An image shared on Facebook claims there were no American flags at a 2024 campaign rally held by Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, on August 6 in Philadelphia. Verdict: False The claim is false. Both photos and video of the rally show two large American […]

Clifford LaBrecque states he had been watching a creature for about two and a half months on the outskirts of Des Moines, Iowa in 1977. Over the years, Iowa sightings have increased.That night LaBrecque decided to shoot the creature. "It was about 25 feet away from where I was parked in my pickup truck." LaBrecque said. "Two of the creatures walked up from behind a hedge. One stopped but the other went to a woodpile, bent down and started to eat with it back towards me. I stayed in the car and waited for it to turn around but it just kept on gnawing at the wood. Finally I decided to shoot it from behind. When the animals turned and saw me, I got buck fever and couldn't shoot. As it came towards me, I couldn't get the window rolled up fast enough. It was really close." LaBrecque was petrified with fear as the creature advanced. He tells what happened next."It loomed over the car. It was about 8 feet tall. It reached through the window, grabbed me and shook the daylights out of me. It was terribly strong. I could feel its face about 6 inches away from mine and believe me I was in a state of tremendous fear. I could feel my whole body shaking. I felt a sensation of being twisted around and pushed down onto the floor. The creature's eyes were burning with fury. I was angry, very angry at me for trying to shoot it. Then I pass out. When I regained consciousness it was gone.LaBrecque who owned a truck brokerage fir in Cameron is also president of Bigfoot Research Inc. He's been researching Bigfoot reports for about 49 years. He describes the thing that attacked him as "terrifying and enormous." He said that after the attack his memory was vague because of his terror as the thing shook him around. He decided to visit a hypnotherapist who had bought a vehicle from him. Eric Elster of Knoxville, Iowa. Elster stated that he hypnotized LaBrecque so that he would go back to the time of the attack. LaBrecque designed and constructed a life size model of the creature on the basis of the details that came to him under hypnosis as well as what he consciously remembers.The model is made of fiberglass and covered with artificial hair. He said it represented a typical young adult male. The model stands 7 ft 6 inches and if it were a real creature, would weigh 600 to 1,000 pounds. Its feet, of course, are what gives the creature its name, LaBrecque states. They are 18 inches long and 9 inches wide and they leave a flat impression in the ground about 2 inches deep. LaBrecque said that Bigfoot's fur is dark brown in color and that it has a foul smell. On the model, the shoulders measure 4 feet across! The arms, which are 47 inches long, reach down to almost the creature's knees. Its biceps measure 27 inches around and the short massive neck has a circumference of 40 inches. LaBrecque says Bigfoot can make a wide variety of sounds. It has the ability to mimic other animals, he claims, Its typical voice is a low guttural growl, but at times it can sound like a hooting owl or even a barking dog. LaBrecque estimates that there may be as many as 5 thousand Bigfoot creatures in the United States and more in Canada. LaBrecque believes that no remains are ever found of dead Bigfoot because they bury or hide their dead. During LaBrecque's search for the elusive Bigfoot, he has investigated numerous reports of sightings."I searched 15 years before finally meeting Bigfoot face to face," he says. "The animal exists and it's thriving in great numbers and increasing all the time." LaBrecque thinks that the Bigfoot is a very intelligent animal and tries very hard to avoid contact with humans. It's almost as if the beast has some form of primitive telepathy or instinct that warns it when man is nearby. But despite the attack, LaBrecque is still not afraid. "I harvested what I sowed," he said. "It's like picking a fight and then getting the heck beaten out of you."He offers some tips on where to look for Bigfoot. "The easiest place to look is around a small town or on the outskirts of a big city he says. There's plenty of foot for them there. If you think Bigfoot is in a certain area and there is only one water supply in that area, that is the best place to look.Finding Bigfoot is difficult enough, states LaBrecque. Catching them or getting close enough to take a picture is almost impossible. The run very fast and they mostly come out at night. LaBrecque remains determined to investigate Bigfoot sightings. "I just got a call the other day about a sighting," he said. "I'll be going up there next weekend to check it out.LaBrecque feels that one day somebody will come up with positive proof that these creatures exist. Unless we can find the remains of one, the only way we will ever prove that Bigfoot exists is to shoot one. Then the world will have to believe that these creatures to exist. "Authorities won't accept anything like photos, casts of footprints and other evidence that