A video shared on X claims to show an Israeli bombing of Al-Shifa hospital. Israel is bombing Al-Shifa hospital again. Remember how they lied about there being a “Hamas command and control” centre underneath it? Remember when they lied about not being the ones that bombed the Baptist hospital? We will never forget. pic.twitter.com/TkJUV5DlKj — Apex Artistan […]

Our top 10 Slash songs list showcases the remarkable solo career of one of rock and roll’s most esteemed lead guitarists. Born in 1965‚ Slash has made a name for himself with his deeply expressive guitar solos and iconic stage presence‚ often recognized by his trademark top hat. He rose to fame as a pivotal member of the legendary hard rock band Guns N’ Roses‚ stepping in after the departure of the original lead guitarist‚ Tracii Guns‚ known for his work with bands like L.A. Guns‚ Contraband‚ and Brides of Destruction. Slash’s time with Guns N’ Roses came to an The post Top 10 Slash Songs appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Bumblebees can teach others new behaviors too complex for them to learn alone‚ suggests a paper published in Nature that essentially posits humans and bees share knowledge in exactly the same way. In the study‚ a bee taught to solve a puzzle for a sugary reward was able to train other bees to complete the […] The post Bumblebees Share Knowledge Like Humans and Chimpanzees‚ Suggesting the Hive Mind Is More Personal appeared first on Good News Network.

The post How Cats Respond to Music: Does Olga Have a Favorite Tune? by Christopher Bays appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it‚ but all of these articles were assigned‚ contracted and paid for‚ so they aren't considered public domain. However‚ we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article‚ then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com. Hi‚ I’m Christopher! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my silly Russian Blue cat‚ Olga. Some musicians produce songs and videos for cats‚ but do the cats appreciate them or secretly wish their owners would stop subjecting them to the noise? Pet owners probably hope their cats have similar tastes in music‚ but unless they can manipulate the stereo or phone controls‚ their cats don’t have a choice. Our music is also our cat’s; a polka fan’s pet listens to polka music‚ and a DJ’s feline is subjected to dance music and probably hard of hearing. Your tastes change as you mature‚ and I’m glad my cat wasn’t around when I was an eighth grader who blasted Bad Brains or the Dead Kennedys at full volume in my room. If you examine studies or articles about which genres of music annoy cats‚ you’ll notice that heavy metal is more despised by cats than the others. It’s disappointing for heavy metal fans‚ but it’s likely due to the music’s volume rather than composition. Most metal songs aren’t played at a low volume‚ and my mom never said‚ “Will you turn that up‚ son? You’re not playing Iron Maiden loud enough! I think I’m in the mood for Otis Redding today. Music She’s Unlikely to Hear I don’t think Olga has a favorite song or genre of music‚ and like most cats‚ I don’t think she cares about the music as long as it isn’t too loud. However‚ she hasn’t heard EDM‚ modern country music‚ or today’s pop music unless it came from the television. Since I don’t allow guests to play songs I despise‚ Olga’s exposure to some genres is limited. I haven’t experimented on her and don’t plan to since I would have to endure songs I dislike. Olga has listened to classic rock‚ jazz‚ blues‚ classical‚ heavy metal‚ punk (or new wave?)‚ and accordion tunes from Hungary‚ and it all sounds the same to her. Although she looked surprised the first time the MGM lion roared before a film‚ she isn’t very interested in wildlife programs‚ even the ones on birds. Please dim the lights. It’s naptime. Keeping the Volume Low Cats have sensitive hearing‚ but I didn’t consider that when I was younger and held parties with loud music. My Siamese cat usually hid in my room to escape the music‚ and Olga would probably do the same if I turned the volume to the max on my stereo. I’ll always play music at home‚ but I don’t play it loud enough to rattle the walls or damage the cat’s hearing. I know cat owners my age who haven’t lost their love for blasting their music‚ and some think it’s amusing when their cats run to escape the noise. If they hide in another room away from the speakers‚ their hearing is probably safe‚ depending on the decibel level. Olga only runs and hides when she hears fireworks and doesn’t react much to sounds from the television or stereo. She may like my music more than the silence‚ but until she objects to it‚ I’ll continue to entertain her with good tunes. The post How Cats Respond to Music: Does Olga Have a Favorite Tune? by Christopher Bays appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it‚ but all of these articles were assigned‚ contracted and paid for‚ so they aren't considered public domain. However‚ we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article‚ then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Book Recommendations SFF Bestiary When Bigfoot Finds You: Molly Gloss’ Wild Life Wild Life takes us deeper into the world of the Sasquatch than any of the Bigfoot-hunting documentaries… By Judith Tarr | Published on March 25‚ 2024 icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed Really good fiction can build a world so solidly that it seems more real than consensual reality. Molly Gloss is that good. Wild Life takes us deeper into the world of the Sasquatch than any of the Bigfoot-hunting documentaries—and tells us at least as much about the cryptids. Because she’s writing a novel‚ Gloss can go where Bigfooters can’t—though they dearly wish they could. Her story is a slow burn; it takes its time getting started. But that’s part of its spell. It’s shaping a universe and populating it with meticulously drawn characters. There’s something I call “period sense‚” which is the ability of a historical novelist to recreate a time and a place so credibly and so completely that even an expert in the period can concede that they got it right. It’s a rare skill. To step outside of the writer’s own period and world view. To evoke the past as it demonstrably was‚ in primary sources. To write characters who think and speak and act as they would then‚ and not as contemporary characters in period dress. Gloss has period sense. She sets her novel in the early twentieth century‚ in the rough‚ raw logging towns of the Pacific Northwest. They’re real towns‚ with real history; she takes us deep inside them‚ and out into the wilderness beyond‚ which is a real wilderness‚ with places that we can find on a map of our own world. She tells her story in layers. First‚ in the prologue‚ a modern descendant discovers an ancestor’s journal. Then we read the journal itself‚ interspersed with snippets from the author’s fiction‚ and quotations from various primary and secondary sources. Charlotte or Charlie Drummond is a single mother of five boys‚ who lives on a farm outside the town of Yacolt in Washington. She has a housekeeper with family drama of her own‚ and neighbors who help her manage it all. She makes a living writing potboilers‚ bits of which she includes in the journal. Buy the Book Wild Life Molly Gloss Buy Book icon-close Wild Life Molly Gloss Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Charlotte is an unconventional woman. She wears trousers for practicality‚ and she’s an outspoken feminist. But she’s not simply a mouthpiece for the woman of 1999‚ when the novel was written. In her world‚ it’s 1905. Women have been rising up and demanding the vote‚ and speaking out for gender equality. Women’s roles are changing. Charlotte is an outlier‚ but she’s not an anachronism. She lives in liminal spaces‚ as a woman and as a colonizer. Her land is‚ ultimately‚ stolen land‚ taken from the Native peoples‚ and it’s been clear-cut by the rampant greed of the timber companies. The great American wilderness is all but gone‚ the forest primeval hewn down and plowed under by the white man’s progress. Charlotte writes adventure stories in which intrepid heroines foray boldly into the far corners of the world. Her own life teeters between the obligations of motherhood and the writer’s need for solitude. There’s no husband in the picture—he’s gone and presumed dead—and she’s distinctly lukewarm toward the neighbor who would like to become husband number two. All of this is prologue and setup. The great theme of the American novel‚ the bold individualist venturing forth into the primordial wilderness‚ transforms into a kind of elegy for a world that’s rapidly being destroyed. Charlotte leaves her home and her children for the sake of her housekeeper‚ whose granddaughter has vanished into the wilderness. The child’s father took her on an excursion to the logging camp where he works‚ and she apparently wandered off—or was taken. Witnesses declare they saw her in the arms of a huge‚ hairy giant‚ being carried away into the deep woods. Melba‚ the housekeeper‚ is determined to participate in the search. Charlotte accompanies her to the camp‚ then persuades her to return to her daughter‚ the child’s mother‚ who is pregnant and sickly. Charlotte herself joins the searchers‚ though it’s clear by this point that they’re unlikely to find the child alive. It’s the principle of the thing‚ in Charlotte’s mind. She’s an experienced and knowledgeable wilderness camper—as much because she’s researched it for her novels as because she’s done it herself. Charlotte is a writer through and through. She keeps up with her journal through all the vicissitudes of her adventure‚ from the long and difficult journey to the camp‚ to the perils associated with being female in a camp full of men‚ to the awkward‚ half-inarticulate friendship that rises between Charlotte and the lone female logger in the crew. All through this long prelude‚ we hear of the Wild Man of the forest‚ the great shaggy apelike creature who lives in the deep woods and who may have stolen little Harriet for