If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Recently released minutes from the UK government’s Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) governing board, the Disinformation Board, provide further evidence of the authorities’ direct involvement in monitoring online speech during the pandemic but also flagging it for removal. But even this wasn’t enough for CDU, which in 2023, after several years of criticism and scrutiny by some media and privacy groups, got rebranded as the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT). One of the moves considered by top UK officials was to “embed” civil servants in companies running social platforms, and it remains unclear if this was in fact done, writes Big Brother Watch’s Jake Hurfurt for Public. CDU was only one building block in the UK’s Covid-era censorship effort; several military units were enlisted to participate as well, most notably and controversially the 77th Brigade, whose job is supposed to be spreading misinformation, and in general, finding its “psyops” targets abroad, not at home. NSOIT (CDU) also states that it is “countering disinformation and hostile state narratives.” But these and several other outfits, as well as private contractors hired by the government, were tasked with surveillance of British citizens and suppression of those seen as “Covid measures dissenters.” And so, what scores of freedom of information requests have since revealed is that they went not after disinformation-spreading “foreign adversary” – but ordinary British citizens, medical professionals, journalists, and even politicians who were engaging in legitimate, albeit critical of the government, speech. Regarding the lengths to which the UK was prepared to go – specifically if officials actually got “embedded” in social media companies – this is unclear to this day thanks to the government’s refusal to provide access to reports compiled by Logically, a private company. Logically made millions from contracts with the British military, Hurfurt notes. Completing the picture of the web of sometimes loosely, other times tightly inter-connected entities that work hard to censor online speech, he adds: “(Logically) has a large US presence and is headed by US ex-intelligence officer Brian Murphy, who worked at the Department for Homeland Security (DHS).” Meanwhile, the UK government explains its refusal to shed light on the question of whether or not its officials were directly involved with social media companies as fears those reports “would reveal its capabilities to hostile actors.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post UK Disinformation Unit Minutes Reveal Consideration of Placing Government Employees Inside Social Media Companies appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The latest of Canada’s speech-restricting legislative efforts, the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) was introduced and promoted earlier in the year by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as necessary primarily to protect children and vulnerable population categories on the internet. The actual text of the bill, however, reveals broad implications, including sweeping censorship and draconian penalties, as yet another country pushes such measures under the “think of the children” banner. We obtained a copy of the bill for you here. And here, the message was “garnished” with Trudeau’s early assurances that the bill would be focused on the stated goals. But upon closer inspection, several controversial provisions have emerged, making Bill C-63 opponents liken it to all manner of dystopian concepts, from “1984” to “Minority Report.” One of them, addressing “Continuous Communication” (Section 13-2) could see Canada’s Charter of Freedoms violated by retroactively censoring speech, i.e., punishing “perpetrators” for content posted before the new law, that defines it an offense, gets enacted. The bill states that, “a person communicates or causes to be communicated hate speech so long as the hate speech remains public and the person can remove or block access to it.” Critics believe that this paves the way for the clause to be used retroactively against those who fail to remove their past statements from the internet. This could become both a tool of censorship and an intimidation tactic aimed at suppressing future speech, by demonstrating what happens to those found in violation of the law. And what can happen to them is by no means trivial: life imprisonment is envisaged as a possible punishment for “any offense motivated by hatred.” This is an example of the bill’s astonishingly overbroad nature, where interpretations of what “hatred motivated offense” is can range from advocating genocide, to a misdemeanor that is found to have been committed “with hateful intent.” More dystopian concepts are woven into the text, such as “pre-crime” – and this could land people in jail for up to a year or put them under house arrest. That’s jail time for a “hate crime” that was never committed. Meanwhile, online platforms are required to swiftly, in some cases in under 24 hours, remove content Canadian authorities label as harmful, or risk fines of up to 6 percent of their gross global revenue. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Unpacking Canada’s Controversial Push to Police the Digital World appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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In the animal world the search for food can be one of life's biggest struggles. Whether chasing down prey, carefully setting traps, or lying in wait, the creatures of Earth have come up with a multitude of ways to get their dinner. Now, research has looked closely at bearded capuchins and found they’ve taken to using tools to get access to some tasty underground snacks. Bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in Ubajara National Park, Brazil were observed using both their hands and stone-digging techniques for getting access to two types of food: trapdoor spiders and underground storage organs (USOs). Previous research has seen stone-digging used in a capuchin population that lives in a dry savannah habitat, whereas this population lives in a far wetter area. Male capuchins were also seen to use sticks and stones to capture spiders. These monkeys are already known to use hammerstones to crack palm nuts. The team followed a group of 31 monkeys for 21 months. They recorded 214 digging moments, including digging with and without the tools. The monkeys regularly extracted USOs, which are tuberous roots that are then peeled and eaten. These were excavated 49 percent of the time while spider burrows made up 19 percent of the excavations. In about half of the instances where the monkeys were seen to dig, they did so with stone tools. The “stone-digging” technique involved the monkeys pounding in the stone against the soil to loosen it, either helping them extract the USOs or shortening the spider burrows. The stone digging tools were used more frequently when digging on the hills compared to on riverbanks. The stone tools were also much more likely to be used by male monkeys.             Stick tools were observed in only male adult and subadult male capuchins. They were used more on the riverbanks than on the hills and were seen being used 40 times. On almost half of these occasions the monkeys were seen using more than one stick. In total, four techniques were used to capture and consume trapdoor spiders. These included both hands only and stone-digging, as well as stick-probing. The final technique is a combination known as “stone-stick” whereby the monkeys used both stones and sticks to extract the spider, and the last tool used was always the stick. A trapdoor spider burrow. Monkeys used tools to forage for the spider and the egg mass inside.Image courtesy of Tatiane ValençaThe team found that the use of the tools did not increase the overall success of getting either a USO or a trapdoor spider. They suggest that the use of different tools could be related to the soil conditions, or could make the time looking for underground food shorter. The study is published in Scientific Reports.

Solar Cycle 25 is certainly not as tame as the previous one. The Sun’s activity is reaching its peak and we have been seeing solar storms, coronal mass ejections, and geomagnetic storms of an intensity unseen in years. And now the Sun has released its strongest solar flare yet for this cycle.It was measured as an X8.7 flare, significantly stronger than the ones emitted last week. The light released by the event was so energetic, released in the extreme ultraviolet, that it ionized the top of the atmosphere. This in turn caused a radio blackout over the Americas, which would affect planes and ships that rely on signals below 30 MHz.The ionization also makes the atmosphere puff up, which adds more drag to satellites in low Earth orbit. They will need to be maneuvered back away from Earth. Solar flares can also disrupt communications with satellites.Extreme ultraviolet view of the Sun. The flare is visible at the edge of the disk.Image Credit: NASA/SDO/AIAThe source of it is Sunspot AR 3664. From this region, several strong flares were already observed last week, including, at the time, the second strongest of this cycle. The Sun also released several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which slammed into our planet creating the beautiful auroral display seen last weekend.Back then, the sunspot was right on the visible side of the Sun and the spot was visible to the naked eye. It is 16 times as wide as our planet! As the Sun rotates, the spot is now on its side, so we only get a side view of it. If it had happened last week, we might have measured a higher flare.“Region 3664 produced yet ANOTHER X-ray flare as it moves beyond the Western solar limb!! This time, it was an X8.7 flare, the largest of this solar cycle! Due to its location, any CME associated with this flare will likely NOT have any geomagnetic impacts on Earth,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center said in a post. “As always, stay tuned to our website for updates!”A little increase in auroral activity might happen today as the CME released brushes past Earth. Unfortunately, there won’t be anything as dramatic as last Friday.The solar cycle lasts 11 years, with a peak in activity and a minimum. The most intense events tend to happen around the peak (which could be happening any day now) but there are the occasional outliers. This flare is the 10th strongest this century.

