April fool

(c) Maxine

News blues

Among the journal Nature Medicine’s findings from research that deliberately infected healthy volunteers with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it takes just a tiny virus-laden droplet - about the width of a human blood cell - to infect someone with Covid-19.
Other findings include:

• Covid-19 has a very short incubation period. It takes about two days after infection for a person to start shedding virus.
• People shed high amounts of virus before they show symptoms (confirming something epidemiologists had figured out).
• On average, the young, healthy study volunteers shed virus for 6½ days, but some shed virus for 12 days.
• Infected people can shed high levels of virus without any symptoms.

For those wearing, but chafing about mask mandates: “The study emphasizes a lot of what we already know about Covid-19 infections, not least of which is why it's so important to cover both your mouth and nose when sick to help protect others.”
Read “First human challenge study of Covid-19 yields valuable insights about how we get sick” >> 

***

Another round of debunking Ivermectin, popular anti-parasitic medication, as an antidote to Covid-19, a virus.
New England Journal of Medicine's deputy editor recently said that Ivermectin did nothing to help COVID-19 patients: “If there are active treatments, it is better to use those agents than agents that we wish worked."

Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug often used to deworm horses and cattle, does not reduce the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 despite its questionable rise as an alternative treatment for the disease, according to a large new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The clinical trial, which began in 2020, analyzed more than 1,300 patients in Brazil who were infected with the coronavirus. Half were given ivermectin and half a placebo in the randomized, double-blind study, meaning neither doctors nor trial participants knew what a patient received.
The results confirmed what U.S. health officials have long stressed: Ivermectin did nothing to aid those sickened with the virus or reduce the risk of ending up in the hospital.

Read more >> 

***

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gauteng government has spent a staggering R1.238-billion of much-needed Covid-19 funds on the construction of four new “field intensive care” hospitals. The money was spent in 2020, but two are still not open. The other two are only partially open and are being repurposed for other aspects of healthcare. The Alternative Build Technology units were controversially commissioned in March 2020 to provide extra bed capacity for the first wave of the pandemic.

Read “Gauteng’s ‘new’ R1.2bn Covid-19 ICU hospitals still lie abandoned, unfinished or underused “ >> 

***

Daily Maverick,  an informative progressive South African news outlet, presents updates on Covid:

• SA’s State of Disaster could be lifted by next week [although confusion reigns]. 
• Shanghai, home to 26 million people,  in the fourth day of a new, two-stage lockdown.
• Canada is facing a fresh Covid-19 wave just as authorities ease restrictions. 
• The US is set to end its pandemic-related expulsion policy at the border with Mexico, lifting the hopes of thousands of migrants who have been waiting months for a chance to seek asylum in America.
• Children between five and 11 years old who received the Pfizer vaccine were 68% less likely to be admitted to hospital during the Omicron wave in the US than unvaccinated children, according to a new study. 

***

On War:

Before and after photo essay >> 
More harrowing war devastation >>  (8:00 mins)

***

The Lincoln Project:
Trump and Russia: Partners in Crime  (0:40 mins)
Trump Loyalties  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A reminder of our beautiful world, in photos >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday was another big workday: second layer on the pond cracks; sorted through more river rocks to separate out weeds and roots; painted the office. The latter was exhausting, but now done, “finished and klaar.” True, the office needs a new floor since I pulled up to replace old carpeting and discovered two sheets of wood covering an odd, concrete-lined rectangular hole. Until that floor’s laid, I – or someone who knows carpentry – cannot set up the desk that will be affixed to one wall.
Electrician still trying to sort through the cable and wire spaghetti that is this house’s electrical system.
That’s turning out to be a bigger challenge than anyone expected.

Shame of the nation

Worldwide (Map) 
March 31, 2022 - 485,581,100 confirmed infections; 6,135,050 deaths
February 25, 2021 -128,260,000 confirmed infections; 2,805,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,905,000 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections; 2,074,000 deaths

US (Map) 
March 31, 2022 - 80,022,500 confirmed infections; 978,700 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 30,394,000 confirmed infections; 551,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths
January 21 2021 - 450,000 confirmed infections; 406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
March 31, 2022 - 3,715,390 confirmed infections; 99,976 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 1,547,000 confirmed infections; 52,790 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths

Post from March 29, 2021: Fall days 

News blues

Whither Covid?
Three years of pandemic World Health Organization states the BA.2 variant of coronavirus now represents nearly 86% of all sequenced cases. Even more transmissible than its highly contagious Omicron siblings, BA.1 and BA.1.1, evidence suggests that it is no more likely to cause severe disease.

As with the other variants in the Omicron family, vaccines are less effective against BA.2 than against previous variants like Alpha or the original strain of coronavirus, and protection declines over time.

Read an explainer >> 

***

This week, the Biden administration launched a new website to provide a clearinghouse of information on COVID-19. This is part of a continuing effort to prepare Americans to live with the coronavirus >> 

***

On War:
The Gini index or Gini coefficient is a measure of the distribution of income across a population. Developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912, it often serves as a gauge of economic inequality, measuring income distribution or, less commonly, wealth distribution among a population. South Africa - with a Gini coefficient of 63.0 - is currently recognized as the country with the highest income inequality. (The World Population Review attributes this massive inequality to racial, gender, and geographic discrimination, with white males and urban workers in South Africa earning much better salaries than everyone else.)
Income inequality coupled with greed, endemic corruption, incompetence, and a pandemic result in South African children malnourished and, indeed, starving.

