Month: December 2024

‘They’re police officers too’: Horses have vital role in law enforcement  KLFY
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The web is filled with resources, which makes it possible to find all the answers you need in one place, but this can also make finding exactly what you need a long and overwhelming process. Google's new Deep Research offering aims to help you manage that process.
Recently, Google announced several AI advancements and releases. One of the biggest standouts for everyday users is Deep Research, an agentic feature for Gemini Advanced that can conduct thorough research on your behalf. 
Also: 15 surprising ways I used AI to save me weeks of work in 2024
With Deep Research, you can pose a question about the topic you want to learn more about. The agentic feature will create a multi-step research plan, which you can approve or disapprove. If the plan is approved, it will browse the web for you for a few minutes. 
The Deep Research process mimics what humans do when engaging in research processes, such as browsing the web, making new searches with their findings, and continuing the process multiple times until it has collected sufficient information to answer your question. 
Those findings are then used to create a comprehensive report, organized with links to the original sources so that you can dive deeper into a particular area of interest. That report can be refined with follow-up questions, and once you are happy with the result, you can export it into Google Docs. 
The experience is now live for all Gemini Advanced users on the desktop and mobile web — with plans to roll out to the app in early 2025. To use it, just select "1.5 pro with Deep Research" from the model toggle picker under the Gemini Advanced logo in the upper left-hand corner. 
Also: 3 lucrative side hustles you can start right now with OpenAI's Sora video generator
Gemini Advanced is part of the Google One AI Premium plan, costing users $20 per month. Other perks of the plan include 2TB of storage, Google Photos editing features, 10% back in Google Store rewards, Google Meet premium video calling features, and Gemini for Workspace. Google also offers users a two-month free trial as part of the new plan. 

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For the first time in 15 years, Hanukkah and Christmas coincide in 2024: The Jewish holiday begins with the first candle lighting at sundown on Christmas Day.
These holidays are an important affirmation of our religious heritage.
America was established on a biblical worldview, and it can’t survive without it.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Our form of government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don’t care what it is.”
Ike was not saying that religious differences are unimportant, but that faith itself is what matters.
George Washington — another soldier turned statesman — cautioned in his Farewell Address that “religion and morality are indispensable supports” of political prosperity.
His successor, John Adams, said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
President Ronald Reagan warned, “If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
Today, we are a nation adrift in a sea of doubt.
According to a March Gallup survey, only 30% of Americans now attend religious services regularly, while 56% seldom or never do so.
Those who don’t identify with any religion (the “nones”) rose from 13% in 2010 to 21% today.
Is it so surprising then that in an Emerson College poll, 41% of adults under 30 said the cold-blooded killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was “acceptable”?
This is what comes from not teaching religion to the young but instead allowing them to absorb the values of the secular culture.
All of our most intractable problems — including crime, drug abuse and depression — are related to a weakening of faith.
In its 12-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous explains: “Accepting a higher power helps you to see life from a different perspective and creates a sense of accountability.”
Religious people are happier, healthier and more involved with their family and community.
The left, which has an instinctive aversion to religion — Karl Marx called it the “opium of the masses”— keeps casting about for a substitute.
The French Revolution created a Cult of Reason to replace Christianity and set up an altar to it in Notre Dame Cathedral.
In 2024, the Democratic Party tried to turn democracy (a word found nowhere in America’s founding documents) into a religion.
In his 2022 speech at Independence Hall, President Biden indicted his predecessor as a threat to democracy.
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Mr. Biden used Independence Hall as a prop without any understanding of its real significance.
The Declaration of Independence, which was signed there, speaks of unalienable rights endowed by the Creator.
If such a document were produced today, progressives would be screaming that the authors had violated the mythical wall separating church and state.
Democrats saw the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol not as trespass and vandalism but as heresy — the pagans committing acts of sacrilege in the temple of democracy.
The failure of their attempts to deify democracy may be seen in the results of the 2024 election: President-elect Donald Trump became the first Republican in 20 years to receive a majority of the popular vote.
As supreme allied commander in Europe during World War II, Eisenhower was as responsible as anyone for our victory.
When our forces began liberating the death camps, the future president was so moved by the horrors uncovered that he was determined to document them.
On April 12, 1945, Eisenhower visited Dachau in the company of Gens. George Patton and Omar Bradley.
He wrote to Winston Churchill that the English language didn’t have words to describe what he saw.
What he saw was a monument to depravity — to a government based on ideology, in this case, the master race theory — the only alternative to one based on religious values.
Modernity has witnessed so many horrific examples of state power driven by ideology — the Reign of Terror, communism, the Holocaust, Islamism (a cult masquerading as a religion) and the soft totalitarianism of diversity, equity and inclusion.
During the Revolutionary War, Valley Forge was the low point of the American cause.
A famous painting by a contemporary artist shows Washington kneeling in the snow and praying outside the Continental Army’s encampment.
Such faith has sustained us in every war and national crisis.
The fight to maintain our religious heritage is far more important than tariffs or tax cuts.
Adapted from The Washington Times.

