Mothers Speak about War and Terror: Year 3 of the Covid Era

Day 704 - Thursday, February 24 - In decline

Worldwide (Stats )
February 24, 2022 - 429,508,650 confirmed infections; 5,917,000 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,497,100 deaths
Vaccination data & map >>

US (Map)
February 24, 2022 - 78,731,000 confirmed infections; 942,000 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 24, 2022 - 3,662.100 confirmed infections; 98,868 deaths
February 25, 2021 - 1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths

News blues…

Despite predictions to the contrary, the US has not yet reached the 1 million and more dead from Covid-19. That good news indicates Omicron has been less fatal than Delta, although “nursing homes and other long term care facilities have lost a record number of residents and staff to COVID-19…

[Such numbers represent] about a quarter of all COVID deaths in [the US].
Now, the industry is suffering through a historic staffing shortage, further exacerbated by omicron. Workers have quit in record numbers since the pandemic started. And during the worst of omicron many frontline staff had to stay home because of breakthrough infections.

Read or listen to “The pandemic pummeled long-term care” >>

According to a recent statement from WHO,

The Omicron variant of concern is currently the dominant variant circulating globally, accounting for nearly all sequences reported to GISAID. Omicron is made up of several sublineages, each of them being monitored by WHO and partners. Of them, the most common ones are BA.1, BA.1.1 (or Nextstrain clade 21K) and BA.2 (or Nextstrain clade 21L). At a global level, the proportion of reported sequences designated BA.2 has been increasing relative to BA.1 in recent weeks, however the global circulation of all variants is reportedly declining.

Read WHO’s full statement on omicron sublineage BA.2 >>

Doh! Ivermectin fails another COVID trial as study links use to GOP politics >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Weakness (1:24 mins)
Four decades living in the US indicated being a “commie” was about the worst kind of American. Not so anymore. Thanks to Trump, “Commies”, Putin, et al are “good”. Right wing Americans now beat the drums against “socialists”, the “woke”, and supporters of Black Lives Matter.
The Donald sews mayhem:
Trump loyalties (1:30 mins)
And, where The Donald goes there goes Fox News: Fox loves Putin (0:55 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party - February 22, 2022 (2:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

As Midlands KZN copes with almost too much rain, California and the American West considers desalination as a cure to its lack-of-water woes >>
According to GRID – Arendal, the Number of wildfires will rise by 50% by 2100 and, surprise, governments are ill-prepared >> The organization,

calls on governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula’, with two-thirds of spending devoted to planning, prevention, preparedness, and recovery, with one third left for response. Currently, direct responses to wildfires typically receive over half of related expenditures, while planning receives less than one per cent. To prevent fires, authors call for a combination of data and science-based monitoring systems with indigenous knowledge and for a stronger regional and international cooperation.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Almost finished recycling rusty patio furniture. It looks “good enough”; happily, I paid less than ZAR 300 (equivalent to about 20 Yankee Dollas) – plus sweat equity – to accomplish this feat. I placed a cushion on one of the refurbished chairs and thoroughly enjoy the peace, the cool late afternoon breeze, and the sounds of assorted birds.
Nothing I do in the DIY department is perfect, but I’m replete with good intentions and try my best. Many can do a more professional, more skilled job, but I wager our joyous sense of accomplishment is similar.

***

The area of KZN I occupy – semi-rural/sub-urban - is replete with social media. Today’s social media posted a warning from a local resident:

Take note: people stage minor accidents then demand compensation.
Between 9:30 and 9:45 my wife and I travelled in a westerly direction [and] suddenly heard a dull thud on the left side of my vehicle
I asked my wife, “What that was?”
We saw two males approaching the vehicle, at a fast pace. … I turned left at the robot and stopped outside the hospital.
The accomplice, in a very friendly manner, inquired whether my vehicle was damaged.
I replied, NO.
The second male was holding his right arm which he said was very sore.
I accompanied him to the clinic at the local hospital where the doctor suggested an X ray examination.
The X ray was returned, and the doctor found no fractures.
The patient received medication from the clinic. I signed and paid for doctor including the X ray, an amount of R850.
The sister in charge at casualty warned me that these type of accidents occur frequently. She said that [people] deliberately stage minor accidents and then demand money. She advised me to accompany the patient to the local police station where we’d both sign an affidavit agreeing that his injury was appropriately attended and that he had no further financial claim.
He, however, refused to sign this affidavit. He argued furiously with the police and was absolutely determined to be remunerated for the accident, regardless of the medical findings and expense incurred.
I reported the accident to the Howick police and signed an affidavit.

One more negative thing to look out for while in the world.

Humans.

Hard to live with ‘em, hard to live without ‘em….

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100
Day 702 - Tuesday, February 22 - Done and dusted?

News blues

South Africa’s President Ramaphosa has criticized the EU for protecting vaccine profits over people. He also concedes that progress has been made towards lifting COVID-19 vaccine patent rights (9:30 mins)
California’s Governor Newsome describes the “smarter plan” for post-pandemic Covid in that state (first 4 mins of 9:16 mins)
Six African countries – including South Africa - to begin making mRNA vaccines as part of WHO scheme
R200 voucher incentive resulted in 15% increase in vaccinations for people over 50 >>

***

Meanwhile, as many countries ease Covid restrictions, UK’s Boris Johnson told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the country was “moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility” as part of a plan for treating COVID-19 like other transmissible illnesses such as flu.
“Today is not the day we can declare victory over COVID, because this virus is not going away,”
Hmmm, “personal responsibility”. Let’s hope Boris ain’t jumping the gun….
Then again, Covid’s toll of death and destruction is eclipsed by Putin’s threat of upcoming of death and destruction.
What a crazy world!

Healthy planet, anyone?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sea levels around the United States will rise up to a foot over the next 30 years due to climate change. That’s as much as they have risen in the previous century.
NOAA’s study forecasts sea levels rises along the U.S. shoreline of 10-12 inches (25-30cm) on average by 2050.
The good news?

NOAA predicts levels will tend to be higher along the Atlantic and Gulf shores, because of greater land subsidence there, than along the Pacific coasts.
Ten to 12 inches will impact the beach and park where I live in California. It might be manageable although heavy rainfall could enter the slightly-below-ground-level garage upon which my condo complex is built.
Better hold on to my Sea Eagle inflatable: by 2050 I’ll be too old to dog paddle.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

According to my StepsApp, I reached my goal (6,000 recorded steps per day) ZERO times last week. That app is accurate: I do not carry my cell phone – with the StepsApp – in my pocket when I’m working outside. But working outside produces way more exercise than 7,000 steps per day.
As do all days so far, yesterday’s work began with the pool: backwashing the filter, cleaning filter baskets, re-setting the system.

Then, up on the carport roof cleaning gutters that haven’t been cleaned in years. All sorts of perfect composting material fermenting in those gutters, but much as I love compost and composting, saving gutter debris for compost was just a bridge too far, even for a compost-obsessive.
The irony of me, a white woman, doing such tough physical labor? White South African womandom would take credit for the labor but would not actually do the physical part. Rather, a gardener or handyman would do it overseen by the WSAW and presented as her labor. Gods know, it is tough work managing laborers….

The American parallel? A hands-off boss or office manager taking credit for excellent work done by lower-level employees – without mentioning who performed the actual labor.
I have no gardener or handyman, only me …gifted with a pair of strong hands, a strong back, and way too much impatience and determination. Moreover, I’m a cheapskate. Why pay someone to do work I can do? There will come a time – soon, I hope – when such tasks will be too much for me.

Meanwhile, I face a perfect storm: no trusty gardener, no trusty handyman, dwindling funds, and an enormous pile of repetitive chores.
Move over, Sisyphus.
For the many jobs I’m incapable of doing – including re-roofing a section of leaky patio – I ask around for worker references from friends, acquaintances, and other handy-people. The biggest obstacle? Despite saying they’ll show up to review a job and give a quote, more than 50 percent of the time, the handy-person never shows up! This is a feature of life in South Africa. Lots of talk and not much action.
This is frustrating for an American-punctuality-trained South African. In the US, time is money. In South Africa? Time is fluid.

***

Today? I recycle patio furniture I’d planned to toss out. A second look persuaded me a good cleaning, scraping off rust, and repainting with anti-corrosive paint would squeeze out another few years of use. Moreover, besides offering me latitude to paint creatively – adding additional color and design - I love the feeling of momentarily beating the system of rampant consumerism – and saving hard-earned dough.

***

Autumn/fall marches toward South Africa:
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:45am
Sunset: 6:39pm
In less than one month, daylight saving time begins in US states:
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:49am
Sunset: 5:55pm

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100
Day 700 - Sunday, February 20 - More of the same

News blues

One hundred weeks and 700 days of posts tracking Covid-19. This count may not be statistically accurate as I flitted from southern to northern to southern hemispheres during this pandemic. It’s a pretty good approximation of the trajectory of the pandemic, from discovery of the virus, to the initial devastation it wrought, to the creation and manufacture of vaccines, to where we are today. On this note, a report finds that, for all its flaws, the Covid-19 vaccination rollout has been a historic win for humanity.>>
Surrounded as I am by vax skeptics and misinformation, I’m totally grateful for science and scientists. (Yes, I understand science/scientists – and politicians, marketing experts, supporters of wars, even family members, etc. – can – and do - manipulate data to derive desired results. That’s life in the modern world. And I remain a fan of Covid vaccine.
On that note, here’s a guide to coronavirus and Covid-19 >>

***

MeidasTouch

Trump is guilty (1:10 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

February 15, the White House unveiled a slew of policies aimed at overhauling the U.S. industrial sector in order to reduce its planet-warming carbon pollution. Many of the policies have bipartisan backing—they were authorized in last year’s infrastructure bill. These policies are a big deal because they could help solve one of decarbonization’s thorniest problems: how to make steel, concrete, chemicals, and other major industrial products in a zero-carbon way. These products typically rely on fossil fuels to generate intense heat or provide a raw-material input, which is part of why the industrial sector is responsible for more than 20 percent of global emissions.
However crucial these policies are for the planet, they are arguably even more important as a matter of political economy. They signal a profound and bipartisan change in how the federal government presides over the economy

Read “ The White House Is Going After One of Climate Change’s Thorniest Problems” >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

An ivermectin-skeptic, I found myself in a conversation with two fully-convinced-ivermectin-takers. One, a young funeral director, swallows ivermectin each week to ward off a second bout of Covid. (His first dose of Covid was life-threatening.) The other man is simply a full-on believer, just because…. In such conversations, I simply ask the question, “Why take an anti-bacterial medication for a viral disease?” and leave it at that. I’m curious about the responses, but I’m uninterested in going down the ivermectin rabbit hole, particularly as South Africa is chock-a-block with ivermectin swallowers. Two days after that conversation, another article stating, again, that according to the study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the antiparasitic drug ivermectin doesn't prevent severe disease from Covid-19 any more effectively than symptom management and close observation by medical professionals. >>
I thought, very briefly, of sending the study’s link to the ivermectin fans. But why bother? Belief in ivermectin falls, in my opinion, into the same ideology as Trump is the Best Human President in the World. I ain’t gonna change that mindset with logic or data. I’d rather shift dirt/soil uphill with a spade.
One more comment on South Africa’s conspiracy theorists. Recently, I enjoyed meeting up with two friends at a local coffee shop. The male of the couple has been vaccinated and always wears his mask. My friend, his wife, is a vax skeptic who dons her mask amid much muttering about mask-uselessness. During out conversation, she also informed me that “studies prove” many, many more Covid deaths have occurred amongst the vaccinated than the unvaccinated.
Hmmmm
My sheer incredulity that I’m actually hearing such drivel generally renders me speechless. The best response I can come up with in the moment is, “That’s not at all true and I don’t believe it.” Then I try to change the subject. The problem with my response? Conspiracy theorists expect this response. It is, after all, exactly their response to their facts: always suspect the “mainstream” narrative: “they” are just trying to “'take over'….”
Indeed, there are times when “the public” is offered convenient – and money saving - bundles of BS. I’ve not spent more than a decade on a community board dealing with the US military’s so called “clean-up” of toxic waste generated during it sojourn in my California town not to understand this.

Discernment is key: work toward understanding with discernment.
Moreover, wearing masks and accepting vaccine is about more than one individual. It’s about our entire community of humans the world over. Thinking beyond one’s immediate nose and self-interest is a requirement for living in today’s world.

***

Last night was the first time in three weeks that I slept for more than seven hours. And I fell asleep as a crashing thunderstorm raged overhead. I chalk up this good sleep to good old fashioned hard physical labor.
Between regular bouts clearing the pool filter and repositioning the filter’s “creepy, yesterday’s labor included trimming overgrown hedges and plants with manual hedge clippers and raking the debris into piles for easy removal to the dump. I also spaded the garden’s dirt/soil level. This property slopes downhill and heavy rainfall shifts loose dirt/silt downhill. If I want a decent garden – and I do – then I must replace dirt/soil. A spade does the job, albeit a job tough on the human body. (Try pushing an old wheelbarrow packed with dirt uphill.) I unlocked old outside cabinets, cleared them of years-old debris, and piled that up for later removal to the dump. Serendipitously, I also rescued two Pool Kits that will allow me to test pool water for PH and acidity levels.
Today, Sunday? After last night’s thunderstorm, the day is clear, clean, and bright. And hot.
On today’s agenda? More of the same hard physical labor.
A mechanical hedge clipper sure sounds nice. Unfortunately, it’s a luxury I’m not sure I can afford. Then again, perhaps it is a luxury I cannot not afford. The questions: How resilient is my human body? Is my health and welfare not worth one stinky mechanical hedge clipper?
Hmmm.

***

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:44am
Sunset: 6:41pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:52am
Sunset: 5:53pm

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100
Day 697 - Friday, February 18 - 100 Weeks

News blues

One hundred weeks of Covid-19 and some level of Lockdown in South Africa. I arrived here in January 2020, a month or two after the novel coronavirus sought refuge in the first of its human hosts. I began these pandemic-centric blog posts on April 9, 2020 (see the complete list of posts) and, 100 weeks later, I’m still at it. Fully vaxed, I don’t take ivermectin, and, so far, haven’t contracted Covid. Happy Days!
One hundred weeks later:
Coronavirus restrictions ease across Europe despite high case rates
…and…
As California prepares to live with Covid, laying out plan to fight future surges, it aims to pick up rising viral transmission early and sequence new variants to determine whether vaccines and therapeutics are still effective.
The millions of people stuck in pandemic limbo: what does society owe immunocompromised people?

***

The Lincoln Project:
Uh oh, Donald (1:04 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

“How better animal welfare could stop millions of people dying,” by Damian Carrington for Down to Earth presented here as it encapsulates the essential issue of our time: how to live cooperatively and simply on our planet to ensure survival for all living creatures.

