, caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this month, a pro-Trump mob unlawfully breached the United States Capitol, hoping to “stop the steal” by interfering with the Electoral College vote count. In a positive deviation from the norm, Americans are coming together to denounce political violence, calling for the swift arrests of the perpetrators. What’s troubling, however, is law enforcement’s use of the same invasive technologies that, just a few months ago, caused a wave of backlash and prompted big tech to terminate government contracts. While Americans rally around this national manhunt, they should keep a watchful eye on their Fourth Amendment rights. Sure, the rioters...

The B-21 Raider, named after the Doolittle Raiders of World War II fame, could make its maiden flight sometime in mid-2022, according to reporting by Air Force Magazine. B-21 airframe number one has already completed, with construction on the second airframe already underway.

In Look to Windward, a science fiction novel from the late Scottish author Iain M. Banks, perfectly clear video and audio can be instantaneously transmitted across vast interstellar distances, yet people still vie to be physically present at a concert. This is something to consider the next time your local school board assures you that the classroom experience can be recreated on Zoom. Last spring, the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic forced schools across the country to adopt “online learning,” a euphemism for teachers yelling impotently at the disembodied heads of 20 students on a flickering video screen. The...

In The Hedgehog Review, Christine Rosen writes about technosolutionism. If the pandemic has made evident the precarious nature of the global economy (it could briefly be brought to a standstill by a single “bug”), it also showed how advanced our technology had become. We immediately found ourselves on Zoom, or other conferencing platforms, doing business, teaching class, or chatting with family and friends we were otherwise used to seeing regularly. The pandemic hit less than a year ago, and we already have not one but several vaccines. It is astounding. Yet, there are dangers, Rosen argues:

Anger against big tech reached a tipping point during the 2020 Election, as conservative ideas were censored and stories critical of Democrats suppressed. With the ongoing purge of social media accounts, corporations are enforcing a free speech restriction that terrifies not only conservatives but free speech advocates across the political spectrum. The question now is how do we translate anger into tangible actions that will bring about change? To fight big tech over the long-term, we need a comprehensive strategy that marshals the resources of investors and entrepreneurs, donors, elected officials and policy experts. Business leaders can foster an entrepreneurial...

So many satellites are moving and sitting over our heads, and the numbers are ever increasing. Using low cost software defined radio (SDR) and low cost DIY antennas you can make from materials at your local hardware store or garage, a world of fun can be explored. This is a beginners guide on how to get up and running. Exploring which projects to tackle first, from weather satellites, data over Inmarsat and Iridium, to listening to amateur radio and cube satellites. Learn about some hardware you can make or scout for online and use at home. A quick tour of...

A 1940 educational short by Bell Telephone to show customers that were recieving new dial phones how to use the new device, and why they were getting these new sets.

There are a hundred reasons why nuclear energy can play a massive role in the future of American power and prosperity.It creates high-paying jobs better than any other energy source. Its fuel sources are abundant. It fuels NASA’s most innovative projects. It offers a solution to conservation concerns without devastating the economy. And despite its sensationalist image, it is far safer than fossil fuels, and about the same in safety as solar and wind.“Nuclear provides 55% of our country’s clean energy, and about 20% of our power, and it’s one of the most reliable generators that we have on the...

What if forgetting your password for a website could cost you $200 million? That’s the situation facing a programmer living in San Francisco. From the Times: Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million.

Amazon Web Services filed its response to Parler's lawsuit on Tuesday, blaming the social media platform favored by the far-right for filing a "meritless claim" against the cloud computing giant and citing a liability shield often maligned by President Donald Trump: Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934. AWS's legal brief argues that it is Parler, not Amazon (AMZN), that breached the terms of its contract and that Parler's removal from AWS's hosting platform was a "last resort." "This case is about Parler's demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from the servers of Amazon Web Services ('AWS') content that...

Now that Amazon Web Services has shut down Parler, will the social network rebuild elsewhere? Parler CEO John Matze says Parler will be back with "many competing for our business." Don't bet on it. There appears to be no major public cloud or hosting company willing to give Parler a home. But, even if there were, Parler would find it almost impossible to return anytime soon. Parler will need to build its own infrastructure.

Despite leaving the EU, London may be source its next main battle tank from France and Germany. According to industry reports, the United Kingdom may be interested in the jointly developed Franco-German Eurotank project to replace their aging Challenger 2 main battle tank, which though not a particularly aged tank, will eventually need replacement.

The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is preparing for a war in the Pacific against a near-peer adversary–that means China. One of their go-to weapons in the future could be a new type of long-range loitering munition or what could be described as a sort of kamikaze bomb. Changing Times In an effort to become more expeditionary and better prepared for combat in a littoral environment, big changes are coming to the United States Marine Corps. At the heart of the USMC’s pivot from land-based counterinsurgency warfare to their traditional maritime expeditionary role is a need to counter an increasingly aggressive...

A while back we heard a suggestion that it may be possible to use the 5th harmonic on R820T2 RTL-SDRs to receive frequencies much higher than the normal 1.766 GHz limit. After mentioning this to to Hayati Augen he has recently managed to implement this driver hack, and now R820T2 based RTL-SDRs can tune all the way up to 6 GHz if Hayati's experimental driver branch is used. Before everyone gets too excited, we need to temper expectations as sensitivity reduces the higher the frequency so an LNA may be required, imaging/aliasing is a major problem, and you will absolutely...

For those who are interested.....I monitor and track airplanes that fly over North Florida where I live, Civilian Passenger Planes, Military Planes and Private Aircraft, using a Raspberry Pi, ADS-B software from Flightaware.com, it's a hobby... Yesterday during a very busy day, all the traffic I was tracking just dropped off to almost nothing, I was convinced it was my equipment and started to investigate, changing cables, rebooting the Raspberry Pi, etc....nothing worked. I went on the Flightware Discussion boards looking for a solution and ran into an article just posted by someone else from Jacksonville who was reporting the...

Throughout the last year, there’s been a great deal of rancor related to Chinese-owned tech companies that do business in the United States. The Trump administration spent the better part of 2020 attempting to ban the Chinese-owned TikTok. The U.S. government has also devoted energies in recent years to cracking down on Chinese-made smartphone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, with the FCC, last summer, declaring both companies threats to national security. More recently, security researchers discovered what they described as a “Chinese backdoor” in TCL’s Android TVs that are sold in the United States. The acting secretary of homeland security, Chad...

I received a log periodic antenna designed by ham radio operator WA5VJB from Kent Electronics. They are rated from 2 to 11 GHz, so this model will cover several of the ham bands. These antennas are made on PCB's and are ideal for use in the amateur microwave bands as compromise dish feeds. In this video I do a test of such a feed versus my patch antenna on the 3.4 GHz band. https://www.wa5vjb.com/products1.html I mounted one in place of the original dipole feed on a 2.4 GHz (13cm) gridpack at the same focal point. Whilst gain will be down...