Video games were very popular in the 1990s. Publishers agreed that a mascot with personality was necessary after seeing Nintendo and Sega’s tremendous success. Humanoid creatures, fans of extreme sports, and the one supposed to CONTINUE READING... The post The Great Mascot Graveyard: Retro Figures Who Swung at Mario and Sonic and Missed appeared first on The Retro Network.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Washington has finally found a monster big enough for bipartisan unity: the attention economy. In a moment of rare cross-aisle cooperation, lawmakers have introduced two censorship-heavy bills and a tax scheme under the banner of the UnAnxious Generation package. The name, borrowed from Jonathan Haidt’s pop-psychology hit The Anxious Generation, reveals the obvious pitch: Congress will save America’s children from Silicon Valley through online regulation and speech controls. Representative Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, who has built a career out of publicly scolding tech companies, says he’s going “directly at their jugular.” The plan: tie legal immunity to content “moderation,” tax the ad money, and make sure kids can’t get near an app without producing an “Age Signal.” If that sounds like a euphemism for surveillance, that’s because it is. The first bill, the Deepfake Liability Act, revises Section 230, the sacred shield that lets platforms host your political rants, memes, and conspiracy reels without getting sued for them. Under the new proposal, that immunity becomes conditional on a vague “duty of care” to prevent deepfake porn, cyberstalking, and “digital forgeries.” TIME’s report doesn’t define that last term, which could be a problem since it sounds like anything from fake celebrity videos to an unflattering AI meme of your senator. If “digital forgery” turns out to include parody or satire, every political cartoonist might suddenly need a lawyer on speed dial. Auchincloss insists the goal is accountability, not censorship. “If a company knows it’ll be liable for deepfake porn, cyberstalking, or AI-created content, that becomes a board-level problem,” he says. In other words, a law designed to make executives sweat. But with AI-generated content specifically excluded from Section 230 protections, the bill effectively redefines the internet’s liability protections. Next up is the Parents Over Platforms Act, which reads like a spy’s dream version of child safety. The idea is to require mobile app stores and developers to “assure” user ages through “commercially reasonable efforts.” Developers must “determine whether a user is an Adult or a Minor with a reasonable level of certainty.” How they’re supposed to do that without collecting more personal data is unclear. Privacy advocates might want to sit down for this one. The bill’s co-sponsor, Republican Erin Houchin of Indiana, says it comes from personal experience. Her daughter, age 13, “hacked around our parental controls” and started chatting with strangers. “My goal is to put parents back in the driver’s seat,” she says. Fair enough, but that driver’s seat now comes with a dashboard full of federal switches and levers. If passed, parents would input their children’s ages into the app store, which would then transmit the “Age Signal” to every app. Kids under 13 would be locked out of restricted platforms. The potential for data errors and cross-app confusion seems baked in, but Congress appears unbothered. Rounding out the trio is the Education Not Endless Scrolling Act, which would slap a 50 percent tax on digital ad revenue over $2.5 billion. The money would fund tutoring programs, local journalism, and technical education. Auchincloss explains, “This is for the major social media corporations, not the recipe blogs.” He adds, “These social media corporations have made hundreds of billions of dollars making us angrier, lonelier, and sadder, and they have no accountability to the American public.” The proposal reads like a moral tax: the government will collect penance for every click. Both Auchincloss and Houchin frame their effort as a bipartisan stand for the children, launching a “Kids Online Safety Caucus” to formalize their alliance. Houchin puts it simply: “Good policy supersedes politics.” It’s a line you usually hear right before an entire generation of digital policy disasters. The timing is no accident. Congress is now flooded with “child safety” bills. Auchincloss says he’s tired of waiting. “I don’t like to be passive or wait for the ground to shift,” he says. “I am trying to be an earthquake.” It’s a fitting metaphor, though he might consider what happens after the shaking stops. Once the dust settles, the UnAnxious Generation may find that the cure for digital anxiety looks a lot like preemptive censorship and surveillance wrapped in a moral crusade. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Congress Goes Parental on Social Media and Your Privacy appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Supreme Court Skeptical of New Jersey Investigation Into Pro-life Pregnancy Center

