'This is what I f*king hate about the left'

A post shared on Instagram claims Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with Canada.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Brown Berets De Califas (@brownberetsdecalifas) Verdict: False There is no evidence that Mexico and Canada broke off diplomatic relations. Fact Check: Social media users are claiming that Mexico broke off relations with […]

“Holiday” in rock and roll isn’t just about packing bags or ticking dates off a calendar—it’s about stepping into another world, whether through rebellion, romance, or the simple desire to pause and breathe. Across the songs in this list, we see the word transform, offering glimpses of escapism, protest, joy, and even introspection, each time through a different lens. The Kinks bring wit and charm to “Holiday Romance,” a seaside tale that blurs love and whimsy. Scorpions dive into emotional longing with “Holiday,” creating a ballad that speaks to yearning for peace. Weezer’s “Holiday” bursts with quirky optimism, offering a The post 10 Best Songs With The Word ‘Holiday’ In The Title appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

When a young skateboarder saw some kids picking on a feral kitten, he wanted to stop them, although he didn’t stand a chance against so many. Instead, 8-year-old Zayin Berry used diplomacy—trading his skateboard away for a promise that they would leave the animal alone. It worked, and now the kitten is his “best friend.” […] The post 8-year-old Boy Saves Kitten by Trading His Skateboard to Kids Who Were Harming the Animal appeared first on Good News Network.

By Rowan O’Malley As someone who lives in USDA climate zone 4, where temperatures dip down to -30F, I take winter seriously. Each fall, when winter looms, yes, I am thinking about the usual homestead tasks of preparing firewood and making sure the woodstove is ready for burning. However, I am also getting ready to survive the winter without grocery stores. Now, so far, the grocery stores have continued to operate, but you never know. Although, in the long term, I would love to dig and build a proper root cellar, I don’t have one now. I know that OP readers are in different circumstances in terms of where they live and whether they have a root cellar or not, so I thought I would share a few of my tips on the different creative “layers” of fresh vegetables that I have ready to eat over the winter.  All of this can be done without a root cellar. I am in a very small space of just under 500 square feet. Rather than add solutions like a big chest freezer to the mix, I prefer finding solutions that blend with what I’m already doing and don’t add any dependency to the electrical grid.  Layer 1: Packing Available Fridge Space My first layer is one that is available to most folks: the refrigerator. In fact, my fridge capacity is pretty small, but I still find space to pack in some extra root vegetables in there when the sales are on in the fall. This particular year, I had a smaller garden myself and participated in a community garden that gave a lot of food away. So, when the harvest season came, I picked up bulk carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes for an amazing price. I mixed in a few of my own late beets, too.  That was at least a couple of months ago now, and I was able to reach into the fridge to get some carrots and beets in perfect condition to make a soup last night. I used two methods: storing some in the original plastic ventilated bag that the bulk carrots came in. Some other beets, I wrapped in a damp tea towel and stored in another area of my small fridge.  Every once in a while, I take them out to check on them and I might rinse them in water to keep them damp, as the fridge can dry things out. When they are protected from drying out/getting too wet and well-tended, I have found that root vegetables can last months in the fridge. There’s another benefit of filling unused space in your fridge, too: it is more efficient than empty space and could save you a bit on your electricity bill. Layer 2: Use What Ya Got  One corner of my cabin is fairly cool. It doesn’t get the daytime sun. Although it is nowhere cold enough to be a real root cellar, it is surprising how well I do with it. The storage temperature recommended for root vegetables is just over freezing, from 32 to 40 degrees F. My “cold” room is more like 50 degrees F in the depth of winter on the floor.  The humidity recommended for storing root vegetables is very high, around 90 to 95 percent. Depending on whether I’m running the woodstove, the humidity in my “cold” room will vary between 40 and 70 percent. Not sure what you’re dealing with in your own place? I bought a few small thermometers and humidity meters for just a few bucks each.  