In the past 15 months, 14 children under the age of five starved to death in Nelson Mandela Bay and another 216 new cases of severe acute malnutrition were confirmed in the Eastern Cape’s biggest metro, where more than 16,000 families were left without aid because of a bureaucratic bungle by the provincial Department of Social Development.
Another 188 children received in-patient treatment at the metro’s hospitals for severe acute malnutrition and in February 11 children were hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition.
The impact of dire food shortages, including a shortage of nutritious food in communities, is, however, much larger. The University of Cape Town’s Child Institute estimates that 48% of child hospital deaths in South Africa are associated with moderate or severe acute malnutrition.
…This comes after the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development forfeited R67-million meant to assist those worst affected by poverty in the province.
During a sitting of the provincial legislature last week, members of the legislature were told that the department had been unable to spend the money, which was meant for families who were unable to meet basic needs.
“It is unfathomable and simply unacceptable that the department, under the leadership of MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi, was unable to spend R67.076-million that was meant for the most vulnerable in our province. These funds are now lost forever, while the people of this province go hungry,” said Edmund van Vuuren, the Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson on social development.
[He added,] “In Nelson Mandela Bay alone, 16,634 beneficiaries were denied social relief of distress, in the form of food parcels, because Mani-Lusithi’s department chose to appoint service providers that did not have the capacity to deliver.”

Nelson Mandela would weep with shame.

Read “The shame of the nation…” >> 

Along the same lines of income inequality coupled with greed, endemic corruption, and incompetence:

• The Life Esidimeni tragedy (also called "the greatest cause of human rights violation" in democratic South Africa). This company is still in business, promoting itself as “in the business of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society”…
• ”Unknown individuals, most likely working from inside the aspiring state-owned Postbank, stole millions through the social grant system late last year. The breach, which has been kept a secret, is the second time the Sassa payment system has been compromised since Postbank took charge of the social grant payment system in 2018.” >> 

Related… just days after South Africa tried to sell itself as an investment destination, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), released the latest employment data. South Africa’s economy is in dire straits.

Unemployment in Q4 last year rose to 35.3% from 34.9% in the previous quarter. This was the highest level since the start of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008. The youth unemployment rate remains at a staggering 65.5%.
Under the expanded definition which includes discouraged job seekers, the unemployment rate declined to 46.2% from 46.6%. You know things are pretty bad when this is the “good news”.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Partner  (0:40 mins)

Last week in the Republican Party - March 29  (1:50 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Wildfires have been igniting in Colorado and Texas, and have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the past few weeks alone >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After the untimely death of our gardener this time last year, I’ve occasionally hired a “day laborer/labourer” to assist with painting exterior walls, some gardening, and light handiwork. It’s been going well enough despite his lack of English skills and my decrepit abilities in Zulu. As a child I managed alright with pidgin Zulu. As an adult, I’m embarrassed to express myself in error-prone Zulu. This is a new wrinkle in my attitude: in past situations involving an unfamiliar tongue I’ve enjoyed immersion: fumbling through the language until I get it right. Immersion has allowed passing “well-enough” in Hebrew in Israel, French in Belgium, and Dutch in Nederland.
Today, with trepidation deriving from our apparent inability to communicate, I asked the day laborer to accompany me in the “bakkie” – my late mother’s Chinese lightweight pick-up Chana.
Rather than struggle, however, we enjoyed a confused and confusing couple of hours during which he expressed a desire better to speak English and I, more courage to express Zulu. 

I learned I’d been mispronouncing numbers one to ten. I also learned the respectful term for a person’s death. Until yesterday, I’d used the less respectful term to communicate my mother had died. 
Our jaunt in the Chana also culminated in him asking me to teach him to drive the vehicle. 

I won’t do that. (The Chana is for sale, and I cannot risk damaging it.)

***

Water is a wonderfully mysterious and generative element. Despite too much water in one section of the garden – the overflowing stream near the blocked culverts – I’m rehab’ing the decrepit grotto fishpond located near the carport.
In the past, I’d set up this pond with a handful of golden comet fish, lilies and duckweed, and a filter/fountain. Alas, I’d returned to SA to find “an accident” had killed all life in that pond.
Until last week, I’d not had the stomach to try again.
Then, I tested the pond’s concrete lining for leaks.
There were many.
Yesterday, I began plugging them.

Locating and cleaning leaks.

Figuring out what materials will fill cracks
so large they expose the plastic underlining.

Overly ambitious, I'll also sift the silt that's built up around
the river pebbled landscaping. This is a big job with an advantage:
pulling out deeply embedded weed roots.

***

Crisp evenings and nights signal autumn here:

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:09am
Sunset: 5:57pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:55am
Sunset: 7:31pm

Apathy

News blues

Shanghai, China’s biggest city and metropolis of 25 million people, will lock down its eastern half from Monday until Friday. The phased lockdown is expected to curb the Omicron-fueled Covid-19 outbreak and has in recent days become the leading hotspot in a nationwide outbreak that has hit China with its highest caseloads since the early days of the pandemic.
Read more >> 

***

Americans have been deeply divided ideologically about a multitude of issues - healthcare, immigration, voting rights, gun reform, climate change, on and on – for years. The pandemic has exacerbated rifts, pushing Americans further apart on key pandemic response efforts. Last year,

[s]urveys from Pew Research Center,  found that in the early months of the pandemic, about 6 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents believed the virus was a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, compared to only a third of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. That 26-point gap would ultimately grow to approximately 40 points by the fall…

Read “For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later” >> 

***

On War:
War makes unpleasant bedfellows…
South Africa as a political entity has been sitting on the fence regarding Russia’s invasion and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Now, it may become clear why this is so: the confluence of Escom’s decades-long mismanagement (Escom, remember, is SA’s coal-driven electricity parastatal), the potential for Russian-built nuclear power plants in our future, and Russian natural gas. And, “daar lê die ding” - Afrikaans for something like “that’s the thing” or “the truth is revealed”….

