Medical personnel were left absolutely stunned

Government earthquake alert systems are now being supplemented around the world with Google accelerometer data on smartphones and smartwatches, effectively creating a Google-wide early warning system. The system has increased the number of people in earthquake risk zones capable of receiving alerts by 1,000%, with 2024 seeing over 2 billion devices receiving one. Called the […] The post Google Turns 2 Billion Smartphones into a Global Earthquake Warning System appeared first on Good News Network.

By the author of Dear Diary: It’s Me, Jessica I wanted to take a moment to discuss how important our hearing is.  We often take it for granted but the other day I was doing some home repairs requiring the use of power tools.  Hearing protection has come a long way from the simple foam ear plugs or ear muffs.  I have those too, but I also have some more advanced hearing protection.  We will start with the simple and then move on to the more complex. The Simple The old standby, foam earplugs They are cheap, $19.99 for 200 pairs.  They do not require any energy source.  You can put them in your pocket, keep extras in your car, range bag, BOB, etc.  The downside is it can be difficult to hear others talking, other sounds you might want to hear, like that big ten-point buck coming up the game trail from behind you, or that mutant zombie biker with the under-the-barrel-mounted chainsaw (yes, someone made one of those) coming around the corner.  Also, be sure to keep your ears clean. There are also the silicone earplugs  Like the foam earplugs they are cheap at $24.95 for 100 pairs.  I have a few pairs of these. Ear muffs Slightly more expensive at $9.77 for a single pair.  These are better for people who do not like putting things in their ears.  It is debatable if they are more comfortable than the earplugs.  They can become uncomfortable in hot conditions.  I have a pair of these that I put on when using power tools. Like earplugs, while they work well, you cannot hear other sounds you might want to hear. Sonic Defenders What I consider a step up from simple earplugs or earmuffs are SureFire EP4 Sonic Defenders.  They use a passive noise reduction system that allows for low-level hearing but filters out louder sounds.  I have used these and have three pairs.  They work.  And they are very comfortable.  On my way home from the shooting range, in the car, I only then realized I still had them in my ears. A Little More Complex Electronic ear muffs They have electronic microphones that allow for normal, conversational hearing but once a decibel threshold is met, the microphones actively cut off within two milliseconds.  I could hear a chipmunk outside, then clap my hands and the sound of the clap was cut off.  You can still hear range commands, talk with others and still protect your hearing.  I have a set of these. There is a hiss like noise from the microphones.  They require 2 AAA batteries that were included. A few years ago, I got a set of these.  They operate in the FRS frequency band but are not very powerful.  The company says it has a three-mile range.  Maybe under ideal conditions, flat terrain, no hills, no trees they might.  But they work well at the shooting range, or if you had to communicate with someone on the second floor of a home.  Like the other electronic ear muffs allow for communication but cut off louder noises.  They, too have a slight hiss.  Might be a little bulky, but they are reasonably comfortable.  It features a 2000 MAH rechargeable lithium battery, providing approximately eight hours of use.   Complex Bluetooth ear protection Last year I got a pair of these.  They work!  Very comfortable to the point I did not remove them when the range went cold.  No hissing.  Bluetooth compatible.  I used them while on the rowing machine, connected to my computer, watching a movie, and could hear over the rowing machine with no problems.  I also used them connected to my phone, and people on the other end could hear me clearly.  I have not tried to use them with the phone and at the range at the same time.  The rechargeable battery has 15 hours of runtime.  Not cheap at $160!  But I do feel they were worth it. What about you? These are the hearing protection items I have personally used.  What hearing protection have you used?  What is your favorite?  