Lemons to the rescue

On war and the culture war

Ah, me. This morning I woke up to a WhatsApp message, decorated by dozens of lemon emojis , sent by a South Africa acquaintance trying to be helpful. Before you read this message, be sure that I am NOT promoting anything said here. These are the same kinds of beliefs held by folks who believe ivermectin or similar prevents or cures Covid, etc. It does not and, to date, no tests show otherwise. WHO advises it "only be used in drug trials."  I share this message as an example of the arrogant and stupid assumptions people make in their desire to "help". It is BS. And, here’s that message – typos and all:

Please share in yr groups
Read x abou the *Lemon Peel* & it pains me to hear about these facts & proves that the drug companies would rather profit on our *Pains & Suffering* than educate us on *Alternative Medicines & Natural Remedies.* Feel sorry for those *Dead & Gone* that couldn't afford or get hold of the *Chemo* or whatever medicines they prescribe and didn't know about these facts, thank goodness for *Social Media*
AMAZING FROZEN LEMONS
Place the washed lemon in the freezer.
Once frozen, get your grater, & shred the whole lemon (no need to peel it) and sprinkle it on your foods!
On vegetables, salad, ice cream, soup, cereals, noodles, spaghetti sauce, rice, sushi, fish dishes, ... the list is endless.
All the foods will get an unexpected wonderful taste!
Most likely, you only think of lemon juice as vitamin C ??
Not anymore!
What's the major advantage of using the whole lemon other than preventing waste & adding new taste to your dishes?
Lemon peels contain as much as 5 to 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself & that's what you've been wasting!
Lemon peels are health rejuvenators in eradicating toxic elements in the body.
The surprising benefits of lemon is the miraculous ability to kill cancer cells! It is 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy!!
Why do we not know about that?
Because there are laboratories interested in making a synthetic version that will bring them huge profits.
You can now help a friend in need by letting him/her know that lemon juice is beneficial in preventing the disease.
Its taste is pleasant and it does not produce the horrific effects of chemotherapy.

How many people will die while this closely guarded secret is kept, so as not to jeopardize the multimillionaires large corporations?
This plant is a proven remedy against cancers of all types.
It is considered also as an anti microbial spectrum against bacterial infections and fungi, effective against internal parasites and worms, it regulates blood pressure & an antidepressant, combats stress & nervous disorders.
The source of this information is fascinating: it comes from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, says that after more than 20 laboratory tests since 1970,the extracts revealed that It destroys the malignant cells in 12 cancers, including colon, breast, prostate, lung & pancreas.
The compounds of this tree showed 10,000 times better effect than the product Adriamycin, a drug normally used chemotherapeutic in the world, slowing the growth of cancer cells.
And what is even more astonishing: this type of therapy with lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and it does not affect healthy cells.
So, give those lemons a good wash, freeze them and grate them. Your whole body will love you for it!!
Request: Pls forward to lots of friends and to all your dear ones at homex and abroad.

Hmmm. I understand my acquaintance means well. Nevertheless, as someone close to someone else about to undergo brutal chemotherapy, this message is … unhelpful.

I responded - perhaps overly harshly - to the sender. I asked him to send my response to the Lemon Lady (origin on the pro-lemon screed) and, naturally, he did not. I gather it is okay to send BS to me but not okay for me to air my response.
The world – people and planet - is a complex place. There are no easy answers. The best We the People can do?
Train ourselves to think in complex layers, rather than single-layer “I got the truth” shortcuts.

Just in case you're thnking I agree with or am promoting this Lemon Theory, NO! No, I am not. It is BS pulled together by a well-meaning but dangerously stupid and gullible person. 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Cry more  (1:57 mins> 

President Biden on the MAGA Republican Party (0:58 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

“Heat dome” is coming… Temps in parts of urban California will reach into 3 digits. Going outside? Pull on your hats and sunscreen….

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:42am
Sunset: 7:33pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:10am
Sunset: 5:46pm

Solstice

News blues

© M. Wuerker, Politico 

After crowing about the wonderful weather in my town on the San Francisco Bay over the last few days, I take back my words. Today, Tuesday – summer solstice, 2022 was hotter than one usually experiences in this location: 98 F.

