The information war continues raging….
On one battlefront, we have Elon Musk trying to push back against quasi-government control mechanisms that constrict information and the flow of discussion and ideas. On a lesser, albeit similar battlefield, we see this.
DuckDuckGo used to be the preferred search engine for those who wanted privacy on-line and unfiltered, i.e. organic, search engine responses. Unfortunately, CEO Gabriel Weinberg is now stating he will change the algorithm to remove independent information and media outlets and will replace them with only approved MSM results.
“Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create. #StandWithUkraine️,” Weinberg tweeted on Wednesday. “At DuckDuckGo, we’ve been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.”
Riddle me this my friends: The White House has officially admitted to creating misinformation, disinformation and malinformation as part of their strategic campaign against Russia in Ukraine. NBC news gleefully embraces the strategy {SEE HERE}. However, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has an official agency mission {SEE HERE} to “help the American people understand the scope and scale of Mal, Dis, and Misinformation activities,” and Google/DuckDuckGo/Big Tech have officially aligned with both U.S. government interests, promising to target, remove and penalize any entity engaged in Mal, Dis and Misinformation activities.
Think for yourself while it is still legal to do so.
The justification for the manipulation of information, the creation of dis/mal/and misinformation, and the propaganda campaign writ large, is based on a position that the U.S. is on the virtuous side of the conflict. Where virtue is determined by the officials creating the lies.
Yes, according to the official position of the Biden administration, lying for the public good is essentially now the admitted narrative.
Putting aside the creation of lies, to advance a strategic geopolitical objective, the bigger admission in the U.S. government statements is that much of the information coming to the American public – from them – is manufactured, false, fabricated and wrong.
Simultaneous to this admission of manufactured lies, the platforms of Big Tech and social media are saying they will target, remove and block any content that contradicts the official government position.
In the case of Google, the dominating search engine for information over the internet, they state it is an infraction against their policy to espouse a claim “that contradicts official government records.” Yet, the U.S. government is officially admitting the information they are creating for the government records, is self-admittedly false….. and now in comes DuckDuckGo with the assist.
Not wanting to overinflate the CTH position, but this now admitted reality is exactly why we have taken the following position.
…”There is no such thing as “disinformation” or “misinformation”. There is only information you accept and information you do not accept. You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.”…
There are only two elements within the public discussion of information, truth and not truth.
In an era filled with “fact-checkers” and institutional guardians at the gates of Big Tech, let me explain exactly why it is important not to accept the speech rules of the guards.
When you accept the terms “disinformation”, “misinformation” or the newest lingo, “malinformation,” you are beginning to categorize truth and lies in various shades. You are merging black and white, right and wrong, into various shades of grey.
When your mind works in the grey zone, you are, by direct and factual consequence, saying there is a problem. You are correct, however, this is where people may make a mistake. That problem is supposed to be there.
It is not a solution to the problem to try and remove the grey simply because it takes too much work to separate the white pixels from the black ones. You were born with a gift, the greatest gift a loving God could provide. You were born with a brain and set of natural instincts that are tools to do this pixel separation, use them.
If you define the grey work as a problem you cannot solve on your own, you open the door for others to solve that problem for you. You begin to abdicate the work, and that’s when trouble can enter. The sliding scale of Pinocchios is one of the most familiar yet goofy outcomes.
Put more clearly, when you accept the terminology “disinformation”, you accept a problem. The problem is then the tool by which authorities will step in to make judgements. Speech, in its most consequential form, is then qualified by others to whom you have sub-contracted your thinking.
When you willingly sub-contract information filters to others, you have lost connection with the raw information. CTH was founded upon the belief that truth has no agenda, nor does it care about you, your feelings, or your opinion of it. It just sits there, empirically existing as evidence of information in its most pure form.
The search for truth, in all things, is the mission objective of this assembly. Often, we don’t like the truth; often, the truth is bitter, cold, challenging and even painful to accept. However, the truth doesn’t care. Information in its most raw form is ambivalent to your opinion. If you struggle to accept these things, that’s when you need grey. The New York Times is not called the “grey lady” accidentally.
