If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Another week, another controversy involving the conduct of Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. Grant’s job officially is to direct efforts against misinformation and other online harms – but her actions have earned her the pejorative “titles” of the country’s “chief censor” and “censorship czar.” The latest round of criticism aimed Grant’s way has to do with her role around last year’s failed Indigenous Voice referendum, when, according to newly unearthed documents (the result of the Institute of Public Affairs, IPA, FOIA requests) this official in fact contributed to spreading misinformation, rather than combating it – and making the dreaded “divisive debates” even worse. It appears Grant’s tactic to shore up the policy pushed by the “yes” camp ahead of the referendum was to make unfounded claims about the number of race-related complaints her office was likely to receive from Indigenous Australians, as well as the number of racially motivated online incidents. As the referendum, held in mid-October 2023, was approaching, Grant spoke for the Australian to, effectively, engage in fearmongering around the issue, when she said she expected this type of attack to rise ahead of the vote. Grant also claimed at the time that levels of online abuse targeting this part of the population were already “high.” However, the FOIA documents suggest that she was exaggerating the threat for political (and possibly funding) reasons. It has now been revealed that from January 2022 until October 2023, Grant’s office received a total of two complaints from Indigenous Australians that specifically had to do with the upcoming referendum. As it was approaching – from July to September last year – this number was 30 – or 0.4% percent of all complaints eSafety had received. And not in a single case related to the referendum did this content eventually warrant removal. All this begs the question of Grant’s intent while coming up with “dire warnings” apparently unsupported by any facts available to her. One result was that the government increased her agency’s budget to $42.5 million per year (from $10.3). And then there was simply “politically charged censorship,” as IPA Director of Law and Policy John Storey described it. Storey added: “The narrative Julie Inman Grant has sought to establish, that there was a wave of racist cyber abuse during the referendum, is not supported by her own office’s data.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Australia’s Chief Censor Accused of Exaggerating the Rise in Online Abuse and Engaging in “Politically Charged Censorship” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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The largest of the star clusters that surround the Milky Way, Omega Centauri, has a black hole at the core with a mass 20,000-50,000 times that of the Sun, new evidence reveals. At 18,000 light years away, this object is hardly close, and certainly no threat, but the discovery is important. Astronomers have long sought examples of black holes in this size range to verify models of the universe. The finding also confirms Omega Centauri’s status as the nucleus of a long-gone galaxy.Known black holes come in two size ranges. There are the remnants of exploded stars with masses less than 100 times that of the Sun, and the great beasts at the heart of galaxies. The lower bound for that latter appears to be around 100,000 solar masses, but most are in the millions or even billions of solar masses range.Astronomers have put great effort into seeking intermediate black holes, as their presence is needed for our models of how the giants got to their current size. A few likely suspects have been found, but most of the size gap remains. One of the most promising places to look is in dwarf galaxies, but the Magellanic Clouds have yielded no joy.Omega Centauri is usually described as the largest of the Milky Way’s surrounding globular clusters, but astronomers regard it as having a different history, being what remains of a former dwarf galaxy that got too close to the Milky Way. If, as is suspected its outer stars were stripped to form the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage components within the Milky Way, that would have frozen any black hole’s growth, leaving it intermediate-sized.By focusing on the previously marked box we can see Omega Centauri's beauty, and get closer to the black hole.Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle (MPIA)Omega Centauri also happens to be conveniently close to Earth, by extra-galactic standards, so the possibility of a central black hole has been explored extensively, but results have been debated.Dr Holger Baumgardt of the University of Queensland thinks that has changed, claiming a team he was part of found the smoking gun. The evidence lies in a handful of stars that are moving at speeds that should be almost impossible without an immense mass nearby. With nothing visible at that location, Baumgardt told IFLScience that a black hole of at least 20,000 solar masses is the only plausible possibility.The Gaia space telescope has revolutionized our capacity to track the movements of stars within the galaxy, including a few moving at extreme velocities. However, when looking at Omega Centauri, Baumgardt told IFLScience; “There are more than a million stars within a field of view. That’s a real problem for Gaia, the images are far too blurred.” Instead, Baumgardt’s colleagues turned to images taken by the Hubble Telescope over 20 years.“These images were originally produced to calibrate the Hubble’s instruments rather than for scientific use, but they turned out to be the ideal data set for our research and proved to be invaluable,” Baumgardt said in a statement.  