Media Research Center President David Bozell and NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham joined The Sean Spicer Show Monday night to break down the latest example of media double standards: from the New York Times’ attempt to manufacture a “decline” narrative about President Trump to the press outrage over the White House’s new “Media Offenders” page. Bozell and Spicer first focused on the absurdity of a recent New York Times article suggesting Trump was "losing his energy" or "declined," contrasting it sharply with the media's treatment of his predecessor. "We all saw Joe Biden's cognitive decline in real time," Bozell said. He emphasized the irony: "Then Trump's holding court day in and day out, doing all sorts of different interviews... the idea that he's lost a step is ridiculous." Bozell said the Times piece was a cynical attempt to drive traffic by deliberately provoking a reaction from conservatives. The discussion then shifted to the White House’s new “Media Offenders” page, a public tracker highlighting reporters and outlets with a record of bias. Graham said the MRC was “very pleased,” noting the document included nine links to NewsBusters. He criticized the defensive response from outlets such as The Washington Post, which ran a headline suggesting Trump was “ramping up reporter attacks.” “They pretend this is an attack on freedom of the press … we are democracy and you’re authoritarianism. It’s maddening,” Graham said, arguing that many in the elitist media believe they can criticize others freely but view any factual critique of their own work as off-limits. Bozell doubled down on the importance of the White House fighting back, calling the tracker a "terrific, terrific advancement" in the fight against liberal bias. He observed that while the media does not dispute the factual conclusions of the White House tracker, they simply "don't like being exposed," noting that the alternative is Republican leaders refusing to act on important stories because they believe "the media won't cover it." The segment wrapped up with a call to action, encouraging Republicans to follow the White House’s lead and call out, rather than cozy up to, hostile journalists. The takeaway is simple: the media's swift and uniform condemnation of the tracker served as the strongest evidence yet of its necessity.

BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo broke a massive story surrounding the Somalian community in Minnesota last week. Members of the community “allegedly participated in complex schemes related to autism services, food programs, and housing.”Prosecutors estimate billions of taxpayer dollars have been stolen and some of it has ended up in the hands of a terrorist organization in Somalia."For example, the Housing Stabilization Services Program — meant to cost $2.6 million per year — exploded to $104 million annually by 2024 and $61 million in just the first half of 2025 before being shut down because the vast majority of it was fraudulent," explains BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on "Relatable."Somali-owned nonprofits like Feeding Our Future were also claiming to feed thousands of children daily "with fake rosters and invoices," before using the money to fund luxury vehicle purchases and "overseas real estate," she continues.“Say you were a Republican who had been running in Minnesota and you had run on, ‘Hey, we got to cut spending, and we have to cut the taxpayer dollars that we are giving to Feeding Our Future.’ What would the liberal media have said? ‘Oh, you’re evil. How dare you DOGE this. You don’t want to feed innocent children. You want these innocent children to starve,’” she says.Separately, a $14 million autism services fraud ring allegedly paid Somali parents cash kickbacks to enroll kids, despite the children not having autism diagnoses.“What are we doing?” Stuckey asks. “I mean, if this is happening in Minnesota, and this is actually being uncovered in Minnesota, which is pretty incredible, like, what’s happening in California? What’s happening in Illinois? What’s happening in New York? What is happening in Houston, these Democrat-run places where there are these large Somalian Islamic groups?”“I mean, you’ve got to give them credit. They look out for themselves. They’re going to put themselves first. They’re looking out for Somalia. They’re looking out for Afghanistan. They’re looking out for Islam. They’re looking out for their people,” she continues, pointing out that these scandals have "erupted" since Governor Tim Walz (D) took office in 2019.“If he ran right now, every Democrat in the state of Minnesota would vote for him. I mean, we already had someone in the state of Virginia win after texts were leaked that said that he wanted to kill his opponent's children,” Stuckey says.“So I don’t think that fraud is, like, the moral limit that the current Democrat Party has,” she adds.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The White House fired back at singer Sabrina Carpenter after she strongly objected to the use of one of her songs in a social media post from the Trump administration. The video shows people getting arrested by law enforcement officials while Carpenter's popular song "Juno" plays in the background. Carpenter responded from her own social media account. 