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A man charged with the 2008 murder of a UW-Madison student was found competent Thursday to stand trial, and will face a preliminary hearing next month. David A. Kahl, 54, who was charged last year with first-degree intentional homicide for the death of Brittany Zimmermann, 21, agreed after an examination that he is competent to assist in his defense. Kahl’s attorneys had sought the determination in March. At a brief hearing, Kahl, appearing by video from the Oshkosh Correctional Institution, told Circuit Judge Juan Colas he agreed with the findings of the exam. His attorney, Benjamin Gonring, informed the court...

(CNN) - Don’t worry about that shaking in Florida. It’s just a massive military explosion. An “experimental explosion” triggered by the Navy about 100 miles off Florida’s Atlantic coast registered as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake Friday. The blast is known as a “shock trial,” an explosion meant to test a ship’s ability to withstand nearby detonations. The Navy was testing its new aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

A confidentiality agreement shows potential coronavirus vaccine candidates were transferred from Moderna to the University of North Carolina in 2019, nineteen days prior to the emergence of the alleged Covid-19 causing virus in Wuhan, China.The confidentially agreement which can be viewed here states that providers ‘Moderna’ alongside the ‘National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) agreed to tranfer ‘mRNA coronavirus vaccine candidates’ developed and jointly-owned by NIAID and Moderna to recipients ‘The Universisty of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’ on the 12th December 2019…

Being a police officer in 2021 kiiiiiiinda sucks, since, you know, everyone will hate you and you'll constantly be in fear of someone throwing a brick at your head or burning out your cop car just because. Well, we at The Babylon Bee have gathered up nine career choices that are MUCH more appealing than being a police officer in the current year. Check it out: 1. Honeybadger catcher - Instead of trying to wrangle up Antifa members, just try to catch some wild honeybadgers. Much easier! 2. Land mine tester - Much less deadly than policing in a Democrat-controlled...

Despite China’s success in reining in COVID-19 cases, a recent outbreak in Guangdong, China’s most populous province, has apparently spread even further despite lockdown measures that were first imposed in late May, before being tightened earlier this month. And on Monday, Reuters reported that despite these restrictions, the outbreak has spread to the manufacturing hub of Dongguan, which is also situated in Guangdong Province. The city launched mass testing on Monday and even blocked off certain communities after detecting the first infections tied to the current outbreak. Officials have said that the “Delta” mutant strain – first discovered in India...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested that the UK may have to reimpose lockdown restrictions during the winter months, despite previously promising that the end of lockdowns will be “irreversible”. Speaking to reporters during a visit to a laboratory in Hertfordshire on the day that was initially slated as “freedom day” before being delayed to July 19th, Mr Johnson refused to rule out reinstating lockdowns during the winter.

California residents were asked to voluntarily conserve power again Friday as a heat wave baking the U.S. West strained the state’s energy grid and raised the possibility of rotating outages. As temperatures spiked on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an emergency proclamation that suspended certain permitting requirements, allowing power plants to ramp up operations if necessary to meet the demand for electricity. The proclamation cited the “extreme heat peril” facing the state this week. The California Independent System Operator, which runs the energy grid, issued a Flex Alert for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. During those hours, people are urged...

Iran’s new president said Monday he will not meet with President Biden — refusing to negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program, demanding America “lift all oppressive sanctions against Iran,” and insisting Iran will continue funding regional militias. Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline judge who was elected president last week, is taking the helm in Iran as the Biden administration is engaged with world powers on rejoining the nuclear deal — talks that have been underway since April in Vienna. ​

George Soros is at it again. The leftist billionaire dumped a new batch of cash into a far-left group that is behind efforts to stoke anti-police hatred. Data from Soros-funded ProPublica showed that Soros donated $1 million to the radical group Color of Change PAC. The Soros super PAC, Democracy PAC, also fueled $2,500,000 into the group during the 2020 electoral cycle. Color of Change PAC is currently behind a disgusting petition called “Cut Ties With The [Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)].” FOP is self-described as “the voice of our nation’s law enforcement officers.” Color of Change PAC spewed metaphorical...

