According to recent reports, TikTok’s carbon footprint might outpace that of the entire country of Greece. Estimates from Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, show the average TikTok user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year.
Those figures are more than X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, although both platforms have a significantly larger user base. With its one billion global users, the average TikToker spends 45.5 minutes scrolling, compared to Instagram’s 30.6 minutes a day.
And why is TikTok responsible for such a heavy carbon footprint? It’s all about the addictive algorithm, according to Alexis Normand, the chief executive of Greenly.
Donald Trump has won again. ABC News and George Stephanopoulos have settled the defamation lawsuit brought by the incoming president, with the news network agreeing to pay $15 million in damages while also issuing an apology.
The lawsuit was first filed after Stephanopoulos claimed as a matter of fact that Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll. The comment came during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace. [who is an actual rape victim]
Of course, the issue was that Trump has never been charged or convicted of rape criminally nor has he been found liable for rape in any civil suit. Stephanopoulos made it up in an attempt to bait Mace, and it ended up being the basis of the now-settled civil suit against he and ABC News.
Worldview is most simply described as a person’s or a people’s way of viewing and thinking about the world. It includes beliefs about a creator (God), the physical world, humankind, the beginnings and continuance of human life, death and the end of human life and afterlife. It also includes beliefs about peoples’ interaction with a creator, the physical world and other people. Worldview matters, particularly when considering the role it plays in education. While often not explicitly discussed, the beliefs and assumptions that form worldview affect every aspect of curriculum, instruction and administration. //
Our belief as Christians about who God is, who we are as men and women, God’s relationship with us, the mystery of the Trinity, the virgin birth, death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ all have implications for how we live, love, learn, worship and what we believe our purpose to be in the world.
Dramatic alleluias and an assertive rhythmic impetus interwoven with quotes of Beethoven’s Hymn to Joy continually combine with Crown Him with Many Crowns (DIADEMATA), building to an overwhelming scene of worship of the risen Savior, perfect for Easter morning or general worship. Congregation may join in singing first and last stanzas, or all stanzas, for even greater impact.
Scored for SATB with piano (in choral score) and/or organ (separate part available), with optional brass sextet/percussion or full orchestra.
The approach is going to be everybody line up. If you want to survive, you better be good. Don't get on Santa's naughty list here because we will primary you." She mentions Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and her questions about SecDef nominee Pete Hegseth, but Ernst had already indicated she was supportive of Hegseth by the time Murkowski made these remarks. //
It should surprise no one that voters who voted in Trump should want Republican senators to support the nominees Trump has put forth, in order to implement his agenda. That's why they put him in office -- so he could implement the agenda they want. It's not even "allegiant to party" -- it's being allegiant to the voters. If the voters don't like what you are doing, then yes, they are going to primary you and try to vote you out.
That's how the process works. You're supposed to represent them. And supporting the nominees isn't going to "energize the Democrats" -- not supporting the nominees is going to energize the Democrats. If Trump's agenda is put into place it's going to reduce the control of the Democrats and benefit Americans and the entire country.
If a "Republican" doesn't get that, that's a problem. //
Claudius54
an hour ago
"She claimed that she wasn't attached to the label of "Republican.""
... well, at least she's being honest.
From Wiki: According to CQ Roll Call, she voted with President Barack Obama's position 72.3% of the time in 2013; she was one of only two Republicans to vote with Obama over 70% of the time. She opposed Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination in 2018 and supported Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination in 2022. In 2021, she was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial; the Alaska Republican Party censured her for that vote.
If she runs again, I doubt that "ranked choice" is going to save her ... given that she's the 'rankest' possible choice.
While lawyers in the Tennessee transgender care ban case were slugging it out in court last week, the UK was putting the finishing touches on a “holistic” approach to pediatric transgender care—one that has broad, bipartisan support and is grounded in mental health protocol rather than risky, unproven drugs.
On Wednesday, the left-leaning Labour government announced that puberty blockers for minors with gender dysphoria would be banned indefinitely across the UK, except for use in clinical trials.