Personally, I am an absorber of information – perhaps on a scale that is unusual. But I do not discount information from any form until I can put context to it and see if the information makes sense given all the variables present. When something doesn’t feel right, it’s almost always because it isn’t right.
Often, I find myself struggling in the grey and complex. It is not unusual to spend days researching, digging, clarifying a situation, only to discover the path to finding the truth is in another direction entirely. Erasing everything and starting over is frustrating, but it is genuinely the only approach that works; and often finding truth is supposed to be difficult, that’s why it is rewarding.
In the digital information age, we are bombarded with information. It is easy to be overwhelmed and need to find something or someone who has better skills at separating the black grains from the white ones. All opinions in this quest should be considered; thus, it is important to allow the free flow of information.
I am not necessarily a speech absolutist. There is some language that needs to be constrained if we are to participate in a respectful society, with grandma’s rules and knowing the audience. The CTH has guidelines for comments for this exact reason. However, those constraints need to be based on a set of inherent values. When it comes to information it is important to draw a distinction from speech.
There needs to be an open venue for all information. Unfortunately, when we begin to apply labels or categorization to information, there’s an opportunity for information to be manipulated – even weaponized. Saul Alinsky spent decades pondering the best techniques to weaponize information and speech. Alinsky’s intentions, in the endeavor to change society by changing how language and information was used, were not good. He devoted his completed rulebook book to Lucifer.
Be careful about anyone saying we need to label or categorize information in order to control or remove speech from the discussion.
You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a God-given brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.
Unfortunately, the collectively aligned group of U.S. Govt, the Intelligence Community and now Big Tech, are saying they will put every roadblock they can muster in your way as you attempt to navigate through the misinformation they control.
With that in mind, I would finish with this. Be kind to those who cannot see through the misinformation, and do not invest too much time trying to convince them. Convincing is an endless quest, because it transfers the responsibility of discernment from them to you. They will become dependent on you and that my friends can be a heavy weight.
Remember, “Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.” ~ Max Ehrmann
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“Some people are just nuts”…
Algorithms is another way of saying, censorship.
In case folks want an alternate Search Engine that they might not have heard about… The Brave Search Engine (Beta)
https://search.brave.com
This is the same company founded by Brandon Eich, the father of Javascript and Mozilla Firefox… who was CANCELED at Mozilla due to his opposition to Same Sex Marriage.
Brave Web Browser and Brave Search are privacy oriented, and its founder knows how important Privacy is due to how he was Canceled by the Left.
Switched to seekr.com They have user controlled settings.
There’s information and there’s propaganda. It’s up to the individual to decide which is which.
I meant to dump them a couple months back. Just did it today. Dumped Google about 15 years ago.
Now looking at Qwant as a replacement. Thanks for the info, Sundance and team.
Lay off the meth
It’s corporate suicide. There’s no need to understand it other than to say we hope to see more of it from these kind. Which company will be the next?
I can but I won’t waste my time because the tone of you post suggests to me you aren’t interested in an opposing opinion.
Honest question. SD does have some insight however war is fluid. Russia attacked Ukraine along multiple fronts but their real goal is securing the east. Not for Russian speaking inhabitants but to secure the gas and oil. If Ukraine develops these fields it’s competition Russia will not tolerate in their quest to be a major supplier to EU. It’s why they took Crimea.
Putin overplayed his hand and perked up NATO into funneling weapons to Ukraine making them more lethal.
McGregor is a Colonel and that folks along with a 5er gets you a corporate latte.
SD points are noteworthy in that Ukraine is a money laundering country for Congress.
Every war NATO been involved with turns into a disaster.
NATO alliances needs to fund their defense.
Finally SD just puts out info. It’s up to us to use our brains to find what truth is.
To your point though, SD implies US government subsidizes Twitter. He hasn’t produce any evidence it does.
I have warned people here for years that DDG is not your friend. All you ever had to do was look at who they donate to.
It always sucked as a search engine. It always gave weak results and I would use google to get better info. Same with Bing. Glad to see new options out there.