Amid a war in Ukraine and soaring gas prices, South Africa wants to urgently secure access to vast amounts of natural gas.
Gazprombank, owned by Russia’s state-owned gas supplier, confirms it is considering a bid for what is potentially a multibillion-rand contract — which, if awarded, would raise questions on whether South Africa’s stance on Ukraine is being influenced by its thirst for gas.
The Central Energy Fund (CEF) released a tender last month, looking for a gas aggregator to help secure liquified natural gas (LNG) for various gas-to-power projects planned for the Coega special economic zone in the Eastern Cape.

Read more >> 
And more >> 
And yet more >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

© Joel Pett | Copyright 2022 Tribune Content Agency

 Shawn Heinrichs grew up along South Africa’s coasts. His protective instinct for life beneath the waves inspired a career investigating its mistreatment by humans and campaigning for change.”
Today, he photographs oceans and ocean creatures and says, “'Apathy is one of our biggest problems'”.
See his photos >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Readers may know my penchant for Marmite. For the gustatorily ill-informed, Marmite, it is a black, salty goop invented by German scientist Justus von Liebig and originally made in the UK. South Africans who enjoy eating this black goop spread it on bread, toast, savory biscuits, etc.
Marmite threads through my memories of childhood so I overcome the gross factor and tuck in. For example, I attended an all-girl high school as a “day scholar” (not a “boarder”) and wore uniforms with a tie, brown lace up shoes with bobby socks, etc., etc.
One memory of those days involved the trays of Marmite sandwiches (“sarmies”) set out for “boarders” for a first “break” snack. I and a girlfriend – also a “day scholar” - found it the height of daring to sneak up on the trays and snatch half a marmite sandwich. We’d scarf up the morsel, only half conscious that the snatching added to the taste.
Oh, what daredevils! Good times! 
Marmite was on my grocery list today.

Alas, no Marmite.
Marmite is made from brewers’ yeast. Apparently, the pandemic played havoc with SA’s Marmite production affected by shortages of brewers’ yeast and the shortage continues. Plenty of Bovril on store shelves. Bovril is a salty, black goop but it doesn’t entice.
Back in October of last year, makers of yeast-extracted Marmite said production was to start up again. No sign of the goop at Pick n Pay.
Boo hoo!

***

The goodish news?
The hard work I’ve mentioned over the last weeks is paying off. I’ve accomplished much. Not so the electrician who, despite his statements to the contrary, has still not installed the pre-paid electrical meter downstairs. A month ago he assured me he’d have installed both meters within two weeks. That hasn’t happened. Indeed, I’m troubled by the dearth of completion on any of the jobs he’s working on at this house. (The laundry washing machine unexpectedly burned a fan belt that’s been extraordinarily difficult to replace. It’s an older workhorse of a machine, so I wait and wait and wait…. Maybe, like Marmite the fan belt shortage is a product of the pandemic, too?) 

The workload is exhausting – cleaning in preparation for painting, painting, cleaning up after painting… weeding the pond… harassing the culvert/road workers … weeding the pond... sorting through “stuff” … keeping the house running… this, that, and the next thing… 

But we’re getting there!

***

Crisp evenings and nights signal autumn here: 

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 5:59pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:58am
Sunset: 7:29pm

Not easy

News blues

With America in a pandemic lull, communities across the country are choosing to shut down COVID testing and vaccination sites, even as experts warn that another wave could be on the horizon. 

Read more >> 

***

Shanghai, China’s financial hub of 25 million people, has quickly become the epicenter of China's worst coronavirus outbreak, posting its highest-ever daily caseload this week.
Read more >> 

***

On War:
Tens of thousands gather in London to show solidarity with Ukraine >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Be not afraid (1:53 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Even prior to his words shared here, Senate Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse would have made as good a president of the US as anyone in the political class, certainly better than 99.9 percent of that class. He’ll never get the chance. Alas, his views on US climate policy are good, including his opinion that, to date, US climate action has been ‘a calamity’ >> 

***

Amory Lovins, nicknamed the “Einstein of energy efficiency”, and adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, has been one of the world’s leading advocates and innovators of energy conservation for 50 years. He wrote his first paper on climate change while at Oxford in 1968, and in 1976 he offered Jimmy Carter’s government a blueprint for how to triple energy efficiency and get off oil and coal within 40 years. He says,

“Solar and wind are now the cheapest bulk power sources in 91% of the world, and the UN’s International Energy Agency (IEA) expects renewables to generate 90% of all new power in the coming years. The energy revolution has happened. Sorry if you missed it.”
But just as with the 1970s oil shocks, the problem today is not where to find energy but how to use it better. The answer, he says, is what he calls “integrative, or whole-system, design,” a way to employ orthodox engineering to achieve radically more energy-efficient results by changing the design logic.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Same old, same old.
Up and at ‘em.
Trying to kick back on this so-called Day of Rest.
Not easy to do.
Alas.

Tired!

News blues

Covid in the UK:

Swab tests suggest about one in every 16 people is infected, as the contagious Omicron variant BA.2 continues to spread.
That's just under 4.3 million people, up from 3.3 million the week before.
The figures for the week ending 19 March, are thought to give the most accurate reflection of what's happening with the virus in the community.