The announcement follows an emergency ban that extended to private providers beginning in May 2024, after the landmark Cass Review on children’s gender care found there was insufficient evidence to show these drugs were safe. It was a temporary measure enacted by the then-Conservative government and later upheld against a challenge in court, as we reported here. //
In October, Cass told The Times she attributes the report’s ongoing success to broad, cross-party support that kept it from becoming “a political hostage to fortune.”
So far, Cass—now Baroness Cass of Barnet to us—seems to be right. The UK did what the US failed to do: take the politics out of children’s medicine.
“We ask in the name of all the surrounding area to join our people in the Golan, and to live with freedom and dignity like our people are living [in Israel].
He calls for the Syrian Druze to be freed from the “injustice and oppression” that was first imposed on them by the Assad regime, and which they fear will soon be imposed on them again by the Islamist rebel groups. //
Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby
·
BREAKING: The Druze leader of al-Suwayda in southwestern Syria issued a statement for his village.
“We will not agree to live under the rule of the rebels, who are identical to ISIS, we want to live under Israeli rule and become part of Israel.”
8:44 PM · Dec 12, 2024. //
Stuytown | December 14, 2024 at 12:38 am
These people are in a very difficult position. I can’t imagine Israel taking them in. It would incur the wrath of the world, as usual, and Israel would need to expand its defenses to these Druze. The Druze are justified in their fear of the “rebels.” After this video of the meeting came out, a second video of a meeting was released. It had fewer people participating and looked staged. In it, the people vote to stay in Syria. They are scared.
The IDF conducted at least 500 airstrikes since Assad fled to Moscow, and his military melted away in the face of an Islamic rebel offensive. In less than a week, the Israeli strikes “had destroyed around 80% of Syria’s larger-scale firepower,” the Jerusalem Post reported Thursday. Israel now had virtual air superiority in Syria after “destroying over 90% of the identified strategic surface-to-air missiles,” the IDF declared Thursday. //
The Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah continues to violate President Joe Biden-backed ceasefire along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The Israeli military targeted Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure along the northern border in retaliatory operations.
“The IAF struck a loaded and ready-to-use launcher aimed at Israel in violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military said Saturday.
According to Bukele, El Salvador may be sitting on unmined gold reserves worth an estimated $3 trillion, approximately 8,800% of the nation’s current GDP.
In a series of posts on social media platform X, Bukele projected that the country potentially has “the largest gold deposits per square kilometer in the world.”.
GOD PLACED A GIGANTIC TREASURE UNDER OUR FEET: El Salvador potentially has the highest density gold deposits per km² in the world. Located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the richest areas in mineral resources thanks to its volcanic activity.
But it isn’t just gold that is important. Studies have identified the presence of a wide range of critical metals and rare earth minerals: Cobalt, lithium, nickel, platinum, iridium, titanium, and germanium. //
The president claims that ‘responsible mining’ can be done, but there is no evidence to support this claim,” Pedro Cabezas, a member of the Central American Alliance against Mining (ACAFREMIN), told Newsweek. “There are no examples of ‘responsible mining’ that haven’t caused serious impacts. The effects in El Salvador would be terrible,” he warned.
But Bukele makes a persuasive case that a richer country is a cleaner country.
“I understand the concern. El Salvador has 95% of its waters polluted. Imagine if we pollute them further; we’ll end up with 97%, 98% contamination. The reality is that when 95% of your rivers are polluted, you shouldn’t focus on saving the remaining 5%, but on recovering the 95% that was lost,” Bukele argued on Thursday. “If we had 95% of our rivers clean, then we could focus on maintaining the status quo.”
“The only thing we can do is invest billions of dollars to clean up the polluted waters. And to have those billions, we need resources that can easily be obtained from mining,” he added, according to Diario El Salvador.
The cluelessness of the liberal media and the Democrats has been something to see since the election.
They're still trying to figure it out and wraps their minds around how President-elect Donald Trump won.
One of the few people who gets it is CNN's Van Jones. As we reported, he explained how Trump got the rise of new media and made use of that, that the legacy mainstream media was the "fringe" and the "fringe" was now the mainstream.
Former CNN commenter Chris Cillizza asked him about that. This truly explains how clueless Democrats are.
