Sen. JD Vance of Ohio accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination Wednesday night, vowing to never forget where he came from as he highlighted his life story and the failures of the Washington political class.  “America’s ruling class wrote the checks; communities like mine paid the price,” Vance, 39, said in accepting the nomination for vice president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “For decades, that divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened.” Former President Donald Trump announced his choice of Vance as his running mate Monday, the first day of the convention. Together, they plan to take on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, although many Democrats continue to urge Biden to step aside as their nominee. “From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again,” he said. “That is, until President Donald J. Trump came along.” Vance, elected to the Senate in 2022—five decades after Biden was first elected to the Senate—contrasted his youth to Biden’s while also saying Biden has been wrong on most policies and issues in five decades in office. Biden has been the champion of “every major policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer,” Vance said. “When I was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico,” he said of the North American Free Trade Agreement. “When I was a sophomore in high school, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good middle-class jobs. And when I was a senior in high school, Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq.” The Ohio Republican went on to highlight the struggles of Americans, especially in several battleground states in the Nov. 5 presidential election.  “Each step of the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan and other states across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” Vance said.  He talked about his life, chronicled in his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Ellergy,” later made into a movie directed by Ron Howard. He discussed growing up in rural Middletown, Ohio, as his grandmother or “Mamaw” took care of him when his mother had addiction issues. He enlisted in the Marines after 9/11 and later graduated from Yale Law School.  He said the movement is “about single moms like mine, who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up.” “I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober,” he said. “I love you, Mom.” The crowd in the convention hall chanted, “JD’s mom, JD’s mom.” Acknowledging that his economic views sometimes clash with those of traditional Republicans, Vance said, “Our disagreements actually make us stronger.”  “My message to my fellow Americans is: Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?” he said. “That’s the Republican Party of the next four years: united in our love for America, and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.” Vance also talked about the assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday evening, noting: “Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning.”  He said Trump’s enemies have told many lies about him, but his toughness was clear after the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.  “They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said of Trump’s political opponents. “He called for national unity, for calm,” after the shooting, Vance said. “He remembered the victims of the terrible attack, especially the brave Corey Comperatore, who gave his life to protect his family.” The post JD Vance Contrasts Own Biography, Youth With Biden Record appeared first on The Daily Signal.

There is a jarring disconnect between the elite media, especially leftwing Acela Media, and the rest of America. And it is not often that we get such jarring examples of that disconnect as MSNBC’s treatment of the portion of the Republican National Convention devoted to honoring the memories of our brave service members killed during the ISIS-K attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. To their credit, CNN aired the entire video package, as well as the speeches from the loved ones. Coverage across the rest of the dial was mixed, with varying degrees of cutting in and out. But MSNBC plumbed a disgusting low, completely blowing off the segment of the RNC devoted to honoring Gold Star families and, more importantly, the memories of our dead service members. Instead, the assembled panelists devoted their time to fretting over the future of the Biden-Harris ticket. Watch as Joy Reid warns viewers of efforts to throw Kamala Harris off the Democrat ticket along President Joe Biden: MSNBC RNC SPECIAL COVERAGE 7/17/24 9:23 PM JOY REID: What I am hearing and the anger that I am hearing that's coming from them, is that to the point that you are making, given the stakes, and the stakes being democracy itself, the stakes being Project 2025, the stakes being a Trump presidency, which I think everyone agrees that African- Americans would be first in line to suffer, right? And so they understand the stakes- that here is a sense among the people that I have spoken to, including some senior members of that (Congressional Black) Caucus. That given that, there is a sense there is gamesmanship going on inside of this effort to remove President Biden from the ticket, and that that gamesmanship is heavily geared toward also pushing aside Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris. And there is a sense there is a lot of pressure coming from there-- some people are just calling it California at this point. Whether it's donors or whether it is members, whether it is whoever. This sense of huge pressure for the CBC, which has locked arms with President Biden, I think we can agree on that. RACHEL MADDOW: Sure. REID: They have been unwavering. They are sticking with him, you know, Claire McCaskill will tell you, to the very end. They are with him. But the huge pressure is coming without regard to the vice president. This lengthy segment, which I remind you played through the portion of the RNC honoring the Gold Star families and Abbey Gate fallen, preceded a yukfest between Rachel Maddow and DNC Chair Jaime Harrison.  I can’t think of a clearer contrast- and of the juxtaposition between the two Americas: the one where a major political party honors our fallen heroes, and the other where corporate media ignore that memorial and grotesquely disrespect the memory of the fallen in order to cover shadow parlor games.   

