A Star Grazed Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago, and Early Humans Likely Saw It

Some distant objects in our solar system bear the gravitational imprint of a small star's close flyby 70,000 years ago, when modern humans were already walking the Earth, a new study suggests.

In 2015, a team of researchers announced that a red dwarf called Scholz's star apparently grazed the solar system 70,000 years ago, coming closer than 1 light-year to the sun. For perspective, the sun's nearest stellar neighbor these days, Proxima Centauri, lies about 4.2 light-years away. The astronomers came to this conclusion by measuring the motion and velocity of Scholz's star — which zooms through space with a smaller companion, a brown dwarf or "failed star" — and extrapolating backward in time.

Scholz's star passed by the solar system at a time when early humans and Neanderthals shared the Earth. The star likely appeared as a faint reddish light to anyone looking up at...

How A Law That Will Allegedly Help Stop Online Sex Trafficking May Undermine The Internet

Craigslist, one of the world’s favorite virtual flea markets, announced Friday it is taking down its oft-appreciated personals page in direct response to a new law recently passed by both chambers of Congress.

With the prospective swipe of a pen from President Donald Trump — the imminence of which is not clear — websites could soon be held liable to any activity or content that is found on the platforms. Law enforcement could even make sites retroactively responsible for failing to comply with the law before its possible passage.

“Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline,” Craigslist wrote in a simple blog post. “Hopefully we can bring them back some day. To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”

The Senate passed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) on Wednesday in a landslide 97-2 vote. The only two to vote against the bill were Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon.

“History shows that politicians have been remarkably bad at solving technological problems,” Wyden wrote in February. “I take a backseat to no one when it comes to fighting sex trafficking and locking up the monsters who prey on the defenseless. However, the bill … will make it harder to catch bad actors and protect victims by driving this vile crime to shadowy corners of society that are harder for law enforcement to reach.”

The House passed the pending bill in late February in similar fashion, with 388 representatives for, and only 25 against.

“Online trafficking is flourishing because there are no serious, legal consequences for the websites that profit from the exploitation of our most vulnerable,” Republican Congresswoman Ann Wagner of Missouri, who introduced the first version of the legislation, said before it was set to hit the floor for debate.

Not all federal institutions were originally enthusiastic about the legislation. The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in late February arguing that a provision, Section 2421A of title 18, in FOSTA is counterproductive “because it would extend to situations where there is a minimal federal interest, such as to instances in which an individual person uses a cell phone to manage local commercial sex transactions involving consenting adults.”

That language was altered to only include operators of an “interactive computer service” — in all likelihood to appease the larger law enforcement community.

Still overall supportive of the legislative effort, the DOJ also stated that while “well intentioned,” Section 4 includes “new language” that creates “additional elements that prosecutors must prove at trial,” therefore making it more difficult to hold perpetrators accountable. That language, which defines “participation in a venture,” is unnecessary, according to...

Vatican Cracks Down on Critics of Communist Tyrant, Pope Francis

The Vatican has taken new measures to punish critics of Pope Francis in a move that seems to belie the pope’s earlier calls for greater dialogue and debate within the Church.

On Thursday, the Rome-based Sovereign Order of Malta, which reports directly to the Holy See, suspended historian Henry Sire after he was revealed to be the author of the bestselling book The Dictator Pope: The Inside Story of the Francis Papacy, a critical examination of the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Meanwhile the Vatican has hired the international law firm of Baker McKenzie to force a small Spanish website called InfoVaticana.com to close its doors, allegedly for its sometimes critical tone toward aspects of the Francis papacy. The firm recently threatened a lawsuit if Infovaticana isn’t shut down and “its internet domain transferred to the Vatican.”

The Order of Malta announced its decision Wednesday to suspend the British historian Henry Sire, a member of the order, calling his book a “vile attack” on Pope Francis.

“Following the press articles reporting the name of the author of the book ‘The Dictator Pope’ the Grand Magistry of the Order of Malta has taken the decision to suspend Henry Sire, author of the book and member of the Order of Malta. The provisional suspension from membership has immediate effect and an investigation is being launched,” it said in a statement.

In January, 2017, the Vatican took control of the Knights of Malta after ousting its Grand Master Matthew Festing for his “defiance of papal authority.” The pope asked Festing to resign following a dispute over sovereignty with the Vatican, replacing him with papal delegate Archbishop Angelo Becciu as interim leader of the order.

Under the pen name Marcantonio Colonna, Sire published The Dictator Popeelectronically in November of 2017, first in Italian and then in English, after spending a four-year residence with the Knights of Malta in Rome from 2013 to 2017, during which time he conducted his research for the book. Only on Monday did Sire acknowledge that he was the author of the book.

In it, Sire portrayed Francis as an authoritarian leader who does not brook opposition or criticism. Contrary to his public persona as a jovial man of the people, Sire wrote that Francis has turned out to be “a papal tyrant the like of whom has not been seen for many centuries” and under his administration, “the Vatican is systematically silencing, eliminating and...

Rand Paul: Paul Ryan’s Omnibus Bill Funds Border Security in JORDAN and TUNISIA

Morning Mistress

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #205

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside? 

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific, 

from the beautiful to the repugnant, 

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed, 

you could be inspired, you could be appalled. 

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. 

You have been warned.

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Girls With Guns

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Our Public Discourse Is Now On The Web, The Left Largely Controls The Web And Is Censoring What They Consider WrongThink. This Is Censorship. This Is Dangerous. This Must Stop.