Spanish flu, bird flu, Marburg virus, Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, Nipah, West Nile, Sars, Chikungunya, Zika and Covid-19. That is just a partial history of the viruses that have spilled over from animals to humans in the last century. The outbreaks are coming more frequently, as humanity’s growing population drives its destructive path further into wild areas. An average of 3 million people a year die from these zoonotic diseases.
But the world’s focus on preventing the next pandemic has so far been confined to boosting the detection of new diseases after they have infected humans and speeding the development and rollout of vaccines. That is of course necessary, but it is not sufficient.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, there have been repeated warnings that action to stop spillovers at source is also vital, and extremely cost-effective. That means ending the destruction of forests that brings people and wildlife into contact, and a crackdown on the wildlife trade. Inaction has left the world playing an “ill-fated game of Russian roulette with pathogens”, experts say, and protecting nature is vital to escape an “era of pandemics”.
But tacking spillover is not mentioned in reports and strategies from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), a joint initiative of the World Bank and the World Health Organization, or from a G20 high-level panel on financing for pandemic preparedness.
A new report from experts at the International Union for Conservation of Nature provides another angle on the issue. While all zoonotic diseases ultimately come from wildlife, the IUCN report says few spillover into people directly. More commonly the diseases transfer via livestock, or animals like rats that thrive in places despoiled by humans.
So culling wildlife could not be justified, and could perversely make viruses spread more rapidly and animals flee. The IUCN report also says its examination of the scientific evidence suggests that tougher rules, or a ban, on the trade in wildlife would not have much impact on preventing future epidemics. Such moves could also harm the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local communities, unless alternative ways to make a living are provided.
But the IUCN report comes to the same broad conclusion as the previous reports: preventing increasing rates of outbreaks is feasible, especially if “primordial prevention issues, rather than just preparedness and rapid response” are addressed. “The challenge rests in better understanding how our domesticated animals and human-dominated landscapes create opportunities for the emergence of infectious diseases,” says Jon Paul Rodríguez, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.
So what is the livestock industry doing to cut pandemic risk? Not nearly enough, according to another new report, which rates two-thirds of 60 major meat, dairy and fish companies as “high risk”. The analysis is based on seven, criteria including welfare conditions for both animals and workers, waste management and deforestation.
“Intensive farming environments, housing most of the 70 billion farm animals reared every year, are a known breeding ground for disease,” says Jeremy Coller, chair of the FAIRR Initiative, which produced the report and is backed by investors managing $48 trillion of assets.
“Aggravating factors like low genetic diversity, cramped enclosures and poor conditions for workers that do not offer adequate sick pay amplify [the pandemic] risk many times over,” he said. “It’s time for meat companies and policymakers to learn from Covid-19 and to invest in preventing the next pandemic.”
Another take on pandemic risk is on its way from Bill Gates in his new book, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic. “The plan is three elements,” he says. “First is to constantly improve health systems. The second is to build a global pathogen surveillance capacity so that no matter which country it shows up in, we can apply resources and understand what’s going on very quickly. And finally, innovation across diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines that will get us far better tools far quicker than we did this time.”
“I think it’s exciting that we have this opportunity to use our best ideas to stop pandemics for good,” Gates concludes. But there’s no mention of what is to my mind the very best idea of all – trying to stop pandemics at the source. The same was already true of reports from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), a joint initiative of the World Bank and the World Health Organization, and from a G20 high-level panel on financing for pandemic preparedness.
Tackling the root of the issue by protecting forests and wildlife would cost just a tiny fraction of the terrible losses caused by pandemics, and such action is of course already vital for ending both the climate and biodiversity emergencies. “In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity,” said Albert Einstein. But the world has yet to grasp the opportunity presented by Covid-19.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

With South Africa’s official unemployment rate at 35 percent and the actual rate much higher, people scramble to afford basic food and housing. One young local man apples maximum creativity to earn a living: he sweeps debris back into potholes.
I’d noticed this young man standing near a four-way intersection offering what I assumed was a bunch of herbs to sell. He’s manned his post everyday over the past 10 days holding the same vegetation. Yesterday, I saw him using the flora to sweep small, loose stones back into a nearby pothole and tidy up loose debris.
I assume he’s working for tips although it has taken me 10 days to figure it out. Perhaps he needs signage: Sweeping for Rands?
It is heartbreaking to see so many people - young and old - so desperate.

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 696 - Thursday, February 17 - Sweep out the old

Worldwide (Map)
February 17, 2022 - 417,702,100 confirmed infections; 5,837,900 deaths
February 18, 2021 - 109,885,600 confirmed infections; 2,430,000 deaths
Total vaccinations to date: 10,257,109,700

Track Covid vaccinations worldwide >>

US (Map)
February 17, 78,171,300 confirmed infections; 928,500 deaths
February 18, 2021 - 27,824,660 confirmed infections; 490,450 deaths
Interactive: rank Covid deaths by US state >>

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 17, 2022 - 3,649,000 confirmed infections; 97,520 deaths
February 2021 - 27,824,660 confirmed infections; 490,450 deaths

News blues

While the actual (unconfirmed) “excess deaths” due to American Covid-19 is assumed to number more than 1 million, the official number, according to Johns Hopkins has yet to reach 1 million. Many expected the official 1 million toll to be reach a week ago. Does that is has not yet reached that milestone mean Covid’s lethality is slowing. Let’s hope so….
Ranking Covid deaths by state tells a story, too.

Interactive: rank Covid deaths by US state >>

***

Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 mRNA vaccine is said to provide an added layer of protection against reinfection for people who have been previously infected with the novel virus. It also is said to increase immune durability over time, according to two studies published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Clown Show (1:04 mins)
Putin’s Allies (1:40 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

February 15, the White House unveiled a slew of policies aimed at overhauling the U.S. industrial sector in order to reduce its planet-warming carbon pollution. Many of the policies have bipartisan backing—they were authorized in last year’s infrastructure bill. These policies are a big deal because they could help solve one of decarbonization’s thorniest problems: how to make steel, concrete, chemicals, and other major industrial products in a zero-carbon way. These products typically rely on fossil fuels to generate intense heat or provide a raw-material input, which is part of why the industrial sector is responsible for more than 20 percent of global emissions.
However crucial these policies are for the planet, they are arguably even more important as a matter of political economy. They signal a profound and bipartisan change in how the federal government presides over the economy

Read “ The White House Is Going After One of Climate Change’s Thorniest Problems” >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

With South Africa’s official unemployment rate at 35 percent and the unofficial rate much higher, , people scramble to afford basic food and housing. One young local man apples maximum creativity to earn a living: he sweeps debris back into potholes.
I’d noticed this young man standing near a four-way intersection offering what I assumed was a bunch of herbs to sell. He’s manned his post everyday over the past 10 days holding the same vegetation. Yesterday, I saw him using the flora to sweep small, loose stones back into a nearby pothole and tidy up loose debris.
I assume he’s working for tips although it has taken me 10 days to figure it out. Perhaps he needs signage: Sweeping for Rands?
It is heartbreaking to see so many people - young and old - so desperate.

***

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:42am
Sunset: 6:44pm

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:56am
Sunset: 5:50pm

Day 695 - Wednesday, February 16 - "Normalcy" ahead?

The Lincoln Project:
Twilight Struggle (0:55 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party - February 15, 2022 (1:58 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - February 9, 2022 (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

First it was PCBs, now it’s PFAS – harmful toxic pollutants that do not biodegrade - that are affecting ecosystems around the globe

[When] the north Atlantic archipelago, that include remote Faroe Islands - between Iceland and the northern tip of Scotland - had unusually high concentrations of toxic industrial chemicals in their breast milk, it seemed a surprising discovery … so far from sources of industrial or chemical pollution. And the chemicals that the 2005 Stockholm University study measured, which included polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), had already been phased out in many countries.
So how did this happen?
The chemicals were coming from the ocean or, more specifically, from the pilot whales that make up an important part of the islanders’ diet.

***

Humans are taking carbon out of the ground by burning fossil fuels deposited millions of years ago and putting it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The current rate of new fossil fuel formation is very low. Instead, the main geological (long-term) mechanism of carbon storage today is the formation of seashells that become preserved as sediment on the ocean floor.

Read “Oceans are better at storing carbon than trees…" >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Jet lag is (almost) a thing of the recent past and I’m feeling energized. More so now that a garden clean-up crew finished day 1 of a 3-day effort. The garden is slowly returning to its former glory – despite the former hired “gardeners’” overuse of power tools and the demise of many cherished plants. On that topic, neighborhood scuttlebutt reports that, once the business owner fell out with one of her employees – also an extended family member – she began enlisting men from the streets to garden. She offered no oversight nor any direction on expectations to those temporary workers. This explains not only the massacre of my plants but the mounds of weeds lying all over the garden. Moreover, hiring day labor off the streets is a huge security risk.
I’m looking forward to the restored garden in 3 days - if predicted rain defies the weather forecasts. It has done that for the last 3 days so here’s hopin’.

***

Have yet to see any warthogs but the impala and zebra are present in a nearby estate.

Impala

Healthy zebra

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 693 - Monday, February 14

News blues

“At this rate, dead people are slowly poisoning those who are alive.”

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 5.7 million lives worldwide. Funeral homes, mass burial grounds, and crematoriums remain overwhelmed and pushed beyond capacity. Last April, gravediggers in São Paulo had to exhume old graves in a cemetery and relocate corpses’ remains in a desperate attempt to bury thousands of daily COVID.
Researchers argue that cemeteries are one of the most neglected and insidious sources of metal contamination in the soil. As the COVID pandemic drags on, metal pollution in cemeteries and surrounding areas could reach staggeringly high levels—further aggravating the risk of groundwater contamination.

Read “COVID-19 is overcrowding cemeteries and causing heavy metal pollution” >>

***

Even as my mug of once-per-day coffee tangled in my mosquito net and crashed to the floor at 5:00am this morning, I’m happy to have and enjoy coffee. Turns out, I’m on the right track as there’s a link between drinking coffee and a lowered risk of COVID-19. A new study points to other dietary intake data and the odds of getting the virus, too >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Vote while it counts (0:55 mins)
Randy Rainbow on Marjorie Taylor Greene (4:30 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Wondering how animals and plants are adapting – or not - to our ever-warming, increasingly polluted world? A new database reveals how much humans are messing with evolution >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My mother’s long-term (35 years) domestic worker, Martha, met me in the kitchen at 5am. She happily reported she’d dreamed of my mother. (My mother died July 12 last year – amid KZN’s calamitous protest/riots.) Martha happily described my mom as joyous, surrounded by her many dogs – Benji, Freckles, Daisy , too many to name here - Mike, her partner, and Keith, her handyman. Martha even described the clothing each was wearing in the dream.
It’s not easy to lose a parent, particularly amid a pandemic that's sealed off the Care Center from visitors, a violent protest, and me in California.
Martha’s dream touched my heart. I'll ask her to relate it when the family gathers for my mom's memorial. She'd been planning this event for years and gathered dozens of fancy boxes containing dogs' ashes - each solid wood box adorned with the dog's name etched on a brass-plate.

My instruction?

Place all the ashes, including hers, Mike's and Keith's - in a large container then bury them together on the property where she'd spent 6 decades running a country "guest farm".

Problem?

That property has been sold. I'm not about to trespass on someone else's property with a large box of cremains. We'll do the memorial in a nearby (rural) valley where my maternal grandfather's ashes are scattered. She'll like that, not as much as being spread on her beloved former property but....

***

From 90F degree weather yesterday, to 72F weather and rain predicted today. We shall see. Around here, weather predictions are as reliable as Eskom’s load-shedding schedule. A wait and see attitude is de rigueur.

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:39am
Sunset: 6:46pm
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:00am
Sunset: 5:47pm

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 692 - Sunday, February 13 - Chillin'

News blues

Oh oh! COVID will affect cardiovascular health, health care for years to come >>

***

Whither South Africa? President Ramaphosa and State of the Nation (SONA) address (1:45 hrs)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Still adjusting to the hot, muggy weather: 91F/33C today.

Phew!

The kind of weather that demands taking the day off and chillin’

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 691 - Saturday, February 12 - Say what?

News blues

COVID-19 in SA: Fifth wave likely to hit SA in winter (7:45 mins)

***

In the era of “alternative facts”, what data can “thinking people” apply to make sense of what’s happening out there, vis a vis the pandemic? Is it almost over? Or is a fifth wave coming? To mask or not to mask, that is one question.
Read “While awaiting updated CDC guidance, here's the data states are using to lift Covid-19 restrictions”>>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Olympic (0;55 mins)
Trump v Toilets (0:44 mins)
Vernon Jones (0:35 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (Feb 9) (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

There’s a growing trend of climate litigation around the world. Here’s a look at the Australian cases likely to make headlines this year >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Slowing overcoming jet lag and feeling energetic and ready to tackle a mountain of decision-making and a mountain of catch up on house maintenance before putting the property back on the market. From getting it properly evaluated to finding another gardener (former gardener, Elson, we miss you! ) to approaching the municipality – again on clearing the culverts. The latter task is daunting – as I’ve discovered over 5 or 6 years to trying… Indeed, the culverts shown in that post look almost quaint in comparison to the culverts of today. Photos pending….
Another big hurdle: adjusting to the hot, muggy weather. I wear lightweight dress and I’m still covered in light sweat all day. Ugh!
Once adjusted, I plan to pull out my camera and capture the wonderful birdlife all around.

***

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:38am
Sunset: 6:48pm
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:02am
Sunset: 5:45pm

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 98
Day 689 - Thursday, February 10 - Learn to live with it

Worldwide (Map)
February 10, 2022 - 403,000,000 confirmed infections; 5,776,000 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 107,324,00 confirmed infections; 2,354,000 deaths
Total vaccinations to date: 10,118,400,000

US (Map) February 10, 2022 - 77,265,150 confirmed infections; 912,300 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 27,285,150 confirmed infections; 471,450 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) February 10, 2022 - 3,631,644 confirmed infections; 96,502 deaths
February 11, 2021 – 1,482,412 confirmed infections; 47,145 deaths

Optimistic post from a year ago, Looking ahead >>

News blues

Polls and surveys taken in the US on Covid-19, even as the Omicron variant crested across much of the United States, indicate the public is getting tired of the pandemic and its resolve to combat the coronavirus is wavering if not outright waning.
Read more and see results of surveys >>
New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat who has taken a strict approach to pandemic protocols, recently said “We have to learn how to live with Covid as we move from a pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus."
This is the trend in the US now, with blue state governors and state health officials, once vigorously embracing pandemic restrictions, pivot toward loosening restrictions and shifting responsibility to the public.
Read more >>
Even as the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stands by the agency's mask guidelines, emphasizing that now is not the time to change the recommendations or loosen restrictions aimed at preventing Covid-19 the CDC weighs updating its messaging around transmission and masking.
Meanwhile, South Africa remains on Alert Level 1 – the least restrictive level. A cloth face mask or “homemade item that covers the nose and mouth” is required when in public places. South Africans, like Americans, however, are getting tired of the pandemic and items covering the nose and mouth are no longer much in evidence. Read more >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Pence v Trump (0:42 mins)
McCarthy v McConnell (0:48 mins)
Anti-American (1:10 mins)
And, Randy Rainbow is back: the Tango Vaccine (4:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

“Ambitious and concrete commitments”?

Up to 40 world leaders are due to make “ambitious and concrete commitments” towards combating illegal fishing, decarbonising shipping and reducing plastic pollution at what is billed as the first high-level summit dedicated to the ocean.
One Ocean summit, which opens on Wednesday in the French port of Brest, aims to mobilise “unprecedented international political engagement” for a wide range of pressing maritime issues, said its chief organiser, Olivier Poivre d’Arvor.
“It is essential,” Poivre d’Arvor said. “The climate has its Cop process but there is no equivalent for the ocean, at a time when man’s relationship with the marine world has become more and more toxic, and global heating is causing extreme change.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Back in the land of Eskom and loadshedding . Grrr!
Backstory: South Africa’s parastatal power company, Eskom, began scheduling mandatory loadshedding back in April 2008. Loadshedding – power switched off for up to 2.5 hour increments according to neighborhoods across the nation - is “designed” to allow maintenance periods for power generators, as well as to recover coal stockpiles before the winter (when need for electricity usage surges).
Fourteen years later and whaddya get?

More loadshedding.
Enough already!

***

Jet lag’s a bummer!

***

Daylight hours are topsy-turvy right now. I hear it is warm and somewhat muggy in the San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:04am
Sunset: 5:43pm

It’s hot, sunny, and muggy in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:36am
Sunset: 6:50pm

Day 687 - Tuesday, February 8 - Breathe

The Lincoln Project:
Legitimate Political Discourse 1 (1:50 mins)

Legitimate Political Discourse 2 (2:10 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Second trip to the more urban bank did the trick and I'm now the owner of a reissued bank card. Yay!
I was nervous I’d face the same lack-of-customer-service service on my second try at a bank to obtain a functional debit card. Indeed, my stress level was high: if the second bank refused to reissue my cards, I’d have to use creative financing along the lines of … borrowing … money from friends. Horrors! Being a control freak, I’d figured out a way to do it: using the online banking features to transfer funds from my account to my friend’s account and my friend giving me cash. Workable once; twice? That could get burdensome.

Happy to report a conversation with a teller remarkably different from yesterday's conversation.
Today's teller, I’m happy to report, hardly blinked at my lack of ID card. No need for me to use any expletives ("American English") to communicate my frustration as I'd done yesterday.

Today's teller not only issued a debit card, she also issued the bank’s reward card – I’d accumulated significant rewards to apply to certain purchases (when and if I get around to desiring something I’d like to purchase.)
My mood and outlook changed so much for the better after this meeting that I understood how much the situation had affected me. On a choppy/static-y, frustrating call to family and friend in the US this morning I’d expressed feelings of extreme vulnerability in this country. The calls made clear, too, how much I depend on decent wireless connection.
On that topic, I’m happy to report that, yes, indeed, I’m back online. Paid up for this month’s connection and expressed the intention to pay for the next two months' service, too.
Life is way better with connections….
I can breathe again.

Tomorrow, we return to our regularly scheduled reportage on year three of the Covid era.

Day 686 - Monday, February 7 - Catch 22

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Trip to the local bank to cancel/reissue my financial cards was a bust.
After a 45-minute wait in line, an officious young man assisted me. Alas, he required an official ID card – said he cannot reference my passport ID number.

Why? That’s new bank policy: only an ID card is acceptable.
Background: Where does one get such a card and why don’t I have one?
One gets an ID card from the most dreaded place in South Africa, if not the world: the Department of Home Affairs.
The Department of Home Affairs and I have a long history that includes five years of struggle to obtain a passport. I even got as far as the department camera people taking passport photos and paying for the document.

In the end, the document was not issued.

Instead, I got a dozen reasons for why it was my fault the document was never issued.

