Here comes the sun

Worldwide (Map) 
January 20, 2023 – 668,465,287 confirmed infections; 6,736,686 deaths
January 20, 2022 – 317,486,000 confirmed infections; 5,516,000 deaths
January 21, 2021 –  96,830,000 confirmed infections;  2,074,000 deaths

US (Map) 
January 20, 2023 – 101,964,661confirmed infections;  1,103,724 deaths
January 20, 2022 – 338,550,400 confirmed infections; 5,568,100 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections:     406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
January 20, 2023 - 4,053,527 confirmed infections; 102,568 deaths
January 20, 2022 – 3,564,600 confirmed infections;  93,571 deaths 

January 21, 2021 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections;  38,900 deaths

Post from:
January 20, 2022 - “Plus ça change” 
January 21, 2021 – “The vulgarian has left the building” 

News blues…

COVID is never going away. But the pandemic will inevitably end at some point. Right?
For many, it already has, with masks, social distancing, and frequent handwashing relegated to a traumatic past they’re unwilling to revisit.
[Recently] the Biden administration extended the U.S. public health emergency for another 90 days, though U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials recently warned states that the emergency status may soon come to an end. World Health Organization officials, too, continue to express optimism that the global health emergency may draw to a close this year. A committee meeting on the matter is set for Jan. 27.
Are we—or are we not—still in a pandemic, three years in?

Read “COVID keeps surging, but life is returning to normal everywhere you look. When will the pandemic really be over?” 

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The Lincoln Project:
Decision  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Look on the bright side: We the People face unprecedented weather …and this ground squirrel is doing its best to warn us to, "for god's sake, do something about climate change"…

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The United States endured 18 separate disasters in 2022 whose damages exceeded $1 billion, with the total coming to $165 billion, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
… Extreme weather events, fueled by human-caused climate change, are occurring at a higher frequency with an increased cost — in dollars and lives.
"Climate change is creating more and more intense, extreme events that cause significant damage and often sets off cascading hazards like intense drought, followed by devastating wildfires, followed by dangerous flooding and mudslides," said Dr. Rick Spinrad, NOAA's administrator, citing the flooding and landslides currently happening in California.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

As it did yesterday morning, a large, shiny golden orb appeared in the eastern section of the sky this morning. I assume it will disappear, as it did yesterday, in the western section of the sky at the end of day. I’ve not seen this golden orb for weeks. It is very welcome.

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Reading the tealeaves, Meso Mary is in for a rough ride. Her latest PET scan shows “hypermetabolic” activity “under the diaphragm”. Translated: the cancer has spread outside the thoracic cavity (her lung pleura) and into her “belly.” Moreover, it has entered the lymph system.
This is scary stuff. 

As Mary – and I – absorb this news, we’re also preparing for the next phase of her treatment: immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy has successfully treated mesothelioma in some patients – at least for a period of time. Mesothelioma, however, is not curable. It goes underground for a period then flares up again. Immunotherapy can create longer periods between resurgence of the disease. That’s not to be sneezed at.
The downside of immunotherapy? The immune system can ‘over-react’ and ‘attack’ organs it assumes are ill or inflamed … leading to damaged liver, or kidneys, or adrenals, or heart, or ….
Alas.
Neither Mary nor I will, as we’d planned, travel to South Africa at the end of this month. Indeed, given the treatment’s expected course, we’ll not travel there until at least August.

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SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:29am
Sunset: 5:10pm
Sun... welcome, sun!
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:18am
Sunset: 7:01pm

Disaster for the planet

This time last year, few expected the pandemic to last. Yet here we are, infection and deaths rates still soaring.
Worldwide (Map) 
July 1, 2021: 182,133,000 confirmed infections; 3,949,200 deaths
July 30, 2020: 17,096,000 confirmed infections; 668,590 deaths

 
US (Map) 
July 1, 2021: 33,667,000 confirmed infections; 604,720 deaths
July 30, 2020: 4,451,000 confirmed infections; 151,270 deaths

 
SA (Coronavirus portal) 
July 1, 2021: 1,973,980 confirmed infections; 60,647 deaths
July 30, 2020: 471,125 confirmed infections; 7,498 deaths

 
So much happened in one year. Post from this time last year: Handed trash? Make compost 

Healthy planet, anyone?

In a December report, United Nations environmental researchers acknowledge that even as global carbon emissions were expected to decrease by about 7% this year due to coronavirus restrictions on normal activities, they had only “briefly slowed ― but were far from eliminated, adding to the historic and ever-increasing burden of human activity on the Earth’s climate...” In summary,

Historic fires
This year was a record-breaker for fires in California — again. As of last year, four of the five largest wildfires in the fire-prone state happened this decade alone. This year, four of the five largest wildfires in state history happened this year alone.
Record-breaking heat
This year is on track to be one of the two hottest ever on record. The planet had its hottest September and its second hottest July and November ever, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Deadly storms
The 2020 storm season was the most active on record. Subtropical storm Theta in November was the 29th named storm of the Atlantic season — breaking the record for the highest number of storms in a year. For only the second time in history, the predetermined list of 21 storm names ran out, leading scientists to use the Greek alphabet to name subsequent storms.
Dramatic loss of sea ice
This year, the Arctic’s sea ice cover shrank to its second lowest levels since records started being kept in the late 1970s, according to NASA. The 14 smallest ice coverage extents for the region have all occurred in the last 14 years, per the NOAA.
The amount of Arctic sea ice coverage each October has declined about 10% per decade — losing an area about the size of South Carolina each year, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Read “This Year Was A Disaster For The Planet” >> 

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Another disaster for the planet? ExxonMobil.
ExxonMobil is keeping "big oil" alive and well. Now, however, Keith McCoy, a senior ExxonMobil lobbyist on Capitol Hill who has represented the company in its liaison with the U.S. Congress for the last eight years, let the cat out the bag. He named the senators on ExxonMobil’s payroll and doing their biding.
Keith McCoy explained that lobbyists aim to have close relationships with officials.

"You want to be able to go to the chief… and say we need congressman so and so to be able to either introduce this bill, we need him to make a floor statement, we need him to send a letter. You name it, we've asked for everything…."
McCoy said he has 11 U.S. senators who are "crucial" in ExxonMobil's efforts:
"Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Maggie Hassan, Senator John Barrasso, Senator John Cornyn, Senator Steve Daines, Senator Chris Coons, Senator Mark Kelly and Senator Marco Rubio," were all cited.
McCoy went on to explain that the last thing they want is to appear in a public hearing before Congress where the American people can see.
"We don't want it to be us, to have these conversations, especially in a hearing. It's getting our associations to step in and have those conversations and answer those tough questions and be for, the lack of a better term, the whipping boy for some of these members of congress," McCoy confessed.

Hmmm. Demotion in McCoy’s future. What about the senators’ futures? 

Read the article >> 

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The Lincoln Project: People are saying…  (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m back in the “inner bay” – the cool part of San Francisco Bay Area – to do errands, visit a friend, and spread my wings after the confines of my small houseboat. Living aboard fulltime stimulates the “realistic” area of my brain: yes, I love living so close to the “natural” environment. But my houseboat is small - about 264 sq feet of "private" space (place deck space of about 150 sq feet) and it's no longer in a covered slip, but exposed to full sun, full time, with temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit amost days. And 90 is on the cooler days. 

Can I do this for weeks at a time? 

Do I want to do it for weeks at a time? 

Enquiring minds wanna know….