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A newly-uncovered trove of documents detailing plans to create a Covid-like virus in China months before the pandemic make the 'lab leak almost certain', experts say. The records - obtained now by FOIA requests - lay out a plan to 'engineer spike proteins' to infect human cells that would then be 'inserted into SARS-Covid backbones' at the infamous Wuhan virology lab from December 2018. Just a year later, in late 2019, the Covid-19 virus emerged with a uniquely adept ability to infect humans, going on to cause a global pandemic. The proposal was made by the now-notorious EcoHealth Alliance, a...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is set to propose a “universal basic income” pilot program for some residents of his city when he unveils his new budget on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. A year ago, the cash-strapped city was sending workers on furloughs due to anticipated budget shortfalls.

Does anyone else have an “Am I being given crazy pills” moment when somebody trumpets some version of a universal basic income nowadays? On Tuesday the Parliamentary Budget Office published a response to a request by Independent Group Sen. Yuen Pau Woo; Sen. Woo had asked the PBO to estimate the costs of a federal guaranteed basic income for all Canadians between the ages of 18 and 64. The senator proposed that the income amount ought to be in line with Ontario’s aborted 2017 pilot project on basic income: $16,989 for individuals, $24,027 for couples. He wanted to know the...

I have long promised to write about the scripting language Basic and creating macros in LibreOffice. This article is devoted to the types of data used in LibreOffice Basic, and to a greater extent, descriptions of variables and the rules for using them. I will try to provide enough information for advanced as well as novice users.(And, I would like to thank everyone who commented on and offered recommendations on the Russian article, especially those who helped answer difficult questions.)Variable naming conventions Variable names cannot contain more than 255 characters. They should start with either upper- or lower-case letters of the...

This is the first time in many years that I have put pen to paper for a lengthy letter, so please forgive my misspellings, poor handwriting or any other errors. I will probably do this in one go and be finished with it. I won’t need much of this new notebook. It’s a nice room, desk and chair, but really, no computer? I just wish they would stop the hammering outside. I need to focus in order to write well. No one person could possibly expect to know the full truth about such a complex history, so near to its...

The above title should say it all. It is a currently unheard of social program but one that will become widely known just like Social security and Universal health care. The Universal Basic Income is essentially getting free money for life with no strings attached. ABSOLUTELY NONE! It is already beginning to take hold in New Zealand and is being contemplated (not surprisingly) by that Communist liberal utopia that Democrats want us to emulate, the European Union. According to websites such as basic income.com and similar websites advocating the implementation of UBI, everyone would receive somewhere between six hundred to...

LEXINGTON, Ky. — U.S. authorities have arrested a 51-year-old Croatian-born woman in Kentucky who is accused of war crimes against civilians during the Bosnian civil war in the 1990s. Azra Basic, who was living in Stanton, Ky., is accused of torturing and murdering ethnic Serbs at prison camps from April to June 1992. Bosnia and Herzegovina officials want Basic returned to that country to stand trial Eyewitnesses Radojica Garic and Dragan Kovacevic said Basic murdered Blagoje Djuras, who had been beaten to unconsciousness by Croatian police and soldiers, by slitting his throat with a knife, according to a court document....

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — (Adapting to battlefield experience, the Army nixes 5-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag sprints and honing core muscles. ) New soldiers are grunting through the kind of stretches and twists found in "ab blaster" classes at suburban gyms as the Army revamps its basic training regimen for the first time in three decades. Heeding the advice of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans, commanders are dropping five-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag sprints and exercises that hone core muscles. Battlefield sergeants say that's the kind of fitness needed to dodge across...

11/10/2006 - LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- Three brothers from Fort Worth, Texas, will be "doing something amazing" for the Air Force in the coming years after graduation from Basic Military Training Nov. 10. Twins Chaz and Logan Hatcher, 22, and their younger brother, Derek, 19, completed the 6.5-week course while assigned to three different training squadrons and will be training in three different career fields. Chaz, from the 331st Training Squadron, will train to become an aircraft loadmaster. Brother Logan in the 324th Training Squadron is going into the avionics field; and Derek, from the 326th Training...

Fallujah worker at new Al Askari water treatment plant. FALLUJAH -- Water is a precious resource in Iraq...clean, drinking water even more so.Fallujah residents last spring celebrated the opening of a new water treatment facility, the first such investment in their community in a quarter-century. The main treatment plant was built in 1981 and could produce 2,000 cubic meters per hour. But over the years, little was invested in maintenance and today that outdated facility produces only half what was originally intended. Fallujah city officials participated in an open house and dedication of the Al Tahadi water treatment plant...