WATCH: MSNBC and DNC's Complete Disrespect of Gold Star Families During Republican Convention

Things Do Not Go Well When Secret Service Head Kim Cheatle Shows Up at the RNC

New information about the attempt on Donald Trump’s life that has just been revealed within the past 24 hours is causing major shockwaves all over the country.  In this article, I will attempt…

Ever since the moment that Donald Trump was shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the left has been pushing wild conspiracy theories all over the Internet.  Unfortunately for the left, their…

What is the true definition of a planet, and could there be a more refined definition in the future? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers from the United States and Canada investigated the potential for a new definition of a “planet”. This study holds the potential to challenge the longstanding definition outlined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which established IAU Resolution B5 in 2006, resulting in demoting Pluto from a “planet” to a “dwarf planet”. Here, Universe Today discusses this incredible research with study lead author, Dr. Jean-Luc Margot, who is a professor in the Department of Earth, Planetary & Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, regarding the motivation behind the study, significant results, what steps need to be taken for the IAU to implement his new definition, and whether Dr. Margot thinks Pluto should be reclassified as a planet. So, what was the motivation behind this study? “IAU Resolution B5 is problematic – it is vague and excludes exoplanets – and the problems will not go away on their own,” Dr. Margot tells Universe Today. “Our community and the public deserve better definitions for such important astrophysical terms as ‘planet’ and ‘satellite’. We have had 18 years to identify the problems and consider possible ways forward. There are good reasons to believe that we are better equipped in 2024 than in 2006 to produce a good outcome.” According to IAU Resolution B5, the current definition of a planet is as follows: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it   assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and  (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. Unfortunately, this resulted in Pluto being demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet since it did not meet criteria (c). Additionally, IAU Resolution B5 limits itself to planets within our solar system, specifically pertaining to planets orbiting a single star. In contrast, approximately 50 exoplanets have been confirmed to orbit one star within a binary (two-star) system. Therefore, a new IAU definition that encompasses exoplanets could help establish a better framework for planets throughout the cosmos. While IAU Resolution B5 is considered a qualitative (non-mathematical) definition for planets, this recent study attempted to develop a more quantitative (mathematical) definition, or planetary taxonomy (classification), that could encompass planets and satellites (moons) both within and beyond our solar system. To accomplish this, the researchers used a series of equations to calculate a planetary body’s “ability to clear a zone” which coincides with criteria (c) of IAU Resolution B5, with the goal of ascertaining the approximate size a planetary body needs to be to “clear a zone”. Additional equations were also used to ascertain the difference between a planet and a satellite, as well. Therefore, what were some of the most significant results from this study? “We suggest that planetary bodies can be classified on the basis of properties that are easily measurable: orbital elements and masses,” Dr. Margot tells Universe Today. “We find that unsupervised clustering of solar system bodies according to orbital elements and masses yields distinct groups. The clustering reveals that satellites are distinct from planets, and it reveals that the 8 planets are distinct from all other bodies. The presence of these groups and the gaps between these groups provides natural dividing lines for planetary taxonomy.” Dr. Margot continues, “We emphasize the focus on the ability to clear a zone in a specified timescale as opposed to the state of having cleared a zone. The former is robust and easily quantifiable and observable, the latter is difficult to implement and difficult to quantify. We propose a single clearing timescale applicable to all stars, stellar remnants, and brown dwarfs. We propose a definition that is aligned with IAU recommendations, but we also examine potential