'We won't apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country.' "Have you ever tried this one? Bye-bye," reads the White House post from Monday. She replied, "This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda." White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded on Tuesday with a statement again referencing Carpenter's music. "Here's a Short n' Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won't apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country," she wrote. "Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?" Carpenter's objection might have backfired on her, since it brought more attention to the White House video. It has garnered more than 3.3 million views. RELATED: Rapper Eminem slammed after demanding Ramaswamy stop using his songs on campaign Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Other musicians have decried the use of their songs by the Trump administration, including Beyoncé, Abba, the Foo Fighters, and Kenny Loggins. Carpenter made headlines in 2023 when she filmed a music video at the the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic church in Brooklyn, New York, which included "profane decorations" on the altar. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation/GuardianA mining company destroyed a 46,000-year-old rock shelter that was sacred to Australia’s Indigenous peoples. A 46,000-year-old cultural site significant to Australia’s indigenous people was destroyed by a mining company expanding its iron ore territory. The destructive act was deliberately done with the permission of the Australian government. According to the Guardian, the destroyed site was a rock shelter located in Juukan Gorge in western Australia that had been continuously occupied for over 46,000 years. The cave was one of the oldest in the western Pilbara region and the only inland site with evidence of continual habitation which lasted through the last Ice Age. “It’s one of the most sacred sites in the Pilbara region…we wanted to have that area protected,” said Burchell Hayes, the director of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Aboriginal Corporation which oversees the land. Mark Evans/Getty ImagesReforms to the Aboriginal Heritage Act were postponed due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. In addition to its meaning to indigenous people, the site also held great archeological value. Excavations there unearthed a bevy of precious artifacts, including a 4,000-year-old length of plaited human hair. Incredibly, DNA analysis showed the hair belonged to the direct ancestors of the PKKP peoples today. “It is precious to have something like that plaited hair, found on our country, and then have further testing link it back to the Kurrama people. It’s something to be proud of, but it’s also sad. Its resting place for 4,000 years is no longer there,” Hayes said. Rio Tinto, the mining company that destroyed the cave, had received permission to demolish the sacred site in 2013. The permission was granted by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs under Western Australia’s outdated Aboriginal Heritage Act which was first established in 1972. In 2014, an archaeological dig was approved so that researchers could salvage the artifacts inside the rock shelter. The excavation revealed that the site was actually twice as old as previously estimated and carried a trove of more than 7,000 sacred artifacts, including 40,000-year-old grindstones and thousands of bones from refuse piles which showed changes in wildlife during the prehistoric period. Archeologist Michael Slack, who led the project, said it was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. But the Aboriginal Act law was drafted in favor of mining proponents and did not allow for amendments to consent orders or agreements. On May 24, 2020, the cave was blasted by Rio Tinto to make way for its iron ore mining expansion. FlickrThe cave site in Western Australia boasted a trove of precious artifacts that told of the country’s rich history. Now, the 46,000-year-old enclave no longer exists. “Now, if this site has been destroyed, then we can tell them stories but we can’t show them photographs or take them out there to stand at the rock shelter and say: this is where your ancestors lived, starting 46,000 years ago,” Hayes said of the sacred site’s demolition. Rio Tinto first signed a native title agreement with the traditional PKKP owners in 2011, four years before the tribespeople’s native title claim was formally ruled on by the federal court. The company also facilitated the dig in 2014. Following the new discoveries, the company pushed for its original agreement with the government over the Juukan site to be carried out, even after the Aboriginal Heritage Act was put under review when the Labor administration took over in 2017. The company stated it was supportive of the proposed reforms but argued that the consent orders that