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Poke and Sniff: A Lesson from 1906In 1906, Upton Sinclair came out with his book The Jungle, and it shocked the nation by documenting the horror of the meat-packing industry. People were being boiled in vats and sent to larders. Rat waste was mixed with meat. And so on.As a result, the Federal Meat Inspection Act passed Congress, and consumers were saved from ghastly diseases. The lesson is that government is essential to stop enterprise from poisoning us with its food.To some extent, this mythology accounts for the wide support for government’s involvement in stopping disease spread today, including Covid...

After receiving his son's mathematics results, a man in Henan, China, burst into tears — though not in a good way. A 12-second video of this man surfaced online last Thursday (June 23) on Weibo, where he can be seen sobbing away while pacing around a room. He then wipes off his tears with his sleeve, and grabs a towel off the bed to stop more tears from flowing. It seems that this man found out that his son — whom he had been painstakingly tutoring every night for a year — had scored a measly six out of 100...

Deafening Drumbeats for War – Biden Sends More U.S. Troops to Ukraine Border, 101st Airborne Deployed, Six Destroyers to Mediterranean, F-35 Squadrons to U.K.June 29, 2022 | Sundance | 147 CommentsThere is a slow-motion buildup to a hot war with Russia happening. The NATO and western alliance motive for the war is clear {Go Deep}. The question is rapidly moving from “if” to “when.”In this outline we will update on the troop and military movements and then explain why the war with Russia is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. In many ways this will be the “Climate Change War,” you will...

Dear Freepers Would you be so kind to say a prayer for me and my S.O.? With the world in uncertainty and turmoil, it feels that the weight of the world is unbearable. Your prayers are appreciated to our spirits. Thank you and God Bless.

In response to AsiaOne queries, Acres said that they have been alerted to the incident and they are horrified to see an animal suffer in such a manner "First, it had to get stuck on a glue trap, a barbaric way of trapping animals. Secondly, it had to endure further pain and suffering by the smashing of the concrete slab," they said. Acres added that the act is illegal under the Animals and Birds Act and they have since lodged a report with NParks. Remy the rat from the animated movie Ratatouille may be a favourite character to many, but...

Suspect identified in murder of Yavapai County deputy Mayer resident Robert McDowell, 61, is now in custody on a first-degree murder charge. CORDES LAKES, Ariz. - A suspect has been taken into custody after a Yavapai County Sheriff's deputy was shot and killed in Cordes Lakes on June 28. Sergeant Richard Lopez, 51, died in the line of duty after trying to apprehend a possible theft suspect in an area near Stagecoach and Redrock, according to Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes. Sgt. Lopez, according to Sheriff Rhodes, came into contact with the suspect, but it's unclear what happened next. Neighbors...

The United States will increase the number of soldiers stationed in Europe to 100,000 by adding 20,000 troops, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday. (snip) Many officials are now exhorting the United States to increase food exports around the world to supplement the lost shipments from Russia and Ukraine. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at the World Economic Forum last month that global food shortages constitute a “dire” situation and therefore recommended “openness in exports of food,” refraining from “food restrictions,” and not buying “more food than you need for your own country.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for using his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that went on for decades. Through tears and anger, several of Kelly’s accusers told a court, and the singer himself, that he had preyed on them and misled his fans. “You made me do things that broke my spirit. I literally wished I would die because of how low you made me feel,” said one unnamed survivor, directly addressing a Kelly who kept his...

Some Delta Air Lines passengers received an offer this morning they couldn’t refuse. Delta flight 3550 operated by SkyWest from Grand Rapids, Michigan (GRR) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) apparently was oversold. There were more confirmed passengers who showed up at the airport than there were available seats on the Embraer 175 aircraft. Airlines generally ask for volunteers to take later flights in instances like these. In return, the volunteers are given rewards such as gift cards, vouchers for future travel, etc. (Here on the blog, we call these “Bumpertunities.”) We’ve taken voluntarily denied boarding opportunities like these countless times and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The walls are closing in on former President Trump. In an explosive bombshell unprecedented star witness testimony yesterday, Cassidy Hutchinson told everyone that she heard Mark Meadows say that a Secret Service agent's friend's cousin's husband once heard that one of Trump's other aides said she thinks she heard him say he wanted to "do an insurrection." "Yes, that's totally what I heard someone say Trump said to someone who told it to them," said Cassidy Hutchinson. "He literally said 'Let's do an insurrection.' And then he threw a plate at the bust of Martin Luther King."...