Duck Duck is a lousy search engine to start out with. I switched back to Google because there are no other search engines that proved a direct link to the Gateway Pundit. No problem with Google. I checked out the others recommended by people here and none of them are any better than DuckDuck. Also, I couldn’t find anything anyways…went to google and what I was looking for came right up. And it was nothing political…
Use bookmarks for GP and CTH.
Are there any alternative suggestions to Duck Duck Go?
This site is supposed to be private, not sure about the algorithms though.
https://www.startpage.com
They pay Google to use Google.
https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/147/22/why-does-google-let-startpage-access-their-search-results
“[T]ruth has no agenda, nor does it care about you, your feelings, or your opinion of it.”
I once attempted to rebut this premise from a philosophical standpoint.
Let me make another attempt from a theological perspective.
In the Gospel of John he writes, “…The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us.”
Under questioning by Pontius Pilate, Jesus states, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
So if Jesus is Truth personified, truth cannot be an indifferent state of being.
Please, 1530! Tell me if the syllogism is correct and don’t analyze my state of mind this time.
I’ve used DuckDuckGo for a very long time. I guess I’ll need to look elsewhere for my “new” preferred search engine.
Elon Musk must take over a search engine, in the name of “freedom of speech”.
Regards
Climate Heretic
forget taking one over. make a better one. it wouldn’t be hard. who owns the code that beat the best human jeopardy players? was ibm at one point. use that as the guts to get a real search engine that can actually answer questions, not offer word associations or, at worst, lying propaganda. would prefer many fewer answers in more time to get even a modest improvement in quality. and this should be powers of ten improvement in quality.
this market is ripe for a better product. what we have now is excrement.
Brave.com already exists. Try it.
Presearch.org is also good, so far.
LCS, thank you! After reading about DDG’s decision, I’ve been looking for an alternative.
“Fake news was sundance’s claims that Russia was never going to invade Ukraine in the first place and the only ones claiming otherwise was Russia-hating warmongers.”
Making a prediction about the future and then being proven wrong is not fake news. That’s opinion, as in editorial content.
I’ll have to research Sundance’s comments about the “Russia-hating warmongers” claim of yours.
The Russians haven’t been “murdering” civilians. Killing isn’t always murdering.
The Russian Army hasn’t been routed.
Same deal with Col. McGregor telling us “… that Russia is going to be marching victory parades through Kiev IN A WEEK.” (Caps are mine.) :A prediction is not news.
You aren’t doing your homework.
Boogy….the commenter you refer to has already been removed.
Are you sure he’s not hiding in that “Bin” place?
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Putin went with the “are-you-nuts-that’s-the-option-you’d-prefer?-okay-then” plan.
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So what search engine CAN we use?????
Brave search engine
I’m test driving Brave, both search and browser. So far, so good but this is not an endorsement.
sDee posted this ranking yesterday on a similar Elon Musk article; I reordered her initial list to rank in order
sDee
Search Engine Censorship Test Results: Find Out Which Search Engine Is The Least Censored
Yandex: passed 9 out of 10 tests.
Bing: passed 7 out of 10 tests.
Mojeek: passed 6 out of 10 tests.
DuckDuckGo: passed 5 out of 10 tests.
Qwant: passed 5 out of 10 tests.
Brave: passed 4 out of 10 tests.
ResultHunter 3 out of 10 tests.
Google: passed 2 out of 10 tests.
Startpage: passed 1 out of 10 tests.
Yandex is Russian 😉
https://michaelsuede.substack.com/p/search-engine-censorship-test-results?s=r
How were they tested?
Thanks for that additional information!
Still won’t use Bing or Google, and left duck duck go when they started giving stuff to others. Why don’t we just all sigh up with all the social media sheet and let it all hang out there so anyone can take whatever they want from each of us…. I mean, they know where you are, how many little ones you have and what they look like since you put everything on there anyhow…..who cares?
Thanks for the post. Wish I saw it before I filled out my comment, but good to know.
Wonder how they test and how dogpile works out in their numbers.
