Michigan recently joined a parade of other states in expanding its civil rights law to prohibit businesses and organizations from discriminating based on sexual preference and gender identity. But the Great Lake State failed to make an important accommodation when expanding...

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The holiday season comes with a long‚ celebrated list of songs to get into the festive spirit. They come from across generations but 1973 was a year defined by a Christmas carol craze. So‚ on the heels of some big successes already landed that year‚ Elton John set to work on a Christmas song‚ which proved itself a worthy addition to the growing list of holiday songs and still proves itself 50 years later. ‘73 was a busy year for John. In that one year‚ he released Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player at the top of the year and it rocketed to the top in the U.K.‚ the U.S.‚ and Australia. By October‚ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was out‚ becoming an instant critical hit and‚ like its predecessor‚ topping domestic and international charts. But John had one more victory to snatch and he set it up in just one day. Elton John jumped into the Christmas craze in record time Elton John got millions excited to Step into Christmas / YouTube screenshot Others were releasing hits that year‚ as well. Queerty made special note of “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard and Merry Christmas Everyone by Slade‚ both British. They were very popular across the pond‚ supported by a renewed enthusiasm for Christmas music. RELATED: Elton John Thanks Fans For ’52 Years Of Pure Joy’ As He Marks The End Of His Farewell Tour John ended up wanting to ride that wave‚ on top of everything else he accomplished that year. “Let’s do a Christmas record! we thought‚” he recounted years later. But time was running out. Per tradition‚ he worked with songwriter Bernie Taupin‚ hurrying off to London’s Morgan Studios on Sunday‚ November 11. They began writing the song – not even recording it yet – in the morning. By the afternoon‚ they were done. It takes a Christmas village It took just one recording session to write and complete / Everett Collection Liner notes about “Step into Christmas” confirms that both the song and its B-side were recorded in just one session‚ with John aiming to make it channel the spirit of Phil Spector’s 1960s recordings. “Part of what made Phil Spector records were the rooms‚ the musicians and the ambiance‚” John explained‚ who also embraced the “wall of sound” technique mastered by the Ronettes‚ who also put out popular Christmas songs. Step into Christmas rocketed to the top of the charts and still enjoys a solid following today / TM and Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved Elton John’s “Step into Christmas” enjoyed high positions on charts in the U.S.‚ U.K.‚ and more‚ at one point peaking at No.1 on the Billboard Christmas Singles list. Even three decades after its release‚ it was listed as the ninth-most-played Christmas song in the U.K. But its momentum still hasn’t faded‚ as in September 2021‚ was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America after reaching 500‚000 units sold. All it took was one day. Click for next Article The post 50 Years Ago‚ Elton John Wrote This Beloved Christmas Song In Just One Day appeared first on DoYouRemember? - The Home of Nostalgia. Author‚ Dana Daly

David Newman sent a text to a friend the morning of Saturday‚ Oct. 7. Something terrible had happened. Word quickly spread among Newman’s group of friends‚ who had known each other since high school.…

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Love him or hate him‚ Alex Jones is back.  After getting booted off all social media platforms more than five years ago‚ Elon Musk just reinstated his accounts on Twitter/X. How the Alex Jones ban happened In 2018‚ Apple‚ Spotify‚ YouTube‚ and FaceBook banned Alex Jones and his InfoWars pages within a short time frame‚ claiming that he spread hate speech.  About a month later‚ Twitter banned him‚ too. I was never an Alex Jones follower. ZeroHedge was the only alternative news site I followed before 2020.  I heard he was the guy who had been kicked off social media for insulting Sandy Hook families‚ and that was it. However‚ when Russell Brand interviewed Alex Jones in November I was willing to listen.  In that discussion‚ Alex stated that the Sandy Hook parents did not file their lawsuits for more than two years after he had made any public statements about the massacre One could say that Alex Jones is fabricating this to make himself look like a victim‚ but further digging confirms his statement.  When Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey initially banned Alex‚ he said that the ban was for spreading hate speech‚ though he never specified what‚ exactly‚ Alex had said.  However‚ in an interview with Joe Rogan‚ independent journalist Tim Poole‚ and Twitter’s Lead of Trust and Safety‚ Legal‚ and Public Policy Vijaya Gadde‚ Dorsey later admitted that Alex was kicked off for being mean to CNN reporter Oliver Darcy.  