With a dome of heat over the San Francisco Bay Area, temperatures ... [soared] on the first day of summer, increasing the risk of heat illness and wildfires...
[Today was] slated to be the hottest day of the week with many interior valleys hitting anywhere between 100 and 105 degrees… warning that the "elderly, sick and homeless are most vulnerable" in the hot conditions.
…
[The weather service said] near-critical fire weather conditions are also expected due to the combination of dry offshore winds combined with lower humidity values. "This concern is greatest across the North Bay hills where the breeziest winds should exist".
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air alert for Tuesday with unhealthy ozone, or smog, expected to build up [and cautioned] "Limit your driving to reduce air pollution…”.
Read more >>

***

Covid has disappeared from the news in the US. The UK Guardian, however, still publishes US Covid statistics. The news is not promising:

 Guardian News, June 21, 2022

***

On war

Russians casually slaughter three young Ukrainian men 
Photo essay: Mariupol – before and after

How to cope?

News blues

Covid schmovid. 

The pandemic moved into our lives, caused havoc ... and now we’ve adjusted. 

Sure, people, lots of ‘em, are still becoming infected, but hardly anyone bats an eye at Covid news anymore. 

An infected person is expected to “get over it” and, in America, that’s the name of the game for most things. (Well, except for Donald Trump-related things. Those just seem to go on foreverrrr!)
Now the glittery object attracting the American attention is the heat wave.
No, of course this heat wave is not in any way connected with the change in our planetary climate due to over-reliance on fossil fuels, plastics, pharmaceutical over-use, etc. 

Heavens, no! 

This heat wave is a standalone phenomenon. Ask any Republican politician – and many Democratic politicians, too. After all, nothing is connected to anything on this planet. 

Nah, climate change is all made up by the “radical left media”. 

That hundreds of homeless people died in recent extreme heat has to do with them not “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.” Why should hardworking Americans fork out dough to care for the homeless?

Bah humbug!

America has no plan to deal with climate change - despite statistics indicating that excessive heat causes more weather-related deaths in the U.S. than hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes combined with the homeless the most vulnerable >> (Why does the richest country in the world have homeless?)

And the heat wave ain’t over yet. A second wave of stifling heat could break over 100 records as heat dome shifts eastward. The persistent heat dome which imposed oppressively high temperatures on the northern Plains and Midwest over the weekend will begin to shift further eastward this week, ending a short reprieve that many states in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic have had in recent days.
Read more >> 
The cost of staying cool in the sweltering heat and humidity that’s hitting large parts of the U.S. also presents high energy costs. "For low-income families, this is catastrophic." >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The heat dome that’s killing Americans across the northern Plains and Midwest and moving east didn’t affect “my” portion of the country. The San Francisco Bay Area’s weather has been truly wonderful: warm, breezy, hospitable.
Having experienced consecutive days of 111 F weather last year, however, I can attest to the physical distress caused by excessive heat. This, despite living on my houseboat where I could leap into the river from the decks when the temperature overcame my fragile humanity. 
Without shelter or the ability to cool, hot weather is a death sentence.
I fear what future weather will do to living creatures of this planet.

Decisions, decisions

News blues

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the delta variant, first detected in India, now represents more than 83 percent of cases circulating in the United States. People infected with the variant appear to carry a viral load that is more than 1,000 times that of those infected with earlier forms of the virus, allowing the virus to spread rapidly among unvaccinated people, scientists have found. Read more >> 

***

On the one hand, in South Africa,

…might be heading towards a merry Christmas, getting closer to herd immunity in December, thanks to South Africans aged 35 to 49 who broke records queueing to get vaccinated. Read their stories >> 

Then, there’s the United States,

… where the variant is estimated to be causing more than 4 out of 5 new infections, largely among the unvaccinated, the outbreaks in places like Arkansas and Missouri have once again placed health systems under stress. They’ve also led to more questions about whether delta even poses a threat to people who are vaccinated and complicated the discussion about what precautions schools need to reopen fully in the fall.
Read more >> 

The Texas city of Austin’s return to Stage 3 risk-based guidelines marks the first time a major Texas city has reversed direction in the trend toward normalcy. The city announced stricter coronavirus protocols for unvaccinated residents as cases increase. But it can’t legally enforce those restrictions. Other cities also report surges in cases >> 

***

The Lincoln Project Brady  (1:08 mins).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another week under the “heat dome” coming up…
Temps will rise above 100F/38C mid-week. I’d like to escape to my friend’s home where air con reigns supreme. Alas, since blossoms drop off my sun gold tomatoes when the temps rise, I’ll stick out the hellish heat on the river in an effort to cajole the blossoms into also sticking it out. Can I persuade them that life, as nutritious, tasty, and beautiful sungold-ness, is worth a little heat? I cajole them by explaining that sun golds are the best tasting cherry tomatoes in California – if not the world – and not to deny us paltry humans their delicious presence.
We’ll see if that works, eh?

