After a key House committee advanced legislation this week to require a citizenship question on the U.S. Census‚ support for the measure could be growing in the backdrop of the border crisis and its potential impact on congressional reapportionment.Heritage Action‚ a policy advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation‚ announced Friday the Equal Representation Act would be scored as a key vote. The bill is S 3659 in the Senate and HR 7109 in the House. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)Under current law‚ foreign citizens living in the United States are counted in the Census‚ and thus toward congressional apportionment. Rep. Yvette Clarke‚ D-N.Y.‚ publicly admitted‚ We have a diaspora that can absorb a significant number of these migrants. I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes.Democrat Congresswoman Yvette Clarke on illegal immigrants in America:";I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes."; The end game: Dems are willing to destroy what it means to be an American citizen to help themselves politically. pic.twitter.com/3XmBDqYEsH Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 9‚ 2024Joe Bidens deadly border policies have made the illegal immigration crisis the number one concern of the American people‚ and voters are pleading for Congress to fight back‚ Heritage Action Executive Vice President Ryan Walker said in a statement.The House version has 100 co-sponsors and was approved by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.After being in all but one census from 1820 to 2000‚ the Census citizenship question was abandoned in the 2010 questionnaire during the Obama administration.?PASSED?We just passed this commonsense bill through our committee.Unsurprisingly‚ every Oversight Democrat voted against it.On to the floor! https://t.co/DztcpKaBZN Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) April 10‚ 2024Congressional apportionment and electoral votes should be based solely on the needs of American citizens. Heritage Action is proud to have helped push this bill past the 100 cosponsor mark and will keep working with conservatives across the country to finish the job‚ Walker said.The Heritage Action announcement comes the same day House Speaker Mike Johnson was set to join former President Donald Trump for a press conference on election integrity Friday‚ The Hill reported.Reps. Chuck Edwards‚ R-N.C.‚ and Warren Davidson‚ R-Ohio‚ introduced the House version and Sen. Bill Hagerty‚ R-Tenn.‚ introduced the Senate version. The goal is to protect Americans electoral power and congressional representation.Members of Congress represent U.S. citizens‚ not foreigners‚ Davidson said in a statement. Under the Democrats open border policies‚ sanctuary cities and states inflate their population with illegal aliens. Then theyre rewarded with more congressional representation by a Census that counts illegals. The inflated count is then used to draw congressional maps‚ undermining fair representation for our citizens.Edwards stressed only American citizens can legally vote‚ so only American citizens should be counted when determining federal representation.In the 2008 Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller‚ the justices defined the people to mean all members of the political community. To be a member of a political community‚ you must be an eligible voter‚ Edwards said in a statement. The Equal Representation Act addresses one of the many consequences of our open borderillegal immigrant influence in Americas electoral process. America is waking up to this insidious threat to our democracy.The post This Bill Would Prevent Illegal Immigrants From Swaying Congressional Representation appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Neuroscientists interested in teaching at Tulane University in Louisiana must be board-certified or eligible to apply for a medical license as well as skilled in neurocritical care. All are standard requirements for a postsecondary position.But read the fine print: Applicants also have to commit to Tulanes statement on diversity‚ equity‚ and inclusion‚ or DEI‚ which has nothing to do with training better doctors or instructors.This also appears to be a standard requirement today in higher education.According to a new report that surveyed nearly 250 colleges‚ the free speech advocacy organization SpeechFirst found that 67% of colleges require students to take courses in DEI to complete general education requirements. This finding is consistent with other research‚ including from the Goldwater Institute and the Reason Foundation.Louisiana state legislators have noticed. Lawmakers have introduced a proposal that would defund DEI offices in public colleges and universities; prohibit schools from requiring job applicants to complete DEI loyalty oaths as a condition of applying for jobs or students to write such statements as a part of applying to attend a college in the state; and block employees from compelling students to say things they dont believe.That would be a welcome change in Louisianas public university system. As a private school‚ Tulane serves as an example of how DEI is advancing racism in private institutions‚ but lawmakers should focus their authority on taxpayer-funded state colleges.DEI programs do more to promote exclusivity than belonging. In 2022‚ Louisiana State Universitys Office of Multicultural Affairs hosted a graduation