The surface of the Earth is not static. Throughout its history, landmasses have come and gone, their parts drifting and shifting into one configuration or another. Sometimes land has been well-distributed, but at others it has all come together to form vast conglomerations called supercontinents, which themselves eventually break up. But what causes these enormous landmasses to form and shift?Supercontinents are bornSupercontinents occur when most or all of Earth’s land is assembled into one large structure. This has occurred at least a few times throughout history, but the most recent example that incorporated all of Earth’s most significant landmasses was Pangea. By “recent”, however, we’re still talking about 320 to 195 million years ago, but that’s nothing in the lifetime of the Earth.Pangea was essentially the only continent on the planet at the time and was surrounded by a single ocean – Panthalassa.Before Pangea emerged, there were others too. They include Rodinia (assembled around 1.2 billion years ago to around 750 million years ago) and Columbia (sometimes known as Nuna, which existed from around 1.7 billion years ago to 1.45 billion years ago in the Precambrian period). There was also Gondwana, a large landmass that formed around 600 million years ago, but scientists are unsure whether it can really be classed as a supercontinent.And supercontinents dieBut as enormous and titanic as these landmasses are, they are no match for the planet’s turbulent interior motions over millions of years. All supercontinents eventually disappear, and Pangea was no different. The process that causes this change is known as continental drift and relates to the ceaseless movement of the planet’s tectonic plates. In fact, it was the effort to explain Pangea’s formation and subsequent fracturing that led to the theory of plate tectonics in the first place.The idea was suggested in the early 20th century by the German meteorologist, Alfred Wegener, and was eventually proven true in the 1960s when new technology could demonstrate it.The theory of plate tectonics basically posits that Earth’s outer layer, its crust (or lithosphere) is made up of multiple plates that move over the planet’s mantle (which makes up around 84 percent of the Earth’s volume and is sandwiched between the planet’s core and the crust). The heat from the radioactive processes within the planet’s interior cause the tectonic plates to move. Sometimes this movement brings landmasses together – to form supercontinents – and other times it moves them away, therefore destroying them.In its destruction, Pangea broke into the pieces that we would recognize as the seven (or eight) continents that make up the world today. This is why the east cost of South America looks like it would fit against the west coast of Africa, like a jigsaw piece. Once upon a time, the two landmasses were one and the same.The Earth’s land masses are still moving today. On average, they move about 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inches) a year, which is as fast as our toenails grow. Yet this is not a uniform rate. Regions like costal California move quicker than average – around 5 centimeters (2 inches) a year.When the edges of tectonic plates meet, their motion can cause the crustal rocks to impact and grind against one another, which can result in earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. This activity can give birth to new mountains too.        IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.Given that continental drift is a continual process, our current continent configuration will not last. Already we are seeing signs of movements that will eventually lead to completely different layouts. This includes evidence that Africa is slowly being torn in two. One day, in millions and millions of years’ time, the continents will move back towards one another to form a new supercontinent that will be surrounded by a single massive ocean, much as it was when Pangea existed. There are even simulations that try to predict what this landmass will look like.Of course, none of this will be relevant to any of us today. We will all be long dead, but it does show just how vibrant and changing our world is; it doesn’t need us to go on.All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current. 

