Free Republic

“Numerous commentators have identified the broader context of Israeli occupation as a cause of the [Israel-Hamas] war. The Associated Press wrote that Palestinians are ‘in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.’ Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch have likened the Israeli occupation to apartheid, although supporters of Israel dispute this characterization.” This quote, which seems to have an anti-Israel slant, is actually from the “Israeli policy” part of the background section on the main Wikipedia page documenting the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. One editor who has run...

You have surely heard that your search results on Google (with 92 percent share of the search market) reflect not your curiosities and needs but someone or something else’s views on what you need to know. That’s hardly a secret. And on Facebook, you are likely inundated by links to official sources to correct any errors you might carry in your head, as well as links to corrections to posts as made by any number of fact-checking organizations. You have likely also heard of YouTube videos being taken down, apps deleted from stores, and accounts being canceled across a variety...

You know how Google's new feature called AI Overviews is prone to spitting out wildly incorrect answers to search queries? In one instance, AI Overviews told a user to use glue on pizza to make sure the cheese won't slide off (pssst...please don't do this.)

The first batch of pictures I made with ChatGPT got some good response. Here is a second helping. Some of these were suggested by others. The rest, percolated to the top of my (questionably stable) gray matter and wouldn't leave me alone until I did something with them. Don't know if I'll ever do something like this again, ChatGPT is a great tool but it shouldn't be a "toy".Anyhoo, enjoy! Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts movement, fighting zombiesThe Joker with a Hello Kitty bombTwo dachshunds in the style of Fear and Loathing in Las VegasBig Daddy from...

For the past half hour or so, FR has been slow to respond, with a long delay. Refreshing a page pauses for 10-30 seconds, then suddenly bingo it's there. All other sites are acting normally. I'm on Spectrum in Upstate NY with very high-speed cable. No other symptoms. Anybody else noticing a longish delay to get a page from FR? Disclosure: I'm spoiled. The early years of FR were pretty slow all the time, and JohnRob has had this site working extremely well for so long now that a 10 second pause is unusual. Kudos JohnRob, and I hope if...

From NEXTDOOR policy. “…We stand in solidarity with neighbors advocating for racial justice and those speaking out against hate. These issues are relevant in neighborhoods everywhere -- that’s why we allow conversations in support of Black Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate, and other movements that advocate for racial equality and civil rights anywhere on Nextdoor as long as they adhere to our community guidelines. Content posted in opposition or as a rebuttal to support for racial equality is counterproductive and harmful. We ask that neighbors be mindful of engaging constructively in discussions on these issues. While neighbors are free to...

Google unleashes AI in search, raising hopes for better results and fears about less web traffic, a shift promising to quicken the quest for information while also potentially disrupting the flow of money-making internet traffic.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and FBI Director Christopher Wray announced on Monday their latest plan to censor Americans under the guise of combatting “election threats.” Attorney General Merrick Garland who is directly tied to the historic persecution of opposition candidate Donald J. Trump led the discussion today in Washington DC on election threats. He should have mentioned his name first when he lectured on current election threats. Merrick Garland today mentioned the DOJ and FBI’s work to protect elections from national security threats. Garland added, “It includes our National Security Division’s and the FBI’s work...

A new survey from the online magazine Intelligent found that a majority of students support the current protests on campus though admit they have little knowledge of the Israel-Hamas war and get most of their information on it from TikTok. Jimin Kim/SOPA Images/Shutterstock A majority of college students support the anti-Israel protests plaguing campuses across the country — and 15% of those surveyed who participated in one don’t believe Israel has a right to exist, a shocking new poll found.

Google has come in for some well-deserved criticism after its “artificial intelligence” wouldn’t answer a simple question: How many Jews did the Nazis kill? That’s bad enough. But then a not-so-intelligent Google employee compounded the problem with a lie about why it happened. The story goes that Michael Apfel asked a Google “virtual assistant” this question: “Hey Google, how many Jews were killed by the Nazis?” Google’s answer: “Sorry, I don’t understand.” Then he asked: “How many Jews were killed during World War II?” Google: “I don’t understand.” “How many Jews were killed in the concentration camps?” “Sorry, I don’t...

On May 16 the world will mark the UN International Day of Living Together in Peace. It is a rallying call for people to listen respectfully to others and promote tolerance and understanding. Perhaps someone should tell tech entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. The online platforms they head up – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X – have become synonymous with fake news, hate speech, misinformation and other online harms. Social media has been widely blamed for destabilising democracies and fomenting civil unrest in Europe and North America. In July 2023, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, proposed restricting access to online platforms...

https://twitter.com/newstart_2024/status/1787852468828643457

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee released an 800 page report on the Biden White House censorship regime. The report included numerous times the Biden regime threatened social media companies to censor, silence and take down information on the COVID origins and the COVID vaccines. Here is the full 800 page report released by the House Judiciary Committee on the Biden Administration’s Censorship Industrial Complex. On Thursday, investigative reporter Mike Benz revealed “10 flaming examples” Facebook, YouTube and Amazon explicitly said they only passed censorship policies because they were threatened by the Biden government. Here are 10 flaming examples of...

Does anyone know anything about Vivaldi? I was looking for a privacy browser for the new ?Chromebook I was given. Brave doesn't seem to want to download, but the web search pulled up the Vivaldi browser. (I guess you could say it's a browser for all four seasons.) Anyone used this browser? Know anything about it?

Answering a question about what he was excited about in the coming year, Dell CEO Jeff Clarke said that after a year of what he called "the H100 show," the company was "excited about what happens at the B100 and the B200" with regards to performance improvement.He then went on to tell analysts on the call that the B100s don't need direct liquid cooling to get to the energy density of 1kW per GPU, although he said that would happen "next year with the B200."Nvidia's H100 GPUs have a thermal design point (TDP) of 700W and are manufactured on a...

Page went blank yesterday, it's been long enough to fix a glitch, it's still blank, other EweTube channels working. Any subscribers have more input? This lurker is in the dark.

After spending several years hauling Donald Trump through court in an attempt to puncture his bottom line, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James is now employing the same lawfare tactics against VDARE, an anti-immigration website... “I launched VDARE.com on Christmas Eve 1999,” wrote Peter Brimelow, VDARE’s founder and editor, on Friday. “So it is perhaps appropriate that, on Good Friday 2024, the anniversary of Christ’s death, I must announce VDARE.com’s crucifixion by New York State’s communist Attorney General Letitia James.” VDARE has not been charged with any crime, yet has “fought NYAG Letitia James, at a cost of up to...

As part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit alleging unauthorized tracking by the company, Google will erase a vast collection of data encompassing the web-browsing histories of millions of users. The class action lawsuit, initiated in 2020, leveled accusations against Google for purportedly deceiving users regarding Chrome's tracking mechanisms while using the private “Incognito” browsing mode. The lawsuit claimed that Google's promotional materials and privacy statements failed to adequately disclose the extent of data collection, including specifics about the websites visited by users.

In April 2023, Santa Ana Unified School District removed the Trevor Project Crisis Hotlines from posters at all K-12 schools, as well as from counselors’ business cards. I watched it happen. They did so because in February 2023, I and others showed the Superintendent and board members screenshots from TrevorSpace, an online chat site recommended to students through the Trevor Project. The screenshots revealed TrevorSpace could easily be abused by online predators taking advantage of naïve kids, especially kids in crisis. TrevorSpace advertises itself as a place to meet LGBT friends. It says that it is an affirming international community...