Read more >>

***

On War:
The Times' Marcus Yam, no stranger to war photography, gives a first-person account from Ukraine >> 

***

Meidas Touch
Republicans exposed as traitors  (1:33 mins)
Ted Cruz gets HUMILIATED during Confirmation Hearing  (3:33 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

It is inevitable, but still creepy:

Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested.
The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.
Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People were already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in, and they have been found in the faeces of babies and adults.
The scientists analysed blood samples from 22 anonymous donors, all healthy adults and found plastic particles in 17. Half the samples contained PET plastic, which is commonly used in drinks bottles, while a third contained polystyrene, used for packaging food and other products. A quarter of the blood samples contained polyethylene, from which plastic carrier bags are made.

Read “Microplastics found in human blood for first time. Exclusive: The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs” >> 

Abandon hope, all ye who read here: “UN ocean treaty summit collapses as states accused of dragging out talks. Conservationists despair at ‘glacial pace’ of negotiations to protect wildlife and oversee fishing amid high seas’ ‘governance vacuum’”

And, if that’s not enough to worry about, a new investigation by Consumer Reports describes dangerous chemicals found in food wrappers at major fast-food restaurants and grocery chains. Fast-food wrappers and takeout containers at major food chains contain dangerous chemicals known as PFAS.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Tired, tired, tired. 
Tired of painting. 
Tired of clearing pool and pool filter of bamboo and avocado leaves. 
Tired of prepping rental property. 
Tired of being tired.
The good news is the local lap swimming pool is open again, and has been for a week. Truth is, I’m too tired to swim. 
Now that’s tired!

The beat goes on

Funny signs from © Happy Land 

Worldwide (Map) 

March 24, 2022 - 475,487,400 confirmed infections; 6,104,200 deaths
March 25, 2021 – 124,894,200 confirmed infections; 2,746,000 deaths

US (Map) 
March 24, 2022 - 79,844,400 confirmed infections; 974,830 deaths
March 25, 2021 – 30,011,600 confirmed infections; 545,300 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
March 24, 2022 - 3,705,700 confirmed infections; 99,895 deaths
March 25, 2021 – 1,540,010, confirmed infections; 52,372 deaths

 
Note:
The US has still not reached the 1 millionth confirmed deaths rate. A feat indeed.
South Africa hovers on 100,000 confirmed deaths. 

Unfortunately, ‘confirmed’ numbers do not reflect anything near actual numbers. It is likely the world will never know numbers of confirmed infections and deaths from Covid-19.
Post from one year ago, “One down, one to go?” >> 

News blues

President Ramaphosa updated South Africans on current Covid—19 situation  and the (slight) changes to Level 1 restrictions. (15:50 mins)
Editorial note: skip to about 8:00 mins for the nitty gritty on changes.
And… the pushback…

The high force of SARS-CoV-2 infections in SA, and the 300,000 excess deaths that have been mostly attributed to Covid-19, is indicative of the failure of the government-enforced regulations to prevent significant numbers of infections in South Africa.
These regulations, such as lockdown strategies, limits on gatherings, curfews, social distancing and mask mandates, at best drew out the initial period over which roughly the same number of infections would have occurred.

Read more >> 

***

The World Health Organization (WHO) says several European countries lifted their coronavirus restrictions too soon. The result? Sharp rises in infections probably linked to the new, more transmissible BA2 subvariant.
Read more >> 

***

Covid-19 cases are rising again in Europe. They’re outright exploding across much of Asia. The United States, however, is in a Covid lull, having just come down from the winter’s omicron outbreak.
It’s an uneasy time. On one hand, it’s likely the worst of the pandemic is over, at least in terms of severe illness and death. But on the other hand, we have to ask: Do these upticks in the rest of the world foreshadow America’s future?

Read more >> 

***

South Korea struggles as Covid-19 cases top 10 million - nearly 20% of its population - and crematoria and funeral homes are overwhelmed. 

Read more >> 

***

On War:
More than 10 million displaced. Photos from Ukraine >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Kid Rock  (1:13 mins)
Josh Mandel: Ohioans or Trump?  (o:46 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - March 23  (1:50 mins)
Bringing humor to the day with signing punny funs – oops, I mean funny puns >>  (7:50 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Eyes on wildlife: photo essay >> 

***

As climate breakdown takes hold across the globe, more people are likely to be affected by extreme weather, including flash floods, heatwaves, more violent storms and coastal storm surges, made worse by sea level rises.
About a third of people around the world are not now covered by early warning systems, but in Africa the problem is greater, with about six in 10 people lacking such warnings. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had recently found  half of humanity was “in the danger zone” for climate breakdown. That so many people were still not covered by early warning systems is “unacceptable”, said António Guterres.
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The beat goes on. Painting, repairing, and, finally, untangling the house’s electrical wiring and systems. The hodge podge of an electrical system that was certified when this house changed owners should never have passed. I assume the certification was purchased under the table, a ‘not uncommon’ transaction in South Africa. (One example of common fraud >>.)  The net haul for fraudulent certifications when transferring ownership of higher ticket items such as houses and commercial buildings must be worth the risk to fraudsters. After all, it’s taken almost ten years to untangle the mess in this house’s electrical system. And, if I were not obsessive about fixing it, it’s likely no one would have noticed – until an electrical fire ignited.

