Category: Tech Media

Doctor Asked for Grant to Study Trans Hormones on Rats, Admits ‘Severe Lack’ of Research, Emails Show

Virginia Star Staff

Dr. Walid Farhat, a professor of Urology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, applied in April for a grant to study the impact of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers on prepubescent rats, acknowledging the research on the potential side effects is “severely lacking,” according to emails obtained through a Daily Caller News Foundation Freedom of Information Act request.

Farhat, who is also chief of the division of Pediatric Urology at the UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health, applied to the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) for a research grant to study the potential side effects of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers on “prepubertal male and female” rats into adulthood, according to an April email. The application claimed that the study would help close the gap in research on minors receiving transgender hormone therapy, which Farhat maintained was “relatively safe,” and criticized the attempts to withhold access to the medication.

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China Ramps Up Crackdown on American Tech

Virginia Star Staff

Over the past few months, China has escalated its efforts to exert control over American technology companies by implementing new requirements, bans and restrictions.

The Chinese government is clamping down on American technology companies by throttling their already limited access to the country’s massive economy, according to new requirements, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The country has also challenged American technology dominance by developing rivals to the latest smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as announcing export limits to key metals in July.

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Biden Challengers Nearly Nonexistent in Google Results

Just the News

Republican presidential candidates’ websites are practically nonexistent in generic Google searches for the party’s 2024 bench, and not much better for the most viable primary challenger to Democratic President Biden, according to tests by a watchdog and Just the News.

For the conservative Media Research Center and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), it’s unmistakable evidence of Google’s bias for the incumbent just as primary voters are seeking more information about the candidates on the debate stage.

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Second GOP Presidential Debate Turns Into a Rhetorical Brawl as Candidates Jockey for Position in Trump-Dominated Race

M.D. Kittle

In a second GOP presidential debate that often seemed more like a disorderly reality TV show, the Babylon Bee’s satirical news headline may have best captured the mood of viewers: ‘Mute Button’ Wins GOP Debate.

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Washington Post Disavows Its Own Poll Showing Trump Up by 10 Over Biden

Virginia Star Staff

The Washington Post cast doubt on its own poll with ABC that showed former President Trump up by 10 points over his likely rival President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential contest.

Trump leads Biden 52 percent to 42 percent in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to the Post. The outlet suggested that, given other polling showing a closer race, its own poll is “probably an outlier” and appeared to cast doubt on the sample.

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Mozilla Investigation Finds Cars Are Collecting Data on Driving Habits, Routes, and Even ‘Sexual Activity’

Christina Botteri

The Mozilla Foundation recently investigated the privacy practices of 25 major car brands through its ongoing series, *Privacy Not Included. The research uncovered the automotive industry as the worst category the group has looked into yet when it comes to protecting consumer privacy. Across all manufacturers reviewed, excessive collection and…

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Media Fumed over Trump’s Detention of Illegal Immigrants, Now Issue Has Boomeranged on Biden

Just the News
Border surge

Former President Donald Trump attracted intense media scrutiny and criticism over the detention of illegal immigrants. But now the issue has boomeranged on the Biden administration and his party, which is being cited by government watchdogs for poor conditions at  Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities during the surge at the southern border.

More than six million immigrants have illegally entered the United States during Joe Biden’s presidency. The influx appears to have placed considerable strain on facilities intended to accommodate fresh arrivals. Federal agencies are seemingly unable to provide adequate service in the face of the sheer volume.

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Researchers Question One-Size-Fits-All COVID Booster Strategy as FDA Circumvents Advisors

Just the News

Federal health officials face a growing hurdle in their quest to persuade Americans of all ages and risk profiles to get updated COVID-19 boosters: strong proponents of vaccination.

From New England to the Bay Area, researchers voiced concerns to mainstream science and health publications in recent days that the one-size-fits-all model may be backfiring.

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IRS Set to Use AI to Target Tax Cheats, Say They Will Limit to ‘High Income Earners’ and ‘Large Corporations’

The Center Square

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced new enforcement initiatives Friday to crack down on 1,600 millionaires and 75 large companies it said owe hundreds of millions in unpaid taxes.  

