Free Republic

Robots are here — and they’re ready to teach your children and grandchildren. Miko is an artificial intelligence-powered robot that was designed specifically to take kids' learning to a new level. The company's SVP of growth, San Francisco-based Ritvik Sharma, told Fox News Digital in an interview that the personal robot aims to elevate education.

A visitor to a California reservoir took a closer look at what he thought was pollen floating in the water and discovered it was actually a school of jellyfish native to China. Casey Neet captured video when he spotted the jellyfish in waters near the Stumpy Meadows Reservoir in Northern California's Eldorado National Forest. Experts identified the tiny creatures as peach blossom jellyfish, a species native to China's Yangtze River valley. The jellyfish, which have the ability to reproduce asexually, have been spotted in other bodies of water around the world, but their impact on local ecosystems has not yet...

The dreaded spotted lanternfly, an invasive species capable of devastating trees and agriculture, has arrived in Illinois, the Illinois Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday. The first report of the insect was made on Sept. 16 and a small population was located Sept. 18. Specimens were collected and confirmation was received Tuesday, officials said. The insect was found in the Fuller Park neighborhood of Chicago, according to a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture. The Dan Ryan Expressway bisects Fuller Park, which is bounded by Pershing Road on the north and Garfield Boulevard on the south. Though the news was...

Invasive highly flammable grasses in Hawaii have been key to fueling the deadliest wildfires in the US in more than 100 years, experts say. While factors such as extreme weather events from climate change and the state’s local power grid have been blamed for helping to cause the blaze, large plots of land in Hawaii have been overrun by volatile non-native fire-prone grasses that are fueling the deadly flames, according to experts. Land that was once occupied by irrigated pineapples and sugar cane was taken over by the grass species as those businesses began to decline, according to Elizabeth Pickett,...

It was just about week ago that we highlighted a mysterious trend that was sweeping the U.S.: citizens were receiving unsolicited packages of seeds, with return addresses from China, for apparently no reason at all. Now, the U.S. has started to identify "14 types of plants" that the seeds belonged to, revealing a “mix of ornamental, fruit and vegetable, herb and weed species,” according to the NY Times. Cabbage, hibiscus, lavender, mint, morning glory, mustard, rose, rosemary and sage have all been identified. Osama El-Lissy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said: “This...

Japanese knotweed evolved in one of the harshest environments on Earth – now scientists are desperately trying to find a way to destroy it. Where it does produce seeds, Japanese knotweed is prolific. At one research site in Philadelphia, the plants were found to produce up to 150,000 seeds each year per stem – most of which were found to be viable. This two-part system, with above-ground and below-ground body parts, means it's extremely difficult to control Japanese knotweed with chemicals. The most effective is glyphosate, which works by inhibiting an enzyme plants need to produce amino acids, and the...

Sightings of alligator gar - dubbed “monster fish” in mainland China - which authorities fear could trigger an ecological disaster have been reported in at least eight provinces. This followed the draining of an entire lake in central China on the weekend that eventually caught a pair of the invasive fish species. The large species of freshwater fish, which has razor-sharp teeth and can grow up to three metres long, has captivated the nation after a high-profile, month-long hunt for it that culminated in the draining of an entire lake in the city of Ruzhou in Henan. Now other parts...

The publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 sent shock waves through state agencies. The following year, in 1963, the Arkansas branch of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (which later became the US Fish and Wildlife Service) imported grass carp as an organic treatment for catfish ponds. Carp, with their voracious appetites for plankton, were a chemical-free filter. When the approach proved successful, additional species — black, silver, and bighead carp — were brought from Vietnam and Malaysia, and later from China and Russia as well. Without differentiating among the species, agencies like the US Department of...

Glyphosate was already in short supply heading into the 2022 planting season, but another black swan event is putting an even tighter squeeze on supplies. On Friday, Bayer sent a note to retailers saying due to production issues with a third-party ingredient supplier, the company won’t be able to fulfill some of its previously booked orders. Bayer declared a force majeure, which means due to the issue being out of Bayer’s control, the company will be able to escape contractual obligations.

Amazon delivery drivers nationwide have to sign a "biometric consent" form this week that grants the tech behemoth permission to use AI-powered cameras to access drivers' location, movement, and biometric data. If the company's delivery drivers, who number around 75,000 in the United States, refuse to sign these forms, they lose their jobs. The form requires drivers to agree to facial recognition and other biometric data collection within the trucks they drive.

