Costs of denialism?

Worldwide (Map) 
October 20, 2022 – 626,441,100 confirmed infections; 6,573,750 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths

US (Map) 
October 20, 2022 - 97,085,250 confirmed infections; 1,066,600 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 45,161,400 confirmed infections; 729,500 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 20, 2022 - 4,024,555 confirmed infections; 102,246 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

Post from:
October 22, 2021 “Not much” 
October 21, 2020 “October updates” 

News blues

The imbalance in death rates among the nation’s racial and ethnic groups has been a defining part of the pandemic since the start. To see the pattern, The Washington Post analyzed every death during more than two years of the pandemic. Early in the crisis, the differing covid threat was evident in places such as Memphis and Fayette County. Deaths were concentrated in dense urban areas, where Black people died at several times the rate of White people.
….
Over time, the gap in deaths widened and narrowed but never disappeared — until mid-October 2021, when the nation’s pattern of covid mortality changed, with the rate of death among White Americans sometimes eclipsing other groups. .
A Post analysis of covid death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the racial disparity vanished at the end of last year, becoming roughly equal. And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people.

Read more >> 

Gov. Gavin Newsom will end California's COVID-19 state of emergency in February 2023 and surrender the emergency powers he has held for over two years, the governor's office announced this week. What does this really mean?
Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Political ads flood the airwaves as We the People get closer to a nailbiter election. (Each day as I read the news, I CANNOT believe that ANYONE would vote for ANY Republican “policies”. WTF?)
1849  (0:57 mins)
J. D. Vance is an Extremist  (0:56 mins)
Even Fox News gets it  (1:00 mins)
The Difference Between McMullin and Lee  (1:14 mins)
Mike Lee begs, Part 2 (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The SF Bay Area is experiencing wonderful Indian Summer weather. Additionally, it’s a pleasure to walk along the beach with Mary and more wonderful to hear her maturing perspective on the devastating form of cancer that afflicts her. In short, Mary finds the implications on her health – mesothelioma does not reverse, nor it is curable – a “kind of precious gift that allows me to truly understand and appreciate the gravitas that is life and living. Weird to say but I’m more fully enjoying each moment of my life. More weird to say, more people might face similar fates to allow their deeper apprecation of their lives - and the implications of wasting their time on over-emotional nonsense such as vaccine denialism, etcetera etcertera etcetera."
Thank you, Mary.

***

Mary suffers from toxic contamination of asbestos, and subsequent malignancies in her left lung with “some” implication of lymph nodes near her lower trachea. 

What is asbestos? A mineral mined that, among other uses, is an effective foil against excessive heat buildup. 

What’s its history and is it banned in the US? 

In a word, no, it is not banned. 

I’ll collect and share pertinent info on this mineral as it becomes available.
Asbestos history and background – and culpability
ProPublica: “Swimming in this stuff”: The U.S. never banned asbestos. These workers are paying the price. 

As other countries outlawed asbestos, workers in a New York plant were “swimming” in it. Now, in a fight against the chemical industry, the United States may finally ban the potent carcinogen. But help may come too late.

Read more >> 

NPR: They inhaled asbestos for decades on the job. Now, workers break their silence.

While the U.S. considers finally banning the carcinogen, a group of men have come forward, saying they were exposed repeatedly while working at a chemical plant in New York.

Read more >>

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 6:24pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:15am
Sunset: 6:11pm

Home alone

News blues

Plummeting Covid-19 case counts across the United States are leading to lifted mask mandates and more conversations about steps toward normalcy — but more people are dying of the coronavirus now than during most points of the pandemic.
Read more >> 

The pandemic is following a very predictable and depressing pattern. As with diseases such as malaria and HIV, rich countries are “moving on” from COVID while poor ones continue to get ravaged.
Read more >> 

***

War!:
Not focused on Covid-19 … but meet Fiona Hill, my hero since I watched her uncompromising and forthright testimony during Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. (Video clip from that time >>)
Fast forward to March 3, and Fiona Hill and Stephen Colbert chat about her dinner with Vladimir Putin, Russians protesting Putin’s current war, and the invasion and demolition of Ukraine and Ukrainians >>  (9:28 mins) 

Nuclear weapons:
For more than 30 years, one very good friend has engaged the reality of nuclear weapons and nuclear power: that they’re no good for people or planet. This friendship makes me sensitive to the topic – and very fearful of Putin’s putsch into Ukraine. These days, ridding our planet of nukes – weaponry and power generation – should be in the forefront of all humans’ minds.
The consequences of nuclear war would be devastating. Much more should – and can – be done to reduce the risk that humanity will ever face such a war. 