has been presented so far. - The Examiner - Independence, Missouri - 2003Other Iowa reports from the '70's:1974 near Stone State Park, Sioux City, Iowa: A man claimed to have wounded a bigfoot with a deer rifle. Published in the Des Moines Sunday Register 12 Nov. 1978.1978 February 25th: Pella Bridge near Harvey, Iowa: A boy age 10-11 saw Bigfoot on road near bridge; it looked at him, then went into woods Des Moines, Iowa, Sunday Register 12 Nov. 1978.1978 July 27th: Ottosen, Iowa: Young Donette Henkins, age 9 saw 'short, hairy, apelike animal with fangs and deep-set eyes' which stood in shadows a few inches away and growled / Omaha, NE, World-Herald 2 Aug. 1978, Algona, IA, Algona Upper Des Moines 3 Aug. 1978, Algona, IA, Algona Kossuth County Advance 7 Aug. 1978, Humboldt, LA, Independent 5 Aug. 1978.1978 27 July Ottosen, Iowa Mrs. Jan Henkins & two others - after Donette's sighting, saw similar creature between 2 buildings while walking downtown / Algona, IA, Algona Upper Des Moines 3 Aug. 1978 & Humboldt, IA, Independent 5 Aug. 1978.1978 30 July Ottosen, Iowa Dawn Henkins, age 11, Mrs. Henkins & neighborsaw apelike creature with wide forehead walked from between buildings on Main Street at night / Omaha, NE, World-Herald 2 Aug. 1978 & Algona, IA, Algona Kossuth County Advance 7 Aug. 19781978 31 July Ottosen, Iowa - Three or four boys aged 10-12 saw Bigfoot in shed, and again later. It did not attempt to attack. Omaha, NE, WorldHerald 2 Aug. 1978, Fort Dodge, IA, Messenger / & 3 Aug. 1978, Humboldt, IA, Independent 5 Aug. 1978, Algona, IA, Algona Upper Des Moines 3 Aug. 1978.1978 11 September Ottosen, IA / Anna Dodrill & Elery Lynch / Red-eyed, blackfaced Bigfoot stared in at kitchen window / Des Moines, IA, Sunday Register 24 Sept. 1978, repr. FN Nov. 1978 p.18; Fort Dodge, IA, Messenger 14 Sept. 1978 & Algona, IA, Algona Kossuth County Advance 18 Sept. 1978.1978 September/ Ottosen, IA / Robert Newell IV (18) / Watched tall, hairy, hunchback Bigfoot exploring farm buildings early in the morning / Des Moines, IA, Sunday Register 24 Sept. 1978, repr. FN Nov. 1978 p.18; Algona, IA, Algona Kossuth County Advance 18 Sept. 1978 & Humboldt, IA, Independent 16 Sept. 1978.1978 27 September a farm south of Renwick, Iowa. Forty high-school students sawtwo Bigfeet in cornfield, one with red eyes and one with blue eyes / Des Moines, IA, Register / Oct. 1978.1978 27 or 28 September Northwest of Renwick, Iowa. Mark Thompson (16) saw 7-ft, brownish-black-haired Bigfoot in soybean field. Moved away when witness flashed pickup lights and honked horn / Des Moines, IA, Sunday Register / Oct. 1978.1979 Sept. Near Manchester, Iowa Jerry Erwing saw 7-8-ft Bigfoot with 'topknot' walking bent over / Waterlook, IA, Courier 24 Feb. 1980.1979 12 October Near Webster City, Iowa Bryon Davis saw saw 7-ft, reddish-brown Bigfoot in woods. It got up and left, as if disturbed while sleeping. It was 3:30 am. Webster City, IA, Freeman-Journal 19 & 30 Oct. 1979.1979 15 November in Minburn, Iowa Larry Wilson saw dark, hunched Bigfoot in farmyard; officers found prints in grass but no creature / Quincy, IL, Herald Whig 18 Nov. 19791980 Early January Adel, Iowa Larry Wilson / Farmer went outdoors when dogs barked and saw'hunched over, dark thing' in yard; police found foot-long prints in grass. This article was picked up by the tabloid Weekly World News 22 Jan. 1980.1980 13 January Edgewood, Iowa Tim BuShaw & friend / Saw 8-ft Bigfoot with 'topknot' and long hair within 6 ft of their car / Waterloo, IA, Courier 24 Feb. 1980.1980 15 January Near Manchester, Iowa Cyrii O'Brien a railroad engineer on train saw strange creature on all fours eating carcass; 6-toed tracks found in area / Waterloo, IA, Courier 24 Feb. 1980.-----Originally posted on July 19,2011, the Iowa Bigfoot video (aka Basswood) purports to capture evidence of a Bigfoot in Northwest Iowa. Click for videoNOTE: I recently received and reported on this account as well: Possible TREE-KNOCKING BIGFOOT Encounter in Warren County, Iowa. Lon**********PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARYPOLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!INSECTOIDS! - OPPRESSIVE ORGANISMS | LIVE CHAT - Join Us! | Q & A (CHILLING EXPERIENCER ACCOUNTS)LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHAREPHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on SpotifyPHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LISTCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistHave you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. LonJOIN AMAZON PRIME - Unlimited Movie/TV Streaming& FREE 2-Day ShippingRegister a SNAP EBT CardTry Audible PlusBigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTubeLYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDSCRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINESHey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!I want to sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me by email or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! LonCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistChicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map----------Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio member - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK-----YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

