Congress passed laws; agencies enforced them

An image shared on X claims to show a Jan. 6 rioter with a federal badge. Why they hid the JAN 6th tapes ⁉️ ENLARGE THE CIRCLE ?‼️ pic.twitter.com/iotAC3fb3l — Luca 1 (@lucaforsure) June 25, 2024 Verdict: False The image likely shows the rioter with a vape, not a federal badge. Fact Check: Social media users are […]

Our presentation of The Who’s Best Song on Each Of Their Studio Albums looks at the studio album catalog of a band considered one of the greatest rock bands of all time. The Who released their first album in 1965, entitled My Generation. Since their debut, they have only released twelve studio albums in sixty years. What is even more interesting is that ten out of those twelve albums were released between 1965 and 1982. After the two Kenny Jones albums, the band rarely released new music, with only two new releases in forty years.  However, they have continued to The post The Who’s Best Song On Each Of Their Studio Albums appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. 104 Republicans and 198 Democrats voted to uphold a proposed budget increase for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the defense appropriations bill. Representative Andrew Clyde from Georgia proposed an amendment to freeze CISA’s funding at its 2024 level, which would reduce the budget by just over 2% to $2,379,485,00. During a forceful speech on the House floor, Clyde criticized the agency for misusing its resources to suppress dissenting opinions. The vote came just following the Supreme Court siding with the Biden administration’s partnership with tech giants to encourage the suppression of social media content, overturning the injunction by alleging that the case lacked standing. Congressman Clyde asserted that there was no justification for the agency’s enlarged financial scope to further police speech under the guise of security. Despite Clyde’s strong arguments, the amendment failed when 104 of his Republican peers joined Democrats in rejecting the budget cut. This legislative moment coincided with a pivotal Supreme Court ruling in Murthy v. Missouri, delivering a 6-3 decision that enabled continued governmental suppression of speech in collaboration with Silicon Valley, ahead of the 2024 electoral cycle. CISA has faced accusations of encouraging censorship, particularly from reports issued by the House Judiciary Committee. These reports claim that CISA, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, has expanded beyond its original mandate of protecting critical infrastructure into areas of censorship, particularly on social media platforms. According to these reports, CISA colluded with Big Tech companies and utilized third-party nonprofits to indirectly censor speech, which critics argue undermines First Amendment protections. Key findings from the reports include that CISA: Relocated its censorship operations to a CISA-funded nonprofit after facing legal challenges, implicitly acknowledging the unconstitutionality of these activities. Attempted to mask its involvement in censorship to avoid the appearance of propagating government propaganda. Developed a response strategy that involved labeling content as misinformation or disinformation, which has been criticized for potentially infringing on free speech rights. These allegations stem from broader scrutiny under the theme of government-induced censorship, where federal agencies are accused of using their power to suppress certain viewpoints or information on social media under the guise of combating misinformation. The investigation into these practices is ongoing, with more details emerging as documents are reviewed and more information comes to light.​ If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Bipartisan Vote Blocks CISA Budget Cut Despite Speech Censorship Concerns appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Sign Up To Keep Reading This post is for Reclaim The Net supporters. Gain access to the entire archive of features and supporters-only content. Help protect free speech, freedom from surveillance, and digital civil liberties. Join Already a supporter? Login here If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post A Private, Customizable, Personalized Alternative to Google News and Apple News appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If Joe Shouldn't Be the Candidate, He Should Leave Office Now