***

I’m getting closer to starting and, please the gods, driving my inflatable with the 15 HP outboard motor. My hesitation to date? I’ve no idea how to do that. As an elderly 1983 model, the paintwork on the tiller that indicates gears/controls has worn off.
Then, after a fellow marina resident suggested 15 HP was too much power for the inflatable – and for me - I lost my nerve.
Couple of days later and I’m regaining my confidence….

***

Big day tomorrow: I will have a TB test to ensure I’m fit for the workplace. (Yes, after 2 years out of the workplace, 2 years without a steady income, I’m re-entering. More on that later.)
After the test, I will join friends for a trip to lovely Point Reyes, my first trip to the California coast in four-plus years. Weather on the coast is far cooler than inland. (I trust the sun golds understand it’s just a day trip before the real heat sets in mid-week.
I notice by the packaging waste in the marina’s recycling bins that marina residents are installing portable air con units in their boats. I have a portable fan and, so far, little interest in air con in my boat. Isn’t paying for a unit then paying to cool (or heat) a boat with inefficient insulation counter intuitive? Isn’t it, essentially, paying to cool (or heat) the great outdoors? Perhaps their boats are better insulated than mine. Open windows, sun-blocking curtains, and a fan do the trick “well-enough” for me. 

At least, so far.

Resurgent

News blues

How dangerous is the Delta variant, and will it cause a COVID surge in the U.S.? First identified in India, the Delta variant, more transmissible form of the novel coronavirus, has spread to at least 77 countries and regions and now makes up more than 20 percent of all U.S. cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified it as a “variant of concern.” If vaccination rates fail to keep pace with its spread, experts say, the variant could lead to new COVID surges in parts of the country where a substantial proportion of the population remains. 

Read in Scientific American >> 

And…

The gap between the most vaccinated and least vaccinated places in the U.S. has exploded in the past three months, and continues to widen despite efforts to convince more Americans to get a Covid shot.
On a national level, the news appears good. About 300,000 new people are getting a Covid vaccine every day in the U.S., and 54% of the full U.S population has at least one dose. The country’s vaccine campaign is among the most successful in the world, states have lifted restrictions on business and socializing, and hospitalizations have plunged.
Newly available county-level data show how those national figures hide very different local vaccine realities.

Read “Growing Gaps in U.S. Vaccination Rates Show Regions at Risk” >> 

***

In South Africa, the previous Covid-19 resurgence, which peaked in January 2021, was dominated by the Beta variant.

The current resurgence in South Africa differs by province, and even within a particular province. Gauteng, the country’s economic hub and one of nine provinces, is probably two to three weeks ahead of what will likely be experienced particularly in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Kwazulu Natal provinces.
In Gauteng the data show that the daily rate of Covid-19 infections in the current wave is two-and-a-half times higher than at the peak of the first or second wave. Unfortunately, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Sunday of stricter lockdown measures is unlikely to stop the trend.

Read “The Delta variant and vaccine failures push South Africa back into lockdown” >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Last week in the Republican Party  (1.24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

After a century of wielding extraordinary economic and political power, America’s petroleum giants face a reckoning for driving the greatest existential threat of our lifetimes.
An unprecedented wave of lawsuits, filed by cities and states across the US, aim to hold the oil and gas industry to account for the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels – and covering up what they knew along the way.