News Star Wars: Skeleton Crew The Kids of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Escape the Space Suburbs for Adventure The space suburbs seem to be set in the space 1950s which makes a twisted sense when you consider that this is a post-war recovery period in the Star Wars… By Molly Templeton | Published on August 12, 2024 Screenshot: Lucasfilm Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Lucasfilm Every time a new Star Wars series happens, we learn something new about the galaxy far, far away. In the trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the family-friendly adventure coming this December, we learn that space, apparently, has suburbs. And they look just like our Earth suburbs! They seem designed for cars, just like our Earth suburbs! I just don’t know why you would inflict these choices on a whole ‘nother planet, let alone a different galaxy. But, in the grand tradition of many curious kids raised on a street where all the houses look the same, at least one of the four youths of Skeleton Crew is hungering for adventure—which they find via a curious hatch in the ground. It is not, as one guesses, a lost Jedi temple, but a spaceship which whisks them off to some distant location. Things get hairy, and they meet a space owl in a glorious cloak; I feel the space owl should maybe be the star of this series. Instead, we have Jedi Jude Law, who makes only a brief appearance at the end of this trailer and, to be honest, looks quite impressive; he’s got that I-am-very-seious-but-also-kind-of-smiling Jedi face down pat. Law’s character is named Jod Na Nawood; the kids he winds up in space jail with are Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), KB (Kyriana Kratter), Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), and Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). Their reluctant new droid friend, SM33, is voiced by Nick Frost. Skeleton Crew, which is set in the same post-Return of the Jedi time period as The Mandalorian, is created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford. Its eight episodes were directed by a star-studded bunch of directors: Daniels (Everything Everywhere All at Once), David Lowery (The Green Knight), Lee Isaac Chung (Twisters), Jake Schreier (Beef), and Bryce Dallas Howard (The Mandalorian). The series also stars Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Tunde Adebimpe (Twisters, TV on the Radio). The adventure begins December 3rd.[end-mark] The post The Kids of <i>Star Wars: Skeleton Crew</i> Escape the Space Suburbs for Adventure appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II” By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on August 12, 2024 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by Janet GreekSeason 1, Episode 19Production episode 121Original air date: August 3, 1994 It was the dawn of the third age… We get a summary of Part I, and then we see that the ship that was coming through the jump gate is an EarthForce ship, the Hyperion. Captain Ellis Pierce says he’s taking command of the situation. Sinclair and Ivanova bring Varn to medlab, where Franklin attempts to stabilize him. Pierce explains that the Office of Planetary Security diverted Hyperion to B5 to make sure that Earth—and only Earth, not any of the other nations represented on B5—stake a claim to the technology on Epsilon III. Sinclair is pissed at Pierce trying to horn in on his command, and at his rather brazen entry into the system, as Sinclair was trying to be discreet. According to an ISN report, President Santiago is facing pressure to quell the rioting on Mars. Garibaldi—still not knowing the fate of his ex, Lise Hampton—sees this report in the Zocalo, and winds up remonstrating with some dudebros who rag on Mars. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Sinclair tries to get Hidoshi to get Pierce to back off, with not much success. He then bluffs Pierce by telling him that he had a jamming device that allowed him and Ivanova to go to the surface by way of getting Pierce to pull back the Starfuries down to the surface. However, the damage has been done. Ivanova reports that after Pierce launched his Starfuries, there were massive disruptions of the planetary core. If this keeps up, the planet will go boom, taking B5 with it. The theory is that Varn was holding all this at bay, but without him inside the machine, it’s going into full defensive mode. Sinclair decides to wait twelve hours, and if the situation hasn’t improved, they’ll start an evacuation. Sinclair visits with Garibaldi to see if he’s okay, having heard about his incident in the Zocalo. He also talks frankly about how there’s no way they’ll be able to evacuate the entire station, even if they start now. But he makes Garibaldi promise that, no matter what, he makes sure Ivanova gets off the station. Delenn is continuing to show Draal around the station, but then the latter starts hearing voices. He goes to medlab and insists that the voice he’s hearing is Varn. Franklin points out that Varn is unconscious