My sixth year, I wised up and applied to the SA Embassy in Los Angeles. I did it through the mail and got my passport in 6 weeks, no hassle, no muss no fuss.
Asking me – or any sane South African – to visit the Department of Home Affairs – the worst of the worst branch is in Pietermaritzburg, the legislative capital of Kwa Zulu Natal – is like suggesting a trip to hell for fun. Ain’t gonna happen.
I’d heard, too, that Standard Bank issued ID cards. Well, there’s one Standard Bank that does – unfortunately, it’s in Durban (a grueling 2-plus hour trip, one way). Or one in Johannesburg (an 8-hour trip, one way). That ain’t gonna happen either. No way I’m driving to Durban more likely be told no ID issued that day due to this, that, or another reason.
To add injury to insult: I’d asked the bank to cancel 2 of 3 cards, the 2 that had been stolen (aka “lost”) and allow me to continue using the one I still carry (due to it being in a different wallet). He agreed.
Alas, I went to the store to use it and discovered he cancelled it, too.
Kafka would revel in this. Where is he when such great story material is at his fingertips?
One more story: after 20 minutes of endlessly blocking whatever ideas I presented to squeeze my money out of my bank account, I said, head in hands, “WTF” – except, I announced the entire set of words – “what the fuck” - aloud.
I offended the teller who told me I’m not allowed to use “a bad word”.

I explained, “I’m speaking American English.”
Moreover, after he suggested I couldn’t “abuse him” I explained I wasn’t abusing him, but I was abusing the system made up of dead ends geared not to help but to hinder.
Culture. Interesting set of unconscious formulations that, too often, clash.
So. As we say in American English, I’m SOL. (Shit out of luck. I wonder where “shit” falls on the scale of bad words? I notice MS Word warns me that this word might be offensive to readers. If I’ve offended you by using it here, please accept my apologies for being a less-than-ladylike lady.)

Day 685 - Sunday, February 6 - (Personal) Disaster

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

During a pandemic – albeit one apparently on the wane – it’s wise to differentiate between a social disaster such as Covid 19 - involving our planet and millions of people - and a personal disaster. The latter is today’s focus.
I’ve acclimated to the reality that baggage handlers at Johannesburg international airport routinely going through travelers’ luggage and surreptitiously gleaning anything marketable. I’ve encountered it in the past and I’ve scrupulously weeded out of my checked luggage electronics, fancy gadgetry, and/or valuables. I’m careful with my carryon luggage – a small backpack and a pull-bag. I keep my wallet with money, cards, and ID separate from my wallet with passports and travel documents.

All was well.

Until my wallet was stolen.
I’d just paid for a local SIM card, carefully set my US SIM card in my wallet and zipped it into my backpack. Then I received an message on my cell phone from the domestic airline upon which I’d reserved a seat.

Short version of that history: I’d actually, reserved two seats: one on a trip at 12:15pm then changed that to 4:15pm after it appeared my international carrier would arrive too late for me to comfortably make the 12:15 trip. I’d reserved and received confirmation I would be on the later flight. Then, this message arrived.

I was confused. Which flight was I on?
Pushing my large luggage cart I hurried to the domestic carrier to learn my reservation was on the earlier flight. At that point I discovered my wallet was missing from my backpack.
Horrors!

I was in South Africa, the land of bungled bureaucracy: any action that would require me having to deal with bureaucracy (like aptly named SAPS - SA Police Service) was a nightmare. Moreover, I’d have to reach out to the US bureaucracy to, first, cancel any debit/credit cards, and then also reach out to DMV – Department of Motor Vehicles – to replace my driver’s license – the common ID document in the US. On top of all of this, I was booked on a flight departing the airport in 25 minutes.
I approached two cops and asked for help. Both appeared completely dumbfounded that I’d ask for help. Their response helped me realize my wallet was gone for good. Best swallow my anger and, yes, fear, and get on with my life.
Welcome to South Africa!
I’d hired a driver to transport me to my mother’s house. At the house, I discovered … the garden is overrun with weeds, the small pool is brewing algae, the culvert blockages continues, and that I have my hands full.
Moreover, not much of a pill popper, I discovered my OTC pills to “alleviate sleeplessness” actually help me sleep only for up to two hours. Better than nothing under conditions of jet lag, but not much better.
I took one, slept for two hours, took another, slept for another two hours, then spent the rest of the night, after 2am, awake reading library book on my cell phone.
Big day today.

Start off with a trip to the bank to ensure local cards are cancelled, order replacements, then figure out how to deal with any fallout from that. There’s also the weedy garden strewn with debris from a fallen tree, the sludgy pool, the needy dogs, the domestic worker who hasn’t had a holiday in almost a year, and to prep for tomorrow’s meeting with the lawyer handling my mother’s estate. And whose admins have still not supplied with the address of the local office. I’ve been asking for 3 weeks.
I must get wireless connection as my cell phone – despite expensive contract - is useless in the location of this house, situated in a hollow with terrible reception.

Argh. Life goes on.
/div>

Day 684 - Saturday, February 5 - Plane Spotting

News blues

Judging by my current experience, reports of airlines flying half empty appear not exaggerated. Apparently, under threat of losing their “spot” in the airport business hierarchy, airlines must maintain their flights and schedules with airports. Tough and expensive for airlines, but good for “the little guy” travelers. In my case it meant the extra cost of purchasing seats – the downside – but ending up with the entire row to myself. Score!
More below on this Intrepid Traveler.

***

The Lincoln Project:
Ted Talk with Maya May (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Airports and airplanes are mandatory mask areas: no mask, no travel.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A plethora of paperwork accompanied my trip on public transportation – most practical means of travel - to San Francisco Overseas airport (SFO): proof of negative Covid test results, QR code for Federal Office of Public Health, proof of vaccinations card. It’s enough to drive a gal to drink; accordingly, once through security (yes, shoes must still be removed – thank you Richard Reid)

I sampled the local version of a classic margarita.

Overpriced at $16.00/ZAR 248.

But good to ameliorate travel angst.

I’d worried that the travel check-in agent might be mistaken about me enjoying the row of seats alone. Thankfully, the plane was less than half occupied with masked travelers so my seat selection, aisle 24C included 24 A and B, too.

Sleeping for most of a trans-Atlantic flight is a new experience, one I like and hope to repeat soon.

Half empty airplanes turns out to mean half empty airports, too.

Little known fact: at my pace of walking, it takes 625 steps to cross level 1 of Gate E, Zurich Airport. It being a slow Saturday afternoon and evening, most stores and kiosks shuttered, I walked, and walked, and walked….

Spotted a Camel Smoking Lounge. Smoking lounges are not something I’m aware of in the US. Then again, I’m not a smoker so it’s possible smoking lounges are common….

With a six-hour layover, I entertained myself spotting airplanes perhaps common in Europe, but never-before-sighted by me.

Day 683 - Friday, February 4 - Here's hopin'...

News blues

As our crazy world stares into the face of another potential apocalypse of war (Russia, Ukraine, NATO, US), the language of war against a virus prevails, too.
Dr Hans Kluge, director of World Health Organization's (WHO) Europe says the continent could soon enter a "long period of tranquility" in the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Kluge cited high vaccination rates, the end of winter and the less severe nature of the Omicron variant. "This period of higher protection should be seen as a 'ceasefire' that could bring us enduring peace." It comes as a number of European nations end Covid-19 restrictions.
Dr Kluge said some 12 million new virus cases were detected across Europe last week - the highest recorded - but officials have not seen a significant spike in those needing critical hospital care.
Here’s hopin’ …

***

The Lincoln Project:
Biden vs. Trump (1:20 mins)
Trump Army (0:58 mins)
Respect (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

North Carolina’s coastal highway is disappearing – "so I took a road trip to capture it" >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’ll travel 5823+ miles today. (For enquiring minds: this is equivalent to 9370 kilometers or 5056 nautical miles.) Over the north Atlantic – over the ice and snow, too, I hope.
I plan on one more walk along the beach before I depart on public transportation to the airport. Last night’s photo says it all:

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 97
Day 682 - Thursday, February 3 - Culture shock

Worldwide (Map)
February 3, 2022 - 386,005,000 confirmed infections; 5,704,100 deaths
February 4 – 104,367,000 confirmed infections; 2,268,000 deaths
Total vaccinations to date: 10,009,975,000

US (Map)
February 3, 2022 - 75,702,000 confirmed infections; 894,570 deaths
February 4 – 26,555,000 confirmed infections; 450,680 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 3, 2022 - 3,613,000 confirmed infections; 95,465 deaths
February 4 – 1,463,016 confirmed infections; 45,344 deaths

News blues

One Million Deaths: The Hole the Pandemic Made in U.S. SocietyCovid-19 has been directly responsible for most of the fatalities, but the disease is also unraveling families and communities in subtler ways

***

On January 15, the Pacific islands of Tonga experienced a massive trauma when an underwater volcano exploded. For days, Tonga was cut off from the rest of the world with international communication networks out of commission. Dust and debris from the explosion and subsequent tsunami hindered rescue operations.
After the pandemic took hold of the world, Tonga had locked down and, by doing so, managed to keep Covid-19 at bay. That all changed after the volcanic eruption. Tongan officials worried that the arrival of aid could bring an outbreak of the virus, something that could represent a bigger danger to Tonga than the tsunami. Indeed, they were right to worry.

Tonga will go into lockdown after recording two Covid-19 cases among port workers helping distribute international aid….
The cases seem to confirm fears among Tongan officials that the arrival of aid could bring an outbreak of the virus….
The prime minister, Siaosi Sovaleni, said the lockdown, which begins at 6pm on Wednesday, will be open-ended, but will last for at least 48 hours, at which point it will be reviewed.
The nationwide lockdown will require people to stay at home, with only essential services allowed to operate. Since the lockdown was announced, people have been scrambling to get supplies, with photographs emerging of queues down the street outside banks and shops, as people seek to get cash and food.

***

Why do some people get Covid when others don't? Here’s what we know so far An increasing amount of research is being devoted to the reasons why some people never seem to get Covid — a so-called never Covid cohort.

***

The Lincoln Project:
Amanda Gorman reminds US/us (5:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The bad news: Meet the people being paid to kill our planet >> Video series about the methods in which we produce, distribute, eat and dispose of our foods. They’re spectacularly flawed, and we hope this series offers clarity on some of the many changes — from policies to diets — that we need to consider.
The great news: loving cockatiel sings a baby to sleep (0:59 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Pre-flight test for Covid done yesterday. Results pending. It was easy-peasy: drove up, waited in my vehicle, sent a text message to the company with my contact details, and had my nostrils scoured. Now I await results.
Meanwhile,

The Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa) urges the SA government to remove the compulsory PCR test required for inbound international and returning South African travellers who are fully vaccinated.

Hmmm, given SA’s reputation for bungled bureaucracy, I doubt compulsory PCR test requirement will be ditched before I arrive there. Could be a LONG wait….

***

As per my desire back in November when I lacked time for an in-depth tour of the East Bay towns of Berkeley, Albany, etc., yesterday I took time out to visit that once-lovely city.
Culture shock!
So much has changed!

Here’s a sample.
Only in Berkeley.

Despite its promising name, alas, Mad Monk Center for Anachronistic Media -
located 2454 Telegraph Ave. on Feb. 25, 2018,
closed suddenly after two years of operation.

A‘Moorish-Tudor fever dream’ is unveiled on Telegraph Avenue

I call it the Hobbit House although it’s
also been described as a cave dwelling, a wizard’s house
and a Moorish palace. A recently unveiled building
to house UC Berkeley students has been a long time coming
— and its unusual design is causing a stir.

Top Dog fighting for relevance in today's Berkeley.

Back in the day... Top Dog was the place for after midnight eats.
Not much of a hot dog lover, this Top Dog offered -
still offers - the best dogs in the Bay Area.
It also offers a political perspectives - in posted flyers -
that once tended toward socialist, now tends towards Libertarian. (Groan!)

Like many places on Telegraph, this Environmental Progress office
"Nature and Prosperity for All" is defunct.

Once a busy street offering street vendors a place to sell and interact with customers,
Telegraph is a sterile shadow of its former self.
Disorienting to see.
Moreover, the best coffee shop on the street, Caffe Med, is gone, shuttered since 2018.

Tea shops proliferate on Telegraph these days - as do chain store.
The times they have a-changed.

Un-Berkeley-like office space predominates between the campus and Shattuck Ave.

Pot is legal, so is signage for pot.

Day 681 - Wednesday, February 2 - Groundhog Day

News blues

A groundhog, aka a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae
belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as
marmots and found mostly in eastern United States, across Canada and into Alaska.

Falling on 02-02-22 this year, Groundhog Day in the US and Canada, is the day upon which the groundhog emerges – or not - from its burrow and foretells the weather for the next six weeks.

If the weather is clear and the groundhog sees its shadow, it retreats to its burrow and winter persists for six more weeks. If the weather is cloudy and the groundhog does not see its shadow, spring is predicted to arrive early.
Other groundhog facts >>
The day has its own intrigue, too, with mysterious rodent deaths and cover-ups plaguing ceremony” >>

and, the inevitable Groundhog Day cartoon - sign of the times

***

US: Still numbah one!
Two years into the pandemic, the coronavirus is killing Americans at far higher rates than people in other wealthy nations, a sobering distinction to bear as the country charts a course through the next stages of the pandemic.

Cumulative U.S. Covid-19 deaths per capita are highest among other large, high-income countries. Several countries had higher per capita Covid-19 deaths earlier in the pandemic, but the U.S. death toll now exceeds that of peer nations.

Sources: New York Times database of reports from state
and local health agencies (U.S. deaths); The Center for Systems Science and Engineering
at Johns Hopkins University (world deaths); World Bank (world populations);
United States Census Bureau (U.S. population)
Note: Countries shown are those with the highest gross national income
per capita among countries with a population of more than 10 million people.

***

The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the Omicron variant >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Vote while it counts (0:55 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (1:53 mins)
Winter is coming (0:55 mins)
Abbott’s Wall (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay: Beachcombed sculptures made of ocean plastic >>

***

Scientists at University of Sydney found fish exposed to the industrial chemical BPA in warmer waters need more food to reach a given size.

Fish grow slower when exposed to higher temperatures and a common chemical in plastic. New research suggests that a combination of plastic pollution and global heating could have a concerning impact on marine populations.
Scientists at the University of Sydney have found that fish exposed to the industrial chemical bisphenol A – commonly known as BPA – require more energy to grow in high-temperature waters.
BPA is a common chemical used in plastics manufacturing and is known to disrupt hormone signalling, with impacts in marine animals on metabolism and growth. In humans, it has also been linked to reproductive and developmental dysfunction. Millions of tonnes of the compound are produced globally each year.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Low tide at the tidal walkway.

Same walkway at high tide.

Day 680 - Tuesday, February 1 - Unforgettable

News blues

“The pain of this pandemic is unforgettable, and we have a responsibility to make sure its lessons are unforgettable, too.”
- US Senator Patty Murray of Washington state.

Senator Murray refers to the Prevent Pandemics Act, a sweeping new bill with powerful bipartisan support in the US Senate. It includes a new Covid commission to inform the US response to future outbreaks as well as the current impact of the disease and lay the groundwork to enshrine new powers in federal health agencies. It will also establish an inquiry into the country’s Covid-19 response similar to the 9/11 Commission, among other provisions aimed at preventing the next pandemic.
Read more >>

***

After a recent special cabinet meeting, South Africa’s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) and the President’s Co-ordinating Council (PCC) announced a number of new Covid measures:

Those who test positive with no symptoms do not have to isolate;
If you test positive with symptoms, the isolation period has been reduced from 10 to seven days;
Contacts do not have to isolate unless they develop symptoms;
Primary, secondary and special schools will return to daily attendance; and
The regulatory provision for social distancing of 1m for pupils in schools has also been removed.

“The rationale for these amendments is informed by the proportion of people with immunity to Covid-19 which has risen substantially, exceeding 60% to 80% in several sero-surveys.
Government commends all South Africans who continue to observe Covid-19 regulations and protocols. We also remind those who are yet to get vaccinated to go for their Covid-19 vaccination and continue observing basic health protocols to prevent the transmission of the virus.”

