Free Republic

Because of face coverings prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, companies are trying to ID people based on just their eyes and cheekbone In the age of the coronavirus, face masks have become a part of normal life. They're a safety requirement in many places, and for some people, a fashion statement. But for facial recognition technology, they pose a major challenge. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing face coverings to help fight the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus-caused sickness that's killed more than 302,000 people around the world. And governments in more than half the...

Professional haircuts are becoming available again at last. But as states begin to ease coronavirus lockdown orders, salons across the country are reopening with new safety protocols, which in some cases means not allowing back certain hair-care staples. “We’re not doing beard trims, lip waxes, nose waxes - anything on the face except for eyebrows,” salon owner Ashe Bowen tells The Post of the new rules their Denver salon has put in place since reopening on Saturday. One treatment that has proven perhaps surprisingly contentious for parlors coming out of lockdown? Blowouts. When Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that state...

The founder of a liberal-leaning media outlet is defending a CBS reporter who was attacked for breaking the news of a request from 16 individuals to unmask the identity of then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Speaking with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Friday, the Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald praised reporter Catherine Herridge for her "extremely reliable" reporting on the Russian collusion narrative in spite of attacks from 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden's campaign staff. "I think Catherine Herridge is a reporter of the highest integrity and professionalism," Greenwald told MacCallum. "I find it extremely ironic because every time President...

MILFORD, PIKE COUNTY (WOLF) — The Pike County Sheriff's Office announcing it will not be enforcing, if asked to do so, any order that violates the U.S. Constitution or the Pennsylvania Constitution. "I'm proud about what the sheriff's office is doing, I think it's a fine line, he's not going to enforce anything that's unconstitutional, which is all we ever want," said Eve Yasthal, Milford resident. Businesses that decide to reopen under the Red Phase will not have to worry about facing any citations from the Pike County Sheriff's Office. In a statement Sheriff Kerry Welsh said "Just to be...

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is willing to reopen Fenway Park and TD Garden for Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins games this summer. That willingness, though, rests upon non-negotiable conditions: no fans in the stands, and the City of Boston must sign off on advanced health and safety protocols that protect not only the athletes but everyone else reporting to the workplace. “Yes, as long as the players and the teams and the support staff and all the people that are associated with it are safe and feel comfortable,” said Walsh during a Friday morning telephone interview. “Obviously, their health is...

...I’m a virologist, and modelling complex processes is part of my day-to-day work. It’s not uncommon to see long and complex code for predicting the movement of an infection in a population, but tools exist to structure and document code properly. The Imperial College effort suggests an incumbency effect: with their outstanding reputations, the college and Ferguson possessed an authority based solely on their own authority. The code on which they based their predictions would not pass a cursory review by a Ph.D. committee in computational epidemiology...

Tennessee announced Friday it would lift capacity restrictions on restaurants and shops as it moves to focus on reopening larger attractions such as amusement parks, water parks and theaters starting next week. Tennessee's Economic Recovery Group said 89 out of 95 counties in the state could lift capacity restrictions on businesses, adding that the next reopening phase begins May 22 for reopening larger noncontact attractions, according to Nashville, Tenn., NBC affiliate WSMV. Included in the next phase of reopening are race tracks and auditoriums as well as recreational parks and large museums, although restrictions on gatherings of more than 10...

Joe Allen, assistant professor of exposure assessment science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of its Healthy Buildings program, suspects that broader airborne transmission of the coronavirus is likely, and thinks certain precautions indoors and out can help reduce its spread. ... --- ALLEN: I had a piece in The Washington Post last week that makes the case that everyone should be wearing masks. It outlines four lines of public health benefits. First, a mask can catch large droplets....Second, ...the homemade mask acts as a physical barrier for me. ...Thirdly, a mask also serves as...

It is an astounding feature of the contemporary international political scene that almost no coverage of American affairs, including in most of the President Donald Trump-hating American media, reports or comments in a way that is even slightly relevant to the unfolding facts in that country. Unlike all other important countries except Britain and Canada, the United Stares has had the same political institutions for over 150 years. For over a century it has operated on a scale that the world had never imagined to be possible. It is a fantastic success, but it is not at all the shining...