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said the agency will use Inflation Reduction Act funding to focus on high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations and promoters. He said the IRS won’t increase audit rates for those earning less than $400,000 a year.

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Rachel Alexander on Bannon’s WarRoom: The Left Is Going After Constitutional Scholar John Eastman ‘As a Precedent to Scare Conservative Attorneys from Ever Challenging Elections’

Admin

Arizona Sun Times lead journalist Rachel Alexander appeared on WarRoom Friday to detail the unprecedented prosecution of Constitutional scholar and attorney John Eastman by the California State Bar over his involvement with former President Donald J. Trump’s contest of the 2020 elections in several states.

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Commentary: The Rise of Unapologetically Partisan News Reporting

Virginia Star Staff

The Huffington Post was envisioned from its inception as a progressive answer to conservative talk radio and various right-leaning voices being amplified by new technology. Most specifically, it was designed as a counterpoint to the Drudge Report, a widely read and highly profitable website with populist sensibilities. The players involved in planning the new venture belonged to a select clique of Hollywood liberals and political activists in Arianna Huffington’s orbit.

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Commentary: Parents Must Teach Their Kids Discernment

Virginia Star Staff

Entertainment today is extremely accessible. We can watch videos and read articles whenever we want. Each of these pieces of media, however, has its own ideology. But often, we do not even notice this ideology that is being presented to us, or the underlying assumptions of the creators.

As Frances Schaeffer explained: “The results of [people’s] thought world flow through their fingers or from their tongues into the external world. This is true of Michelangelo’s chisel, and it is true of the dictator’s sword.” Everything people create is the product of their worldview, so being able to recognize the underlying beliefs in media and entertainment is an important skill.

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Commentary: Since When Did the RTD Become TMZ?

Admin

The Richmond Times-Dispatch was given a clip of David Owen — Republican candidate for House of Delegates — where he tells an audience of like-minded souls that he is, indeed, pro-life. Charlotte Rene Woods over at the RTD decides to do the work of Democratic campaign operatives in what could only be viewed as an in-kind donation.

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Meta’s Oversight Board Rules That Company Stifled Speech by Removing Posts About Abortion

Virginia Star Staff

Meta’s Oversight Board ruled Wednesday that Facebook and Instagram showed “patterns of censorship” by removing posts about abortion that the social media platforms claimed constituted death threats.

The board had been weighing a series of posts that were initially taken down by Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, for potential death threats against both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates before being reinstated after appeals from the users. The board took up the case in June and announced this week that Facebook had erred by removing the posts, according to the ruling.

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Meta’s Epidemic of Chinese ‘Spamouflage’ Propaganda

Virginia Star Staff

Meta recently took “what appears to be the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world,” off its platforms, according to the company’s quarterly Adversarial Threat Report released this week.’

The social media accounts that made up the covert influence operation — collectively dubbed “Spamouflage” — were active all over the world, including in America, major U.S. allies, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora.

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Commentary: AI Is Coming for Art’s Soul

Virginia Star Staff

While AI-based technology has recently been used to summon deepfakes and create a disturbing outline for running a death camp, the ever-pervasive digital juggernaut has also been used to write books under the byline of well-known authors.

The Guardian recently reported five books appeared for sale on Amazon that were apparently written by author Jane Friedman. Only, they weren’t written by Friedman at all: They were written by AI. When Friedman submitted a claim to Amazon, Amazon said they would not remove the books because she had not trademarked her name.

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‘Total Lack of Critical Thinking’: Experts Question COVID Vax, Mask Mandates amid ‘Surge’

Just the News

by Greg Piper   Governments and private entities are using a small rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and new viral variants to juice interest in bivalent boosters that only 1 in 6 Americans have taken and to urge a return to routine masking, if not outright mandating new jabs and face coverings. What they aren’t…

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More Than 1,600 Scientists, Nobel Laureates, Declare ‘Climate Emergency’ a Myth

Just the News

A coalition of 1,609 scientists from around the world have signed a declaration stating “there is no climate emergency” and that they “strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy” being pushed across the globe. The declaration does not deny the harmful effect of greenhouse gasses, but instead challenges the hysteria brought about by the narrative of imminent doom.