Among Omega Centauri’s ten million stars, seven were found to moving at an angular velocity of at least 2.4 thousandths of an arcsecond per year, as seen from Earth, all close to the cluster’s heart. The angular motion is so tiny most telescopes would be unable to detect it, but at Omega Centuari’s distance it translates to 62 kilometers per second (38.5 miles per second). This would be well above escape velocity for a cluster of stars alone, but a plausible orbiting speed around a large, compact mass.A slower-moving star closer to us might be mistaken for a faster one further away, and occasionally stars do achieve very high speeds from close encounters with smaller black holes or supernovae. This can throw them out of the galaxy, or in this case galaxy remnant. However, Baumgardt and colleagues calculated we’d be lucky to see one star from either of these categories in the time Hubble has been looking; seven is not credible, particularly packed so close together.Close up of Omega Centauri where the stars get out of focus and the suspected black hole location can be seen.Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle (MPIA)No strong candidates for black holes have been found in other globular clusters around the Milky Way, emphasizing Omega Centauri’s unusual status. However, some strong suspects have been found in clusters that orbit the Andromeda Galaxy.Baumgardt told IFLScience that no sign of an accretion disk has been detected from this black hole, but he hopes the findings will stimulate a closer look.“I think this will invigorate the field and lead to a lot of new research in this area,” he said. “We can begin to speculate how this black hole formed, how it’s related to other massive black holes astronomers have found, and where other intermediate-mass black holes might exist. It’s a thrilling time to be an astronomer and we’re excited to see where our discovery will lead.”The study is published in the journal Nature.

After freaking out on Monday over President Joe Biden’s debate performance, CBS’s Stephen Colbert was more optimistic on Tuesday’s edition of The Late Show. Colbert urged viewers to look across the pond to France because “if the French can unite to defeat fascisms, Americans can do it, too.” It was not only a vicious attack on Republicans, it was a wild distortion of what happened in France’s recent election. Colbert began, “Now, if you’re feeling down about this election, don’t despair, there's hope from one of America's oldest allies, France. Because, two weeks ago, France's ultra-right-wing xenophobic party, the National Rally, seemed poised to take over their parliament. But this weekend, in a huge voter turnout, the French people rejected the far-right.”     Two things need to be said about that. First, there's more to the National Rally than immigration. “The far-right” wanted to spend like the drunken socialists that ended up winning and leader Marine Le Pen recently flip-flopped her position on abortion and is now in favor of it.    France was going to choose between debt, more debt and way more debt. Way more debt it is. Fascinating. Deficit and debt projections via Bloomberg. pic.twitter.com/jmiU7IdKhg — Daniel Lacalle (@dlacalle_IA) July 7, 2024   Second, the French center partnered with the left in order to deny Le Pen a victory. The American left has criticized Le Pen for being pro-Russian, but the far-left French leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has defended Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea, repeated Russian lies about Ukraine being run by neo-Nazis, and called for France to exit NATO. He’s also an anti-Semitic loon bag, declaring Jews to be “an arrogant minority that lectures to the rest.” Melenchon is also a big fan of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Finally, he threatened to quit the E.U. if he were to win the presidency because it isn't socialist enough. Clearly, extremism won in France, just the left-wing variety. Nevertheless, the ignorant Colbert continued, portraying Republicans as the fascists, “So, don't worry about who's at the top of the Democratic ticket. If the French can unite to defeat fascisms, Americans can do it, too. Just like more than two centuries ago, we both had revolutions to throw off monarchies. Theirs was inspiring, but ours was better, because in ours, Jefferson and Hamilton rapped.” Also, because Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and Hamilton stormed enemy redoubts with the help of the French king’s army. The French Revolution, meanwhile, went on a beheading spree and tried to reinvent the calendar because the normal one is just too religious. Here is a transcript for the July 9 show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 7/9/2024 11:45 PM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: Now, if you’re feeling down about this election, don’t despair, there's hope from one of America's oldest allies, France. Because, two weeks ago, France's ultra right-wing xenophobic party, the National Rally, seemed poised to take over their parliament. But this weekend, in a huge voter turnout, the French people rejected the far-right. Mais oui! Mais oui, monsieur! Vive la France! Vive la France! Liberté! Egalité! Cheese soufflé!  Not only did the National Rally not win, National Rally ended up in the third spot. And you never, you never want to end up in the third spot of a French three-way. By the time you get in there, no one's got the energy to butter your baguette. And I don't know what that means. So, don't worry about who's at the top of the Democratic ticket. If the French can unite to defeat fascisms, Americans can do it, too. Just like more than two centuries ago, we both had revolutions to throw off monarchies. Theirs was inspiring, but ours was better, because in ours, Jefferson and Hamilton rapped.