***

The Lincoln Project: Abbot Abased (0:43 mins)
Trump's Texas speech in 90 seconds (1:28 mins)
Unlikely (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Globally, around 2.2 billion people and 27 percent of all food crop production is located near drying-out freshwater basins.
Less than 3 percent of Earth is covered in freshwater. And while that percentage has remained pretty constant, population growth has not. Only 1 percent of freshwater is accessible to the 7.7 billion people and counting.
Read more >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Record snowfall, moisture, and low temperatures along the east coast while the west coast enjoy crisp, sunny days with no rain forecasted. Scary.
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:11am
Sunset: 5:32pm
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:29am
Sunset: 6:56pm

Day 678 - Sunday, January 30 - Changes

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Always interested in how regions and communities change over time, I photographed changes afoot in a friend’s city neighborhood.
Background: Last year, while I was locked down in South Africa, the city's original library – traditional, with actual books on loan – was torn down to make room for yet another batch of cookie-cutter single-family homes.
A new library, under construction across the road, will focus not on books, but on “community meeting spaces”. It will offer computers for members to access the Internet and online services, but the book section will shrink to less than a third of its former space – despite the new library being twice the size of the former building.
While I read a lot, I seldom read physical books anymore, nor would I want to revert to reading physical books. Instead, I download my reading matter from once-traditional now-online libraries. Reading on my cell phone in the dark at 2 o’clock in the morning is far easier than turning on the bedside lamp, sitting up to hold a heavy book, and reading pages of print. Yet, within my chest beats an incongruous heart that objects to a “library” not offering physical books.
The “places” offering me downloadable books are still public libraries – those of the cities of Berkeley and San Francisco – and their downloadable offerings far outpace the number of books they can physically house. But they do house books which means they still fulfil the definition of “library” – derived from the Latin word liber, meaning "book.”
Perhaps, instead of calling the new building a “library” call it a “community center”, in Latin, a conventu elit, or in Spanish – to reflect 21st century California, centro Comunitario?

Constructing the new residences began this year. First, a model home was built for families to view and, if interested, to purchase a building site upon which to build the house.

New homes are being built now.
Yesterday, I began a photographic record of this new growth.
I plan to follow up this record when I return from South Africa.

Future community center aka "library"

Background right, behind pole: The model home upon which
the rest of the residences will be designed.

Future entryway to the community from the street.

Future residential community, formerly a library and parking lot.

David Bowie: Changes (3:39 mins)

Day 677 - Saturday, January 29 - Uncertainty

News blues

Lungs on Covid
"This is what happened to a 54-year-old man's lung on COVID-19 (he later died).
HiP-CT scans show that in severe cases, the lungs’ blood vessels are severely damaged:
Here, airspaces are colored with cyan, open blood vessels are colored in red,
and blocked, damaged blood vessels are colored in yellow, Nat Geo reports.
Researchers say images like this, created by the world’s brightest x-rays,
not only are helping scientists understand the virus—they are so scary that
they are prompting their friends to get boosted. See more images."

The FDA pauses monoclonal antibody treatments

The Food and Drug Administration announced that it would limit the use of two monoclonal antibody COVID-19 treatments, made by pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly. Those treatments had been successful at keeping symptomatic patients out of the hospital in earlier waves, but did not work against Omicron, the agency said. A third, less common monoclonal treatment, called sotrovimab, can still be used.

***

Life with antibiotics: “When you deal with uncertainty, you err on the side of the prescribing, which is not necessarily the right thing to do,” says University of Maryland Medical Center infectious disease physician Jacqueline Bork.

… overuse of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic may be making the problem worse.
More than 750,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections annually, and that number is expected to reach 10 million by 2050. In the United States alone, antibiotic- resistant microbes cause more than 2.8 million infections and over 35,000 deaths annually.
… more than half of the nearly 5,000 patients hospitalized between February and July 2020 were prescribed at least one antibiotic within the first 48 hours of admission.
… Antibiotics only kill bacteria and not viruses like SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. But pneumonia can be caused by fungi, bacteria, or viruses, and figuring out which pathogen is responsible can take at least 48 hours, and sometimes include invasive procedures to confirm the cause of the infection. Sometimes the tests don’t identify the culprit. “Many of us were probably overprescribing a good amount of antibiotics.

Read “Superbugs were already on the rise. The pandemic likely made things worse.”>>

***

The Lincoln Project: This is Josh Mandel …running for US Senate seat from Ohio. (0:41 mins)
Music that captures the moment >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

No sign of rain in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s warm and an early spring may be on its way….
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:14am
Sunset: 5:29pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:26am
Sunset: 6:57pm

Day 676 - Friday, January 28 - Yet another?

News blues

Ten billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, according to , according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford,

…[this] milestone reflects the astonishing speed with which governments and drug companies have mobilized, allowing many nations to envision a near future in which their people coexist with the virus but aren’t confined by it.
The milestone… has not been arrived at equitably, even though 10 billion doses could theoretically have meant at least one shot for all of the world’s 7.9 billion people.
In the wealthiest countries, 77 percent of people have received at least one dose, whereas in low-income countries the figure is less than 10 percent. As North America and Europe race to overcome Omicron surges by offering boosters, with some nations even contemplating a fourth shot, more than one-third of the world’s people, many of them in Africa and poor pockets of Asia, are still waiting for a first dose. The United States has administered five times as many extra shots — about 85 million — as the total number of doses administered.

Read more >>
Alas, vaccine and vaccinations follow new variants. Are we in for yet another round of mutated variant?

It's officially called "omicron BA.2," and this week scientists detected cases of it in several U.S. states, including California, Texas and Washington.
Although BA.2 is currently rare in the U.S., scientists expect it to spread in the country over the next month. There's growing evidence that it's just as contagious as — or possibly a bit more contagious than — the first omicron variant, called "omicron BA.1."
… Back in November, when scientists in South Africa and Botswana discovered omicron, they didn't find just one version. They found three, called BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3 by the Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages at the University of Edinburgh.
… Over the past several weeks, omicron BA.2 has begun to surprise scientists. And it's starting to look like it can, in some countries, outcompete its sibling omicron BA.1 — and, really, any other variants.

Read “A second version of omicron is spreading. Here's why scientists are on alert” >>

Healthy planet, anyone?

Last September, pushed by students, Harvard University stopped investing in fossil fuel companies and did not renew their investments – an endowment totaling $53 billion – in the energy sector. This was biggest win yet for the climate divestment movement that applied a popular anti-apartheid activist tactic to get colleges, banks, charitable foundations, and religious organizations to stop funding oil and gas firms.

Yet… there’s now an institutional backlash…. the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — a Koch-linked nonprofit that helps state legislators craft right-wing policy—is writing model bills to protect fossil fuel investments, in essence making divestments like Harvard’s illegal. Their framework prohibits “discrimination” against fossil fuel companies by requiring state treasurers and comptrollers to withdraw government funds from banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and other financial institutions that “boycott” investing in oil and gas firms. …
[N]umerous institutions have already successfully disinvested in fossil fuels – up to $40 trillion from the industry’s reach so far. But if ALEC has its way, with the support of sympathetic red states and conservative legal scholars, it could strike a blow to one of the climate movement’s most effective tools.

Read an interview with Connor Chung, a Harvard Class of 2023 student who has been closely involved with Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard >>

More good news (for reg’lar folks promoting healthy living for a healthy planet): Federal judge Rudolph Contreras, US District Court for the District of Columbia, invalidated a massive oil and gas lease for 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. He ruled the lease sale was invalid because the Department of Interior's analysis did not fully take into account the climate impacts of the leases.
Read more >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Way back in the day, I spent several weeks living on the beach in a makeshift plastic tent on the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat. Back then, Sharm el-Sheikh housed nothing but a small dome-shaped dive shack. And a small cave where I spent my “honeymoon” with my new husband – and a hungry rat. (The rat came out at night to rummage through our backpacks for food while we slept outside under the amazing night sky and Milky Way.)
Back then, Sharm supported about half a dozen visitors at any one time. These days, Sharm el-Sheikh is an Egyptian beach resort town with a population of 73,000.
Why am I riffing on the past?

Today’s view from the beach – looking southwest across the bay towards South San Francisco at low, low tide – reminded me of sitting on the beach at Dahab and looking towards Jordan and of sitting on the reef at Sharm and looking across the Gulf towards Saudi Arabia.

Good times.

Week 96
Day 675 - Thursday, January 27 - Turn, turn, turn

Worldwide (Map)
January 27, 2022 - 363,582,100 confirmed infections; 5,630,850 deaths
January 28, 2021 – 100,920,100 confirmed infections; 2,175,500 deaths
Total vaccinations to date: 9,890,400,000

US (Map)

January 27, 2022 - 72,991,900 confirmed infections; 876,800 deaths
January 28, 2021 – 25,600,000 confirmed infections; 429,160 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
January 27, 2022 - 3,590,400 confirmed infections; 94,495 deaths
January 28, 2021 – 1,430,650 confirmed infections; 42,550 deaths

News blues

More numbers:

The United States has donated more than 400m vaccine doses to 112 countries, marking a major milestone in the White House’s goal of donating 1.2bn vaccine doses under Joe Biden’s direction.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said the donation is four times larger than that of any other country.
Zients also revealed that the country hit another major milestone this week, with 70% of eligible seniors in the US having now received their booster shot. Half of all eligible adults in the country are now boosted.

Read more >>

“Omicron was a preview of what would happen if an extremely contagious new virus emerged. …Most of those infections would have been incredibly costly to prevent, even if the virus had been deadly enough to warrant the most extreme measures we’re capable of taking.”

By some estimates, about 40 percent of the population of the United States will have been infected with the omicron variant of Covid-19 by the time the current wave fully subsides. The WHO estimates that half of Europe will have been infected as well. And nearly all of those infections will have occurred between mid-December and the beginning of February.
…there’s good reason to think that never before have so many people been infected with an emerging virus in such a short timespan. For most of history, diseases traveled much slower, carried by travelers on boats or horses.
…But now, thanks to our far more interconnected world, an incredibly contagious virus required only about two months to go from when it was first detected —November 11 in Botswana — to when likely more than 2 billion people had been infected.
…it’s hard to appreciate what a massive bullet we dodged: If omicron had been substantially more deadly, there is very little we could have done to stop the death toll.

Read “A disease can move much faster than we can” >>
Update and numbers from around the world >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Never again (1:30 mins)
Tucker Carlson Tonight – Moscow Edition (0:34 mins)

Thanks to Stephen Colbert, the Late Show;
scroll to 8:10 mins in clip to see Comrade Pillow
(FYI: This is a spoof of uber-Trumpie My Pillow Guy.)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The democracy emergency is closely linked to the climate crisis. Each is grounded in a big lie – that climate science is a hoax, that Trump won in 2020 – pushed by… rightwing politicians and propaganda “news” outlets and embraced with cult-like devotion…. Left untreated, each threatens disaster. If Trump’s forces do change enough electoral rules and personnel to guarantee victory in 2022 and beyond, there is zero chance the US government will take the strong climate action needed to avert global catastrophe.
Defusing the global climate emergency therefore depends on protecting democracy. … the US is not the only country where anti-democratic trends hamper climate progress. Most of the worst laggards at November’s Cop26 climate summit were countries where authoritarianism is either entrenched or on the rise: China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India, the US. But the collapse of US democracy would carry especially damaging climate consequences. Slashing global emissions in half by 2030, as science says is imperative, would be impossible if the world’s biggest economy and leading historical carbon emitter refuses to help.
How to defuse the democracy emergency is too big a question to answer briefly.

Read “We can’t solve the climate crisis with a broken democracy” >>

***

Scenes from South Africa, photo essay >>

Meet Ian Coppack of Cheshire, England and listen to his short ode to an oak tree >>

Coppack co-founded Macclesfield Wild Network Trust.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

No sign of rain in our future here in Northern California; intimations of more drought and more fires?

***

Protests in KZN, South Africa are way more confrontational than those we experience in the Bay Area. I expect to return to KZN “soon” and I’m not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling of welcome >>
Unless war breaks out in Europe, or a new Covid variant appears, or airlines stop flying, or something else unanticipated happens, I’ll have to flip my winter/summer, day- night- biorhythm:
Today, in San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:16am
Sunset: 5:27pm
And in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:24am
Sunset: 6:58pm

Day 673 - Tuesday, January 25 - Time out

News blues

Today, we have a time out from pandemic news, Omicron news, mask mandate-or-not news….and go directly to The Lincoln Project:
Bloodlines (2:15 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party (2:20 mins)

***

As the walls close in on Trump and the Trumplets – that trio The Donald refers to in the media as his “children” – as if they’re 12-year-olds rather than 40-something-year-olds. (This, after his ongoing, global harassment of Hunter Biden, Joe’s “child.” See one of many examples >> (3:00 mins) and his horrific detention of actual children on the border >> )
These days, We the People learn of Trump’s slowly-being-revealed plot to have the US military seize voting machines after the recent presidential election went against Trump’s re-election. Knowing, however, that there are constitutional “guardrails” for deploying the US military in the US – can’t happen – Trump, true Banana-Republic-like, formed his own military. Here are the head honchos:

Head Honcho on top….
(Thanks to Trevor Noah for this >>)

Next in Line, General M.Y. Pillow.
(c) Stephen Colbert, the Late Show.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Thomas Crowther, an ecologist at ETH Zurich, says, “We should be angry about climate change and the destruction of ecosystems. But without optimism, that outrage goes nowhere…”.
Last summer, he launched Restor, an evolving mapping tool that hopes to show where in the world people are doing optimistic things to restore or conserve ecosystems. Think of it as the “nature is healing” meme from the early days of the pandemic, but serious.

“We’ve never known where all the conservation and restoration is happening on our planet,” Crowther said. “It’s the first time we can begin to visualize a global restoration movement.”

Learn more about where nature could be healing >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Taxes done! One day after tax season opens, I filled out then put my state and fed forms into USPS. Sure, the IRS would prefer I file online but that online technology is, in my opinion, in the clunky stage. (I filed online last year whilst under lockdown in South Africa and it was not easy or convenient…
With taxes done, it was time for a stroll along the beach.
High low tide today.

Happy waterfowl, happy humans.

Wigeons.

One of hundreds of Canada geese....

Day 672 - Monday, January 24 - Beware, Greeks...

News blues

Beware Greeks bearing letters...

The World Health Organization has been using letters of the Greek alphabet, in order, to name coronavirus variants. Delta was the most dominant one, followed by eight others - including Epsilon, Iota and Lambda
…
…[Read the story of] how this latest coronavirus variant became named Omicron.
And if even newer variants emerge, there are nine more letters in the Greek alphabet. The next one is Pi.

***

Last week, a loved one was diagnosed with Omicron. His wife’s had it, too. Both work in hospitals in Texas and report many, many staff have or have had it. Their kids have had it. None, thank the gods, have had bad cases, so hospitalizations unnecessary (adults have been jabbed, small kids not).
Multiple episodes of Covid are not uncommon. A student nurse in UK, for example, has suffered 4 doses of Covid >>

Anecdotal reports of Covid reinfection in the UK are growing, including people testing positive just weeks apart in December and January, or having had the virus three or even four times. Children are also being seen with reinfections. We take a look at the science behind catching Covid multiple times.

Read "How likely are you to catch Covid multiple times >>

***

An alphabet, a pandemic, isolation… Now? A game: Covid Simulator. Here’s a promo >> (1:25 mins)
Read an announcement about the game and when to expect it >> This simulator aims to allow users to visualize how quickly Covid-19 spreads, becoming a disaster. The game is an open sandbox for you to enjoy!

***

The Lincoln Project:
What are they for? (0:24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Due to obsessively isolating to avoid Omicron, I’ve watched a lot more Netflix than usual. I delved into the stories of assorted serial killers before stumbling onto the many facets of the story of The Unabomber, aka Unabom, aka Ted Kaczynski. I’ve watched dramatized versions from the point of view of the FBI (“Manhunt”), the man himself, his family, and the media (“Unabomber, in his own words”). Even watched the Saturday Night Live version >> (4:06 mins). And listened to a series theme song, “The Worst – Man” >> (2:01 mins – beware, it could worm its way into your head).

***

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Last week, our planned trip to a Pt Reyes beach was delayed due to ill health. A friend and I did that trip yesterday: a perfect sunny, crisp, and clear winter day.

I assumed my friend and I would easily negotiate the steep, even treacherous path to the beach. After all, I’ve done it many times before. (Back in the day, when I needed a break from civilization, I’d pack my sleeping bag and a bottle of water and make for the cliffs. There, I’d scope out a cleft in the cliffside - a spot where no one with malicious intent could easily approach without waking me - climb into the bag, and spend a moonlit night in awe of our world’s natural beauty.) Yesterday, alas, I realized my friend has a bad knee and attempting to reach the beach was unwise.

I missed not collecting assorted beach debris and making a beach sculpture, but a healthy knee was preferable.
As they say, “chit happens….

Day 670 - Saturday, January 22 - Weekender

News blues

Who knew? “Face masks can make you more attractive" (2:12 mins)
Maybe promoting these study results in the US would persuade anti-makers to mask up? Perhaps promote on online dating sites? Worth a try....

***

When Covid-19 hit SA and stigmatisation was at its peak, many healthcare workers were shunned in their communities due to fear of the virus.
So when two Cape Town clinics started doing home visits to patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) — those most at risk of Covid-19 complications — some were reluctant to take part.
But thanks to healthcare workers’ perseverance, the crisis-management strategies they introduced to accommodate these patients has paid off.
According to a new study by the University of Cape Town (UCT), managing stable NCD patients at home rather than at clinics, is the future and should be retained even after pandemic.

