October updates

Today’s Covid numbers compared with numbers exactly one year ago:
(Note: worldwide, we’re on the cusp of 5 million dead.) 

Worldwide (Map) 
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths
Worldwide vaccinations: 6,690,061,700. That’s 6.6 billion. Amazing.

US (Map) 
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 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

News blues

SA recorded 591 new Covid-19 cases and 80 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). 
… Of the new cases, only two provinces recorded more than 100 infections in the past day — KwaZulu-Natal with 129 and the Western Cape with 124. Gauteng was third most affected, with 71. Limpopo had the fewest new cases, with seven recorded. 

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Vaccines for kids ages 5-11 prepare to roll out, according to the CDC’s plan advising states on how to carry it out. 

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Where the rubber meets the road? Stopping the spread of COVID-19 is a great way to help U.S. military families, yet anti-vaxxers don’t see it that way: The Hypocrisy of the Anti-vax Patriot 

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Seeking resources and information on Covid vaccines? Explore the CDC website >>

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Whackidoodle-ism continues
The Lincoln Project: This week in the Republican Party  (2:00 mins)
One would think that, with close to 5 billion dead from a coronavirus on Planet Earth, contradictory humans would re-evaluate their points of view. Instead, too many continue to spew theories suitable only for Planet Whackidoodle:

• End-times radio host says COVID vaccines implant 'an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite' in your body 
• Utah Protesters Claim Hospitals Are Killing People Who Have COVID 
• Current top 10 conspiracy theories 

Healthy planet, anyone?

California’s Dixie Fire is now 90% contained. The fire has burned a total of 963,195 acres, the largest single wildfire in California history.
See how California’s Dixie Fire  created its own weather … 
Tornadoes… 
Fire whirls … 
And atmospheric instability… 
Fires and climate change …  and more on fires and climate change 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Other than continuing to prep my apartment for short-term rental – and respond to interested parties about that – life has been non-eventful. Intermittent rain continues… Pacific Flyway birds continue to arrive in the park and on the bay.
Life is good enough.

Doom sun

 

Sun through smoke air
7:30 pm August 6, 2021

News blues

It’s day 501 of lockdown in South Africa where the Covid news ain’t good.

The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal both accounted for more new Covid-19 cases than Gauteng in the past 24 hours, a clear indication of the current coronavirus trajectory across SA.
While cases are on the decline in Gauteng, the two coastal provinces were showing a worrying upward trend.
There were 13,652 new cases in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Friday. Of these, 4,128 were in the Western Cape, 2,673 in KwaZulu-Natal and 2,534 in Gauteng.

Read more >> 

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As the US falters on Covid and it’s vaccination program, six European Union states - Malta, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland - have all overtaken the UK in terms of the percentages of their populations who are fully vaccinated.

While Britain’s hugely successful campaign was bound to slow first as it ran into harder-to-reach, more vaccine-hesitant groups, the rate of decline is dramatic: the UK is currently administering a fraction of the daily doses of some EU states. 

Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 200 million on Wednesday as the more-infectious Delta variant threatens areas with low vaccination rates and strains healthcare systems. 
And, Dr. Anthony Fauci, top U.S. infectious disease physician and the scientist hated by a segment of the American population for doing, you know, his scientific work, says Americans should expect 'a flood' of COVID-19 vaccine mandates after full FDA approval. According to USA TODAY, Dr Fauci doesn't see future lockdowns but expects vaccine mandates to be common.
Time will tell. Who’d a thunk ‘Mericans would have been as whacky as many have been around health and safety, conflating it with some voodoo idea of “freedom” . Go figure.

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Healthy planet, anyone?

In California, at least eight people were missing on Saturday as the Dixie fire, what has become the largest single wildfire in California’s recorded history, continued to scorch through northern communities, forest and tinder-dry scrub in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
In Greece news of the extreme heat have given way to news of suburban forest on the Greek capital’s northern fringes had gone up in flames.

Infernos seemingly redolent of Dante’s hell had incinerated everything in their path; friends had lost homes; thousands had been evacuated with residents and tourists fleeing blighted zones by any means possible. Terraces, an Athenian’s respite against the blazing heat, had been transformed into ash-laden no-go zones. 