Read “Big oil and gas kept a dirty secret for decades. Now they may pay the price” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Hot, hot, hot! While the “heat dome” moved north – this week, Oregon and Washington, and Canada suffer the worst of it  - temperatures in the Delta remain in the upper 90s and low 100s. Too hot to trot!
After struggling to re-lay the deck (success, after days and many rounds of sanding and scraping to refit) I’m reluctant to begin the next rounds of fixes, from patching the roof, accessing damage to the main iron girder and rotting 2x4 planking under the boat, to repainting and rehanging a set of recycled window blinds.
Living on a small houseboat in a backwater marina, it feels as if Covid 19, the Delta variant, and the recently mentioned Gamma variant, are far away. Nevertheless, I am in the marina fulltime – no earning a living - as I’m still – “officially” – in the post-vax isolation time. I sweat, swim, work, and worry and watch my savings dwindle.
One worry: with dozens of heat-related health issues, should I re-evaluate my live-aboard decision? Is a “lifestyle” weaved around living on and near water and wildlife feasible these days? Yes, it is soothing, beautiful, and peaceful, but it’s also hot, exposed to full sun all day. Not to mention it is amid quirky (moody, unpredictable) people. Not only do I not reach out to fellow mariners, I avoid my immediate starboard-side slip neighbor – with whom I once had a superficially friendly acquaintance. His doses of unsolicited, un-needed, un-welcome advice likely relate to the clouds of MaryJane he generates but tiptoeing around my small living space so as not to invite interactions is dismally unsustainable.
July 4th weekend upcoming. Friends will celebrate onboard on Saturday: good food, BBQ, fishing, boating.

Going bats

News blues

Scientists fear land-use changes as human settlements creep ever closer to wildlife habitat – particularly replacing swaths of forests with development and farmland - could spur the evolution of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19.

Areas that have seen dramatic transformations and are home to large bat populations, some scientists believe, could prove to be the starting point of the next coronavirus pandemic. A group of researchers recently set out to identify where future outbreaks might occur, creating a map of potential hot spots—areas with ingredients potentially favorable to SARS-related coronavirus spillovers. They searched for locations that have a high concentration of Asian horseshoe bats, which host the greatest diversity of coronaviruses, and high levels of both human and livestock settlement and forest fragmentation.

Changes in land use and livestock increase risk of coronavirus transmission from rhinolophid bats.
Human and agricultural expansion are steadily increasing the risk of animal-transmitted viruses, and some areas of the the world are more impacted than others. Scientists analyzed the range of rhinolophid bats that host SARS-related coronaviruses in Asia to determine which areas had the highest risk of transmission. With China's agricultural expansion, forests are being clear-cut for cropland, bringing humans and animals closer.
Soren Walljasper, NG Staff
Sources: Maria Cristina Rulli and David Hayman, Springer-Nature; IUCN

Read “Humans are creating hot spots where bats could transmit zoonotic diseases” >>

***

South Africa, particularly Gauteng province with increasing rates of Covid infection, is sagging under the weight of the third wave and the Delta variant.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation on Sunday.
Predictions about his proposed response include a ban on all gatherings, a request that everyone work from home if possible, and a two-week ban on alcohol sales.
See the latest figures >> 

***

Healthy planet, anyone?

Last week, Californians sweated under the “heat dome”. This week, residents of the Pacific Northwest will sweat:

This Sunday could be the hottest day on record in Portland, Oregon, as 13 million people across the Pacific Northwest brace for record heat.
“We’re taking this very seriously as a public health emergency because of the prolonged nature of it,” says Dan Douthit, the public information officer for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.
… Oregon’s largest city, along with Seattle (175 miles north) and Spokane (near the Washington-Idaho border) are all expected to feel historic heat in the coming days as a “heat dome” smothers the region. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/heat-dome-deadly-hot-weather-descends-on-pacific-northwest The heatwave gripping the US west is simultaneously breaking hundreds of temperature records, exacerbating a historic drought and priming the landscape for a summer and fall of extreme wildfire.
Among the 40 million Americans enduring the triple-digit temperatures are scientists who study droughts and the climate. They’d long forewarned of this crisis, and now they – an We the People - are living through it. 

***

In the Florida Keys city of Marathon, officials agreed to push ahead with a plan to elevate streets throughout the Keys to keep them from perpetual flooding, while admitting they do not have the money to do so.

