We saw the future‚ and it changed color with heat. You practically couldn’t afford not to buy a HyperColor shirt. I mean‚ it changed color‚ right? That was like getting two shirts for the price of one. CONTINUE READING... The post Do You Remember? HyperColor Shirts appeared first on The Retro Network.

Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course Do you ever see something that makes you really fear for the future? We all know that history is written by the victors. We all know that there are some bad guys who were written up as good guys. We know that some dark times get rewritten as not-so-bad times or erased altogether. The history of Ireland was written by the priests but there was a whole lot of civilization and culture there before that‚ much of it stamped out due to the religious beliefs of the writers. The same is true for the United States – settlers who were able to write created their own version and documentation of the history of our continent that left out the stories of the original occupants. And now we’re watching as an entirely new revision is made. AI is allowing leaps and bounds in progress‚ if by progress you mean entirely erasing history and rewriting it to be “diverse.” Gemini AI is blatantly racist. Gemini AI‚ the AI image creator of Google‚ is blatantly racist. But it’s okay. It’s not racist against minorities. It’s racist against white people‚ and in today’s world‚ that’s not actually racism if you are to believe the mainstream media. This isn’t going to be a long article. It’s going to mostly be photos from Twitter. You can draw your own conclusions. America's Founding Fathers‚ Vikings‚ and the Pope according to Google AI: pic.twitter.com/lw4aIKLwkp — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 21‚ 2024 Here's my contribution to the #GeminiAI clusterf*uck. pic.twitter.com/2cXhreI9K4 — Seoul Man (@Monkey3ddd) February 22‚ 2024 first result I got pic.twitter.com/SLaHrTCHAL — GeroDoc (@doc_gero) February 21‚ 2024   Are you sure about that‚ Gemini? pic.twitter.com/f7VzMdxZgy — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 21‚ 2024 Google's Gemini AI cannot understand cultural and historical context‚ and has to play the 'diversity card' including changing white people (males in particular) to any other ethnic group or sex. pic.twitter.com/vXzLQUP0Ai — Jean Easter (@JeanGardenLuv) February 21‚ 2024 Google AI Gemini shows non-White women when asked to generate pictures of Nazi soldiers. Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/w0ML5TXO04 — AF Post (@AFpost) February 21‚ 2024 #GeminiAI is hilarious pic.twitter.com/UqQ0qv56Ou — Dogma Catpaw (@Dogma_Catpaw) February 21‚ 2024 Google apologizes for new Gemini AI refusing to show pictures and achievements of White people. Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/60fjfe5HI6 — AF Post (@AFpost) February 21‚ 2024 pic.twitter.com/wvXyhj4jyO — SOULTOAST (@Lord_S0ULT0AST) February 21‚ 2024 Lol google is racist pic.twitter.com/zKIpgWZwiL — Tim Pool (@Timcast) February 21‚ 2024 Before someone says I’m racist… Of course‚ someone‚ somewhere (and we all know who it will be) will say that I’m racist and fragile because this bothers me. I kindly invite this person to troll elsewhere because I’m not allowing the circular argument fallacy to distract from the main point. Erasing history is wrong.  Erasing entire races is wrong. Whether we’re talking about erasing the history of enslaved black people brought to America against their will‚ or erasing the history of Asian-Americans who were ripped from their homes and placed in internment camps‚ or erasing the history of white people in…well EVERYTHING…‚ it’s wrong. There is always going to be some bias in history‚ because circling back to my initial point – it’s written by the victors. But forcing diversity and inclusion down the throats of people who never excluded anyone based on race or ethnicity in their lives only does one thing: it makes them feel defensive. It makes them feel like they’re under attack. And what do people under attack do? They fight back. Whether it’s rational or not‚ it’s human nature to fight back and lash out and begin to despise someone who treats YOU like the enemy. All this is doing is making people more divided. It’s certainly not making us embrace one another and sing kumbayah. And by negating any achievement by a white person and assigning it to a person of another race or ethnicity‚ it erases history just as certainly as the other examples I have mentioned here. By refusing to allow certain images to be generated because their very existence is deemed to be hateful‚ what is it telling children with backgrounds and families and skin colors like this? This has all been done before‚ albeit without computers. It was wrong then. And