The largest Burmese python ever seen in South Florida wasn't able to slither her way out of being captured earlier this week. A snake hunter captured the female snake while on South Florida Water Management District property in Miami-Dade County Monday night, the agency announced in a press release Wednesday. Homestead resident Kyle Penniston was credited for reeling in the elongated reptile, which was measured at 17 feet, 5 inches and weighed in at 120 pounds, according to the SFWMD.

A young girl in Oklahoma said she snagged a “weird” catch over the weekend, reeling in a fish bearing “human-like” teeth. Kennedy Smith, 11, was on a fishing trip at Fort Cobb Lake with her grandparents and brother on Sunday and got “really excited” when she hooked the fish on her line, she told The Associated Press. But to Smith’s surprise, her grandmother was bitten by the animal while she was trying to take out the hook. "I was confused because I knew that fish with teeth are not normal. It was weird," Smith told the outlet. "They were human-like...

One need only look at the problems created by the invasive species to our country to understand the dangers of unregulated immigration. European Starlings, Kudzu, Zebra Mussels, Pythons, Asian Carp, Feral Pigs, Snakeheads, Gypsy Moth, Stink Bug .... An invasive species is a plant, fungus, or animal species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and that has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health. One study found that of a list of invasive and noninvasive species, 86% of the invasive species could be...

ObamaCare is here to stay, until a more invasive, costly, and restrictive form of healthcare is pushed upon us, for our ‘supposed’ benefit. A lot of people believed that with President Trump and a Republican controlled House and Senate, we would finally see the end of ObamaCare. In President Trump’s address, last night, he called for the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare. ObamaCare will NEVER be repealed! Let me rephrase this, slightly. The end goals of ramming ObamaCare upon a defenseless and non-represented populace will never be repealed. ObamaCare was never about healthcare. ObamaCare was and is about increasing health...

South Florida’s most aggressive invasive species has found a new way to grab headlines: slither atop a research platform in Biscayne Bay. Last month, a kayaker spied a 9-foot Burmese python wrapped around part of a platform more than a half mile offshore in Biscayne National Park usually inhabited by sunning cormorants. The sighting was a first for the park and another worrisome sign that the state’s out-of-control pythons are getting more adept at inhabiting the state’s salty fringes. In September, state wildlife biologists confirmed for the first time that the snakes are now breeding in the Keys.

Federal programs designed to help farmers set aside more habitat for bees and wildlife have produced a dangerous offshoot this year: Some mixes used to plant native grasses and flowers were contaminated with harmful weed seeds that have now been introduced onto hundreds of farms in several Midwestern states, including Minnesota. The weeds include Palmer amaranth, one of the most prolific and devastating weeds in the country for corn, soybeans and other row crops. There’s reason for concern, said University of Minnesota Extension weed scientist Jeff Gunsolus, because a single female Palmer amaranth plant produces more than 250,000 seeds, grows...

Capybara are real damn cute. Look at this bugger. In fact, capybara are so endearing, that some people may have been importing them to own as pets. This might explain why the 100-pound rodents, which are native to South America’s marshlands, have been showing up in places where they don’t belong. According to biologist Elizabeth Congdon, an assistant professor at Bethune-Cookman University, the state of Florida could have a serious capybara problem—and it might be the fault of exotic pet owners.

It's a toothy giant that can grow longer than a horse and heavier than a refrigerator, a fearsome-looking prehistoric fish that plied U.S. waters from the Gulf of Mexico to Illinois until it disappeared from many states a half-century ago. Persecuted by anglers and deprived of places to spawn, the alligator gar — with a head that resembles an alligator and two rows of needlelike teeth — survived primarily in southern states in the tributaries of Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico after being declared extinct in several states farther north. To many, it was a freak, a "trash fish"...

Everglades National Park, a world-renowned wetland in southern Florida, once abounded with rabbits, raccoons, muskrats, and other small mammals. But roughly 15 years ago, these species started to become scarce. About the same time, biologists noticed a boom in the population of a predator that had invaded the 64,238-hectare park: the Burmese python. Now, an experiment adds to the evidence that the pythons, which grow up to 5 meters long, are to blame for the collapse of the mammals' populations. “There’s no question that this is an environmental disaster,” says J. D. Willson of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, who...

Florida wildlife officials, opening a new front in the war on invasive snakes, are recruiting the general public for "python patrols" that teach them how to identify and even capture some of the hissing, snapping reptiles. "We consider (Burmese pythons) established, which means the hope of removing them is pretty slim," said Jenny Novak, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologist, during a recent training session with 20 volunteers in south Florida. "We're in management mode now." ... Florida is a hub for the exotic pet trade and a hot bed of invasive species that have snuck into...