and can’t be talking to anyone—but then Varn wakes up. He confirms that the planet is “booby-trapped” and will explode rather than let anyone take charge of it. There needs to be a new caretaker who does what Varn does. Pierce wants to send an expedition down; Sinclair tells him not to, and he’ll shoot at Hyperion if he goes through with it. (With the planet about to explode, Sinclair has nothing to lose.) Pierce reluctantly stands down. A ship comes through the jump gate, belonging to Varn’s people, led by Takarn. They’re outcasts, who’ve been searching for Epsilon III for centuries, and Takarn gives them ten hours to hand over the planet. Varn urges the B5 crew not to give the outcasts what they want. There needs to be a new guardian. But he passes out in medlab before he can explain how that works, exactly. Draal confirms to Sinclair that he saw a vision of Varn much like the one Sinclair saw in the previous episode. Mollari later approaches Draal and Delenn saying he, too, saw a vision of Varn. Sinclair and Pierce agree to launch a preemptive strike on Takarn’s ship. Meantime, a Centauri shuttle asks to depart, but instead of going to the jump gate as stated in their flight plan, they head to Epsilon III. Takarn is outraged and fires, and the battle is joined. The shuttle is piloted by Mollari, with Delenn and Draal as his passengers, and they’re headed down to the planet. Garibaldi takes a shuttle after them. To everyone’s surprise, the planetary defenses leave the shuttles be. Garibaldi catches up to Draal and the two ambassadors (totally the name of my next band) and learns that Draal intends to take Varn’s place as the guardian of the Great Machine. Garibaldi isn’t thrilled at this idea, but it’s the only way to keep the planet from going boom. Draal is installed as the guardian. Immediately, an image of him appears on Takarn’s ship, on B5, and on Hyperion. He says that the planet belongs to no one, and must stay isolated and off-limits. He entrusts the safekeeping of the Great Machine to the B5 Advisory Council and says that any attempt to land on the planet will be met with force. Takarn doesn’t believe it and attempts to land on the planet. He is met with force—Draal destroys his ship. Delenn wishes Draal well, and Varn promises to take care of him and help him adjust for as long as he lives (which won’t be much longer). Credit: Warner Bros. Television Pierce buggers off with Hyperion, apologizing for overstepping his authority. They finally get a signal through to Mars, and Garibaldi is able to talk to Hampton, who is alive, albeit injured. However, it turns out that she’s married and is expecting a baby, which dumps a whole lot of cold water on Garibaldi. The security chief goes to the Observation Deck, where Delenn approaches him. She explains that she and Draal went off with Mollari in secret because Delenn knew that Sinclair would volunteer to be the new guardian. She also knows that Mollari will call in the favor she now owes him… Nothing’s the same anymore. In a fit of tiresome paternalism, Sinclair makes Garibaldi promise to get Ivanova off the station in their theoretical evacuation. I guarantee that that scene would never have even been considered if Sinclair’s first officer was male. Ivanova is God. When Mollari attempts to find out what’s going on from Ivanova, her answer is, “Boom. Boom boom boom. Boom boom. Boom! Have a nice day.” The household god of frustration. Garibaldi gets into a bar fight, helps the new guardian happen, and finally gets in touch with his ex only to find out that she’s married someone else. Busy and not great day for him… Also: this is the second time one of the command staff has gotten into a bar fight. How do these people still have their commissions??? If you value your lives, be somewhere else. By becoming the new guardian of the Great Machine, Draal is able to find the purpose that he’d lost (and was seemingly leading to his ritual suicide) last time. Credit: Warner Bros. Television In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… Back in the day, Mollari led a raid on Frallis 12, and he gets to dust off his piloting skills in this episode. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Garibaldi finds his ex and loses hope of a reconciliation. At least for now… Looking ahead. Delenn is very firm in her desire to keep Sinclair from volunteering to replace Varn in the Great Machine. The reason for that desire will be made clear before too long. Welcome aboard. Back from Part I are Louis Turrene as Draal and Curt Lowens as Varn. Lowens will return as an Old One in Crusade’s “Patterns of the Soul.” Denise Gentile debuts the recurring role of Hampton, who will return in the very next episode, “Babylon Squared.” Aki Aleong makes his final appearance as Hidoshi, Michelan Sisti plays Takarn, and veteran character actor Ron Canada plays Pierce. Trivial matters. This obviously continues from last week’s Part I. When Draal returns in “The Long Twilight Struggle,” he’ll be played by John Schuck. Turrene will return in the recurring role of Brother Theo in “Convictions,” a human role that doesn’t require the complicated Minbari makeup and prosthetics. The echoes of all of our conversations. “So if we go down there, it blows. If we don’t, it blows anyway, just a little later.” —Ivanova, summing up the hoplessness of the situation. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “He discovered something inside that he thought was buried long ago.” I am absolutely struggling to find anything to say about this episode or this two-parter. Thank goodness this is a rewatch, because that means I intellectually know that there’s some important stuff here. The turmoil on Mars, the Great Machine, and Garibaldi’s tumultuous relationship with Hampton are all threads that will continue to be pulled on in the future. But this two-parter that sets them all in motion is absolutely nowhere as an actual episode of television. For one thing, there really isn’t enough story here for two parts. We have the addition of the Hyperion to introduce artificial conflict, and hoo-boy is it artificial. Ron Canada can be a good actor when given quality material, but he is not given that here at all. Pierce is a straw man for Sinclair to tiresomely knock down, and his presence in the episode mostly serves to just drag it all out. Garibaldi’s mooning over Hampton is spectacularly uninteresting, and ends with one of the oldest clichés in the book—he finally gets in touch with her, but she’s married now! Oh noes! Worse, what should be a huge catharsis for Draal doesn’t have any emotional heft to it in the least. It feels more like he’s getting into the Great Machine because the script says he does. Delenn’s declaration to Garibaldi that Draal finally found meaning in his life has more emotional weight than anything the script or Louis Turrene did in the previous hour. As usual, it’s left to Peter Jurasik to inject some entertainment into the proceedings, as Mollari’s pleas to Ivanova to know what the hell’s going on and the joy he takes in reviving his old piloting skills are a delight to behold. And also the only delight in the entire episode. Next week: “Babylon Squared.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II” appeared first on Reactor.

Do you want a perspective other than the stifling woke orthodoxy being imposed on society through classrooms, TV shows, and corporate boardrooms? Tired of seeing “LGBTQ” this and “BIPOC” or “AAPI” that? Do you want a discussion of ideas without constant identity politics? You just might be a white supremacist. That’s essentially the message of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest attack on the mainstream conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom. You see, ADF had the gall to launch a “Viewpoint Diversity Score” to broaden the discussion in corporate boardrooms beyond the Left’s sacred cows. The SPLC can’t stand for that, so it’s reaching for the tired old “white supremacy” card once again. The SPLC gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy, but it weaponized that reputation to smear mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits. It publishes a map plotting parental rights groups; religious freedom organizations, including ADF; and pro-immigration enforcement groups alongside Klan chapters, suggesting that all sorts of conservative causes are driven by “hate.” The SPLC’s annual report describes all groups on the map as part of the “organizational infrastructure … upholding white supremacy in the United States.” What Is White Supremacy? “White supremacy” once meant the idea that white people are superior to others and that society should be restructured to give them maximum power. Since the 1950s, this racism has rightly been pushed to the fringes of American public discourse, racial minorities have gained equal rights, and Americans have rejected race essentialism. The Left, however, has embraced critical race theory, a Marxist worldview that attributes any racial disparity to racism and uses claims of systemic racism as a pretext to impose more government control. Simultaneously, increasingly desperate leftist groups like the SPLC have realized that branding conservatives “racist” has lost its bite because Americans know it’s false—so, now they use an even more inflammatory term, justified by the false premises of CRT. Under CRT, the SPLC can brand any conservative a supporter of “white supremacy” because it claims that American society is systemically racist. As such, anything short of a radical “anti-racist” restructuring of society amounts to donning a Klan hood. The Viewpoint Diversity Score How does ADF’s “Viewpoint Diversity Score” uphold “white supremacy”? Frankly, it doesn’t. The claim is absurd on its face. The Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index measures companies’ respect for free speech and religious freedom, following the methods of the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. The Human Rights Campaign index pushes LGBTQ activism in corporate boardrooms, and its influence helps explain why Target promoted “tuck” swimsuits making males appear female and why a transgender influencer gave Bud Light the kiss of death. The Corporate Equality Index is a key part of the Environmental, Social, and Governance movement pushing companies to adopt