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This is a YouTube video of a discussion of the works of Thomas Sowell, particularly his "Culture" trilogy. It is an excellent discussion of Sowell and his legacy, which continues to grow, although deliberately ignored by most academia.

Columbia will once again require standardized test scores for undergraduate applicants, beginning in August 2027, the University announced Friday. With the change, Columbia is the final Ivy League school to reinstate test score requirements, which most universities made optional in 2020. Students applying to Columbia College or the School of Engineering and Applied Science will be required to submit SAT or ACT scores for the 2027-28 admissions cycle. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities, including Columbia, waived standardized testing requirements, citing concerns about access to testing opportunities. Columbia has deviated from its peers by extending the waiver for more than...

Trade team told Americans Trump's newest tariffs would kill will for talks if implementedThe Canadian government is preparing to meet some U.S. demands — including ending bans on American alcohol sales — in exchange for tariff relief as trade talks heat up ahead of the latest tariff deadline, according to sources. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened a new 50 per cent levy on hundreds of Canadian imports by Aug. 19, citing complaints about provincial booze bans, dairy import quotas and the auto tariffs. The Canadian side is willing to offer movement on those concerns, according to industry sources...

Threats, harassment and graffiti have all been reported to policeAn Islamic centre in Gatineau, Que., says it's been targeted for weeks by threats, harassment and graffiti. The Centre islamique de l’Outaouais, which includes schools and mosques around the city, condemned what it called hateful intimidation in a social media post on Thursday night. It said the campaign started with threats, then progressed to in-person and online harassment against families. More recently, it's been dealing with graffiti suggesting Muslims don't belong in the area. The centre said whoever is leaving the graffiti is returning to rewrite it after city workers remove...

A man wanted in connection with the sexual assault of a child in Canada more than 30 years ago was arrested in Santa Cruz, according to ICE San Francisco. Charles Peter Billone, 64, was found hiding in Santa Cruz after decades on the run from Canadian law enforcement. He has been wanted since 1991 for allegedly sexually assaulting a child. According to ICE San Francisco, Billone also has previous convictions for possession of stolen property, assault and drug-related offenses. He is currently in ICE custody pending removal. Articles published by Canadian news outlets in 2014 reported that Billone had been...

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Central Fire District of Santa Cruz rescued a seagull Tuesday evening after it became tangled in a wire that was caught in a tree at Black's Beach. Viewer video from Steven Hamm shows Santa Cruz Central Fire firefighters using a ladder truck with an aerial platform to reach the bird, which was perched high above the beach. Two firefighters can be seen carefully cutting the line wrapped around one of the seagull's legs before safely freeing the bird. As the bird is freed, cheers and applause can be heard from people watching the rescue below. Amy Redfeather with Native Animal...

Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed — beloved by the now blossoming Democratic Socialists of America — won his primary Tuesday night against the more moderate Democrat in his Michigan race, one many consider a pivotal shift for the party. He faces off against Republican Mike Rogers in a seat Democrats could fork over to Republicans in a year when they hope to take the Senate. But El-Sayed isn’t the only far-left candidate taking the country by storm, and neither is socialist Zohran Mamdani, the handsome New York mayor trying to figure out how to run a government grocery store. Adorable young...

A federal judge granted Carmine Agnello, the grandson of late mob boss John Gotti, a delay in his self-surrender date, with caveats to allow him to donate a kidney to his mother, Victoria Gotti. In a ruling issued Thursday, the judge said Agnello can postpone his surrender to prison until Sept. 18 if the transplant takes place on or before his original Aug. 10 surrender date. If the procedure does not occur by then, however, Agnello must report to prison on Monday as previously ordered, according to court records. The judge also directed Agnello to notify the court once the...

Learn how Viagra trapped cholesterol inside cancer cells and why statins may strengthen the effect.A man might take Viagra for erectile dysfunction and a statin for high cholesterol, treating two problems that seem to have nothing to do with cancer. But if he is later diagnosed with cancer, he may already be taking two medications linked to a lower risk of dying within five years. In a study published in Cancer Research, researchers found that sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, trapped cholesterol inside cancer cells and reduced lung metastases in several mouse models. Men who filled at least three...

Will Rosenzweig joins a growing list of former prosecutors and federal agents who have gone to court to contest the purge of law enforcement deemed disloyal.One day last September, a right-wing influencer named Natalie Winters posted what she billed as an “EXCLUSIVE” on social media: A federal prosecutor in Miami overseeing a fraud case against “MAGA patriots” had once written a blog with comments critical of President Trump.Ms. Winters, who has hundreds of thousands of followers, addressed her message to the accounts of senior officials at the Justice Department. Her demands for the prosecutor, Will Rosenzweig, could not have been...

