The Venezuelan military defector identified as the ringleader of the botched coup attempt in Venezuela was likely working as a "double agent" for the same man he allegedly attempted to overthrow, socialist narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro, Breitbart News has learned.

Friday on Fox News Channel's "Your World," Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) argued when determining how and whether or not China was responsible for coronavirus global pandemic, it was undeniable China allowed the virus to spread beyond its borders.

Singing Songwriter Ahmad Formally "thisisjavon" Is Ready To Strike A Pose For The Camera And Get Sexy For A Same-Sex Bachelors

JV Publishing Venture To Support And Expand Zync's Successful Rights Representation Business

(US 1st Circuit) - No. 19-1390

Mort Drucker, the Mad Magazine cartoonist who for decades lovingly spoofed politicians, celebrities and popular culture, died Thursday at 91.

Greg Zanis, known by many as the “Cross Man,” died Monday after spending 23 years building wooden crosses for thousands of mass-shooting victims across the United States, including the 13 victims killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

The Song Delivers A Combination Of Roots Rock Set To Bluesy Boogie-woogie Rhythm Complete With The Twang Of Pedal Steel Guitar.

This year, it wasn’t the typical stoner types in all-green that descended on Civic Center Park in April with marijuana leaf flags. It was the star-spangled banners that waved sky high in an intense display of patriotic exceptionalism this past weekend that should have just stayed home.

(United States First Circuit) - Affirmed the denial of a medically ill defendant's request for a downward departure under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The defendant, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess five kilograms or more of cocaine with intent to distribute, sought a shorter sentence due to his chronic liver ailments. However, the First Circuit found no abuse of discretion in the sentence of 180 months.

Real Husbands will have you cheesing mad hard.

These celebrities made it through failure and all.

“#RamadanKareem.”

Be very afraid.

She can barely recognize herself.

The stylish singer has officially added model to her resume.

The 25-year-old was gunned down while jogging.

Fat Joe joins Brett Berish to talk about his hustle.

The tourney has been axed due to COVID-19 concerns.

It’s family first for one of the newest Miami Dolphins.

Keisha Lance Bottoms spoke to Tamron Hall.

The prompt is to fast and pray while sheltering at home.

The 25-year-old was gunned down while jogging.

#PattiPies returning to Walmart stores this week.

Everything she touches...

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Hello Internet! In This Episode: Erin and Weer’d talk about a defensive gun use that stopped a potential mass shooting, then discuss the assorted nuttery happening in relationship to the COVID-19 quarantine; Loveball returns to the show to talk about what … Continue reading →

Barriers, berms, buildings, and natural terrain may affect the propagation of aircraft noise by shielding or reflecting sound energy. If terrain and manmade structures obstruct the line‐of‐sight between the source and the receiver, then sound energy will be attenuated at the receiver. This attenuation increases with the terrain and structures’ size and proximity to either the source or the receiver. If gaps exist in the terrain or structures, then the potential benefits of acoustical shielding will be su...

Po nějaké době opět exhumovali prezidenta Miloše Zemana z jeho krypty v Lánech, nabalzamovali ho a poslali mezi lidi, aby ukázal, že ještě žije, a hlavně aby promluvil k národu. Tentokrát se prezident Miloš Zeman vyjadřoval k aféře, kdy měl do České republiky přicestovat ruský občan s kufříkem plným ricinu se záměrem otrávit tři regionální politiky.

COVID-19 has shone a very bright light on the importance of widely available, affordable broadband. Nearly 42 million Americans lack access to any broadband whatsoever--double FCC estimates. And millions more can't afford service thanks to a lack of competition among very powerful, government pampered telecom monopolies.

As usual, with political pressure mounting to "do something," DC's solution is going to be to throw more money at the problem:

"The plan unveiled Thursday would inject $80 billion over five years into expansion of broadband infrastructure into neglected rural, suburban and urban areas, with an emphasis on communities with high levels of poverty. It includes measures to promote rapid building of internet systems, such as low-interest financing for infrastructure projects."

To be clear, subsidies often do help shore up broadband availability at coverage. The problem is that the United States government, largely captured by telecom giants with a vested interest in protecting regional monopolies, utterly sucks at it.

Despite ample pretense to the contrary, nobody in the US government actually knows where broadband is currently available. Data supplied by ISPs has never been rigorously fact-checked by a government fearful of upsetting deep-pocketed campaign contributors (and valued NSA partners). As a result, our very expensive ($350 million at last count) FCC broadband coverage map creates a picture of availability and speed that's complete fantasy. It's theater designed to disguise the fact that US broadband is mediocre on every broadband metric that matters. Especially cost.

While there has been some effort to fix the mapping problem via recent legislation, the FCC still needs several years (and more money) to do so. And while you'd think this would be more obvious, you can't fix a problem you can't even effectively measure. There's also not much indication that the $80 billion, while potentially well intentioned, would actually get where it needs to go. Especially right now, when federal oversight is effectively nonexistent.