NEW YORK — Following an investigation by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI, four complaints were unsealed Thursday in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, variously charging 10 members and associates of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, a transnational criminal organization, with murder in-aid-of racketeering, attempted murder, murder conspiracy, related firearms offenses and marijuana distribution conspiracy. This gang investigation was prompted by three murders, occurring on the street, at Kissena Park and on an elevated Subway Platform in Queens. One defendant...

Though a COVID-19 vaccine is likely still more than a year away, according to experts, concerns over mandatory vaccinations have spread throughout the anti-vaxxer community in Texas, which is one of the largest in the nation. In recent years, prominent voices in the anti-vaxxer movement have settled in and around Austin, and a vocal Facebook group formed a political action committee, Texans for Vaccine Choice. This school year, nearly 73,000, or 1.35 percent, of Texas students opted out of getting at least one required vaccine for nonmedical reasons, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That number does...

Police in Warsaw, Poland used tear gas to subdue protesters demanding a quicker end to stay-at-home orders in the country, Reuters reported Saturday. Like the U.S., Poland has begun reopening some business in parts of the country at the start of the month in an effort to salvage the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The protesters, who claimed the shutdowns in Warsaw has threatened their income, have staged demonstrations in the capital city since late last month. The organizers planned a march that was blocked by police who cited government restrictions temporarily banning public gatherings amid the pandemic. “Unfortunately we...

Former Chief Asst. U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy has an article written today pointing to the primary issue about former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn: “The Real Story is When Flynn Was Not Unmasked” – READ HERE. McCarthy has reviewed the documents; looked at the research; reviewed what the IG said was not happening; and came to the same conclusion as CTH. The Obama surveillance of Flynn did not include ‘unmasking’ because the collection was not incidental. McCarthy points the media’s incurious compass needle toward the CIA, but don’t expect any DC media to follow it. The truth is adverse to...

...Based on this serology test, they were able to determine that 3% of the population (at the time) were infected and were therefore able to divide the numerator of those who died of COVID-19 by the extrapolated denominator of those who were likely infected and break out the infection fatality rate by age group. Study this chart for a few minutes and take in all the data – from the asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic rates to the hospital and fatality rates divided by age. You have to get to the 50-59 age group just to reach a 0.1% fatality rate, the level...

Fred Willard, the clever comic actor who played clueless characters to perfection on Fernwood 2 Night, Everybody Loves Raymond and as a member of a great ensemble in several Christopher Guest mockumentaries, has died. He was 86. Willard died Friday night in Los Angeles of natural causes, his agent Michael Eisenstadt told The Hollywood Reporter. His daughter, Hope, said he passed "very peacefully … He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end. We loved him so very much! We will miss him forever." Always amusing, Willard also elicited grins as station director Ed Harken in the...

[A] vocal contingent of demonstrators rallied again outside the Thompson Center in the Loop and the State Capitol Building in Springfield demanding Pritzker reopen the state immediately. With a roster of conservative speakers including radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller, people in the crowd chanted “Right to go to church” and toted signs declaring “Jesus is my vaccine,” a day before a handful of churches planned to hold services in defiance of Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, which bars gatherings of more than 10 people. Other signs declared “Freedom is essential” and suggested Pritzker’s extended stay-at-home order is part of a political scheme...

A married Nevada state representative admitted on Friday to having an extensive affair with a former intern for State Senator Harry Reid. Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford (D-4th District) acknowledged the affair after Gabriela Linder - using the name 'Love Jones' - came forward with details of the affair in her podcast 'Mistress for Congress' and Twitter account. . . . 'I'm deeply sorry to all of those who have been impacted by this very poor decision, most importantly my wife and family. Out of concern for my family during this challenging time, I ask that our privacy is respected.'

A Colorado man who died of alcohol poisoning had his death classified as due to the coronavirus, possibly shedding light on a skewed virus death toll in the state, according to a report on Thursday.

Horse racing will be allowed to resume without fans on June 1 throughout New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today. He also said racing would resume at Watkins Glen during his daily briefing in Albany. There will be no fans there either, he said.

Over 86,500 people have reportedly died in the United States from the Coronavirus, and the fear generated by those deaths is driving the public policy debate. But that number is a dramatic overcount. Our metrics include deaths that have nothing to do with the virus.