Letlow...

 

Louisiana Republican Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, who was scheduled to be sworn in on Sunday, died Tuesday evening from complications related to COVID-19.

The incoming representative for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District, 41, was first admitted to a hospital on Dec. 19 and later transferred to LSU Health Shreveport in critical condition and "apparently suffered a cardiac event" on Tuesday that led to his death, Shreveport Dr. G.E. Ghali told NOLA.com.

Letlow's passing has inspired his friends, family and acquaintances to share sympathetic messages and fond memories of the young father of two on social media, highlighting Letlow's life and accomplishments before he was elected to serve his home state in Washington, D.C.

Not enough information in this case. Just a thought.

Compare...

 

A Boston doctor with a shellfish allergy had a serious reaction to Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine and has recovered after he was allowed to use his allergy autoinjector, health officials reported.

The man, who has a severe shellfish allergy, received the vaccine  and was then observed post-vaccination.

 He was taken to the Emergency Department, evaluated, treated, observed and discharged. He is doing well today," the statement said.

His allergic reaction is reported to be the first from the Moderna vaccine, according to The New York Times.

The Times reported that at least six people have developed anaphylaxis after they got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The two vaccines have similar ingredients, according to The Times.

Peace...

 

Story...

 

Wild Fire

Covid-19

Covid-19 vaccines.

Mood...

 

[Image is not related]

Although the mental health benefits associated with use of combined hormonal contraceptives (CHCs) outweigh the harms, CHCs might increase risk of dysphoric mood & interact w/ psychiatric meds.

This review & consensus statement based on CDC criteria for contraceptive use addresses the full range of contraceptive choices, including long-acting reversible implants (<1 pregnancy/100 women/year); progestin-only contraceptives or CHCs via injection, pill, patch, or ring; & barrier methods.

Authors discuss PO contraceptives’ variable impact on mood. Some studies of adolescents reported increase depression & suicidal behavior during the 1st few months of PO contraceptive use, but most studies reported little effect on mood or actual benefits, especially premenstrually. 

Among women w/ major depression, CHCs were associated with few ill effects, vs no use of hormone contraceptives. Adherence was problematic in some patients populations. 

Infrequent major drug interactions included higher levels of clozapine w/ CHCs & lower levels of lamotrigine & valproic acid w/ PO CHCs. 
Carbamazepine & oxcarbazepine can decrease contraceptives’ hormone levels & thus effectiveness, possibly leading to unintended pregnancy.

Immune...

If you're conscious of hitting recommended activity targets, walking definitely counts towards this.

There are lots of health benefits to walking, such as improved immune function and reduced risk of coronary heart disease.  

Keeping active over the course of the day and little bursts of movement can have huge benefits.

The most important thing to consider, however, is what you enjoy doing.

CD. See...

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday issued a new guidance.

The CDC explained that people with weakened immune systems due to other illnesses or medication may also receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but they should be aware that limited safety data is available on the effects of the vaccines on these individuals.   

The CDC also stated in its guidance that individuals with autoimmune conditions may take the vaccine, although there is no data currently available for the safety of the vaccine in this demographic.  

Those who have experienced Guillain-Barré syndrome - a condition in which the body begins to attack parts of its own nervous system - may also receive the vaccine doses. The guidance adds that following vaccination during clinical trials, there have been no instances of the syndrome.  

Those who have previously experienced Bell's palsy - a condition that causes muscle weakness in one side of the face - may also receive a vaccine. Some participants during clinical trials did develop Bell's palsy following vaccination, but it did not occur at a rate above that expected in the general population. 

Lonely...

 

Police released chilling details about the moments before the bomb detonated on Second Street about 6:30 a.m. on Friday, adding to an eerie portrait of a man in an RV who blared evacuation warnings before the explosion demolished a city block.

While acquaintances described Tony Warner as a self-employed computer guru — and a homebody who tended to his pets and kept to himself, police officers on the scene before the bomb exploded recalled a strange recording emanating from the RV.

In between a digitized female voice giving warnings to evacuate the area, there was music, the officers said.

Downtown," a wistful 1964 song by Petula Clark, echoed down Second Avenue just before the blast.

