News blues
… officials warn that there could be 100m Covid-19 infections this fall and winter, potentially spurring a surge in hospitalizations and deaths. The White House is preparing backup plans for providing vaccines to US residents if lawmakers refuse to provide more funds for coronavirus response efforts….Read more >>
The US coronavirus death toll is expected to reach 1 million this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week that 60% of US residents have been infected with Covid-19….
The official’s dire projection was based on several models, not new data, and was not a formal prediction. These models operate with the premise that Omicron and its sub-variants will keep driving community transmission – and that a significantly different strain will not emerge….
This prediction was also made with the assumption that there will not be additional federal aid…[and that] many vaccinated people, and persons who were previously infected, would get Covid-19 again.
***
Coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are again climbing in the Bay Area as the region enters what public health officials say is the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic >> ***
On war…
Ukraine – photo essay “Two Months of War in Ukraine” >>***
The Lincoln Project: Truth Matters (1:53 mins)
Doocy Roasted (0:27 mins)
Two Plans (0:26 mins)
Healthy planet, anyone?
On this Mother’s Day, an estimated 10.4 million children have lost a parent or caregiver, putting them at higher risk for poverty and every major cause of death >>***
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon surged to record levels for the month of April, nearly doubling the area of forest removed in that month last year -- the previous April record -- preliminary government data showed … alarming environmental campaigners >> Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
This year, my b/day (birthday) and M/day (Mother’s Day) coincide. To celebrate, my daughter made me a mug of strong coffee presented with a slab of rich dark chocolate with hazelnuts.I dipped a hunk of choc into the coffee. Delicious.
Alas, an hour later, I – and my tummy – wished I’d hadn’t indulged.
Ah, well, nothing a brisk bike ride won’t cure.
Much has changed in this town in the past three months: condos built, parking lots extended, roads improved….
Later today, I’ll check out the beach and bay for birdlife. The presence/absence of feathered friends indicates the waning of winter and the arrival of spring and summer.
***
The following observation after more than 36 hours back in San Francisco Bay Area: in public, people – strangers – snip and snap indiscriminately at one another, and the atmosphere in the public sphere is tense; the wearing/not wearing of masks is sometimes, not always, a focus of such snipping. Not fun… even less fun to recognize that one’s own high levels of stress contribute to the fraught atmosphere.
I try to keep the lid on my stress, but it is difficult.
Road rage, too, is rampant.
***
Update on jet fuel supplies disrupted due to the KwaZulu-Natal floods and to volatile fuel prices in South Africa: While suppliers saying they cannot guarantee enough [jet fuel] supplies at OR Tambo International Airport, Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) says its overall supplies of jet fuel are stable >>
***
Sunny and crisp in the Bay Area… Sunrise: 6:04am
Sunset: 8:05pm
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:32am
Sunset: 5:18pm
