Free Republic

A new strategy to reduce the spread of COVID-19 employs a mobile robot that detects people in crowds who are not observing social-distancing rules, navigates to them, and encourages them to move apart. Adarsh Jagan Sathyamoorthy of the University of Maryland, College Park, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on December 1, 2021. Previous research has shown that staying at least two meters apart from others can reduce the spread of COVID-19. Technology-based methods—such as strategies using WiFi and Bluetooth—hold promise to help detect and discourage lapses in social distancing. However, many such approaches require...

President Joe Biden tried to distance himself from supply chain disruptions this Christmas, telling Americans on Wednesday he was not responsible for any problems. “I can’t promise that every person will get every gift they want on time,” Biden said. “Only Santa Claus can keep that promise.” Biden argued that shortages for some goods around Christmas were normal, citing the Cabbage Patch Kids doll shortage in the 1980s and also the shortage of Beanie Babies in past years. The president downplayed reports of reduced supplies of goods for Americans shopping for the holidays. “Here’s the deal. For the vast majority...

The Safeway grocery store at 2020 Market Street is a case study, not just for the recent concerns regarding retail theft in San Francisco, but issues around food accessibility, policing and poverty. The longstanding store in the Castro neighborhood was one of the few major grocery stores that stayed open 24 hours, providing a place for people who work the night shift to do their shopping and parents to make middle-of-the-night runs for children's medicine. But Safeway announced in late October it was cutting its hours to close at 9 p.m. because of an alleged “increasing amount of theft” at...

The Biden-Harris administration on Monday opened an investigation into retailers, and not itself, to scrutinize the supply chain crisis. The probe is a repeated strategy from November when the administration opened a Department of Justice probe into oil companies for allegedly “gouging people.” The investigations into private companies is an Obama-era tactic deployed to displace blame on failed administrative policies to the private sector.

...Now that the Covid-19 pandemic has been with us for close to two years and vaccines for almost one, we have learned that the vaccines work to a degree and that they have both known serious risks and theorized potential risks. Over the last few months, Americans have been increasingly facing demands that they be vaccinated or revaccinated—from governments, schools, employers, shopkeepers, even relatives. These demands include legally enforceable “mandates” that coerce Americans to choose between compliance with vaccination demands and their livelihoods, attending school, travel, and partaking in manifold occasions of civic and religious celebration. Some Americans feel that...

Yesterday in our “Picks” section we linked to Christopher Caldwell’s terrific CRB essay “France on the Verge of Civil War,” which was a deep dive into the rise of Eric Zemmour on the French political scene. The controversial Zemmour has rocked to the top of the early polls ahead of the presidential election scheduled for next spring, leaping ahead of Marine Le Pen, the previous outsider candidate from the right. Today Zemmour released a video declaring his candidacy for president, and I’ve heard comparisons (including from a French student in my political science class this semester) comparing it to Charles...

Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who came within striking distance of winning the Georgia governor’s mansion in 2018, announced on Wednesday that she would run once again to be the state's chief executive. Abrams has been expected for months to launch a second bid for governor. No other Democrat has entered the Georgia gubernatorial race and with Abrams’s announcement on Wednesday, it’s unlikely that any other candidate will seek the party’s nomination.

A growing chorus of conservatives is demanding that Senate Republicans shut down the government if resident Joe Biden refuses to scrap the federal coronavirus vaccine mandate. Such a gambit has proven to be political kryptonite, failing repeatedly under Democratic and Republican presidents and leaving the party in Congress that tried it battered and beaten. But history is not stopping conservative activists, lawmakers, and 2022 candidates opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate from urging Republicans in the Senate to force a politically risky government shutdown just before Christmas in a long-shot attempt to derail a major component of Biden’s strategy to...

Accused Michigan high school shooter Ethan Crumbley was hit Wednesday with adult first-degree murder, terrorism and assault charges, prosecutors said. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said at a press conference Wednesday that her office is also weighing charges against the teen’s parents, who purchased the gun for the 15-year-old. “When the shooting started yesterday, the students and teachers and staff in the school had to act quickly to save their own lives,” McDonald told reporters.

Police seize armfuls of weapons from Oxford shooter’s home Fourth student dies in hospital The Michigan high school shooter who killed four classmates and injured seven others yesterday at Oxford High School is now refusing to speak to police at the juvenile detention center where he is being held. The 15-year-old suspect has not yet been named by police because he is a minor. It remains unclear if he will be charged as an adult or a juvenile but he is being held at Oakland County Children’s Village, where he is on suicide watch and being checked on every 15...

