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Prof. Cusumano of MIT, says that with the loss of Apple's Steve Jobs, the company has lost a great visionary, and it will be difficult for Apple's new CEO Time Cook to make up for this loss. Cusumano has talked to many Apple employees in 2013-2014, and is writing a book on innovation. In this piece Chen and Richtel point out the ways Tim Cook is trying to fill the role Jobs filled, by assembling a group of people within the company who can play the pioneering role for new products, and making new acquisitions such as the Beats acquisition to bring in outside talent. Cook pushed for the introduction of the iPad Air, which now accounts for 60% of all iPad sales. The constant push for the magic in new products that Steve Jobs obsessed with down to details, will be missing. Jobs met daily with design chief Jonathan Ive for lunch at the Cupertino headquarters. Cook meets Ive 3 times a week. And Jobs pulled all the pieces of the new product together in a way that others will have difficulty doing. Cook has brought a different dimension to leadership at Apple by talking about Apple in terms of "advancing humanity," talking about his own personal experiences in the South, and seeing racial discrimination barriers for minorities. He was challenged recently to address issues of working conditions at Apple supplier factories in China. Cook is bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S. with building of new plants in Arizona and Texas. These are areas which were gaps in Jobs record, which Cook is filling gradually, and asking shareholders, customers, to be patient....

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Walk in clinics at drug stores like CVS and stores like Walmart now have the cooperation of hospitals. Hospitals are now affiliated with 25 Walmart clinics. THe Cleveland Clinic has lent its name and backup services to a number of CVS clinics in northeastern Ohio. And the Mayo Clinic is operaing ne Express care clinic at asupermarke in Rochester, Minnesota, and asecond one at ashopping mall. This helps clear emergency rooms of people seeking bsic medical care as for astrep throat or flu. About one thousand clincs are operating in the US at drugstores, supermarkets and big stores since the idea took root 4 years ago. Wal-Mart has partnered with hopitals like the Christus Medical Group in Texas, Aurora Health System in Wisconsin and COxHealth in Missouri to setup clinics. Mayo did so after employees and patients said they wanted more convenient treatment for minor medical problems, so there may be a need here that as not been met. The lower costs at these centers compared to primary care doctors offices or emergency rooms make it possible for them to price lower and meet the needs of the 45 million or so uninsured people in the US, numbers growing as jobless rate increases. They are typically staffed by nurse practitioers or physicians asistants. Dr Herman at Mayo Clinic, who supervises its retail store clinics, says rather than fight this trend primary care doctors should learn from it, and work with hospitals around the country to offer more convenient locations and consumer friendly office hours, including periods of walk-in care with no appointment....

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Ted Cruz is seen as the most pro-Israel candidate for the Republican nomination. In this story by Flegenheimer in the NYT Cruz visits a Hasidic bakery in Brooklyn, New York, as children roll out matso dough right in front of Cruz.

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How wind and renewable energy power works and the efforts to learn how to store it. Winds erratic supply and ways to make it work.

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In the U.S., Brazil, and now Mexico wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic has become politicized. Here "Amlo" as president Lopez Obrador is popularly called says he will wear a mask once corruption is ended in Mexico and he does not need to talk about corruption. Amlo gives his own advice for fighting the pandemic- stop eating junk food or taking junk drinks, lose weight, and find spirituality, which is all good advice. President Trump recently wore a mask and called it "patriotic" to wear a mask taking some of the politics out of this simple and basic prevention action. The governor of Texas made it mandatory to wear a mask after initial hesitation.  

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The Cruz campaign depended on its success in Iowa on a well organized grassroots campaign, and the large turnout of evangelicals estimated at about 62 percent. The record turnout of about 185,000 for the Republican caucuses showed the depth of participation in this election. About 46% of the voter turnout was from Republicans participating for the first time. Trump's poor grassroots organization, missteps including controversial statements by Trump denigrating women- leading to him opting out of the last Republican debate raising doubts about his candidacy- combined to put Trump struggling for second place, with Rubio finishing only one percentage point behind. Cruz had 28%, Trump 24% and Rubio 23%. One of the results of this election is the poor performance of governors Jeb Bush, Christie and Kasich, who combined polled less votes than a neurosurgeon Carson. The anti-establishment fervour was evident with the support for Cruz, Trump and Carson of about two thirds of the vote, reflecting anti-establishment views. Cruz's win was remarkable, say analysts, considering his opposition to special interest lobbies, including the ethanol lobby in Iowa supported by Governor Branstad. It was also remarkable because of the months of media coverage for Trump's statements and exaggerations, and the tacit support for Trump from the establishment Republican party, including Senator Grassley of Iowa and Governor Branstad. Cruz now heads on to the other states, including the six southern states voting on March 1, where he will be favored, with a well financed campaign using grassroots contributions....

