The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) recently praised the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the Smith & Wesson v. Mexico case  in their first set of cases slated for the new term.…

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The Supreme Court will hear a case to decide whether Mexico may sue American gun manufacturers and distributors for crimes committed by drug cartels with their firearms,…

President Joe Biden again undermined Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign on Friday by tying her to their administration’s policy failures. Biden’s comments are damaging to Harris because she…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The following article, Report: Western North Carolina Residents Claim Feds Are Seizing Their Land, Bulldozing It ALONG WITH BODIES OF DEAD – But The Reason?, was…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The following article, Report: Western North Carolina Residents Claim Feds Are Seizing Their Land, Bulldozing It ALONG WITH BODIES OF DEAD – But The Reason?, was…

For the past ten years, Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) has been investigating star formation, chemical enrichment, migration, and mergers in the Milky Way with the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Their work is part of the GALactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) project, an international collaboration of more than 100 scientists from institutes and universities worldwide. These observations have led to the highest spectral resolution multi-dimensional datasets for over a million stars in the Milky Way. Previous GALAH data releases have led to many significant discoveries about the evolution of the Milky Way, the existence of exoplanets, hidden star clusters, and many more. In the fourth data release (DR4), the GALAH team released the chemical fingerprints (spectra) for almost 1 million stars. This data is the pinnacle of the 10-year project and was released during the 50th anniversary celebration of the AAT. According to the study that accompanied the release, the data will inform decades of research into the formation and evolution of our galaxy. The study was led by Sven Buder, a research fellow at ASTRO 3D and the Australian National University (ANU). He was joined by an international team of researchers from ANU’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, ASTRO 3D, ACCESS-NRI, the UNSW Data Science Hub, the Sydney Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Stellar Astrophysics Centre, the International Space Science Institute, and multiple universities. The paper describing the data release recently appeared in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. The GALAH survey relies on the High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) working in conjunction with the 2-degree field (2dF) positioner. Both instruments are part of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) located at the Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran, New South Wales. The 2dF positioner places a fiber at a star’s location in order for the light to pass to the HERMES instrument, which obtains detailed spectra of 392 objects at a time over two degrees of the sky. As Dr. Buder explained in a recent Science in Public news release: “Our work is focused on collecting as much quality data as we can,” said ASTRO 3D’s Sven Buder, a research fellow at the Australian National University. GALAH has shown us which chemical elements make up the stars of the Milky Way. This dataset now helps further our ability to accurately age the stars in our neighborhood and understand where they came from. This data becomes a powerful tool for astronomers to test new theories and make new scientific discoveries about the Universe.” The project scientists also rely on data from the Gaia, Kepler, and CoRoT missions, which have gathered optical data on countless stars in our galaxy. The GALAH project aims to determine the ages of these stars via their chemical signatures to get a clearer picture of the assembly of the Milky Way. This will allow astronomers to estimate a timeline of the Galaxy’s chemical and dynamical evolution and to investigate changes in the rate of star formation rate over time. “We have measured the elements within these stars, like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, as well as heavy elements found in our smartphones and electric vehicles,” added Dr. Buder. “This data will help us figure out how these elements are produced in stars, which is fundamental to explaining the origins of the building blocks of life.” The spectral data consists of the visible spectrum with overlapping barcodes that indicate at which wavelengths light is being absorbed. These are the “chemical fingerprints” of the star, revealing their overall composition. This data will also help astronomers understand how the elements were formed and distributed throughout the Universe, offering hints about cosmic evolution. As if that wasn’t enough, the spectra can also be used for potentially detecting signatures of planetary systems. The colorful spectra taken at Siding Spring Observatory with the element barcode of the pointer stars alpha Centauri, our Sun, and stars with very little elements. Credit: Sven Buder, ANU/ASTRO 3D In the past, GALAH data has shown stars that may have consumed planets as the Milky Way developed. Said co-author Professor Daniel Zucker of Macquarie University: “The GALAH survey has detected signs that some stars may have ‘eaten’ planets that were orbiting them. This can be observed by looking at the chemical composition of the star, as the elements from the consumed planet would show up as markers in the star’s spectrum.” The GALAH datasets have had a profound impact on the global astronomical community and led to 290 scientific studies to date. The previous data release (DR3) paper covered 300,000 stars and became the most cited work of the year for the journal responsible. With data on almost 1,000,000 stars, the scientific impact of this latest release is expected to be tremendous. The GALAH dataset is also expected to play a vital role in training the next generation of machine-learning tools, which are increasingly important to astronomy. “We are really looking towards an incredibly exciting period over the next few years where all of these discoveries about what’s happening in our Universe are going to flow from the data that we’ve collected right here in Australia using Australian telescopes and building on Australian research,” said Associate Professor Sarah Martell of UNSW, a key member of the project. Professor Emma Ryan-Weber, the Director of ASTRO 3D, added that the GALAH project is directly aligned with ASTRO 3D’s mission: “It helps us understand how galaxies build mass over time. The chemical information the research team has gathered is like stellar DNA – we can use it to tell where each star has come from. We can also determine their ages and movements and gain a deeper understanding of how the Milky Way and other galaxies formed and have evolved. What’s more, as the ASTRO 3D mission comes to a close, the GALAH project will leave a lasting legacy of Australian science informing astronomical discoveries about the Universe’s origins and development for decades to come.” The DR4 release can be found here, while the entire list of GALAH datasets can be found here. Further Reading: Science in Public The post The GALAH Fourth Data Release Provides Vital Data on One Million Stars in the Milky Way. appeared first on Universe Today.