What features do you look for in hearing protection? Let’s discuss it in the comments section. About 1stMarineJarHead 1stMarineJarHead is not only a former Marine, but also a former EMT-B, Wilderness EMT (courtesy of NOLS), and volunteer firefighter. He currently resides in the great white (i.e. snowy) Northeast with his wife and dogs. He raises chickens, rabbits, goats, occasionally hogs, cows and sometimes ducks. He grows various veggies and has a weird fondness for rutabagas. He enjoys reading, writing, cooking from scratch, making charcuterie, target shooting, and is currently expanding his woodworking skills. The post Hearing Protection Isn’t Just for the Shooting Range appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Will more marijuana use make America a better place? Not many who’ve seen and smelled what legalizing the drug has done to cities like New York, D.C., and San Francisco would say so. Yet President Donald Trump is contemplating a change to marijuana’s federal classification that would make it easier to buy and more profitable to sell. The pot industry is heavily invested in getting its product recategorized from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 drug, and industry leaders ponied up for a $1-million-a-plate Trump fundraising dinner earlier this month to hear what the president had in mind, The Wall Street Journal reports. The president should ignore the well-funded cannabis lobby. What matters is what more and cheaper marijuana will mean for ordinary Americans. Twenty-four states have legalized recreational use of the drug, despite the revealing results experienced by the first state to do so. Taking advantage of high Democratic turnout the year of President Barack Obama’s reelection, activists passed a Colorado ballot measure to make pot legal back in 2012. Legalization didn’t take effect until 2014, but by 2022 marijuana use in Colorado and other states that had legalized by then was 24% higher than in states where recreational use remained illegal. A new study by the South Korean scholar Sunyoung Lee in the International Review of Law and Economics examines what’s happened to crime levels in U.S. states that have legalized pot. Lee writes his findings “do not yield conclusive evidence supporting a reduction in crime rates after legalizing recreational marijuana. Rather, they underscore notable positive associations with property crimes and suggest potential correlations with violent crimes … .” The marijuana lobby often claims prohibition, not the drug itself, drives crime. That would be a bad argument even without evidence like Lee’s, which suggests legal weed makes crime worse. After all, any profit-driven criminal enterprise could be shut down by legalizing the crime in question: If bank robbery were legal, bank robbers wouldn’t need to use guns. If auto theft were legal, there wouldn’t be violence associated with black-market chop shops because the chop shops would be as legal as the commercial marijuana industry is today. Legalize everything Tony Soprano does, and Tony won’t have to get so rough—but he’ll only do more of what he was doing before. Libertarians who argue for legalizing drugs to stop drug violence are closer than they realize to the radicals on the Left who argue property crimes shouldn’t be prosecuted. The psychology is the same: They sympathize with those who make it harder to live in a civilized society, and they reject society’s right to defend itself. There are downsides to laws against marijuana, just as there are costs to protecting private property and citizens’ bodily safety. But the costs are well worth paying when the alternative is passivity in the face of aggression—handing your belongings or your life over to any thug who makes a demand. At first, marijuana legalization was sold to voters as a matter of leaving people alone to consume what they want in private, without bothering anybody else. Yet millions of Americans have now lived long enough with pot legalization, or nonenforcement of laws still on the books, to know the pot lobby perpetrated a fraud. What the country has actually had to deal with is pot smoking so rife in public the offensive smell—and the sights and sounds of intoxication—smacks you in the face. It’s hardly different from dope-heads blowing smoke right in your eyes on the street. That’s not the worst crime in the world—but neither is shoplifting, and there’s no reason to tolerate either. Tolerating such things only breeds more tolerance for worse abuses, which is what has accustomed progressives to treating even violent criminals leniently. Two scenes in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., convinced me pot acceptance has gone too far: First was seeing an African American bus driver, on a blazing hot summer day, order two dope-smoking teens to put out their joints and notice there were children around. To the extent our cities work at all is because of working-class men like him—and the rest of us have to decide whether we’re on his side or that of the teens. A year or so later, I watched a young mother one bright October afternoon hold her small daughter’s hand as they walked through a neighborhood reeking of high-potency pot. The multibillion-dollar weed industry got to advertise its product to a little girl about 4 years old that day. It’s an industry that, notoriously, even sells its drug in candy form, as “gummies.” Our cities and towns shouldn’t be open-air drug dens, and Trump shouldn’t let the pot lobby get high off of making Americans’ lives worse. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Gone to Pot: Just Say ‘No’ to Marijuana Lobby appeared first on The Daily Signal.