The Sandy Hook comments had nothing to do with it. Alex Jones has been right A LOT. The ban over a petty run-in with a CNN reporter revealed how much legacy media really hates Alex‚ and it’s not because he is insensitive.  It’s because‚ mixed in with the yelling and hyperbole‚ he gets a lot of things right.  As Tucker has said‚ they don’t bother deplatforming Flat-Earthers. For example‚ Alex’s statement about chemicals “turning frogs gay” is regularly trotted out as an example of how crazy he is‚ but there is real science behind it.  I didn’t first hear about chemicals turning frogs gay from Alex Jones. I learned about it in a wildlife ecology class a couple of decades ago.  Of course‚ the professor didn’t say‚ “Chemicals are making everything gay.” He said amphibian populations were collapsing worldwide and that scientists suspected the pseudo-estrogens found in birth control pills were negatively affecting the ability of amphibians to breed.   Real research into this has been done. A paper was released in 2016 confirming that exposure to pseudo-estrogens in sewage can result in the complete feminization of male amphibians. Of course‚ those scientific statements are boring and difficult. Much of Alex’s appeal is that he’s so darn entertaining.  He takes bits of factual information and makes them accessible to the kind of people who want to know what’s going on‚ but don’t have the time or energy to wade through the scientific papers‚ the United Nations White Papers‚ or the government documents that Alex does.   Now‚ Alex Jones does not get everything right. But he has a large platform‚ and he gets things right often enough that legacy media would really prefer he just shut up and went away.  For more than five years‚ Alex was hidden.  You had to specifically go to his InfoWars site to find his material. It didn’t pop up in any search engines‚ and it wasn’t getting suggested in any of your news feeds. Joe Rogan hosted Alex Jones three times between 2017 and 2020‚ in podcasts #911‚ #1255‚ and #1555.  These Joe Rogan interviews were the closest Alex Jones got to coming out of his InfoWars shell during his ban.  Many people (myself included) considered him entertaining but unreliable and weren’t particularly bothered by his absence from the public square. I should have been.  Daisy saw what was going on.  When she wrote about Jones’ ban back in 2018‚  she noted that what was happening to Alex could happen to any one of us‚ and she was right.  During Covid‚ deplatforming was no longer limited to fat‚ sweaty men delivering epic rants about demon spawn.  Prestigious doctors like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Robert Malone found themselves lumped in with Alex Jones‚ and those on the sidelines were forced to reconsider what we thought about censorship. As more and more alternative media figures came under fire‚ more people were willing to take a second look at Alex.  On December 7‚ Tucker Carlson hosted him. Ep. 46 The Alex Jones Interview TIMESTAMPS: 2:46 Alex Jones predictions 15:07 Deplatforming21:59 Dividing us on race25:37 The border28:09 Austin32:12 New World Order42:09 Brian Stelter demon video50:57 Depopulation1:07:51 Food1:13:51 Whiskey 1:16:22 Presidential… pic.twitter.com/IsJAQDUzDc — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 7‚ 2023   The Tucker interview was wide-ranging and interesting‚ and the only rant featured was an old clip of Jones shouting about Brian Stelter‚ who quite frankly deserves everything Alex threw at him.  So far‚ the hour-plus interview has garnered more than 20 million views.  On December 9‚ Elon Musk polled Twitter/X users about whether or not Jones should be reinstated‚ and 70% voted yes.  On December 10‚ Alex’s account was reinstated.  The establishment media isn’t one bit happy about it. Here’s just a snippet of the top dismayed headlines about the restoration of his account on X. So‚ should free speech enthusiasts rest on our laurels? No.   Worldwide‚ restrictions on speech are still being tightened.  We wrote about Europe’s Digital Services Act back in July‚ and it has now come into effect.  The UK has its Online Safety Bill‚ which it claims makes internet usage in Britain the safest in the world‚ but in reality‚ allows the government to scan through all users’ files to look for illegal activity. Ireland’s new executive chairperson of its Media Commission‚ Jeremy Godfrey‚ has already doubled his department to 75 people and wants to bring it up to 250 speech enforcers by the end of 2024. Online speech enforcement is still in its early stages relative to the desires of the people in power. All over the West‚ governments seem to be involved in valiant efforts to silence those who dissent. And then there’s Elon himself.  I am profoundly grateful to him for opening up the Twitter Files for the world to see.  If it wasn’t for Elon Musk‚ we wouldn’t have any idea how extensive the censorship leviathan truly is.   