who knows what purpose. Charlotte pens a brief fantasy about him‚ starring the heroine of her adventure series. He’s a noble savage‚ gentle and kind‚ albeit huge and hairy‚ and he speaks telepathically; he guides her to the home of his people‚ a utopian city in a hidden valley. Reality is much less romantic. It’s a long‚ fruitless search‚ and a great deal of rain and mud‚ and a clear demonstration that the real monsters are human. Charlotte slips into a kind of fugue state‚ traumatized by an attempted rape that she can’t bring herself to tell anyone about. She wanders away from the rest of the searchers‚ loses track of where she is‚ and becomes truly lost. And then at last‚ in what at first seems to be hallucination born of hunger and exhaustion‚ she slips fully into the wild world. She comes across a gigantic hairy mother and her daughter and her twin sons. She travels with them; they adopt her. They teach her how to survive in the wilderness. These are not the noble telepathic savages of the fiction-within-a-fiction. For one thing‚ they stink. For another‚ they don’t appear to have a language. They don’t live in any kind of city; they’re wanderers and foragers. They don’t build houses or use tools. They seem to her to be animals‚ with less than human intelligence. She gives them human nicknames and projects her biases on them. She admires their strength and their survival skills‚ and struggles to keep up‚ but she clings to her belief in human intellectual superiority. Slowly‚ as the days and weeks go by‚ her perceptions change. She slips away from the human world‚ from human habits and human language. She can’t truly become one of them‚ but she can begin to understand what they truly are. They have names of their own; they have a language of trills and whistles and hoots. There is nothing human about them‚ but they’re not at all the simple animals that she imagined them to be. They’re an image of man before the Fall‚ and fallen man is destroying their world. He’s clear-cutting the forests they hide in‚ building roads across their ranges‚ capturing and killing their children and stringing them up as either trophies or scientific specimens. The most remote parts of the forest are no longer safe; if they’re not hewn down by loggers‚ they’re trampled over by large parties of what we now call ecotourists. Gloss even finds a way to explain why there’s no physical evidence of Sasquatch. They make a sacrament of eating their dead‚ destroying their hides‚ crushing their bones to dust. Which is ingenious‚ though that doesn’t cover what might happen to a lone wanderer who dies by accident or illness. Then again‚ there’s a whole lot of territory out there‚ and Sasquatch were or are presumably rare‚ even without the destruction of their habitat. That‚ ultimately‚ may explain why no modern Bigfooter has found anything. Sasquatch went extinct in the early twentieth century. Like the ivory-billed woodpecker‚ they had nowhere left to live‚ and nowhere to hide.[end-mark] The post When Bigfoot Finds You: Molly Gloss’ <;i>;Wild Life<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The European Parliament’s primary committees have endorsed a proposal to prohibit anonymous transactions involving cryptocurrencies through self-hosted wallets‚ marking a notable step in the expansion of the European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing regulations to encompass the digital currency sector and restrict privacy across the board. We obtained a copy of the proposal for you here. These measures significantly impact both cash and cryptocurrency dealings. Under the new guidelines‚ cash transactions exceeding €10‚000 will face limitations‚ while anonymous cash transactions above €3‚000 will be completely banned. In the realm of digital currencies‚ the regulations extend to prohibiting transactions from anonymous wallets‚ irrespective of the platform used – be it mobile‚ desktop‚ or browser. There is a projected timeline of three years for these laws to become fully implemented‚ though some expect swifter implementation. Public opinion on these new AML measures is divided. While some view them as essential steps in curbing financial crimes‚ others express concerns over potential privacy violations and negative impacts on economic activities. This is especially the case since people are now fully aware of incidences of governments going after cryptocurrencies. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in response to widespread civil liberties protests back in 2022. Furthermore‚ in an unprecedented step‚ the government also moved to seize Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies believed to be used by the protesters. The EU’s move follows a provisional agreement between the European Council and the parliament to extend these laws to the burgeoning crypto market. The post EU Approves Ban on Anonymous Crypto Transactions‚ Limits Cash appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. EU’s next target in the bloc’s self-inflicted “war on disinformation” is – online influencers. The initiative comes with the stated goal to “educate” influencers‚ using regulations‚ about what their responsibilities are in case “harmful” content they share happens to be deemed as having a “potential” adverse impact on their audience. You could hardly get more convoluted in trying to push through rules that are not meant to prevent unlawful behavior – because none is happening – but to‚ regardless‚ steer online narratives in a desired direction. And that’s why you know this is coming from Brussels‚ even if reports had failed to specify. And “from Brussels” is a double entendre‚ since the idea originates from the current‚ 6-month Belgian EU presidency‚ the European Conservative reported. “Harmful content with potential impact” would be the usual collection of poorly or controversially defined disinformation‚ hate speech‚ cyberbullying‚ and the like. What the Belgian presidency is proposing is to spend the bloc’s money on basically “schooling influencers” and developing their “ethical and cognitive skills” (good luck with that)‚ specifically as a way to make them understand how the EU understands disinformation‚ etc. On the one hand‚ the initiative could result in a “cost-cutting” move where influencers get recruited to spread EU policies/politics for free‚ and on the other‚ it might end up in pressuring and censoring those who don’t comply. That said‚ it’s by no means the most asinine among EU’s recent efforts to start focusing regulations – “with potential censorship impact‚” if you will – on influencers‚ given the reach this industry has grown to enjoy. On the contrary‚ the EU looks like it knows what it’s aiming for when it describes influencers as those who can “impact society‚ public opinion or personal views of their audience.” And it would very much like such persons to “align” with its messages. Unlike a French law adopted in 2023 which clearly says that influencers are those who‚ “in exchange for a fee‚ use their reputation to communicate with their audience” – the EU wants to broaden the definition to influencers having “authenticity-based” relationships with their followers. This would allow the EU to attempt to regulate and/or pressure pretty much any successful creator‚ rather than just those who fit in the widely accepted meaning of the term‚ “influencer.” The post How the EU Plans to Regulate Online Influencers Towards “Responsible” Online Speech and Conduct appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The EU is about to start punishing large online platforms for not tackling “election disinformation” to the bloc’s satisfaction. In order to make good on the threat‚ the EU is putting to use its censorship law – the Digital Services Act (DSA). Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton is quoted as saying that platforms like X‚ TikTok‚ Snapchat‚ YouTube and Facebook‚ but also search engines‚ must operate according to the guidelines that are currently being drafted. Reports say that companies behind these platforms and services could be forced to pay fines of up to 6 percent of their global revenue unless they fight “disinformation” related to elections. This figure specifically concerns whatever is designated as AI or deepfakes-based “disinformation.” Tech companies are expected to “take measures and mitigate risks‚” Breton‚ who is DSA’s “enforcer‚” said. The Brussels bureaucrats speak about this as moderation‚ rather than censorship‚ and have decided to consider this year as “pivotal” when it comes to elections. And the EU is in a hurry to start mandating the rules – reports say this could happen in the next few weeks. It will be possible to enforce the guidelines thanks to their inclusion in the DSA‚ and they will come into force as soon as they are adopted. Heaping further pressure on tech companies to censor‚ and regulating them in this way‚ is explained as necessary to prevent things like turnout suppression‚ fake news‚ and‚ of course – and in particular‚ according to EU leaders – Russia’s “malign influence” ahead of elections in the bloc this year. As for how tech companies are supposed to comply‚ one requirement is to create “dedicated teams to scrutinize the risks of online disinformation in 23 different languages‚” the Financial Times is reporting‚ citing two unnamed sources apparently involved in drafting the guidelines. Another anonymous EU official is cited as saying that platforms “need to show” they respect the new regulation – or “explain” that they are taking other actions to “mitigate risks.” And if neither happens‚ the EU will get to punishing them with fines. Another thing these firms will have to “show” is that they are closely cooperating with “cyber security agents” in all of the EU’s 27 member-countries. The post EU To Start Fining Platforms up to 6% of Global Revenue if They Fail To Censor Election “Disinformation” Under New Censorship Law appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Chuck Todd's Hypocrisy Is Showing at NBC

BREAKING: US Abstains As UN Security Council Passes Demand for Gaza Cease-Fire