event for students from minority ethnicities. The announcement made no mention of students who didnt identify as Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American‚ Native American‚ Asian/Asian American &;amp; Pacific Islander.Likewise‚ LSUs Emergency Medicine Program hosts regular meetings for faculty and resident BIPOC [black‚ indigenous‚ people of color] and allies on the subjects of microaggressions‚ ally-ship‚ implicit bias‚ explicit bias‚ and morea hit parade of identity politics.University faculty and students have a right to gather‚ discuss issues‚ and advocate their beliefs‚ but under the guise of DEI‚ these programs use identity politics and categorize people based on race or ethnicity instead of character and behavior. At public colleges and universities‚ taxpayers are paying for discriminatory activities.Over the past 18 months‚ state lawmakers around the country have prohibited the use of taxpayers money on DEI offices. Lawmakers in nearly a dozen more states are considering proposals this year to end DEI and racial preferences in college programs.State officials have recognized that DEI offices dont secure civil rights but rather act as bureaucracies that impress racial favoritism in university or business operations. Idahos new law‚ adopted at the end of March‚ directly rebukes the use of racial preferences in hiring and admissions and says that any such decisions at state universities shall be made on merit.Smart move. The research on DEI activities is clear: DEI doesnt change individual attitudes or behavior and can produce resentment in those required to participate. And DEI activists such as Ibram X. Kendi have criticized federal civil rights laws‚ saying these laws spurred racist progress.In DEI parlance‚ antiracism means discrimination‚ equity means partisanship‚ and belonging means look like me and talk like mecasting doubt on any claims that DEI is trying to preserve civil rights.LSU officials recently renamed the schools Division of Inclusion‚ Civil Rights‚ and Title IX as the Division of Engagement‚ Civil Rights‚ and Title IX‚ steering away from the third term (inclusion) in the DEI moniker. But students‚ taxpayers‚ and state lawmakers shouldnt be satisfied with this decision as evidence that the school is abolishing DEIs racist activities.The LSU faculty senate‚ which advises the president and board of directors‚ has a DEI committee. The College of Humanities and Social Sciences also has a DEI committee. Diversity‚ equity‚ and inclusion doctrine is undeniably still a part of the campus culture.Offices in charge of diversity‚ equity‚ and inclusion dont make campuses more diverse‚ nor do they create healthy workplaces or classrooms. Louisiana lawmakers should protect civil rights‚ remove DEI offices‚ and teach students the value of earning successnot the unmerited benefits of preferential treatment.The post Lawmakers Must Protect Civil Rights as Louisiana Universities Hold Fast to Discrimination via DEI appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you';re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net.Rumble‚ the growing video-sharing platform known for its commitment to free speech and minimal moderation‚ has announced the rollout of a new recommendation algorithm aimed at enhancing user engagement and supporting content creators. This feature marks a significant step in Rumbles ongoing expansion and commitment to helping creators grow and be discovered.Rumble has rapidly grown as a favored alternative among users seeking a platform with fewer speech restrictions on content. It has gained particular popularity among independent creators and those seeking diverse viewpoints. The platform has made headlines for its user-friendly policies and robust growth‚ attracting a wide array of content ranging from personal vlogs to in-depth political discussions.The newly introduced recommendation algorithm is designed to refine how viewers discover videos‚ making it easier for users to find content that aligns with their interests. This feature not only promises to improve user satisfaction by curating a more personalized viewing experience but also aims to increase visibility for creators‚ leading to greater viewer engagement and revenue opportunities.The deployment of the algorithm will occur in phases‚ beginning with a select group of users to refine the system based on real-world feedback before a broader rollout. This gradual implementation strategy underscores Rumbles commitment to maintaining platform stability and user satisfaction as it introduces significant technological enhancements so that it can better compete with tech giants.The post Rumble Enhances User Experience with New Recommendation Algorithm: A Move to Boost Creator Visibility and Platform Engagement appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you';re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net.The US Motion Picture Association (MPA)‚ a trade association representing half a dozen huge film and TV studios‚ is gearing up for a big campaign to get lawmakers to pass legislation that would force ISPs to block sites yet another way the industry hopes to fight its long war on piracy.Association CEO Charles Rivkin revealed that this essentially lobbying effort of working with Congress members has the goal of mandating that internet providers must block sites accused of piracy.Addressing the CinemaCon in Las Vegas‚ which gathers owners