Still swinging

After decades living in America, I know American politics as a pendulum, swinging from one extreme to the other. There’s little balance upon which people can depend. (I’m not the first to use this metaphor. ) 

The Trump years have only widened the arc of the swing – and highlighted underlying layers of racism, sexism, socio-economic disparities….
How we’ll do it, I don’t know, but We the People must extricate ourselves from the trauma of Trump.

Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris for vice-president. As a Californian and San Francisco Bay Area resident, I’m less enthused than many about Kamala Harris. She comes with baggage. 

But it means the pendulum will swing in the other direction – albeit not too far. Progressive change is not in the cards, but picking up the pieces and re-establishing government after Trump’s devastation? That’s vital. 

News blues… 

New Zealand family tests positive for Covid-19 after 102 days without locally transmitted coronavirus cases

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said four cases had been detected in a single family in Auckland from an unknown source. Ardern said she understood the disappointment of New Zealanders who believed the virus had been quashed after a strict seven-week lockdown earlier this year.
"It was perhaps easy to feel New Zealand was out of the woods, my request is not to feel dispirited or disheartened. Of all the countries in the world, New Zealand has gone the longest without a resurgence - but because of that we always knew we had to plan, and we've done that." 

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Is relaxation of lockdown regulations in South Africa’s near future?

The National Coronavirus Command Council met...[and] President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation no later than Saturday, when the state of disaster he declared in March is due to expire.
Even as SA passed the grim milestone of 10,000 deaths [overnight] … there are strong signs that the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape have seen their surge. They warned, however, that KwaZulu-Natal has yet to reach its peak. Professor Salim Abdool Karim, head of health minister Zweli Mkhize's advisory committee on the outbreak… is "very worried" about his home province.
Health Minister Mkhize …warned of the possibility of a second wave… and urged South Africans to stay on guard. "Whilst we are cautiously optimistic, it is still too early for us to make definite conclusions regarding the observed decline. We need to continue to track all these indicators and ensure that our testing capacity reflects a realistic picture of our epidemiological status." 

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Coronavirus testing, a la California.

Two types of tests are available to determine whether a person currently is infected with the coronavirus: molecular tests, such as so-called “RT-PCR tests,” which detect the virus’s genetic material, and antigen tests, which detect specific proteins on the surface of the virus. (Another test, known as the antibody or serological, test, shows whether a person has been infected in the past.) This chart, prepared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, outlines the differences:

Click to enlarge. 

As the chart (left) indicates, antigen tests yield results more quickly than molecular tests. But, according to the FDA, they “have a higher chance of missing an active infection.” As the Mayo Clinic explained,

A positive antigen test result is considered very accurate, but there's an increased chance of false negative results – meaning it's possible to be infected with the virus but have negative antigen test results. So antigen tests aren't as sensitive as molecular tests are. Depending on the situation, the doctor may recommend a molecular test to confirm a negative antigen test result.
The risk of misleading results has led public-health agencies to discourage the use of antigen tests in a non-medical setting. Accordingly, both the Association of Public Health Laboratories and the California Department of Public Health warn against using such tests to screen asymptomatic persons, like those who would go to a community testing site. (The two organizations also recommend against using such tests to screen healthcare workers, first responders, and other essential workers.)

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The Lincoln Project: Moving day  (0:55)
Interview with Steve Schmidt of Lincoln Project on difference between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris  (5:25 mins)
Meidas Touch: The Rule of Law or Trump (1:00)

Healthy futures, anyone?

Focus on coral. 

© The Conversation 

“Cities of the sea” is how Dr. Sylvia Earle of Mission Blue describes coral: bustling neighborhoods of settled residents, familiar faces, multiple generations….
Smithsonian’s Ocean organization uses the same metaphor and educates...

Corals are related to sea anemones, and they all share the same simple structure, the polyp. The polyp is like a tin can open at just one end: the open end has a mouth surrounded by a ring of tentacles. The tentacles have stinging cells, called nematocysts, that allow the coral polyp to capture small organisms that swim too close. Inside the body of the polyp are digestive and reproductive tissues. Corals differ from sea anemones in their production of a mineral skeleton.
Corals do not have to only rely on themselves for their defenses because mutualisms (beneficial relationships) abound on coral reefs. The partnership between corals and their zooxanthellae is one of many examples of symbiosis, where different species live together and help each other. Some coral colonies have crabs and shrimps that live within their branches and defend their home against coral predators with their pincers. Parrotfish, in their quest to find seaweed, will often bite off chunks of coral and will later poop out the digested remains as sand. One kind of goby chews up a particularly nasty seaweed, and even benefits by becoming more poisonous itself.

Coral reefs support over 25% of marine life by providing food, shelter and a place for fish and other organisms to reproduce and raise young. Today, ocean warming driven by climate change is stressing reefs worldwide.
Rising ocean temperatures cause bleaching events – episodes in which corals expel the algae that live inside them and provide the corals with most of their food, as well as their vibrant colors. When corals lose their algae, they become less resistant to stressors such as disease and eventually may die.
Hundreds of organizations worldwide are working to restore damaged coral reefs by growing thousands of small coral fragments in nurseries, which may be onshore in laboratories or in the ocean near degraded reefs. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Stymied by monkeys’ wanton destruction of germinating pea and bean seedlings in the veggie garden, I heeded friends’ advice to disguise veggies by distributing them among garden plants.
Yesterday, I began preparing veggie beds – and incorporated abundant pond weed.
Perks of pond weed. Despite the winter hibernation, pond weed continues to grow, albeit slowly.
Over summer and fall/autumn, I’d composted abundant pond weed. It doesn’t break down quickly, but it helps retain moisture in the soil.
I reached into the pond and harvested piles of winter pond weed and padded the bottom layer of the new veggie patches.
Next week – after the predicted cold snap – I will transplant pea, bean, beet, and zucchini seedings.
I never occurred to me, a month ago, when I began germinating seeds in the recycled deep freeze I use as a cold frame/greenhouse, that monkeys would imperil seedlings. Older and wiser now, I wish I’d had the foresight to plant many more seeds.
It takes only one monkey only one second to destroy weeks of seedling care.