You’ve just arrived at your hotel room. Still got your passport? Check. Sun cream on? Check. Luggage in the bathtub? Sorry… what?It might sound strange but putting your suitcases in the bathtub when you go on holiday is actually a good idea. Why? Because nobody loves an extended stay in a hotel or hostel quite like parasites.If you wake up in the morning to find yourself pockmarked with the “breakfast, lunch, and dinner sign,” that’s a good indicator you’ve been nibbled by bedbugs. This sign is the result of the way bedbugs map the skin looking for the best feeding sites.Bedbugs are one of the world’s major pests that love to dine on the blood of humans, among other animals. The most common culprits in homes and hotels are Cimex lectularius and C. hemipterus, and once they get in, it can be incredibly difficult to kick them out.There are signs you can look for if you're worried about bedbugs.Image credit: Georgy Dzyura / Shutterstock.comBedbugs are famously elusive because they hide when they aren’t feeding. That means during the day there might be little sign of them, but at night they come creeping out in search of blood.Down the sides of couches and chairs, in drawer joints, and even inside electrical outlets are all common hiding places according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Bedbugs can even hide in furniture, so if you arrive at your hotel and plonk your suitcase straight on the bed or sofa, you may go home with the wrong kind of souvenirs.Bedbugs are the bedfellows of so many travelers because the nature of moving from one place to another, to stay in a bed that’s been slept in by so many, increases the chances of bedbugs making it into new environments. Even well-kept hotels can fall victim to an infestation as bedbugs aren’t drawn to dirt, only human blood bags. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to identify beds that you’d sooner not lie down in.When bedbugs enjoy their bloodmeal they often leave bloodspots on the sheets, and in severe infestations can even be seen trotting along the seams of a mattress. They have round, flat, russet-brown bodies, and you may spot their shed exoskeletons, brown poops, or smell a telltale sweet musty odor.Yes, bedbugs love beds. They love electrical outlets. Most of all they love your sweet, sweet blood, but you know what they’re not mad keen on? Bathtubs. Setting up camp in plug holes that are so frequently flooded wouldn’t be a recipe for survival for these bloodsucking parasites, so by placing your suitcase in the tub, you make it harder for them to become stowaways in your luggage.Just remember to take it out before you have a shower.

Folks on social media have noticed a strange quirk in the iPhone calendar: if you scroll to the year 1582, you’ll notice it jumps from October 4 to October 15, seemingly missing 10 days in the middle. This isn’t a bug or an Easter egg inserted by a bored programmer – those 10 days did not exist. The days weren’t erased from the passage of time using a cosmic cut-and-paste tool. Instead, people in 1582 went to bed on the 4th and woke up on the 15th (not that much of the world would have realized at the time). To understand why, we must go back to the 16th century when a major shift occurred in the way we organize days, weeks, months, and years.As IFLScience explained in 2023, the Catholic church adopted the Gregorian calendar in October 1582. Prior to this, most of Europe had used the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE. It’s very similar to the Gregorian calendar. Both are solar calendars with 12 months featuring 28 to 31 days each. They also total 365 days most years, with a leap day being added to February in certain years. The main difference is when the leap year occurs. The Julian calendar adds a day to the calendar every 4 years, while the Gregorian calendar does the same unless the year is divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400.Pope Gregory XIII: the man who erased 10 days from history.Image credit: Kizel Cotiw-an/Shutterstock.comIt sounds like a very small difference, but it was a big deal for the Catholic Church because it severely meddled with the timing of Easter. Since the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, it was stated that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox on March 21.However, as the centuries passed, the spring equinox drifted from this date. This effect accumulated by the 16th century when the spring equinox fell on March 11, upsetting the timing of Easter. To solve this crisis, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar. To realign the new calendar with the motions of the Sun, we had to lose the 10 days that had accumulated due to the flaw of the Julian calendar. October was picked as the month to lose 10 days as it didn’t clash with any major events in the Christian calendar. Following the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on October 4, the switch to the Gregorian calendar took place and the world skipped to October 15 instantly.It’s for this reason that most calendars skip from October 4 to October 15 in 1582 (if they go this far back).Obviously, 16th-century monks weren’t putting dates in their iPhone’s diary, but the calendars do go really far back. It’s not clear why they’re designed to do this, although it is always interesting to see whether your birthday fell on a weekend in the year 27 BCE. 