it’s wrong now. What about REAL accomplishments? There are many incredible stories – true ones – about the accomplishments of people from every background and every place on the planet. Why aren’t we telling those stories instead of recreating existing stories and changing the identities of the players? Isn’t it more important to add stories of great achievements than to just rewrite existing stories? Doesn’t that just reiterate that the existing stories are somehow better? I don’t believe that’s true. People everywhere have stories about someone who has done great things. Real events. True heroes and inventors and leaders. I want to know about the history of real people. I want to know their stories. I don’t want to pretend that the Queen of England was a different race or that George Washington was actually Native American. I want to know about things that happened and who made those things happen. Many of those stories are lost to the winds of time but many are also still out there. Why isn’t Google promoting these stories instead of trying to convince us that the history we know is wrong and bad? What will our great-grandchildren believe? Google’s half-hearted apology means nothing. In fact‚ they apologized not for completely excluding white people but more for making Nazi soldiers “diverse. What will my great-grandchildren think when they consider the history of the United States of America? What will they believe to be true about early civilizations? What will they believe about the Greeks and the Romans and the Vikings? What will they believe really happened in the early 2000s when the devolution of the US really sped up? Well‚ if Google’s in charge‚ what they’ll think isn’t going to be anywhere close to what we’re watching happen. What are your thoughts? I want to know what you think about this. Are you surprised? Are you bothered? How are you preserving history for your children‚ grandchildren‚ and beyond? Let’s talk about it in the comments. And please‚ don’t be hateful. I know at least one of you will have something nasty and insulting to say to me (we all know who I’m talking about)‚ but for the rest of you‚ try and behave. About Daisy Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging‚ adventure-seeking‚ globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper‚ which is about current events‚ preparedness‚ self-reliance‚ and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite‚ a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com‚ an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews. Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books‚ 12 self-published books‚ and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides‚ printables‚ and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook‚ Pinterest‚ Gab‚ MeWe‚ Parler‚ Instagram‚ and Twitter. The post Gemini AI Makes Me Wonder What My Great Grandchildren Will Believe About History appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Adding insult to injury‚ a Pawnee scout for the U.S. Army shot in 1869 by a member of his own command was for decades denied a marker reflecting his Medal of Honor for the same action. What makes the oversight worse is that Sergeant Mad Bear (Co-Rux-Te-Chod-Ish) was the first American Indian ever awarded his adoptive nation’s highest honor. Thanks to the diligent research of Wild West contributor Jeff Broome‚ the scout may finally have his day in the sun.  In the summer of 1869 Major Frank North and his company of Pawnee scouts were in pursuit of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers under Chief Tall Bull along Kansas’ Republican River. On July 8‚ according to Mad Bear’s citation‚ the sergeant “ran out from the command in pursuit of a dismounted [Cheyenne]” when badly wounded by the bullet fired by a fellow scout. But when North’s brother Luther wrote a memoir mentioning his own stint as a commander of the scouts‚ he recorded Mad Bear’s name as Traveling Bear‚ and the confusion lingered.  Enter Broome. During research toward his 2003 book Dog Soldier Justice‚ relating the captivity ordeal of Susanna Alderdice amid the same conflict‚ he discovered the misattribution of Mad Bear’s medal. The Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States notified Veterans Affairs of the error‚ and the latter ultimately concurred. A private marker stands atop Mad Bear’s grave at the North Indian Cemetery in Pawnee‚ Okla. The Pawnee Nation must first remove it before the VA will place a military marker designating him as a Medal of Honor recipient. So it appears Mad Bear’s luck is about to change.

A dog was found and rescued by a team of US Coast Guard marine inspectors during a routine inspection of shipping containers at the Port of Houston on Wednesday‚ January 31.