UPDATE, 11:58 a.m. Eastern: In addition to the CNN debate on June 27, former President Donald Trump and President Biden revealed on their respective social media accounts that they’ve both agreed to a second presidential debate for Tuesday, September 10 on ABC. The move was also confirmed by ABC News. In turn, this fulfills the two debates requested for June and September by the Biden campaign with moderators only to be selected from liberal media networks ABC, CBS, CNN, or Telemundo. As of this update, no word on whether Team Biden will agree to the Trump campaign’s request for two additional debates in July and August. The original post continues below. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following a flurry of developments Wednesday morning that publicly began with the Biden campaign’s lengthy statement and cut-filled video of President Biden goating former President Donald Trump, the two sides agreed just before 11:00 a.m. Eastern to an audience-less presidential debate for Thursday, June 27 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern inside CNN’s newly-minted Atlanta, Georgia compound in Techwood. CNN’s invitation came curiously not long after the Biden regime’s essay-lengthy demands, most notably calls for debates in June and September with the vice presidential debate in July and that moderators could only come from ABC, CBS, CNN, or Telemundo. “CNN will host an election debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald J. Trump on June 27, 2024 at 9pm ET from the crucial battleground state of Georgia. The debate will be held in CNN’s Atlanta studios. To ensure candidates may maximize the time allotted in the debate, no audience will be present,” the network said in a press release. It added that, in an important tidbit for this website and readership, “[m]oderators for the debate and additional details will be announced at a later date.” Time to start taking bets. Fake News Jim? Jake Tapper? Anderson Cooper, who co-moderated one of the Trump-Hillary Clinton 2016 debates? Erin Burnett, who just conducted a softball interview with Biden? Late-night liberal hack Abby Phillip? Or do they run it back with Chris Wallace? While it then alluded to requiring candidates fulfilling all constitutional qualifications, sufficient appearances on state ballots, and polling benchmarks, this arrangement as a result of informal talks between the two campaigns would appear to have been done to cut out the Presidential Commission on Debates and thus exclude third-party candidates, including the high-polling independent bid by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. An on-air announcement came during Acosta’s hour of CNN Newsroom to coincide with a CNN Public Relations tweet. “Alright, more on the breaking news right now, Former President Donald Trump has accepted CNN’s invitation for debate with President Biden. That is setting up a June showdown...[T]his is going to happen very quickly if — if all a plays out the way it’s happening right now,” Acosta proclaimed to CNN’s resident Biden apple polisher, Arlette Saenz. Saenz then relayed what her side of the aisle wanted out of this debate, noting the lengthy Biden regime’s list of “very specific” demands “about what they want to see” such as “the microphones can only be on when each candidate is expected to speak, potentially eliminating some of that very intense back-and-forth that we saw in the very first debate between Biden and Trump back in 2020.” #BREAKING: CNN announces that both President Biden and Donald Trump have accepted their invitation for a presidential debate on Thursday, June 27 at CNN's Atlanta studios at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, no studio audience. pic.twitter.com/YIaBwSDqSr — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 15, 2024 Acosta and chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny then discussed more of the details, including how this will be a throwback to the first-ever presidential debate on TV in 1960 between future Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon (click “expand”): ACOSTA: CNN will host and election debate between Biden and Trump on June 20, at. 9:00 p.m. in the Atlanta studios of CNN. Our new studios, not at the old building, but the new building. ZELENY: The historical Techwood studios. ACOSTA: The Techwoods campus and it says here, “to ensure candidates may maximize the time a lot in the debate, no audience will be present”. ZELENY: Right. ACOSTA: That’s interesting. ZELENY: And that is — it really takes us back, Jim, to those first televised debates in 1960, of course, in CBS news and Chicago. ACOSTA: Oh, yeah. ZELENY: On ___ street clerk shirt at WBBM as you well know. ACOSTA: My old stomping ground, yeah. ZELENY: And it’s certainly is designed, at least the Biden campaign is hoping, that it will focus on the issues, on the candidates, and the contrast port. And also that it’s an Atlanta. Obviously, Georgia is a central battleground in this election. It’s some — state that has really been the subject of so much conversation. Donald Trump claimed he won it. He did not win it, of course court cases, et cetera, but it is a key battleground as well. But this is a fast moving development and the point is, you can tell I didn’t k-mean has been working on this for awhile. ACOSTA: Oh yeah. ZELENY: And clearly, they’ve been preparing for the idea of a debate, but it could just happen weeks after the first criminal trial’s in. ACOSTA: That’s right. ZELENY: So, certainly the outcome of that will also be hanging over this debate. Minutes after this announcement, a Trump campaign memo was made public by campaign co-managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles arguing “there should be more than just two opportunities for the American people to hear more from the candidates themselves.” In turn, they announced they agree to not only the Biden campaign’s proposals for the September showdown and the vice presidential candidate sparring session, but two additional debates in July and August because “[w]e believe the American people deserve more than what the Biden administration has to offer.”