What makes a human human? Is it underpants? Whatever it is that sets us apart from the rest of the animal world, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment in history when we became fully human, and there are a few different candidate species that could have been the first.Planet Of The ApesHumans who study humans – also known as anthropologists – have figured out that our lineage diverged from that of chimpanzees around seven million years ago, although it took a long time after this split for the Homo genus (denoting true humans) to emerge. First, we spent a good few million years faffing around as ape-like hominids known as Australopithecines, with the most famous of these being Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old member of the species Australopithecus afarensis.Eventually, these primordial human-ish creatures started to develop larger brains and other morphological characteristics that more closely resemble our own. The oldest known example of such a specimen was unearthed in Ethiopia as recently as 2013 and is thought to have lived around 2.8 million years ago, with the discoverers proudly announcing their fossil as the earliest member of the Homo genus. Whether or not this unnamed species actually represents the oldest human is, however, a matter of great debate. For starters, the researchers only found half a jawbone, so there’s a lot we don’t know about how this animal’s morphology compares to our own. Then there’s the fact that humans are far more than just flesh and bone, with some scholars believing that the true mark of our genus can be found in behavioral traits like artistic expression and funerary practices. Based on the age of this specimen and its lingering similarities with Australopithecus, it’s highly unlikely that it was capable of symbolic representation, using fire, or any of the other advanced behaviors that define humans.It also didn’t wear underpants.The Dawn Of HumanityThe oldest named human species is Homo habilis, which first appeared in East Africa around 2.4 million years ago. Discovered in Tanzania in 1960, this ancient specimen ticks many of the boxes required to ditch the Australopithecus label, displaying an enlarged brain case and showing evidence of being a proficient tool-maker.However, not everyone is ready to accept this species – whose name literally means "Handy Man" – into the Hall of Humanity. For instance, there are those who point out that Homo habilis still bears a pretty strong resemblance to the ape-like Australopithecines, with its apparent lack of adaptation for long-distance walking receiving particular scrutiny.With question marks still lingering over both of the aforementioned species, the earliest undisputed human is Homo erectus, which emerged in Africa around two million years ago and later spread across much of Asia, reaching as far as China and Indonesia. The first species to display the characteristic physical proportions of modern humans, Homo erectus’s successful migrations are thought to qualify it as a member of our globetrotting genus.There’s also evidence that Homo erectus mastered the use of fire, cooked food, and developed more sophisticated tools than its predecessors. All of these traits combined have left anthropologists in no doubt that this was indeed a human species, although opinions remain split over whether or not it was the first.

After a month of excavating, archaeologists with Time Team, a long-running British archaeology TV show, have discovered missing pieces of a 6th-century Byzantine bucket at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. The fragments, along with other finds, reveal more about this site’s prehistoric past.Over 80 volunteers from across the world were taking part in the archaeological dig at Sutton Hoo over the last month. This site is famous across the world for its iconic Anglo-Saxon ship burial that was found under the soil in 1939. This discovery brought to light a burial chamber filled with valuable artifacts that belonged to a wealthy and significant figure who died in the early 7th century CE.This was a time before “England” as a unified entity existed. It was also extremely rare for ship burials to take place at this point, so it is likely the person there was of great significance. Some have even suggested it was King Raedwald, who ruled the kingdom of East Anglia at this time.Then, in 1986 (and then later in 2012), fragments of an ancient Byzantine bucket richly decorated with Greek inscriptions – known as the Bromeswell Bucket – were recovered in the same area, in a place called Garden Fields. The object was probably originally made in the eastern Mediterranean sometime in the 6th century, so it predates the ship burial by about a century.How it came to this part of the country is unknown, but archaeologists, conservators, and volunteers had hoped to find more of it during their recent excavations. And they were not disappointed.A piece of the Bromeswell Bucket discovered as part of the Time Team excavation at Sutton Hoo in June 2024.Image courtesy of David Brunetti, National Trust Images.Time Team used a range of advanced technology during the dig that was part of a new two-year research project that explored the early history of Sutton Hoo. They used a mix of geophysical surveys, including X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) which is a type of chemical and elemental analysis.  With this, the team was able to confirm that the newly discovered bucket fragments, as well as some already recovered and in storage, were indeed part of the Bromeswell Bucket.Ever since the bucket fragments were first discovered in the 1980s, researchers have spent painstaking hours cleaning, re-shaping, and then mounting them to show the item in its former glory.“Earlier geophysical surveys carried out by Time Team had identified some mysterious anomalies, which led us to the excavation of Garden Field,” Angus Wainwright, Regional Archaeologist for the National Trust, explained in a statement sent to IFLScience.“It’s hoped that this two-year research project will help us to learn more about the wider landscape at Sutton Hoo and the everyday lives of the people that lived there, perhaps even shedding some light on why the Royal Burial Ground was placed where it was. So, this find is a great step on that journey.”The Time Team excavation is part of a two-year research project that is seeking more information about the site's prehistoric history.Image courtesy of David Brunetti, National Trust Images.The examination of the fragments using Time Team's specialist technologies revealed that the bucket was previously damaged and then repaired. It is even possible that the metal was soldered back together again after that.This is just one discovery made during the month-long excavation. The rest will be revealed as part of a Time Team documentary on the excavation. Before then, the objects recovered from the dig will be sent for processing and cataloging before they return to Sutton Hoo.Time Team’s Series Producer and Creator, Tim Taylor, added that “[t]his year’s dig has been fantastic, and we’ve really been able to piece together part of a 40-year mystery and unearth a new chapter in the Sutton Hoo story.”