‘Occupied Gaza’ Prior to Oct. 7‚ there were roughly 2 million Arab citizens of Israel but no Jewish citizens in the Gaza Strip. Gazans in 2006 voted in Hamas to rule them. It summarily executed its Palestinian Authority rivals. Hamas canceled all future scheduled elections. It established a dictatorship and diverted hundreds of billions of dollars in international aid to build a vast underground labyrinth of military installations. ‘Collateral Damage’ Hamas began the Israel-Hamas war by deliberately targeting civilians. It massacred them on Oct. 7 when it invaded Israel during a time of peace and holidays. It sent more than 7‚000 rockets into Israeli cities for the sole purpose of killing noncombatants. Hamas has no vocabulary for the collateral damage of Israeli civilians‚ since it believes any Jewish death under any circumstances is cause for celebration.Hamas places its terrorist centers beneath and inside hospitals‚ schools‚ and mosques. Why? Israel is assumed to have more reservations about collaterally hitting Gaza civilians than Hamas does about exposing them as human shields. ‘Disproportionate’ We are told that Israel wrongly uses disproportionate force to retaliate in Gaza. But it does so because no nation can win a war without disproportionate violence that hurts the enemy more than it is hurt by the enemy.The U.S. incinerated German and Japanese cities with disproportionate force to end a war both Axis powers started. In Iraq‚ the American military nearly leveled Fallujah and Mosul by disproportional force to root out Islamic gunmen hiding among innocents. Hamas has objections to disproportionate violence—but only when it is achieved by Israel and not Hamas. ‘Two-State Solution’ Prior to Oct. 7‚ there was a de facto three-state solution‚ given that Israel‚ the West Bank‚ and Gaza were all separate states ruled by their own governments‚ two of which were illegitimate without scheduled elections. It was not Israel but the people of Gaza and the West Bank who institutionalized the “from river to the sea” agenda of destroying its neighbor. Israel would have been content to live next to an autonomous Arab Gaza and West Bank that did not seek to destroy Israel in multigenerational efforts to form its own “one-state solution.” ‘Cease-Fire’ The so-called international community is demanding Israel agree to a “cease-fire.” But there was already a cease-fire prior to Oct. 7. Hamas broke it by massacring 1‚200 Jews and taking over 250 hostages. Hamas violated that peace because it thought it could gain leverage over Israel by murdering Jews. Hamas now demands another cease-fire because it thinks it is no longer able to murder more unarmed Jews. Instead‚ it now fears that Israel will destroy Hamas in the way Hamas sought but failed to destroy Israel. Did Hamas call for a cease-fire after the first 500 Jews it massacred on Oct. 7? ‘Ramadan’ President Joe Biden believes that the Muslim religious holiday of Ramadan requires Israel to agree to a cease-fire. But did either Hamas or any other Arab military ever respect Jewish—or even its own—religious holidays?The Oct. 7 massacre was timed to catch Israelis unaware while they celebrated the Jewish religious holidays of Simchat Torah‚ Shemini Torah‚ and Shemini Atzeret on Shabbat. Moreover‚ Hamas’ surprise attack was deliberately timed to commemorate the earlier sneak Arab attack on Israel some 50 years earlier. On Oct. 6‚ 1973‚ the Israelis were the target of a surprise attack when celebrating the religious holiday of Yom Kippur. Arab armies also assumed they would achieve greater surprise when attacking during their own religious holiday of Ramadan. So‚ Arab militaries fight opportunistically during Jewish holidays and their own Islamic holidays. Egyptians and Syrians still boast of their 1973 surprise attack on Israel as the Ramadan War. Only Westerners‚ not Arabs‚ believe there should be no war during Ramadan. ‘Civilian Casualties’ Israel risks the lives of its soldiers to prevent civilian deaths. Hamas risks the lives of its civilians to prevent terrorists’ deaths. Israel considers it a failure‚ but Hamas considers it globally advantageous‚ when more civilians die than its soldiers. ‘Foreign Aid’ The Biden administration threatens to cut off or slow-walk aid to Israel if it continues to retaliate against Hamas‚ even though Hamas started the war. So the administration promises to give more aid to Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres than it gave to Gaza before Hamas’ attack. ‘Prisoners’ The international community that favors Hamas nevertheless knows it would be safer to be a prisoner of Israel than of Hamas. It knows women are not going to be raped in custody by Israelis‚ but are by Hamas. And the unarmed are more likely to be mutilated and decapitated by Hamas than Israelis. Is the international community more likely to charge Israel than Hamas for war crimes because the Jewish state seeks to avoid civilian deaths that Hamas finds useful? (C) 2024 Tribune Content Agency LLC The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.  