The 63-year-old now has a week to resign and hand the speaker the job of finding a new government, or must call a snap election.. Swedish center-left Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament on Monday, plunging the country into deep political uncertainty as it tackles the COVID-19 pandemic. Löfven, who was defeated after nearly seven years in power over a plan to ease rent controls for new-build apartments, now has a week to resign and hand the speaker the job of finding a new government, or call a snap election. With parliament deadlocked and...

AbstractBackground: Repurposed medicines may have a role against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The antiparasitic ivermectin, with antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, has now been tested in numerous clinical trials. Areas of uncertainty:We assessed the efficacy of ivermectin treatment in reducing mortality, in secondary outcomes, and in chemoprophylaxis, among people with, or at high risk of, COVID-19 infection. Data sources: We searched bibliographic databases up to April 25, 2021. Two review authors sifted for studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Meta-analyses were conducted and certainty of the evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach and additionally in trial sequential analyses for...

The deadly storm Claudette strengthened Monday morning to regain its tropical storm status as it approached the Carolina coast. Thirteen people in Alabama died Saturday in storm-related conditions, including eight children in a multi-vehicle crash. The children who died were in a van for a youth home for abused or neglected children. The vehicle crashed and burst into flames on Interstate 65 about outside of Montgomery, according to the Associated Press. An official said the vehicles likely hydroplaned. The two other victims in the weekend crash have been identified as Cody Fox, 29, and his 9-month-old daughter, Ariana; both of...

Critics slammed The New York Times for a piece claiming Pope Francis was "liberal" and that the Catholic Church was being further polarized by a conservative movement at odds with Vatican leadership. The report on a vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to advance a push by "conservative bishops" to deny Communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians like President Biden has drawn a strong reaction. The Times reported the vote showed that a conservative movement was deciding how the Church asserted its power in the U.S., and that the "Catholic faithful" were more polarized because of it. They...

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is facing new scrutiny over his decades-long membership in an all-white private beach club, as he bills himself as a progressive and prominent critic of “systemic racism” — dismissing membership based on race as “a long tradition in Rhode Island.” Whitehouse (D-RI) was confronted Friday by a GoLocal Providence reporter, who published the video along with an article on Saturday detailing what occurred after asking about the senator’s membership at Newport-based Bailey’s Beach Club, part of the Spouting Rock Beach Association. “I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and I’m...

On December 8, 2020, when most of America was consumed with what The Guardian called Donald Trump's "desperate, mendacious, frenzied and sometimes farcical" attempt to remain president, the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the "Medical Response to Covid-19." One of the witnesses, a pulmonologist named Dr. Pierre Kory, insisted he had great news."We have a solution to this crisis," he said unequivocally. "There is a drug that is proving to have a miraculous impact."Kory was referring to an FDA-approved medicine called ivermectin. A genuine wonder drug in other realms, ivermectin has all but eliminated...

Hat tip to Pookie18's Cartoons.

Abstract Considering the urgency of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, detection of various new mutant strains and future potential re-emergence of novel coronaviruses, repurposing of approved drugs such as Ivermectin could be worthy of attention. This evidence-based review article aims to discuss the mechanism of action of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2 and summarizing the available literature over the years. A schematic of the key cellular and biomolecular interactions between Ivermectin, host cell, and SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 pathogenesis and prevention of complications have been proposed.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday formally laid out a plan to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for the coronavirus pandemic, a “roadmap” that includes eight steps Congress can take to do so. Key recommendations from the plan include a formal push to strip Beijing of the Winter Olympics next year as well as opening up China to wrongful death lawsuits in federal court here from people who lost loved ones to the virus. McCarthy also pushes for funding bans from U.S. tax dollars going to places like the Wuhan Institute of Virology and to any gain-of-function...

Peacocks, panther chameleons, scarlet macaws, clown fish, toucans, blue-ringed octopuses, and so many more: The animal kingdom has countless denizens with extraordinarily colorful beauty. But in many cases, scientists know much more about how the animals use their colors than about how they make them. New work continues to reveal those secrets, which often depend on the fantastically precise self-assembly of minuscule features in and on the feathers, scales, hair, and skin—a fact that makes the answers intensely interesting to soft-matter physicists and engineers in the photonics industry. ...The blue end of the spectrum, however, represents a different challenge because...

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