If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. In the US‚ House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is asking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration (CISA) to provide documents regarding its “partnering” with authorities in Pennsylvania to target speech related to elections. And while CISA bills itself as “America’s cyber defense agency” – critics see it rather differently‚ as one involved in offensive activities against freedom of speech. Now this “nerve center” has been informed that the Judiciary Committee’s oversight into the government’s collusion with companies has produced a subpoena and that Pennsylvania teaming up with DHS to combat “misinformation” is covered by it. According to the Pennsylvania State Department‚ CISA directly will be another partner of what the state’s Governor Josh Shapiro‚ a Democrat‚ recently said was an election task force that will “mitigate threats to the election process” using not only preventing voter intimidation but also “providing voters with accurate‚ trusted election information.” CISA’s role‚ according to the Pennsylvania State Department‚ is to facilitate “sharing intelligence” among different government agencies. What intelligence this might be‚ however‚ is not explained‚ the Federalist stressed. And now Jordan wants details about the “partnership” submitted to him by April 3. In his letter‚ Jordan reminded of the Committee’s work to find out in which ways and to what degree the government either colluded with companies or pressured them into censoring lawful speech. The letter also expresses fears that the announced “partnership” with what he said was “at least one” state‚ might further undermine online speech. We obtained a copy of the letter for you here. This concern comes in light of the upcoming presidential election‚ and what Jordan referred to as CISA’s suspected repeated collaboration with third parties (by flagging content for major tech companies to censor‚ as it has done in the past.) “We write to notify you that documents about such partnerships are responsive to the Committee’s April 28‚ 2023 subpoena‚” the letter reads. Some of the accusations leveled at CISA stem from documents released by the America First Legal (AFL)‚ which show CISA at the same time internally warned‚ back in the fall of 2020‚ about “the risks of unsupervised mail-in voting” – to then publicly flag posts on social media expressing the same sentiment as “disinformation.” Meanwhile‚ consulting company Deloitte was brought in to inform CISA about trends related to vote-by-mail discussion‚ and “flag specific social media posts for CISA’s awareness and attention.” The post House Judiciary Chairman Tells CISA To Hand Over Documents Related to Pennsylvania Election Speech Censorship appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The parent company of Truth Social‚ Trump Media &; Technology Group (TMTG)‚ is set go public on the stock market. Shareholders made an affirmative decision on Friday to transform TMTG into a public-trading company. TMTG is merging with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC)‚ Digital World Acquisition Corp. As a result of this merger‚ TMTG will go live on Nasdaq under the stock label “DJT‚” possibly as soon as the coming week. The merger allows the infusion of approximately $300 million into Truth Social. The platform prides itself as a haven of free speech and provides a sanctuary away from censorship pervasive on other large technology platforms. Devin Nunes‚ the CEO of TMTG who joined the company in 2021‚ is lending his leadership after nearly two decades of political service in Congress. The merger of TMTG with the SPAC‚ Digital World Acquisition Corp has finally been undertaken after prolonged delays due to controversial investigations by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. However‚ last month saw the SEC granting the merger approval. TMTG initially embarked on its journey back in 2021‚ with Trump introducing Truth Social in February 2022‚ one year after his banishment from major social media platforms‚ including Twitter‚ Facebook‚ and Instagram. The post Truth Social Parent Company To Go Public appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Pro-freedom Amazon competitor PublicSquare has hired Brian Billingsley in a leadership role to‚ as Billigsley put it in a post on X‚ “help build the payments infrastructure for the parallel economy” – also known as uncancelable payments. Previously‚ Billigsley co-founded a payments stacks company Basis Theory‚ and was CEO of the US branch of Klarna – a Swedish firm in the “buy now‚ pay later” short-term financing business. PublicSquare announced that he will now head the newly set up PSQ Payments Subsidiary. The marketplace‚ which describes itself as a choice of patriotic merchants and customers‚ aims to differentiate from Amazon with its focus on freedom. In particular‚ according to an earlier blog post‚ the company’s goal is to distinguish itself from the corporate mainstream industry and its progressive agenda and instead “promote the constitutional values this nation was founded on.” Now the new subsidiary headed by Billigsley will add building and scaling payments to the company’s portfolio‚ specifically the uncancelable kind – to be used by PublicSquare‚ but also third parties who support the parallel economy concept. PublicSquare CEO Michael Seifert welcomed Billigsley as a highly valuable addition‚ thanks to his experience‚ knowledge‚ and reputation‚ adding that the new payments system is another element necessary to create and own the infrastructure underpinning the parallel economy. “Combined with the power of our Credova subsidiary‚ PSQ Payments will position us to monetize our marketplace transactions further‚ provide