"How the hell did Donald Trump figure out that the mainstream media is the fringe and the fringe is now the mainstream...The 78 year old guy who doesn't even have a computer and still, like, writes handwritten notes? How did he become the guy who cracked the code?" Cillizza asked.
Um, because it's obvious, if your eyes are open? If you're able to count the numbers that the new media is getting versus the old? Because Trump's eyes are open? It's not a huge mystery, there's no deep code to crack. Meanwhile the Democrats were still stuck back, bragging about "door knocking." //
He was open to talking to everyone, anywhere, even with people who were going to attack him to reach out to people and he had concrete policies and answers. Unlike Kamala Harris. You're talking about a guy who was able to survive and triumph over everything thrown against him, get shot in the ear and stand up shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Everybody keeps I mean, the problem is you have a framework in your mind that how can Donald Trump, how could Donald Trump? Guys can we cut it out? Donald Trump is not an idiot. Donald Trump, let me just be very clear. Donald Trump is smarter than me, you, and all critics. You know how I know? Because he has the White House, the Senate, the House, the popular vote…
He said Trump had the "fervor" of a political movement around him, and his "best buddy" is the "richest person in the history of the world," and "the most relevant Kennedy is with him."
This dude is a phenomenon. He is the most powerful human on earth and in our lifetime. And we're still saying, Well, how is this guy [doing it]? We look like idiots.
Cillizza completely agreed.
Kudos to Van for being honest.
But most of the Democrats and the liberal media are still stunned, blaming everyone else but themselves and still calling Trump Hitler, not getting that doesn't fly and no one believes them. And they're not going to like what Van had to say because it upends all their narrative for almost a decade. //
anon-isiz
38 minutes ago
You look like idiots because you have chosen to be idiots. You’re out of touch with the majority of your fellow citizens because you consider them beneath you. Your fellow Americans have rejected you entirely and they aren’t finished, yet, Girls.
While it is highly unusual for a judge to remand into immediate custody for a nonviolent offender like Grillo, Lamberth has been portrayed as a heavy-handed judge in the January 6 cases. Prominent January 6 journalist Julie Kelly has described Lamberth as "one of the cruelest judges," as well as a monster, evil and heartless. Her criticism of him is based on his harsh treatment of defendants, his political statements about January 6 and Donald Trump during court proceedings, and a lack of judicial temperament. //
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
·
Follow
These prosecutors and Judge Lamberth are monsters. Evil, heartless, and cruel. Once again, this fossil Reagan-appointed judge sentences a trespasser to jail time and a lengthy probation to cover the next presidential election.
Political prisoners. Any comment , @MittRomney?
Joseph D. McBride, Esq.
@McBrideLawNYC
Capitol trespasses are routinely dispensed with non-criminal plea deals that do not result in incarceration.
DO NOT complain about Putin if you are supporting this authoritarian gulaging.
Great work, @EpochJoe64.
https://m.theepochtimes.com/60-days-jail-3-years-probation-for-north-carolina-man-who-did-fist-bumps-took-selfies-at-the-us-capitol_4336850.html
9:40 PM · Mar 14, 2022 //
DaveM anon-h4d3
12 hours ago edited
There is a remedy but it requires cojones- which continues to be in extremely short supply among elected Congressional Republicans. That that remedy includes impeachment and removal from the bench followed by criminal prosecution for deprivation of rights under color of authority.
You will never get conviction in DC but lets let this Judge experience personally what it routinely dished out to others.
Despite her age and frailty, she comes from a solidly blue San Francisco area district that would send a chicken pot pie to Congress if there was a "D" carved into the crust, so she's probably safe to hold her seat as long as she wants.
And, we must also note, she has grown monstrously rich while in office, in no small part due to uncanny success in investing; the Pelosis, Nancy and her husband Paul, have an investment portfolio that has returned an uncanny 700 percent over the last 10 years. //
(N)o.(B)ody.(C)ares
10 hours ago
Crooks? I’m inclined to think “Crooks” is small potatoes term for small crimes.
Pelosi’s grift makes the mafia look tame. Clinton’s know to ride Auntie Nans coat tails.
They are the quintessential “Government Mob” Bosses. They know where the bodies are buried and know how to keep their money flowing.