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 22, 2006 -- An opportunity to get an education, to see parts of the world they’d only heard about or serve their country attracted 16 passengers here last evening aboard American Airlines Flight 1961, and ultimately, to 13 weeks of boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Devin Chambers (from left), Ben McCorkle and Pacheco Perez, new Marine recruits departing for basic training, pose for a photo. Photo by Cherie Thurlby  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 16 Marine Corps recruits, most from Texas, displayed the expected range of emotions as they boarded...

FORT BENNING, Ga. (Army News Service, July 12, 2006) – Pvt. Jay Grassel believes he has a lot in common with Pfc. James Murphy. Both Pittsburgh natives joined the Army at 19, fresh out of high school. Both were assigned to 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry Regiment. When the going gets tough, Grassel looks to Murphy for inspiration. But Murphy doesn't know it. He was killed by small arms fire 44 days after arriving in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago. "He knew he was going to war when he enlisted. I enlisted knowing I’ll go to war," said Grassel, who's training...

7/3/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- Last year Airman 1st Class Samantha Riddle spent Independence Day floating down a river and watching fireworks. The day meant nothing more than a chance to hang out with friends and to enjoy a day off from the daily grind of working in the medical field. Now, as a graduate of Air Force basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, one of the Air Force's newest members has a new respect for the holiday. "As a member of the military I have a greater appreciation of what this holiday means. In the future,...

Quake victims could be left without basic provisions for months, warns president · Rescuers give up hope of finding more survivors· Homeless and sick face threat of erupting volcano John Aglionby in Yogyakarta Tuesday May 30, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Indonesia's president warned last night it would take months to deal with the basic needs of tens of thousands of earthquake survivors, as rescue teams all but gave up hope of pulling more people alive from the rubble. Relief started trickling through to towns demolished by Saturday's 6.3-magnitude quake that killed at least 4,300 people on Java island, but President...

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich., April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- An historic FBI Town Hall Meeting with Arab and Muslim Americans will be televised nationwide on May 15th at 8pm ET / 9pm PT on Bridges TV. Bridges TV is available as a free channel on Wow Cable & Internet and GlobeCast Satellite. However, Comcast Cable, the nation's largest cable provider, charges customers an extra $180 a year to watch Bridges TV. "We are deeply saddened by such excessive overpricing by Comcast Cable. There is an urgent need for better coverage of Arab and Muslim American issues in the media. Offering Bridges TV...

Resolve to refresh, review, and practice, the key Catholic beliefs:To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world. Man must know, love and serve God in a supernatural manner in order to gain happiness of heaven. Man is raised to the supernatural order only by grace, a free gift of God. We learn to know, love, and serve God from Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who teaches us through the Catholic Church. In order to be saved, all persons who have attained the use of reason must believe explicitly that God exist...

CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq (Dec. 21, 2005) -- Marines deployed on a combat tour to Iraq find many different ways to relax and spend their free time. They play video games, watch movies, read books and even take online college courses. One Marine, though, uses his free time to make a direct impact oh the mission to turn Iraq over to a stable government capable of protecting its citizens. Cpl. Russell R. Hall, a wire man assigned to a six-man communications detachment with the 2nd Marine Division Training Center here, spends his free time ‘instructing the instructors’ as members of the...

NORTH CANTON, Ohio (Army News Service, Nov. 29, 2005) — More than 50 new recruits gathered at the North Canton Armory Nov. 20 for their one-weekend-a-month drill assembly. But instead of reporting to their new units, they reported to their recruiters. The troops are participating in the restructured Recruit Sustainment Program, a new take on an old idea. Cpt. Robert H. Paley administers the program, which helps integrate recruits into their new role as Soldiers and prepare them for Army basic combat training. His enthusiasm for the program is evident in the smile he wears as he passionately talks about...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 15, 2005) – Ten days has been added to Iraqi basic training and a second group of Iraqi soldiers has begun the new 24-day cycle. "It started off as a two-week program,” said Staff Sgt. Michael J. Munoz of the 80th Division, who serves as operations noncommissioned officer at the academy. During the 24 days of training, Munoz said the recruits now learn drill and ceremony, weapons marksmanship, squad-level movement techniques, room-clearing procedures and how to operate traffic-control points. Instructors are able to go into greater detail when teaching the individual skills because...

Brigadier General James H. Schwitters is in many ways the face of leadership in the 21st-century American Army: Thoughtful, deliberate, battle-seasoned, all business, nothing like “the perfumed princes” the late Col. David H. Hackworth railed against for so many years. Schwitters is simply a bone-hard warrior with a calculating mind and far too many parachute jumps (operational and training) under his belt to continue counting. He knows how to fight, survive, achieve the given objective, and think outside of the box to accomplish all three. He’s the kind of general-officer the Army – in fact the entire U.S. Defense Department...