Iconic actor Harry Shearer poked fun at being replaced by a black actor for one of his voices on "The Simpsons," stating his replacement is doing an impression of a white guy doing an impression of a black actor.During a recent interview, Shearer commented on the famous cartoon possibly becoming "woke" after he and other actors who were a different race than the characters they played on the show were replaced.Producers of the show announced in 2020 that any white actors would no longer voice any nonwhite characters from the show after a documentary was released criticizing the character of Apu. Apu's voice, Hank Azaria, apologized for his role in contributing to "structural racism" and stepped down from portraying the Indian character."Folk say the show has become woke in recent years and one of my characters has been affected. I voiced the black physician, Dr Hibbert, who I based on Bill Cosby," Shearer told the Times."Back then he was known as the 'whitest black man on television.' Then, a couple of years ago, I received an email saying they'd employed a black actor, who then copied my voice. The result is a black man imitating a white man imitating the whitest black man on TV," he added.Dr. Hibbert was one of many characters that had the voice actors replaced along racial lines. The changes also included the voice of Judge Snyder, police officer Lou, and one of Homer's best friends and coworker Carl. Even background characters like Dr. Hibbert's wife and Julio Franco had their voices changed. The latter was also a character of Azaria's.In 2021, creator Matt Groening said he welcomed more "diversity" on the show but said it wasn't his idea."It was not my idea, but I’m fine with it. Who can be against diversity? So it’s great," he told USA Today. "However, I will just say that the actors were not hired to play specific characters. ... They were hired to do whatever characters we thought of. To me, the amazing thing is seeing all our brilliant actors who can do multiple voices, do multiple voices. That's part of the fun of animation. However, to be more inclusive and hire more people, I’m completely in favor of that."In his recent interview, Shearer promoted his new song "Must Crush Barbie," which was performed as his character from the cult classic movie "Spinal Tap."The 1980s mockumentary followed a fake British band that was incomprehensibly dense. Shearer noted that Oasis band member Liam Gallagher thought it was real.Shearer added that his new single "may offend some people but I don’t care. If I had to choose to be stuck in a lift with Barbie or Donald Trump it would be a tough call. I’m not sure who is the worst."The actor also jokingly said that he has two dogs but doesn't want kids."Unlike Elon Musk’s view, I don’t think the world needs more babies."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office offered plea deals to six illegal aliens who were charged in connection with the vicious mob attack on two New York Police Department officers in Times Square in January, the New York Post reported.One of the suspects, 24-year-old Yohenry Brito, was arrested again last week after he was released from jail by an activist Brooklyn priest who posted his $15,000 bail in February. Brito was most recently charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after he allegedly attempted to steal children’s clothing and fragrances from Macy’s. Bragg’s office requested a $10,000 cash bail, but a Manhattan judge opted to let Brito walk free after his Saturday arraignment.'I will order a warrant and I will place bail so high, you will not get out.'Ulises Bohorquez, 21, and Andres Gomez-Izquiel, 19, were also charged in connection with the brutal January attack on police officers. The two males, along with Brito, were offered a plea deal by Bragg’s office to serve one year in jail for second-degree assault.Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19, and Wilson Juarez, 21, were offered six months in jail for obstructing a government administration. Bragg’s office offered Yorman Reveron, 24, two years in jail if he pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. At the time of the attack, Reveron already had two open cases for assault and robbery.A plea offer has yet to be made to Edgarlis Vegas, 20, the Post reported.None of the suspects have accepted the plea deals yet.Judge Laura Wood told Brito on Tuesday, “I am furious that Mr. Brito was rearrested and charged with petty larceny while he was out on this case.”“I am very tempted right now to put you in jail. I am telling you right now, if I learn you are rearrested for anything at all between now and this case being finished, I will order a warrant and I will place bail so high, you will not get out,” Wood continued. “If you jaywalk, if you jump a turnstile, if you do anything at all and I have to issue a warrant, you will not see the light of day until this case is over.”Surveillance footage from the January attack showed the mob of illegal immigrants kicking and punching two officers in the head and body while they were attempting to detain one of the suspects. The group of males fled the scene on foot.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!