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‘Legal’ Concerns Halt NIH $154 Million ‘False Information’ Program

Virginia Star Staff

The National Institutes of Health halted a $154 million research program intended to study “equitable health communication” and combat alleged medical misinformation.

The “pause” came “in the context of the current regulatory and legal landscape around communication platforms,” according to a website for the initiative.

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National Archives Acknowledges 5,400 Biden Pseudonym Emails, Faces Lawsuit for Their Release

Just the News

The National Archives and Records Administration acknowledged possessing potentially up to 5,400 emails connected to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s pseudonym accounts that he used to forward government information and discuss business with his son, Hunter Biden, and others, and on Monday the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit to compel the agency to turn over the emails.

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Republican Candidates Need Not Apply: Media Tracker’s New Study Shows Just How Politically Biased Google’s Search Results Are

M.D. Kittle

Google has long been accused of suppressing conservative speech, but a new study shows the internet search engine giant is playing favorites with Democrats in the 2024 presidential race.

By typing in just one query, “Presidential campaign websites,” Google returned only Democratic Party candidates — some of whom are not even running in 2024, according to Media Research Center, the media watchdog and parent of conservative news site NewsBusters, which is “committed to exposing and combating liberal media bias.”

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National Family Group Condemns American Medical Association’s ‘Ethics’ Journal’s Support for Taxpayer-Funded Uterus Transplants in Biological Men

Susan Berry, PhD

The American Family Association (AFA) issued an alert Wednesday urging Americans to sign its petition that demands the American Medical Association (AMA) “do no harm” by ending its support for taxpayer-funded “unnatural and irreversible gender-modifying procedures,” such as uterus transplants from dead women for biological men in order to improve their “mental health.”

The petition, which, at the time of publication had collected over 25,000 signers, cites a paper, published in June, in AMA’s Journal of Ethics, that AFA asserts is “driven with political and social activism.”

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Artificial Intelligence Poses a Significant Threat to Online Security with Ability to Capture Passwords and Keystrokes

Just the News

More than two-thirds of Americans are worried about the negative effects of artificial intelligence (AI), while 61 percent believe it could “threaten civilization,” according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Whether or not AI will actually threaten the physical wellbeing of humans remains to be seen, but it’s already posing a number of other significant threats.

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Army Launches Second Phase of Brand Reboot Focused on ‘Relatability’

Virginia Star Staff

The Army released the second wave of promotional videos in its rebranding campaign Monday intended to boost its “relatability” to a diverse array of Americans amid persistent recruiting problems, according to Defense One.

The Army revived its 1980s slogan “Be All You Can Be” in March in hopes of attracting a new generation of future soldiers as recruiting fell 25 percent short of its goals in 2022 and is expected to mirror the shortfall in 2023. The “First Steps” series is meant to appeal to Gen Z’s desire for genuine engagement and emphasize knowledge, culture and trust, Ignatios Mavridis, the acting chief of Army Enterprise Marketing, told Defense One.

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Researchers Flay Medical Journals for COVID ‘Misinformation’ Claims

Just the News

Three and a half years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, American medical journals are still calling out what they consider commonly shared misinformation on vaccines, masks, transmission and viral origins, sometimes promoted by health professionals.

Yet voluminous research and real-world experiences over that span suggest the journals themselves are promoting outdated, unsupported or exaggerated COVID claims, if not outright misinformation.

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The Center Square Parent Acquires Government Streaming Service

The Center Square

Franklin News Foundation, the nonprofit, nonpartisan news-media organization that publishes The Center Square newswire service, announced Friday it has acquired Advanced Digital Media, operators of BlueRoomStream.com.

ADM live streams unedited coverage of countless government proceedings across the state of Illinois, such as legislative hearings and other taxpayer-funded government activities, news conferences involving elected officials and other newsmakers, and more. Through Blue Room Stream, it makes the live streams available to subscribers including both in-state and national broadcast media partners.

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