No way Startpage is that bad. I use it all the time and it gets far better results than Google. Bullcrap.
https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/147/22/why-does-google-let-startpage-access-their-search-results
Bing? Isn’t that associated with Google?
Microsoft search engine
DDG.
Brave is tied to google. Bing is microsoft.
Yandex- for Russian speaking .– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yandex
From a Big Brother perspective, I find Swisscows.com very useful, as the stinkin’ US government censors cannot touch it as is based in Switzerland – in a deep cave (they say).
Interesting that no one mentions Presearch.org
Swisscows should be there.
I use it all the time.
Yes – see above.
Thank you. Most are focused on the wrong issue. While “privacy” is of great concern, I suggest the impartiality of the results remains paramount. … Would appreciate any other references to articles discussing “impartiality of search results”.
Brave uses google for browser and search.
Brave works off of Chrome and Bing as I understand it.
Not totally happy with Brave, but one takes what one can find as the lesser of the evils now on line. Since I don’t know how to do my own, it is the better that I’ve tried.
I installed Brave today on my ipad. It doesn’t use the Brave search engine that the App Store says it uses. It uses Duck-Duck-Go. I spent a few hours trying to make it use something else and never did get it to do anything other than stinking Duck-Duck-Go. May be an Apple thing. Dunno, but I’m not happy about it.
Within Brave browser it should be as simple as clicking on the three line menu icon (hamburger icon) at the top right, then selecting “Settings” from the dropdown.
Under Settings select “Search”
Click the dropdown next to “Search engine used in the address bar Learn more” and select Brave from the list that includes Google, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Bing, Startpage and Ecosia.
If you wish to use a search engine not in the dropdown, go to the last option on the page “Manage Search Engines” click the arrow then scroll to the bottom where you will find “Other Search Engines” and click “Add”
Good luck. Pretty happy with Brave for well over a year now, closing in on two.
Thank you! I finally scrolled the menu with my finger and, sure enough, there is more to the menu and “Manage Search Engines” is there! I was FINALLY able to get Duck-Duck-Go off my ipad! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Awesome. God Bless & Cheers!
Go to: settings/search engine/manage search engines
I really don’t think it makes any difference what you use these days. They are all into either selling the information or just giving it away anyhow If you don’t want it out there, don’t use on line at all…..and never learn a thing.
I also have a Samsung Tab and it took a couple of passes to bring Brave up to speed. I believe I obtained it from brave.com and NOT an app store. Beware of things in app stores. You also must download Gab from Gab.com.
Update the browser in the app store. I did that and got the option.
About all there is left right now.
I’ve been using brave browser for 2 years now. As far as I’m concerned it’s the best browser out there.
The brave search engine is an entirely different story. After trying it out for a couple days I switched back to DDG for the time being.
The brave search engine needs more development as search term results are IMO extremely limited or no existent.
My thoughts, too
Sorry guys, EVERY US based engine is controlled or being capable of being by spied upon by the US fascist state.
That is why I use Swisscows.com as your seeeyeah cannot access it (yet)
Mind you with Soros, Schwab and Jug ears ‘prince’ Charlie spending time in Davos maybe it is not as secure as I think.
I use Brave and like it- I removed DuckDuck.
Brave uses google code.
Startpage.com seems viable so far
Swisscows
SearX
peekier
I am trying out Start Page although I have used the Brave Search engine for about a year with mixed results.
I switched to Presearch. Seems good.
that’s the one I’ve been using the most lately. Using Startpage as a double check to Presearch.
I’ve used Brave for news for more than 18 months. Also consider it for financial checking, at least from a pc.
Sometimes it has issues with EBay and health shopping sites, so consider Dissenter as an alternate.
Any ‘cross-site trackers’ seem easier to adjust to with Dissenter.
On non-Windows systems (Linux Mint for instance), I’m still stuck with DuckDuckGo.
Yet Linux is constructed differently/better, so my concern is less.
I relegate my Android mostly to phone use only, although many (understandably) require better interactivity.
I did too, some time ago, very impressed with Presearch.org.
I have started using Qwant. Supposedly they do not track you.