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College football Freshman All-America team: Jeremiah Smith, Sam Leavitt and more – The Athletic  The Athletic
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YubaNet
We Deliver News to the Sierra
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is advising residents to not feed their pets raw food following a voluntary recall of Northwest Naturals Brand 2lb Feline Turkey Recipe Raw & Frozen Pet Food due to detection of H5 bird flu virus in product samples. The Oregon Department of Agriculture has confirmed a house cat contracted H5 bird flu and died after consuming the recalled raw frozen pet food. The recalled products are sold in California. A listing of retailers can be found on the product’s website.
The recalled products are packaged 2-pound plastic bags with “Best if used by” dates of 05/21/26 B10 and 06/23/2026 B1. Pet owners are urged to immediately dispose of the product.
Residents who fed their pets the recalled raw pet food products or other raw meat or dairy products and notice their pet is experiencing symptoms should immediately contact their veterinarian.
Public Health recently confirmed H5 bird flu in four house cats that consumed recalled raw milk and became sick and died, which is part of an ongoing investigation. Cats infected with H5 bird flu can develop severe illness that may including neurologic signs, respiratory signs or liver disease that can rapidly progress to death. Public Health is also investigating additional possible cases of H5 bird flu in three house cats from a different household. One cat has tested positive for Influenza A, a rare result in cats that indicates possible H5 bird flu. Two other cats, which have died after worsening respiratory illness, are presumed to have also been positive for Influenza A. Public Health is awaiting confirmatory testing. These cats were not known to be exposed to raw milk, however public health is investigating other possible sources of infection, including raw meat.
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Residents should avoid consumption of all raw milk and raw meat products and not feed these to their pets. Raw dairy, meat and poultry products, can harbor harmful bacteria and viruses, including H5 bird flu, which can pose serious risks to your health and the health of your pets. While consuming raw milk and meat products is never advised from a public health standpoint, the risk is especially concerning at this time, given the ongoing spread of bird flu virus among dairy cattle and following recent multiple detections of the virus in raw milk products.
About H5 Bird Flu
H5 bird flu refers to various strains of influenza A viruses that typically infect birds. While these viruses mainly affect wild birds, sometimes they also infect other animals, including wild and domestic animals (including seals, foxes, cats, and cows). H5N1 is one type of avian influenza that has been spreading among birds and mammals, leading to a nationwide outbreak. This is the first time these bird flu viruses have been found to be spreading in cows. The overall risk of H5 bird flu to the public remains low. There is currently no evidence of person to person spread of this virus.
Public Health has been working with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the local LA County agricultural community to ensure key risk groups, including farm workers, workers at dairy, egg, and meat processing facilities and backyard flock owners receive information and resources to help identify and protect against this infection; this includes access to gloves, face masks and eye protection along with access to testing and flu vaccines.
Public Health yesterday confirmed the first case of H5 bird flu in a human in Los Angeles County who was exposed to livestock infected with H5 Bird flu at a worksite.
Symptoms of H5 bird flu virus infection in humans may include:
Symptoms in cats infected with H5 bird flu may vary and include:
For questions or to find a nearby clinic or doctor, residents can call the Public Health InfoLine at 833-540-0473. Open every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For more information, visit our websites:
Avian flu in animals: publichealth.lacounty.gov/vet/HPAI.htm
Avian flu in humans: ph.lacounty.gov/acd/diseases/h5n1.htm
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Netflix’s The Deliverance Ending, Explained  GameRant
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More Attention Should Be Paid To The Health Of Deep Soil In Low-Yield Farmland  Eurasia Review
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Star Stable Codes (December 2024)  GameRant
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Alabama law enforcement fatally shoot 2 men in separate traffic stops  WIAT – CBS42.com
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The first hour of Monday, SpaceX launched their own method of delivery before the holidays − a Falcon 9 rocket.
At 12:35 a.m., the rocket lit up the cloudy Florida night sky as it rumbled to orbit. Its delivery − the next batch of SpaceX Starlink internet satellites. This batch included 21 satellites total, with 13 of them for Starlink mobile service. This specific mission was referred to as Starlink 12-2.
Eight-and-a-half minutes after lift off, the first stage booster landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship on the Atlantic Ocean. The booster saw its fourteenth flight, with previous missions including: seven Starlink missions, Axiom-2, Axiom-3, CRS-30, SES 24, Cygnus NG-21, and Euclid.
Overall, this was the Space Coast’s 91st launch of the year.
When is the next launch?Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA rocket launch schedule in Florida
After weather delayed the launch of four satellites for the company Astranis Space Technologies, the launch attempt on Friday, Dec. 20 saw a rare last second abort. SpaceX further delayed the mission again Saturday evening, stating that after reviewing data they would be standing down from the launch. SpaceX has yet to provide a new launch date.
Be sure to follow the FLORIDA TODAY Space Team for the latest from the Space Coast.
Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.

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