***

Perfect equinox today:
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:05am
Sunset: 6:05pm

The Opposite is true in
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:06am
Sunset: 7:24pm

Discoveries

News blues

Deltacron – the new hybrid version of the coronavirus combines the delta and the omicron variants of the virus. What to know >> 

***

On history Yesterday, 21 March, was the public holiday of Human Rights Day in South Africa. It’s also close to or on the spring equinox.
I asked several South Africans what, if anything, was the focus of Human Rights Day. Or is it a day to recognize humans and their rights. All shrugged. Being a curious curmudgeon, I tackled the Internet. Human Rights Day:

Human Rights Day is a national day that is commemorated annually on 21 March to remind South Africans about the sacrifices that accompanied the struggle for the attainment of democracy in South Africa.

And

The day is linked with the Sharpeville Massacre of 21 March 1960, when 69 people died and 180 were wounded after police opened fire on a group protesting against apartheid pass laws. It is intended to commemorate those ordinary people who united to proclaim their rights.

This is more like it. Sharpeville, a day and a place that lives on in infamy.

***

On War:
Photos from Ukraine >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:

Ohio GOP Debate - Any Questions  (0:35 mins)
The Union  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Celebrate wildlife – in pictures >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’ve muttered deprecations each time I’ve opened the door to my late mother’s fridge. The door’s design is unfamiliar: no door or pull handle in sight. Made no sense, but I figured my mom had opted not to purchase a handle when the fridge could be opened with fingers pulling at the door “seam”. 

Odd, but no more odd than other decisions people make. 

Then, a foray into purchasing a box of frozen fish revealed the fascinating truth. Not much of a frozen food purchaser or eater, I'd had few reasons to open the freezer section before. If, however, I’d opted for frozen food earlier, I may have saved myself much muttering about painful fingers and odd decisions. How,?
On placing the frozen fish package into the freezer section of the fridge, I tugged at the clearly visible groove that runs horizontally along the top of the door. I returned to opening the “regular” fridge by tugging along the door “seam”… and grunting my dissatisfaction with sore fingers. 

Then, a ray of light! An "ah hah" moment. 

The fridge door is opened with a similarly designed groove that runs horizontally along the bottom of the door. Imagine! An invisible door opener! Such a design concept.
It is in such moments that one recognizes the impact of a blind spot, the years of complaining about an unsupported assumption. Such recognition humbles. And frees. My fingers are gleeful, too.
Time to re-examine other assumptions. Where to begin?

Over the rainbow?

News blues

About three weeks ago, COVID case rates in the United Kingdom made an abrupt about-face, spurred on by a more transmissible Omicron subvariant called BA.2. (So far, there is no reason to believe the new subvariant causes more severe disease.) Case rates are rising, too, in Switzerland and Greece and Monaco and Italy and France. Given that BA.2 is already present in the United States, The Washington Post reports that epidemiologists and public-health leaders suspect that North America will be next. After all, the paper said, “in the past two years, a widespread outbreak like the one in Europe has been followed by a similar surge in the United States some weeks later.”

Read “Another COVID Wave Is Looming. How bad will it be?” >> 

Dr. Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, also is concerned about current case increases in Europe, which usually predict a rise in the U.S. a short time later >> 

***

America’s Flu-Shot Problem Is Also Its Next COVID-Shot Problem.  

***

In South Africa, the Department of Health has called for public comment on new regulations under the National Health Act to replace the state of disaster Covid regulations. Once approved, the Department of Health said regulations will be implemented without being tabled in parliament (as they’re subordinate legislation already delegated to the minister). 

New regulations (sound a lot like the old regulations):

• all people entering or exiting South Africa during a pandemic should present negative PCR tests not older than 72 hours in the event they do not have a vaccination certificate.
• continued restrictions will be placed on night vigils and after-funeral gatherings 
• Indoor and outdoor gatherings may be occupied up to 50% of the venue capacity, provided valid vaccine certificates are produced. For gatherings where no valid vaccine certificates are required, artificial limits of 1,000 and 2,000 people will apply for indoor and outdoor gatherings, respectively. 
• Social distancing of one metre must be maintained
• Face masks will be compulsory for indoor gatherings, people cannot enter public premises or make use of public transport without a mask.

The regulations also leave the door open for other restrictions, labelled as ‘advice giving’ between different departments. This advice can relate to curfew, national lockdown, economic activity and the sale of alcohol, among others.  The Minister and Health Department have called for public comment by April 15.

 Needless to say, there’s pushback.
 A local community group, ‘Dear South Africa', reports “ We have filed legal papers and are going to court to end the State of Disaster and regulations, to make sure that no one can abuse the tyrannical powers afforded by the Disaster Management Act ever again.”

Daily Maverick reports,

Extending the national State of Disaster for the umpteenth time has bought the government time to shift Covid-19 lockdown extraordinary measures into regular, ordinary law. South Africa’s constitutional democracy now is at a dangerous tipping point.

Read “We’ve got the power: Government hangs on State of Disaster to keep control” >> 

***

On War:
Photos from Ukraine >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:

Pop up fact check  (0:56 mins)
The Parties on Putin  (0:55 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (March 15) (2:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A widely used kind of recycled plastic bottle passes more potentially harmful chemicals into their contents than newly manufactured bottles, researchers have warned.
Researchers from Brunel University London found 150 chemicals that leached into drinks from plastic bottles, with 18 of those chemicals found in levels exceeding regulations.
And they found that drinks bottled using recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) can contained higher concentrations of chemicals than those bottled using new PET, which suggests that problems with the recycling process may be causing contamination.
They are calling for more careful recycling methods to remove the potentially harmful chemicals.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Wake up at 3:30am (unplanned and not desired but…), read until 5:00am, coffee, don work/paint clothes, then paint walls…and paint…and paint. In between, I drag pond weed from the pond, check on blocked culverts, strategize with the electrician – the electrical system in this house is a nightmare.
I also force feed one of the two of my late mother’s dogs her meds. This dog breeds cysts all over her body. One on her neck regularly burst and bled. Ugh! Awful. 

