The Government of Liberia has officially launched the new Visa on Arrival (visaonarrival.lis.gov.lr) and Re-entry Permit (reentryvisa.lis.gov.lr) Issuing System in collaboration with the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) and the project contractor - consortium CETIS, one of the Europe’s leading companies in security printing and identity management, and ZIP SOLUTIONS, on 11 March 2025. Following the successful launch of the modern digitalized Work Permit Issuing System in 2022, this new system marks another significant step forward in Liberia’s efforts to modernize and digitalize public administration. This new system is designed to simplify the process for foreigners entering Liberia and enhance the effectiveness of border controls at Monrovia-Roberts International Airport - whether as tourists, business visitors, or investors. These initiatives are expected to result in increased tourism and business travel, which are crucial to the country’s economic growth.

When you come to the U.S. as a visitor -- which is what a visa is, which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitor's visa -- you are here as a VISITOR. We can deny you that visa. If you tell us when you apply, "Hi, I'm trying to get into the United States on a student visa - 'I am a big supporter of Hamas,' a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages - if you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this, and you tell us when you apply for your visa, "And by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities, I intend to shut down your university.

If you told us these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa. I hope we would.

And if you actually end up doing that, once you're in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it. And if you have a green card--not citizenship--as a result of that visa, while you're here and those activities? We're gonna kick you out. It's as simple as that. This is not about free speech. This is about people who don't have any right to be in the United States.

I'm not one to use the term "Constitutional crisis" loosely, but if this ruling stands, I think we are at that point. Alsup's decision means federal agencies cannot legally respond to a White House directive to reduce their headcount. It also changes the legal status of probationary and term appointments to tenure rather than how they have been traditionally viewed. IANAL, but I think the ability of the American Federation of Government Employees to intervene on behalf of employees who are not represented by a bargaining unit in an employment matter is highly suspect.

This strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. //

smalltownoklahoman. | March 11, 2025 at 12:42 pm
Why is it being done at all? Who thinks it’s a good idea to take a known virus and amp it up into something that can kill millions? Just to satisfy some scientists curiosity? H1N1 in the late 70’s was a GOF research project that “oops!” just happened to escape. It’s clear that humans just aren’t responsible enough to continue to play these games and any countries that allow it need to be punished severely, including our own. Would Covid exist if we weren’t funding the research and teaching Chinese scientists how to conduct it? //

GWB in reply to Sanddog. | March 11, 2025 at 1:47 pm
Primarily the research exists (ostensibly) for two reasons:
First is to then play around and see how things work. This is research for knowledge’s sake.
Second is the idea that you can then make vaccines and treatments for these things (especially novel ones, yay!) and be better prepared when something appears out of the wild. (Or when something shows up from an enemy’s bioweapons lab.)

I get the first one. And if people could be trusted to be really safe and have only the best motives and all that, it might be supportable for those who place Reason high on a pedestal.

The second one does make sense. Sorta. The problem there is that how do you distinguish between someone making a weapon and someone actually building defenses against a weapon? By what they tell you? Simply by who they work for? Yeah, pull the other one.

Sanddog in reply to GWB. | March 12, 2025 at 12:30 am
There isn’t a single vaccine or treatment that has come out of these experiments. //

When I wore Uncle Sam's colors back in the closing years of the Cold War, we took a lot of pride in being STRAC - "Strategic, Tough, Ready Around the Clock." Not only physical fitness but appearance factored into that; we took pride in looking sharp, in looking soldierly. We eschewed standard-issue boots for Corcoran jump boots that took a better shine. We pressed our uniforms, we blocked our caps, and we shined our brass; we were honed like razors, and we took great pride in it.

In recent years, some of the military people we've seen in airports and so on have not only looked non-STRAC, but some of them looked a little saggy around the midsection. But there's a new boss at the Pentagon, and he looks to be bringing STRAC back.

TRUMP: I blame the Democrats, and Chuck Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I'm concerned. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian.

(Reporters erupt). //

houdini1984
8 hours ago
"Palestinian" is just another way to say antisemite. Schumer is a Palestinian.

For all the melodies you have in you
Speldosa is the result of a unique collaboration between Klevgrand and the Swedish artist Wintergatan/Martin Molin. Wintergatan has primarily worked in the physical world (the Marble Machine is probably the most astonishing example), while Klevgrand has performed its craft within the digital sphere. When these two worlds now meet, it results in a product that both visually and audibly inspires the creation of music that you didn’t know you had in you.

Speldosa (Swedish for "Music Box") is the essence of the shared beliefs of Klevgrand and Wintergatan, and their fascination with minimalism. A simple melody played on a music box can contain an equal amount of emotional power as any symphonic work. There is something about the music box sound that never ceases to fascinate.

The instrument itself has been meticulously recorded by Wintergatan and transformed into a playable digital instrument plugin. It features four different models (Modern, Vintage, Antique, and Eternal = Reversed), two different Room models, and an algorithmic reverb.