what we expect to be a best-of-breed checkout experience‚ and protect our merchants and customers from cancellation‚” commented Seifert. In a blog post‚ Billigsley said that by joining PublicSquare‚ he is able to harmonize his passion for fintech with what he said is his moral compass. He remarked that the fintech sector has many companies that are following the “liberal and progressive” ideologies championed by tech firms in general. Billigsley mentions examples of organizers of events and meetings not allowing him to attend because he decided not to receive the Covid vaccine‚ as well as those hoping to participate being unable to register unless they agreed to use pronouns to identify themselves. PublicSquare says its primary mission is to help consumers “shop their values” and “put purpose behind their purchases.” Some high-profile supporters include Congressman Matt Gaetz‚ Donald Trump‚ Jr.‚ and Tucker Carlson. The post PublicSquare To Build “Uncancelable” Payments appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Candace Owens Out at the Daily Wire

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One of the great quests in astronomy is to find the first stars. These stars lived and died within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang‚ but for those in very distant parts of the universe‚ their light may only be reaching us now‚ having spent 14 billion years crossing the space between. At such a distance‚ it’s hard to spot a galaxy‚ let alone individual stars‚ yet many astronomers think we are getting close‚ thanks to the sheer size of some of these behemoths. So why did the early universe have stars so much bigger than any that exist today?Before we answer that‚ a little background and explanation of terms. There are some truly immense stars today if we are talking about size‚ rather than mass. Famously‚ if the center of Betelgeuse was where the Sun is‚ its outer limits would stretch almost to Jupiter‚ making its radius nearly 1‚000 times that of the Sun‚ and its volume close to a billion times bigger. Those figures are approximate‚ Betelgeuse’s constantly changing surface‚ which resembles a pot coming to the boil‚ is so hard to measure estimates vary by 30-40 percent‚ but there is no doubt it is very‚ very big.Moreover‚ Betelgeuse is just our local supergiant‚ famous because it is relatively close. There are substantially larger stars‚ such as VY Canis Majoris.However‚ while these stars have volumes far greater than the Sun‚ that is because they have puffed up as they run out of hydrogen near the ends of their lives. Mass is a more important measure of a star‚ and here the range is smaller. The most massive known stars in our galaxy contain around 125 solar masses. There are question marks over those estimates as well‚ since unless they have a companion star we can only measure mass rather indirectly. Nevertheless‚ there is generally considered to be a limit today between 100 and 200 solar masses.Very few stars reach this – in fact‚ most stars have masses considerably less than the Sun.So how is it that we are hunting “celestial monsters” thought to have 5‚000-10‚000 solar masses? Although not confirmed‚ a recent discovery of illuminated helium in the early universe makes most sense if it is being lit up by stars with masses 1‚000 times that of the Sun – five to 10 times what is possible today.The first stars (known as Population III) were formed entirely from hydrogen and helium along with a little lithium‚ lacking all the heavier elements that exist today‚ which are the products of previous stellar generations. These heavier elements‚ which astronomers call metals‚ usually make up a very small proportion of the stars’ starting mass‚ but it turns out those small impurities are very important.The Big Bang is thought to have left behind gas clouds containing 1‚000 solar masses or so at points where dark matter halos peaked. Atomic hydrogen is a very poor radiator of heat. When a gas cloud of pure hydrogen collapses it heats up as its gravitational potential energy turns to heat‚ eventually reaching the temperatures and pressures where fusion starts‚ creating a star. Not everyone agrees‚ but most astrophysicists think as long as the gas is a poor heat radiator‚ the entire cloud could condense into a single star‚ at least sometimes.When patches of gas like that occur in the modern universe‚ such as in star formation regions like the Orion Nebula‚ the gas is mostly hydrogen‚ but contains a mix of metals‚ some of which are much better at radiating heat. That extra radiation means that patches of gas fragment long before they become stars‚ preventing the products from getting too large.This doesn’t mean all the Population III stars were giants. One paper proposes the minimum was not far above 0.8 solar masses‚ thanks to the gas sometimes fragmenting into smaller pockets. That’s a lot larger than the current minimum size‚ where stars like Proxima Centauri‚ with 0.12 solar masses‚ are common. Nevertheless‚ it means most early stars were well within the range we are familiar with.Even so‚ it seems the saying “there were giants in those days”‚ while inaccurate for humanity’s prehistory‚ was true for stars. A small proportion of the early stars were truly enormous. Since stellar luminosity goes up‚ for main sequence stars‚ by more than the cube of the mass‚ we might expect a star 1‚000 times as massive as the sun to be more than a billion times as bright. In fact‚ this relationship breaks down for stars more than 55 times the mass of the Sun.Consequently‚ a 1‚000 solar masses star would outshine our Sun by more like 3 million times. That’s still more than enough for a tiny minority of the first stars to have an outsize impact on galaxy formation‚ and perhaps be visible over billions of light years.