***

The Lincoln Project:
Trump’s Judges (0:40 mins)
Package deal (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Stretching along the ocean floor for nearly 2 miles and
covered with rose-shaped coral, the reef is one of the largest
such discoveries at depths of more than 30 metres.
© Guardian News. Photograph: Alexis Rosenfeld/AP

The good news:

A huge coral reef has been discovered off the coast of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean’s “twilight zone”, offering hope that more pristine ecosystems are waiting to be discovered at unexplored depths.
Stretching along the ocean floor for nearly 2 miles, the reef, covered in rose-shaped corals, is one of the largest such discoveries at depths of more than 30 metres, where sunlight levels are much lower.

The view from Comb Ridge in Utah’s Bears Ears national monument.
Biden’s announcement served as a key victory for
environmental and Indigenous groups.
© Guardian News. Photograph: Reuters.

More good news, this time on restored environmental protections

Joe Biden restored environmental protections [back in October 2021] to three national monuments and their vast expanse of vital ecosystems and sacred Indigenous spaces, reversing cuts made by Donald Trump.
“These protections provide a bridge to our past, but they also build a bridge to a safer and more sustainable future,” said Biden. “One where we strengthen our economy and pass on a healthy planet to our children and our grandchildren.”
Biden signed three proclamations that increased the boundaries of Bears Ears to 1.36m acres, while restoring the Grand Staircase-Escalante to 1.87m acres – both spanning large swaths of southern Utah. He also reinstated protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine, about 130 miles off the coast of New England, and extended limits on commercial fishing. The proclamations unraveled moves made by Trump, in which he slashed 85% of Bears Ears, leaving wide swaths of the site vulnerable to mining and other commercial activities.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Trip to the beach delayed last week due to ill health will take place tomorrow. Looking forward to sharing photos.

***

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:19am
Sunset: 5:21pm
Minutes of daylight increase each day. Hooray! Yet, in what ought to be wet winters in California, fires burn >>

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:20am
Sunset: 7:00pm

Day 669 - Friday, January 21 - Short is sweet

News blues

American and wondering who’s paying for all that ivermectin? Well, you are. That is, insurers and taxpayers shelled out more than $130 million for a drug that doesn’t work.

Last August, author Kao-Ping Chua, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, noticed an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that noted a dramatic increase in ivermectin prescriptions during the pandemic. Before 2020, ivermectin prescription rates from US doctors were low—just a few thousand a week for parasitic diseases like scabies. Yet by the week ending August 13, 2021, as the Delta variant began to sweep the United States and ivermectin advocates proliferated, that number had skyrocketed to 88,000 prescriptions.
Chua recalls, “I thought to myself, I really hope insurance is not paying for that.”
No such luck. Chua’s team looked at an insurance database of 5 million patients with private insurance and 1.2 million with Medicare Advantage from December 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021. They identified about 5600 ivermectin prescriptions and found that private insurers paid 61 percent of the claims and Medicare Advantage paid 74 percent—roughly $36 and $39 respectively.

***

The Lincoln Project: Gutless (0:30 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Terrific photos of South Africa >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Walked later than usual yesterday, that time of day when people get off work and exercise their dogs. While not a dog owner, I was struck with how many people are. Indeed, at least half of the dog walkers walked two dogs – all on leash of course.

Spectacular sunset...

Week 95
Day 668 - Thursday, January 20 - Plus ça change…

Omicats,

Worldwide (Map)
January 20, 2022 - 338,550,400 confirmed infections; 5,568,100 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections’ 2,074,000 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered: 9,735,432,750

US (Map)
January 20, 2022 – 68,636,640 confirmed infections; 858,120 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections’ 406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
January 20, 2022 – 3,564,600 confirmed infections; 93,571 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.*

A year ago we had hope for change. This year, not so much.
Sorely disappointed and horrified are those of us who wished Trump would disappear, gracefully or not, and fiddle with some sort of legacy. (A legacy library? Nah. The guy is proud of not reading - except for the bible, that is.) These posts from this time last year – The vulgarian has left the building and Pardonathon? present some hope that he'd disappear. Alas, he’s still around, still squawking about his stolen second presidency, still grifting although the walls appear to be closing in on him. (Will he face some sort of justice? Hmmm, I am hopeful but doubtful. He is, after all, the Trumpster, king of the cons. He could slime his way out of this, as he’s slimed his way out of everything previous to this.

A reminder: Today in 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the US. I miss Obama, a man with a sense of humor and integrity. Ah, the good old days.

* The more things change, the more they stay the same.

News blues

In South Africa, the national state of disaster has been extended by another month to February 15. Read more >>

***

Can Omicron Cause Long Covid? It is too soon to know, scientists say, but mild initial illness may not signal reduced risk.
CDC: What We Know about Omicron – from spread to treatments, we have the tools >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Tribute – Martin Luther King (1:30 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (2:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The following is timely although not surprising.

The cocktail of chemical pollution that pervades the planet now threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which humanity depends, scientists have said.
Plastics are of particularly high concern, along with 350,000 synthetic chemicals including pesticides, industrial compounds and antibiotics. Plastic pollution is now found from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans, and some toxic chemicals, such as PCBs, are long-lasting and widespread.
The study concludes that chemical pollution has crossed a “planetary boundary”, the point at which human-made changes to the Earth push it outside the stable environment of the last 10,000 years.

Read “Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists Study calls for cap on production and release as pollution threatens global ecosystems upon which life depends” >>
(More on toxic pollution below.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I changed my walk routine yesterday and, instead of my usual along the beach ritual (obsessively counting masks discarded along the route) I visited the former Naval Air Station.
I know the base well. For at least a decade, I’ve served on the RAB – Restoration Advisory Board for citizen “oversight” of the cleanup of toxics used during the base’s heyday. My overlong sojourns in South Africa, plus the pandemic mitigated against our usual monthly face-to-face RAB meetings during which Navy personnel and contractors describe the progress of the cleanup. Over the past two years, meetings were either cancelled altogether or, most recently, conducted virtually. While I participate as I can online, I’ve not visited the base to walk since I returned last June. This, despite the installation of a second ferry terminal at what’s known as Seaplane Lagoon.
I love exploring this approx. 2,000 acre installation, all landfilled, with San Francisco Bay and Oakland Alameda Estuary waters bordering three sides.
These days the base slowly converts open-though-concreted spaces into apartment buildings.

(This, despite RAB members contending the ground under the sites remain too contaminated with toxic TCE and jet fuel. How do the powers-that-be respond? They explain that building restrictions include not building residences on first floors. Rather, locate businesses on first floor: “everyone knows” humans spend less time in shops than they do at home. The conclusion: no “serious” contamination likely.) And they’ve built in building codes to ensure all first floor businesses maintain strict guidelines for adequate ventilation.)
Would I purchase or rent a second or third floor apartment here?
No. I understand that entities such as the Navy and City Hall accept that cancers and environmental illness from toxics strike human beings. Their data and numbers describe how many cancers are “acceptable.” An extra cancer here or there? Ah, that falls within the “acceptable” rate – unless it’s your kid/loved one….

But I digress….

Yesterday, I parked my vehicle near our city’s western City Hall office and walked a section of the base.

Pan American World Airways is long gone yet its legacy lives on.
Pan American World Airways fabled China Clipper left Alameda Marina
on November 22, 1935 [its inaugural flight] bound
[for] Manila via Honolulu, Midway, Wake, and Guam.
The inauguration of ocean airmail service and commercial airflight
across the Pacific was a significant event for both California and the world.
Read more >>

Returning to my vehicle, I discovered a Covid testing site: free tests, no wait line.

I can drop by anytime during business hours for a free test.

That’s what I’ll do when I prepare for my upcoming departure for SA.

Notice the lawn area on the left middle ground of this picture? Below is a close up of that lawn.

An historical fact shared by a friend, former corpsman (a medic) in Vietnam during that disaster that will not be found in the history books.

During his brief stay at this naval base, this then-young-man and fellow Vietnam-bound troops, sat around on the lawn and smoked clouds of pot. That this was risqué – the base commander’s office faced the lawn – only added to their high.

Today, the Canada geese appreciate the well-kempt lawn… and don’t bother with history.

***

On January 18, the first day they were offered, I online ordered my free 4 packs of Covid-19 tests. They’re supposed to arrive within 7 to 14 days. The countdown is on….

***

Foggy in San Francisco Bay today
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 5:19pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:18am
Sunset: 7:01pm
A friend who works on an agricultural spread in KZN reported that the ongoing rainfall endangers the region's crops: corn/mealies growing but no cobs set, potatoes rot in the ground: “massive financial loss looming….”

Day 664 - Sunday, January 16 - Tsunamis

News blues

Metaphors for the coronavirus pandemic and its variants include “wave” and “surge”, even “tsunami.” It takes an actual, real live tsunami to remind us how that can look.
An underwater volcano erupted about 30 miles off the coast of the South Pacific island of Tonga. Thousands of miles away, the California coast was affected, too.
While one might expect towns along the Pacific coast to be affected, three locations mentioned in the video - Tiburon, Richardson Bay, and Berkeley Marina - located inside San Francisco Bay saw a significant water rise, too.
News outlets reported wave action throughout the day but walking along my part of the bay, I saw no rise. The tide was, in fact, one of the lowest I’ve seen. (More on this below.)

***

As for Covid-19, contradictory information continues in, well, waves and surges:

There's a growing narrative in the mainstream media, on social media — maybe even at your dinner table. That is: The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is weakening and evolving into a less deadly virus. In the future, each new variant that crops up will cause milder illness than the previous variant.
"There's this story that we're going to have variants that are progressively less severe," says Dr. Roby Bhattacharyya, who's an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
But that's completely untrue, Bhattacharyya says. "It's comforting to think there might be some tendency for SARS-CoV-2 to evolve toward a milder form. That's not what we're seeing here."

Read “Fact check: The theory that SARS-CoV-2 is becoming milder” >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Flip Flop Lindsey (0:45 mins)
McCarthy on 1/6 (0:47 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

How do you see plant life?

The term “plant blindness” was coined in 1998 to describe our general tendency, as humans, not to see the plant life that surrounds us. The problem has understandable roots: the human brain evolved to detect difference, and then to categorise that difference as either threat or non-threat. Plants, being unlikely to attack, are lumped together and treated as background, a green screen against which dramas take place. Many plants, and especially trees, exist on a different timescale to humans – who, moreover, have spent millennia dividing existence into conscious beings and things, where the former are afforded automatic importance over the latter. Combined with the general move to cities, and then to screen-based life indoors, this has resulted in, for example, up to half of British children being unable to identify stinging nettles, brambles or bluebells; 82% of those questioned could not recognise an oak leaf.

Read the editorial >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Fascinated by the notion of seeing the effects of an underwater volcanic explosion along California’s coast – thousands of miles away – I kept an eye out for tidal action along my local beach.
Nothing. Nada.

Low tide, looking east towards Oakland Hills.

Low tide, looking west towards South San Francisco.

Rather, the low tide was, if anything, lower than usual.

I assume water rise depends upon the angle water from the Pacific enters the bay through the narrow one mile wide Golden Gate. The towns mentioned as affected by rising water – Tiburon, Richardson Bay, and Berkeley Marina - are north of my island town. Perhaps the tsunami-driven water entered the Golden Gate from a southern angle and maintained a relatively straight trajectory. (Heading towards my section of beach would have required the surge suddenly to veer south - highly unlikely though I'd have appreciated that.)

***

A friend and I had planned to visit Duxbury Reef today, along the Pt Reyes shoreline . It would have been a first visit in some years for both of us. (I visited Kehoe Beach back in July 2021 – a different part of Pt Reyes.)
Alas, my friend succumbed to a bad cold ten days ago. His at-home Covid test revealed no Covid: big relief. Alas, the congestion remaining in his lungs persuaded us to forgo the trip for now.

Next week perhaps.

Kehoe Beach, 2018.

While we’d planned the trip prior to yesterday's South Pacific volcanic eruption, this sign - permanently posted near another Pt Reyes beach - warns an unwary visitor.

***

Usually, while at the beach, I gather assorted debris – manmade and organic – and create odd beach sculptures, one example shown below. (Taken with iPhone camera so detail is murky.)
I miss not doing that today.

Next week perhaps.

I cast around on the beach and construct in situ art,
usually of the totem variety.
Traces of my last visit may still remain on the beach.
Nah. It's long gone.... That's the nature of natural "art."

Week 94

Day 661 - Thursday, January 13 - The beat goes on

Worldwide (Map)
January 13, 2022 – 317,486,000 confirmed infections; 5,516,000 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 92,314,000 confirmed infections; 1,977,900 deaths
In last 28 days: 44,936,600 confirmed infections; 182,290 deaths
Total vaccinations dispensed to date: 9,546,3634,000
News from one year ago: Five countries doing well against Covid: New Zealand, Senegal, Iceland, Denmark, and Saudi Arabia.

US (Map)
January 13, 2022 – 63,232,340 confirmed infections; 844,650 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 23,071,100 confirmed infections; 384,635 deaths
In last 28 days: 12,809,100 confirmed infections; 40,417 deaths.
News from one year ago: “The death toll from Covid-19 has now passed 380,000 across the US".

SA (Coronavirus portal)
January 13, 2022 – 3,540,900 confirmed infections; 92,830 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 1,278,305 confirmed infections; 35,140 deaths
In last 28 days: 309,860 confirmed infections; 2,604 deaths.
News from one year ago: “SA recorded 806 new Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours, its highest ever single-day deaths so far.”

News blues

In South Africa:

A Covid-19 vaccine trial in SA will assess the safety and impact of varying doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer shots as boosters for those infected with HIV and the wider population.
The study carried out by the Johannesburg-based Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute will recruit about 300 health workers, of which about a third will be HIV-positive, said Dr Lee Fairlie, head of child and maternal health at the institute.
With about 8.2-million people in SA, or 13% of the population, infected with HIV, the effectiveness, or immunogenicity, of Covid-19 vaccines in generating an immune system response in immunocompromised individuals has been a key concern. HIV causes Aids, which weakens the immune system.

The beat goes on… that is, the beat of misinformation about vaccines’ adverse effects:

South Africa’s health department has again encouraged the public to report any adverse events after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.
This comes after a video clip of a man who appears to have throat cancer was spread on social media, saying it was caused by a Covid-19 jab.
The video was shared by the leader of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) Kenneth Meshoe, who said it occurred after the man received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said some patients may suffer swelling or tenderness, including in the throat, after getting the Pfizer vaccine, but this usually goes away within 10 days.
It said such swelling is possible after any vaccine, as it could be a sign the body is making antibodies, as intended.
“It is also possible that this swelling will show up on imaging tests and could be mistaken for progression of certain cancers — primarily breast, head and neck, melanoma, and lymphoma. On imaging tests, the lymph node enlargement may be detected for a longer period.”

Read recommendations >>

The Lincoln Project:
NPR Trump (1:45 mins)
Under Watters’ Top 10 (1:40 mins)
Ernst Owning the Libs (0:21 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (2:20 mins)
Sad (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Andy Thorn plays music outside… and a wild fox comes to listen (1:39 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Coal King and Senator Joe Manchin is at what politicians call “an inflection point” … a time to “pivot”… As duly-elected Prez Biden and Congressional Democrats apply pressure for Manchin to support For the People Act – y’know, secure democratic voting rights - I got in on the act. I contacted Manchin and urged him to vote FOR the Act. You can contact him, too:

… contact Senator Manchin to share your concerns. If you have …insight or questions you can contact Senator Manchin’s West Virginia office at 304-342-5855 or Senator Manchin’s Washington, D.C. office at 202-224-3954. Or submit and online form. West Virginians with a 304 or 681 area code can contact Senator Manchin’s office through a toll-free number at 855-5737.

I also contacted Senator Kyrsten Sinema and sent her an online message.
By the way, both senators offer a long list of topics on dropdown menus from which constituents select their topic of concern. Neither senator offers the option “vote” or “voting”. Kinda telling, no?

***

After European nations suspended most air travel from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe in November 2021, EU member states have agreed to lift this air travel ban.
Now, to figure out what that might mean for a solitary traveler from California.

If it gets squirrelly, I can pull out a friend’s recent gift: an at-home Covid test. What do I mean by squirrelly? For example, obtaining test results take “up to 48 hours”. CDC states, “you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test (regardless of vaccination status or citizenship) no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States.” So, there’s a discrepancy in timing of test results and boarding a plane or arriving in another country. Example, a flight to/from South Africa takes at least 30 hours. I will take a test in a local facility and carry proof of that, but I’ve no control over when that facility emails my results; could be anywhere between 15 and 48 hours. Bureaucracy, being what it is, could deem my test results “old”/expired anywhere along the route. Then what?
Perhaps I can pull from my back pocket my friend’s test kit gift and perform the test at passport control?
Always good to have a backup plan to attempt to outwit stolid bureaucracy and bureaucrats.