But Elon Musk is still a flawed human being. He has his vulnerabilities‚ too. It’s possible that Twitter will be cut off from other parts of the world.  France’s Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot publicly threatened to give Twitter the boot if they don’t comply with the Digital Services Act.  If Twitter lets Alex Jones back on‚ but then the entire platform gets banned from the European Union‚ is that really a victory?  During his interview with Russell Brand‚ Alex told him that he was trying to channel the energy of love rather than rage these days. I will believe that when I see it.  I would love to see Alex Jones’s seemingly boundless energy channeled toward truth‚ love‚ and forgiveness.  Only time will tell. What do you think about Alex Jones being reinstated on X? What are your thoughts on Alex Jones’s reinstatement? Is it a victory for free speech? What are your thoughts on Jones himself? Do you think the trend of fighting censorship will continue? Let’s discuss it in the comments section. About Marie Hawthorne A lover of novels and cultivator of superb apple pie recipes‚ Marie spends her free time writing about the world around her. The post Alex Jones Has Been Unchained. The Establishment Media Isn’t Happy About It appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Surprise is the enemy. Early Warning helps take away the element of surprise the future holds over us. Each Friday‚ we produce a comprehensive risk analysis of the future‚ helping you gain insight and turn uncertainty into certainty. With Early Warning‚ you can join the small group of Americans who “saw it coming.” Forewarned is forearmed. Sign up here: https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe

Like many of you‚ I loved Deep Impact and Armageddon. Great films‚ loads of action and of course‚ an asteroid on collision course with Earth. What more is there to love!  Both movies touched upon the options for humanity to try and avoid such a collision but the reality is a little less Hollywood. One of the most common options is to try some sort of single impact style event as was demonstrated by the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission but a new paper offer an intriguing and perhaps more efficient alternative. The risk of an asteroid hitting Earth is a concern that astronomers have been actively engaged with for decades. The likelihood of a catastrophic event during any year is super low but the ‘impact’ should one occur make it worthy of serious consideration. At the lower end of the scale we may experience an incredible fireball but as the impactor size increases we can experience tsunamis‚ fires and a life shattering impact on our atmosphere.  Thankfully we are on the lookout. Efforts to detect and track pieces of space rock are constant and plans underway to develop strategies to defend ourselves. Despite all these best precautions though‚ the nature of asteroids lurking in space (small and often dark) means detection is like the proverbial cosmic needle in a haystack.  This artistic conception illustrates large asteroids penetrating Earth’s oxygen-poor atmosphere. Credit: SwRI/Dan Durda/Simone Marchi When – and it is when rather than if because there will come a day! – we discover an asteroid on a collision course then currently the plans tend to focus on a ‘big bang’ approach. This can either take the form of a slamming high speed impactor spacecraft into the object or by detonating a device in its proximity. Both approaches are a little ‘hit and hope’ though!  An intriguing alternative solution has been proposed in a paper by Nahum Melamed and Tom Heinsheimer that utilises the concept of material ejection to slowly adjust an objects trajectory. Their centrifugal propulsion technique involves landing a centrifuge and power supply on the surface of a potential impactor. The system would then collect portions of the astroid‚ eject them out into space allowing the momentum transfer of the recoil to slowly alter the path away from Earth.  The beauty of this approach first of all is that it is not hit and hope like the ‘big bang’ options. Instead it allows for “ejection‚ measurement and repetition” to fine tune its trajectory and provide further adjustments as necessary. The flexibility is another wonderful benefit that the landing site‚ asteroid spin and velocity can all be taken into account and the direction‚ timing and mass of ejections can be adjusted to suit.  The team believes that the approach could have deflected the Chelyabinsk and Tunguska sized asteroids with just a few weeks of operation and that asteroid Bennu (which poses a threat in the second half of the 22nd century) could be nicely deflected with just a few years of operation.  The innovative and efficient solution looks set to be quite the game changer in planetary defence allowing Bruce Willis and his companions to hang up their space suits‚ sit back and watch.  Source : Applying centrifugal propulsion to enable asteroid deflection The post DART Showed We Can Move an Asteroid. Can We Do It More Efficiently? appeared first on Universe Today.

