Shifting ..

 

Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.

Tornado climatologists distinguish peaks in activity in certain areas and storm chasers have long recognized the Great Plains tornado belt.

Although the official boundaries of Tornado Alley are not clearly defined, the main alley extends from northern Texas, through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. Some other states are sometimes included in Tornado Alley.^[4] Research suggests that the main alley may be shifting eastward away from the Great Plains, and that tornadoes are also becoming more frequent in the northern parts of Tornado Alley where it reaches the Canadian prairies.

Re..Stock..

An example of the chaotic situation, looking at Wall Street, where bank executives have been eager to restock office towers with workers. But New York is now contending with rising virus cases, with models from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating the omicron variant could make up 13% of Covid-19 infections in the area and in New Jersey. 

Last week, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. told bankers to go back to remote work after the firm saw an increase in cases following the Thanksgiving holiday. 
Morgan Stanley has also had recent outbreaks at its New York offices, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank, where workers typically sit in an open-office format, has required employees be vaccinated but doesn’t have a mask mandate. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment.

 Chief Executive Officer James Gorman made waves this summer when he admonished his staff and argued that if they could go to a restaurant, then they could make their way into the office. It reflected a growing reality for many of Wall Street’s top brass: They were ready to get back to normal and were tired of workers resisting. 

Well, the quality of life has to be restored to avoid this deadly virus. Just a thought.

Torn..adoes..

 

As multiple states from Kentucky to Illinois and Arkansas experienced fatal tornadoes over the weekend, the U.S. maintains its top spot as the target for the highest number of tornadoes of any country in the world.

NOAA explains that tornadoes aren't well understood.  Most destructive tornadoes happen from supercells, rotating thunderstorms with a well-defined circulation called a mesocyclone.

An analysis by The Washington Post also found that tornadoes tend to form where cold, dry air clashes with warm, humid air, mostly over the mid-latitudes. A sizable amount of the lower 48 states are right in the middle of this tornado zone. 

The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, mid-level dry air coming in from the Rockies along with cold air coming in from the northern half of the country, makes for the perfect conditions to create a tornado.

NOAA also said that tornado season varies depending on which region of the country you're in. 

Lower..

 

Out of more than 51,000 Covid deaths in England between January and July 2021, 256 were classified as "breakthrough" ones in people who had been doubled jabbed.

They were mostly people at very high risk from illness from Covid-19.

The figures show the high degree of protection from the vaccines against illness and death, the ONS said.

"Breakthrough" deaths - occurring at least two weeks after the second jab along with a first positive PCR Covid test - tend to happen in the most vulnerable, men and those with weakened immune systems, with the average age being 84.

But overall numbers were very small - they accounted for only 0.5% of all deaths from Covid-19 over the first six months of the year.

Julie Stanborough, from the ONS, said: "Our new analysis shows that, sadly, there have been deaths of people involving Covid-19 despite them being fully vaccinated.  Just a thought.

"However, we've also found that the risk of a death involving Covid-19 is much lower among people who are fully vaccinated than those who are unvaccinated."

Among those who died after two doses, 13% were immunocompromised, 61% were male and more than 75% were clinically extremely vulnerable.

Legumes..

 

Good ol’ beans you might have been eating all along are actually boosting your protein content significantly. 

LiveStrong has a list of particular beans that are especially high in protein content.
Among those beans are soybeans (we already mentioned edamame in the green soy variety), but yellow soybeans also pack a healthy protein punch. 

Other high sources include navy beans (15.8-grams of protein per 1-cup serving), black beans (15.2-grams per 1-cup), and pinto beans (14-grams per 1-cup), says the source. Lentils are part of the legume family that beans are included in, and (uncooked) lentils have about 50-grams of protein per 1-cup, according to the USDA.

Legumes are fiber-rich plant-based foods that include beans, lentils, and peas.
Beans are a good source of fermentable fibers. This fiber moves into the large intestine and helps to feed the diverse colony of healthy bacteria in the gut.

Researchers have found connectionsTrusted SourceTrusted Source between a healthy gut microbiome and lower rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Topping..

 

There may be a rematch coming in the 2024 race for the White House. But we're not talking, God help us all, Biden-Trump II.

Instead, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is an interesting prospect to consider when looking for a viable candidate, particularly if an 80-something President Biden decides not to seek a second term. 