leftist positions on abortion, climate, and gender. The ADF version pressures companies to provide breathing space for dissent from this woke orthodoxy. The Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index urges companies to “meaningfully respect customers, employees, shareholders, and other external stakeholders who hold diverse religious and ideological beliefs [and] foster viewpoint diversity in their workplaces.” The ADF index isn’t trying to bully corporations to adopt its positions on political issues. Instead, it’s urging them to return to neutral, to recognize that not all Americans want to wear rainbow-flag pins and shout their abortions. Business should be about treating customers, employees, and shareholders well, regardless of what they believe. It’s All About Power The SPLC takes umbrage with this because it prefers the woke takeover of corporations. Scratch the surface of any woke complaint about “racism” and you’ll find an obsession with power underneath. The Viewpoint Diversity Score is calling out the Left’s tactics to dominate corporate boardrooms, and the SPLC can’t stomach it. So the SPLC’s R.G. Cravens claims that “ADF’s public relations and legal crusades are intertwined with Christian supremacist and white supremacist ideologies.” According to Cravens, ADF’s efforts responding to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion “appear to resonate with white supremacist rhetoric that characterizes DEI policies as a form of ‘anti-white racism’ and a threat to white people brought about by ‘woke’ ideology.” Yet anyone remotely familiar with criticism of DEI knows that Asian Americans, not whites, often find themselves most disfavored by “equity” practices that prioritize meeting racial quotas. Asian Americans cheered the Supreme Court’s overturning of racial preferences in college admissions not because they are secretly white supremacist, but because they value merit over “racial equity.” Nowhere did Cravens provide a quote directly from ADF to demonstrate that the Viewpoint Diversity Score has anything to do with helping white people—because it doesn’t. The SPLC just doesn’t have anything else to say. The post Now Even Viewpoint Diversity Is ‘White Supremacy’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

UK Police Threaten to Extradite, Jail Americans Who Criticize Them

Imagine spending over 30 years grounded in the Weddell Sea, finally breaking free, only to get stuck again less than four years later – and this time, you can’t stop spinning. That’s the unfortunate reality for the world’s largest iceberg, A23a.It was first declared in its “spinning era” by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) earlier this year, after imagery captured by instruments aboard NASA satellites between December 2023 to February 2024 showed the iceberg beginning to rotate in place in early January. IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.Since then, the 4,000 square-kilometer (1,500 square-mile) berg has remained trapped near the South Orkney Islands – but why?A23a is the unfortunate victim of what’s known as a Taylor column, a rotating cylinder of water that can form when an ocean current – in this case, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current – meets a seamount – Pirie Bank in the Scotia Sea.The prospect of A23a ending up stuck and spinning in such a way wasn’t entirely unpredictable – it’s happened to other icebergs traversing similar routes in the past. However, the berg’s giant size makes this a particularly unusual sight."You know, you can make these Taylor Columns quite easily in a rotating tank experiment in your lab,” Till Wagner, Assistant Professor in Ice and Climate Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told NPR. “But to see it on a geophysical scale like this is really rare.”A23a getting spinny with it this month so far.Image credit: NASA WorldviewThough it might be fun to be the star of a rare event, if icebergs were sentient, we imagine A23a would be more than a bit fed up by now with its unexpectedly long journey away from its birthplace.The berg, which is bigger than the state of Rhode Island, first calved off Antarctica’s Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf back in 1986 – but became grounded on nearby seabed shortly after.It took until 2020 for A23a to finally get moving again and start making its way out of the Weddell Sea, after which it briefly lost its title as “world’s biggest iceberg” to A76, though the competitor would eventually end up in pieces thanks to the extreme conditions of the Drake Passage.Fast forward to today, and A23a is stuck once again, having been so for coming up to eight months. As for how much longer it'll stay spinning before eventually breaking free and continuing its journey, that's unclear – others have stayed like that for several weeks, so it’s already beating the odds. IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.As Open University researcher and polar expert Professor Mark Brandon put it to the BBC: "Usually you think of icebergs as being transient things; they fragment and melt away. But not this one.”"A23a is the iceberg that just refuses to die.”