A trip to the vet surgically removed these “knobs”, each incision requiring six or seven stitches. The dog’s recovering, thanks to pain pills and antibiotic she’s force feed twice a day.
Ugh!
For someone neutral on dogs – neither a dog lover nor hater - taking on someone else’s dogs is a “learning experience.” Dorothy put it well when she told Toto, “I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” (But nor am I over the rainbow!)

***

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:12am
Sunset: 7:20pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:02am
Sunset: 6:10pm

No nukes!

Worldwide (Map) 
March 17, 2022 - 463,665,500 confirmed infections; 6,058,000 deaths
March 18, 2021 - 120,740,000 confirmed infections; 2,672,000 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 92,314,000 confirmed infections; 1,977,900 deaths

US (Map) 
March 17, 2022 - 79,631,710 confirmed infections; 968,330 deaths
March 18, 2021 – 29,550,000 confirmed infections; 537,000 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 23,071,100 confirmed infections; 384,635 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
March 17, 2022 - 3,696,850 confirmed infections; 99,730 deaths
March 18, 2021 – 1,531,000 confirmed infections; 51,560 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 1,278,305 confirmed infections; 35,140 deaths

Blog post from this time last year, Dilemmas 

News blues

The above image summarizes the proportion of each named variant present in
worldwide sequenced samples on a weekly basis.
These data help public health officials and government leaders track changes
 in the presence of variants of concern to help inform their communications
 to the public and design mitigation efforts.
Read more >> 
© Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center

***

Israel has detected cases of a new COVID variant that is a hybrid of Delta and Omicron. According to national broadcaster Kan, the variant surfaced in swab samples that were sequenced in labs. A limited number of cases have been detected among people who returned from Europe, and there is no community spread.
Read more >> 

China Covid cases surge with millions in lockdown (2:29 mins)

U.K. and Europe are suffering rising COVID-19 infections two weeks after the United Kingdom dropped its last remaining Covid-19 mitigation measure — a requirement that people who test positive for the virus isolate for five days. Cases and hospitalizations climb once again. 

Read more >> 

***

On War:
Photos from Ukraine >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:

Leader of Peace  (2:16 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (March 15) (2:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Say what? South Africa plans to shift from coal to nuclear 
Gotta say, I tremble at this news. A country that cannot systematically provide fossil-generated electricity (or drain two culverts in 6 years) has no business even contemplating nuke energy. No wonder President Ramaphosa sits on the fence with Putin’s deadly invasion of Ukraine. He will allow Russians to build nuke plants here. 

Terrifying.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Light at the end of the culverts?
Six years of kvetching may finally come to resolution. But don't hold your breath.

I celebrate receiving the following message from my local councilperson:

Hello, the roads and storm water drains manager was on site this afternoon for inspection. [The director] has instructed his teams to get down there and excavate the silt. Bongeka the roads manager has said she will also write to Blake this evening of her findings.  She agrees there are three parts to the problem. The water coming from the D road, the blocked pipes which on removing of excess soil and silt will unblock these. She noted the amount of water in your property and took photos.

I want to believe. I want this to be true. I need this.
Lord, make it so!

***

The last season the US practices daylight saving time?
Don’t say the US Congress gets nothing done. Last Tuesday, the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 that would make daylight saving time permanent across the U.S. beginning in 2023. Approved by unanimous consent but requires House approval and President Biden's signature to become law.

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:16am
Sunset: 7:18pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 6:13pm

Mortality rate backlog

News blues

Covid-19: South Africa records 3 more deaths, but there may be mortality rate backlog. 
South Africa and Covid-19: what’s up with National State of Disaster?  (5:34 mins)

***

A new, hybrid variant on the horizon? 

***

I get that we'd all rather talk about anything than Covid at this point, but it's still surprising how little coverage the spike in cases in Asia is getting at the moment.  Read more >> 

 On War:

Photos from Ukraine >> 

***

Last Sunday, U.N. agencies warned that the escalation of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, including attacks on health care facilities, could prolong the pandemic.

“Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has already put health systems and health care workers under enormous strain, such attacks have the potential to be even more devastating for the civilian population,” reads a joint statement issued by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the United Nations Population Fund.
The statement cited 31 attacks that destroyed or damaged health care facilities since the beginning of the Russian invasion, curtailing Ukrainians’ access to services, including vaccinations against COVID-19.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Brent Renaud  (1:00 mins)
Putin’s Puppet  (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Take a climate pledge. 
The climate emergency is the biggest threat to civilisation we have ever faced. But there is good news: we already have every tool we need to beat it. The challenge is not identifying the solutions but rolling them out with great speed. 

Read some reasons to be hopeful >> 

***

Another bad idea whose time has come - and gone? Was cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a bad idea? Scientists worry that flashy efforts to clean plastic from the ocean do more harm than good.
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Painting, painting, painting. I’ve painted a bedroom and I’m almost finished painting a large living room. I prefer walking and swimming as exercise, but several hours of painting each day is a decent workout.
The best part of painting? Cleaning and putting away tools – brushes, rollers, paint trays, paint cloths – then inspecting the finished product. Sometimes inspecting the finished product, however, reveals yet another coat of paint is required. Grrr. In that case, finishing a third coat provides a form of bliss I’ve seldom encountered.

