A study recently found that deep-breathing exercises induce similar patterns of blood flow to the brain seen in patients using psychedelic substances like psilocybin. This altered state of consciousness matched one first described by Freud, and was characterized by blissful feelings, positively experienced depersonalization, and the sensation of unity. Breathing exercises like high-ventilation breathing or […] The post Deep Breathing Can Create Psychedelic Bliss in Your Brain, Study Shows appeared first on Good News Network.

The Daily Signal was on the ground at the fifth National Conservatism Conference this week in Washington, D.C. The event was full of fiery speeches and fierce debates, but some themes rose above the rest. 1. Hawley and Others Go Hard After Techno Right  While the conference, commonly known as NatCon, has had tech debates and industry interlocutors since its inception, previous conferences’ conversations surrounding technology and artificial intelligence were about censorship, economic concentration, and its impact on American culture. Now, the age of AI is here, and it seemingly arrived overnight. On Day One of the conference, Rachel Bovard, vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute and board member of the Edmund Burke Foundation, took a lighthearted swipe at the right-wing transhumanists:  As a piece of advice to any of the young, very online Tech Right men here today, if you are at all intrigued by the idea of gene-optimizing, bio-augmented, lab grown CRISPR babies, throw away your phones and talk to more girls. Transhumanism is the idea that technology should be integrated with the human body to overcome physical and mental limitations, such as aging and disease, to create a more “enhanced” human being. But perhaps it was Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who went after the tech-oriented right the hardest. “The transhumanist ideal rejects the common man’s worth. And artificial intelligence threatens the common man’s liberty,” Hawley told the crowd. “To state it in the clearest terms then: Americanism and the transhumanist revolution cannot coexist. And it is our job to see that Americanism wins.” 2. Delivering for the Working Class A common theme throughout the conference was empowering the average American worker. Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., called for reindustrializing the United States and “a commitment to focusing our energies, rebuilding our industrial might, and unleashing the energy to power a 21st century industrial base. It’s a rejection of overreach in favor of strength of focus instead of distraction,” he said.  Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., challenged the Republican Party to continue to be the party for working-class Americans, tying that strategy to electoral success. “I understand what hard-working families in my state want from their government. It’s not complicated. They want us to close the border. They want us to stop selling out to China and stand up to them for ripping us off and stealing our jobs. They want good-paying jobs that allow them to buy a home, raise a family, and live the American dream. Those are the people that we’re fighting for,” the Indiana senator said. Hawley emphasized that artificial intelligence should help Americans, not harm them. “Splitting the atom fundamentally changed our view of physics, but nobody expects to run a personal reactor in their basement. The internet completely recast communication and media, but YouTube will still take out your video if you violate somebody’s copyright. By the same token, we should demand that AI empower Americans, not destroy their rights or their jobs or their lives,” he contended. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts prioritized the family component of the working class, noting that the American family had grown “weak, fractured, and hollow.” The public policy leader urged a prioritization of policies that favored American families. “Will [the policy] advance the common good of the American people? Will it cultivate the virtues without which liberty cannot endure? If the answer is ‘no,’ even if the proposal aligns with some past ideological commitment, prudence requires that we reject it,” he stated. 3. Divide Over Israel and Iran Strikes on Full Display The American Conservative’s executive editor, Curt Mills, put it mildly prior to NatCon when he said, “I’m not really sure that comity is going to be found” at NatCon regarding Israel. While previous NatCons have featured foreign policy conversations, they were often about the threat of China or the embroglio in Ukraine. At this NatCon, however, not only was there a vigorous foreign policy debate, but a debate about perhaps the most bitter foreign policy divide on the right at the moment: Israel and the U.S. role in the Middle East. In a packed breakout session on Tuesday, Mills, a critic of Israel’s conduct during the war, debated Max Abrahms, an associate professor at Northeastern University.  Abrahms claimed the critics of President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran, whom he called “MAGA isolationist realists,” were wrong that intervention would “result in thousands of American deaths and international isolation, and it will be another so-called never-ending forever war.” Mills, however, followed with remarks that included a number of crucial, and largely unanswered, questions: “Why are these our wars? Why are Israel’s endless problems America’s liabilities? Why are we in the national conservative bloc, broadly speaking? Why do we laugh out of the room this argument when it’s advanced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy but are slavish hypocrites for Benjamin Netanyahu? Why should we accept ‘America First’—[but] asterisk Israel?”  His conclusion? “The answer is, we shouldn’t.” The conversation continued on Day Two of the conference at a breakout session called “The Trump Doctrine.” Victoria Coates, vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, argued that the era of the so-called “rules-based international order” was dead and had been dead since the end of the Cold War. She noted that the United States had to reorient itself to a changing global strategic landscape. Coates defended Trump’s strike on Iran as a “one and done” “successful precision” strike to uphold the long-term goal of preventing a radical Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.  “Far from getting entangled in regime change or dragged by Israel into a regional war, President Trump removed a gathering threat through exquisite U.S. military capabilities and cut off escalation,” Coates said. In his remarks on the same panel, Michael Brendan Dougherty of National Review argued that foreign policy restraint puts America first. “You cannot have economic integration and security integration and, simultaneously, democracy,” Dougherty argued. “The political freedom of a self-governing people must also mean the ability of that people to choose when to enter into trading relations and when or whether to join or exit a war.” 4. Pivot to Asia; Everything Else Is a ‘Sideshow’ Former adviser to Trump and host of the WarRoom podcast, Stephen K. Bannon, said that a “kinetic” global war has already begun and that the U.S. needed to focus primarily on containing China. “We must decouple—and hard decouple starting tomorrow morning,” Bannon said of the U.S. relationship with China. Bannon took umbrage with recent remarks by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that this dangerous era comparable to the 1930s had been caused by Trump’s policies toward Ukraine and tariffs. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Bannon said. “America First is what’s going to save this country.” Bannon pointed to three decades of failure by “the neoliberal neocons” who allowed China to rise from a failing nation in 1989 to a formidable global adversary to the U.S.  To counter this threat, the U.S. needed to treat China and Asia as a whole as the main event. Conflicts in Eastern Europe were just sideshows to where the real conflict was taking place. 5. Tom Homan ‘Not Going Anywhere’ In typical Tom Homan fashion, the border czar did not mince words as he discussed the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to secure the border and deport illegal aliens. Homan is at the forefront of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s efforts to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens. Both Homan and ICE agents have come under increased scrutiny, threats, and even violent attacks following the increased arrests of illegal aliens.   “The media likes to attack ICE saying, ‘Most of the people they arrested aren’t criminals.’ Bulls—!” Homan said. “I look at the numbers every day, [and] 70% of everybody ICE arrests is a criminal.”  In addition to arresting and deporting illegal aliens and working to secure the southern border, Homan said Trump has also tasked him with finding the 300,000 unaccompanied alien children the Biden administration lost contact with. This, according to Homan, is his most challenging job.  Children who arrived at the border alone during the Biden administration were released into the care of so-called sponsors here in the U.S. It was revealed later that many sponsors were not thoroughly vetted. The challenge now, Homan explains, is tracking those children down and making sure they are safe.  Many of the children the Trump administration has located are safe and living with family, according to Homan, but others “are in sex trafficking. Some of the children we found in forced labor, and we rescued these children.”   Homan says he is committed to continuing the work the president has tasked him with, telling the NatCon crowd he is “not going anywhere.” 6. A Time for Institution Building A theme of this year’s conference was that this was a time of victory—that many of the ideas discussed by national conservatives and many of the people who spoke about those ideas in years past had made their way into the Trump administration. But as several speakers noted, the Right in general had to adopt an institutional mindset as opposed to a mindset of dissent. Matthew Peterson, the editor-in-chief of Blaze Media, said in a panel about the changing media landscape that conservatives needed to stop thinking like a “vanguard,” a tiny minority advancing ideas in a sea of left-wing institutions. It was time to think as the movement in power. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought spoke about how the Left had successfully marched through American institutions over the past century and had achieved a level of success that they could affect change through the government bureaucracies they controlled. This became what he called the “woke, weaponized bureaucracy.” Now this weaponized bureaucracy is being aggressively countered by the Trump administration, Vought said, but the battle against what it has wrought is just beginning.  “Much work still remains, but we have a movement that is there to support that work,” Vought said. “We are not reading people out of the party when they raise the issues. We don’t have a movement that’s writing op-eds against the president for the steps that he’s taking. There is great enthusiasm for what is going on.” The post 6 Takeaways From the National Conservatism Conference appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Blogging platform Dreamwidth Studios has enacted new access restrictions for users in Mississippi and is limiting account creation for teens in Tennessee, pointing to serious legal threats posed by recent state-level age verification mandates. Laws like those in Mississippi and Tennessee are forcing the creation of a de facto digital ID system that undermines both privacy and free expression. By requiring users to verify their age, often through government-issued ID or other sensitive personal data, these measures strip away the ability to speak, read, or participate online anonymously. This not only compromises individual privacy but also deters people from engaging in lawful but sensitive conversations, such as those related to health, politics, or identity. As of September 1, users in Mississippi are blocked entirely from accessing the site, with Dreamwidth stating it is “being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court.” The law in question, Mississippi House Bill 1126, known as the Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act, imposes requirements that Dreamwidth says present an existential legal risk to the platform. Visitors from Mississippi are instead redirected to an informational page explaining the situation. According to Dreamwidth, “people whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we’ll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.” The platform emphasized that it does not conduct its own geolocation and relies on its network provider’s services, which have known inaccuracies. As they explained, “we don’t do geolocation ourselves, so we’re limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider,” adding that their provider’s database “has a number of mistakes in it.” Users incorrectly blocked as being in Mississippi can only regain access by either resetting their IP address or using a VPN, since “there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don’t control it.” In Tennessee, where a similar law has been passed requiring parental consent and surveillance for social media use by minors, Dreamwidth is taking a more limited approach. Dreamwidth noted that while “the Tennessee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), it’s still a risk to us.” Rather than blocking the entire state, Dreamwidth is now preventing anyone under 18 in Tennessee from signing up for a new account. This policy is being implemented through a new question on the signup form that asks users whether they live in Tennessee. If they do, and they’re under 18, they won’t be able to register. The platform acknowledged that “this only applies to new account creation” and not existing accounts. Dreamwidth expressed frustration at having to enforce these restrictions, saying, “like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we’re sorry, and we hope we’ll be able to undo it as soon as possible.” The platform also thanked its community for their ongoing support, both financially and emotionally, throughout its legal battles. “The fact we’re entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work.” Messages of encouragement have even been passed along to their legal team, with Dreamwidth adding, “they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do.” Privacy-focused platforms Mastodon and Bluesky are also impacted by these new state laws requiring strict age verification, with both warning that the mandates threaten user privacy and free expression. Bluesky has fully blocked access in Mississippi, where a new law requires platforms to verify users. The company said complying would force them to build invasive systems that violate user trust, warning the law creates “prohibitive financial barriers” and threatens freedom of speech. Mastodon, which is decentralized and does not collect user data, said it “doesn’t have the means to comply with age verification laws.” Because each server is independently run, enforcement would be inconsistent and technically unmanageable without undermining its privacy-first model. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Dreamwidth Blocks Mississippi Users, Limits Tennessee Signups Over Digital ID Laws appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Lefties Losing It Over Trump's Cartel Boat Strike

It seems the Earth's core may contain more carbon than previously assumed, which changes how we understand its evolution.

No eyes? No worries.

Anyone still confused why Republicans defunded PBS needs to look no further than a Thursday Amanpour & Company segment featuring host Christiane Amanpour and women, gender, and sexuality/African and American studies Prof. Imani Perry. Both would accuse President Trump of waging a war on knowledge as he seeks to reform the Smithsonian Institution, while Perry ironically spread historically-dubious narratives and warned of impending fascism. Amanpour made no effort to even try to understand Trump’s perspective: Trump, and let me quote him, has said the Smithsonian was, quote, ‘out of control.’ It's the—you know, it's the center of wokeness. He says "everything discussed is ‘how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.’ Not quite sure what that last bit means, but anyway, what do you think that they want to see at somewhere like the Smithsonian or any of the other institutes, like the National Portrait Gallery, The Kennedy Center that so much control has now been taken by the administration?     Perry began, “I mean, I do think that it is, on the one hand, a kind of effort to displace knowledge and study with mythology. You cannot – you simply cannot tell the story of the United States without the story of American slavery, for example. You can't tell the story of how the nation became a global power without it.” You absolutely can tell the history of how America became a global power without slavery. Speaking of knowledge, every serious Civil War historian will tell you the South lost, in part, because slavery rendered it economically backward and Northern industry was key to the Union victory. Meanwhile, the U.S. didn’t really become a global power until three decades after slavery was abolished. Nevertheless, Perry continued, “But there's a way in which there's a commitment on the part of this administration to tell a kind of story that, on the one hand, supports a vision of the nation as fundamentally white, as sort of this romanticized story that is one that excludes, that limits, that excludes people of color, that excludes LGBTQIA communities, that excludes the idea that women ought to be self-actualizing and making decisions for their own lives. Perry also insisted that “the vision is one that, on the one hand, is anti-intellectual, which I think is potentially disastrous. And on the other is a kind of manipulation of very old culture wars to distract Americans from the other kinds of threats that this administration is posing.”     