I liked Qwant, but then they cut a deal with MicroSoft – https://news.microsoft.com/europe/features/qwant-and-microsoft-announce-an-exclusive-partnership-for-a-unique-internet-research-experience/
A lot of their users weren’t too happy about that. Their search results are still good though.
I use dogpile, but there are others.
Wanna tip the scales, you could always try YANDEX a Russian based search engine.
I also on occasion use the Brave browser, but they have Google, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Bing, StartPage, and Ecosia installed as search engines. You can, of course, change, edit, or bookmark another preference.
As always it’s choice, preference, morals, and privacy weighing in on what to give and take in the option of allowing others to do your work for you.
Best of luck in all your endeavors.
I’m using Presearch, which seems o.k. to me in terms of what it claims about privacy.
Same here, Presearch.org works for me.
I dumped Firefox for Brave when the Firefox CEO gave his full throated support of censorship. I dumped DuckDuckGo for Brave Search for the same reason.
I’ll probably have to dump Brave someday, too, because it seems like good companies can’t resist the dark side forever.
Brave is great. Hope they continue to walk a straight line.
DuckDuck has always sent everything you do online to googooo after your are done.
DuckDuckGo is a dead duck now.
Good one
DuckDuckGone!
So where are we to go for search results? Are there any that have integrity?
see the ranked list I posted just upthread
Try presearch.org.
Pluck the Duck and go Brave. 😉
Elon Musk isnt trying to fight or free Twitter from the Left. Anyone falling for his little act is a fool. Musk is a leftist as left as leftists come. He is the Left’s favorite tech darling. You are falling for a conspiracy to defraud the public and inject fresh cash into a house of cards, twitter, which is about to crash and burn. As for DuckDuckGo, they were always against you. They have been secretly handing over user data to Google for years. They only lie and tell you they are privacy oriented.
Yeah, I have an uneasy feeling about Elon Musk. Something isn’t right, and I don’t trust what he’s really doing. I hope I’m wrong, but I just have this bad feeling about it.
A little evidence to support such a claim would be nice. I don’t know of anyone that claims to really know Musk’s politics or world view all that well until now. You must be his brother and know him more intimately than anyone to know he is as far left as leftists come. You must also know a great many leftists because I could easily rattle off hundreds or even thousands, I think are further left than Elon. A little Carpe Diem it seems to me. Twitter was worth far more than $54 a share in the past but, the shareholders haven’t fared so well lately making a bid now much less expensive than it would have been and waiting for it to fall further may be too late to do anything if anything can in fact be done. He had a lot of leftist fans as the great hope to help combat climate change but, he has been losing them lately with many of his public comments. I don’t think Max Boot would call him darling.
Plenty wrong with Elon Musk.
I think you are wrong A B….. Elon is anything but the Left’s tech darling.
”Approved by whom?
FWIW I have now moved from DDG to Brave and I run it on FireFox
I still keep google in my search list as I like to compare the results from more than one search engine!
https://brave.com/
https://metager.org/
https://www.virtualmirage.org/gibiru/
When DuckDuckGo first started agreeing to censor information, I made sure that I only use Swisscows. I had forgotten when my computer died, but I have now added it on this small computer.
Swisscows is secure and has not been censored, as far as I know.
I just switched from DuckDuckGo to Presearch. So far, so good.
Thanks Stella. I just tried Presearch with a search string= “top 100 conservative websites 2022” and got this high up in the results:
https://cinternet.org/2022/april/top-100-conservative-websites
Looks like TCH is ranked as #39 out of 100. Not bad!
I left Duck Duck Go when they started getting iffy. I switched to the Brave search engine and am happy with it.
I use duck duck go but am unimpressed. Any suggestions
Don’t use it. The Brave browser is a search engine as well. And it is secure. Leave the woke junk.
I’m back to Startpage.com as my search engine, after being on Duck for about a year. Duck had recently been running ads on local radio of how much they are dedicated to not rummaging through your searches.
Hi Cole, Startpage.com, has been one of my go-to search engines too. I was surprised to read that it ranked poorly in a series of censorship tests reported in an article I came across today.
