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A “glaring scientific breakdown” at the CDC’s main laboratory was behind the federal agency’s failure to quickly make a coronavirus test kit... One of the three test components became contaminated because the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory put the kits together violated sound manufacturing practices... cross contamination because the chemical mixtures were put together into testing kits in a lab space that was also dealing with synthetic coronavirus material. The Food and Drug Administration also concluded the CDC violated its own laboratory standards,

Andrew Ng’s startup Landing AI has created a new workplace monitoring tool that issues an alert when anyone is less than the desired distance from a colleague. Six feet apart: On Thursday, the startup released a blog post with a new demo video showing off a new social distancing detector. On the left is a feed of people walking around on the street. On the right, a bird’s-eye diagram represents each one as a dot and turns them bright red when they move too close to someone else. The company says the tool is meant to be used in work...

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, April 22 (Reuters) - Apple Inc is planning to fix a flaw that a security firm said may have left more than half a billion iPhones vulnerable to hackers. The bug, which also exists on iPads, was discovered by ZecOps, a San Francisco-based mobile security forensics company, while it was investigating a sophisticated cyberattack against a client that took place in late 2019. Zuk Avraham, ZecOps' chief executive, said he found evidence the vulnerability was exploited in at least six cybersecurity break-ins. An Apple spokesman acknowledged that a vulnerability exists in Apple's software for email on iPhones and...

Human fossils, an amber room and a Raphael masterpiece all went missing during WWII.War has always brought chaos, and with it an opportunity for pillage and plunder. This was especially true during World War II, when countless pieces of priceless art, artifacts and other treasure were destroyed and spirited away from both Europe and the Asia Pacific. Nazis, in particular, systematically looted cultural property from museums, private homes and royal palaces, some of it to help Adolf Hitler build his proposed Führermuseum, but other armies carried away their own spoils as well. When the war ended, tales of real and...

Pitmaster Ray Sheehan’s recipe won the title in international competition in LouisianaWe are blessed to have year-round grilling weather here, and for many of us, our current stay-at-home status means there’s more time for improving our skills. Ray Sheehan, a pitmaster and judge for the Kansas City Barbecue Society, shares 60 recipes, including 10 of his own barbecue sauces, in a new book, “Award-Winning BBQ Sauces and How to Use Them.” Sheehan’s philosophy is to omit any artificial ingredients in his sauces and build a complex flavor profile through a lot of experimentation. His Memphis Mop BBQ Sauce won the...

Jamie Black-Lewis felt like she won the lottery after getting two forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program. Black-Lewis saw the $177,000 and $43,800 loans, one for each of the spas she owns in Washington state, as a lifeline she could use for payroll and other business expenses. She’d halted pay for the 35 employees — including herself — at Oasis Medspa & Salon, in Woodinville, and Amai Day Spa, in Bothell, in mid-March, when nonessential businesses in Washington closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. When Black-Lewis convened a virtual employee meeting to explain her good fortune, she expected jubilation...

Mr. Still reports on the diabolical plot by Dr. Fauci to thwart the use of HCQ so as to promote Big Pharma's high priced therapeutics.

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled "Prayer" are closed to debate of any kind.

Cardinal Burke criticizes Vatican for thanking China but not Taiwan Both China and Taiwan donated medical supplies to the Vatican. VATICAN CITY, April 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Raymond Burke has criticized the Holy See for publicly thanking communist China for its generosity but remaining silent about Taiwan’s after both nations donated much-needed medical supplies to the Vatican. “Something is badly wrong’’ with China seemingly enjoying “a place of privilege with the Vatican,’’ Burke told The Australian.  “The Holy See made a point to praise the People’s Republic of China for sending masks and medical equipment to the Vatican, while...

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) reported earnings after the market close on Tuesday, and the all-important subscriber acquisitions far exceeded even the most bullish forecasts. Before the COVID-19 pandemic marched across the globe, Netflix had guided for 7 million new paying members. As the number of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders increased, however, so did analysts' growth estimates, with some exceeding 10 million. Even that wasn't enough. The streaming pioneer added a record 15.77 million new monthly subscribers, up nearly 23% year over year, bringing its global total to 182.86 million. Domestic growth -- which had recently stagnated -- was reignited by those...