In western Canada, a second community has been destroyed by wildfire as authorities in the region scramble to contain the destructive toll of climate change.
The popular summer holiday destination, of Monte Lake, with a seasonal population of nearly 3,000, likely suffered extensive damage when the White Rock Lake wildfire jumped a highway. Conditions remain too dangerous for a full damage assessment. Residents had been ordered to evacuate and no fatalities were reported. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Up here in the Delta, fire-related smoke and haze is the order of the day. The AQI (Air Quality Index) is better than yesterday – in the upper 90s to low 100s today.
I snapped the above photos of the sun at about 7:30pm last night. The photo doesn’t do it justice: the orb was bright luminous orange. It looked scary. Might it be the dreaded "Doom Sun"?

Throughout the summer, you might have looked to the skies and noticed that the Sun looked distinctly scarier than usual. Maybe it’s taken on dark shades of crimson and burnt orange not-too-unlike that of hellfire and scorched brimstone. It’s also typically accompanied by smoke and bad air. This is the dreaded “Doom Sun.” 

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Trips to the California coast often result in me leaving behind traces of my visit. 

I leave no plastic or other human tainted debris. Instead, I cast around on the beach and construct in situ art, usually of the totem variety. Traces of my most recent visit may still remain on the beach….

Hyacinth as virus

As fog rose off the water, I captured drifting water hyacinth.

Doesn't it look like illustrations of the coronavirus?

Worldwide (Map) 
August 5, 2021 – 200,670,800 confirmed infections; 4,264,000 deaths
Vaccinated worldwide: 4,303,804,250
June 3, 2021 – 171,746,400 confirmed infections; 3,693,300 deaths
Vaccinated worldwide: 2,002,900,000

US (Map) 
August 5, 2021 – 35,392,700 confirmed infections; 615,150 deaths
June 3, 2021 – 33,308,000 confirmed infections; 596,000 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
August 5, 2021 – 2,497,655 confirmed infections; 73,875 deaths
June 3, 2021 – 1,669,300 confirmed infections; 56,610 deaths

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The Lincoln Project, Made  (0:55 mins)
Trump’s North Carolina Speech in 70 Seconds  (1:05 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Fires, drought, and Covid plague California and the Pacific Northwest.
Scary.
Fires: The Dixie Fire is still uncontained after burning for several weeks and taking down towns  .
Another, newer fire near Auburn in the Sierra foothills  brought evacuees to share friends’ home in Grass Valley.
Even small Bradford Island in the Delta – population estimated at 15 to 20 individuals - was alight. Three residents were assisted by the fire district to evacuate via ferry boat.

Bradford Island was flooded to put out a brush fire that started early Monday morning on what is a reclaimed peat wetland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The fire was reported at about 1:30 a.m. on the 2,100-acre island, according to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District and prompted evacuations. As of 5 a.m. the fire had burned 212 acres and two structures, but no injuries were reported.

Drought: As irrigated crops compete with fish for scarce water, farmers in the Klamath Basin lose hope as drought closes in. ‘It’s like a sad country song’ and they lament they may be the last generation to work the land. >> 

Covid:

Worldwide, more than 200 million people have been infected with COVID-19, more than 4.2 million people have died from the virus, a staggering figure that includes more than 614,000 Americans, 558,000 Brazilians and at least 425,000 people in India.
…remember that those figures are only the known accounts of infections and deaths associated with COVID-19. Various studies have estimated that the true toll of the pandemic is much higher in some areas. In India, for example, experts suggest the official death toll could be one-half, one-fifth or even less than one-tenth of the actual figure, which may never be known.
It took about 12 months for the coronavirus to infect the first 100 million people worldwide; the next 100 million were infected in just a six-month time frame.
Read more >> 

And yet, in the US, particularly Florida, politicians continue an idiotic path. Florida’s governor chooses to squabble with the president instead of the virus… 
Louisiana’s Attorney General Jeff Landry advises how to invoke the Bible to object to face masks in schools and encourages employees to undermine COVID restrictions.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Based on a lower temperature forecast for today, I began, soon after sunrise, to patch the houseboat’s deck roof. I’d picked up materials while visiting the inner Bay and had my schedule neatly planned. Alas, 88F has the same effect on this human body as 98F: just too hot to tiptoe around with tools.
I’d swept dust from the deck last night and this morning I schlepped up a hosepipe to wash the deck then I patched assorted cracks and holes. While waiting for this material to dry, I prepped other sections and, alas, had to destroy a nest of wasps ensconced in canvas. By the time I was ready to paint, the heat had blossomed, and it was just too hot to continue.
I’ll wait until late afternoon after the heat dissipates to continue.
Best lain plans of mice and (wo)man, etc., etc.