” Here’s a summary grid showing the highlights, but it’s worth reading the test results because this snapshot doesn’t tell the whole story.
Google: passed 2 out of 10 tests.
Bing: passed 7 out of 10 tests.
DuckDuckGo: passed 5 out of 10 tests.
Brave: passed 4 out of 10 tests.
Qwant: passed 5 out of 10 tests.
Startpage: passed 1 out of 10 tests.
Mojeek: passed 6 out of 10 tests.
Yandex: passed 9 out of 10 tests.
ResultHunter 3 out of 10 tests.”
(updated on 3/17/22)
https://libertariannews.org/2020/11/17/google-is-censoring-everything-look-at-what-duckduckgo-returns/
Again, I call bullcrap.
How so?
I have no stake in which search engine censors the most or least on any topic. This is a great thread and I appreciate everyone’s sharing of their experiences with different search options.
What I liked about the above article is that it shares the exact key word strings that were used to compare results across the search enginges —so anyone can try duplicating the results themselves.
My fear is that unlike social media where it is obvious that people are being banned and that censorship is happening —search engine censorship is silent and mostly hidden. DuckDuckGo is the exception in announcing their intentions.
FYI Startpage in prior weeks had a banner across the top of their page announcing their support for Ukraine —a political statement which I don’t like to see in a supposedly neutral search engine. And I understand they use Google search engine. They may include other sources, not sure –but they definintely rely on Google which may be part of the above reported results.
Now I ask CCTreepers what’s a good search engine we can use that give honest results.
Ad Rem. ?????? 🤷♀️
Gotta scroll over to the right but if a bunch of people hit the report flag they should take care of it.
Elon should take Andrew Torba up on his offer if he is serious about free speech.
DuckDuckGo has cut their own throat
I look forward to the day that I can discuss the JQ on Duckduckgo’s comment platform without being censored.
All of the media and internet tools commonly available have been reverse barometers for a long time. Makes it easier.
Duck Duck Go, gettin’ all spiffed up for the midterm elections…….
I quit tv on 19 MAY 1995. I’ve always sought information, not drama. I dislike ‘explanations’ as what is offered is based on the sharer’s estimation of my capability to understand. I prefer data to charts. My reading costs more than cable every month.
CTH and Lew Rockwell are my first sites daily, and I come back after breakfast.
On a side note, Elon Musk is quite entertaining. He’d be fun with a chessboard, I think. He knows how to deploy knights.
God bless, and Happy Easter, y’all.
Done with duck duck go. Completely deleted, Easy peasy.
What’s left for a real search engine? I’ve used DDG for many years.
Thanks Sundance. You provide great insight. Happy Easter to you and yours.
Thanks SD for the Desiderata quote at the end. We had a framed copy in our upstairs hallway outside my bedroom growing up. It was at the end of the hall near a built-in bookcase loaded with books/encyclopedias etc. One of my favorite spots in the house. Thankfully I still have it hanging in my office to this day. Have a blessed Easter!
10 Best Private Search Engines for 2022 (No Logging)
http://www.restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine
Thank you for this article. It was written in a manner that offers, serious, help to (us ppl) to find our own clarification & dissemination in this information war.
Also have a very “Blessed Easter.”
Where’s Harcourt Fenton Mudd when you need him?
Use Brave or Startpage.
Someone tell me why we should stand up for anyone on any side……they all appear to be wanting to (or waiting for) new world order to take over. In fact, Ukraine said it out-loud….. They want the new world order to take over. It that what the rest of you want?
I’ve switched my browser to Brave. I suppose now people will start telling me that they are owned by the woke trash too, right? What else is left for us?
Mark Twain once remarked if you don’t read a newspaper you are uniformed and if you read a newspaper you are misinformed.
As a writer for the Sacramento Union, Samuel Clemens knew of what he commented.
Growing up in Sacramento my siblings and I had the unique experience of Pop’s commentary of the news according to the Sacramento Union and Mom’s sighs and comments reciting the opinions reflected in the Sacramento Bee. All the other homes on our street could be characterized by which of the papers lay on their porch at sunrise. Ours was the most interesting.