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More than 100 new species have been discovered on an underwater mountain range off the coast of Chile. Among the never-before-seen critters seen on the expedition are corals‚ glass sponges‚ sea urchins‚ amphipods‚ lobsters‚ plus a gaggle of peculiar fish and squid that are already known to science (but no less strange).The discoveries come from an international group of scientists who recently explored the seamounts along the Nazca and Salas y Gómez Ridge‚ a 2‚900-kilometer (1‚800-mile) long chain of underwater mountains that stretches from offshore Chile to Rapa Nui‚ aka Easter Island.Led by Dr Javier Sellanes of the Universidad Católica del Norte‚ the scientists used an underwater robot to cruise to depths of 4‚500 meters (14‚763 feet) below sea level and collect data from 10 of the 200 seamounts.A seamount is an underwater mountain with steep sides that are typically the remnants of extinct volcanoes. These fascinating features often become hives of biodiversity since they provide wildlife with a solid surface to live upon‚ supplying them with food and nutrients.A squat lobster – likely to be a new species – documented in coral at a depth of 669 meters (2‚194 feet).Image credit: Schmidt Ocean InstituteRemarkably‚ each seamount studied by the researchers was found to be home to a completely different ecosystem. This includes swathes of thriving deep-sea coral reefs and sponge gardens‚ many of which may already be vulnerable. The team hopes their findings will help show the urgent need to protect marine environments in the Pacific and beyond. “We far exceeded our hopes on this expedition. You always expect to find new species in these remote and poorly explored areas‚ but the amount we found‚ especially for some groups like sponges‚ is mind-blowing‚” marine biologist Sellanes said in a statement sent to IFLScience.A rarely-seen whiplash squid (Mastigoteuthis) documented at 1‚105 meters (3‚625 feet) depth.Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute“These thriving and healthy ecosystems indicate that the Nazca-Desventuradas and Juan Fernández Marine Parks effectively protect delicate marine habitats‚” explained Sellanes.To confirm which species have never been identified before‚ the team is closely analyzing the specimens’ physiology and genetics to confirm whether they are‚ indeed‚ new to science.“Full species identification can take many years‚ and Dr Sellanes and his team have an incredible number of samples from this amazingly beautiful and little-known biodiversity hotspot‚” explained Dr Jyotika Virmani‚ Schmidt Ocean Institute Executive Director.Oblong Dermechinus urchins documented at a depth of 516 meters (1‚692 feet).Image credit: Schmidt Ocean InstituteThis Saturday‚ February 24‚ a second expedition along the Salas y Gómez Ridge will begin aboard the research vessel Falkor (too). Best of all‚ you’ll be able to watch a live stream of the underwater dives on Schmidt Ocean Institute's YouTube channel.Who knows‚ perhaps even more new species will be uncovered for the first time.    “Schmidt Ocean Institute is a partner with the Nippon Foundation – Nekton Ocean Census Program‚ which has set a target of finding 100‚000 new marine species in the next 10 years and‚ once identified‚ these new species will be a part of that‚” said Dr Virmani. 

Around 26‚000 light-years from Earth‚ at the center of our galaxy‚ lies Sagittarius A* – a supermassive black hole 4.1 million times the mass of the Sun.While it poses no threat other than to the nearby stars it demolishes‚ it's still nice to know where it is at all times. A new app for the iPhone‚ made by designer and space enthusiast Matt Webb using ChatGPT‚ does just that for you.      IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.Webb explained in a blog post that he had once trained himself to track the location of the galactic center throughout the day‚ and over the course of the year."I would end up pointing through the pavement‚ or down a street‚ and thinking‚ huh‚ that’s where it is‚" Webb wrote.     However‚ over the years‚ he lost his ability to find it. In 2021‚ he thought about making an iPhone app or website to help‚ but concluded that there was too much to learn for him to be able to do it properly. But in 2024‚ he picked up the project again‚ using ChatGPT to assist him in creating the app. Of course‚ this isn't a matter of simply asking the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to create the app for you."The generated code is not obscure to me. I’m not asking ChatGPT for huge goals with multiple steps and pasting in code unseen – that wouldn’t work‚" Webb explained in his blog post announcement. "The experience is more like very‚ very good autocomplete‚ or very‚ very good spellcheck: I can understand the output even if I couldn’t get there on my own."Webb made the app‚ figuring maybe a few other people would want it too‚ but it has proven surprisingly popular around the world.      IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.The app‚ named Galactic Compass‚ is available on Apple's App Store for free. It really is neat to load it up and know where you are in relation to the center of the Milky Way.[H/T: ArsTechnica]

