China Arranges Peace Deal... Between Hamas and Fatah

The JWST has allowed astronomers to peer back further into the past than any other infrared or optical telescope, seeing infrared light that was emitted by distant galaxies just 300 million years after the Big Bang.With the infrared telescope, we were hoping to learn more about the formation of galaxies, as well as clear up mysteries about how supermassive black holes became so large. But we have been thrown a few surprises as we look further back into the past.One such surprise is the tiny, bright red dots of light that appear to be dotted throughout the early universe, around 600-800 million years after its birth. When they were first detected and analyzed, astronomers believed they could be massive galaxies. But this was at odds with how cosmological models expect galaxies to form – as small clouds of dust and stars that grow larger over long periods of time.“The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science,” Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, said in a statement following early observations. “We’ve been informally calling these objects ‘universe breakers’ – and they have been living up to their name so far.”Of course, seeing objects that could upend our models of galaxy formation, the team wanted to be sure of what they were seeing, and aimed to take spectrum images of these galaxies to get a better idea of the distance of the galaxies, what the galaxies are made of, and how massive they truly are. Following that analysis, they have found these objects are indeed pretty weird, and in several ways.First off, despite being only 600-800 million years old, the galaxies appear to be packed with ancient stars, aged hundreds of millions of years old. As well as the oddity of their formation, this means the team was looking at the earliest signatures of old starlight ever found.“These early galaxies would be so dense with stars – stars that must have formed in a way we've never seen, under conditions we would never expect during a period in which we’d never expect to see them,” Leja said in a statement following the latest work. “And for whatever reason, the universe stopped making objects like these after just a couple of billion years. They are unique to the early universe.”But there are more mysteries to solve. The team estimates that the galaxies have surprisingly large supermassive black holes at their centers, between 100 and 1,000 times larger than Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way. That's far too big for the galaxy surrounding it. If the galaxy were compressed to the size of the Milky Way, the team says that the nearest star would be just outside our Solar System, and the supermassive black hole at the center would be just 26 light-years away from Earth, visible as a huge pillar of light.“Normally supermassive black holes are paired with galaxies,” Leja added. “They grow up together and go through all their major life experiences together. But here, we have a fully formed adult black hole living inside of what should be a baby galaxy. That doesn't really make sense, because these things should grow together, or at least that’s what we thought."                      Supermassive black holes we see in the nearer (more recent) universe are, as the name would suggest, pretty big. Cosmologists would like to know how these supermassive black holes, which are found at the center of most (but not all) galaxies, came to be such a large size. There have been a number of theories, including mergers of black holes, and that the black holes grew through feeding. These early black holes, and others discovered by the JWST, appear to be too large to be explained by these ideas, and much larger than cosmologists had been expecting in comparison to the galaxies surrounding them.One idea, which is perhaps becoming more favorable in light of recent observations, is "direct collapse" or "heavy seed" black holes. Usually, to get a stellar mass black hole (in the current age of the universe), a star undergoes collapse. With heavy seed black holes the idea is that supermassive black holes would have started out at around 10,000 to 100,000 solar masses, through the direct gravitational collapse of gigantic gas clouds, without an intermediate stellar phase. There are a few things that could make this scenario unlikely too. The gas cloud would need to collapse without fragmenting and forming clumps as it does so, though astronomers have suggested that this could be prevented if the cloud is heated by nearby young stars in pre-galactic gas disks, or if the gas cloud was moving at supersonic speeds in "flows" in the early universe, allowing it to grow for longer, until the gravity is sufficient to start the cloud's collapse into a seed black hole.It is currently difficult to distinguish the precise mass of the supermassive black holes at the center of these galaxies from the stars surrounding them. More observations are planned, taking spectra over a longer period of time, to get a better picture. “It’s very confusing,” Leja added. “You can make this uncomfortably fit in our current model of the universe, but only if we evoke some exotic, insanely rapid formation at the beginning of time. This is, without a doubt, the most peculiar and interesting set of objects I've seen in my career.”The latest study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