One of the aspects of our study of the universe that fascinates me is the hunt for dark matter. That elusive material that doesn’t interact with much makes it difficult but not impossible to detect.  Gravitational lenses are one such phenomena that point to its existence indeed it allows us to estimate how much there is in galaxy clusters. A paper now suggests that observations of Jupiter by Cassini in 2000 suggest we may be able to detect it using planets too.  Dark matter is as its name suggests‚ mysterious and elusive. It is believed to account for about 27% of the universe’s mass and energy. However unlike ordinary matter – of the like that makes up you and me; the stars and planets‚ dark matter doesn’t emit‚ absorb or reflect light making it invisible and difficult to detect.  Its very existence is only inferred from the effect its gravity has on visible matter and the large scale structure of the universe.  The foundations for an interesting twist in the search for dark matter were laid in 1997 with the launch of the Cassini spacecraft from Cape Canaveral in the US. A seven year journey began that would take the probe from Earth to Saturn utilising gravitational slingshots from Venus‚ Earth and Jupiter. On board was a plethora of instruments to record data from radio waves through to extreme ultraviolet. En-route to Saturn‚ Cassini would be used to observe the planets using multiple wavelengths.  Of particular interest to the mission was using the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) to measure levels of hydrogen ions known as trihydrogen cations. They are a common ion found across the universe and are produced when molecular hydrogen interacts with cosmic rays‚  extreme ultraviolet radiation‚ planetary lightning‚ or electrons accelerated in planetary magnetic fields.  The team explore how dark matter can also produce trihydrogen cation in the atmosphere of planets. Any dark matter that is captured by planetary atmospheres – in particular the ionosphere – and is consequently annihilated‚ can produce detectable ionising radiation.  Using data from Cassini VISM system‚ the team have searched for dark matter ionisation in the ionosphere of Jupiter. Due to Jupiter’s relatively cool core‚ it was identified as the most efficient dark matter captor in the Solar System allowing dark matter particles to be retained. The challenge was to identify the signals over the background ‘noise’ from other radiation so the team had to use data from 3 hours either side of Jovian midnight. Choosing this time meant solar extreme ultraviolet irradiation was at a minimum. They also focussed on lower latitudes‚ keeping away from the high magnetic fields around the polar regions.  This NIRCam composite image of Jupiter was created using three filters – F360M (red)‚ F212N (yellow-green)‚ and F150W2 (cyan)‚ Credit: NASA‚ ESA‚ CSA‚ Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt. The detection of dark matter ionisation in the Jovian atmosphere reveals a whole new method for understanding this strange and mysterious cousin of normal matter. It is not just planets in our Solar System though‚ exoplanets are a new possible source especially those based in dark matter rich regions of the Galaxy.  Source : Search for Dark Matter Ionization on the Night Side of Jupiter with Cassini The post Dark Matter Could Cause Jupiter’s Night Side to Glow appeared first on Universe Today.