***

The saga of the block culverts continues. This is what happens after 6 years of trying, unsuccessfully, to get the appropriate department to maintain their tax-supported responsibilities in the community.
Heavy rainfall has nowhere to go and dams up behind the blocked culverts. 

Blocked culverts mean water cannot drain ...

Believe it or not: two culverts hidden within this overgrown, muddy, debris-filled zone...
The problem now? Mid-right: Water borne silt pouring into the already over-silted area.
That silt is now more than 1 meter/3 feet deep - and hardening by the day.
One would assume this circumstance would bring out a team of workers to alleviate the problem.
Here? Nope. Despite 10 years of paying property taxes ("rates") and six years of asking for 
assistance, this is the state of affairs. Distressing.

R.I.P.

News blues

A pandemic and a regional war threatening to morph into a wider conflagration – plus the threat of the use of nukes. Humans are in a pickle even as economies reopen and governments look to move beyond their "pandemic footing." 

Read more >> 

***

US Congress failed to approve additional pandemic response funding and prominent Covid-19 experts are worried. Congress may yet approve more funding but experts warn of potentially devastating consequences if the federal government runs out of funding to invest in more therapeutics, vaccines, testing, and other pandemic response initiatives. 

Read more >> 

***

Two years of a pandemic: photo essay >> 

***

The Covid-19 pandemic may have claimed more than three times the official death toll, a new study suggests  – some 18.2 million lives around the world.
The higher figure is a better estimate of the true global casualty figure to the end of 2021…
Read more >> 

***

On War: Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of their country began to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border between Tijuana and San Diego this week. They were met with pair of court rulings on Title 42 - cruel restrictions put in place at the beginning of the pandemic by the Trump administration.
"The fact that we're using COVID as an excuse to keep out asylum seekers at this moment in time, it's just becoming more and more absurd and untenable for the administration," said Blaine Bookey, an attorney at the Center for Gender & Refugees Studies, who is representing the Ukrainian family.
Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Red phone (0:35 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Notice our world, its little and the large critters: photo essay >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

We gathered yesterday to carry out my late mother’s wishes for her ashes and those of her dogs and significant others: scatter them at what was her home for more than 6 decades.
It was a seat-of-the-pants event. Just the way she’d like it.
I transported the many boxes of ashes - I was late to the gathering. (I discovered all the cargo-laden trucks plying the road between Johannesburg and the Port of Durban were on the main drag. And that 3 lanes of traffic had been whittled down to one lane. A Toyota Yaris is very small and vulnerable amid hundreds of trucks. The main drag is under repair and widening efforts for the entire distance I had to drive.)
We all made it, though, including family flying own to Durban from Johannesburg.
Some might have found our “ceremony” too informal, but I believe it worked for my mother. We snuck onto the property – now overgrown with weeds and vegetation (my mother would approve as she resisted pruning trees), emptied the many boxes of ashes into a common receptacle, then walked around and drizzled them out onto “her” land.
Never did I expect to have my hands dusty with the ash residue of so many once-thriving critters.
R.I.P. mother and friends.

***

US daylight saving time and that means no more darkness upon waking and setting off to work. Yay!
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:22am
Sunset: 6:14pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:58am
Sunset: 6:18pm

More of the same

Worldwide (Map) 
March 10, 2022 - 449,958,700 confirmed infections; 6,016,600 deaths
March 11, 2021 – 117, 645,000 confirmed infections; 2,612,000 deaths

US (Map) 
March 10, 2022 – 79,369,500 confirmed infections; 961,950 deaths
March 11, 2021 - 29,222,420 confirmed infections; 529,884 deaths
Amazingly, the 1 million death toll predicted two weeks ago is still in our future in the US. Or not. Perhaps Covid-19 deaths will cease and we’ll never reach that dire statistic. Here’s hoping.

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
March 10, 2022 - 3,686,560 confirmed infections; 99,625 deaths
March 11, 2021 – 1.522,700 confirmed infections; 50,910 deaths.

Blog post from March 11, 2021: “Load shedding, reprise” >>  

Ironically, load shedding continues. We are without electricity for three 2.5-hour stints each day. 

News blues

As South Africa heads towards the dreaded 100,000 Covid-19 deaths toll, Ministerial Advisory Committee and director of CAPRISA, Salim Abdool Karim reviews the last two years of Covid-19 and its successes in South Africa.  (8:19 mins)

***

The US CDC says 90 percent of people no longer need masks. Experts who've been very careful thus far are starting to shift their approaches — but just a little >> 

***

On War: “Ukraine: Mother of Russian soldier asks, 'Whose door should I knock on to get my child back?' >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Last Week in the Republican Party (March 8)  (1:35 mins)
The Lincoln Project Re-airs President Biden's Remarks on Ukraine  (12:38 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Described by the head of the UN Environment Programme as the most important multilateral environmental deal  since the Paris agreement in 2015, the new legally binding treaty world leaders recently agreed upon covers the full lifecycle of plastics from production to disposal. This could provide an essential tool to hold governments and companies accountable for their environmental impacts.
Read more >> 

***

For Svitlana Krakovska, Ukraine’s leading climate scientist, it was meant to be the week where eight years of work culminated in a landmark UN report exposing the havoc the climate crisis is causing the world. But then the bombs started to crunch into Kyiv.
Krakovska, the head of a delegation of 11 Ukrainian scientists, struggled to help finalize the vast Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report ahead of its release on 28 February even as Russian forces launched their invasion. “I told colleagues that as long as we have the internet and no bombs over our heads we will continue,” she said.