In my own experience, if I compensate for the low humidity, I can store root vegetables in my “cold” room much longer than you might expect. To do this, I store them in cardboard boxes that are low and filled with damp shavings. That way, they are getting the maximum cold from the floor and are kept damp enough to keep longer. The secret is in the balance: make the shavings too wet, and they will turn to mush. Too dry and they will shrivel. I find that the cardboard boxes work better than plastic buckets because the cardboard breathes. This does require you to check on them. Sometimes, I will dampen the top of them with a mister and check how the veggies are doing in there. I also have stored potatoes this way. I have been able to store veggies this way and have them last almost until spring. The secret is to monitor them and keep them suitably damp. I did try sand and have found that shavings work much better for me. In a bin on the floor of my cold room, I also have almost a dozen winter squash. What a great survival food! In fact, the conditions of my cold room are pretty close to the ideal for these squash, and they will regularly make it until spring and even until May in there. Layer 3: The Great Outdoors! When I wanted some fresh kale for my soup this week, did I go to the grocery store? Heck no! (Especially with what they charge for organic kale!) I just went to the raised bed of our community garden, where I put some kale and Swiss chard plants into hibernation….literally!  When our hard frost was looming, I layered straw around the base of the plants. Then, I just popped a large clear plastic bin on top of the plants and held it in place with a sizeable rock on top. Is this a mini greenhouse? Nope. These plants are not going to grow in these conditions, but they do stay alive. I can pick what greens I need by just removing the bin. More healthy greens will be there…week after week.  Plants most suitable for this preservation method would be some of the hardiest kales, like Siberian, Russian, or Winterbor. This would also work best with kale plants that grow low to the ground so that the straw can protect them well, and you don’t need too high of a bin to cover them properly. An added bonus is that, when spring comes, you have kale plants ready to go. Cut back their flowers to keep them producing as long as possible, or let them go to seed if you want to seed save. Layers of Veggies for Winter Survival: Yum Yum! These are simple low-cost preps that can extend your survival in winter SHTF, and can help out your grocery budget through the lean months of winter.  What layers of veggie preservation, if any, do you use related specifically to winter survival? Do you have one of your own that you can share with us? Please tell us in the comments section! About Rowan  Rowan O’Malley is a fourth-generation Irish American who loves all things green: plants (especially shamrocks), trees, herbs, and weeds! She challenges herself daily to live her best life and to be as fit, healthy, and prepared as possible! The post Three Layers of Food Preservation for Winter Survival appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. NewsGuard, a company that provides a rating system for sites that can then facilitate flagging “misinformation,” is reported to have in the past been recommended to its members by the now disbanded Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) – as they allegedly banded together to demonetize social platforms and some news sites. In November, member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr – who President-elect Donald Trump has nominated to head the agency – sent a letter to major tech companies, asking for information about their work with NewsGuard. The company, set up in 2018, is now accusing Carr of potentially violating the First Amendment by posing these questions, and claims that its work “does not involve censorship.” However, that can be seen as a technicality, given that its browser add-ons that rate sites for “credibility” provide a tool for those who do end up carrying out censorship, which was the focus of Carr’s interest in the role of NewsGuard in the broader “censorship cartel.” NewsGuard responded to Carr’s letter with its own in early December, stating the company was “surprised” to learn about the commissioner’s inquiries from the media. It might appear unclear why this would be surprising, but NewsGuard’s co-CEOs quickly explain the “surprise” was caused by Newsmax reporting about Carr’s letter exclusively, and Carr citing reporting by this conservative outlet as a source. NewsGuard, meanwhile, said it rates Newsmax “in the bottom 15% of over 10,000 websites.” Exactly – NewsGuard’s detractors might say. The “reliability and credibility rater” then pivots to position itself as “apolitical and transparent” compared to Meta and Alphabet, which the NewsGuard noted have their own rating systems. The tech giants are using “non-transparent criteria, understandably making conservatives and other publishers skeptical,” the NewsGuard letter states. In trying to explain why looking into its activities might violate