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Brent surpassing $100 a barrel is almost a given at this point, many energy analysts say. Now an increasing number of forecasters predict the commodity surpassing $125 a barrel and even higher. Money is pouring into investments in oil-related stocks, and international oil companies are raking in record profits. The Energy Information Administration lowered its OPEC capacity estimates by 300,000 barrels per day in February. Oil prices are soaring and nothing appears to be stopping their ascent. December to January saw international benchmark Brent crude climb by roughly $11 a barrel, and it’s gone up nearly the same amount since...

A picture of Thermopolis students participating in an air rifle program caused some controversy online after it went viral last week, prompting the Hot Springs County School District No. 1 to remove the photo from social media. Last week, the district shared a photo of some fifth- and sixth- grade students from Thermopolis Middle School working on their marksmanship with air rifles. “Mr. Deromedi’s 5/6th PE classes are working on their marksmanship with air rifles!” the now-deleted post stated. “All students passed their safety test and have been sharpening their skills.” Without explaining why the school district removed the post,...

Showing no sign he will allow tensions to subside, Vladimir Putin demanded on Thursday that the U.S. remove all of its forces from Eastern and Central Europe and expelled U.S. Deputy Ambassador Bartle Gorman from Russia. Soon after, President Biden told reporters he believes Putin will invade Ukraine 'in the next several days,' and that Russia was engaged in a false flag operation. Taken together the diplomatic and military moves represent a new, dangerous phase in the crisis.

Today we face an avoidable crisis that was predictable, actually predicted, willfully precipitated, but easily resolved by the application of common sense. We are being told each day that war may be imminent in Ukraine. Russian troops, we are told, are massing at Ukraine’s borders and could attack at any time. American citizens are being advised to leave Ukraine and dependents of the American Embassy staff are being evacuated. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president has advised against panic and made clear that he does not consider a Russian invasion imminent. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has denied that he has any...

On Monday, I expressed some skepticism about the results of a CBS poll showing majorities of Americans supporting ongoing mask mandates in states and schools. I argued that actions speak louder than polls, and that the stampede away from mandates among blue state governors — plus the election of Glenn Youngkin in Virginia — suggest that the tide had already turned. A new Politico national survey finds President Biden deep underwater (another poll showing him dipping down into the 30's) on overall approval (see update), with a plurality of the public now in favor of axing mask mandates: As I've...

Australians could need up to five doses of Covid-19 vaccine to be fully jabbed Immunocomprimised patients already recommended to receive four doses ATAGI says it's monitoring international data from countries requiring four jabs Almost 60 per cent of eligible Australians have had three doses of the vaccine

Lunden Roberts, the mother of first son Hunter Biden’s 3-year-old daughter, testified this week before a federal grand jury in the criminal investigation into the 52-year-old presidential scion, according to a new report. Roberts, 30, reportedly appeared before the jury for several hours on Tuesday and was photographed by the Daily Mail outside the courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware. She declined to speak with a reporter. Roberts and Biden’s daughter, Navy Joan, was born in August 2018 out of wedlock. Months later, the former stripper hit Hunter Biden with a paternity suit which was settled in March 2020. At the time,...

Two men in Texas killed in separate police-involved shootings within 12 hours of each other were free from jail on bond. "It's a traumatic event no matter the circumstances for the officers involved to take a human life, it's big deal," Pasadena Police Chief Josh Bruegger told FOX 26 Houston. Bruegger's officers and U.S. Marshals went to the Express Inn at 6620 North Freeway to arrest Wednesday to arrest 18-year-old Luis Alberto Rodriguez. "He began to raise his shirt, he had two handguns in his waistband, began reaching for the handgun. At which time, two law enforcement officers discharged their...

At the American university where I teach, one of my assigned tasks is to advise undergraduates—mostly freshmen and sophomores. This essay describes a conversation I had in 2017 with one of those advisees. I will call him Daniel. Daniel was a sophomore at the time. He had been an advisee of mine for a year already, and I’d come to understand that he was a prodigy. I’d also formed a hypothesis, based on a certain bluntness and lack of social tact he exhibited, that Daniel might be on the autism/Asperger’s spectrum. He seemed weak on interpersonal skills and narrowly, even...