For the first time ever, scientists have used artificial intelligence to design complete viral genomes that were physically synthesized and turned into 16 new functional viruses capable of replicating. The work was published in Science, one of the world’s most prominent scientific journals. Disturbingly, the study’s senior author, Brian L. Hie, who conceived, designed, and supervised the research disclosed funding from the Gates Foundation. This was not a computer simulation. Researchers generated hundreds of AI-designed viral genomes, physically manufactured the DNA, assembled the genomes, introduced them into susceptible E. coli, and recovered 16 functional bacteriophages that successfully propagated. The viruses...

Vitale was first diagnosed with cancer in 2021, when he revealed he had melanoma.Longtime college basketball announcer Dick Vitale says he is making positive strides after announcing in April that he had been diagnosed with cancer for the fifth time. The 87-year-old Vitale said on social media Wednesday that recent blood tests came back “very good” and that the immunotherapy treatments that he has been receiving are “very effective in wiping out the cancer.” Vitale was first diagnosed with cancer in 2021, when he revealed that he had melanoma. He also was diagnosed with lymphoma and, after being declared cancer-free,...

Temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals in the United States is set to end after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration can move forward with stripping their protections. On Friday, US district judge Patti Saris of the district of Massachusetts rejected an attempt by immigrant rights organizations including the New York-based African Communities Together to keep TPS for South Sudanese nationals living in the US. Saris’s decision follows a 6-3 supreme court ruling in June allowing the Trump administration to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians of TPS, which granted them permission...

For most Virginians, three more years of Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) feels like an eternity. The mom-next-door-turned-radical-Democrat has spent the last seven months shedding her moderate skin and pushing policies that are wildly out-of-step with her middle-of-the-road state. And while voters can’t send her packing any time soon, they can deliver an emphatic rebuke to the historically unpopular governor on two issues that matter most: abortion and marriage. In November, Virginians have a chance to beat back the extremists in Richmond on a pair of ballot initiatives that could turn the Commonwealth into a deep-blue stronghold on core social values....

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. adults—21%—are illiterate, and 130 million people can’t read a simple story to their children or sound out more than a few basic words. The problem isn’t confined to high school dropouts, those with disabilities, and non-¬English speakers. It affects university students, working professionals, and those who grew up speaking English at home. It goes beyond the inability to enjoy books, skim websites, and write emails. Medication instructions, ingredient labels, and posted warnings can conceal deadly risks from nonreaders.The problem starts in elementary school, where a battle over how to teach reading continues to rage and fewer...

The city of Pittsburg was the victim of a phishing scam that resulted in a loss of nearly $1 million, the city said Wednesday. In February, a single unauthorized payment of $913,839.81 was sent to a fraudulent account pretending to be a known city vendor, the city said. Staff noticed the issue on Feb. 12 and informed the Pittsburg Police Department, which brought in both county and federal investigators. "The instant this incident was identified as fraudulent by City staff, the City's Police Department acted quickly and immediately froze the account to which the funds were electronically wired," said Pittsburg...

Explanation: There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This is the COSMOS field, a patch of sky several times larger than the full moon, first observed by Hubble. It has also been observed by Webb and other telescopes because it contains comparatively few bright stars from our own galaxy, offering a relatively unimpeded view of other galaxies outside the Milky Way. The outer panels, numbered 1-10, show zoomed-in views of the corresponding small regions highlighted in the central panel. The variety of galaxy...

Just a month before Taylor Fresh Foods began grappling with a sweeping multi-state lettuce recall, the Salinas-based company filed a civil lawsuit against one of its former presidents and his wife, accusing the couple of a yearslong, $32 million embezzlement operation. According to the lawsuit, filed June 5 in federal court, Brian Thure, the former president of a Taylor Fresh Foods subsidiary in Tennessee, allegedly spent millions of dollars in company money on unauthorized purchases, including a UC Berkeley endowment, a luxury home in Hawaii and a 400-acre ranch in Humboldt County. Brian Thure’s wife, Julie Thure, was also named...

A federal campaign to kill nearly a half-million barred owls in the Pacific Northwest to save threatened spotted owls continues, even though the recent lifting of protections for spotted owl habitat defeats the entire purpose, an animal welfare advocate says. It’s costing the government roughly $3,000 per bird to have barred owls shot, Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Centre for a Humane Economy, told Cowboy State Daily. And with a recent move to weaken the habitat protection element of the Endangered Species Act, it could be all for nothing if spotted owls’ old-growth forest habitat gets...