The Heritage Foundation’s attention-getting Project 2025 initiative, which so far has been more fear-mongered about than actually described, includes a blueprint of limited-government policy proposals for limited government, the 900-page “2025 Mandate for Leadership.” Among those proposals for the next president to peruse is a call to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds the liberal forums PBS (the Public Broadcasting "Service") and National Public Radio on the taxpayer’s nickel. Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and member of the Free Speech Alliance led by the Media Research Center, laid out the case for denying federal money to those liberal outlets and provided historical context for defunding, noting that “Every Republican President since Richard Nixon has tried to strip the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) of taxpayer funding.” And, has failed. Gonzalez argued “the government should not be compelling the conservative half of the country to pay for the suppression of its own views,” and noted that “PBS and NPR do not even bother to run programming that would attract conservatives. And those conservatives are tuning out the programming they are obliged to support through their taxes. He cited a 2014 Pew Research poll showing that 60 percent of PBS’s audience identifies itself as either “mostly liberal” or “consistently liberal.” That’s compared to 15 percent “mostly conservative” or “consistently conservative.” NPR’s audience stood even further left according to Pew, with 67 percent identifying as liberal compared with just 12 percent conservative. The author cracked, “That may be an acceptable business model for MSNBC or CNN, but not for a taxpayer-subsidized broadcaster.” Gonzalez offered suggestions on how the next president could take the lead in stopping the federal spigot of money flowing to biased public television and radio. Defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting wouldn’t be the end of NPR or PBS, given that “The membership model that the CPB uses, along with the funding from corporations and foundations that it also receives, would allow these broadcasters to continue to thrive….shorn of the presumption that they act in the public interest.” Defunding would also strip National Public Radio (and other, even further-left publicly funded entities like Pacifica Radio) of the advantage of being an official “noncommercial educational” (NCE) radio station, such as better placement on the radio dial and exemption from licensing fees.

Once a bachelor hoping to steal Kaitlyn Bristowe’s heart on the beloved reality show “The Bachelorette,” Josh Seiter is now a trans activist who claims to be a woman. Alex Stein of “Prime Time with Alex Stein” sat down for an outrageous interview with the macho man turned trans woman, in which he learned a little too much. Of all the information gained from this encounter, he also found out that Seiter believes he should be able to compete in women’s weightlifting. “Are you going to try to join any biological female sports leagues? Because I think that you are physically fit. You go to the gym. I think you could probably make the WNBA,” Stein says. “Basketball is not my forte,” Seiter admits. “I have always been an avid weightlifter as you’ve mentioned before and as I’ve mentioned before, so I do plan on entering some powerlifting competitions.” Seiter also believes the rules that come along with joining a women’s sports team as a biological male are “draconian.” “I would have to comport to specific bylaws concerning how long I’ve been on hormone therapy, but typically after 12 months, if you’ve been on hormone therapy, you can compete as a woman if you identify as one and you are transitioning,” he explains. “So I would enter some powerlifting competitions. You know, my bench press is pretty good, so I think I’ll do pretty good there,” Seiter adds with a smile. “Do you think you have an unfair advantage though at all?” Stein asks, clearly concerned. “Like Lia Thomas or anyone else, I’m just playing by the rules,” Seiter responds, adding, “I would compete in the women’s category because I’m a woman, and trans women are women.”Want more from Alex Stein?To enjoy more of Alex's culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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