The following article, Report: Western North Carolina Residents Claim Feds Are Seizing Their Land, Bulldozing It ALONG WITH BODIES OF DEAD – But The Reason?, was first published on Conservative Firing Line. What is taking place in Western North Carolina, literally about an hour from me, is the very thing they were attempting to do in Maui, which was make a major land grab.  However, that is exactly what residents in Chimney Rock are saying the federal government is illegally doing following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, … Continue reading Report: Western North Carolina Residents Claim Feds Are Seizing Their Land, Bulldozing It ALONG WITH BODIES OF DEAD – But The Reason? ...

Tantrums, meltdowns, and emotional outbursts are the bane of parents' existence.Once they start, they're like a freight train. There seems to be almost no way to stop them other than staying calm and letting them run their course.That is, until one dad on Reddit revealed his secret method.A thread titled "Hack your youngster's big emotions with math" has every parent on Reddit saying, why didn't I think of that?User u/WutTheHuck posted a simple comment on the subreddit r/daddit earlier this month."Heard about this recently - when your kid is having a meltdown, doing math engages a different part of their brain and helps them move past the big feelings and calm down," he writes."We've been doing this with our very emotional 6-yr-old, when she decides that she wants to cooperate - asking her a handful of simple addition and subtraction questions will very quickly allow her to get control of herself again and talk about her feelings."So, basically, when the sobs and screams come on strong, having your kid tell you the answer to 3+3, or 10-7 is a good way to get them calm again, and fast.OP goes on to call the technique "magical," and mentions that his 6-year-old is legendary in his household for her epic tantrums.The unique trick became a popular post on the subreddit, with a few hundreds comments from dads who were intrigued and willing to give it a try.A month later, the results are in. The math trick works wonders. OK, we said SIMPLE mathAntoine Dautry/unsplashWhat struck me as I read through r/daddit was how many follow-up threads there were that said something to the effect of:The math trick worked!One user wrote that when his kids woke up screaming from a nightmare, he responded with a simple addition question."Soon as my wife closed the door ... [my kid] wanted mommy and started yelling her head off. I remembered the math trick and went 'what's 2+2?' It worked like a charm; the screaming ceased by the second question," he said.In a separate thread, u/LighTMan913 had a message for "whoever posted here a few days ago about having your kid do mental math when they're upset...""You're a mother fudging genius," he said. "My 7-year-old got in trouble for being mean to his brother shortly before bed time. He was rolled over facing the wall in bed. Wouldn't say goodnight. Just giving mumbles into the bed that are impossible to hear for answers."Started with 2+2 and by the time we got to 4096 he was smiling and laughing. 5 minutes after I left the room he called me back in to tell me he thinks he figured out 4096 + 4096 and I worked him through his wrong, albeit very close, answer."Worked like a charm. Thank you."It's not just random dads on the Internet. Experts agree that this method is a bona fide winner for dealing with tantrums and outbursts. Helping kids calm down can be a challenge.Annie Spratt/UnsplashAmy Morin, a psychotherapist and author, had this to say about the viral technique:"When our emotions rise, our logic decreases. The more emotional we feel, the more difficult it is to think clearly."A simple math problem requires you to raise your logic, which automatically decreases the intensity of an emotion."Morin says that the math trick basically boils down to a distraction. A distraction with the added bonus of re-engaging the logical side of a child's brain."If you do what's known as 'changing the channel' in your brain, you get your mind thinking about something else--like a math problem. When you shift your attention, your thoughts change," Morin says, adding that adults can use this concept when they're feeling overwhelmed, too."When a child is upset, don't talk about why they're upset or why a tantrum is inappropriate. Instead, help them change the channel in their brains and raise their logic. When everyone is calm, you can have a discussion about how the strategy works--and how they can apply it themselves when you're not available to remind them."Now I just need to get my 4-year-old up to speed on basic addition and subtraction and I'll be made in the shade!