If you’ve ever glanced skywards and seen groups of birds flying in beautifully organized V formations have you ever stopped to wonder how and why they are doing that? While the V formation is famous for a number of reasons, it is actually the less common formation for birds to travel in and is largely used in geese, swans, pelicans, and wading species. So why do they do it? The V formation is typically seen in large migratory birds that cover particularly huge distances, for example, pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) spend the winter in the UK from their native home of Iceland and can be seen filling the skies with their long V formations. When traveling such a long way there are more than a few reasons to stick together. If you thought one of the reasons was saving them energy then you’re already on the right track. It's thought birds can use 20 to 30 percent less energy when flying this way. A 2014 study into northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) fitted data loggers to captive-raised birds, revealing that flapping at the right time is vital. They found that birds diagonally behind each other in the V passed almost exactly through the same space with their wings. The timing of the wing beats between different birds was done to catch the eddies created by the wings of the bird in front, minimizing the effort needed. If an ibis ended up out of phase they beat their wings in the opposite way to minimize the effect of the downdraft created from the bird in front of them.         The team explained that long-winged birds are more effective at doing this which is why the V formation is so often seen with geese. However, scientists still don't know how the birds organize themselves in this way. It was assumed that older birds taught the younger birds the V formation, however, the ibis in the 2014 study were captive-bred as part of a reintroduction program and followed a microlight in the sky. “It was always assumed that V-formation flight was learned from the adult birds,” lead author Steven Portugal told Nat Geo at the time. “But these guys are all the same age and they learned to fly from a human in a microlight. They learned [V-formation flying] from each other. It’s almost self-taught.”Cormorants flying in the more widespread echelon J shape.Image credit: Dariusz Leszczynski/Shutterstock.comThe technical term of these formations is echelons. While a V might be the most famous, research has revealed that a J shape is actually the most widespread among bird species.

The Statue of Liberty – gifted to the USA by France in 1884 – is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world.Picture it, and you probably see its distinctive shade of green (though it hasn't always been so), the torch symbolizing enlightenment, and the distinctive diadem placed upon her head. You may even remember the Emma Lazarus poem The New Colossus, placed on the monument in 1903, forever linking the statue to immigration in people's minds. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame."Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries sheWith silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"One feature that gets overlooked is the chains at the statue's feet, which is a shame as they better encapsulate the original purpose of the monument itself. Édouard de Laboulaye, who first proposed the gift, wanted to celebrate 100 years of independence, but also the much more recent abolition of slavery.While undoubtedly the statue became iconic, many Black Americans at the time of its dedication saw it as hypocritical. Though slavery had been abolished, Jim Crow laws aimed at marginalizing Black Americans were in full force in the South, while the North very much remained segregated. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi originally planned that Lady Liberty should hold the broken chains in her hands, as a reference to this, but deemed it too controversial, instead placing the broken chains at the statue's feet. Bartholdi also made other changes to usual liberty statues. Though he chose a diadem, other statues depicting Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, portray her wearing a pileus – a type of hat given to freed slaves in Ancient Rome.This message – a celebration of the end of slavery, as well as of independence – has been lost a little since the statue was first unveiled, like the colors underneath the outer layer of green.

