Better...

 

Plenty...

 

Myself...

 

Outlook...

 

Goldman Sachs is becoming increasingly pessimistic about the US economy as coronavirus support from the government phases out and consumer spending remains on an uncertain path.

Over the weekend, the Wall Street bank downgraded its forecast for America’s economic growth, which is closely monitored by the investment community.   It’s the second time Goldman Sachs has revised its 2021 forecast lower in two months.

 Two main factors drove  this outlook. 

One is that Covid-19 relief programs are set to wind down "significantly" through the end of the year, eliminating a source of income for some households.

The other concern is that consumers are not doling out enough money on services to compensate for a drop in spending on goods.

Fly...

 Southwest Airlines canceled more than 1,800 flights this weekend, disrupting the travel plans of thousands of customers and stranding flight crews, blaming the meltdown on a combination of bad weather, air traffic control and its own shortage of available staff.

The airline blamed initial problems on bad weather and an “FAA-imposed air traffic management program.”

“Although we were staffed for the weekend, we could not anticipate the significant disruption that was created from unexpected ATC issues and bad weather across our Florida stations,” said Kasher.

The Federal Aviation Administration said there were a “few hours” of flight delays on Friday afternoon because of severe weather and staffing issues at Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center, which controls airspace in five parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Staffing huh, some got fired. Just a thought.

Diet...

 

For those with Alzheimer's disease, there's a tell-tale sign in the brain. Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles appear as an early signal of what's to come.

But recent research has shown that these physical changes to the brain may not be the sole drivers of the disease, and that something as simple as diet could change our cognitive resilience to dementia in the future.

A higher MIND diet score was associated with better cognitive functioning prior to death. That was the case even when adjusting for those that had no cognitive impairment when the research started, or those diagnosed with Alzheimer's in a post mortem due to the presence of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.

The MIND diet was created to help prevent dementia and slow the loss of brain function that can happen with age. It encourages its followers to consume vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, fish, beans, poultry and wine.

Expectation...

 

COVID-19 vaccines won't eliminate the coronavirus, "no matter how many booster shots the United States gives," Céline R. Gounder writes for The Atlantic.

Grounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital in New York City, thinks public health messaging got out of hand early on during the vaccine drive. After that, folks got excited, believing that full vaccination status meant you could only very rarely get infected or transmit the disease. But now that the efficacy appears to be lower, there's a lot of anxiety.

Grounder tried to ease that, explaining that vaccines are typically more effective at protecting against infection outright when battling viruses that have longer incubation periods, like measles and smallpox. 

In those cases, the body is trained to kick the virus out before it can really establish itself. But the coronavirus and influenza, for example, don't take as long to start replicating and can do so before a vaccinated defense system revs up. 

Once it does, though, the virus doesn't have much room to operate and is usually blocked from progressing in the lungs and causing serious damage.
With that in mind, Grounder says Americans simply need to "recalibrate our expectations about what makes a vaccine successful."

Gift...

 

New York has endured nearly eight years under its worst mayor ever, but Bill de Blasio aims to do even more damage on his way out the door. His plan to end all Gifted and Talented programs in the public schools represents another assault on merit and would further dumb down a system already drowning in mediocrity and failure. 

The mayor, thankfully term-limited on Jan. 1, wants to replace achievement with a politically correct concoction called Brilliant, which appears to be based on the notion that every child is a little bit Gifted and Talented. 

But just a little bit because students identified as having the ability to learn faster would get accelerated instruction in specific subjects while remaining with their initial classmates, which sounds like a formula for lots of chaos and very little learning. 

Pick...

 

New Jersey residents are fuming over New York’s pending new Manhattan congestion tax — and threatening to exhaust every option to stall the plan.

“It’s taxation without representation,” Ron Simoncini, executive director of the new Fair Congestion Pricing Alliance. Members of the alliance are upset by what they say is a New York plan to pick the pockets of thousands of New Jersey residents.

“We’re not going to relent if New Jersey commuters are discriminated against, period,” Gov. Murphy said at a recent meeting of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce.  

At odds are fees New Jersey drivers will be forced to pay the state of New York to drive into Manhattan’s “congestion zone” below 60th Street. New York’s goal is to implement the plan in 2023.

Hearings by New York officials with New Jersey residents to discuss congestion fees are “a dog and pony show,” Simoncini said. Just a thought.

Bombing...

 

At least 100 worshippers have been killed or injured in a suicide bombing that targeted a packed Shia mosque in Afghanistan during Friday prayers.

The blast took place in Kunduz, the capital city of Kunduz province in the north-east of the country. There was speculation that the attack was carried out by Islamic State (IS), which has a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia minority.

 There was speculation that the attack was carried out by Islamic State (IS), which has a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia minority.