By the author of Dear Diary: It’s Me, Jessica I wanted to take a moment to discuss how important our hearing is.  We often take it for granted but the other day I was doing some home repairs requiring the use of power tools.  Hearing protection has come a long way from the simple foam ear plugs or ear muffs.  I have those too, but I also have some more advanced hearing protection.  We will start with the simple and then move on to the more complex. The Simple The old standby, foam earplugs They are cheap, $19.99 for 200 pairs.  They do not require any energy source.  You can put them in your pocket, keep extras in your car, range bag, BOB, etc.  The downside is it can be difficult to hear others talking, other sounds you might want to hear, like that big ten-point buck coming up the game trail from behind you, or that mutant zombie biker with the under-the-barrel-mounted chainsaw (yes, someone made one of those) coming around the corner.  Also, be sure to keep your ears clean. There are also the silicone earplugs  Like the foam earplugs they are cheap at $24.95 for 100 pairs.  I have a few pairs of these. Ear muffs Slightly more expensive at $9.77 for a single pair.  These are better for people who do not like putting things in their ears.  It is debatable if they are more comfortable than the earplugs.  They can become uncomfortable in hot conditions.  I have a pair of these that I put on when using power tools. Like earplugs, while they work well, you cannot hear other sounds you might want to hear. Sonic Defenders What I consider a step up from simple earplugs or earmuffs are SureFire EP4 Sonic Defenders.  They use a passive noise reduction system that allows for low-level hearing but filters out louder sounds.  I have used these and have three pairs.  They work.  And they are very comfortable.  On my way home from the shooting range, in the car, I only then realized I still had them in my ears. A Little More Complex Electronic ear muffs They have electronic microphones that allow for normal, conversational hearing but once a decibel threshold is met, the microphones actively cut off within two milliseconds.  I could hear a chipmunk outside, then clap my hands and the sound of the clap was cut off.  You can still hear range commands, talk with others and still protect your hearing.  I have a set of these. There is a hiss like noise from the microphones.  They require 2 AAA batteries that were included. A few years ago, I got a set of these.  They operate in the FRS frequency band but are not very powerful.  The company says it has a three-mile range.  Maybe under ideal conditions, flat terrain, no hills, no trees they might.  But they work well at the shooting range, or if you had to communicate with someone on the second floor of a home.  Like the other electronic ear muffs allow for communication but cut off louder noises.  They, too have a slight hiss.  Might be a little bulky, but they are reasonably comfortable.  It features a 2000 MAH rechargeable lithium battery, providing approximately eight hours of use.   Complex Bluetooth ear protection Last year I got a pair of these.  They work!  Very comfortable to the point I did not remove them when the range went cold.  No hissing.  Bluetooth compatible.  I used them while on the rowing machine, connected to my computer, watching a movie, and could hear over the rowing machine with no problems.  I also used them connected to my phone, and people on the other end could hear me clearly.  I have not tried to use them with the phone and at the range at the same time.  The rechargeable battery has 15 hours of runtime.  Not cheap at $160!  But I do feel they were worth it. What about you? These are the hearing protection items I have personally used.  What hearing protection have you used?  What is your favorite?  What features do you look for in hearing protection? Let’s discuss it in the comments section. About 1stMarineJarHead 1stMarineJarHead is not only a former Marine, but also a former EMT-B, Wilderness EMT (courtesy of NOLS), and volunteer firefighter. He currently resides in the great white (i.e. snowy) Northeast with his wife and dogs. He raises chickens, rabbits, goats, occasionally hogs, cows and sometimes ducks. He grows various veggies and has a weird fondness for rutabagas. He enjoys reading, writing, cooking from scratch, making charcuterie, target shooting, and is currently expanding his woodworking skills. The post Hearing Protection Isn’t Just for the Shooting Range appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

