Healthy lifestyle reduces long COVID risks; China COVID waves

Healthy lifestyle reduces long COVID risks: https://www.yahoo.com/news/long-covid-healthy-lifestyle-habits-cut-risk-harvard-study-211219447.html . The most important factors were healthy body weight and getting enough sleep.

Algorithm detects autism in infants: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/02/08/autism-signs-early-life-study/11164013002/ . The suggestion is that AI can crunch large amounts of data to identify meaningful correlations from medical records.

WSJ: Feds allow Medicaid money to be spent on food insecurity: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-begins-allowing-medicaid-money-to-be-spent-on-food-62f78cac . This strikes me as a mindlessly simple decision. Properly feeding someone has to be the most financially efficient medicine available.

WSJ: SEC increases crypto scrutiny: https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-firm-paxos-faces-sec-lawsuit-over-binance-usd-token-8031e7a7 . A Wells notice is at a higher level than an inquiry. Basically, you will be sued unless you quickly explain your situation to the SEC’s satisfaction.

Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll exceeds 33,000: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/12/middleeast/deaths-turkey-syria-earthquake-intl/index.html . Some suggest the final death toll could near 60,000. WSJ: Arrests of building industry personnel continue: https://www.wsj.com/articles/earthquake-hit-turkey-syria-shift-to-recovery-as-chances-of-finding-survivors-narrow-db40f723 . Note that President Erdogan’s promise to rebuild every home within a year is both absurd and irresponsible. Previous reports were that over 6,000 buildings have collapsed. Turkey is not rebuilding 20 a day, particularly not until they figure out how to effectively enforce sound building codes.

Yet another US military shootdown, this one over the Great Lakes: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-military-shot-unidentified-object-lake-huron-rcna70289 . WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/latest-flying-objects-shot-down-over-north-america-were-balloons-schumer-says-7c2c63ec . What is going on here? Are the Chinese flooding our airspace with “balloons”? For what purpose? The only suggestion we have so far is that the balloons could listen to communications satellites cannot. However, the US has now made it abundantly clear that we will not permit these violations of our airspace. So why are we seeing a balloon a day lately?

More balloon theories: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/after-shooting-down-flying-objects-u-s-and-canada-have-more-theories-than-answers/ar-AA17oZLw?cvid=7b8fd8f3025540138a1aff32647d04cb . My theory is that the so-called Chinese balloons will end up as a parallel to classified documents. The more the government looks for them, the more they will find. If the balloons are coming from China, and they are innocent, why wouldn’t the Chinese inform us in advance of their arrival?

WSJ: Is everyone in the Chinese government on the same page about the balloons?: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-balloon-opened-a-new-flashpoint-in-u-s-china-ties-a860465e . The inconsistencies in the Chinese response suggest some in their government were caught by surprise by recent events.

Military recruiting problems: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-politics-military-and-defense-race-ethnicity-6548adcb0fee590f3427771d1e1eeea7 . Young people are concerned that enlistment creates a threat to their personal safety. That’s obviously true unless the military says they can guarantee recruits positions that will not be deployed to dangerous areas. In general, that is undoable.

Florida Democrats gang up on helpless Rick Scott: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/09/politics/joe-biden-tampa/index.html . AARP cited this CNN article to its readers. Most interesting is this referenced article, where an independent fact checker agrees that Scott’s claims against Biden are mostly false, while the claim that Rick Scott led a major Medicare fraud are mostly true: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/mar/03/florida-democratic-party/rick-scott-rick-scott-oversaw-largest-medicare-fra/ . How can Rick Scott survive with the stupid political judgments he makes? The Mitch McConnell fight was a clear loser from the start …