China has had a bit of a mixed bag in terms of space exploration over the last few years. Following on from several successful missions to recover samples from the Moon, in June the space-faring nation saw one rocket explode after accidentally launching it during a static test.Now it appears that a rocket used to deliver the first 18 of a planned megaconstellation of satellites has broken apart in low-Earth orbit, sending hundreds of pieces of debris hurtling around the Earth. The Qianfan Constellation project aims to put 14,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit, in order to deliver a satellite broadband network similar to SpaceX's Starlink.While the rocket delivered the first satellites into orbit, the upper stage of the rocket broke apart shortly afterwards, creating a cloud of debris. The debris likely poses no threat to people on Earth, but the US Space Force is keeping a close eye on debris large enough to be trackable. "US Space Com can confirm the break-up of a Chinese Long March 6A rocket launched on Aug. 6, 2024, resulting in over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit," US Space Command said in a statement posted to X (Twitter). "US Space Com has observed no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain."While larger, trackable pieces of debris are more of a concern, there are likely smaller pieces of the rocket now in Earth orbit which can only really be tracked through impacts on spacecraft."Large orbital debris (> 10 cm [3.9 inches]) is tracked routinely by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. Objects as small as 3 mm can be detected by ground-based radars, providing a basis for a statistical estimate of their numbers," NASA explains. "Assessments of the population of orbital debris smaller than 1 mm can be made by examining impact features on the surfaces of returned spacecraft, although this has been limited to spacecraft operating in altitudes below 600 km [373 miles]."Debris is becoming a bit of a problem in Earth's orbit – it's never a great sign when space agencies set up hotlines in case space debris lands on your property. We are a messy species, and low-Earth orbit is apparently no exception to our "we'll clean that up later" rule. One concern about the debris is that it could cause the "Kessler Effect" (or Kessler Syndrome). Simply put, the Kessler Effect is where a single event (such as an explosion of a satellite) in low-Earth orbit creates a chain reaction, as debris destroys other objects in orbit. Should this happen, the debris could keep colliding with other objects, potentially causing communication problems and leaving areas of space inaccessible to spacecraft. Essentially, it could end up like the film Gravity, but with less George Clooney doing great eyebrow work and more "Hey what happened to my GPS". At worst, some speculate it could essentially trap us here on Earth, unable to leave.Space agencies around the world are trying to address the problem, including Japan's Active Debris Removal mission which completed the first stage of its mission earlier this year. The idea is to eventually have a spacecraft that can track space debris and push it into a safe de-orbit. As the latest space incident shows, we need it.

Paignton Zoo in the United Kingdom has welcomed its first Chilean flamingo chicks since 2018, and among the clutch was an egg tended to by a same-sex couple: Curtis and Arthur. The new dads have captured the hearts of many, but it’s by no means the first time this kind of behavior has been seen among birds.“Regarding the same-sex parenting, we aren’t entirely sure how this has come about, although it is a known phenomenon in Chilean flamingos as well as other bird flocks,” said Paignton Zoo birds curator Derek Smallbones in a statement. “The most likely scenario is that the egg was abandoned by another couple, so this pair have ‘adopted’ it.”Chilean flamingos typically take around 28 days to finish cooking in their eggs after being laid, in which time both parents – whoever they may be – will sit on top of the mud pile to incubate the offspring. Unlike the vibrant pink, long-legged adults, they come out a little dumpy in the leg department and with fluffy white-gray downy feathers.The Chilean flamingo chicks are the first born at the zoo since 2018.Image credit: Wild Planet TrustThis most recent clutch are the stars of Love Lagoon, an initiative inspired by the hit reality TV show Love Island. It provides regular updates on the relationships unfolding between the flamingos at Paignton Zoo, where four chicks have already arrived and more are expected to be on the way.“We are pleased at the success of this year’s breeding programme so far,” added Smallbones. “It’s a testament to the skill and hard work put in by the Bird Team and we are hopeful that we may see more eggs hatch over the coming days and weeks.”Flamingos are just one of many birds in which same-sex parenting has been documented. Pairs of male penguins of various species have incubated eggs, hatched and/or raised chicks in zoos all over the place, including gentoos in Australia, Humboldts in England, and African penguins in the Netherlands. There was even a pair of king penguins in Denmark caught chick-napping an abandoned baby.Curtis and Arthur tending to their egg.Image credit: Wild Planet TrustSame-sex behaviors aren’t limited to parenting, either, and observations of same-sex mating behaviors have been seen across a wide range of species, even if science doesn’t always report on it. Author of A Little Gay Natural History, Josh Davis, told IFLScience in a recent interview that vast swathes of the natural world engage in queer behavior.“Whilst it has only been officially recorded in around 1,500 species, this figure is likely a massive underestimate. This is because it can be found in pretty much every branch of the evolutionary tree, from beetles and butterflies to turtles and squirrels, so the idea that it is limited to just a few hundred species out of the 2.13 million described to date is incredibly unlikely.”  So cheers to you, Curtis and Arthur. Congrats on your fluffy bundle of joy.

