Tired!

News blues

Covid in the UK:

Swab tests suggest about one in every 16 people is infected, as the contagious Omicron variant BA.2 continues to spread.
That's just under 4.3 million people, up from 3.3 million the week before.
The figures for the week ending 19 March, are thought to give the most accurate reflection of what's happening with the virus in the community.

Read more >>

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On War:
The Times' Marcus Yam, no stranger to war photography, gives a first-person account from Ukraine >> 

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Meidas Touch
Republicans exposed as traitors  (1:33 mins)
Ted Cruz gets HUMILIATED during Confirmation Hearing  (3:33 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

It is inevitable, but still creepy:

Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested.
The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.
Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People were already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in, and they have been found in the faeces of babies and adults.
The scientists analysed blood samples from 22 anonymous donors, all healthy adults and found plastic particles in 17. Half the samples contained PET plastic, which is commonly used in drinks bottles, while a third contained polystyrene, used for packaging food and other products. A quarter of the blood samples contained polyethylene, from which plastic carrier bags are made.

Read “Microplastics found in human blood for first time. Exclusive: The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs” >> 

Abandon hope, all ye who read here: “UN ocean treaty summit collapses as states accused of dragging out talks. Conservationists despair at ‘glacial pace’ of negotiations to protect wildlife and oversee fishing amid high seas’ ‘governance vacuum’”

And, if that’s not enough to worry about, a new investigation by Consumer Reports describes dangerous chemicals found in food wrappers at major fast-food restaurants and grocery chains. Fast-food wrappers and takeout containers at major food chains contain dangerous chemicals known as PFAS.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Tired, tired, tired. 
Tired of painting. 
Tired of clearing pool and pool filter of bamboo and avocado leaves. 
Tired of prepping rental property. 
Tired of being tired.
The good news is the local lap swimming pool is open again, and has been for a week. Truth is, I’m too tired to swim. 
Now that’s tired!

Stung

News blues

According to researchers, including immunologist Nicole Doria-Rose and colleagues at the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine protects people for at least six months and likely longer – even against new variants. 

Protection against the Delta variant, now dominant across the US, barely waned, the National Institutes of Health-led team found. The team will continue to look for evidence of protection beyond six months. “High levels of binding antibodies recognizing all tested variants, including B.1.351 (Beta) and B.1.617.2 (Delta), were maintained in all subjects over this time period.”

Great for those who took the Moderna jab (including my son who works in a medical facility)… not so great for others, such as, well, for example, me. I guess I’ll be back in line again soon, baring my arm for another jab. 

Thanks the gods I have that option…. Thank you, scientists, immunologists, and, yes, Dr Fauci!

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Ed Yong, staff writer at The Atlantic Monthly, has consistently turned out some of the best writing on the pandemic and coronavirus. His most recent piece, “How the Pandemic Ends Now,” is another excellent source of (non-politicized) information.
Read it >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

First, a photographic reminder of the beauty of our planet >> 
Then, how We the People wreak havoc on that same planet – and how nature tries to respond:

Plastic bottles dominate waste in the ocean, with an estimated 1m of them reaching the sea every minute. The biggest culprit is polyethylene terephthalate (Pet) bottles.
A recent study found two bacteria capable of breaking down Pet – or, as the headlines put it, “eating plastic”. Known as Thioclava sp. BHET1 and Bacillus sp. BHET2, the bacteria were isolated in a laboratory – but they were discovered in the ocean.

Read “…the ‘plastisphere’: the synthetic ecosystem evolving at sea” >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

 I’d noticed the browning and shriveling of outer perimeters of the river’s vegetative islands of burgeoning hyacinth and other invasive plants. I suspected that some state department – Fish and wildlife? Regional water board? California State Parks Division of Boating and Waterways? All the above – were spraying herbicides again.
My suspicion proved correct when I captured this shot yesterday morning: herbicides being sprayed along the levee wall across from my houseboat.
While that’s not unusual, it boggles my mind that, knowing what “we” know about chemicals in our environment, “we” continue to choose this chemical way of addressing the problem.

Ironically, having expressed my distrust of environmental contaminants passed off to the public as “of no significance”, today I sprayed a pesticide advertised as “safe around people and pets” at residents of a wasp nest.
I’d repaired and repainted sections of wood trim and was nailing it back into place on the boat when several fierce wasps shot out from under the trim and stung my bare hands. Unlike bees, wasps live to sting again, and again, so I skedaddled – fast - and slammed shut the screen doors behind me.
Spiders, wasps, and similar bugs have staked out hunting and nesting territory on the houseboat. Not a problem. I’m not fearful of bugs. Indeed, I’ve built their presence into my life even as I enjoy my early morning ritual circumnavigating the boat with feather duster to remove the overnight crop of spider webs.
Through the closed window I watched several wasps aggressively patrol the area. They appeared to mean mean business.
I retrieved a can of “safe” insect spray that a friend had left on the boat and, carefully, aimed the spray nozzle in the direction of the hidden nest.
Naturally, the wasps became more agitated.
Since then, I've remained shut up in my hot and stuffy houseboat and given up my plan to finish the trim during daylight. Perhaps tonight, when the wasps are cozily tucked into their nest, I’ll sneak up and spray them. After all, as poet John Lyly wrote, “The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war.”

 
Continuing the topic of environmental contamination, after two years away in South Africa, yesterday evening I participated in an online board meeting as a member of a community overseeing the federally mandated clean up of toxic waste of former Naval Air Station Alameda. 

I’ve participated in this enterprise – the Restoration Advisory Board, RAB - since about 2003, taken great pleasure in doing so, and learned a massive amount about environmental contamination and the effort required to clean it up.
RABs are common around the nation. Many, many contaminated sites, from military bases to private and public businesses, have CERCLA (Superfund) site clean up overseen by community members.
Our community’s cleanup consists of a 2,806-acre area once a Navy installation located on the San Francisco Bay. Solid wastes generated at the site were disposed of in two on-base landfills as well as many sites with unanticipated chemical spills. All liquid industrial wastewaters generated at the site prior to 1974 were discharged untreated into a manmade lagoon and local inner harbor. 

Since this base closed in 1997, about $1 billion has been spent on clean up and rehabilitation. And this NAS is only one of at least four similar sites, all former military bases on San Francisco Bay.
It was good to be back on the board. Moreover, with mixed emotion, we bade farewell to one member who’d been part of the planning of the base closure since 1995. Bert’s about to celebrate his 100th year of life – 26 years of which were spent serving on the RAB - and he’s decided to cut back on his many community serving activities.
Thanks for your many faithful years, Bert!