Covid-19. Passé?

News blues…

Move over, Covid-19! You’re passé. You’re yesterday’s news. We, the people have moved on… to war!
What’s amazing is Russians are protesting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine >> photo essay of anti-war protests across Russia 
But before we leave Covid-19 in the dust, author Steven Taylor, professor and clinical psychologist at the University of British Columbia, and author of The Psychology of Pandemics, reminds us that the pandemic changed everything about our lives: how we worked, socialised, travelled. Dealing with so many changes at once was a mental challenge for us all. As Covid-19 fizzles out, and things go back to “normal”, some of these pressures will ease as life becomes more recognisable. But the end of a pandemic will require an adjustment, just as the beginning did.
We are not entering the same “normal” that we left – and we are not the same people we were then.
Read his article, “I wrote the book on pandemic psychology. Post-Covid will take some getting used to” >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Primetime propaganda (0:58 mins)
Old man  (0:14 mins)
Today's Republican Party  (0:46 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

World leaders will come together online and in Nairobi, Kenya, next week, in what is described as a “critical moment” in progress towards the first ever global treaty to combat plastic waste. …
[According to Inger Andersen, director of the UN Environment Programme] an agreement at the UN environment assembly could be the most important multilateral pact since the Paris climate accord in 2015.
Public disgust and impatience over the growing mountain of plastic waste has led to an unprecedented “degree of focus” that could see member states agreeing a blueprint for a legally binding treaty to control plastics “from source to sea”, she said. “Public impatience is something that is very powerful. … The public has had enough. We are all dependent on plastic, but they obviously want to see some resolution of this issue.”

Hear! Hear! 

Read “Plastic summit could be most important green deal since Paris accords, says UN” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The mysteries of old houses include expecting that after removing old and ugly carpet, the floor below will be bare concrete that can be stained to produce an unusual, useful, and attractive “look.”
Alas, removing carpet in this old house disclosed one third of the floor space devoted to two large, thick slabs of plywood. The screws in each corner of both slabs are already stripped so I cannot easily remove them to discover what’s underneath the wood. The implication of this plywood is that there’s some sort of space below. The oddity? Far as I can tell, there is no more house under it, only dirt.
Have I stumbled upon a long-lost crypt? A secret stash of rhino horns? Piles of Kruger Rands?
Enquiring minds wanna know….
The good news? After removing the carpet and foam backing, I placed them on the street side of the security gate – hoping someone passing by would adopt them and carry them home. (Such “donations” have proven popular in the past.) However, I assumed a 50/50 chance since carpet and foam is bulky and requires a truck or bakkie to carry them away.
An hour after setting out the goods, I checked the status. All had disappeared.
Yay! Nothing from this house went into landfill today.