Thursday, April 15, 2021

Ups and downs

© Nneka Okorocha
View more art on Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and disinformation 

Worldwide (Map
April 15, 2021 – 138,278,420 confirmed infections; 2,973,058 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 52,070,000 confirmed infections; 1,274,000 deaths

US (Map
April 15, 2021 – 31,421,361 confirmed infections; 564,402 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 10,258,100 confirmed infections; 239,700 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal
April 15, 2021 – 1,560.000 confirmed infections; 53,500 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 740,255 confirmed infections; 19,951 deaths
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News blues…

Over the next few days, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, the South African Medical Research Council and the Department of Health will decide how to proceed with South Africa’s vaccination roll-out after use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was suspended, pending an investigation into six cases of blood clots reported in the United States. Read the article >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

“… without pollinators there’s no ecosystem at all…”
Australia’s bushfires were devastating for bee populations. But steady rain and community efforts are seeing the return of the pollinators.
Read the article >> 

'No one explained': fracking brings pollution, not wealth, to Navajo land Navajo Nation members received ‘a pittance’ for access to their land. Then came the spills and fires.
Read “No one explained…” >> 
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As South African officials try to convince South Africans that nuclear energy will “save us”, a reality check: no country in the world, even the most organized, knows how to manage the toxic legacy bequeathed by energy once said to be “too cheap to monitor”. Japan is way more organized than South Africa – a country that mismanages it’s coal-based energy production and delivery. Imagine SA with nuke plants. Groan.
Japan will release more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear station into the sea, the government said on Tuesday, a move opposed by neighbours including South Korea and its own fishing industry. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Taking the bad with the good: a lesson.
Last week I gleefully reported a successful sale of my mother’s house. This week? Not so much. The buyers changed their minds – and we’re back to square one.
But this week started off with a trip to Shaka International Airport to pick up my daughter.
But this week started off with a trip to Shaka International Airport to pick up my daughter. Since she arrived late in the day, we chose to spend the night in Durban rather than run the gauntlet of death that SA’s N3.
Sunrise was glorious.






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Days are getting shorter here:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 25: sunrise 6:05am; sunset 6:01pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 15: sunrise 6:18am; sunset 5:39pm.





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