Even people with little interest in boxing are likely aware of the explosion of anger released when Italian Angela Carini withdrew early from a fight with Algerian Imane Khelif early in the Olympic women's boxing. The issues raised are not purely scientific, but a great many of the comments about Khelif's eligibility to compete in women's boxing implied or assumed facts where genetic knowledge is highly relevant. While academics with qualifications of varying levels of relevance rushed to comment, IFLScience happened to be interviewing leading expert on sex chromosomes Professor Jenny Graves of Latrobe University about other recently published research. We took the opportunity to ask for her take on the situation while we were at it.Many of those who initially objected to the inclusion of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting in the Olympics women's boxing claimed both were transgender. This claim, following on from furor at the Tokyo Olympics over the inclusion of a trans weightlifter (who came last), is false. Both boxers are considered female from birth, and there is no evidence that was even contested until recently.Subsequent objections were generally based on the idea that both boxers have XY chromosomes, potentially meaning they have Swyer syndrome. This is a condition where people have female genitalia, despite having the XY chromosomes usually associated with being male in mammals. Swyer syndrome is referred to as a Disorder of Sexual Development (DSD), a group often formerly termed as "intersex" conditions.The basis for these statements were tests done by the International Boxing Association (IBA), which then disqualified both Khelif and Yu-ting from the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships. However, the IBA has not released the results of this test. There is, therefore, no confirmation that Khelif and Yu-ting have XY chromosomes at all. Even if they do, Swyer is not the only syndrome that combines XY chromosomes with genitalia that leads people to be considered female from birth.Although the controversy is partially about genetics, it is a social one as well. Conor MacDonald of the University of South Australia has made the way sports make space for or rejects diversity the focus of his research.In a statement, Macdonald argued that sports are often prone to “black and white thinking”. That’s understandable, particularly at the professional level, where who wins and loses dominates the conversation, and other results may not even be allowed. However, Macdonald said, it makes officials and spectators ill-equipped to deal with situations where complexity cannot be willed away.According to MacDonald the black and white here is not only the metaphor of absolutes. "Historically, black and brown women have been perceived as not fitting white notions of femininity and seen as being too masculine," he said. "I feel terrible for Khelif, but these events haven't surprised me. Her being from where she is, the color of her skin, it's not surprising that her gender has been questioned—especially considering Khelif, a woman of color, was competing against a white Italian boxer."MacDonald pointed to prominent athletes such as Serena Williams and Brittney Griner, whose status as women has been questioned online, as well as trans athletes.A Giant In Genetics’ TakeThere are tens or even hundreds of thousands of people working in genetics research, so it is not hard to find a wide diversity of views among those with qualifications. Few, however, have Graves’ expertise on the topic. Almost 40 years ago, she solved one of the largest problems that had been troubling geneticists about the way sex chromosomes express themselves differently from the rest of the genome in placental mammals, including humans.Since then, she has led teams that have made one advance after another in our understanding of sex chromosomes and their influence on the body, most recently revealing that chickens and platypuses have a different approach to ours. This has won her a string of scientific awards, including the Prime Minister’s Prize For Science, the most prestigious scientific honor Australia can bestow, given to only one scientist a year. Although Graves’ most recent publication did not directly have anything to do with humans, let alone athletes, it is a reminder of how complex these chromosomes can be, and that they can often take multiple paths to apparently similar outcomes.This is the case among humans as well, Graves told IFLScience. “There is so much variation, variation in so many pathways.” Simply saying that someone has a Y chromosome doesn’t always tell us much. The Y chromosome is small, and shrinking, but nevertheless includes some genes generally acknowledged to have little to do with making someone male or with sporting prowess.That job primarily belongs to the SRY gene, but even saying that the presence of this gene equals maleness undersells the complexity and diversity that exists, Graves stresses. “There are 70 genes between SRY activation and making the gonads, so it is not a surprise to find there is variation in sexual differentiation,” she told IFLScience.This means that anyone thinking a single test, or even several tests, could unambiguously sort athletes into male and female categories is mistaken. Someone with an SRY gene, but for whom only a few of the genes Graves refers to activate, is unlikely to gain any genetic advantage over typical XX females. They are also unlikely to have any hint that they are genetically unusual until tested, including in some cases being able to give birth. To prevent someone from entering women’s sport on this basis in the name of fairness would make a mockery of the term.If people are excluded from sporting contests based on genetic characteristics, Graves jokes she will enter an “over-80, under-androgen, short-legged netball team.” If everyone else is excluded for genetic advantages, she might finally achieve the sporting success that has eluded her.More seriously, she added: “I do not think there is any hope of legislating a level playing field,” particularly since no one is trying to do this for genetic variations on other chromosomes that confer an athletic advantage.Women’s and men’s sporting contests are likely to remain distinct, forcing sporting bodies to wrestle with where boundaries should be drawn. Notably, those keen to exclude anyone with a hint of a Y chromosome from women’s sports may well be at least as opposed to anyone with male external genitalia being included. This means they would also demand anyone with de la Chapelle syndrome, where XX chromosomes can be accompanied by a penis and testicles, also be rejected.With so many genetic gradations and variations, Graves does not think any formula will be able to resolve the debate.