Admiration abounds

I’m one of those artists  sorely lacking in mathematical skills and somewhat lacking in ability to retain scientific facts.
I accept my mathematical realities.
Attempts at improving my basic scientific knowledge always culminates in my profound admiration for scientists and science.
Science is not a panacea for all of life’s ills but it adds a compelling dimension. 

News blues…

The virus is evolving, but the antibodies that fight it can change, too.

To locate some of the world’s most superpowered cells, look no further than the human immune system. The mission of these hometown heroes is threefold: Memorize the features of dangerous microbes that breach the body’s barriers. Launch an attack to bring them to heel. Then squirrel away intel to quash future assaults.
…The immune system is comprehensive, capable of dueling with just about every microbe it meets. It’s archival, ace at memorizing the details of its victories and defeats. It might be complicated, but it is also, simply put, cool as hell.

Read “The Body Is Far From Helpless Against Coronavirus Variants” >> 

Side effects from the second Covid-19 vaccine are just a sign that protection is kicking in as it should.

When hit with the second injection, the immune system recognizes the onslaught, and starts to take it even more seriously. The body’s encore act, uncomfortable though it might be, is evidence that the immune system is solidifying its defenses against the virus.
“By the second vaccine, it’s already amped up and ready to go,” said Jasmine Marcelin, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Fortunately, side effects resolve quickly, whereas COVID-19 can bring on debilitating, months-long symptoms and has killed more than 2 million people.

Read “The Second COVID-19 Shot Is a Rude Reawakening for Immune Cells” 

FYI: The Atlantic Monthly, usually subscription based, offers free coronavirus coverage to any and all readers. Catch up on solid investigation and writing >> 

***

WHO Wuhan mission finds possible signs of wider original outbreak in 2019. 

Investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) looking into the origins of coronavirus in China have discovered signs the outbreak was much wider in Wuhan in December 2019 than previously thought, and are urgently seeking access to hundreds of thousands of blood samples from the city that China has not so far let them examine.
The lead investigator for the WHO mission, Peter Ben Embarek, told CNN in a wide-ranging interview that the mission had found several signs of the more wide-ranging 2019 spread, including establishing for the first time there were over a dozen strains of the virus in Wuhan already in December. The team also had a chance to speak to the first patient Chinese officials said had been infected, an office worker in his 40s, with no travel history of note, reported infected on December 8.

***

Profanity alert! Yes, Corey Ryan Forrester uses “hardcore” language to express his frustrated opinion  but listen to him anyway. And, if, essentially, you agree with him, speak up and speak out in your state, town, and neighborhood (minus the profanity)….

 
Another way of thinking about at it (and an opportunity to examine your own assumptions and actions): “History Will Judge the Complicit. Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president?” 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Around the world, coastal waters are steadily growing darker. This darkening—a change in the water’s color and clarity—has the potential to cause huge problems for oceans and their inhabitants.
“It’s affecting the quality of the sea we know,” says Oliver Zielinski, who runs the Coastal Ocean Darkening project  at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. These “changes in the physics will lead to biological changes,” he adds.
Some of the causes behind ocean darkening are well understood: Fertilizer might enter the water and cause an algal bloom, or boats might stir up light-blocking silt. But other causes are murkier. During heavy rains, for instance, organic matter—primarily from decaying plants and loose soil—can enter oceans as a brown, light-blocking slurry. This process is well documented in rivers and lakes, but has largely been overlooked in coastal areas.

Read “Coastal Darkening Is a Hidden Environmental Nuisance"  >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

We’re heading towards one year of lockdown in South Africa. Initially, I’d planned to create a day-by-day record how South Africans in my small part of the country acted and reacted to the unfolding pandemic. I’d overlooked the reality: that I’d have to expose myself to contracting the virus to do that. Instead, I’ve focused on the obstacles I face daily in creating a safer environment for my 87-year-old mother under pandemic conditions. Today, at Lockdown Level 2, South Africans wear masks and sanitize on entering stores, but it appears much else is business as usual.
Biz as usual can’t be true for people having to work or to find work.
The range of experiences in that category - “people having to work or find work” - however, is enormous.
I had a small view of that yesterday when I young man arrived at the security gate. He carried what South Africans call a “bush cutter” (Americans call it a “weed whacker”).
Our gardener has been too weak, post illness, to cull the over-human-height weeds outside the house. This, while we’re trying to sell my mother’s house, gives a bad first impression: no “curb appeal.”
I negotiated with the bush cutter-wielding man through the gate and we agreed upon a price and the extent of work.
I also asked if he had water to drink. He said he had nothing – to drink or to eat.
I asked our domestic worker to make him a serving of sandwiches and a drink.
She went a step further and offered him lunch, too. I’d assumed the cutting wouldn’t require him staying around until lunch time but … his choice.
After finishing the cutting and his lunch, he set off to seek further work.
I learned later that he’d travelled more than 15 kilometers, from a more upscale neighborhood to seek work here. How did he travel? Who knows? Taxi? Bus? Ride with a friend?
Life for most young South Africans is hard.
Imagine having to stalk various neighborhood carrying a bush cutter– and fuel to run it - and offer your services through well-defended security gates. “Hit or miss” trivializes a day-to-day reality and doesn’t begin to cover the stress of such a life.
Moreover, under “normal” conditions, that is, our gardener being healthy, I’d have rebuffed this young man’s offer of service.
It’s sobering to think of him trying his best, day after day after day, to make enough money to eat, seek work, and fuel his bush cutter.

***

Hoping to find her less tired, I visited my mother during the 3pm – 4pm visitor slot. Alas, she was just as tired, if not more so, during that time. I asked if she’d like me to bring photos of the good old days: Bobby the dog, Jacko the pet monkey, Teaser, Squibs, Gypsy, Robin, Janet the horses…. She nodded.
As has been said before by people far wiser than I: Old age is not for the squeamish.