You may or may not have noticed this, but US telecom is a corrupt, monopolized mess. Giants like AT&T and Comcast all but own state and federal legislatures and, in many instances, literally write the law. Feckless regulators bend over backward to avoid upsetting deep-pocketed campaign contributors. So when subsidies are doled out, they very often don't end up where regulators and lawmakers intended. There's an endless ocean of examples where these giants took billions in taxpayer subsidies to deploy fiber networks that are never fully delivered.

If you were to do meaningful audit (which we've never done because again we're not willing to adequately track the problem or stand up to dominant incumbent corporations) you'd very likely find that American taxpayers already paid for fiber to every home several times over.

That's not to say is that there aren't things Congress could do to help the disconnected during COVID-19. Libraries for example have been begging the FCC for the ability to offer expanded WiFi hotspot access (via mobile school buses) to disconnected communities without running afoul of FCC ERate rules. But while the FCC said libraries can leave existing WiFi on without penalty, it has been mute about whether they can extend coverage outside of library property. Why? As a captured agency, the FCC doesn't like anything that could potentially result in Comcast or AT&T making less money.

None of this is to say that we shouldn't subsidize broadband deployment once we get a handle on the mapping problem. But it's a fantasy to think we're going to immediately fix a 30 year old problem with an additional $80 billion in a mad dash during a pandemic. US broadband dysfunction was built up over decades. It's the product of corruption and rot that COVID-19 is exposing at every level of the US government. The only way to fix it is to stand up to industry, initiate meaningful reform, adopt policies that drive competition to market, and jettison feckless lawmakers and regulators whose dominant motivation is in protecting AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Spectrum revenues.

Maybe the pandemic finally provides the incentive to actually do that, but until the US does, these subsidization efforts are largely theater.

As of today, my current job is now the longest one I’ve ever held.

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Sven of the KidsLab podcast and the Evil Mad Scientist episode is now live! KidsLab is “a podcast for parents, educators and everybody passionate about #STEAM education.”

If you've only ever had refried beans from a can, this should be the next recipe you cook. Homemade refried beans are a game-changer. Use just the right amount of olive oil to cook well-minced onions along with the beans and plenty of their broth. Smoked paprika adds a hint of smoky depth you can't quite put a finger on, my secret ingredient is a finishing splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice. I think it's the element that helps keep the beans from seeming too heavy, and the acidity counters the starchiness of the beans.

Continue reading Homemade Refried Beans on 101 Cookbooks

So, to break up the all pandemic all the time posts: I spent most of March getting my first big project at work over the line. I and my team have just released a FutureLearn MOOC. Behold: Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacterial Pathogens.

It's not completely unrelated to the pandemic, because it's about using genomics methods to detect and avoid antibiotic resistance, and track outbreaks of infectious diseases, albeit bacterial rather than viral. It turned out the timing was quite fortuitous, because the whole world is under lockdown and lots of people have time for taking online courses and interest in epidemics and outbreaks.

So slightly under halfway through the course, we have 5000 sign-ups, from basically every country in the world except places like North Korea and Turkmenistan that don't let people access the internet. And we got a personal message of congratulations from the head of section for making such an awesome course.

On the other hand the timing was slightly disastrous because two weeks before launch the lead educator had to drop out of working on the course and go off to run the national Covid-19 sequencing effort. The rest of the team pulled together in very trying circumstances, more than just the general lockdown and emergency, they're all more or less directly involved in clinical-related work on the pandemic. But the last few weeks have been intense, to say the least.

You're welcome to have a go if you like. It's completely free as in beer - we're funded by the Wellcome Trust so we pay for everybody to have premium access to the course. It's quite technical though; our target audience was basically people who are already working in the field of antibiotic resistance but want to learn about modern cutting edge techniques. If you have college-level science and a general interest it should be fine, and we do have a bunch of keen secondary school students who are desperate for something to learn while public exams are cancelled.

If you are excited about it but it's a bit too technical, there is a companion course called Disease outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance. Which I didn't really work on directly, it all happened before I joined the institution, but it's still part of the portfolio of courses I manage.

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As I was driving back from Kate’s house after a three-day Thanksgiving trip (as opposed to a nine-day one which is my usual MO) I was thinking of a list I’d put here. Whether I’m online or off, I’m usually thinking of lists. To do lists, reading lists, library lists, “crap to fix in my […]

With this video I wanted to get outside of my comfort level in terms of the music that I normally listen to or use in my videos

One of the people that I'm subscribed to on YouTube a while back did a tribute video to this song by My Darkest Days to the new Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe. I thought this song would be a perfect match to the Mad Max trilogy

When I made this Mad Max tribute video I made it to only 1 and 2. I've always thought of Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome as a seperate movie all unto itself, I like the third movie, but it lacks the same feel as the first two