Major Andrii Verkhohliad, a decorated Ukrainian military officer, has lost his life while fighting for his country. The news of Verkhohliad's death was confirmed by 72nd Mechanized Brigade in a Facebook post on Thursday. A video of Verkhohliad in which he speaks about "Ukrainian Victory" being the only goal has gone viral on social media. The social media is abuzz with comments as the followers have once again lambasted Russia for Ukraine invasion. A large number of social media followers have condoled the death of Verkhohliad, one of the best commanders of 72nd Mechanized Brigade. Popularly referred to as the...

A professor of infectious diseases and immunology is questioning Quebec’s COVID-19 pandemic management with an analysis of provincial data, saying risks were overstated and measures uncalled for. “The threat from COVID-19 was very real, but was it as significant as reported?” said Patrick Provost in the piece published in Québecor media company platforms on June 22. Provost is a full professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Laval University, with his current research focusing on Ribonucleic Acid (RNA). He noted that the mortality rate is 1.44 percent for COVID-19, but he said the rate is overestimated due to...

Today, CDC continues to lean forward with an aggressive public health response to the monkeypox outbreak by activating its Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This action stands up the CDC’s command center for monitoring and coordinating the emergency response to monkeypox and mobilizing additional CDC personnel and resources. CDC’s activation of the EOC allows the agency to further increase operational support for the response to meet the outbreak’s evolving challenges. It is home to more than 300 CDC staff working in collaboration with local, national, and international response partners on public health challenges. The activation of the EOC will serve to...

The FCC commissioner has called on the CEOs of Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing new reports suggesting the video app popular among American young people is harvesting "swaths of sensitive data" that is being accessed by Beijing on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. In a letter dated June 24, Brendan Carr, the commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, warned Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet Inc. and Google LLC CEO Sundar Pichai of "an alarming new report" that shed fresh light on "serious national security threats posed by TikTok." "TikTok is not...

SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. (AP) — A small ski area in Vermont has announced that it’s retiring its name, Suicide Six, this summer amid growing concerns about the insensitive nature of the historical name. The resort said on its website on Tuesday that it shares those concerns and “embraces the increasing awareness surrounding mental health.” “The feelings that the word ‘suicide’ evokes can have a significant impact on many in our community,” the resort statement said. A new name will be announced in the coming weeks for the ski area in South Pomfret, near Woodstock, which opened in 1936 and is...

Clinton stooge Robert Reich has just as much of a sordid record in his coverage on the inflation crisis as leftist economist Paul Krugman. The former Secretary of Labor tried to swat down any concerns that President Joe Biden’s gargantuan $1.9 trillion stimulus was rife with inflationary pressures that could send the economy off the rails. “Larry Summers is dead wrong that Biden's plan would be inflationary. The economy has huge unused capacity,” Reich squealed against former President Barack Obama’s former National Economic Council director in a Feb. 5, 2021 tweet. Summers sounded the alarm bells about a potential inflation...

The transgender skateboarder who sparked fury by beating a 13-year-old girl to claim first prize in a recent contest has defended competing against children, telling DailyMail.com exclusively: 'I wasn't going to go easy on them just because they're kids.' Ricci Tres, 29, is a Los Angeles-based transgender woman who was formerly known as Richard Batres, a 2nd Class Petty Officer in the Navy who was married to a woman and has three kids. Two years ago, Tres started taking hormones to transition to become a woman after spending her childhood feeling 'guilty' about crossdressing. Last year, she submitted a social...

Chair Jerome Powell said that the Federal Reserve has over the past year learned 'how little we understand inflation' in remarks Wednesday. 'I think we now understand better how little we understand about inflation,' the chair divulged at the European Central Bank (ECB) Forum in Sintra, Portugal. 'This was unpredicted.' 'That's not very reassuring,' quipped Bloomberg TV's Francine Lacqua.

The woke West Hollywood officials who proposed the city defund their sheriff's department to save money had agreed to spend $85,000 to updating the city's LGBT crosswalk to make it more inclusive. Sepi Shyne, the city's first LGBTQ councilmember, led a 3-2 vote to cut the current force of around 60 sheriff's deputies by four, while also hiring 30 unarmed 'security ambassadors' under a scheme called Block By Block. The woke councilmember said the officers cost too much - and the Block by Block program represented more 'bang for the buck.'

A vast majority of Australians now see China as a military threat to their country, according to a respected Sydney-based research organization. Russia’s war in Ukraine has also been identified as a major security concern in a recently released survey by the Lowy Institute that says Australians are worried about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the potential for conflict between China and Taiwan. The poll released Monday has also shown that trust in China and confidence in its President, Xi Jinping, is at record lows in Australia. Natasha Kassam is the Lowy Institute’s polling director. She told VOA the poll...