***

In the meantime, I entertain myself by spying on local waterfowl on my daily walk.

Stilt.

Oyster catcher.

Golden eye amid reflections.

Standing at Point A looking eastward toward Point B.

Standing at Point B looking westward toward Point A.

***

Today, California sunset – 5:12pm - and SA sunrise – 5:12am - is synchronized:

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 5:12pm

No rain....

Midlands, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:12am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining….

Day 659 - Tuesday, January 11 - Surging surge

News blues

Omicron – forecast as “milder” – is pushing the US to the brink of collapse:

Dire shortages as U.S. nears record for COVID-19 hospitalizations But it may get much worse. Already struggling hospitals could house about 300,000 covid patients later this month if models, which even researchers say are difficult to forecast, are correct.

Read “U.S. breaks record with more than 145,000 covid-19 hospitalizations” >>

Additionally,

The United States surpassed its record for covid-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday [January 10], with no end in sight to skyrocketing case loads, falling staff levels and the struggles of a medical system trying to provide care amid an unprecedented surge of the coronavirus.
[January 10’s] total of 145,982 people in U.S. hospitals with covid-19, which includes 4,462 children, passed the record of 142,273 set on Jan. 14, 2021, during the previous peak of the pandemic in this country.
But the highly transmissible omicron variant threatens to obliterate that benchmark. If models of omicron’s spread prove accurate — even the researchers who produce them admit forecasts are difficult during a pandemic — current numbers may seem small in just a few weeks. Disease modelers are predicting total hospitalizations in the 275,000 to 300,000 range when the peak is reached, probably later this month.

Healthy planet, anyone?

“One of the hardest things to grasp about the climate crisis is the connectedness of all things.” Add to that, the interconnectedness of biomes, ecosystems, and environments that, out of balance, lead to pandemics such as this coronavirus. We still have very little idea of the genesis of this virus. We do, however, know far more about what we can expect if we do not address environmental imbalance. Resistance to address these real issues is endemic. Take what we know about burning coal and the roots of climate change.
Senator Joe Manchin, West Virginia, aka King Coal, represents a powerful person bought and paid for by Big Coal. With Manchin’s help the dying coal industry is pulling one final heist — and you and I and our planet may pay the price >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Hunkered down from assorted coronavirus variants, socially distancing from potential human “vectors” - plus dealing with cold winter, I’ve delved into many – oh, let’s call them – obsessions.
Reading? ✔
Always a reader. My online library tracker, Reading Insights, states I’ve read every day for 181 weeks.
Baking? ✔
Rediscovered baking. I make my own bread. I cook. I even gather online recipes for future tasting treats. I’ve watched most episodes of the Great Baking Shows - British, and Kiwi, and Canadian….
iPhone’s battery charging graphs? ✔

I create “designs” from these graphs. I like capturing the “red zones” – below 20% charge remaining – as accent color. The intensity of this obsession ebbs and flows but hasn’t evaporated. As we see with this latest version.
Exercise? ✔
Too cold to swim but encouraged by my Steps app, I reach my daily goal of 6,000 steps/2 miles each day. Overseen by the pitiless Steps app, it’s either walk or delete the app as I do not want a “forever” record of not walking on my phone.
My latest obsession?
Drum roll … American serial killers. ✔
Specifically, Netflix documentaries on American serial killers Ted Bundy, Wayne Williams, Henry Lee Lucas….
This trio was operating within the US when I first arrived in the country. I heard about them peripherally, but was busy adjusting to my new life, new country, new family, and new friends to pay attention. Registering serial killers was at the bottom of a long list of more important adjustments – and, as Goete suggests, I may not have had the imagination to cope with such activity.
Ponder Goete’s words: “Few people have the imagination for reality.”
Indeed.
Superficially “knowing about”/watching fictionalized versions of the violence and horror that humans inflict upon one another is different to focusing on this human psychological phenomenon. Different, too, from traveling in a war zone. (Been there, done that .)
TV, movies, and online media “neutralizes” horror by normalizing it, making it ubiquitous therefore superficial, merely entertaining background to TV’s main role: advertising and selling goods and services.
Today, soaked in the reality of these three serial killers’ actions, I’m re-evaluating Goete’s words and also allowing my imagination to grapple with the heretofore unthinkable: Civil war in the United States of America.
With lack of effective pushback from “leaders” in a position to pushback – the Department of Justice, the duly-elected current president, sane members of the US Congress, concerned (and sane) Americans – Trump/Trumpies ongoing insurrection and slow-moving but real coup endangers the country and We the People.
Information to imagine this reality:

Christiane Amanpour interviews Prof Robert Pape and his new study shows the single biggest motivation for the Jan. 6 rioters (17:40 mins)
Prof Robert Pape’s report as Powerpoint pdf >>
Insurrectionist movement in U.S. is larger and more dangerous than expected, research finds >>
Prof Barbara Walter on likelihood of another US civil war? (14:45 mins) If none of the others, do watch this interview!

***

New information on this mural first mentioned December 19, 2021 post. Back then I didn’t know who was the artist. I suspected, incorrectly, a local muralist I know as Michael who lives and paints in this island town.

Rather, this Webster Gateway Mural – aka From Land and Sea, was created by Oakland muralist Dave Young Kim and Reno, Nevada artist Erik Burke.

It is 34 x 110 ft / 10.36 x 33.5 meters.

***

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 5:10pm

Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:11am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining….

Day 658 - Monday, January 10 - Please! No more!

News blues

Last week, a new variant reported from southern France. (Scroll to “WHO downplays French variant”.)
This week? Deltacron:

A new variant of COVID-19 with 10 mutations from Omicron and genetic background similar to the Delta has reportedly been detected in the small European country of Cyprus. Dubbed ‘Deltacron’ by the researchers, the new COVID-19 variant has been found to have infected 25 people in the country until now.

***

How do key COVID-19 metrics compare to previous waves? Our World in Data presents interactive charts to view comparisons. Sobering info at your fingertips >>

***

The Lincoln Project: Dagger (0:55 mins)
Last year in the Republican Party (2:17 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A murmuration of starlings at sunset in Rome, Italy.

Between 1 and 4 million starlings come to Rome during their annual migration every winter

Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

Our fragile world: photo essay >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Monday. A day to catch up on pressing chores. .. more pressing now that I’ve actually managed to contact a South African travel agent. Alas, the area towards which I’m heading continues to suffer torrential rain.
The good news?
California beginning to experience slighter longer daylight.
Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:09pm
California on track for spring – at least a minute more daylight each day over the last few days.
Fiat lux! (“let there be light”.)
Every minute counts…
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:10am
Sunset: 7:03pm

Rain continues...

Day 657 - Sunday, January 9 - Teetering

News blues

What happens when a health-care system crumbles?

At first, there’s just a lot of waiting. Emergency rooms get so full that “you’ll wait hours and hours, and you may not be able to get surgery when you need it.”
When patients are seen, they might not get the tests they need, because technicians or necessary chemicals are in short supply. Then delay becomes absence. The little acts of compassion that make hospital stays tolerable disappear. Next go the acts of necessity that make stays survivable. Nurses might be so swamped that they can’t check whether a patient has their pain medications or if a ventilator is working correctly. People who would’ve been fine will get sicker. Eventually, people who would have lived will die. This is not conjecture; it is happening now, across the United States.

Read more >>
This article is specific to the US where medical care is very expensive, not easily dispensed, and geared towards generating and supporting high medical insurance premiums. The medical system in South Africa – with a quasi-infrastructure overall and shaky medical care in general - serves the vast majority without medical insurance.

***

Notes from the Covid front lines:

…health care workers are not superhuman or robots, and are subject to human feelings and emotions just like everyone else. Never before have I endured such resentment and cynicism at unvaccinated patients and their reckless, selfish choices. Choices that enable this pandemic to propagate and destroy lives and families. Thus, it is only natural that throughout the country we are seeing widespread staffing shortages across all health care disciplines.

Read “I'm An ICU Doctor in Rural Ohio. This Is the Horror I Face Every Day Due To COVID-19.” >>

On the same topic:
An incoming tide of patients is slowly drowning UMass Memorial Medical Center, and the US military's National Guard is working to plug the gaps. In wave after daily wave, the emergency crews pull up to the ambulance bay, dropping off patients for which there is no room.

And,

Ambulances in Kansas speed toward hospitals then suddenly change direction because hospitals are full. Employee shortages in New York City cause delays in trash and subway services and diminish the ranks of firefighters and emergency workers. Airport officials shut down security checkpoints at the biggest terminal in Phoenix and schools across the nation struggle to find teachers for their classrooms.
The current explosion of omicron-fueled coronavirus infections in the U.S. is causing a breakdown in basic functions and services — the latest illustration of how COVID-19 keeps upending life more than two years into the pandemic. “This really does, I think, remind everyone of when COVID-19 first appeared and there were such major disruptions across every part of our normal life,” said Tom Cotter, director of emergency response and preparedness at the global health nonprofit Project HOPE. “And the unfortunate reality is, there’s no way of predicting what will happen next until we get our vaccination numbers — globally — up.”
First responders, hospitals, schools and government agencies have employed an all-hands-on-deck approach to keep the public safe, but they are worried how much longer they can keep it up.

Read “Omicron Boom Spurs Breakdown of Vital Services Nationwide. Disruptions are evident in everything from health care to public transit to air travel.” >>

And, confused by the CDC’s new isolation guidelines? You’re not the only one. America’s COVID Rules Are a Dumpster Fire >>

***

The South African government has decided to take a more pragmatic approach while keeping an eye on severe COVID and whether or not health systems are imminently under threat. This reflects acceptance that governments will increasingly be looking for ways to live with the virus cognisant of the detrimental indirect effects that restrictions have been having on the economy, livelihoods and other aspects of society. This is particularly pertinent in resource constrained countries such as South Africa.

***

The Lincoln Project: Seb/Ted (0:37 mins)
Our own Trevor Noah and the Daily Show comment on, Ted Cruz: The Booger on the Lip of Democracy (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Who knew?

Actually, I knew. It’s tough not to know when, each day in the office, one makes a cup of coffee with a high-end Keurig delivering coffee with a one-time-use plastic pod, along with two or three one-time-use plastic crème pods, a one-time use sugar packet and, if one doesn’t bring along a reusable ceramic mug, a one-time-use polystyrene cup.

I also knew our office was one of dozens of similar offices on one floor – and millions across America - with Keurig coffee makers. Worry spurred these photos I took to record my ritual cup of joe.
Now, huge surprise! NOT!

The millions of machines that require single-use plastic coffee pods are not, after all, great for the environment, not even close. Finally, Keurig is roasted and, one hopes, toasted (as in burned, not celebrated).

The Competition Bureau, a regulator in Canada tasked with snuffing out deceptive business practices, said Keurig Canada will pay a $3 million penalty for not being transparent about the recyclability of its products. The bureau said that it and the company had voluntarily reached a settlement to pay the penalty plus give an $800,000 donation to an environmental charity and cover $85,000 in Competition Bureau expenses….
Keurig was investigated for claiming customers could recycle its pods by removing the aluminum foil lid and dumping out the coffee grounds. The bureau found the instructions to be insufficient for the pods to be widely accepted into recycling programs and noted that Quebec and British Columbia were the only provinces recycling K-Cups.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Howick Falls reaching flow capacity. (Previous post with photos.)

Midmar Dam is a huge man-made water reservoir serving Kwa Zulu Natal.

With all the rain falling in KZN – and predicted to continue – in the area, Midmar Dam, too, is beginning to overflow . (At about minute 1:50 of this clip, Howick Falls. - 2:27 mins)
And a clip of streets flooding in the province’s legislative capital >>

Previous posts describe my attempts to address the largely blocked stream that flows through the bottom of my mom’s property. It overflows with too much rain and floods the garden, then water rises toward the house. One of the two culverts designed to drain water under a service road is totally blocked. The other culvert drains at less than 20 percent capacity. I’ve attempted to engage the local municipal department responsible for such maintenance. I describe their response at my temerity to request service as uninterested, inconclusive, in a word, incompetent. A shrug as equipment is driven away.
Property taxes up the wazoo; Thanks very much for continuing to pay. Alas, service unavailable. (One supervisor told me workers cannot complete the work because “too many snakes.” I advised I’d taken a close look at the blockage and, in 2 years, never seen a single snake. Another shrug before entering her car and driving away - never to return.)
With the amount of water falling and flowing in the area, I’m both worried about the property.
I’m also worried about traveling to SA and, after 30 to 36 hours of traveling, finding the area too flooded to allow safe transit to the house.
Africa. Continent of surprises.

***

The latest news on international travel: airline for New Zealand was awarded first place "due to its excellent incident record, number of cockpit innovations, pilot training and very low fleet age." "Air New Zealand is a leader in this field with comprehensive retraining."
Air New Zealand doesn’t service South Africa from the US.
Etihad Airways – UAE – in second place.
Qatar Airways came in third, with Singapore Airlines and TAP Portugal achieving fourth and fifth place respectively.
Australian carrier Qantas is missing from the top five despite holding the title of world's safest airline from 2014 to 2017, as well as 2019 to 2021 (no clear winner could be found in 2018). Australia's flag carrier takes seventh place this time due to a "slight increase in incidents coupled with the fleet age” after a Qantas Boeing traveling from the Australian city of Perth to Adelaide in Western Australia was diverted due to a fuel imbalance, in an occurrence classified as a "serious incident."
Of these carriers, only Qatar serves the US. This means up to a 24 hour layover in Doha. Am I up for it?
Enquiring minds wanna know….

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:08pm
The good news? Sunset happening one to two minutes later each day. Weather, still cold although sunny for part of the day.
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:09am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining …with more rain predicted for the next 10 days. The vulgar South Africanism that describes my consternation, oh, gats!

Day 655 - Friday, January 7 - Touch of reality?

News blues

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Trump and the Trumpies attempting a coup in the US Capitol. Here’s the actual, real, and legitimate US vice prez and prez – Harris and Biden – addressing the nation >> (33:04 mins)
Here, too, is comedian Stephen Colbert’s memories of the day a year ago when “the fecal matter truly hit the oscillator”… (10:43)
And from Mary Trump: “He must be feeling the walls closing in…” >> (6:06 mins)
It’s been a year of Trump and Trumpies pushing “Stop the Steal” and The Big Lie about his failed re-election. (Genesis of The Big Lie in “real life”.)
Amid the libraries-worth of journalism written since then, politically centrist journalist Jennifer Rubin presents an important opinion piece: “Trump idolatry has undermined religious faith”,

***

Back to Covid: Has Omicron peaked or plateaued in some regions? Experts say there are early, tentative signs that the omicron wave has peaked, or is plateauing, in the places that were among the first to be hit hard by the variant.
Despite the mixed messaging, confused communication, and often conflicting information presented to the public about Covid-19, the pandemic, and the many viral mutations, thoughtful humans still seek further information. Lucky for us, researchers oblige. Next week we might have information that conflicts, but here’s the current knowledge on symptoms and severity of Omicron – at least for this week.

***

The Lincoln Project: Biden (1:55 mins)
Which is it, Ted? (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Life on vanishing coasts – photo essay >>

***

“Postcards From a World on Fire” >>

***

More calls for the US to address its plastic waste:

Environmental organisations across Latin America have called on the US to reduce plastic waste exports to the region, after a report found the US had doubled exports to some countries in the region during the first seven months of 2020.
The US is the world’s largest plastic waste exporter, although it has dramatically reduced the overall amount it exports since 2015, when China – previously the top importer – said it “no longer wanted to be the world’s rubbish dump” and began imposing restrictions. Elsewhere around the world imports are rising, and not least in Latin America, with its cheap labour and close proximity to the US.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The past seven months in California have been disorienting, partly because the pandemic began while I was gone and American culture moved on, partly because this is my first winter in California in four years and, cold weather coupled with Omicron, produces involuntary isolation.
Amid what feels like waves of crazy – mounds of conspiracy theories, lies, and corruption, and unimaginably large numbers of Americans remaining in Trump’s conspiracy cult of the absurd, do I perceive a glimmer to push back from Biden and Attorney General Garland? Both men, heretofore appearing like deer-in-the-headlights, issued strong statements yesterday.

What will today and tomorrow bring?
One issue? American perception. One article on Garland, for example, states, “Garland is under increasing pressure from the left.” In fact, Garland is under pressure from all Americans concerned about the country’s direction. That this is described as “the left” is an indication of how far right the country has become over the last decade.
All in all? Life and living is increasingly precarious these days.

***

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:06pm
Cold, foggy, and drizzly.

Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:07am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining ….

Week 93
Day 654 - Thursday, January 6 - Enough already!

Worldwide (Map)
January 6, 2022 – 298,194,650 confirmed infections; 5,468,100 deaths
January 6, 2021 – 87,157,000 confirmed infections; 1,882,100 deaths

28 days ago: 29,921,000 confirmed infections; 184,300 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 9,324,042,300

US (Map)
January 6, 2022 – 57,826,000 confirmed infections; 823,359 deaths
January 6, 2021 – 21,294,100 confirmed infections; 361,100 deaths
28 days ago: 8,153,786 confirmed infections; 37,295 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
January 6, 2022 – 3,494,700 confirmed infections; 91,561 deaths
January 6, 2021 – 1,150,000 confirmed infections; 30,525 deaths
28 days ago: 423,632 confirmed infections; 1,523 deaths

A year ago, Trump and his Trumpie allies attempted a coup. Post from January 6, 2021 >>

News blues

No combinations of vaccines or viruses can confer invulnerability to future tussles with SARS-CoV-2. Whether acquired from an injection or an infection, immunity will always work in degrees, not absolutes.
Immunity is, in many ways, a game of repetition. The more frequently, and more intensely, immune cells are exposed to a threat, the more resolutely they’ll commit to fighting it, and the longer they’ll store away any microbial information they glean. Time and viral mutations pare down those protections; vaccines and sickness build them back up. That’s part of why we almost always dose people with vaccines multiple times.

***

President Cyril Ramaphosa had recovered from his bout with Covid-19 and had reiterated that Covid-19 Alert Level 1 regulations would be strictly adhered to. He was due to speak at the ANC Women's League memorial lecture, an event scheduled in the lead-up to the ANC’s 110th birthday celebration in Polokwane. But when it was discovered that the crowd was largely non-compliant with the regulations, the ANC cancelled the address and quickly led Ramaphosa from the packed venue >>

***

In other Covid news:

France's parliament has approved plans for a vaccine pass to help curb the spread of the Omicron variant.
Hong Kong is set to ban flights from eight countries, including the UK and the US.
The World Health Organization is monitoring a new coronavirus variant identified in the southern Alps of France.
The Grammy Awards have been postponed for a second year due to the Omicron surge. Rio de Janeiro has also cancelled its world-renowned Carnival street parades for the second year in a row as a new wave of infections spreads. Giorgio Armani has cancelled shows in the Milan and Paris fashion weeks.

***

The Lincoln Project releases the first in a new series of ads. Closer than you think

In their words depicts America in 2025 if the Republican Party achieves their anti-democratic, authoritarian goals. (1:10 mins) Subsequent episodes of the series will be released throughout the week. (1:10 mins)

When you think about Covid and its trajectory across the US and the next election, remember this: Truth (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Europe takes the lead… why doesn’t the US follow?

From New Year’s Day, France will ban supermarkets and other shops from selling cucumbers wrapped in plastic, and peppers, courgettes, aubergines and leeks in plastic packaging. A total of 30 types of fruit and vegetables will be banned from having any plastic wrapping, including bananas, pears, lemons, oranges and kiwis. …
A law banning plastic packaging for large numbers of fruits and vegetables comes into force in France on New Year’s Day, to end what the government has called the “aberration” of overwrapped carrots, apples and bananas, as environmental campaigners and exasperated shoppers urge other countries to do the same.
Emmanuel Macron has called the ban on plastic packaging of fresh produce “a real revolution” and said France was taking the lead globally with its law to gradually phase out all single-use plastics by 2040.
Spain will introduce a ban on plastic packaging of fruit and vegetables from 2023. For years, international campaigners have said unnecessary plastic packaging is causing environmental damage and pollution at sea.

On the same theme, European companies race to stem flood of microplastic fibres into the oceans. New products range from washing machine filters and balls to fabrics made from kelp and orange peel >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

As I expected, countries are beginning to refuse visitors from the US. Hong Kong is the most recent. This is not good news for my safe travel to/from South Africa.
In the meantime, local birds, real or not, will keep me company.

Huddling from the cold: American Avocets (black & white)
Larger birds likely marbled godwits or whimbrels (easier to tell if beaks are visible)
and Western Sandpipers (small, foreground)

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:05pm
Cold and hazy.
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:07am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining ….

Day 652 - Tuesday, January 4 - "Birds aren't real"?

News blues

Well, the US is “numbah one” again, this time in its global daily record: more than 1 million diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday. This number was gleaned from “official” tests – excluding home tests whose data is not collected by official tracking entities. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, which relies on local governments,

the highly mutated variant, combined with delayed reporting by local governments over the holidays, led to a single-day record for new cases for any country in the world. Monday’s number is almost double the previous mark of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the U.S., which itself was a doubling from the prior week.

Indeed, the US has a ways to go to get through the Omicron surge. Meanwhile, what Omicron already is teaching us as this phase of the pandemic plays out >>

Healthy planet, anyone?

Recently, I posted about Germany powering down three of its nuke-energy power plants. Today, the backlash:

The European Commission is facing a furious backlash over plans to allow gas and nuclear to be labelled as “green” investments, as Germany’s economy minister led the charge against “greenwashing”.
The EU executive was accused of trying to bury the proposals by releasing long-delayed technical rules on its green investment guidebook to diplomats on New Year’s Eve, hours before a deadline expired.
The draft proposals seen by the Guardian would allow gas and nuclear to be included in the EU “taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities”, subject to certain conditions.
…[a group of environmentalists] said the plans “water down the good label for sustainability” [and] it was “questionable whether this greenwashing will even find acceptance on the financial market”

Ah, yes, the ubiquitous “financial market”….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

With more than 1 million newly confirmed Covid infections in one day, I wonder if the less rabid within the anti-vax crowd are having second thoughts about vaccinations? Are those who believed The Donald’s prediction that, based on politics, “Kung Flu” would “one day, disappear, like a miracle” , or those who watch/listen to many anti-vax public figures who have either died or suffered torment from Covid, now trickling into a vax line and accepting the jab?
Enquiring minds wanna know….

***

With a friend’s birthday coming us this week, I’d suggested we repeat a past birthday celebration: explore downtown Oakland and Chinatown and enjoy lunch in a local restaurant. After the news of this enormous viral transmission rate, I’m pulling back on that suggestion. If either of us is to reach another birthday milestone, best we hunker down for the duration.

***

Apparently, the “Birds aren’t real” theory has been around for some time.
According to this theory, “all” the birds were killed – by airborne gas – during the Reagan years - and replaced by governmental drones.
Birds are not “real” and those one sees around – you know, flying, wading, nesting, chirping - “work for the bourgeoisie” ….

My gods! I had no idea that government, any government – including the Chinese government – and/or private industry were capable of such extraordinary design and execution technology to produce drones that emulate “real” birds.
Given government possesses such skill, how come government can’t figure out simple vaccine testing and treating programs?
If governments can produce drone birds that look so real – see pix below - why bother wasting such extraordinary skills and technology on dumbass humans and dumbass human activity? Why not conquer the universe?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. It’s the fault of evil, conniving George Soros, Bill Gates, and Dr Fauci.

Blue heron? "Birds aren't real" so don't believe your lying eyes!

Greater yellow legs? A drone?
Again, don't believe your lying eyes!

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:03pm
Some rain…
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:05am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Rain, rain, rain …

Day 649 - Saturday, January 1 - New year's crapshoot

Happy new year! May 2022 be better than 2021.

News blues

This radial phylogenetic tree of SARS-CoV-2 depicts known sequences of
variants (dots) and their relationships to each other. The length of the branches indicate
how divergent a given variant is. Omicron, depicted in red, stands out for its uniqueness.
© Nextstrain

Omicron could push the Covid-19 pandemic into its worst phase yet. Or it might not. In other words, it’s a crapshoot!
What makes the omicron variant so strange and surprising?

Healthy planet, anyone?

Good news for the planet this new year: Germany powers down 3 nuke power plants.

Three nuclear-fired power plants will be taken off the grid in Germany on Friday as part of the country's plan to end atomic power.
"The nuclear phaseout makes our country safer and helps to avoid radioactive waste," said Federal Environment and Nuclear Safety Minister Steffi Lemke.
"It is now essential to ... advance the search for a final repository for high-level radioactive waste as well as permanent solutions for low- and medium-level radioactive waste," the environment ministry said.

Hear, hear! Germany. (This is an abbreviation for “hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!”) Read more about Germany’s decision >>

***

As noted in a recent post, E. O Wilson passed away recently. His legacy will live on.
Read an interview with him on his advice on saving Earth >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Sunny but cold in the San Francisco Bay Area. View from east bay.

I bundle up for my daily walk: undershirt, shirt, sweater, coat, muffler, and gloves. My Covid mask keeps my face warm.
Waterfowl are happy.

Initially I thought I'd photographed buffleheads (top). Rather, they're goldeneye ducks.
The lower photo is a female goldeneye.
(c) S. Galleymore

What's the weather like in:
SF Bay Area?
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:01pm
Some rain expected Monday and Tuesday then more sunshine.

...and in Howick, KZN?
Sunrise: 5:03am
Sunset: 7:02pm
Forecast calls for rain, rain, rain for the next ten days…

Week 92
Day 647 - Thursday, December 30 - Auld lang syne

Worldwide (Map)
December 30, 2021 – 284,807,650 confirmed infections; 5,425,550 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 82,656000 confirmed infections; 1,804,100 deaths
28 days ago: 21,007,475 confirmed infections; 196,000 deaths
56 days ago: 17,480,000 confirmed infections; 202,000 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 9,086,524,300

US (Map)
December 30, 2021 – 53,659,715 confirmed infections; 823,120 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 19,737,200 confirmed infections; 342,260 deaths
28 days ago: 4,609,478 confirmed infections; 39,563 deaths
56 days ago: 3,323,525 confirmed infections; 35,185 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 30, 2021 – 3,433,555 confirmed infections; 90,935 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 1,039,165 confirmed infections; 28,035 deaths
28 days ago: 456,945 confirmed infections; 1,064 deaths
56 days ago: 383,250 confirmed infections; 855 deaths

Post from one year ago >>

News blues

All things Omicron:

It's gonna get worse before it gets better – at least in the US where reports declare nearly half a quarter million cases in 24 hours.
A quick look at current state of Covid tests and testing >> (3:45 mins)
How to tell if you’ve been infected with Omicron (1:33 mins)
Omicron’s virulent surge amid conflicting messaging makes it tough to figure out which activities are safe on any given day. It’s time to recalculate your Covid “risk budget” >>
Tomorrow, 31 December will be the second anniversary of the day that health authorities in Wuhan reported an unknown pneumonia outbreak to World Health Organization (WHO) colleagues in Beijing. This time last year, Michael Standaert visited Wuhan to report on how the city had changed since the emergence of the coronavirus. One year later, he reports “normality” returns to Wuhan, but pain over the handling of the Covid outbreak endures >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Legacy (1:45 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (2:12 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A big win along South Africa’s Wild Coast:

Shell will be forced to halt oil exploration in vital whale breeding grounds along South Africa’s eastern coastline after a local court blocked the controversial project.
The court order calls for an immediate halt to Shell’s seismic tests which involve blasting sound waves through the relatively untouched Wild Coast marine environment, which is home to whales, dolphins and seals.
… Wilmien Wicomb, an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre, said the case held “huge significance” because it showed that “no matter how big a company is, it ignores local communities at its peril”.
“This case is really a culmination of the struggle of communities along the Wild Coast for the recognition of their customary rights to land and fishing, and to respect for their customary processes….”

Read the good news >>

***

Of the US’s western states, California leads in habitat loss.

… the 11 westernmost contiguous states excluding Alaska and Hawaii — lost more than 4,300 square miles of what it calls "natural lands" in that decade-long period to human development such as logging, mining, road-building and urban development. That's an area bigger than Yellowstone National Park, as the Center points out.
And of all the eleven states studied, California lost the largest amount of natural land to development between 2001 and 2011. Californians sacrificed 784 square miles of natural landscape to human industry in that decade, an area just a hair smaller than Los Angeles and San Diego combined, almost a fifth of the total land lost across the West.
That's a huge amount of land lost just in California.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Cloudy, rainy, cold in the San Francisco Bay Area. I bundle up for my daily walk: undershirt, shirt, sweater, coat, muffler, and gloves. My anti-Covid mask keeps my face warm.
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 4:59pm
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:01am
Sunset: 7:02pm

On the cusp of old/new year’s eve, enjoy… and be careful out there!

Day 644 - Monday, December 27 - "Don't look up!"

News blues

Oh-oh. Omicron. “The US is averaging 198,404 new Covid-19 cases each day… 47% higher than a week ago and the highest such number since January 19 [with] about 71,000 Americans hospitalized [and] an average of 1,408 Americans dying - a 17% increase - from Covid-19 each day during the week ending Sunday [Boxing Day]….
"I think we're going to see half a million cases a day - sometime over the next week to 10 days…."

Healthy planet, anyone?

Oceana analyzed e-commerce packaging data and found that Amazon generated 599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2020. This is a 29% increase of Oceana’s 2019 estimate of 465 million pounds. The report also found that Amazon’s estimated plastic packaging waste, in the form of air pillows alone, would circle the Earth more than 600 times. By combining the e-commerce packaging data with findings from a recent study published in Science, Oceana estimates that up to 23.5 million pounds of Amazon’s plastic packaging waste entered and polluted the world’s waterways and oceans in 2020, the equivalent of dumping a delivery van payload of plastic into the oceans every 67 minutes.

Read the report >>

***

Edward O Wilson, naturalist known as a ‘modern-day Darwin’, dies aged 92.
If you have not yet read E. O. Wilson, start with “Trailhead”, in the New Yorker

***

Can't help but notice my mom died in the same year as many elevated and creative humans died ... including friend and San Francisco’s own, poet Jack Hershman.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Audience responses to Adam McKay’s 2021 movie, “Don’t look up!” range from “that’s excellent satire” (I’m in that group) to “a disaster!”

Along the lines of generational commentary movies, “War of the Worlds” and “Dr. Strangelove”, Netflix’s “Don’t look up!” highlights the diversity of the human mind accepting/not accepting our current human/planet condition.

If you watch it, watch and listen carefully - there’s a lot going on, including hard-to-articulate depths on how We the People distract ourselves from troublesome “reality.”

***

Obsessions, reprise
North/south solstices, December 27, 2021:

San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 4:57pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:59am
Sunset: 7:01pm
Rain, rain, rain….

... update on battery charging obsession

The interval between charges to create this design? More than 25 hours, among the best re-charge intervals (at least for an iPhone). The interval between charges to create this design? More than 25 hours, among the best re-charge intervals (at least for an iPhone).

Baking obsession continues. Yesterday, tried a recipe for dinner rolls. The rolls weren’t bad, just meh - I doubt I’ll revisit that recipe.
I did page through many recipe books and watch assorted online recipes and YouTube cooking shows.
I’d planned to troll various local thrift shops for low price/good quality cooking equipment. Alas, Omicron’s apparent ubiquity changed my mind. Moreover, in another week, Omicron allowing, there’ll be a wider choice of discarded equipment as people toss out the old and make room for the new… from Christmas gifts.

Day 643 - Sunday, December 26 - Hiatus

News blues

Suffered head- and body aches for Christmas. Naturally, it crossed my mind that I’d not only contracted the dreaded Omicron, but that I’d brought it to the house of my friend most fearful of contracting Covid. A quick scan through my activities of the last few days left me puzzled as to where I could have contracted it. Surely I could not have. I’m careful. My only community-oriented activity is grocery shopping but I’m judicious and I keep my distance from others. I did visit the dentist but the day before Christmas so likely too recent for Omicron to manifest.

I double-checked the symptoms provided by Dr. Bruce Patterson, who works for single cell diagnostic company IncellDx and the Chronic Covid Treatment Center and who is a long-haul COVID expert. He reports he has not seen as much of a loss of taste and smell compared to the previous variants. This jibbed with my experience: delicious aromas from cooking our holiday meal suffused the house. Additionally, Patterson said, ‘“the one thing that’s always present with COVID-19 patients is fatigue” - including the Omicron patients he has seen so far.’
I was just achy, not fatigued.
I swallowed a Tylenol at bedtime.
Yay! Awoke this morning feeling fit and aches free.
In case you're wondering, here’s the latest checklist of what constitutes mild, moderate and severe COVID >>

***

In sad news Desmond Tutu passed away. Long live Desmond Tutu!

***

The Lincoln Project:
Who GAF about Christmas? (0:35 mins)
Covid Vaccine (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Ten great city projects for nature: photo essay >>
Age of Extinction: photo essay >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Rain, rain, rain on the holiday but we took advantage of a brief hiatus and walked the neighborhood. Nothing as exciting as water flowing free and fast down gullies and into canals….
Took these photos in my neighborhood the day before the holiday.