of movie theaters‚ Rivkin stated that the next major phase in what he said was an evolving danger of piracy is MPA working with members of Congress to enact judicial site-blocking legislation here in the United States.Not so fast‚ says the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Their key argument: it isnt up to MPA to decide who is and isnt protected by the First Amendment.According to EFF‚ this is an example (and by no means the only one) of countries like the US effectively trying to catch up with those they criticize the most‚ like Russia and China. In this case‚ the push aims to legalize blocking websites accused of piracy at the ISP level.And that‚ the group notes‚ is very different from issuing copyright infringement notices for specific content‚ which is a tool already available to the industry and doesnt even require court approval.Here‚ whole sites would be taken offline‚ making this power a new potent form of censorship the keys of the internet would be given to MPA‚ as EFF put it. The idea was contained in the extremely controversial SOPA/PIPA laws and included not only ISPs but other low‚ fundamental levels of internet infrastructure like domain name registers and registrars‚ and more.Completely by no coincidence‚ MPA was one of the major supporters of these laws‚ proposed over a decade ago. But even though the association signaled in the meanwhile it was abandoning this idea‚ in reality‚ lobbying in Washington continued‚ EFF said. And now‚ MRAa Rivkin came out in the open with plans to push legislators to adopt a new law.Site-blocking legislation‚ whether called SOPA/PIPA‚ no fault injunctions‚ or by any other name‚ still threatens the free expression of all of citizens and creators‚ the digital rights group said.The post Movie Industrys Push for ISP Site-Blocking Legislation Sparks Controversy Over Internet Censorship appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Finally‚ the Alphabet People Break Their Silence!

Of Course‚ DNC Has Quietly Been Paying Biden';s Legal Fees

Feel-Good Friday: Palm Leaves Can Save Your Life Edition

The Toyger is a relatively new breed of domestic cat thats been bred to resemble a mini tiger with the temperament of a family-friendly pet.As their appearance suggests‚ the breeds genome contains a touch of heritage from wild cats‚ although no new wild cat outcrossing was directly used in their development. Instead‚ this charismatic cat is primarily the product of selective breeding of Bengals‚ striped domestic shorthairs‚ and a handsome street cat from Kashmir.While tiger stripes are their defining feature‚ Toygers are notable for their long low-slung muscular body and athletic appearance‚ as well as their long and broad head with rounded ears‚ according to the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy.They are generally considered to be a healthy cat breed‚ with few known genetic diseases found in their bloodline. However‚ since their kind has only been around for a few generations‚ theres limited information available on their predisposition to inherited health conditions.Toyger Vs BengalThe backstory of the Toyger is appropriately wild. The inception of the breed occurred in the US around the late 1980s at the hands of Judy Sugden‚ the daughter of famed cat breeder Jean S Mill who';s credited with founding the Bengal breed.She formed the base of the Toyger breed using two cats: a striped domestic shorthair named Scrapmetal and a Bengal named Millwood Rumpled Spotskin. The Bengal cat is a breed of hybrid cat created by crossing domestic cats with an Asian leopard cat‚ which may explain parts of the wild appearance of Toygers.You wanna know how I got these stripes?Image credit: Kutikova Ekaterina/Shutterstock.comTo tweak and refine the breeds appearance‚ Sugden ventured to northern India in 1993 to find a stray domestic cat with unique markings that could be used to develop the tiger-like stripes. With the help of local Kashmiri kids‚ she found a stray cat with all the right markings a constellation of spots on top of its head that she named Jammu Blu. He was brought back to the US and introduced to a prize Bengal.The rest‚ as they say‚ is history. After successfully crafting their distinctive look‚ Sugden then worked on the breeds temperament‚ creating a cat thats intelligent‚ sociable‚ and friendly.Because of their apparent intelligence‚ Toygers require plenty of mental stimulation through toys and puzzles. Their sociality also means they dont typically like being left alone for too long. While they dont have too many specific needs‚ especially compared to other specialist cat breeds‚ most breeders recommend that only experienced cat owners take on a Toyger.Off the back of Sugdens hard work‚ the breed was recognized by the International Cat Association (TICA) in 1993 and was eventually granted full championship status in February 2007.Around this time‚ media attention and hype started to build up around the intriguing new breed. A Toyger even made it onto the cover of LIFE Magazine in February 2007‚ dubbed Americas Next Superpet.How much is a Toyger cat?Despite public interest‚ Toygers are hard to come across an attribute that no doubt adds to their allure. Sugden told the New York Times in 2020 that there are just 150 or so breeders in the world that focus on Toygers.Given their rarity‚ the breed is fairly expensive. Toyger kittens can reportedly cost between $1‚500 to $5‚000 in the US.