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Cillizza points to two demographics that the Republicans missed in the 2008 and 2012 U.S. presidential elections. The Hispanic vote comprises 10% of the electorate. Obama won this demographic with 69% compared to 29% for Romney. Romney's extreme positions, to the right of Governor Rick Perry of Texas got him through the Republican primaries but left him exposed in the national elections as he defended his statements of support for "self-deportation." In this respect Reagan, Bush, Perry adopted moderate positions and favored helping children of immigrants get a good education so they could be integrated into American society. Perry even took a hit for his moderate position supporting immigrants in the primaries even before his memory slip in a debate. Romney failed to support even the Dream Act for a pathway to be given to children of immigrants supported by Mark Rubio, a Cuban-American Republican senator of Florida. The second key demographic is the young people vote ages 18-29. This was 18% of the electorate in 2008, and about 19% in 2012. Obama took this demographic with a lead of 34 points in 2008 and a lead of 24 points in 2012. So that even with diminishing support such large numbers meant there was a large cushion to win the election by combining several demographics even if the Democratic position eroded somewhat because of the economy and unemployment at near 8%. This is what happened because of the 6 out of 10 voters, or 60% of the electorate who voted, Romney won 51% to Obama's 47%. This enabled Obama to get the small victory margin he needed in the popular vote. In many ways Romney was "an unnatural candidate" as the Wall Street Journal described him in its editorial, being a private equity business executive fighting a election with Democrats fighting to protect middle and working class interests....

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Diana Nyad makes a second attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. This is her second attempt, the last one in 1978. After the 1978 attempt she settled into a career as a radio and television journalist. She is now 61. One day when she was driving in Los Angles the thought went through her mind about what she felt she wanted to do most- and this was to make the effort one more time to cross the distance between Cuba and Florida. In August 1978 her effort failed because of high winds and eight foot waves. After 49 hours and 41 minutes she found herself way offcourse closer to Brownsville, Texas, as the nearest land point. Here Sally Jenkins documents that first swim and the preparation for the second one, coming long after the first at the age of 61. Last summer Nyad swam for 24 hours on the coast of Florida as part of the training. Nyad will have the help of scientific advance in the three decades since 1978. Jennifer Clark, a satellite oceanographer based in Annapolis and her husband Dan, a meteorologist, are experts on Gulf stream water conditions. They will look for a three day period when waves are calmer and water conditions are warmer. Another advance is the use of kayakers with devices that create electric waves who will paddle alongside her to ward off sharks. And Nyad has Dr Broder, a clinical professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, to help monitor her physical condition and fluid loss. Still as Broder says, its 98% about Nyad's focussed effort. And about age, Nyad says, she forgets, as she trains by swimming from island to island in the Caribbean. For oceanographic expert Jennifer who is 65, there is something vicarious about Nyad's effort, as it is for the others who are helping with the expedition....

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Ian Talley provides this excellent account of how this drop in oil prices is likely to add to economic growth in major world economies, removing any ambiguity about the positive effect on the global economy. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped to about $65 from $105 between June and December 2014. The IMF estimates growth in 2015 will increase from 3.1% to 3.5% largely because of the lowering in energy costs. JP Morgan Chase economists see an addition of 0.7% points in global growth in the first half of 2015. ECB president Draghi sees the lower oil prices as an unambiguous positive. Estimates from Rhodium Group show major oil importing countries seeing import bills cut by $500 billion if prices remain low for 6-8 months, with $90 billion going into the U.S. economy. IMF estimate is that only 20% of the drop in oil prices is from lower demand, about 80% from higher fuel efficiency, increased supply using new technologies, decisions by OPEC to lower oil price, increases in supply. Based on estimates by the Rhodium Group, IEA and the IMF, the extra money flowing into the economies of the U.S., Asia and Western Europe from reduced oil import bills, as measured in percentage of GDP is: the U.S. 0.5%, Germany 0.8%, Japan 1.2%, China 0.8%, India 1.8%, South Korea 2.4%. Italy and France and other oil importing countries benefit. The impact comes at a time when Japan, China, India and eurozone economies badly needed a boost after significant slowdown in growth in 2014. It could not have come at a better time and because it is technologically driven as in the case of highly fuel efficient automobiles and new oil exploration technologies, a self sustaining process. The corresponding impact for oil exporters is: Russia -4.7%, Nigeria -5.4%, Venezuela -10.2%....