California gulls enjoy the temporary ponds.

***

Meanwhile, travel restrictions to and from southern Africa will be lifted on Monday. Time to rethink travel plans....

Soon, I'll leave the land of the winter solstice with:

Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 4:56pm
Rain, rain, rain….
and travel to the land of the summer solstice with:
Sunrise: 4:59am
Sunset: 7:00pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Week 91
Day 640 - Thursday, December 23 - Pesky numbers

Worldwide (Map)
December 22, 2021 – 277,088,800 confirmed infections; 5,376,100 deaths
Over last 28 days: 17,480,000 confirmed infections; 202,000 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 8,798,205,750

US (Map)
December 22, 2021 – 51,537,000 confirmed infections; 812,100 deaths
Over last 28 days: 3,323,525 confirmed infections; 35,185 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
December 22, 2021 – 3,353,110 confirmed infections; 90,587 deaths
Over last 28 days: 383,250 confirmed infections; 855 deaths

News blues

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new forecast that estimates the Omicron variant is already the dominant variant in the U.S.
New York state posted an all-time record of new Covid cases. Over the last weeks, new cases have climbed in the Northeast and Midwest. The nation’s Delta wave isn’t over and an Omicron wave has just begun. Read more >>
Cleveland-area hospitals put ad in local Cleveland Plain-Dealer stating, “HELP”, in response to the latest Covid-19 health crisis exploding in Northern Ohio. The ad continued:

“We need your help. W now have more Covid-19 patients n our hospitals than ever before. And the overwhelming majority are unvaccinated. This is preventable.

Yet, in Japan, numbers of new Covid infections plummet. Why? No one knows.
And in South Africa’s Gauteng province – the epicenter of that country’s infections – Covid cases appear to have peaked with the impact of surging infections less severe than previous waves.
Read more >>

How to make sense of the case and hospitalization data as Omicron takes off. Both metrics are important, but all of our data doesn’t matter if we don’t do anything with it.

***

Dr Sanjay Gupta breaks down how Omicron variant compares to other variants (3:50 mins)

***

The Lincoln Project:
Corporate Accountability (0:53 mins)
Santa Trump (0:30 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The U.S. is gently discouraging states from building new highways A recent urges states to fix roads before constructing new ones, and to consider climate-friendly projects like bike lanes.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Raining in the Bay Area. Forecast calls for more rain over the next several days. I’m not complaining about the rain (took a walk along the foggy, damp beach anyway) but the tedium of Omicron-forced isolation can overwhelm.
Today’s baking obsession? Baked custard with sherry syrup.
My upper left arm – site of the booster shot – has been sore although that’s passing.

Winter solstice - San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:21am
Sunset: 4:54pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Summer solstice - Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:57am
Sunset: 6:59pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Day 638 - Tuesday, December 21 - Seek and ye might find

News blues

The numbers speak: Omicron variant accounts for 73% of recent U.S. COVID-19 cases, CDC with New York state reporting a record number of Covid-19 infections
While COVID Externalities Have Changed this phase of the pandemic need not be about individual sacrifice. What’s required now is merely communal common sense.
Common sense, however, is in the ‘eye of the beholder’. Confusion continues to reign. The public has been told vaccine is effective against Omicron and vaccine is ineffective against Omicron.
"Effective":

Moderna announced Monday that a third dose of its mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 appears to provide significant protection against the omicron variant. The company said that its authorized booster can “boost neutralizing antibody levels 37-fold higher than pre-boost levels,” which it described as reassuring.

"Ineffective":

Early evidence shows a “clear” drop in the effectiveness of current Covid-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant of coronavirus, according to the head of the European drugs regulator, who says it will take time to reach a consensus on whether variant-targeted vaccines will be needed. >>

Given the confusion, fear, lack of coherence, I almost envy the absolute certainty displayed by whackidoodle anti-vaxers >>
Almost. But I’ll stick with science.

I’ve looked forward to December 20 for weeks. That would have been Booster Day: the first day I’d be eligible for my 6-month vax booster. Alas, I could not get it! More on this odyssey below….

The Lincoln Project:
Mark Meadows Unlocked (1:30 mins)
Yearning in America (0:56 mins - This one brought tears to my eyes….)

Healthy planet, anyone?

First, the scary news: “Himalayan glaciers are melting at an "exceptional rate…” Almost half the glacial ice in the world's tallest mountain range will soon have disappeared compared to just a few centuries ago >>
Then… celebrate what is now >>
Happy solstice 2021 >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Booster Day? Not so fast!
Yesterday was the first day I was eligible for my Covid (Pfizer) booster jab. I’d tried earlier to get the jab – based on anticipated travel to SA – but was refused. After Omicron arrived I revisited plans and accommodated reality. Then, the big Booster Day arrived.
Day 1: I trotted off to the pharmacy at the local grocery store and… learned that their operations have changed since my last shot in June. Now, customers must make online appointments. And that day, they offered only Moderna shots.
I hesitated. How I might react to a Moderna booster? My physical response to Pfizer was negligible – slight sensitivity around the injection site. Friends who mixed doses reported Moderna presented stronger reactions than Pfizer. Do I want to risk being laid low over the holidays?
Back home, I researched the latest on Pfizer/Moderna mix. Moderna is reported to have slightly higher efficacy rate than Pfizer and, since I’ll visit my Omicron-nervous friend over the holiday weekend, I want to assure all that I’m taking advantage of the current best care available.
Travel had been a large part of my booster equation. The news about international travel, however, is not good: “Southern African nations join European favorites on CDC's list for 'very high' travel risk ."
I decided to take the Moderna jab. I tackled the grocery store’s pharmacy online reservation site. Not a great user experience: I could make a reservation at a pharmacy about 15 miles away but not at the pharmacy 2 miles away. I’ll return to the local pharmacy, make an in-person reservation, and wait.
Day 2: Pharmacy staff were helpful, agreed the online reservation system was ‘buggy’, and signed me up for a then-and-there appointment. Since both Moderna and Pfizer were available, I opted for Pfizer – albeit with a dash of last-minute indecision: what if Moderna is more efficacious? What if post-shot symptoms are worse? What if…?
I filled in the paperwork – for Pfizer - and chatted with the only other person in line for a jab. I learned that he’d taken his first Pfizer shot back in March – early days for shots – at a local sports arena complex. It was a massive drive-through operation managed by FEMA – Federal Emergency Management Agency – and other Federal agencies. (Press Release from April 2021.)
Then the pharmacist called me and I eagerly followed him and pulled up my sleeve to expose my upper left arm.
He asked, “Pfizer or Moderna?” “Um, I’m not sure.” I equivocated.

“Let me know if you want Moderna as I’ll change the paperwork and have you fill it out again.”
That did it. “No need to change the paperwork. Let’s go with Pfizer.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I know what to expect from Pfizer. I’ll stick with Pfizer.”

He reported his second Pfizer jab had knocked him out and he’d missed a day of work.

An observation: Months of Lockdown in SA and months following the easing of Lockdown - when my mother was struggling with her health – blocked from my mind the day-to-day Covid-related happenings in California and the US. While I carefully followed US news, nevertheless I lost a year of early Covid history in the US… although I gained a year of Covid-related history in SA.
Lordy, when will it be “safe-enough” to return to SA and take care of business – and have assurance I can return to California after that, unimpeded by Covid?

***

I took advantage of my visits to the pharmacy and walked along the bay. The birds did not disappoint.

Marbled Godwits.

American avocets. And that gorgeous duck? A pintail.

Lesser egret

***

Winter solstice - San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:21am
Sunset: 4:53pm

More rain predicted. Snow pack deepening in Sierras. Yay!
Summer solstice - Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:56am
Sunset: 6:59pm

Rain, rain, rain...

Day 636 - Sunday, December 19 - "Let's think deep"

News blues

Omicron spreading at lightning speed and restrictions tighten as countries battle a new wave of infections >>

If you test positive for COVID-19, how long should you quarantine, who should you tell, and when should you call your doctor? >>

***

Jimmy Kimmel: This week in Covid history (1:45 mins)
The Lincoln Project reminds us:
Donny, Jr (0:30 mins)
Donny, Sr, and the MAGA Church (1:45 mins)
The Collapse (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Thames River.
The ebbing and flowing of the tide evokes our troubling future.

"Bankers"

If you don’t’ know him yet, meet sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor , former graffiti artist that Canterbury art college refused. Taylor creates boundary obliterating art and urges, “Let’s think big and let’s think deep.”
See his underwater sculptures and hear his goals >> (11:09 mins)
More on his work >> (8:13 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A friend advises that my recent baking obsession is not, as I thought, ahead of the wave. It’s not even cresting the wave. Indeed, I’m doggie paddling way behind the my fellow baking obsessives. Americans who sought solace from pandemic induced isolation turned to baking last March and April.

Back then, I was locked down in South Africa, visiting my mother each day in the Care Center after her fall and subsequent surgery, auctioning piles of no-longer-required workshop and household items, caring for her dogs, her gardens, her swimming pool, and shooing troops of monkeys from her fruit trees. Had anyone suggested I bake, I’d have chuckled my disbelief.

Ah well, being au courant is not my ambition. (Perhaps the late baker earns the tested recipes?)

Melktert - smooth, custardy, easy to make....

Yesterday, before my friend carried away a growing inventory of baked goods, I added melktert (aka milk tart) to my culinary effort.

Surpassed only by dark fruit cake as a personal favorite South African treat, melktert is not too sweet and enticingly jiggly and smooth.
Explore how easy it is to bake by Google searching “melktert” or “milk tart.” (If pastry making scares you, pick up a ready-made pastry crusts at Safeway; brush over an egg wash and bake for just 5 minutes. The wash stabilizes the crust for the delicious custard-like filling, served room temperature.)

My next challenge?
Turns out the odd baking pan, above, forms donuts.

Not a donut fan, I puzzle about other baking options. The challenge is how to outwit the open “top”.
What about:

baking an upside-down fruit pie held together by either pastry or sponge cake? Or a layer of graham cracker crust?
forming a pastry pocket over the “top” then, when cooked, flip it over to serve? The “hole” would form a receptacle sauce or other filling.
a savory “not-donut donut” with no-knead bread and sprinkled cheese?

Watch this space for baking experiments….

***

Until the pandemic forced Otaez, a family style, Mexican family-owned and managed neighborhood restaurant out of business, service included tasty and affordable margaritas on a sunny outdoor patio.
Alas. Gone are the days of margaritas, fresh ceviche, tamales….
On the bright side, a chef locally born and bred bought the very large, standalone building. His chef cred includes cooking at high-end San Francisco Bay Area restaurants.

The menu posted near the door might be a tad ambitious for this neighborhood (no margaritas, or fresh ceviche, or tamales… ).
I hope he can make a go of this new business, particularly as we endure another pandemic wave.
This mural painted on the north wall catches the eye; perhaps it’ll stimulate taste buds, too.

***

Winter solstice - San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 4:52pm
Summer solstice - Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:55am
Sunset: 6:58pm

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 91
Day 634 - Friday, December 17 - Fully baked

News blues

“America Is Not Ready for Omicron.” The new variant poses a far graver threat at the collective level than the individual one — the kind of test that the US has repeatedly failed.

America was not prepared for Covid-19 when it arrive. It was not prepared for last winter’s surge. It was not prepared for Delta’s arrival in the summer or its current winter assault.
More than 1,000 Americans are still dying of COVID every day, and more have died this year than last. Hospitalizations are rising in 42 states. The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, which entered the pandemic as arguably the best-prepared hospital in the country, recently went from 70 COVID patients to 110 in four days, leaving its staff “grasping for resolve,” the virologist John Lowe told me. And now comes Omicron.
Will the new and rapidly spreading variant overwhelm the U.S. health-care system? The question is moot because the system is already overwhelmed, in a way that is affecting all patients, COVID or otherwise. “The level of care that we’ve come to expect in our hospitals no longer exists…”

Omicron pressure on in South Africa with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reporting an additional 36 Covid-19 related deaths and 24,785 new cases yesterday.

The increase in positive cases represents a 30.9% positivity rate.
The majority of new cases were from Gauteng (27%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (23%) and the Western Cape (19%).
The NCID said, “There has been an increase of 347 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.”

Approximately 27 percent of Americans are not vaccinated against Covid-19. (See numbers and detailed breakdown of un-vaccinated and vaccinated.) Certain states refuse to enact the federal mandate to require vaccination. Now the struggle goes to the Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden’s administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let a federal vaccine mandate for health-care workers take effect nationwide, saying it could save thousands of lives during an anticipated Covid surge this winter.
In a pair of filings late Thursday, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar asked the justices to put a hold on lower court decisions that are blocking the rule in 24 states. The Republican-led states sued to block the law, saying the administration was exceeding its authority and infringing on state prerogatives.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services mandate is one prong of a broader Biden push to get workers vaccinated. The administration is separately defending vaccine rules that apply to federal contractors and employers with 100 or more workers, and those cases could reach the Supreme Court soon.

Additionally, the Marine Corps announced it booted 103 of its members for refusing the Covid vaccine, even as all the military branches report that a vast majority of troops have gotten the shots.
The same day, the Army announced that it relieved six leaders — including two commanding officers — over the issue, and that almost 4,000 active-duty soldiers have refused the vaccine.

Then the whackidoodles have their say:
“Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asserted the Pentagon has no authority to punish unvaccinated members of the state National Guard, joining other Republican governors who have called on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to withdraw or otherwise nullify the military's Covid-19 vaccine mandate.”

Healthy planet, anyone?

Time for laughter: 35 Pictures from 2021 to make you grin… >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Who knew I was ahead of the curve? An email newsletter from my health care provider asks:

Looking for something to help you relax, feel creative, and indulge your senses? Baking has all the ingredients you need to feel refreshed and recharged.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, increased stress — plus more time at home — has given rise to a new trend called “stress baking.” … The act of baking really can help you manage stress.
“Baking is an opportunity to clear our heads and de-stress,” … a family doctor said. “When you focus your attention on an activity like baking, you’re more present in the moment and less focused on stressors of the past or future.”

My recent foray into baking is not, after all, another Lockdown-related obsession. Not at all; rather, it is a stress reliever.
Yesterday: pastry and no-knead bread.

Today: cinnamon rolls.
Tomorrow? A visiting friend will enjoy these products and, I hope, carry away the bulk of my home bakery’s output.

***

With the likelihood of a propitious return to South Africa dimming as Omicron changes the rules of travel, look for more baked goods in the future.

Year 3 of the Covid Era - WEEKS 91-100

Day 704 - Thursday, February 24 - In decline

News blues…

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100 Day 702 - Tuesday, February 22 - Done and dusted?

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100 Day 700 - Sunday, February 20 - More of the same

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100 Day 697 - Friday, February 18 - 100 Weeks

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99 Day 696 - Thursday, February 17 - Sweep out the old

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 695 - Wednesday, February 16 - "Normalcy" ahead?

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99 Day 693 - Monday, February 14

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99 Day 692 - Sunday, February 13 - Chillin'

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99 Day 691 - Saturday, February 12 - Say what?

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 98 Day 689 - Thursday, February 10 - Learn to live with it

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 687 - Tuesday, February 8 - Breathe

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 686 - Monday, February 7 - Catch 22

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 685 - Sunday, February 6 - (Personal) Disaster

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 684 - Saturday, February 5 - Plane Spotting

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 683 - Friday, February 4 - Here's hopin'...

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 97 Day 682 - Thursday, February 3 - Culture shock

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 681 - Wednesday, February 2 - Groundhog Day

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 680 - Tuesday, February 1 - Unforgettable

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 678 - Sunday, January 30 - Changes

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 677 - Saturday, January 29 - Uncertainty

News blues

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 676 - Friday, January 28 - Yet another?

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Week 96 Day 675 - Thursday, January 27 - Turn, turn, turn

News blues

Healthy planet, anyone?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day 673 - Tuesday, January 25 - Time out

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100
Day 702 - Tuesday, February 22 - Done and dusted?

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100
Day 700 - Sunday, February 20 - More of the same

Year 3 of the Covid era - Week 100
Day 697 - Friday, February 18 - 100 Weeks

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 696 - Thursday, February 17 - Sweep out the old

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 693 - Monday, February 14

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 692 - Sunday, February 13 - Chillin'

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 99
Day 691 - Saturday, February 12 - Say what?

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 98
Day 689 - Thursday, February 10 - Learn to live with it

Year 3 of the Covid Era - Week 97
Day 682 - Thursday, February 3 - Culture shock

Week 96
Day 675 - Thursday, January 27 - Turn, turn, turn

Week 95
Day 668 - Thursday, January 20 - Plus ça change…

Week 93
Day 654 - Thursday, January 6 - Enough already!

Week 92
Day 647 - Thursday, December 30 - Auld lang syne

Week 91
Day 640 - Thursday, December 23 - Pesky numbers