The volcano snail may sound (and look) like something from a fantasy novel‚ but it is a real creature that has adapted to live in the inhospitable would at the bottom of the ocean.What is the volcano snail?Volcano snail is one of the common names for Chrysomallon squamiferum‚ a species of deep-sea gastropod mollusk. The snail was first discovered in 2001 and was then referred to as the scaly-foot gastropod‚ receiving its formal scientific name in 2015. It is also sometimes referred to as the scaly-foot snail or sea pangolin.All these names come from the fact that the volcano snail is equipped with what looks like scale-mail that covers its foot. These dermal scales have evolved to protect it from the deadly environment it lives in.Where do volcano snails live? Volcano snails are extremely rare. They are a species of vent-endemic gastropods that live among the deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Indian ocean. At present‚ these snails are most prominently found in the Kairei hydrothermal vent field‚ followed by the Solitaire field‚ along the Central Indian Ridge.In 2011‚ an expedition also found a previously unknown population of volcano snails living around the Longqi vent field‚ along the Southwest Indian Ridge.Why are volcano snail shells special?As with much of nature‚ the appearance of the volcano snail‚ with its large dark shell and armored foot‚ is a product of its environment. The hydrothermal vents themselves are located around 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) down‚ while the waters that issue from them can reach temperatures of over 371C (700F). As such‚ this critter needs a way to survive in these inhospitable waters‚ and its shell and scales are just that.The volcano snails shell is made up of three layers of varying levels of durability. The outer part is a harder armor-like structure made from iron sulfide. It encases a softer layer of organic periostracum‚ which tends to form the outer coating of other shelled mollusks. Finally‚ the third layer is a calcified material known as aragonite.The snails scales are also part of its defenses‚ but not in the way you would think. They are not intended to protect the fleshy soft parts of the mollusk from predators‚ but rather to save them from themselves‚ as it were. Volcano snails don';t hunt for food per se; they create their own food from bacteria that grows inside a special pouch in their throats. These bacteria convert chemicals from the hydrothermal vents into energy (probably in the form of sugar) and feed the snail everything it needs through a process known as chemosynthesis.However‚ the bacteria produce large amounts of sulfur as a byproduct of this symbiotic relationship‚ which is toxic to the snail. The snail has therefore developed its scales‚ which have a structure that draws the sulfur away from its body and leaves it as an iron compound on its outside. The volcano snail has specially developed scales (called sclerites) that helps protect it from the toxins produced by the friendly bacteria that live in its throat.Image credit: Nakamura et al‚ PLOS ONE 2012 (CC BY 2.5)Are volcano snails endangered?Volcano snails are hardy little specimens if ever there were any. But while they may have evolved and adapted to survive in such harsh environments‚ they have not developed to survive human activity. It turns out that the hydrothermal vents they live around are also hot-spots for deep-sea mining. In particular‚ these vents are exploited for the polymetallic sulfide minerals that accumulate around them.In 2019‚ the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) placed the volcano snail on its list of endangered species. Although they are still prevalent in the Longqi vent field‚ their numbers have dropped significantly around the other vent fields.