A poonado of epic proportions may have saved some sperm whales from a fatal interaction with a pod of orcas off Western Australia’s southern coast. The highly scatological wildlife encounter was the first time this year that sperm whales had been seen in the area‚ and they put on a display nobody was expecting.The perilous event was witnessed by marine biologist Jennah Tucker on board a Naturaliste Charters trip with other whale watchers and photographers. They were observing a pod of orcas when the group started surging forward in a way that indicated they were pursuing something.The object of the hunt was a pod of sperm whales. One of the four was much smaller than the others‚ and the group appeared exhausted and distressed as they huddled closely. As predators in their own right‚ and big ones at that‚ it was thought at one time that sperm whales weren’t vulnerable to orca predation. However‚ orcas have since been spotted attacking sperm whales‚ seeming to favor females with young calves.    The sperm whales were thrashing their tails against the orcas' advances as the team looked on. Then‚ “a large dark bubble rose to the surface amongst the huddle‚ believed at the time to have been blood‚” explained Tucker in a blog post shared with IFLScience.That cloud was later confirmed to be whale poop based on the photos and videos that were captured during the dramatic encounter. An explosive defense mechanism that sperm whales are known for.“Sperm whales are known to defecate when threatened‚ referred to as emergency or defensive defection‚” explained Tucker. “The cloud of diarrhoea created when the whale waves its tail through its poo acts to deter predators and in this case‚ seemed to work! Given their faeces appear reddish in colour‚ due to their diet consisting of 90% squid‚ it’s no surprise it was easily mistaken for blood.”The whales were in distress‚ so they unleashed a poonado.Image courtesy of Naturaliste ChartersIt's no mean feat to pursue the ocean’s largest toothed predator into the shallows‚ and the orcas put up a good fight. Whatever dirty tactics they’re open to exploring‚ however‚ don’t seem to include getting a face full of feces.The orcas involved in the fray were actually sighted carrying some kind of mystery meat in their mouths‚ but it remains unclear if their hunt was successful. They may have been stealing chunks of giant squid from the sperm whales‚ something that’s been documented among these animals before. As for the events of this fateful first return for sperm whales? The only thing that we know went down with absolute certainty is a shit-ton of whale poop.