Competition in the Tour de France is extreme. Riders complete over 80 hours on the bike over 3 weeks, yet the first place finish was cumulatively only around 6 minutes faster than second place. During the event, the training and lifestyle factors that can give athletes a competitive edge are under the spotlight. This year, controversy has broke out over rumors of riders using carbon monoxide to improve endurance.Yes, you read that right. You’ve probably only heard of carbon monoxide (CO) because it’s a poisonous gas. Less than two weeks ago, in the middle of this year’s Tour de France, an article in Escape Collective suggested that cyclists were using carbon monoxide to improve their performance.Carbon monoxide is a product of incomplete burning of carbon. It is a toxic component of car exhaust fumes. If you have a gas stove, you probably have a CO alarm in your house. It’s colorless, odorless, flammable, and dangerous to breathe in.When inhaled, carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein that carries oxygen in your blood and makes it red. By doing so, it displaces oxygen from hemoglobin. Depriving the blood of oxygen is what gives you CO poisoning: dizziness, headaches, chest pain, and loss of consciousness.Given the associated dangers, what prompted the discussion of cyclists’ rumored use of CO? The ability of CO to bind hemoglobin is commonly used to test a subject’s hemoglobin levels in a test called CO rebreathing. “Carbon monoxide rebreathing is a method to assess total hemoglobin mass and has been used in altitude training and research for over 20 years. It is a well established, safe, professional method that is backed by a very large amount of research,” UAE-Team Emirates said in a statement, Cycling Weekly reports.While several professional cycling teams have admitted to using CO rebreathing, some have spoken out about the potential of using carbon monoxide to enhance performance. The short exposures to CO during the hemoglobin test don't seem to affect performance or health, but more research is needed to confirm. This will inform whether anti-doping agencies ban the use of these tests.CO rebreathing involves CO inhalation in small doses, for short periods of time. During the test, CO binds to hemoglobin, depriving the blood of oxygen. For an endurance athlete, optimizing how much oxygen the blood can carry is paramount.More oxygen in the blood means more oxygen in the muscle, and this means improved aerobic performance. Once the oxygen level in the muscle is not enough to keep up with the high demands of contraction, the clock is ticking before your muscles give up. So, blood oxygenation is king if you want to rule the peloton.Hold on, if maximizing oxygen in blood is so important for performance, why use CO, which displaces oxygen from hemoglobin? Well, the lower oxygen concentration (hypoxia) from CO exposure could stimulate adaptation. A few studies in the last five years have shown that CO exposure can lead to an increase in total hemoglobin. This is similar to the effect of hypoxia at altitude which leads to an increase in red blood cells and oxygen carrying capacity.Altitude training has become a common practice for athletes. The efficacy of this training can be measured with CO rebreathing: by measuring hemoglobin before and after altitude training, athletes and their coaches can track any improvements. Could even these short exposures affect hemoglobin levels?Even though CO inhalation might have potential performance benefits, the dangers associated with CO could make it an unsafe practice. The bond between CO and hemoglobin is very stable, and prolonged hypoxia can lead to long-term side effects, including neurological damage. The line between safe and deadly can be very thin, especially when CO is not being administered by trained professionals (don't try this at home, kids!). Nevertheless, CO inhalation is not yet banned from endurance sports and there are no clear tests to determine if athletes have been using it, but the CO alarm bell is ringing in the cycling community.