The elementary charge is a fundamental constant of the universe. We call it simply e. Protons have a value of +e and electrons are -e. Depending on how familiar you are with physics‚ you might have heard that the quarks that make protons have a fractional charge‚ but we do not worry about that because they are never by themselves. And electrons don’t have components‚ so the elementary charge is truly elementary in all material interactions. Well‚ until it isn’t‚ as a new study has demonstrated. Overwhelmingly across materials and phenomena‚ the charge of an electron is -e‚ but some materials experience the fractional quantum Hall effect. In a handful of systems‚ under very high and carefully tuned magnetic fields‚ an exotic electronic state develops where its charge is no longer -e.The new work uses graphene‚ which is considered a very interesting material. It is a single layer of carbon atoms‚ but it is incredibly strong and a good conductor. In this experiment‚ the team stuck five layers of graphene together like steps on a staircase‚ stamped them between two hexagonal boron nitride layers‚ and put the hybrid material at extremely low temperatures. The team saw something very weird as they sent electrons through this material.Electrons passed through it as fractions of the total charge - but there was no external magnetic field. It is therefore the first evidence of the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect in crystalline graphene‚ deemed anomalous because it does not have a magnetic field. Researchers were not expecting graphene to be able to do that."This five-layer graphene is a material system where many good surprises happen‚" study author Long Ju‚ assistant professor of physics at MIT‚ said in a statement. "Fractional charge is just so exotic‚ and now we can realize this effect with a much simpler system and without a magnetic field. That in itself is important for fundamental physics. And it could enable the possibility for a type of quantum computing that is more robust against perturbation."This is not the first time that the team witnessed something peculiar in a pentalayer of graphene. They reported last year that it also exhibited a "multiferroic" state. Twisted graphene is also superconductive at a very low temperature – just 1.7 Kelvins above absolute zero. The lab had a new fridge installed just last summer to make these investigations."The day we saw it‚ we didn't recognize it at first‚" said lead author Zhengguang Lu. "Then we started to shout as we realized‚ this was really big. It was a completely surprising moment.""This was probably the first serious samples we put in the new fridge‚" added co-first author Tonghang Han. "Once we calmed down‚ we looked in detail to make sure that what we were seeing was real."The group will continue to explore how multilayers of graphene might showcase different and rare electronic states."We are diving in to explore many fundamental physics ideas and applications‚" Ju added. "We know there will be more to come."The study is published in the journal Nature.

You may think of granite as little more than a fancy material for making kitchen countertops out of‚ and that’s… not wrong‚ exactly. But it’s not the whole story. Granite is born in the Earth’s molten mantle‚ and turns up just about everywhere on the planet. It’s hard and durable‚ so good for building; it can be shined and polished into works of art; it’s even‚ technically‚ radioactive.“Over 40 percent of dimension stone quarried is granite. Crushed granite is used as a durable construction material in asphalt and concrete used in highway and infrastructure projects‚” notes the Minerals Education Coalition.“It is widely used for architectural facades‚ construction materials‚ ornamental stone and monuments‚” they write. “Because it can be smoothed to a very high polish‚ granite has found extensive use in memorials‚ headstones‚ monuments‚ carved decorations on buildings‚ statues and the like.”Ancient graniteThanks to this incredible versatility and strength‚ granite has been one of humanity’s best friends in terms of construction throughout the years. And we really mean years: drilled and worked granite survives from as long ago as the third millennium BCE‚ with buildings constructed from the unworked stone dating from even earlier than that. If you’ve been to London or New York‚ you may have seen some of the most famous examples of this ancient‚ ancient granite: Cleopatra’s Needles‚ originally created in the 15th century BCE before eventually being gifted to the two cities in the 1800s‚ are both sculpted from granite from the quarries of Aswan – now recognized archeological sites due to their historical importance.Traditionally‚ this has provoked some disbelief. How could the creators of‚ say‚ the sarcophagus of Prince Akhet-Hotep have been technologically advanced enough to drill a rock roughly as hard as steel‚ some seven centuries before the invention of actual steel?“Today‚ quarrymen cut and carve granite using saws with diamond-edged blades and steel chisels. But ancient Egyptian quarrymen and stonemasons didn't have these modern tools‚” explained PBS NOVA way back in 2000. “How‚ then‚ did they quarry and cut such clean lines in their obelisks and other monumental statuary?”Luckily‚ the ancient stonemasons left us one pretty big clue as to their techniques – and when we say “big”‚ we mean about 42 meters (137 feet) long and nearly 1100 tonnes (1‚200 tons) in weight.It’s called the Unfinished Obelisk‚ and that’s for two reasons: it’s an obelisk‚ and it’s unfinished. Had it ever been completed‚ though‚ it would have easily been the largest such erection in the ancient world; even left as it is‚ horizontal in the ground and still attached to its parent rock‚ it’s one of the largest monoliths in the world‚ and the largest known of Ancient Egypt.