Up ticks

News blues

In the United States

… the national seven-day average of new COVID cases hit nearly 49,000 up from about 27,000 three weeks earlier. The uptick is likely being driven by BA.2, the new, more transmissible offshoot of Omicron that’s now dominant in the United States. BA.2 does seem to be troubling: In Western Europe and the U.K. in particular, where previous waves have tended to hit a few weeks earlier than they have in the U.S., the variant fueled a major surge in March that outpaced the Delta spike from the summer.
… so far, the official numbers in the U.S. don’t seem to show that a similar wave has made it stateside. But those numbers aren’t exactly reliable these days.

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Africa, too

… is seeing an uptick in Covid-19 cases – largely driven by a doubling in cases reported in South Africa, according to the World Health Organization. New Covid cases and deaths on the continent have increased for the first time after declining for more than a month.

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The Lincoln Project: Laughing (0:55 mins)

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On war…

Ukraine – photo essay - April 29, 2022 >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

© Adam Zyglis | Copyright 2022 Cagle Cartoons

Will the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry respond to California’s attorney general’s sweeping investigation into their alleged role in the spread of rampant plastic pollution?

AG Rob Bonta said that the investigation will focus on what he called a “half-century campaign of deception” and that it will target companies “that have caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.” Plastic pollution has long been a tentpole environmental issue, with conservationists decrying the spread of plastics to the remotest corners of the Arctic, into the planet’s geology and in the bodies of everything from the stomachs of sea birds to human lungs.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

This time next week I should be back in Californy…
Tick tock...

Tick tock...

 
Autumn in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:26am
Sunset: 5:26pm

Spring in San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 6:15am
Sunset: 7:57pm