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a new trojan asteroid in the orbit of Mars. This new companion of the Red Planet precedes Mars in its orbit‚ but unlike other trojan asteroids‚ this one might be in an unstable orbit‚ which suggests intriguing possibilities about its past.Trojan asteroids are located in the same orbit as a planet and move together with it. There are five points around two gravitational bodies (in this case the Sun and a planet) where much smaller objects can be placed in such a way that they orbit just like the planet. They are known as Lagrangian points. One of them is on the opposite side of the orbit‚ one is between the planet and the Sun‚ and one is slightly behind the planet. Then there are two on the orbit‚ preceding at 60° (that’s L4)‚ and following also at 60° (that’s L5).Earth has only two known trojans but it is difficult to study them. Mars has 17‚ most of them in the following camp. In the preceding camp‚ there is only one other asteroid‚ 1999 UJ7‚ and researchers have considered that the newly confirmed object‚ 2023 FW14‚ might have some relationship to it."While the orbital evolution of the 16 previously known Trojans shows long-term stability‚ the orbit of the new one is not stable‚" led author Raul de la Fuente Marcos‚ from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid‚ said in a statement. "There are two possibilities for its origin: it could be a fragment of the Trojan 1999 UJ7‚ or it may have been captured from the population of asteroids close to the Earth which cross the orbit of Mars."The confirmation of the asteroid as belonging to the Martian trojan comes from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). The instrument was also used to collect the light spectrum of the object. The spectrum allows astronomers to study the composition of celestial objects at a distance. And in the case of 2023 FW14‚ it provides important insights into its origin."Although the spectrum of 2023 FW14 obtained with the GTC is somewhat different from that of the other L4 Trojan 1999 UJ7‚ both of them belong to the same composition group‚ they are asteroids of a primitive type‚ in contrast to the L5 Trojans‚ all of them rocky and rich in silicates‚" added Julia de León‚ an IAC researcher‚ and co-author of the article.The trojans at L5 appear to be all related to the largest body there‚ the asteroid Eureka‚ which is less than 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) across. The idea that objects at L4 might also share some similarities is not out of the realm of possibilities‚ but the team believes this to be a Mars-crossing asteroid temporarily captured as a trojan.Trojan asteroids were imagined in math before they were actually discovered. They were found as scientists attempted to solve the notorious three-body problem. And their existence provides valuable information about our understanding of celestial mechanics."Studying real Trojans rather than only those predicted mathematically allows us to test the reliability of our theoretical models‚" added de la Fuente Marcos.The study is published in the journal Astronomy &; Astrophysics.

Bramble sharks are incredibly camera-shy. Typically found lurking at the bottom of the seafloor‚ this elusive species is scarcely ever seen alive in its natural habitat. So‚ you can imagine the surprise when researchers from OceanX managed to stumble across an individual while exploring the deep waters off the coast of the United Arab Emirates‚ a pocket of the world where they’ve never been observed before. The footage (below) was captured in December 2023 by OceanX while cruising around the Gulf of Oman in a submersible vehicle at depths of around 850 meters (~2‚800 feet).“It was super cool. On that dive‚ we hadn't really seen much up until that point‚ so we were just exploring around and hoping to see something‚” Cassidy Nelson‚ a Junior Editor at OceanX who captured footage‚ told IFLScience. “When we saw it‚ we were actually eating lunch‚ so we were kind of caught off guard. It just emerged out of nowhere and then was hanging around us. It gave us a good amount of time to look at it‚ get some good shots‚ and talk to those who were in mission control‚” she added.                    Given their obscurity‚ little is known about bramble sharks. They have been spotted in deep waters across the world (except for the Western Pacific) but their true extent and scarcity are not fully understood. “It's all very mysterious. OceanX capturing footage of a live bramble shark in its natural habitat is extremely rare‚” added Jeriylah Kamau-Weng‚ Research Analyst at OceanX.Most knowledge about the species comes from specimens that have been accidentally caught by the trawl nets of commercial fishers‚ suggesting the little-known species is being impacted by human activity.“Most of the specimens that people have from around the world are either dead or dying. Usually‚ when you see deep-sea organisms near the shallow regions‚ it's usually because they're about to die or they have some kind of sickness‚” Kamau-Weng explained. “Based on the fact that they come up in trawl nets a lot‚ I believe that the main threat to their existence is bottom trawling and unsustainable fishing practices that have to do with the deep sea‚” she added. Another shot of the bramble shark cruising around the Gulf of Oman.Image courtesy of OceanXOceanX is keen to understand how climate change is affecting the planet’s deep-sea environments. The deep ocean absorbs vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere‚ providing a much-needed buffer to some global warming. However‚ evidence is emerging that even the deep sea is feeling the strain of warming temperatures. “In the face of climate change‚ this work is especially important because there's a thought called the 'deep sea refugia hypothesis'. Basically‚ as organisms start facing the pressures of climate change in the shallows‚ they start going towards the depths‚” Kamau-Weng told IFLScience.“It's especially important to not only discover and explore these regions‚ but also to record them so that we have enough data to provide to policymakers to enact the policies that will allow for conservation measures to protect these unique and fragile habitats‚” she concluded.