If one considers how Public Officials become Multimillionaires while in office, need to follow the money and how it flows. They sent Martha Stewart to prison for the very thing they have perfected.
They hate competition, and the laws prove it
Kurt Schlichter @KurtSchlichter
·
This retard is the epitome of the generals who have failed to unequivocally win a major war on 30+ years.
Gen Michael Hayden @GenMhayden
Enough said.
[ Hitler was also Time magazine man of the year ]
8:42 AM · Dec 13, 2024 //
JD Vance @JDVance
·
Barack Obama was also Time’s person of the year. So was Bill Clinton.
One of President Trump’s great contributions to American society is revealing that many of our respected career bureaucrats are, in fact, fools.
Gen Michael Hayden @GenMhayden
Enough said.
8:37 AM · Dec 13, 2024.
So unless Hayden is willing to admit that Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Taylor Swift, and a host of other Democrats are Hitler, too, he may just want to stop digging that hole. It's just nonsensical. Heck, Time even picked "You" as the Person of the Year in 2006 for all the people who posted on social media, so that sounds like it might even include Hayden.
If ever there was an "open mouth, insert foot" moment, this would be it.
They call it "dramatic," I call it pathetically inadequate and long overdue.
I've covered this story previously; see Four-Star General Suspended and Under IG Investigation for Tampering With Command Selection Board and Go Big or Go Home: Army General Blasts 'Racist' Promotion System as Reason He Meddled to Help a Favorite. //
As a note, the panel members are supposed to be anonymous to prevent this kind of tomfoolery, but someone leaked the names and phone numbers of the panel members to Hamilton so he could lobby them. //
But now we have more information.
General Randy George, the Army Chief of Staff, knew what Hamilton was doing and abetted it. George was Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's senior military assistant before his meteoric rise to the Army's chief of staff.
The officer Hamilton pushed onto the command list was in the bottom 1% of the 811 officers considered for battalion command.
This officer's second shot at command selection was the first time anyone had been given a second shot.
General George inserted this officer on the command list despite her having been twice declared unqualified.
Hamilton was banging the officer he was trying to get promoted.
It seemed pretty obvious. As I said in a previous post, "A male general breaking all known rules on behalf of a female subordinate looks like more was going on here than fighting racism unless that's what the kids are calling it this week." //
If that [unjustly earned] award was dated after April 2022, his date of promotion to lieutenant general, he should be retired at the lowest grade at which he performed satisfactorily, which would be a major general. If the behavior began before that date, he could be retired as a one-star. Was Hamilton retired as a two-star, as the tweet suggests, and the dates changed to avoid additional embarrassment? Or was he retired as a two-star, and that decision overturned by someone higher than Wormuth? //
It doesn't really matter. When the man at the top of the Army is so utterly corrupt, the system has to act. It can either toss him out in a very public way, “pour encourager les autres," as Voltaire would have said, or it can embrace the corruption. Right now, it looks like corruption is winning. //
Ace jtt888
9 hours ago
In WW Two we had 2,000 flag officers for 12 million troops. We now have 1,000 flag officers for way less than 2 million troops. More than half need to be retired and not replaced.
Bruce427
5 hours ago edited
** Jess Davis: "When I hear people talking about expanding school vouchers, my mind immediately goes to how hard it is for families in some parts of Tennessee [because of poor bridges] even to get their children to school safely.”
OK, let's just cut to the chase: The real (and Primary) reason Progressives viscerally despise School Choice is, it substantially takes the minds of our youngsters out of the reach of Leftist Progressive Ideology.
A close secondary reason is, it takes millions in Funding out of the hands of Teacher's Unions who then funnel it back to the Democrat Party.
Everything else is just noise. //
EDMUND
4 hours ago
It's real easy....school money should follow the student, not the system... //
Indylawyer
7 hours ago
Its an especially strange argument because school choice should bring an enormous cost savings. That $7,000 voucher is probably less than half of what they are spending for those kids to attend public schools - and it's still providing $140,000 for a classroom of 20 kids. //
sb2
7 hours ago
I hear some of these arguments against big government relinquishing control and I'm left thinking that it isn't that they really think these things. They just try to find arguments they hope enough people will buy into. There is only one reason to be against school choice - and that's if you want to indoctrinate instead of teach.