For the first time‚ an exotic material known as a Wigner crystal formed solely from electrons has been visualized. These impossible-sounding crystals had been claimed before‚ but never confirmed directly. As well as proving its existence‚ the images revealed unexpected aspects of the strange crystals nature.Materials are composed of protons and electrons‚ as well as neutrons‚ because the attraction between them is needed for stability. However‚ in the 1930s‚ Eugene Wigner predicted that repulsion can do just as good a job as attraction in maintaining order‚ under the right circumstances. You can draw your own conclusions as to whether that is true in human affairs but ninety years later‚ we finally know that Wigner was right about the structure of a crystal lattice.Without intervening protons to attract them‚ electrons will try to get as far apart as possible. Under most circumstances‚ this leads them to fly apart. However‚ if some way can be found to maintain the density of electrons‚ they will arrange themselves at regular intervals to maintain as much distance as possible from each other.Imagine a group of people who dont like each other trapped together in a room. They want to get further away from the person on their left‚ but that would mean getting closer to the one on their right‚ so they maintain a rigid order: ie a crystal.Theoreticians proposed so-called Wigner crystals should exist when the electric potential energy between the electrons is more than 40 times larger than their kinetic energy. Since kinetic energy can be reduced with a combination of low temperatures and a suitable magnetic field‚ this is testable.Classical Wigner crystals were created in the 1970s by spraying electrons on a helium surface. However‚ these electrons are so distant from each other that they are more like isolated particles‚ and therefore not particularly interesting. Physicists are much more excited about using quantum behavior to pack an electron crystal closely enough that the electrons show wave-like cohesion.By trapping electrons in semiconductor layers just a few atoms thick‚ physicists created what were suspected to be Wigner crystals‚ but had trouble proving it. The electrons in these cases respond to magnetic fields in ways theory suggests a Wigner crystal should‚ but everything has been happening on too small a scale to see. Moreover‚ its possible crystal imperfections could produce similar behavior.There are literally hundreds of scientific papers that study these effects and claim that the results must be due to the Wigner crystal‚ Princeton Universitys Professor Ali Yazdani said in a statement. But one cant be sure‚ because none of these experiments actually see the crystal.By joining carbon atoms in two graphene sheets as consistently as possible‚ Yazdani and colleagues reduced the danger of imperfections producing Wigner-like behavior. They then ran a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) over the material to confirm their work.Just by changing the density‚ you can initiate this phase transition and find electrons spontaneously form into an ordered crystal.Yen-Chen TsuiOur group has been able to make unprecedentedly clean samples that made this work possible‚ Yazdani said. With our microscope we can confirm that the samples are without any atomic imperfection in the graphene atomic lattice or foreign atoms on its surface over regions with hundreds of thousands of atoms.The sheets were then cooled to less than a degree above absolute zero and placed in a magnetic field at right angles to the sample‚ creating an electron gas one electron thick between the graphene sheets.In our experiment‚ we can image the system as we tune the number of the electrons per unit area‚ said graduate student Yen-Chen Tsui. Just by changing the density‚ you can initiate this phase transition and find electrons spontaneously form into an ordered crystal.When the densities are low‚ the forces from neighboring electrons are small enough that other factors take over‚ and the electrons arrange themselves chaotically. However‚ as the electrons get squeezed together their repulsion forces them to make an ordered lattice‚ which becomes an electron liquid when either the density or temperature is increased further.The transition from crystal to liquid could be visualized with the STM‚ and Tsui said. Our work provides the first direct images of this crystal. We proved the crystal is really there and we can see it.The crystal has a triangular configuration‚ and while it can be tuned as the density is adjusted‚ it turned out that repulsion alone keeps it stable over a wide range of conditions‚ contrary to expectations.One of the key features of quantum mechanics is that subatomic particles like electrons exist as a probability curve over a range of positions‚ rather than having a precise location. This range known as the zero-point motion of the electrons because it occurs without elevated energy levels creates a blurriness in the crystals electrons location when observed.The team was able to measure the extent of this blurriness and Yazdani said; It turns out this quantum motion covers a third of the distance between them‚ making the Wigner crystal a novel quantum crystal.The description of the first Wigner crystal visualization is published open access in the journal Nature.