CrowdStrike's massive blunder, which resulted in worldwide outages, has brought the company back on the radar of the American citizenry, who now remembers its work with the World Economic Forum, Vanguard, and the Democratic Party.On July 19, 2024, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said that a "defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts" had led to a major breakdown in Microsoft operations.This resulted in more than 18,000 flights being grounded across the globe, including 1,200 in the United States.What's more, the crash brings the company back into the spotlight for yet another negative reason: The company has been synonymous with the political sphere for the better part of the last decade.'Why didn't they allow the FBI in to investigate the server? I mean, there is so many things that nobody writes about.'Many will remember CrowdStrike's appearance in headlines during the 2016 electoral campaign when the cyber-security company was called upon to investigate the alleged hacks of the DNC servers. The timeline of its collaboration with government entities is just as troubling today as it was then.According to CrowdStrike's own timeline, "Russian intelligence gained access" to DNC networks at the "beginning of July 2015."On July 13, 2015, CrowdStrike announced a $100 million investment led by firm Google Capital.In September 2015, the FBI allegedly contacted the DNC to inform Democrats of a hack.Months later, in 2016, CrowdStrike said it was hired by the Democratic Party to investigate an alleged hack that resulted in the release of the John Podesta emails, revealing Hillary Clinton's email server. By this point, the company already had former FBI employees on its payroll for some time.This included Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, who joined CrowdStrike in 2012. CrowdStrike also announced on April 18, 2024, that it had hired Steven Chabinsky, a former deputy assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division, as its general counsel and chief risk officer.CrowdStrike said it was contacted by the DNC on April 30, 2016, to collect intelligence and analyze the breach. The company added that the DNC was alerted about the hack by the FBI, but CrowdStrike was hired because the FBI doesn't "perform incident response or network remediation services when organizations need to get back to business."CrowdStrike concluded on June 14, 2016, that Russia was "behind the DNC hack" and that its claim was "supported by the U.S. Intelligence community and also by independent Congressional reports."This, of course, led to the "Russia, Russia, Russia" investigation into Donald Trump by a special counsel headed by Robert Mueller. Trump was asked about CrowdStrike in April 2017 surrounding the leak of the Podesta emails. The implication was that Ukraine possibly possessed information that would clear Russia of any wrongdoing in relation to the hacks."They shouldn't have allowed it to get out. If they had the proper defensive devices on their internet, you know, equipment, they wouldn't even allow the FBI," Trump said. He then questioned why the FBI didn't investigate the hacks themselves."How about this — they get hacked, and the FBI goes to see them, and they won't let the FBI see their server. But do you understand, nobody ever writes it. Why wouldn't (former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John) Podesta and Hillary Clinton allow the FBI to see the server? They brought in another company that I hear is Ukrainian-based.""CrowdStrike?" an Associated Press reporter asked."That's what I heard. I heard it’s owned by a very rich Ukrainian, that’s what I heard. But they brought in another company to investigate the server. Why didn't they allow the FBI in to investigate the server? I mean, there is so many things that nobody writes about. It's incredible."Then-President Trump mentioned the company by name in his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the same phone call that led to his impeachment."I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine; they say CrowdStrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people. ... The server, they say Ukraine has it," Trump said according to CNN. "[William Barr will call] you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it," Trump added. — (@) 'I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm not.'Not to be forgotten, CrowdStrike has been involved with the World Economic Forum for some time. In August 2015, the WEF named it a "Technology Pioneer" for "driving visionary leadership and long-standing market value."In 2020, the WEF started its partnership against cybercrime with a stated goal of "harness[ing] AI to Combat Cybercrime."CrowdStrike is one of the companies involved in the partnership. — (@) Also, Americans may be interested in learning that investment giant Vanguard is the largest shareholder of CrowdStrike shares, with a combined 12.41% ownership between Vanguard and Vanguard Index Funds. BlackRock also has ownership but at less than 1%.“I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm not," Return's Peter Gietl said of Vanguard's ownership. "Unfortunately BlackRock and Vanguard have bought up large stakes in many of the most important companies around the world. It becomes more and more clear that the 'free market' is a mirage on the macro level, and a few select, deep state approved companies have captured control of most industries," Gietl continued."What's particularly concerning about this outage is that CrowdStrike had kernel access to most of the systems around the world. This seems very dangerous, allowing a hacker or an accident to crash systems around the world. Never mind that a WEF partner has that level of system access," he added.It should also be noted that Nancy Pelosi owns significant shares in CrowdStrike, having purchased between $500,000 and $1,000,000 worth of shares in 2020.A page called Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker, which monitors the politician's extremely profitable trading, claimed that she owns "millions in Crowdstrike."Friendly reminder, Pelosi owns millions in Crowdstrike ?— Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker ♟ (@PelosiTracker_) July 19, 2024 Like Blaze News? 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Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned.One day after her disastrous hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Cheatle tendered her resignation amid a growing chorus of bipartisan lawmakers demanding that she step down. Her resignation came 10 days after a 20-year-old lone gunman came within inches of assassinating former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, broke the story of Cheatle's resignation during a radio interview on "The Glenn Beck Program." — (@) Had Cheatle not resigned, lawmakers threatened to pursue immediate impeachment."I take full responsibility for the security lapse," she told the Secret Service, the Associated Press reported. "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director."Despite leading the Secret Service during the agency's most significant failure since the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, Cheatle had vowed not to resign. Cheatle went to Capitol Hill on Monday promising accountability but ultimately refused any when she reaffirmed her stance that she would not resign. She even told lawmakers that she believed she was the "right person" for the job despite the assassination attempt.For hours, lawmakers from both parties grilled Cheatle, but she refused to provide specific answers that led to the stunning security failures that took the life of Corey Comperatore and seriously injured two other rally attendees. Instead, she maintained a posture of secrecy that outraged the lawmakers.After the hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) both demanded that Cheatle resign."Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures," they wrote. "We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Former President Donald Trump may have narrowly survived an assassination attempt, but the mainstream media hasn’t wasted any time blaming him for it. “‘Donald Trump contributed to the environment,’ says George Stephanopoulos and this hideous Martha Raddatz,” Mark Levin comments, adding, “They will hang on every syllable that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth looking for anything they can hang on to.” And that's exactly what they've done. “As you point out ... President Trump and his supporters have contributed to this violent rhetoric as well,” Stephanopoulos said to his co-host the day after the assassination attempt. “Trump in January warned of bedlam in the country if the criminal charges against him succeeded. And of course, in March he said, ‘Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,’” Raddatz added, leaving out the fact that Trump had been discussing the auto industry. It's unsurprisingly the same thing the Democrats have done with January 6, despite Trump specifically telling his supporters to be peaceful. “He specifically told them ‘yes,’ but protest peacefully — which they always cut out because it destroys their narrative,” Levin says, noting that the amount of times Trump has been called Hitler because of it is off the charts. Trump had also offered 10,000 armed National Guardsmen to protect the Capitol building on January 6, but the offer was rejected by the Democrats. “They keep trying to lie about that and punch holes in that because it gives the lie to their propaganda about January 6th and Donald Trump’s so-called role,” Levin says. “And even when Biden gave that pathetic speech in which he didn’t apologize and took responsibility for nothing when he’s the leader of the pack, the examples that were given, he didn’t give examples about the violence in the streets the last ten months with the Islamists and the Marxists,” he continues. “The Democrat Party has a hugely violent past, from slavery and the confederacy forward. He’s the head of the Democrat Party. He could have tamped this down a long time ago,” he adds. Want more from Mark Levin?To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

It’s been almost a decade since the launch of The Witcher 3, and like any good open-world RPG there are still secrets to find. Start a new save, walk in the opposite direction you did last time, and you’re bound to come across something new. But it's easy to miss things. The Continent is vast and there are some superb adventures in the base game that might have slipped under your nose. Thankfully, a new The Witcher 3 mod offers a solution. Continue reading New The Witcher 3 mod adds 17 quests that you missed in the base game MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The Witcher 3 mods, The Witcher 4 news, Witcher 3 system requirements

What are the new Meme Sea codes? When taking on an ocean of the internet's most popular memes with a One Piece-inspired anime twist, getting a bunch of free rewards will make your custom character all the tougher to beat. With a bunch of epic powers at your disposal in the game, any Roblox codes you find in this guide will give you an extra edge. Although it's not on the list of best Roblox games, Meme Sea stands alongside plenty of other anime games offering free bonuses. For example, you can also find some in the newest Anime Champions Simulator codes or All Star Tower Defense codes. To make you ready to take on treacherous viral foes, let's dive into all Meme Sea codes available right now. Continue reading Meme Sea codes July 2024 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Roblox games, Roblox promo codes, Roblox music codes