difficulties related to these recommendations. We propose a simpler, mass-based proposal that avoids some of these difficulties.” This proposal consists of the following definition: A planet is a celestial body that (a) orbits one or more stars, brown dwarfs, or stellar remnants, and (b) is more massive than 1023 kg, and (c) is less massive than 13 Jupiter masses (2.5 × 1028 kg). A satellite is a celestial body that orbits a planet. Headquartered in Paris, France, the IAU was formed on July 28, 1919, in Brussels, Belgium with the goal of promoting and improving all facets of astronomy, including scientific research, public outreach, and global education. As of May 2024, the IAU is comprised of 92 countries and a membership of 12,738 individuals. The IAU has held 32 General Assemblies during its history with the goal of establishing scientific protocol, or in the case of planets, providing a new definition during the 26th General Assembly in 2006. Examples of more recent resolutions include protections of radio astronomy from radio interference and advancements in ultraviolet astronomy, both at the 31st General Assembly in 2021. Therefore, what steps need to be taken for the IAU to implement these three criteria for defining planets? “The IAU has an established process for considering and voting on proposed resolutions,” Dr. Margot tells Universe Today. “In my opinion, the IAU ought to follow its established process and consider all reasonable submissions. We were unsuccessful in 2024, but we are likely to resubmit in advance of the 2027 General Assembly, and we are hoping for a more positive outcome at that time.” As noted, the motivation of this study was derived from IAU Resolution B5 in 2006 that established a new definition of a planet, which resulted in Pluto being demoted from planet to dwarf planet based on the new criteria. This was immediately met with skepticism from the scientific community, including from Dr. Alan Stern, who is the Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission that visited Pluto in 2015, with Pluto being demoted less than a year after New Horizons launched in early 2006. This pushback was also seen in politics as several state governments, including California, New Mexico, and Illinois, publicly denounced the demotion. Therefore, in Dr. Margot’s opinion, should Pluto be reclassified as a planet? “Pluto is an amazing planetary body that is worthy of exploration,” Dr. Margot tells Universe Today. “However, it does not make sense to classify Pluto with the eight planets. One may have legitimate concerns about the scope and precision of the 2006 IAU planet definition, but at least the outcome of the IAU resolution was sensible: Pluto did not belong with the eight planets and needed to be assigned to a different class. Our work is not focused on Pluto but instead on quantifying and generalizing the definition of planet.” As of this writing, NASA has confirmed the existence of 5,690 exoplanets and this number continues to grow at a steady rate daily, which means the number of exoplanets orbiting multiple stars will grow, as well. Therefore, a new definition of a planet could provide a better framework for identifying and characterizing exoplanets and their respective satellites (exomoons) as we continue to explore the cosmos. This recent study could help establish that framework by developing a quantitative approach to defining planets and satellites both in our solar system and beyond, which could help shape our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Additionally, using mathematics to establish a new definition could also remove any subjectivity from defining planets, as well. “Nothing is engineered in our proposal to keep the number of planets small,” Dr. Margot tells Universe Today. “The clustering analysis is completely agnostic about human feelings. It could have resulted in a group of 8 planets, 12 planets, or 50 planets, and we would have done exactly the same thing. It identified 8 planets. Readers who are chagrined that smaller bodies are not recognized as planets should take comfort in the fact that these bodies are no less worthy of exploration. A taxonomic classification in one group or another is not an indicator of scientific importance.” How will this new definition help scientists better understand planets and exoplanets in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! The post Officially, Only the Sun Can Have Planets. Is it Time to Fix the Definition of “Planet”? appeared first on Universe Today.

Challenging decades of sleep measurements.