the First Amendment, NewsGuard’s work is defined by some advocates as “offering opinions” regarding which site is credible and to what degree – and that this represents speech. But since NewsGuard’s “opinions” are suspected to have been used by the likes of GARM to try to get advertisers to boycott sites and platforms, the company’s role in the big picture became of interest to Carr. As for the company’s reaction, the commissioner had this to say, as reported by the Washington Post: “NewsGuard’s response and its conduct since I raised these issues a few weeks back has only heightened and underscored my concerns… NewsGuard’s response is a jumble of disinformation, deception, and sleight of hand. In other words, it mirrors NewsGuard’s business model, in my opinion.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post NewsGuard Criticizes FCC’s Brendan Carr for Questioning Its Role in Alleged “Censorship Cartel” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A recent recruit of the US Department of Defense (DoD) Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Eric Davis – who joined earlier this year – has come up with a scheme dubbed, “the Theory of Mind.” According to reports, it’s another DARPA shot at developing, this time algorithmic capabilities to predict, monitor, incentivize, and modify people’s future behavior. This ambitious to say the least, and “upcoming” program, the existence of which has now – for some reason – been made public as a “special notice,” is framed as targeting adversaries and better equipping those making decisions within the US security apparatus, to either deter, or “incentivize” said adversaries. The announcement could be there to act as a deterrent in and of itself, and there’s no doubt the US, and many other countries around the world are invested in finding ways to predict and control people. There is one certainty and several misgivings about this program, however: the certainty is that it requires collecting massive amounts of personal data; but then, what exactly is an adversary, as far as the US (defense) establishment concerned? And if, theoretically, an algorithm were to be capable of, as per the DARPA notice – “not only to understand an actor’s current strategy but also to find a decomposed version of the strategy into relevant basis vectors to track strategy changes under non-stationary assumptions” – who and what guarantees that such an algorithm remains contained? “Contained” may be a strong word here, because as reports note, the US DoD dictionary of military and associated terms from 2017 is rather vague about what an adversary is. “A party acknowledged as potentially hostile to a friendly party and against which the use of force may be envisaged” – is how it is described. However, “party” in this context is not defined at all. “The Theory of Mind” is seen as an attempt at a new iteration of what DARPA has already been working on, such as the “Total Information Awareness (TIA)” program – announced in 2002 and slammed at the time by civil rights groups as a project that’s “the closest to a true Big Brother in the US.” Back to Eric Davis – this machine learning (“AI”) scientist was previously employed by a company called Galois. Among the clients are DARPA, NASA, and the US Intelligence Community – while the Gates Foundation is listed as “a partner.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post DARPA’s “Theory of Mind” Program Aims to Predict and Influence Behavior, Raising Privacy Concerns appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

By Rowan O’Malley As someone who lives in USDA climate zone 4, where temperatures dip down to -30F, I take winter seriously. Each fall, when winter looms, yes, I am thinking about the usual homestead tasks of preparing firewood and making sure the woodstove is ready for burning. However, I am also getting ready to survive the winter without grocery stores. Now, so far, the grocery stores have continued to operate, but you never know. Although, in the long term, I would love to dig and build a proper root cellar, I don’t have one now. I know that OP readers are in different circumstances in terms of where they live and whether they have a root cellar or not, so I thought I would share a few of my tips on the different creative “layers” of fresh vegetables that I have ready to eat over the winter.  All of this can be done without a root cellar. I am in a very small space of just under 500 square feet. Rather than add solutions like a big chest freezer to the mix, I prefer finding solutions that blend with what I’m already doing and don’t add any dependency to the electrical grid.  Layer 1: Packing Available Fridge Space My first layer is one that is available to most folks: the refrigerator. In fact, my fridge capacity is pretty small, but I still find space to pack in some extra root vegetables in there when the sales are on in the fall. This particular year, I had a smaller garden myself and participated in a community garden that gave a lot of food away. So, when the harvest season came, I picked up bulk carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes for an amazing price. I mixed in a few of my own late beets, too.  