Just 22 percent of voters want him to seek a second term, according to a I&I-TIPP poll. It doesn't get much better when polling only Democrats, where just 36 percent want to see the president run again, with that juggernaut candidate named "someone else" coming in first with 44 percent support. 

 Those are the options, why not Hillary? She's 74 years old, which is like being bathed in the fountain of youth compared to Biden. And she's still stunned - five years later - that she actually lost to Donald Trump. 

In fact, she sounds no different than Trump in constantly complaining about all the reasons she lost and that, well, the election was stolen by Trump and the Russians anyway. That type of rhetoric is a big no-no for Trump, but A-OK if Hillary (or Stacey Abrams) does it. Rules are rules.

" Clinton recently warned regarding the possibility of Trump taking back the White House. 

And yes, that's a real possibility: Several recent polls have Trump topping Biden in a hypothetical 2024 contest. Which is stunning considering that the Democrat received more votes last year than any other presidential candidate in American history: 81 million. 

Yet..

 

The U.S. has already suffered more deaths from the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 in 2021 than in 2020, even though vaccines that prevent serious illness and death have been widely available, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With more than a month to go to close out the year, the CDC has recorded 386,233 COVID deaths in 2021 through Tuesday, more than the 385,343 counted in 2020, as the New York Times reported.

The cause was not just persistently low vaccine uptake but also the relaxation of safety measures such as wearing face masks and avoiding indoor gatherings, with many people wrongly assuming that vaccines alone had effectively ended the crisis.

The last 100,000 deaths came in just the past 11 weeks, a quicker pace than any at other point aside from last winter's surge.

"The waves of illness that we're seeing will continue until the population-level immunity is high enough to prevent them. Quite simply, we're not there yet," said Dr Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Just a Not there Yet" thought.

Bill..

 

A new bill would prevent the Secretary from “executing the first drawdown of petroleum products in the Reserve” except when there is a “severe energy supply interruption”, the text reads even in the form of SPR loans until the Secretary develops a plan to increase the percentage of Federal lands leased for oil and gas production by the same percentage of oil set to be released from the SPR.

“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created by Congress to respond to oil supply disruptions that may arise after a natural disaster or war. The SPR is not supposed to be tapped as a bailout for the President’s anti-fossil fuel agenda, which has led to the highest gas prices in seven years.” Republican Leader Rodgers said.

The Biden Administration has taken several runs at lowering crude oil and gasoline prices, including lobbying OPEC+ to ramp up production but the prices still twice as it was before.  Just a thought.

Shakeup...

 

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace abruptly announced on Sunday he’s leaving the network after 18 years, effective immediately.

Wallace is leaving to host a weekly show at CNN’s streaming service CNN+, which will debut in the first quarter of 2022.

Fox News will fill the spot with rotating hosts until a new anchor is named, the company said in a press release.

Wallace’s sudden departure follows a period of shakeups in the cable news world. MSNBC host and former “NBC Nightly News” anchor and managing editor Brian Williams announced last month he was leaving the network at the end of the year. Williams said he expected he would “pop up again somewhere.”

CNN also fired its primetime anchor Chris Cuomo earlier this month, after “new information” came to light during a review of how he helped his brother and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo respond to sexual harassment allegations. In a statement, Cuomo said he was disappointed in CNN’s. 

Wallace’s sudden departure follows a period of shakeups in the cable news world. MSNBC host and former “NBC Nightly News” anchor and managing editor Brian Williams announced last month he was leaving the network at the end of the year. Williams said he expected he would “pop up again somewhere.”

CNN also fired its primetime anchor Chris Cuomo earlier this month, after “new information” came to light. 

Dominant...

 

Early evidence shows omicron is spreading much faster than the currently dominant delta variant, and that vaccines offer less protection against it. British officials say omicron is likely to replace delta as the dominant strain in the U.K. within days.

Concerns about the new variant led Johnson’s Conservative government to reintroduce restrictions that were lifted almost six months ago. Masks must be worn in most indoor settings, vaccine certificates must be shown to enter nightclubs and people are being urged to work from home if possible.

Johnson’s government is trying to avoid that, but aims to offer everyone 18 and over a booster shot by the end of January.

Scientists in South Africa, where omicron was first identified, say they see signs it may cause less severe disease than delta, but caution that it is too soon to be certain.

The U.K. Health Security Agency said that both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines appear less effective in preventing symptomatic infections in people exposed to omicron, 

This is part of the story. Just a thought.