A Prayer to Long for HeavenBy Emma Danzey "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." – Philippians 3:20-21 Do you look forward to heaven? If I am being honest, my heart can be so focused on the now and building my "earthly kingdom" that I often miss the joy of focusing my thoughts and heart on eternal joys. It is not bad to be thankful for the beautiful blessings that we have been given from our Father who loves to give good and perfect gifts. However, when we become consumed with the world, we need to be reminded and convicted that this world is not our true home. Maybe you have recently lost a loved one and are thinking more about life after death. Perhaps you are more aware of your aging body or your health declining? Today, we are going to pray with joy that Jesus came so that we do not have to live in fear or dread of the future. We have the guarantee of heaven as believers in Jesus. Scripture tells us that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and it is not what we can do to try to live a "good life," but it is receiving what He has done by living the perfect life and dying on the cross for our sins, rising again. 1 Peter 1:3 tells us that Jesus is our living hope. Even though we cannot physically see heaven, He has promised it to all who believe in Him. All of God's Word has proven true, we have read of the fulfillment of His prophecies and every Word coming true. He is faithful. It takes faith to trust the Lord that He is waiting in heaven for us, but He has told us. John 14:3 says, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." Let’s pray: Dear Jesus,Thank You for going to prepare a place for us. Would you help us to long for you the way that You long for us? You have loved us like a faithful husband to an unfaithful wife. You have pursued us like the lost coin. You have welcomed us back like the prodigal son. Thank You for your forgiveness and love. We praise You for the promise of a future with you. We thank you that Your Spirit is with us always. We have a down payment of heaven in our hearts. Help us to seek Your Spirit daily and be filled with joy. Father, show us how you are working eternity into the hearts of humanity around us. Use us to share this good news of heaven with You! Do not allow the enemy to cloud the true spiritual reality that we want to invite as many people to the gates of heaven as possible. Jesus, You get people into heaven, but we want to extend the invitation. We pray for Your movement and your kingdom to come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Cultivate heavenly thoughts and refresh our focus in our hearts and minds. Renew us from our sinful nature to grasp onto the temporary tighter than the eternal. Forgive us for fixing our eyes on temporary things instead of fixing our eyes on You, Jesus. Father, thank You for preparing a place for us. Thank you that Your word is true and heaven is more than we could ever imagine. We are amazed that You would choose us to be your own even after our sins. Thank you for Your forgiveness and the future we have with you in heaven. We pray that as we remember those we miss here on earth, we can have peace that those who trusted in You as Savior are happier than they have ever been and in the best place they have ever been with You. We praise You for making a way, opening the gates of heaven, and calling us Yours forever. Amen. Image created using DALL.E 2024 AI technology and subsequently edited and reviewed by our editorial team. Emma Danzey's mission in life stems from Ephesians 3:20-21, to embrace the extraordinary. One of her greatest joys is to journey with the Lord in His Scriptures. She is wife to Drew and mom to Graham. Emma serves alongside her husband in ministry, she focuses most of her time in the home, but loves to provide articles on the Bible, life questions, and Christian lifestyle. Her article on Interracial Marriage was the number 1 on Crosswalk in 2021. Most recently, Emma released Treasures for Tots, (Scripture memory songs) and multiple books and devotionals for young children. During her ministry career, Emma has released Wildflower: Blooming Through Singleness, two worship EP albums, founded and led Polished Conference Ministries, and ran the Refined Magazine. You can view her articles on her blog at emmadanzey.wordpress.com and check out her Instagram @Emmadanzey. Related Resource: Remember God’s Enduring Love for You in this Guided Meditation on Psalm 100! This guided Christian meditation from Psalm 100 will help you experience and praise God for his unending love for you. Become aware of God's presence with you, and praise God for his loyal and enduring love from the beginning of time and into the future. Listen to every episode of the So Much More Podcast on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode! Now that you’ve prayed, are you in need of someone to pray for YOU? Click the button below! Visit iBelieve.com for more inspiring prayer content. The post A Prayer to Long for Heaven – Your Daily Prayer – July 18 appeared first on GodUpdates.

These aren't Mike Portnoy's favourite albums - they're much more important than that