Read “‘This is a fossil fuel war’: Ukraine’s top climate scientist speaks out” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

In drought-ridden California, I adore the sound of rain. In waterlogged KZN, I dread the same sound.
A little more than one year ago, I shared the most recent information about KZN’s Dept of Transportation’s (DOT) lack of effective maintenance of culverts  adjacent to my mother’s property. Requesting maintenance has been an ongoing project over several years.
It’s not that DOT is unresponsive. Bulldozers and diggers show up, but these are the wrong tools for the job. What is required? Strong people wielding shovels. Here, as in many places, manual labor is considered less sexy than driving a diesel-powered bulldozer.

Blocked culverts back in April 2019

One of two culverts, this one totally blocked - April 2019

March 9, 2022 - now not only utterly blocked, also invisible.
Is this is how ancient cities "disappeared"?

With the unprecedented amounts of rain, my late mother’s garden is ankle-deep in water due to barely functioning culverts designed to drain water from the stream, under the roadway, eventually reaching Howick Falls. One is entirely blocked and covered with vegetation and debris. (Watching this occur over the past 6 years presents insight into how whole cities of the ancient world disappeared until intrepid archaeologists dug them out. Hmmm, maybe I need intrepid archaeologists on this job?)

Last night’s pouring rain had me frantically messaging our local councilperson – again.

I’m tempted to implement Plan B: appeal through humiliation. Write an article for the local weekly print paper explaining the issue then beg readers and local residents each to contribute R5,00 into a fund geared toward paying a non-governmental team of workers to work on public projects. Donations should be deducted from residents’ monthly rates (“property tax”) bill. 

This approach shares the burden of “fighting city hall” among members of the community rather than burdening one person with blowback.
Come to think of it, We the People could adopt the same strategies for other areas where the municipality fails to use residents’ property taxes for residents and public areas (potholes, storm drains, broken signage, dangerous roadways, severely cracked bridges and overpasses…).

***

Been working my half hour stint weeding the pond when it is not too rainy or too hot. Each day the pile of pond debris on the pond banks gets a little higher and the pond a little freer.

***

Hello, darkness, my old friend…. Escom (SA’s parastatal Electrical Supply Commission) began, again, depriving the citizenry of electricity. This area is at Stage 4, meaning our electricity goes down three times per day - from 6:00 am to 8:30am, 2:00pm to 4:30pm, and from 10pm to 12:30pm. 

Oh, and the price of electricity hikes up at least 10 percent each year.

***

Three days to US daylight saving time.
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:27am
Sunset: 6:11pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:56am
Sunset: 6:21pm

Second thoughts

News blues

Covid-19 case counts are falling in the United States and many parts of the country are starting to relax.
Cities like Washington, DC, and New York are lifting vaccine mandates for many public indoor spaces. National public health officials are easing up, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now advises that communities with low levels of transmission can forgo universal masking. As spring draws near, is it finally time to feel hopeful? Is it possible the worst of the pandemic is behind us?

Read more >> 

But… even as the global number of new cases and deaths continued downward, falling by 16 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively in the week ending last Sunday, compared to the previous week, scientists caution that the end of the Omicron surge is not the end of the pandemic, but more like the plateau experienced between previous waves over the past two years.

As immunity wanes, and another variant emerges at some point, the population could again be susceptible to mass infections….
Epidemiologist Adam Kucharski, an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it was hard to predict how long it may take for the next troublesome variant to emerge, but he pointed to similar plateaus experienced between the Alpha and Delta variants.
“Many countries with declining cases are likely to be in a ‘honeymoon period’ of lower transmission, especially if much of the reduction in transmission has come from vaccines, which can wane quickly in terms of protection against Omicron infection.”

Read more >> 

***

Meidas Touch Little girl sings “Let it Go” in bomb shelter in Ukraine  (1:35 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A new climate movement to persuade and support relatively well-off people to make “The Jump” and sign up to the six pledges. 

(With my current “lifestyle” of traveling to/from South Africa once a year, I already contravene one of the six pledges. Maybe my rare forays into stores to shop and/or buy “new clothing” balances out my travel climate bill? Enquiring minds wanna know….)

Our world in photos >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Garden pond: from pondering to foraying. I deemed too expensive the only quote I’d been given to clear the garden pond of over-growth. Overly ambitious, I took on the project, pledging to spend half- to one-hour per day ridding the waterway of its overgrown (“alien”) lilies and water grass. So far, so good.

Current pile of removed pond weed.
This stuff is heavy when wet. 

Still got to weed out all the remaining weeds seen here, plus a greater amount
of lilies growing densely on the other side of the pond.
Biting off more than I can chew?
Hmmmm. You think?

Alas, looking at these photos, I realize I’m working hard yet making little headway.
Either half- to one-hour per day is insufficient and I must up my game or I must bite the bullet and engage an actual pond landscaper to complete the work.
Moreover, the sun at 8:30am today is already too hot and intense to don waders and carry out my scheduled 30 mins. 

Or not. 

Maybe I'll head there after I post this.

Or not. 

Moreover, my stash of band-aids ("plasters") was in my wallet... stolen in Johannesburg airport the day I arrived. What do band-aids have to do with pond weeding? Well, the gumboots attached to my waders rub the skin off my ankles while I work in the pond. My socks are inadequate to protect my sensitive ankles from further irritation. I need to purchase more band-aids.

Hmmmm. 

Lack of band-aids might be today's perfectly logical reason to delay today's pond foray.