The post Gaza: Truths Behind All the Lies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. “First” there were apps like Telegram and Signal‚ springing up to address people’s fear that their private communications taking place online are being randomly and unlawfully accessed and spied on by governments. This was something that went from niche to mainstream‚ mostly thanks to the Snowden revelations. But over time‚ these chat apps themselves revealed a number of “imperfections” – leaving privacy enthusiasts wanting for more‚ and better. There has been no shortage of attempts to perfect the existing apps relying on encryption – but also people’s phone numbers‚ etc. And for the last couple of years there has been one called SimpleX Chat‚ that just rolled out a new version. The app is end-to-end encrypted‚ open source‚ but also refrains from using any type of user ID (such as phone numbers‚ usernames‚ or even‚ apparently‚ random numbers in this context). While full (E2E) encryption is generally treated as the best we can get these days‚ security and privacy-wise – day after day‚ information emerges about a flurry of ways either governments or private tech giants trying (via regulation) or by straight-up developing what would otherwise be considered hacker tools – to break those protections. Now‚ SimpleX Chat introduces a beta (in free source “release canon” – that’s one step above initial alpha testing‚ one below RC – release candidate) version of “quantum resistant encryption.” But what exactly would that be? Its developers say that “post-quantum cryptography” has been their interest for the last two years‚ that is‚ since the app’s initial release‚ but that they essentially held back on implementing it before there was some standardization. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)‚ however‚ failed to deliver on that front for multiple reasons‚ says a blog post‚ and now SimpleX‚ in the best tradition of free and open source‚ is trying to solve its own problem‚ instead of waiting for somebody else to write that code for them. SimpleX apparently took some pointers from Signal and Tuta encryption schemes‚ to now come up with what it believes is the better version of “the design of quantum resistant double ratchet algorithm.” The explanation of what that is plays off of the Signal protocol – to state that SimpleX developers “could make break-in recovery property of Signal algorithm quantum-resistant” – and‚ “why‚ probably‚ Signal didn’t‚ is because irrespective of the message size SimpleX Chat uses a fixed block size of 16kb to provide security and privacy against any traffic observers and against messaging relays.” And – “In case the message is larger than the remaining block size‚ e.g. when the message contains image or link preview‚ or a large text‚ we used zstd compression (lossless data compression algorithm) to provide additional space for the required keys without reducing image preview quality or creating additional traffic.” This feature is currently opt-in. The post Simplex Chat Launches Quantum-Resistant Encryption in Beta appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Ireland’s government is using every opportunity to charge ahead with promoting facial recognition tech‚ despite civil liberties groups expressing serious concerns and asking some hard questions about the policy. But the current Irish authorities don’t seem to be missing a beat making‚ however tenuous or even distasteful‚ links to push that policy. Thanks to those in power there‚ Ireland’s long-lasting troubles keep casting ever longer shadows‚ some with brand-new‚ current overtones. Namely‚ there is now controversy in the country‚ or at least among its most prominent media and politicians‚ over Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Pearse McAuley being laid to rest with his coffin draped in the nation’s flag‚ despite the fact he was found guilty of killing a police officer. Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee saw this situation as a good opportunity to try to promote the agenda of using even more facial recognition. What better time to say this is needed to “investigate attacks against gardai” – McEntee no doubt thought. The McAuley funeral “controversy” sort of spiraled out of control‚ at least as far as the “political panic” and messaging is concerned‚ reaching‚ figuratively and literally‚ some far-off places. It went everywhere from Mcentee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris attending an event and making comments ranging from condemning the funeral arrangements for the former IRA to advocating for the police force to grow beyond what has been envisaged so far‚ to citing an extradition cooperation with the United Arab Emirates – to‚ more facial recognition. The “tie” that binds together all these policy talking points heaped into one place seems to be – this is as good a chance as any to promote something otherwise very controversial. “McEntee announced that the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in investigating crimes was being expanded to include attacks against Garda members‚” the Irish press said. This‚ even though the Irish police clearly had no problem identifying McAuley as killing an officer – even though there was no mention that facial recognition played any role in this process back 20+ years ago. The post Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee Says “The Time for Facial Recognition Technology Has Come” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. As swiftly as the