had already been approved should continue. The final consultation of the bill’s draft was pushed back by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt due to the coronavirus outbreak this year. Meanwhile, the loss of a rich source of Australia’s history is mourned by Indigenous advocates and researchers. “It was the sort of site you do not get very often, you could have worked there for years,” Slack said. “How significant does something have to be, to be valued by wider society?” Next, read about the terrifying megafauna that lived alongside Australia’s early inhabitants before they went extinct and take a look inside Coober Pedy, Australia’s underground city. The post A Mining Company Just Blew Up A 46,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Site — And It Was Totally Legal appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Wikimedia CommonsMost modern dogs have at least a little recent wolf DNA that entered their genome after the two species’ evolutionary split roughly 20,000 years ago. Most of today’s domesticated dogs have noticeable, albeit often small, amounts of wolf DNA in their genome, according to a new study. This discovery challenges the theory that, since dogs made their evolutionary split from wolves roughly 20,000 years ago, there has been very limited breeding between the two groups. Researchers analyzed nearly 2,700 genomes from modern and ancient canines and found that most modern domesticated dogs have at least a little recent wolf DNA. Furthermore, the wolf DNA present in modern dogs may have had an impact in shaping their behaviors and adaptability to human environments. However, the exact correlation between prevalence of wolf DNA and a given dog’s behavior remains unclear. How Researchers Uncovered Recent Wolf DNA In The Genomes Of Modern Dog Breeds Wikimedia CommonsResearchers analyzed nearly 2,700 canine genomes. The new study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that at least two-thirds of modern dog breeds have wolf DNA that was acquired about 1,000 generations ago. This would have been after domesticated dogs and wolves split off from each other in the evolutionary tree. “Prior to this study, the leading science seemed to suggest that in order for a dog to be a dog, there can’t be very much wolf DNA present, if any,” said lead study author Audrey Lin in a statement from the American Museum of Natural History. “But we found if you look very closely in modern dog genomes, wolf is there. This suggests that dog genomes can ‘tolerate’ wolf DNA up to an unknown level and still remain the dogs we know and love.” While there have been times when dogs and wolves have been deliberately cross-bred, there had previously been little evidence to suggest regular breeding between the two groups since the two species split. This is despite the fact that these two groups have often inhabited similar environments. To further investigate how often wolves and dogs may have actually cross-bred, the researchers looked at the genomes of 146 ancient dogs and wolves covering about 100,000 years of history. They also studied 1,872 modern dogs, including everything from golden retrievers, to chihuahuas to malamutes — 246 breeds in total. Researchers also included about 300 “village dogs” in their analysis, or dogs that are not owned by one specific person, but instead are independent yet rely on proximity to human environments in order to live. While these dogs, unsurprisingly, had a higher proportion of wolf DNA than their fully domesticated counterparts, the other data regarding amounts of wolf DNA in various breeds was often unexpected. How Much Wolf DNA Is In Each Of Today’s Various Dog Breeds? Audrey LinPip, a shepherd mix, as photographed by one of the new study’s lead authors. Unsurprisingly, dog breeds like the Czechoslovakian and Saarloos wolfdogs had the most amount of recent wolf DNA, as these dog types were purposefully bred with wolves. Of non-wolfdog breeds, Anglo-French tricolour hounds had the greatest amount of wolf DNA, averaging between 4.7 and 5.7 percent. Shiloh shepherds weren’t too far behind with about 2.7 percent wolf DNA. In general, dogs bred to complete specific tasks, such as sled dogs, had more wolf ancestry than other breeds. But it wasn’t just the larger, working dogs that had higher proportions of recent wolf DNA — even chihuahuas had about 0.2 percent wolf ancestry. “This completely makes sense to anyone who owns a chihuahua,” Lin said. “And what we’ve found is that this is the norm — most dogs are a little bit wolfy.” Logan KistlerDogs bred for specific jobs — like Tilly, a sled dog mix — were more likely to have recent wolf ancestry. Not all modern breeds have wolf DNA, however. In fact, researchers found that some larger, imposing guard dogs — like the Neapolitan mastiff, bullmastiff, and the St. Bernard — had no traceable recent wolf DNA. Researchers speculate that it’s possible that wolf DNA has contributed to some breeds’ abilities to adapt to human environments, as there is some evidence that it gives them a genetic advantage. However, more research is needed to