Time changes in California tomorrow, so we enjoy the day …
News blues…
A little news goes a long way….
With Britain’s authorization this week of Merck’s new drug molnupiravir, and a cash infusion into antiviral R&D, the outlook for antiviral treatments is brighter.
Unlike vaccines that can prevent infection, antivirals act as a second line of defense, slowing down and eventually arresting progression of a disease when infections occur. They’re also important when effective vaccines aren’t available against viral diseases….
But developing antivirals is an expensive and difficult endeavor. That’s especially true for acute respiratory diseases, for which the window for treatment is short. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that has unleashed the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have resorted to repurposing old drugs or compounds that were being tested against other diseases.
“That’s typical,” says Katherine Seley-Radtke, a medicinal chemist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “Every time a new virus emerges or an old one re-emerges, you pull out what’s there in the cupboard to see what works.”
Read “How the rise of antivirals may change the course of the pandemic” >>
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The Lincoln Project. Let’s revisit my all-time personal favorite Lincoln Project’s ads,
Nationalist Geographic (0:57 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
Having access to reliable and affordable energy is important to people, so it’s understandable that governments support energy access. But if these subsidies support the consumption of fossil fuels it comes with a large downside, air pollution and accelerated climate change.
Countries around the world agreed to reduce fossil fuel subsidies. It is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they want to reach by 2030.
View the SDG-Tracker to find all of the available measures to track the SDGs.
In many countries fossil fuel subsidies are extremely high. The New York Times reports that in Venezuela subsidies were so high that “a dollar could once theoretically buy about 5 billion gallons of gasoline.” This would be “more than enough to supply the state of Michigan for a year.”
Venezuela was an extreme case. But as the map shows there are many countries with very large subsidies: several are higher than $100 per person per year. In others, it’s higher still.
Read more about fossil fuel subsidies >>
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
A friend joined me today for a walk along the beach, passed the bird sanctuary, and to the area we call
Shangri-La - my version of a down-to-earth earthly paradise.
A photo essay (taken with my iPhone so not great photos but they communicate the gist of the walk – 13,695 steps on my iPhone pedometer….)
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| Winter flyway birds: curlews, sanderlings, avocets, Marbled Godwits... |
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| Looking north west, toward San Francisco (left horizon) |
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| San Francisco in the north west, from beach and bird sanctuary |
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| Looking south, toward Shangri-la |
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| Entering Shangri-la |
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| View of one section of Shangri-la, looking north (towards San Francisco) |
What do I love about Shangri-la? It sits right on the beach yet it is modest. (Give it another 10 years, and residents will worry about sea level rise and water intrusion, but for now...
enjoy!***
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| A rare item these days, this public phone situated on the beach walkway actually gets a dial tone... |
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Tomorrow we "fall back" to standard time.
OCD me? Not sleeping well means time on my hands at odd hours of the night and early morning. I've taken -
as before - to making patterns with my iPhone's battery charging level indicator.
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| Fun for insomniacs.... |
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California, Nov 6, 2021 South Africa, Nov 6, 2021.
The change in California time will give us an extra hour to snooze... or walk... or do something else. |