“When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go downtown,” blared Clark’s voice through the speakers. “When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry seems to help, I know.”

Gibberish...

 

Governor Andrew Cuomo is sounding the alarm that the United States, via New York airports, could soon be grappling with the new variant of COVID-19 present in southern England believed to be 70% more infectious.

Highlighting the unfettered travel from the United Kingdom to New York, unlike other countries who have restricted airfare from Britain, Cuomo said Americans in the northeast are as vulnerable to this variant as they were leading up to the initial COVID-19 outbreak in March.

“Right now, this variant in the UK is getting on a plane and flying to JFK right now today,” Cuomo said.

According to Cuomo, the federal government needs to take begin requiring tests for travelers or bans on visitors traveling through the UK as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has little authority in this matter.

Can the Governor of New York State do... Something?  Just a thought.

Mia Culpa...

 

Jen O’Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, walked back comments she made in a recent interview suggesting that congressional Republicans were “a bunch of f---ers.”

The mea culpa came in a virtual conversation Thursday with veteran Democratic operatives Stephanie Cutter and Teddy Goff, during which O’Malley Dillon acknowledged she “used some words that I probably could have chosen better” when speaking with author Glennon Doyle for a Glamour magazine interview published Tuesday.

Good Start.  Just a thought.

Cell...

 

Dozens of journalists at Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-owned media company, have been targeted by advanced spyware in an attack likely linked to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a cybersecurity watchdog reported on Sunday.

Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said it traced malware that infected the personal phones of 36 journalists, producers, anchors and executives at Al-Jazeera back to the Israel-based NSO Group, which has been widely condemned for selling spyware to repressive governments.

The coordinated attacks on Qatari-funded Al-Jazeera, which Citizen Lab described as the largest concentration of phone hacks targeting a single organization, occurred in July, just weeks before the Trump administration announced the normalization of ties between Israel and the UAE, the archival to Qatar. 

The breakthrough deal took public what had been a long-secret alliance. Analysts say normalization likely will lead to stronger cooperation in digital surveillance between Israel and Persian Gulf sheikhdoms.

Who is spying on who?  Just a thought.

Not Forgotten...

 

Attorney General William Barr announced the indictment of the suspected maker of the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, during a press conference at the Justice Department on Monday

A criminal complaint affidavit stated that Masud worked with Megrahi and Fhimah to carry out the plot, allegedly at the orders of Libyan intelligence at the time. The affidavit claimed that Qaddafi thanked Masud for the attack. 

Additionally, Masud was tied to the 1986 bombing of the LaBelle Discotheque in Berlin, West Germany, which killed two American service members and a Turkish woman. Libyan authorities provided a copy of the interview to law enforcement. 

Model...

 

Since the late 1990s, new models of sexual consent have been proposed. Specifically, the development of "yes means yes" and affirmative models, such as Hall's definition: "the voluntary approval of what is done or proposed by another; permission; agreement in opinion or sentiment."^[6] 

Hickman and Muehlenhard state that consent should be "free verbal or nonverbal communication of a feeling of willingness' to engage in these activity."   Affirmative consent may still be limited since the underlying, individual circumstances surrounding the consent cannot always be acknowledged in the "yes means yes", or in the "no means no", model

How someone feels about what happened in an encounter is very much up to interpretation and two people can see the same events very differently, each from their own perspective.       

 People can also have very different memories of what happened, how, in what order, and by who, all of which makes it really difficult to agree afterwards. Even though both people were in the same room, that doesn’t mean they had the same experience.

Hope...

 

Merry Christmas to all. 

 

سامح أخاك

 

  سامح فإنكَ في النهايةِ فانِ  

واجعل شعارَكَ كثرةَ الغفرانِ 

وابسط يديكَ لرحمةٍ ومودةٍ 

حتى تنالَ محبةَ الرحمنِ  

ليس التباغضُ من شريعةِ أحدٍ 

بل إنَّه لَبضاعةُ الشيطانِ 

قابيلُ أغضبَ ربَّه لما قسا 

وأخوه كوفئ إذ عفا بجنانِ  

سامح أخاك وإنْ توعَّرَ طبعُهُ 

إنَّ التسامحَ شيمةُ الشجعانِ

Rollout...