Every ad we read or see for a medicine has a big warning label, or a speaker talking as quickly as an auctioneer telling us the many reasons why we should consider not taking the med. Heck, even Bayer Aspirin has a "Do Not Use" and "Warnings" section on it's label.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who tends to stay quiet during oral arguments, was bursting with key questions to ask both sets of legal counsel as the court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Wednesday. Justices sat down for nearly two hours to hear arguments on whether laws such as Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban are unconstitutional. It’s a raging national debate that has set the stage for Roe v. Wade to possibly be overturned and could save countless unborn babies’ lives. Here are three strong points the unusually outspoken Thomas raised during the hearing. 1....

White House press secretary Jen Psaki falsely claimed Wednesday that former President Donald Trump told people to “inject bleach” when she was confronted with the fact that more Americans have died from coronavirus under President Joe Biden. Fox News’ Peter Doocy quoted Biden’s statement during the second presidential debate in 2020 that “anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.” About 220,000 Americans had died at that point; more have now died under Biden than Trump. “Is that the standard?” Doocy asked

A former British special forces officer with ties to UK intelligence services is at the center of Joe Biden's alleged 10 per cent stake in a dirty deal with China. James Gilliar wrote a now-infamous email to Hunter Biden in 2017 suggesting 'the big guy' would own a tenth of the interest in a multi-million-dollar deal with Chinese oil behemoth CEFC through his son. Though the email, allegedly referring to Joe Biden, was perhaps the most shocking among the tens of thousands on Hunter's abandoned laptop and has the greatest implications for American democracy – still little is known about...

Behind the scenes at Sandford Orchards, the UK's oldest working cider mill - producers of Fanny’s Bramble and moreWhere else could you enjoy a Devon Red, a Shaky Bridge, or a Fanny’s Bramble all under the same roof? The answer is in Devon’s oldest working cider mill, Sandford Orchards, in Crediton. The smell of apples hits you before you see them. Not a sickly sweet apple pie smell. But a tangy, earthy aroma reminiscent of autumn and pubs and perhaps a few hazy nights out. Because if there’s one drink that’s synonymous with Devon, it’s cider. And if there’s one...

Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said he was not aware former President Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a presidential debate last year following that revelation in a forthcoming book. "I certainly was not aware of his test positivity or test negativity," Fauci said at a White House press briefing. "I’m not going to specifically talk about who put who at risk, but I would say… that if you test positive you should be quarantining yourself.” Mark Meadows, who served as Trump's chief of staff at the time, wrote in his new book that Trump tested positive for the...

Embattled CNN primetime host Chris Cuomo had become a pariah among his colleagues before he was suspended from the network over his involvement in brother Andrew's defense from sexual misconduct claims, it has now emerged. The cable news network on Tuesday evening announced that Chris Cuomo, 51, was suspended indefinitely, with Anderson Cooper extending his hour-long show to two hours, to cover Chris's 9pm slot. The news came a day after the New York Attorney General's Office released transcripts and exhibits, showing that the TV presented provided greater assistance to his older brother than initially acknowledged both to his employer...

Capers are salty little flavor bombs that, when they find your fork, create a perfectly balanced bite that pops like fireworks. They’re also the sort of food that we tend not to ask questions about, until one day, apropos of nothing, we suddenly realize we have no idea what capers are. Are they fruits? Vegetables? Something else entirely? It’s the sort of question that causes a person to bolt out of bed in the middle of the night, grab their phone, Google “what are capers,” and find themselves here. So let’s answer this pressing question so you can get back...

The first US case of the Omicron COVID strain has been confirmed in the state of California, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced during a press briefing on Wednesday. The “variant of concern,” which has already been reported in seventeen countries, has now reached California, the president’s top medical adviser said while flanked by White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Dr. Anthony Fauci said the infected individual, who was fully vaccinated, had just returned from South Africa to the San Francisco area on Nov. 22 and tested positive on Nov. 29.

The World Health Organization is recommending people 60 and older to postpone their travel plans over Omicron variant concerns. The WHO, which named Omicron as a variant of concern (VOC) on Nov. 26, says it is monitoring the spread of the variant, and advised certain travelers to delay their trips to “areas with community transmission.” “Persons who are unwell, or who have not been fully vaccinated or do not have proof of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and are at increased risk of developing severe disease and dying, including people 60 years of age or older or those with comorbidities that present...