There’s a popular sentiment among some stay-at-home parents and those with a family member taking care of their kids that it’s better than sending them to daycare. One common criticism is that parents who send their kids to daycare are letting other people raise their children.This causes many parents to feel ashamed that they can’t be there for their children during the day.However, Veronica, a mother of two, believes that stay-at-home moms who shame those who send their kids to daycare must stop perpetuating this myth because there are some great benefits that kids get out of daycare.Veronica shared why that “narrative” needs to be reconsidered in a viral TikTok video with over 56,000 views. @vfrieds Giving parents guilt for daycare is CRAZY #daycare #momguilt #workingmom #daycarelife #workingparent “I hate the narrative that if you send your kids to daycare, you're not raising them,” Veronica begins the video. “And people are like, ‘Oh, you know, we made some sacrifice. My kid used to have fun at Water Day, but now we go to the water park together’ and she's better for it,’” she said.Then she shared four big reasons why parents need to stop daycare-shaming.1. Not all parents can stay home“One, that's not an option for every family. So, stop making moms feel like crap because they send their kids to daycare.”2. Kids have fun at daycare"Two, my kid freaking loves Water Day and daycare. In fact, she gets pissed when I pick her up 'cause she's having fun with her friends.'"3. Kids learn a lot at daycare“Three, she's so smart because they teach her so many things there. So smart.”4. You don’t have to be either/or“Like, I'm instilling morals with her. I see her more than her daycare teacher sees her. I can raise her and she can still have fun at school. They're not mutually exclusive like things.” Children playing at a daycare.via CanvaThe video's commenters were overwhelmingly on Veronica's side. The most popular comment was from a woman who mentioned that stay-at-home moms will eventually send their kids to school. "My question to all the moms that feel that way, are they planning to stop raising their kids when they start kindergarten? Like, do they think they’re just done when they start 5k?" Tayler asked.Others shared some of the many benefits that come with going to daycare."It's really frustrating when people assume daycare is something negative. I often say that we WANT her in school, she's learning so much and has great social skills and independence,” Elmarie wrote. "I’m an early intervention service coordinator and kids speech and emotional skills usually improve so much when they start daycare and school,” Tay added.Is daycare good for children?What do the experts say? Regarding whether sending your kids to daycare is outsourcing parenting, the findings show that home life has a much more significant impact on a child’s development than daycare. “An over-arching finding in the literature is that daycare influences are less important than home influences, even for children who spend much time in daycare,” Noam Shpancer Ph.D. writes in Psychology Today.On the negative side, research shows that the quality of the daycare is very important and that kids raised in low-quality establishments can have some behavioral problems later on. On the positive side, daycare benefits “cognitive development and school readiness” in children and especially helps low-income children from disadvantaged backgrounds.Given the positive aspects of having children in daycare, it’s interesting that parents are still shamed for doing so. Parents like Veronica should be happy about their parenting decisions because there is little to suggest that sending their kids to one means they aren’t raising them. Ultimately, the most important thing is quality care; if a child is in good hands, it shouldn’t matter where they happen to be.