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Office of Chief Medical Examiner is experiencing an unprecedented backlog of autopsies. The delays mean families are having to wait weeks to say goodbye to their loved ones who were murdered or overdosed. “The bodies are piling up and decaying right in front of everyone’s eyes,” said Patrick Moran, President of AFSCME Council 3, which has members who are autopsy assistants and forensic investigators. “Bodies are decomposing and that’s not the way to treat those that have lost their lives and families who are looking for closure.”

The worst epidemics and pandemics have ravaged humanity throughout its existence, but which were the deadliest?Some of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history have doomed whole civilizations and brought once powerful nations to their knees, killing millions. While these terrible disease outbreaks still threaten humanity,Thanks to the advances in epidemiology we no longer face the same dire consequences as our ancestors once did. Click the source link to see the listings, info & deaths.

Scientists at EPFL’s Swiss Plasma Center and DeepMind have jointly developed a new method for controlling plasma configurations for use in nuclear fusion research. EPFL’s Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) has decades of experience in plasma physics and plasma control methods. DeepMind is a scientific discovery company acquired by Google in 2014 that's committed to ‘solving intelligence to advance science and humanity. Together, they have developed a new magnetic control method for plasmas based on deep reinforcement learning, and applied it to a real-world plasma for the first time in the SPC’s tokamak research facility, TCV. Their study has just been...

Alec Baldwin is in "complete denial" and refuses to accept "any responsibility" for the death of "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, her family's attorney says. Hutchins was killed on Oct. 21 on the New Mexico movie set after a gun Baldwin was holding discharged. The actor continues to maintain his innocence and has alleged in a televised interview that he did not pull the trigger. On the heels of Hutchins' family filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and others on Tuesday, the family's attorney, Brian Panish, appeared on "Dan Abrams Live," where he claimed the "30 Rock" star "is continuing...

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing have confirmed the use of a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)—often regarded as a sonic weapon

Russia ordered a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to leave the country, an “unprovoked” move to intensify a diplomatic dispute that American officials fear is sliding toward a major attack against Ukraine. “We can confirm that Russia expelled U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to Russia Bart Gorman,” a State Department spokesperson told reporters. “Russia’s action against our DCM was unprovoked, and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response.” Gorman was ordered to leave on the same day that Russia gave U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan a written response to the proposals for security...

BLM has posted the $100,000 bail for an activist hailed by Obama who was charged with attempted murder after allegedly trying to assassinate a Jewish mayoral candidate. Quintez Brown, 21, was accused of opening fire on Monday on Craig Greenberg, whose shirt was grazed by a bullet in his campaign headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky.

The omicron wave that assaulted the United States this winter also bolstered its defenses, leaving enough protection against the coronavirus that future spikes will likely require much less — if any — dramatic disruption to society. Millions of individual Americans’ immune systems now recognize the virus and are primed to fight it off if they encounter omicron, or even another variant. About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported. One influential model uses those factors and others to estimate that 73% of...

It’s Throwback Thursday, let’s ride! Trudeau voices support for farmers in India who blocked major highways to New Delhi for more than a year in 2021, saying at the time: “Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest.”That certainly didn’t age well Justine. Were you lying then or are you lying now? Mind you, we are talking about the Canadian Prime Minister of little brain who thought this a good idea: Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada’s history, allowing the federal government to freeze assets, suspend the insurance of the Freedom...

One day after Ottawa's police chief resigned in the midst of historic civil unrest, city council voted to overhaul the police board and remove chair Diane Deans in a meeting full of high drama and vitriolic accusations.The surprise move was labelled as a way to "restore public trust" nearly three weeks into protests that have rocked the capital. (snip)At the heart of the dispute — one of the ugliest seen during this term of council — was the leaked news that the board had swiftly hired an interim police chief from outside the city without a competition, and without telling...

As SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has spread throughout the world, many observers have failed to take note of the millions of illnesses and deaths caused by HIV—another virus that has approached pandemic status during its history. Now an HIV variant that is more virulent and transmissible has been discovered in the Netherlands, where it apparently has been circulating for decades, according to new research. Luckily, none of the variant’s new mutations make it resistant to widely used therapies. But the finding may offer a warning for how the COVID pandemic could proceed in the coming months: viruses do...