pandemic – and more importantly‚ associated radical restrictive measures concerning people’s everyday lives – descended onto the world‚ it all seemingly quickly vanished into thin air. But the consequences‚ particularly related to the stifling of speech‚ live on in a number of legal battles being fought now to prove that both government(s) and social media were wrong to introduce mass censorship because of alleged Covid misinformation. In the US‚ this is happening specifically on the grounds that the First Amendment protections got breached in the process. Now the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) has gotten involved in one of these cases by asking the Supreme Court to make a decision in the Changizi‚ Senger‚ and Kotzin v. HHS (United States Department of Health and Human Services) lawsuit. We obtained a copy of the petition for you here. The plaintiffs here claim that their First Amendment rights were violated by the HHS and the US surgeon general – government agencies – going to then Twitter‚ a private tech company‚ with the “request” to have their voices silenced for opposing government’s Covid mandates of the era. Before it reached the Supreme Court‚ the case got into something of a “legal limbo” NCLA believes‚ saying there was effectively a split decision between “the Fifth and Sixth Circuits on what plaintiffs must show to satisfy Article III standing in censorship cases against the government.” (The “split” here refers to the Fifth Circuit’s preliminary injunction in Murthy v. Missouri.) Meanwhile‚ the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs had no leg to stand on in Changizi v. HHS‚ trying to fight government-imposed censorship they experienced on social media – and dismissed their claims. However‚ the criticism of the Covid mandates the three have expressed online is said by their defenders to have been “reasoned” – in other words‚ not some sensationalist fringe theory. But that made no deference since the Big Tech’s all-powerful social media still “deplatformed” them. Now‚ in light of the discovery process in a major‚ related in context‚ case deliberated by the Supreme Court – Murthy v. Missouri‚ NCLA believes that there is reason to review Cingazi et al v. HHS as well‚ specifically‚ to ascertain if the district court (later supported by the Sixth Circuit) was right to dismiss the case without allowing discovery. And what NCLA has been presenting to the Supreme Court in the Murthy v. Missouri case is that “the government browbeat social media companies into censoring Covid-19 views of which the government did not approve.” The post Supreme Court Is Asked To Resolve Split Decision in Social Media Censorship Lawsuit appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Technology developed by a company called NEC has been utilized to introduce biometric ticketing on the opening day of the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) season. This pilot was undertaken at four designated baseball parks‚ including Minute Maid Park in Houston‚ where it was revealed that around 6‚000 eager baseball fans favored convenience and used the touchless technology for entry to the stadium. Nationals Park in Washington incorporated the biometric tech through MLB’s Go-Ahead Entry system into their opening day proceedings. Using the MLB Ballpark app for touchless access‚ ballpark attendees could breeze through dedicated entrances using face biometrics enrolled via a selfie. Notably‚ Nationals Park has four such specialized lanes providing quick and easy access to fans who use the new system. The Phillies are also implementing the system across the entire stadium following a trial run at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia. The year prior saw the introduction of facial recognition technology for game admission in New York for the Mets games and in Cleveland for Guardians games. The ongoing deployment of the biometric ticketing program is managed by the league‚ rather than individual teams. The introduction of biometric ticketing in MLB stadiums raises significant privacy concerns. Firstly‚ the use of biometrics‚ particularly facial recognition‚ for accessing events like baseball games is a step towards normalizing invasive surveillance techniques in everyday life. Unlike traditional ticketing methods‚ biometric data is inherently personal and sensitive. Facial recognition technology works by collecting and analyzing unique facial features to create a digital signature. This process involves the collection and storage of highly personal data‚ which could be vulnerable to breaches or misuse. If such data falls into the wrong hands‚ it could lead to identity theft‚ unauthorized tracking‚ or other forms of exploitation. The post Major League Baseball Begins Biometric Facial Recognition Scans appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