One very fun thing about living in a vast, multicultural world is getting to discover how certain ways of life that you find completely ordinary are actually quite baffling to those outside of those customs. Americans, for instance, might have no idea how strange things like being able to substitute things in restaurants or having toilets with a TON of water in them can seem to non-Americans. How do we know this? Non-Americans said so. Recently, Redditor rickyjones75 asked, "Non-Americans who have been to the US: "What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?" And man, the responses were just too good not to share. One thing that soooo many people mentioned, which might come as a surprise, was just how friendly Americans are. Our social skills are apparently second to none—be it striking up random conversation or just being polite and kind to strangers. As u/Muter put it, “Yall can strike a conversation with a tree. You literally don’t need anyone to respond and you’ll yabber away relentlessly,” adding, “I love it, I’m a fairly quiet dude - New Zealand’s a fairly reserved place, so just being able to stream your consciousness out like that is just something truly remarkable..”u/Guycg also wrote, “Americans can strike up a sincere conversation and not be weird about it. No one precedes a question with 'Sorry to be weird'. They don't feel embarrassed if they don't know something. They can listen to you tell a story without jumping in to tell a vaguely similar story related to them.” “I went there for university and honestly Americans just do a lot of little things that are generally nice. Holding the door open, smiling if you make eye contact while walking, randomly saying a quick greeting, etc. Random compliments too, and I never got the vibe that people were just making them up,” shared u/faeriefountain_u/Bungle_bogs also noted how Americans are so “enamored you are with British culture and people.”“I was invited to a BBQ, in a public place, by someone that I met because he liked the t-shirt I was wearing. I felt like some sort of celebrity! I’m an average guy, but everyone wanted to chat to me,” they said, adding, “I’ve traveled extensively and have met many other nationalities, whilst in their country. I’ve been made to feel welcome in almost all, but how I was treated once my accent was heard in the US was on another level.”Also, it’s not just America’s tipping culture that leaves non-Americans scratching their heads. Here’s what a few folks had to say. “The options when ordering food, I thought it was a TV joke! I feel naughty asking to swap chips for mash but you guys can request pretty much anything!” -Bizzle_B“Weirdest thing for me, visiting Madison, Wisconsin, was the absolute top cheese curd selection and cheap and delicious local beer.” -u/Throwawaythisoneplz“My friend from the Netherlands described his visit to the US as the 'land of endless choices' which is how Americans like it.” -u/RedSolez“The restaurants expect you to NOT finish the food and take it home. My mother finds taking home leftovers from a restaurant to be embarrassing and will not do it. But American restaurants have portion sizes that seem to expect this.” -u/Repulsive_Tear4528Aaaaand we also might have a caffeine problem (masking a productivity problem, of course). “Coffee in the states is a ‘to go’ thing while in the rest of the world it's a ‘sit and relax’ thing,” said u/vivalaroja2010"Coffee all the time. I got a tattoo in Barcelona and was completely embarrassed when I asked the artist if he wanted a coffee from next door. He told me, 'Oh no, I have to keep working.' He thought I wanted to go sit with him for a while."—u/MattSk87America’s signature love of diversity in many forms also manifests itself in our lawmaking, which can be baffling to an outsider. “Radically different laws for each state? like you could be illegal in one, then travel a few miles, then boom you're safe?” asks u/Frequent_Print7915u/omnipresent_sailfish might have hit the nail on the head when they quipped, "The United States is not so much a single country as it is 50 raccoons in a trench coat."Driving around in America seems to feel very odd as well. “The gigantic open spaces everywhere. SO.MUCH.SPACE.” -u/Murmurmira“The billboards on the interstates.... 'Only 20 miles to....,' 'Only 15 miles to....' and some chain or business. Oh, and fireworks... everywhere…” -u/Iracing_MuskokaOn a related note…"Driving through rural Oregon on US26 and seeing billboards proclaiming Hillary Clinton to be the anti-Christ who wants to steal your guns and eat babies."—u/ConstableBlimeyChips“Tailgating on highway (even people complaining about tailgaters were themselves often tailgating).” - u/bolyai"The car dependency. I was in LA, and when I said I was walking to places, people looked at me like I was out of my mind."—u/VisibleElephant“The flags everywhere.” -u/davorgThen there were a few things that even Americans can probably agree are on the weirder side:“Putting the real estate agent's face on the for-sale signs.” -u/toastehmonstah“Prescription drug ads on TV that casually say ‘side effects may include death.’ I was shocked.”-u/Lattice-shadow“Your news channels display FAR TOO MUCH info on the screen.” -uRaioc2436"Not using the coin/token system for your shopping carts. And while on the subject, grocery baggers are also super weird."—u/No_nukes_at_all"The love for all things drive-thru. You can find 30 cars in a drive-thru and not a single person inside a place."—u/PrettyBoyLarge"I've never been to the US, but something I think is really weird is how the election works there."—u/Cinefilo0802“You guys do love your big cars, huh :p” -u/Bman1465“The toilet is so FULL of water. I always have to convince myself that I'm not about to dunk my cheeks.” -u/Hazz3rSpeaking of toilets…"The gaps in toilet stalls."—u/Affectionate-Emu1374“You advertise antidepressants on the TV. ?”-u/Melonpan78And then some that totally caught us off guard:"The taste of apples. I've tried ones in Turkey, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, and China, and they all taste pretty much the same. American apples, on the other hand, are like frozen French fries with all the sweetness sucked out and replaced purely by weird sourness. My German, French, and Japanese friends also agreed with me."—u/PassakornKarn"Measuring distance in time. (ex: 'I'm two hours away from you')."—u/sss100100Dorito chips and Cheetos have like ten times the amount of orange powder. Everything is so sweet and tastes 'heavy' for some reason." —u/Bman1465 (Hmm, maybe this one isn't so much of a surprise…)"Using paper towels to wipe things in and out of their homes. ESPECIALLY if they are inside the house." —u/passionate_milf"I find military people boarding airplanes first strange."—u/MrChicken23"Chips with everything; if you invite Americans to a party, definitely bring chips. Even if it's a romantic dinner, be prepared for chips." —u/Exotic_Second2734"I was there on Valentine's Day. Random wait staff and hotel staff wished me a happy Valentine's Day and gave me roses. It was so weird. In Australia, it's a thing for couples only." —u/harrywho23Lastly, our favorite: “They have those angry sinks that chop sh_t.” -u/Mind_ExtractBet you’ve never thought of a garbage disposal that way. And you’ll never think about it the same way again.