conclude whether a correlation exists between wolf ancestry and dog behavior. “When dogs encountered evolutionary challenges such as how to survive harsh climates, scavenge for food in the streets or guard livestock, it appears they’ve been able to tap into wolf ancestry as part of their evolutionary survival kit,” Lin and study co-author Logan Kistler wrote in The Conversation. But still, much about the connection between wolves and modern dogs remains a mystery. After reading about the wolf DNA present in modern dogs, discover the stories of these famous dogs from history. Then, meet the dogs of famous historical figures and celebrities of decades past. The post Surprising Study Finds That Most Modern Dogs Have Wolf DNA — And Reveals Which Breeds Are Most Wolflike appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Wat Rat Prakongtham Temple/FacebookThe woman, Chonthirat Sakulkoo, was taken to the hospital and stabilized shortly after she was found alive in her coffin. A 65-year-old woman who was believed to be dead stunned workers at a Thai Buddhist temple when, moments before she was meant to be cremated, she began rattling her coffin and knocking on the lid — clear indicators that she was, in fact, alive. The shocking incident occurred on Sunday, Nov. 23, at Wat Rat Prakongtham, a temple in Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok that livestreams its cremation ceremonies as a community service. In the video captured of the incident, temple staff are seen looking bewildered as they prepare for the ritual, only to realize that the woman lying in her coffin in the back of a pick-up truck is moving her arms and head. Naturally, the abbot immediately stopped the ceremony and called for the woman, identified as Chonthirat Sakulkoo, to be taken to the hospital. Knocking From Inside The Coffin Alerts Staff “I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled,” Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told the Associated Press. “I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time.” Mongkol Sakulkoo, Chonthirat’s brother, told the Bangkok Post that his sister’s health had been declining and that she was bedridden for about two years prior to this incident. “I’ve cared for my sister for three years. Officials told us she had died,” he said. “All the documents had been issued, so we placed her in a coffin and brought her to the temple for cremation.” Mongkol told reporters that he had found his sister unresponsive in their home a day earlier, leading relatives and local officials to believe she was dead. Although no death certificate was issued, the village headman did sign documentation for a coffin donation. Thai hospitals, however, require an official death certificate before they can accept bodies for organ donation — which Chonthirat wished to do. So, to honor his sister’s wish, Mongkol had driven roughly 300 miles to Bangkok after leaving his home at 3 a.m. to take Chonthirat to Chulalongkorn University Hospital. The hospital declined to take the corpse and instructed Mongkol to obtain an autopsy report. Now worried that his sister’s corpse would begin to decompose, Mongkol instead drove the coffin to Wat Rat Prakongtham temple, which provides free cremation services. As the temple workers were explaining that they, too, needed an official death certificate before they could cremate the body, Chonthirat made everyone aware that she was still quite alive. Chonthirat Sakulkoo’s Miraculous Recovery Wat Rat Prakongtham Temple/FacebookTemple staff visiting Chonthirat Sukulkoo in the hospital. Once temple officials realized that Chonthirat was breathing and moving, they rushed her to the hospital, where doctors stabilized the 65-year-old and determined what had caused her unresponsive condition. As they explained, Chonthirat had been suffering from extreme hypoglycemia, a critically low level of blood sugar that can result in unresponsiveness that resembles death. By Sunday evening, however, Chonthirat was stable enough to return home. Soodthoop noted that he had overseen thousands of cremations, but he had never seen someone who had been declared dead regain consciousness. Authorities clarified that the family, temple, and hospital had all complied with medical and legal standards, though the incident has drawn significant public attention in Thailand for exposing potential holes in end-of-life procedures. The family had received proper documentation to transport a corpse, for instance, but had not gone through a formal hospital or medical process to obtain a declaration of death. Had everyone involved not responded so quickly, things may very well have turned out differently. After reading about this nearly premature cremation, go inside the terrifying stories of five people who were buried alive. Or, learn about the death and bizarre cremation of Gram Parsons. The post A 65-Year-Old Thai Woman Was Declared Dead — Then She Knocked On Her Coffin Just Before Her Cremation appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Sen. Eric Schmitt Defends Pete Hegseth, Reminds GOP ‘The Liberal Media Will Never Love You’