A stray cat moved out from under a porch and in with kind people. The next morning‚ they woke up to kittens in the office. Cleo the cat and her kittensWilmaCleo‚ a young stray cat‚ was alone and wary when she first sought shelter under the porch of a home. The resident noticed her one day and began providing food and slowly befriended her."About a month ago‚ they suspected she was pregnant and contacted Eliannie Animal Rescue to get her into foster care. Cleo was tame enough at that point that she'd go into their house for brief amounts of time‚" Wilma‚ a foster volunteer of the rescue‚ shared with Love meow.They secured the cat into a crate and brought her to Wilma on a Friday afternoon. Cleo was nervous but quickly eased into being petted. CleoWilmaCleo seemed pleased with her new space‚ a quiet‚ comfortable room with boundless food and all the amenities. "I could feel babies in her belly but didn't think she was giving birth imminently."That night‚ Wilma went to bed after checking on Cleo‚ having little idea what was about to unfold the next day. She was a young cat when she was rescued as a strayWilma"I woke up on Saturday morning and heard kittens crying in my office."Cleo had given birth to two kittens on the base of a cat tree. Wilma raced to set up a nest and helped the mama move her babies in. She stayed with Cleo‚ offering support and encouraging words‚ until the last kitten was born. The day after arriving in foster care‚ Cleo gave birth to her kittensWilma"By the time she was finished‚ she trusted me. She has no problem with me handling her babies and seems to know she's in a safe place."Despite their best efforts‚ one of the four kittens didn't survive. The remaining three (Leila‚ Dalila‚ and Ramses) had good appetites and started to grow and thrive. Wilma"Cleo is a wonderful and attentive mom to her babies‚ going to them at the first squeak. The first 48 hours‚ she only left them to eat and use the litter box."A few days later‚ there was another twist. While Cleo was tending to her babies‚ the sound of a new kitten caught her attention. She is a loving and attentive motherWilmaA tiny tabby had been found in a yard without a mother to look after him. When Cleo saw the orphaned baby in her nest‚ she took him in and started caring for him. "We decided to see if Cleo would adopt him‚ and she did. She groomed him and allowed him to nurse.""We lose one‚ we gain one. The universe is keeping the balance." Cleo adopted an orphaned baby who needed a momWilmaThe little tabby named Moshe is half the size of his new siblings‚ but he is scrappy‚ strong-willed‚ and has a big voice."I believe he was only born a few days ago. He fights off the bigger kids with the best of them. Who can blame him after what he's endured in his short life already?" Moshe the new kitten is half the size of the othersWilmaCleo showers her four little munchkins with unconditional love and watches over them every step of the way. "I'm so grateful this family is inside with care." WilmaAfter raising her last litter‚ Cleo‚ who is only nine months old‚ will be able to enjoy being a kitten again‚ do what she loves with the family of her dreams‚ and live the good life she deserves. WilmaShare this story with your friends. More on Cleo and her kittens and Wilma's fosters on Instagram and Eliannie Animal Rescue on Instagram.Related story: Kitten Running Away from Rescuers for 20 Days Finally Moves Indoors‚ within 24 Hours‚ Everything Changes

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Welcome to the wonderful world of thunder eggs. They might look plain from the outside‚ but can be cut and polished to reveal a whole range of colors and crystals within‚ and are popular with the rock collecting community. Thunder eggs‚ also known as lithophysae‚ are spherical objects formed in silica-rich volcanic rock‚ often a rock called rhyolite. The name “thunder egg” is said to originate from Native American folklore that says these rounded rocks were the eggs of the mythical thunderbirds that created thunder and lightning during storms‚ hence the name. Other legends suggest that thunder eggs were thrown during thunderstorms by warring “thunder spirits" who lived on Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood.              All thunder eggs start life as volcanic lava. As this lava cools‚ material is trapped around gas bubbles. Over time‚ these gas bubbles crack and allow the gas to escape‚ leaving behind a hollow cavity. Silica and other minerals including feldspar from volcanic ash can be deposited in this cavity‚ hardening to deposit near solid cores of chalcedony or agate or quartz crystals which form the core of a thunder egg. The minerals often grow outwards from the center of the cavity‚ forming radiating structures called spherulites.The hollow cavity is filled with crystal structures or layers.Image Credit: Wirestock Creators/ShutterstockSome thunder eggs can be identified based on their crystal composition and the naturally occurring minerals in the area. For instance‚ the Del Norte Area in Colorado is known for thunder eggs containing plume and moss agate. There is some confusion surrounding the difference between geodes and thunder eggs. While some suggest geodes are any rock with a void inside and thunder eggs are solid‚ some suggest that thunder eggs are different because they were formed only by lava flow while geodes can be formed in many different ways.  Thunder eggs can be found all over the world. The most common place to find thunder eggs in the USA is Oregon‚ where thunder eggs have been the state rock since 1965. All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text‚ images‚ and links may be edited‚ removed‚ or added to at a later date to keep information current.