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NEW YORK (AP) — Dusting off old musical instruments, appreciating the outdoors more meaningfully, dumping the hair dye and letting the gray fly forever. The pandemic disrupted our traditions, practices and pursuits, how we mark milestones, what we do with our time, what’s important in routines. It replaced old with new, a kind of new that just might stick. Nearly three years after the World Health Organization declared the deadly spread of COVID-19 a pandemic, there’s plenty of old life mixed with the new. And, yes, the latter includes a whole lot of Zooming still going on among families, colleagues...

While some Democrats are voicing concerns about President Joe Biden’s re-election prospects, Gov. Jared Polis, D-Colo., says President Joe Biden “has plenty of time to turn this around.” The New York Times reported this week that “dozens” of Democratic lawmakers and officials are frustrated with Biden as he faces low approval ratings, with some suggesting he should not run again. Asked about that report on Meet the Press NOW, Polis said Friday that Biden still has time to improve his standing. “I think he has every opportunity to turn this around,” Polis said of the president. “Maybe pull some new...

The chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said masks were not necessary one year ago Monday. His advice was overridden by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) four weeks later. “Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks… There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”

While vacationing on the coast of Spain in 2012, the computer vision scientist Antonio Torralba noticed stray shadows on the wall of his hotel room that didn’t seem to have been cast by anything. Torralba eventually realized that the discolored patches of wall weren’t shadows at all, but rather a faint, upside-down image of the patio outside his window. The window was acting as a pinhole camera — the simplest kind of camera, in which light rays pass through a small opening and form an inverted image on the other side. The resulting image was barely perceptible on the light-drenched...

Santee residents reported seeing a large glowing ball in the western sky. "I automatically thought it was a earthquake, my car started moving back & forth in Imperial Beach!" Laura Reynolds said. "Are we having an earthquake? Our sliders won't stop shaking, but my chair isn't moving and it's not wind," a Coronado resident posted to social media. "I heard it here on the Strand, but didn't feel anything. Sounded like 2 loud bangs, I thought it was thunder. I am curious what it could have been," another Coronado resident posted. USGS did not detect an earthquake in San Diego...

(CBS News) Updated: 11:30 a.m. ET CHARLESTON, S.C. - Coming off a landslide upset primary victory in South Carolina Saturday night, Newt Gingrich on Sunday attributed the win in part to his "authenticity" as a candidate - something he suggests his rival Mitt Romney lacks. Speaking to CBS News' Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation," Gingrich said it was the people of South Carolina, not himself, who "pulled it off" last night in the Palmetto State: "They wanted somebody who was tough enough and bold enough to take on Obama," he said. "In addition, I think South Carolinians were the...

The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks. The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”

This chart was created Monday evening so anything could change between now and the opening on Tuesday, yet at this time tonight, some key support is giving way in the U.S. Dollar! CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE As the U.S. Dollar is breaking support the Australian $ is looking like a buying opportunity is at hand below-

As America this weekend celebrates the birth of its liberty, in much of the rest of the world freedom and democracy are in retreat. Over the past decade, authoritarian rulers have refined their techniques to stay in power, learning from each other and thinking two steps ahead of democratic forces. Unprepared for this systematic reply to the advance of democracy from the 1970s through the 1990s, democratic governments have yet to formulate a coherent response. "A global political recession" is how Tom Melia describes the current state of affairs. Melia is deputy director of Freedom House, a nonprofit that annually...

NOVEMBER 15, 2009 Concerns Rise Around Obama Trip JONATHAN WEISMAN SHANGHAI -- President Barack Obama arrived here late Sunday to press China on issues from climate change to economic restructuring, amid rising concerns that his first swing through Asia as president will yield more disappointment than progress on trade, human rights, national security and environmental concerns. A flurry of actions in Singapore this weekend raised more questions than they resolved on a broad sweep of issues confronting both sides of the Pacific. On Sunday, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum dropped efforts to reach a binding international climate-change agreement...