Watch a sunrise. Plant a flower. Walk through nature. These are some of the ways the Archdiocesan Care for Creation Team suggests Catholics observe Earth Day, April 22. And then, after intentional time in nature, the team is inviting Catholics to unite online that evening in prayer for that creation. It’s the first event hosted by the Archdiocesan Care for Creation Team, which is still taking form. It was sparked by an email from a Catholic asking what the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was doing in the area of caring for creation, and within a few months, grew...

Kennedy: I want Hillary to run in 2020

Corona's corporate victims continue to pile up, from Playboy magazine and The Jewish Chronicle to airlines around the world. I had a crummy flight on Virgin Australia - Perth to Adelaide - a few years back, and have eschewed it ever since. But I may not be able to maintain my boycott: It has now gone into bankruptcy administration, and Virgin Atlantic looks to be heading the same way. Richard Branson has been forced to explain that, even though he's worth £4.7 billion, it's not kept in a silo on his private island where he ploughs it back and forth...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis made an impassioned plea for protection of the environment on Wednesday's 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, saying the coronavirus pandemic had shown that some challenges had to be met with a global response. Francis praised the environmental movement, saying it was necessary for young people to "take to the streets to teach us what is obvious, that is, that there will be no future for us if we destroy the environment that sustains us". The pope, who wrote a major encyclical in 2015 on the defence of nature and the dangers of...

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she likely will extend her stay-at-home order beyond April 30 even if she relaxes restrictions to reopen parts of the economy. Whitmer said Wednesday that she hopes to talk more later this week about loosening the rules. "For the near future we know it is not going to be safe, especially for vulnerable populations, to be out in the open," Whitmer said during a Wednesday afternoon press conference. Her administration notified state employees of temporary layoffs necessitated by a drop in tax revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic. The state will furlough 2,900,...

ROME — The Rome-based Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica has announced the launch of a new edition of the magazine in simplified Chinese, Vatican News reported Monday. La Civiltà Cattolica, which is tied to the Vatican, said the new edition is meant “as a gesture of friendship, given the increasingly important role that the Chinese language plays in the contemporary world within the global context.” The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, praised the initiative as “fruit of the friendly encounter with the rich tradition of the Chinese people.” Cardinal Parolin has played an active role in the Vatican’s...

https://twitter.com/raoult_didier/status/1253045368377561093 Didier raoult @raoult_didier The study published in pre-print on 04/21 on Medrxiv by Maganoli et al has three major biases which invalidate its conclusions, in any case absurd and incompatible with the literature. We have detailed these biases in the letter below. https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/response-to-magagnoli-medrxiv-2020/ Response to Magagnoli, MedRxiv, 2020 Matthieu MILLION https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Response-to-Magagnoli.pdf In the current period, it seems that passion dominates rigorous and balanced scientific analysis and may lead to scientific misconduct. The article by Magagnoli et al. (Magagnoli, 2020) is an absolutely spectacular example of this. Indeed, in this work, it is concluded, in the end, that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)...

Video at link My notes: Day 90 Coverage of CV by PeakProsperity. Fighting war for Science and against bad science. California study retracted. US will reach 1,000,000 cases in 8 days. New cases have flat lined but not rolled over yet. Antivirals work best early in disease. Zinc important co-factor in the antiviral activity of cells. Virtually every study of HCQ was to intubated patients. Not early, too late. Virtually every US study has not included zinc. 1 & 2 Deliberate actions Studies that purport to be definitive are garbage if not controlling for timing and measuring/controlling zinc serum levels....

House Speaker sides against Little Sisters of the PoorWASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - For the third time, the Little Sisters of the Poor are petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for protection from the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is gunning for their defeat. "Despicable," Pelosi said recently in a statement on the case, voicing "outrage" over President Trump's executive order exempting religious objectors from having to provide health insurance that covered contraception and abortifacients. In her press release, Pelosi said, "The Trump administration's despicable rule allowing private employers and health plans to deny women coverage for contraception is an...

The Defense Department’s inspector general who was appointed to oversee spending from the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus signed last week by President Donald Trump has been fired from his watchdog role at the Pentagon, according to a report by Politico. Reports say Trump removed Glenn Fine from his role as the acting inspector general, meaning the career government official is now ineligible to serve on the stimulus oversight board charged with monitoring spending and preventing any mishandling of the public’s relief funds. By law, only current inspectors general can serve on the audit panel. Fine’s appointment as the chair of...