 

Nearly everything about the process has gone well so far, shepherded by the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed.

The first two vaccines, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and the other from Moderna, were ready well before anyone expected. 

Trials showed them to be among the most effective vaccines ever, particularly for a notoriously hard-to-prevent respiratory virus.

And the initial days of the rollout, while far from perfect, have already led to 3 million vaccinations in the U.S., mostly among frontline health care workers.

Good news for the holidays. So far so good. Just a thought.

The Man...

 President Trump’s call Tuesday night for Congress to raise coronavirus stimulus payments to Americans to $2,000 won raves from at least three of his harshest critics.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. AOC and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders all favored the president’s proposal.

"Despite all of this wasteful spending, and much more, the $900 billion package provides hard-working taxpayers with only $600 each in relief payments and not enough money is given to small businesses -- and in particular restaurants, whose owners have suffered so grievously."

The bill also allows stimulus checks for the family members of illegal aliens, allowing them to get up $1,800 each," the president says. "This is far more than the Americans are given.

The president’s critics quickly voiced their rare support for his point of view.

Gift...

 

One New Yorker proved that giving to charity was a better gift than treating himself to a new iPhone  and now the Salvation Army wants to find him and say thanks.

Holiday bell ringers manning the group’s new giant red kettle outside the Meatpacking District Apple store were stunned on Dec. 7, when a man walked up and handed a volunteer an envelope stuffed with $1,020, a touching handwritten note and a mask.

“Dear Salvation Army, I walked into the Apple Store today to buy a new phone,” the note said. “Then I saw your kettle and I was reminded of those in need. It was very cold and windy outside. I am lucky I have a warm home. I have hot food. I even have an iPhone from 2017 that works perfectly well. 2020 has been a hard year for millions of families . . . The iPhone was going to be $999. I also planned to visit Starbucks next door. I should go without both this Christmas season. Please accept this $1,020 and put it to better use. P.S. here is a new mask my wife made for a friend. I consider Salvation Army a friend to New York.”

دع الاحزان

 

Dual Message

 

There is the obvious and the non obvious. All in all, Just can tough this.

من يعمل...

 

Lindsey...

 

On Sunday, Lindsey Boylan tweeted that Cuomo “sexually harassed me for years. Many saw it, and watched."

She also accused Cuomo of abuse of power, but said that she doesn’t plan to share further details.

“To be clear: I have no interest in talking to journalists. I am about validating the experience of countless women and making sure abuse stops,” she tweeted.

The allegation comes as the 63-year-old Democrat is reported to be under consideration for attorney general under Joe Biden.

Cuomo’s press secretary, said: “There is simply no truth to these claims.”

Boylan, 36, worked for the Cuomo administration from March 2015 to October 2018, as executive vice-president of Empire State Development and then as a special adviser to Cuomo for economic development.

Ralph...

 

Minnesota State Republican Sen. Jerry Relph has died due to complications from COVID-19.

The 76-year-old began serving in the Minnesota Senate in 2017 and represented the 14th district that includes St. Cloud.

His wife confirmed the news of his death in a statement published on the Minnesota Senate Republicans Caucus' website Friday night.

"I'm heartbroken to share that my husband, Jerry Relph, has passed away and entered his heavenly home. Jerry was a beloved husband, father, and grandfather. He was a Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, an attorney, small businessman, and dedicated public servant in the Minnesota Senate," Pegi Broker-Relph wrote.

Covid=19 is still a dangerous situation. Just a thought.

Tea...

 

Tea can do wonders for your body's health and for weight loss. When brewed right, there are a lot of positive side effects you will experience from drinking tea every day. But there can be some downsides, too. 

A cup of tea can ward off cravings, and if you swap your daily sugary blended coffee drink for tea, you can save 250 to 450 calories. In addition, some studies have shown that regular tea drinking combined with diet and exercise may improve weight loss. A study in the The Journal of Nutrition found that compounds called catechins in green tea, when paired with moderate exercise, boosted weight loss and abdom

While up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day is considered safe for most adults. Even though a cup of tea contains just about 47 milligrams of caffeine, a few cups late in the day may be enough to make falling asleep difficult. Other possible negative side effects of the caffeine in tea include headaches, hypertension, and irritable bowel syndrome, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

Don't just drink tea, drink it while lounging. Try it. Just a thought.