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837, seeking to act as the direct representative of the common man.
More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be “so plain and simple” that offices should rotate among deserving applicants. //
While "populism" means different things to different people — much like the left's definition of "inclusion" doesn't mean to the rest of us what it means to Democrats — here's how Merriam-Webster defines the term:
... a political philosophy or movement that represents or is claimed to represent the interests of ordinary people especially against the Establishment.
Populism usually arises from a general discontent. … People feel that things are out of control, socially and economically. … The idea that this is the fault of the meritocratic elite. //
As big as Donald Trump’s victory was, his conservative populism’s political potential is bigger still.
While the primary post-election focus has been on where Trump over-performed, there are significant areas where he underperformed too.
And if Republicans could capture some of the votes Trump left on the table, they could significantly exceed Trump’s impressive 2024 victory margin in the future.
There is no reason conservative populism should not have at least an equal appeal to moderates. After all, Trump was able to tie Harris among voters who said abortion should be legal in most cases.
Paxton said that the 20-year-old woman who received the pills ended up in a hospital with complications. It was only after that, the state said in its filing, that the man described as “the biological father of the unborn child” learned of the pregnancy and the abortion. //
Texas laws prohibit a physician or medical supplier from providing any abortion-inducing drugs by courier, delivery, or mail service. Additionally, no physician may treat patients or prescribe Texas residents medicine through telehealth services unless the doctor holds a valid Texas medical license.
Dr. Carpenter knowingly treated Texas residents despite not being a licensed Texas physician and not being authorized to practice telemedicine in Texas. Attorney General Paxton requested the court enjoin Dr. Carpenter from violating Texas law and impose civil penalties of no less than $100,000 for each violation of the law. //
Just Me Here
5 hours ago
If they can mandate on-line sales tax by state they should be able to mandate on-line sales restriction for items based on state laws.
As I type this I remember they do this with many items sold in CA (many restrictions) and for hemp items in various states.
Guess I answered my own question.
A thread of 20 Survival Tips And Tricks You Might Not Have Known Before.
11 companies built around a single product: //
Success isn't about doing everything.
It's about doing ONE thing better than anyone else.
You don't need a list of products or a suite of services to be successful.
You can do more with less.
According to sources, surveillance video proved that Byrd had committed the alleged breach of protocol. Instead of admitting to it, he ended up lying to investigators, leading to a recommendation that he be fired. USCP administrators never took action, though.
The USCP disciplinary officer recommended that Byrd be fired.
“So they charge him with eating, drinking on post, abandoning post,” the source said. “They charge him with untruthful statements with the recommendation to terminate.”
Even with the evidence and firing recommendation, Capitol Police administration did not part ways with Byrd.
If that isn't a perfect illustration of the federal government, I'm not sure what is. Byrd had multiple disciplinary investigations take place against him, with at least one involving a recommendation of termination, and he was still on the job in 2021 to shoot Ashli Babbitt. That leads me to the most disgusting part of these revelations. While other officers were paid $3,000 in retention bonuses following January 6th, Byrd was given $36,000. He was also reimbursed for another $21,000 in "security upgrades" for his home in Maryland and housed at Joint Base Andrews at a cost of $35,000 from July 2021 until January 2022. //
This story gets even worse, though. According to emails exchanged with DiBiase, despite being paid tens of thousands of dollars that other officers didn't get after January 6th, Byrd was still desperate for more. He went so far as to demand money from a Memorial Fund set up for the widows of slain officers. //
Ultimately, he was promoted to Captain in 2023 despite his record and the questionable nature of his decision to shoot Babbitt. Byrd is clearly a very disturbed individual who should have been fired long before he raised his service pistol on January 6th. His troubled history is a testament to the sheer corruption of the United States federal government, and he serves as a microcosm of just how bad things are in the bureaucratic state. //
Janjan
a minute ago
There were no ‘slain officers’ on January 6 and very few injured. This all stinks to high heaven. Byrd is being paid off to keep his mouth shut. About what?