“Archeologists know that the ancient Egyptians had the skills to forge bronze and copper tools‚” noted PBS – but experiments have proven that this level of tech simply wouldn’t be good enough to carve granite. “We're losing a lot of metal and very little stone is falling off‚” observed stonemason Roger Hopkins upon trying to carve the stone with a copper chisel.The solution? An ingenious use of a resource Egypt has always had in abundance: sand. “We're going to put sand inside the groove and we're going to put the saw on top of the sand‚” experimental archeologist Denys Stocks explained. “Then we're going to let the sand do the cutting.”That sand is polydispersive – that is‚ made up of grains of many different sizes – and generally speaking at least 40 percent quartz‚ making it around as hard as granite itself. “The weight of the copper saw rubs the sand crystals […] against the stone. A groove soon appears in the granite‚” noted PBS. “It's clear that this technique works well and could have been used by the ancient Egyptians.”From Egypt to RomeThe Romans conquered Egypt in 30 BCE and fell in love with the ancient culture they had found there. Along with Egyptian art‚ mythologies‚ and ideas‚ Rome exported more practical things from their new African province: grain‚ glass‚ papyrus – and granite.“Granite was highly valued by the Romans‚ who‚ after the establishment of the Empire‚ extensively exploited it for monolithic columns‚” noted Michael J Waters‚ Assistant Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University‚ in a 2016 paper on Roman architecture.“The predominant use of large granite columns in Rome‚ where they were erected by the thousands and adorned some of city's most spectacular buildings‚ including the Pantheon‚ the Forum of Trajan and the Baths of Caracalla and of Diocletian‚ made them a hallmark of the imperial capital‚” he wrote.But what happened to these multitudinous columns? Well‚ the thing about history is that there’s only so much of it you can fit in one place. So‚ Waters explained‚ “as the Roman marble industry declined in the third century CE‚ the quarrying of hard stones largely ceased. Consequently‚ builders in Rome from late Antiquity onward came to reuse ancient granite columns for the construction of new buildings‚ a practice generally known […] as spoliation.”In other words‚ if you ever find yourself admiring one of Rome’s ancient buildings‚ look a little closer. Chances are‚ you’re seeing something even older than you realize.Wonders of the worldWithout granite‚ the planet would be a much less interesting place. Some of the most iconic buildings and constructions in the world owe their existence to the rock: Europe’s castles and churches – including France’s Mont-Saint-Michel‚ Lisbon’s Évora Cathedral‚ or Spain’s Santiago de Compostela Arch cathedral Basilica – are built from granite; so too are classic postcard-fodder like Tower Bridge and (parts of) the Great Wall of China. Mont Saint Michel.Image Credit: alexseb/Shutterstock.comIn Scotland‚ an entire city sparkles with the rock: Aberdeen‚ on the Northeastern coast of the country‚ owes so much of its infrastructure to granite that it’s literally nicknamed “the Granite City.”The Brihadisvara Temple‚ in Southern India‚ is granite‚ and truly remarkable in its scope and construction. It was built at the turn of the 11th century and is still one of the tallest in the region. Not for nothing is it called the “Big Temple” by locals: it’s 16 stories high and rises more than 60 meters (197 feet) into the sky.It was with the Industrial Revolution‚ though‚ that the use of granite – along with everything else‚ let’s be real – took off. With the development of new‚ heavy-duty transportation options like steamships and trains‚ as well as modernized techniques for working the material‚ granite grew from a nice local amenity into the bedrock of Empires.“Granite has been used for buildings and monuments in Devon and Cornwall from prehistoric times‚” wrote Ewan Hyslop and Graham Lott‚ petrologists and building stone specialists with the British Geological Survey‚ in a 2007 article for The Building Conservation Directory. But “the introduction of steam ships stimulated the Cornish granite industry from about 1840‚ with large quantities used to build docks throughout southern England‚” they explained‚ “and from this time these granites were used extensively in London for numerous monuments‚ buildings and many of the 19th century commercial dock schemes and bridges. Examples include Nelson's Column (Foggintor granite) and […] construction of the Thames Embankment.”But can granite stay as important as it once was? Well‚ probably‚ yeah – the worldwide market shows no sign of slowing down. Even with concrete wildly outpacing granite as a building material‚ and bronze more popular for sculpture‚ granite is just so darn useful to us that it’s unlikely to be going anywhere soon.