There is a quiet moment that precedes a sea change, the moment before a long-held secret becomes common knowledge. In the early 2020s, the most advanced artificial intelligence felt like a private language spoken only within the glass walls of a few corporate citadels. It was a kind of digital Latin, its syntax guarded by a technological priesthood. We, the public, were given translations through polished interfaces, clean API calls that delivered answers like pronouncements from an oracle, their inner workings a mystery. There was power in the control of access.Now, the walls are being dismantled, not by force but by a deliberate act. The source code of many new AI models, along with the weights that define their functioning, are being posted on the internet for anyone to download. Power once consolidated is being atomized, shifted from the hushed cathedral of proprietary knowledge to the noisy and chaotic bazaar of open access. The central question is no longer what these models can do, but who gets to control them now.What these open models offer is not just access but agency.This change did not begin in a vacuum. The impulse is a familiar one in the history of knowledge. It echoes the 17th-century pivot to open science, when the Royal Society championed the sharing of discoveries over the alchemist’s secrecy, arguing that progress accelerates when methods are laid bare for verification and extension. It carries the DNA of the open-source software movement, which proved that a sprawling, decentralized community of volunteers could build something as robust and essential as Linux, an operating system that quietly came to run the world’s servers, eclipsing the proprietary systems of its time. AI may now be approaching a “Linux moment,” the inflection point where open, collaborative development overtakes the closed, top-down model.Consider the artifacts of this new age. In August 2025, OpenAI, a name once synonymous with the most advanced and secretive models, released two of its own, fully open. One, a 117-billion-parameter model called gpt-oss-120b, was engineered with such efficiency that it could run on a single high-end GPU, hardware one might find in a design studio or a gamer’s bedroom. Suddenly, a lone developer standing at his desk could run sophisticated, near-frontier-level tasks, untethered from the cloud. The oracle could now live at home. The second, a 21-billion parameter model called gpt-oss-20b, could run on a high-end MacBook, easily carried around in one hand. This was a deliberate distribution of power, an acknowledgment that centralized control had already begun to fray.It was a necessary acknowledgment, because others were already forging ahead. A lean startup called DeepSeek, for a fraction of the cost of its corporate rivals, released a model in May 2025 that could rival the giants on mathematical and coding benchmarks. A university lab, previously priced out of using top-tier AI for its research, could now download a tool that approached the reasoning power of a GPT-4, fine-tune it on its own private data, and scrutinize its every logical step. The model’s “chain of thought,” kept secret in proprietary models, was now just text on a screen, visible for analysis.RELATED: How AI is silently undermining Christianity from within Photo by Nurphoto/Getty ImagesFrom China, the technology giant Alibaba released its top-tier Qwen3 open-weight models in July 2025. A European hospital, wary of sending sensitive patient data to American servers, could deploy a powerful AI assistant entirely on its own premises, customizing it with local medical jargon. The fact that a Chinese open model could be used by Westerners to declare their independence from American tech companies scrambles the usual narrative of geopolitical competition.What these open models offer is not just access but agency. To run a model locally is to be able to audit it, to probe its biases, to understand its failure modes. When researchers download an open model and find it produces an undesired behavior, they can often trace the behavior back to the data it was trained on. The model becomes a window into the vast, messy archive of human text it ingested, and we are all invited to look. A closed model is a mirror with a sheet over it: We see only the polished reflection the company wishes to present. The desire for transparency reflects a distrust of black boxes, whether they are dictating credit scores, prison sentences, or the news we read.Of course, this distribution of power is not without its own anxieties. When a tool is available to everyone, responsibility becomes diffuse, a collective burden. The old defense of the cathedral was safety, the idea that only the priestly class could be trusted with such magic. The argument of the bazaar is that true safety comes from collective scrutiny, from a balance of power where the many can check the ambitions of the few. It is a bet on the self-correcting nature of a community over the presumed benevolence of a corporation.We are at the beginning of a tectonic shift in our relationship with knowledge and creation. These models, built from the public commons of the internet, are being returned to it. The boundaries between the human creator and the machine collaborator are blurring, as individuals are now free to mold and fine-tune their own private muses, their own specialized assistants. The very meaning of intellectual labor is up for negotiation. The new vernacular of AI is being written, not by a single authority, but by a global, uncoordinated, and ceaseless collaboration. The results will be remarkable, unsettling, and more distinctly our own.

While Trump cracks down on D.C. violence, Gotham is in a similar situation; crime is dropping, but is still too frequent and arbitrary to give residents comfort.

While the OBBBA tries to buoy manufacturing, President Trump’s tariffs are an anvil dragging the sector down.

The best that can be hoped for is an armistice with an underpinning firm enough to deter Russia from resuming its war when it is ready.

An Officer and a Spy parallels the devastating history of the Dreyfus Affair with lawfare.