أبلغ عزيزًا

  أبلغ عزيزًا  فى ثنايا القلب منزله 

 يا ليته يعلم أنى لست أذكره 

وكيف أذكره إذ لست أنساه                                 

يا من توهم أنى لست أذكره 

والله يعلم أنى لست أنساه                                

إن غاب عنى فالروح مسكنه   

من يسكن الروح كيف القلب ينساه                                   

أنى وإن كنت لا ألقاه ألقاه                                       

وإن طرفى موصول برؤيته    

  وإن تباعد عن سكناي سكناه                                       

Deceit...

 

The lies are often trivial and essentially inconsequential – such as pretending to like a tasteless gift. But in other contexts, deception is more serious and can have harmful effects on criminal justice. From a societal perspective, such lying is better detected than ignored and tolerated.

Essentially, the AIM method involves informing suspects of these facts. Specifically, interviewers make it clear to interviewers that if they provide longer, more detailed statements about the event of interest, then the investigator will be better able to detect if they are telling the truth or lying. For truth-tellers, this is good news. For liars, this is less good news.

Indeed, research shows that when suspects are provided with these instructions, they behave differently depending on whether they are telling the truth or not. Truth-tellers typically seek to demonstrate their innocence and commonly provide more detailed information in response to such instructions.

In contrast, liars wish to conceal their guilt. This means they are more likely to strategically withhold information in response to the AIM instructions. Their (totally correct) assumption here is that providing more information will make it easier for the investigator to detect their lie, so instead, they provide less information.

حيروا القدرا

 

Meaning...

 

Many don't know the difference and many don't know the right approach. Just a thought.

Hello...

 

Cosmetic...

 

Santa...

 

Christmas will extend its gifts till next July 2021

لاَ يُطْفِئُ.

 

18 «هُوَذَا فَتَايَ الَّذِي اخْتَرْتُهُ، .......
قَصَبَةً مَرْضُوضَةً لاَ يَقْصِفُ، وَفَتِيلَةً مُدَخِّنَةً لاَ يُطْفِئُ.

Droop...

 

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff recommends monitoring people who get Pfizer or Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine shots for possible cases of Bell's palsy. 

It's not necessarily a side effect but worth watching out for after a handful of trial participants got the condition, which causes half of your face to droop.

A 54-page staff report released said there were four reported cases of Bell's palsy among Moderna's more than 30,000 clinical trial participants. Three of the participants who got Bell's palsy also received the vaccine instead of a placebo shot.            

Pfizer's trial similarly had four reported cases of Bell's palsy out of some 43,000 participants. All four Bell's palsy cases in Pfizer's trial got the vaccine and not the placebo.

كم باسم والحزن يملا...

 

Wine...

 

For this study, published in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, food science and human nutrition assistant professor, Brandon Klinedinst, analyzed data from 1,787 adults through the UK Biobank focused on adults aged 46 to 77.

The team found that diet earlier in life affects your risk of cognitive decline later on. While added salt might put you at greater risk for diseases of dementia.

"Observations further suggest in risk status-dependent manners that adding cheese and red wine to the diet daily, and lamb on a weekly basis, may also improve long-term cognitive outcomes."

Between 2006-10, participants in the research filled out a Fluid Intelligence Test and also filled out information regarding food and alcohol consumption.

They found that cheese was particularly helpful in protecting against age-related cognitive problems; daily consumption of alcohol, especially red wine, improves cognitive function; eating lamb (but not other red meat) on a weekly basis appears to be helpful; excess salt promotes cognitive decline over time.

While they were unable to pinpoint exact reasons for this protective effect, they cite calcium, vitamin B12, gut-friendly bacteria, and lactopeptides in cheese as potential candidates. 

A moderate serving of red wine has long been touted as healthy; interestingly, volunteers with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's appear to benefit most. They also note other research finding that regular beer intake increases the risk of dementia. Not all alcohol is created equally.