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A major shift in public opinion happened between 1990 in the public's perception and tolerance of gay people and gay marraige. Support for gay marraige in Journal/NBC News polling shows young people, especially people 18-34 year old, were leading the way. In this group support for gay marraigne increased from 47% in 2009 to 57% in 2012, going up to 74% in March 2015. The increase is also shown in suburban residents, political independents, Midwesterners and Hispanics. A key factor in the change is that many people now know of one person in their work or personal lives who is gay. Technology, television and internet media also helped changed attitudes. In 1990 7 of 8 Americans said sexual relations between the same sex were wrong. In 2004 only 3 of ten Americans supported same sex marraige. A vote in Maine shows the dramatic shift- in 2009 same sex marraige was rejected by 53%, in 2012 53% approved it. The change in attitudes is faster than happened for miscegenation, which took 30 years after the Supreme Court ruled against anti-miscegenation laws to reach a point where a majority of Americans approved marraiges between black and white people. The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on June 25, 2015, now makes gay marraige legal in all 50 states, and strikes down bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Yet there are a significant number of Americans who do not favor same sex marraige especially in southern states such as Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama. A Pew Research Center poll shows 73% of white evangelical Protestants do not approve of same sex marraige. Other groups who do not favor same sex marraige in the Pew polling are conservatives and persons born before the post World War baby boom. ...

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Results at Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas, show that a low cost conversion to electronic medical records by using the VA system's open software and having computer software companies adapt it to Midland's needs. This cost Midland $7 million and has resulted in many benefits. Senator Rockefeller is introducing legislation to promote the use of this open software for conversion to electronic medical records. Medsphere chairman Kenneth Kizer, former undersecretary ohealth care at the VA oversaw the development of VIstA software. He says its enhanced version called Open Vist A, "can be installed in one third the timeand for about one thrid the cost of the big-name proprietary systems." There is alot to be said for open software as this would enable hospitals and clinics acoross the country talk to each other and pull up records and sen them electronically, wich is hard to do when different systems of differnt commerical vendors interact. If Midland Memorial is any guide there are huge savings in the conversion. By enabling access instantly of patient records, lab results and Xray images, there are a huge array of benefits. It helped Midland catch up with a$16.7 million coding and billing backlog for 4,500 patient records in 4 weeks instead of 5-6 months. In the 18 months since the system was made hospital wideinfection rates dropped 88%, because of guidelines in the record system that prompted nurses to follow infection control procedures, such as changing dressing or following procedures when inserting a new IV. That is huge. Bed sores were reduced from electronic prompting to nurses to turn patients.And Midland increased by 77%in staff compliancewith guidelinesfor care for patientson ventilators, which if not followed could lead to pheumonia....

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Comments about Edward Whitacre, who put AT&T together after becomng CEO of Southwestern Bell, and built the new business around cellular, wireless and internet services once the long distance market collapsed. Says board member and leader Kent Kresa, of Henderson and Whitacre, "they are both open to the ideas and opinions of others. I think there will be a good dialogue." Says a colleague Haskell Monroe, on the AT&T board, " he faces the facts, he looks for the truth and he is a person who takes responsibility for his decisions." Says Gerald Myers, a University of Michigan professor and former chairman of American Motors Corp, "he is'nt a loveableguy. He's not going to be your friend. He is blunt, but he is so often right that you accept the abuse."

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Steve Rattner, Obama's senior auto advisor, was the one who suggested Mr Whitacre for this position , and felt he would be the right choice to bring fresh thinking to GM. Steve Rattner knew Whitacre, and after board leader Kresa met with him 3 weeks ago he felt that he would be an excellent choice to bring back public confidence in GM.

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This piece by Jonathan Martin in the NYT says some Republican party establishment donors and leaders now agree with Ted Cruz's assessment of the 2016 U.S. presidential election- the critical element will be rallying the Republican base to win in 2016. As Tom Hamburger points out in the Washington Post, Cruz is using technology to advantage in the campaign effort to rally evangelical base support, and working to build support from the ground up.