That was at least a couple of months ago now, and I was able to reach into the fridge to get some carrots and beets in perfect condition to make a soup last night. I used two methods: storing some in the original plastic ventilated bag that the bulk carrots came in. Some other beets, I wrapped in a damp tea towel and stored in another area of my small fridge.  Every once in a while, I take them out to check on them and I might rinse them in water to keep them damp, as the fridge can dry things out. When they are protected from drying out/getting too wet and well-tended, I have found that root vegetables can last months in the fridge. There’s another benefit of filling unused space in your fridge, too: it is more efficient than empty space and could save you a bit on your electricity bill. Layer 2: Use What Ya Got  One corner of my cabin is fairly cool. It doesn’t get the daytime sun. Although it is nowhere cold enough to be a real root cellar, it is surprising how well I do with it. The storage temperature recommended for root vegetables is just over freezing, from 32 to 40 degrees F. My “cold” room is more like 50 degrees F in the depth of winter on the floor.  The humidity recommended for storing root vegetables is very high, around 90 to 95 percent. Depending on whether I’m running the woodstove, the humidity in my “cold” room will vary between 40 and 70 percent. Not sure what you’re dealing with in your own place? I bought a few small thermometers and humidity meters for just a few bucks each.  In my own experience, if I compensate for the low humidity, I can store root vegetables in my “cold” room much longer than you might expect. To do this, I store them in cardboard boxes that are low and filled with damp shavings. That way, they are getting the maximum cold from the floor and are kept damp enough to keep longer. The secret is in the balance: make the shavings too wet, and they will turn to mush. Too dry and they will shrivel. I find that the cardboard boxes work better than plastic buckets because the cardboard breathes. This does require you to check on them. Sometimes, I will dampen the top of them with a mister and check how the veggies are doing in there. I also have stored potatoes this way. I have been able to store veggies this way and have them last almost until spring. The secret is to monitor them and keep them suitably damp. I did try sand and have found that shavings work much better for me. In a bin on the floor of my cold room, I also have almost a dozen winter squash. What a great survival food! In fact, the conditions of my cold room are pretty close to the ideal for these squash, and they will regularly make it until spring and even until May in there. Layer 3: The Great Outdoors! When I wanted some fresh kale for my soup this week, did I go to the grocery store? Heck no! (Especially with what they charge for organic kale!) I just went to the raised bed of our community garden, where I put some kale and Swiss chard plants into hibernation….literally!  When our hard frost was looming, I layered straw around the base of the plants. Then, I just popped a large clear plastic bin on top of the plants and held it in place with a sizeable rock on top. Is this a mini greenhouse? Nope. These plants are not going to grow in these conditions, but they do stay alive. I can pick what greens I need by just removing the bin. More healthy greens will be there…week after week.  Plants most suitable for this preservation method would be some of the hardiest kales, like Siberian, Russian, or Winterbor. This would also work best with kale plants that grow low to the ground so that the straw can protect them well, and you don’t need too high of a bin to cover them properly. An added bonus is that, when spring comes, you have kale plants ready to go. Cut back their flowers to keep them producing as long as possible, or let them go to seed if you want to seed save. Layers of Veggies for Winter Survival: Yum Yum! These are simple low-cost preps that can extend your survival in winter SHTF, and can help out your grocery budget through the lean months of winter.  What layers of veggie preservation, if any, do you use related specifically to winter survival? Do you have one of your own that you can share with us? Please tell us in the comments section! About Rowan  Rowan O’Malley is a fourth-generation Irish American who loves all things green: plants (especially shamrocks), trees, herbs, and weeds! She challenges herself daily to live her best life and to be as fit, healthy, and prepared as possible! The post Three Layers of Food Preservation for Winter Survival appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Communist Cuba Running Out of...Sugar?