***

The Lincoln Project: Biden's Response to Tyranny  (1:35 mins)
Vote Vets:
Party of Putin  (1:10 mins)
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Alexander Vindman Articulates What Must Happen Now That Russia Invaded Ukraine  (1:29 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Scientists have doubted whether the process of evolution can create “prudent predators” able to avoid extinguishing their own prey – and therefore themselves.
But “wild life” predators must avoid overexploiting their prey if they are to survive. They cannot evolve to become so aggressive that they eat all their prey and then go extinct themselves?
Why – and how – have they “done” this?
Read “Animals have evolved to avoid overexploiting their resources – can humans do the same?” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Last night was my first night, ever, alone – well, with three dogs – in my late mother’s house. (After a year of barely any time off, our domestic worker took the weekend off to attend a traditional Zulu wedding. This includes a cow meeting its demise and its peeled and dripping skin drying out over a fence while the edible parts are consumed with gusto).
Locking up the house last night was an adventure. I discovered where are the “weaknesses” … noticed which locks are tenuous, which exterior lights need attention….
Unlocking this morning was an adventure, too. Under the watchful eyes of hungry dogs, I managed this laborious task then doled out breakfast.
For the next 3 days, I’ve arranged my weekend to ensure the appearance of constant human presence in the house. This, to discourage unexpected incursions. (That thuglet who threatened my life still haunts the neighborhood, albeit mostly sleeping in local bushes as he sleeps off drunken episodes. I keep an eye out for him and opt to prevent incursions from the gen pop, too.) 

This weekend will be replete with painting walls, gardening, hedge clipping….
A year ago, I perseverated over purchasing a mechanical hedge clipper to trim the many hedges around my apartment. While this fecund vegetation affords privacy - one of the reasons I chose that apartment - one afternoon manually clipping presents reality: I can’t do this regularly. Reluctant but practical, I put aside ambitions of designing and cutting shapes - waves? Animals? People? - and contemplated the glory of mechanical clippers.
Alas, the selection of such tools around here is narrow: most clippers are too big and powerful for me - or too small and not powerful enough.
A friend swore by her small, battery-operated clipper, but I wasn’t enamored of the manufacturer and avoided that brand.
Hedge clippers were the last thing on my mind after I departed the country last year and attended to the demands of Covid-19.
A year later, those privacy-presenting hedges tower over my apartment garden. They desperately need clipping. I haven’t the appetite manually to clip them. Moreover, the many hedges in my late-mother’s garden need clipping too.
Rekindling interest in the perfect mechanical hedge clippers, I comparison-shopped in three local stores, saw little that enticed, returned home to the reality of overgrown hedges, and grappled with my dilemma.
I returned to one store, listened again to Vision, the salesperson, and focused on one brand. All the men with whom I consulted about mechanical clippers steered me away from purchasing a battery-operated set: “battery-run tools are limited”. Nevertheless, I purchased a battery-operated Stihl brand tool that perfectly suits me.
How did I settle on it?
The petrol (“gas”) fuel clipper offers a rope pull. After months struggling to start my small gadabout-boat motor with a rope pull, I swore never again tug anything with rope pull.
For my late mother’s large garden, the electrically powered versioin requires a very long extension cord (cost about R1000,00/US$65). And it would lie in/near water while I clipped. No way I’m risking electrocution if water intruded into the electrical system.
The set I purchased has a battery designed to run for up to two hours. Since I work 30-to-45-minute sessions, it should work. It’s lightweight enough for that duration session, too.
Back home, I charged the battery, inserted it, and clipped.
The device is 95% perfect for my size and strength. The 5% that’s imperfect? It struggles to cut long, sword-shaped, densely packed leaves. I’m a soupçon disappointed, but perfection is rare in a single garden tool. (After all, it’s the hunt for perfection that sends gardeners back to garden stores and allows tool manufacturers to generate profits.)
I’m chuffed with my almost-perfect mechanical hedge clippers.
What fun!

***

Eight days to the beginning of California's daylight saving time regime.
It’s drizzling in the San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:34am
Sunset: 6:06pm

It’s drizzling in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:53am
Sunset: 6:27pm