The string of coral cay islands that unspool from the southern tip of Florida finds itself on the frontline of the climate crisis, forcing unenviable choices upon a place that styles itself as sunshine-drenched idyll. The lives of Keys residents – a mixture of wealthy, older white people, the one in four who are Hispanic or Latino, and those struggling in poverty – face being upended.
If the funding isn’t found, the Keys will become one of the first places in the US – and certainly not the last – to inform residents that certain areas will have to be surrendered to the oncoming tides.
“The water is coming and we can’t stop it,” said Michelle Coldiron, mayor of Monroe county, which encompasses the Keys. “Some homes will have to be elevated, some will have to be bought out. It’s very difficult to have these conversations with homeowners, because this is where they live. It can get very emotional.” 

Never fear, though. The humans have it under control. A bit out there, but hey, “we’re only human….”

Tom Green has a plan to tackle climate change. The British biologist and director of the charity Project Vesta wants to turn a trillion tonnes of CO2 into rock, and sink it to the bottom of the sea.
Green admits the idea is “audacious”. It would involve locking away atmospheric carbon by dropping pea-coloured sand into the ocean. The sand is made of ground olivine – an abundant volcanic rock, known to jewellers as peridot – and, if Green’s calculations are correct, depositing it offshore on 2% of the world’s coastlines would capture 100% of total global annual carbon emissions.
Read “Cloud spraying and hurricane slaying: how ocean geoengineering became the frontier of the climate crisis” 

Not to disparage potentially functional ideas to mitigate climate change – since we humans appear unwilling to make actual, real changes, say like agreeing to cut back on fossil fuels and intensifying efforts to use alternative energies, or BAN the use of plastics as of NOW, or address population explosion and planet Earth’s carrying capacity, or STOP forest massacres, etc., etc.
Instead, we have people in prominent positions suggesting outlandish ideas. Whackadoodle Texas Republican congressman Louie Gohmert, for example,

has asked a senior US government official if changing the moon’s orbit around the Earth, or the Earth’s orbit around the sun, might be a solution for climate change.

Looking on the bright side: one should be grateful that Gohmert, an archconservative, concedes that planet Earth’s climate is changing… Fresh thinking from a Texas Republican….
Read the article >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

One week after my second jab - officially not yet “immune” to Covid – I continue feeling no ill effects. I continue to wear my mask when away from the marina (no one in the marina wears a mask). Truth be told, I usually forget my mask in my vehicle must return for it before entering stores. And, life goes on.
Cooler temperatures – upper 80s and low 90s – allow me to inspect and work on my elderly houseboat. The good news: I found a still-usable can of blue paint – alas, oil based with cleanup messy on a boat – and repainted all the blue fencing around the boat. This was straight-forward on the sides but complex on the bow. A floating pontoon moves. So does an inflatable, particularly the inflatable I sat in to conduct the painting… I did it, though, so that’s done for three next couple of years. I also lifted nd repaired plywood decking (3/4 inch plywood is standard material for pontoon boat decking). I continue with this ongoing project, each day collecting greater awareness of decades’ wear and tear on my home.
The bad news? The main steel girder that frames the boat’s beam, particularly the spot where the plywood decking joins the cabin, is highly – dangerously? – rusted. Swimming around under the boat, I can, literally, knock on the girder and chunks of rust, from large to small pieces and much rust dust, falls. I need advice from an expert about how to address this in the short term. I thought I’d found an expert, but he’s not responding with alacrity. Alas. Perhaps his expertise is beyond the level of my need and he’s focusing his attentions with customers with deeper pockets?
I have best intentions and, far as possible, do as much work of the work as I’m able, but I’m far from skilled. Moreover, as a left/right dyslexic, it takes me ages to figure out how to align simple things. An example? Cutting a simple plywood shelf and inserting it under the kitchen cabinet as an extension to the countertop. I measured and remeasured, multiple times, then cut the wood using my newly purchased hand-held Dremel circular saw. Hmmm. Didn’t have plywood around to practice on prior to cutting….
Cuts were slightly off. Slightly, but enough to add hours onto what should have been a simple job. Thank the gods for shims.
The pull-out countertop extension works “well-enough.”
I’ve discovered areas of rotting plywood on the boat roof, too. I exposed one section of rotted roof, roughly gauged what will be required, and am pondering different scenarios on how to address it.
So far, all I’ve come up with? A tarp large enough to cover the entire roof, 36 X 13 feet, so an area close to 500 sq feet. Sure, it would be temporary (wouldn’t it?)
The “red-neck” solution.