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2006 – The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East told Congress today he’s “rarely seen it so unsettled or so volatile” and urged continued regional and coalition pressure to confront problems before they escalate further. Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, joined Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The leaders expressed concern about growing sectarian violence in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad. Abizaid called the violence “as bad as I’ve seen it” and warned...

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2006 – U.S. troops serving in the provinces around Baghdad believe in the mission they’re performing and know they’re making a difference in the lives of Iraqis, a U.S. commander in the area said today. “I'd say that morale among my troops is very good,” Army Col. John Tully, commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said in a news conference from Camp Liberty. “Based on the sensing sessions I've done and going around just talking to people, getting feedback from officers and NCOs, just talking to troops, morale is very high. “They're very proud...

A council has apologised to a woman who was fined £60 after workmen painted a disabled bay around her car. When Shirley Hatcher, 67, parked her car in North Road, Southampton, Hampshire, there were no parking restrictions in place. Mrs Hatcher, of Priory Road, said: "I had just gone to the hairdressers and when I returned there was this disabled bay and the £60 fine." A spokeswoman for Southampton City Council has apologised for the error. Mrs Hatcher said: "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. "My car was covered in polka dots from the paint they had...

Dust clouds transport bacteria from Africa around the world Ian Sample Thursday May 25, 2006 Giant clouds of dust whipped up by desert storms in Africa can carry infectious organisms to other continents, scientists claim today. Despite being blown more than three miles high and exposed to radiation from the sun, strains of bacteria and fungi survived and were able to grow when they returned to Earth, researchers found. Among 40 tests of air samples taken in the mid-Atlantic, 24 revealed living microbes, including 26 colonies of bacteria and 83 fungi. They included strains capable of causing disease in humans,...

Chickens run rings around Turkish bird flu busters Colin Freeman in Kusadasi (Filed: 15/01/2006) For the boiler-suited bird flu team from Kusadasi town council, the question of why the chicken crossed the road was no laughing matter. Having pecked his way out of a wriggling sackful of condemned birds, the white cockerel sprinted from the council depot and across a dual carriageway, forcing several staff to dodge the rush-hour traffic in pursuit. A Turkish boy and a municipality worker try to catch chickens The chicken's escape was thwarted only by Ayhan Bekmez, one of 90 council staff pressed into service...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2005 – A unique center here is helping troubled veterans turn their lives around by providing a military-style program designed to help them beat addictions, develop career skills, land jobs, find homes, and become productive citizens. The Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training, MCVET for short, offers an ambitious array of programs aimed at getting veterans back on their feet and into the mainstream sober, drug-free and self-sufficient. Military service provides the common thread behind the program. All "students," as participants are called, are veterans, as well as 75 percent of the staff. The result is...

Police cracking down on violence around border nightclubs YUMA, Ariz. San Luis, Mexico, police are tired of rowdiness at town nightclubs. They're doubling their presence near the city's nightclubs in response to recurring weekend violence. Police have placed between 16 and 20 patrol cars in the center of town near the clubs. They've also have stepped up I-D checks before patrons are allowed to enter clubs. A San Luis police commander says many underage teenagers try to enter the clubs. Mexico's drinking age is 18. Authorities say many are coming into San Luis Rio Colorado from the U-S. Mexican police...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (August 17, 2005) -- The events of September 11, 2001, brought former Marine, Cpl. Brandon Connelly, back into the Corps to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Twenty-eight-year-old Connelly, originally a native of Toms River, N.J., was living in New York City at the time of the tragedy. Like everyone around him, he recalls being shocked and angry as the day's events unfolded. But unlike many of his fellow New Yorkers, this 1995 Toms River High School North graduate did not wave a flag or sport a bumper sticker to express his solidarity and patriotism. Rather, the former Marine...

When it comes to the law of unintended consequences, the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance "reform" is rapidly becoming a legal phenomenon. The latest example comes courtesy of the Federal Election Commission, where officials are being asked to extend the law to the very people it is supposed to empower: individual citizens. snip The problem facing the FEC is that McCain-Feingold broadly restricts coordination with, and contributions to, political candidates. So what is the agency to do with all those people who use their Web sites to praise a candidate? Computers and Web access cost money, which could be construed as a financial...

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