Playing along, Amanpour followed up, “So, let's just play this intellectual, you know, game out, which is not a game. I mean, it is a reality. What is the chilling effect? What happens when a government systematically tries to, you know, distance itself from knowledge, from, you know, actual history, from what's going on? What would happen to a nation if that is allowed to proceed?” Because no left-wing freakout about Trump is complete without warnings of fascism and the collapse of democracy, Perry answered, “I mean, we've seen the examples historically. This is the attack on institutions of knowledge, it's one of the sort of consistent pre-court cursors to fascism and authoritarianism. It certainly is a deep threat to democracy if people are afraid to tell their stories, to participate fully in the nation. I will say though, notwithstanding all of that, that there are people who are continuing to resist this turn.” Amanpour likes to say she is truthful, not neutral, but this segment was neither truthful nor neutral and is a good example of not only why PBS was defunded but also why Trump thought the Smithsonian reforms were needed in the first place. Here is a transcript for the September 4 show: PBS Amanpour and Company 9/4/2025 CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Trump, and let me quote him, has said the Smithsonian was, quote, "out of control." It's the — you know, it's the center of wokeness. He says “everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.” Not quite sure what that last bit means, but anyway, what do you think that they want to see at somewhere like the Smithsonian or any of the other institutes, like the National Portrait Gallery, The Kennedy Center that so much control has now been taken by the administration? IMANI PERRY: Right. I mean, I do think that it is, on the one hand, a kind of effort to displace knowledge and study with mythology. You cannot – you simply cannot tell the story of the United States without the story of American slavery, for example. You can't tell the story of how the nation became a global power without it. But there's a way in which there's a commitment on the part of this administration to tell a kind of story that on the one hand, supports a vision of the nation as fundamentally white, as sort of this romanticized story that is one that excludes, that limits, that excludes people of color, that excludes LGBTQIA communities, that excludes the idea that women ought to be self-actualizing and making decisions for their own lives. And so, the vision is one that, on the one hand, is anti-intellectual, which I think is potentially disastrous. And on the other is a kind of manipulation of very old culture wars to distract Americans from the other kinds of threats that this administration is posing. So, to say, “oh, look, it's all those other — those troubling others that are causing your problems” as opposed to all of the very real dangers now to our health, to our wellbeing, to our national security and our foreign policy, all of those things. AMANPOUR: So, let's just play this intellectual, you know, game out, which is not a game. I mean, it is a reality. What is the chilling effect? What happens when a government systematically tries to, you know, distance itself from knowledge, from, you know, actual history, from what's going on? What would happen to a nation if that is allowed to proceed? PERRY: I mean, we've seen the examples historically. This is the attack on institutions of knowledge, it's one of the sort of consistent pre-court cursors to fascism and authoritarianism. It certainly is a deep threat to democracy if people are afraid to tell their stories, to participate fully in the nation. I will say though, notwithstanding all of that, that there are people who are continuing to resist this turn. I think of my colleague Sarah Lewis's Vision and Justice Initiative, which is trying to make the argument that you have to actually see the fullest representation of human beings in order to get to justice through the work of artists and scholars. And so, there is an imminent danger. And at the same time, you know, there — not everyone is willing to lie down and take care.

CHICAGO, Ill. — The timing of when President Donald Trump will deploy the National Guard into the city was top of mind at the event hosted by Chicago Flips Red at Trump Tower. The Trump-supporting group has been part of the vocal locals who want the president to help Chicago reduce the crime rate.It is still unknown when troops will be sent in. There are reports about preparations being made to house federal immigration agents at Naval Station Great Lakes, located about an hour north of downtown. Trump mulled the possibility of sending troops to New Orleans, Louisiana, first. Whenever the deployment happens, the event's attendees say they are ready.'Chicago will continue to have a "violence problem" as long as Red states continue to have a gun problem.'"My position changed over the past week. I've been debating people for years that Chicago's not that dangerous," criminal defense lawyer Jason Epstein admitted to Blaze News. "What I did not know is that Chicago's overall crime is [down], but murder jumped up." Per capita, Chicago's homicide rate is number seven at 28.7 per 100,000 people.Epstein used to campaign for Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former President Barack Obama, but he voted for Trump in 2024, in part due to the Biden-Harris border crisis and lack of public safety in major cities."The fact that [Trump] did such an excellent job in D.C., it is a huge affront to any claims that it's a military takeover. It is a huge affront to any politician trying to tell you that 'we don't need it.' ... [Trump] is looking to do good, which is why I'm here now," he continued.CFR attendees later broke out into a "We want the National Guard!" chant.RELATED: Mayor Johnson remains defiant on Trump's pending National Guard deployment amid violent weekend — (@) CFR member Danielle Carter Walters previously blasted Governor JB Pritzker (D) and Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) for continually rejecting Trump's offer to help the city."Let's ask President Trump, when are we going to make treason great again? Because these people need to go to prison for treason. We need to make treason great again. ... These people have no clue of what's going on — well, they do, but they don't care," Walters said.In response to the more than 50 people shot over Labor Day weekend, Johnson blamed the violence in his city on Republican states having greater gun rights."Chicago will continue to have a 'violence problem' as long as Red states continue to have a gun problem," Johnson posted on X. "The endless flow of illegal guns into Chicago can be traced to Red states like Mississippi, Indiana, and Louisiana. It is up to the federal government to step up and stop interstate gun trafficking networks."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones revived the band for one night. The post Faces 2015 Reunion Gave Fans a ‘Glorious’ 7 Songs appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Is it too much to ask that a U.S. senator know a little bit about our heritage?