Much of today brings back memories.  Let me start with the possible  return of COVID-19 , which served as the theme of my Thursday postings for years.  According to the CDC, there has a been a spike in COVID-19 cases of 18% this past week, and 24% hike in hospital admissions. From  Worldometer,  173 Americans died of COVID this past week and 277 in the previous week.  Of course, last year 550/week died from the flu, and this rate tends to jump in the winter, so flu deaths today are considerably higher than from COVID.  And few take the seasonal flu seriously. This alarms professionals like  Ashish Jha . More people tend to die 21 to 28 days after cases begin to increase. 60% of Americans did not get boosted. And look at how politics can make a difference. About that New Orleans terrorist attack by 42-year old  Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar , he was inspired by ISIS, but probably acted alone.  Donald Trump was wrong again, blaming Jabbar as an...

The Norwegian Encore arrived in Southampton, UK.  The end of 35 days on the ship, which started in Seattle, went through the Panama Canal, then via Miami, all the way to England.  I will tomorrow provide a summary of our cruise. COVID-19 hasn't quite disappeared.   There were  45,737 new cases last week , with Russia #1 and the USA #2.  There were 363 deaths. However, an average of 389,000 die in the world from the  flu  each year.  That's 7481 deaths/week, 20 times higher than COVID-19 last week. Further,  coronary heart disease  kills 9 million.year.  Or 173,000 deaths/week. So COVID deaths are now very minimal. So while this pandemic was declared over a year and a half ago, it is still of some interest to peer into some of the more newsworthy aspects of this illness.  For example,  can a vaccine similar to that used for COVID-19 cure cancer?   For sure, people with pre-conditions who caught COVID-19 had a...

A few newsworthy topics of the day before COVID-19. In Apalachee High School, around an hour outside of Atlanta, 14-year old  Colt Gray  ( photo was taken in 2022 ), yesterday killed four and injured 9 with an AR rifle.  Why?  To come.  Political advantage?  To Harris/Walz. Ceasefire and hostage return in the Gaza Strip?   Two problems .  Netanyahu and the Hamas.  When will Iran take revenge?  Political advantage to Trump/Vance. The  Department of Justice indicted two Russians  accused of attempting to influence the November 5 election against Harris/Walz.  This is just the proverbial  tip of the iceberg .  Of course, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva are in Russia and can't be arrested.  Advantage to Harris/Walz. Barron Trump enrolled this week at New York University.  Where will he live?  Advantage to Trump/Vance. Guess who will be in Kansas City for the opening NFL game at 8:20 ED...

  This has been a memorable Summer Olympics.    None more so than the effort of Noah Lyles . He tested positive for COVID-19 three days ago.  Suffering from asthma anyway, he should have gone to the hospital.  He said he had symptoms and did not feel well, coughing a lot.   But he wore a mask indoors and, with only his inner circle knowing, chose to compete in the 200m dash.  He made it through to the finals, but finished "only" third.  He collapsed and was in agony lying on the track after the race ended, placed in a wheelchair to leave. His summer olympics competition is over, and he is overjoyed. He might have already contracted COVID-19 when he won the 100m race by 0.005 seconds. Remarkable. Heard of Quincy Wilson? Say you are 16 years old, and a junior in high school. Youngest USA track Olympics member ever. He already did poorly for the USA just qualifying for the 4x400 meter finals tomorrow.  He might be replaced, but probably not...