Rain dance

© Associated Press
Click to enlarge

California’s winter rains usually end in March or April and begin again in October or November – although these days that varies. This year, that schedule is catastrophic. 

With more than 14,000 firefighters battling hundreds of fires around California and more than 2 million acres already burned, let’s dance, pray, beg for rain.

News blues…

After a typically dry summer, California is parched heading into fall and what normally is the most dangerous time for wildfires. Two of the three largest fires in state history are burning in the San Francisco Bay Area [population more than 7 million].
A three-day heat wave brought triple-digit temperatures to much of the state during Labor Day weekend. But right behind it was a weather system with dry winds that could fan fires. The state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, was preparing to cut power to 158,000 customers in 21 counties in the northern half of the state to reduce the possibility its lines and other equipment could spark new fires.
Randy Moore, regional forester for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region that covers California, announced campgrounds at all national forests in the state also were closed. “The wildfire situation throughout California is dangerous and must be taken seriously. Existing fires are displaying extreme fire behavior, new fire starts are likely, weather conditions are worsening, and we simply do not have enough resources to fully fight and contain every fire.”
Record-breaking temperatures were driving the highest power use of the year, and transmission losses because of wildfires have cut into supplies. Throughout the holiday weekend, the California Independent System Operator that manages the state’s power grid warned of outages if residents didn’t reduce their electricity usage. 

*** 

With scores of pharma companies working on a vaccine against Covid-19,  spokesperson for AstraZeneca, the company working with a team from Oxford University, explained the trial has been stopped to review the “potentially unexplained illness” in one of the participants.

The spokesman stressed that the adverse reaction was only recorded in a single participant and said pausing trials was common during vaccine development.
“As part of the ongoing randomised, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee.”
“This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials. In large trials illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully. “We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimise any potential impact on the trial timeline. We are committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our trials.”
The vaccine had been expected to be publicly available as early as January.

On the other hand,

Pfizer and BioNTech are confident they can have a vaccine against the novel coronavirus ready for regulatory approval by the middle of October or early November, [said] BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin. "It has an excellent profile and I consider this vaccine ... near perfect, and which has a near perfect profile."
US drug giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech say they plan to provide 100 million doses of their vaccine candidate, BNT162, by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. How are vaccines tested? 

In the pre-clinical stage of testing, researchers give the vaccine to animals to see if it triggers an immune response. 

• In phase 1 of clinical testing, the vaccine is given to a small group of people to determine whether it is safe and to learn more about the immune response it provokes.
• In phase 2, the vaccine is given to hundreds of people so scientists can learn more about its safety and correct dosage.
• In phase 3, the vaccine is given to thousands of people to confirm its safety – including rare side effects – and effectiveness. These trials involve a control group which is given a placebo.

Take aways?
Excessive heat. Excessive fire danger. Excessive death and illness. Who knows what will happen next?
One thing for sure: we’re living in unprecedented times. But we’re doing it. We will survive. (Let’s hear it, Gloria Gaynor.  (3:12 mins)

***

The Lincoln Project: Fallen Heroes  (2:00 mins)
Radicalize  (0:55 mins)
Trump is not like you  (2:15 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Hard day in the house, sad day, too. Three dogs down. Yes, three elderly, incontinent dogs but my mom loves ‘em. Now they’re elderly, incontinent doggie angels in doggie heaven. Happy sad? 

The move is moving along. This time next week, my mom will start another phase of her life. She’ll adjust and, I believe, even enjoy the company once she settles in.
And I’m saying a   L O N G  goodbye to the plants I’ve nurtured in the garden lo, these many months.

Blistering

Back in the day, I spent four months living in a cave on the reef and beach in Sharm el-Sheikh when there was nothing there except a locked dive hut. (Sharm el-Sheikh is now an “Egyptian resort town between the desert of the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea, known for its sheltered sandy beaches, clear waters and coral reefs.”). During that long ago past, I survived 3 days of desert sandstorms, called khamasīn, in the Sinai Peninsula and have since traveled in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine. These are all high temperature countries. Yet, these days, it’s California experiencing temperatures ranging up to 114 F (+45 C) . Creatures great and small struggle at this temperature. The extraordinary fires exacerbate a growing catastrophe.  
What’s next, a plague? Oh, wait…. Now you mention it….

News blues…

Click to enlarge.

A month ago, South Africa was fifth on the list of countries most affected by Covid-19. If the numbers can be believed, it’s now seventh on the list,  behind Peru and Columbia. Good going, South Africans! 

Healthy futures, anyone?

Magical moments in music  (7:00 mins) 

***

Has the pandemic highlighted the fragility of global supply chains and identified a need to redefine the role of food in the economy? In UK,

The first post-lockdown crops of the land army have been harvested. The food – chard, spinach, lettuce and radish – is being parcelled out to the local shops, market stalls and those in need. Now the volunteer labour force has its sights on a new goal: a land-use revolution that will make UK farming more nature friendly, plant-based and resilient to future shocks.
“If the whole coronavirus experience has taught us anything, it is that we should be more self-sufficient. It was terrifying seeing the empty shop shelves,” said Chris Higgins, a retired academic who gets as much back as he gives from the voluntary work. “It’s very enriching. Growing and cooking food and working together is a great way of engaging with the local community and nature at the same time.” 

***

The Lincoln Project: UnAmerican  (1:15 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The day before The Day. Tomorrow, we take my mother’s three very elderly and very incontinent dogs to the vet for the last stage of their life journey.
My mother moves to the Care Center next week. Two of the younger dogs will stay in this house with me until the house is sold. I’ve committed to “rehoming” them. Rehoming is not an easy task in a country with an exploding dog population (even more dogs than monkeys) – and a mother who believes that, if not with her, all her dogs should be put down. She explains, “I don’t want them to be unhappy.”
I will drive her small Toyota Yaris with my mother, a domestic worker, and three elderly dogs to the vet. After the deed is done, the dogs remains are “processed”, returned to my mother in personalized boxes, and will be placed on a shelf in her new home with at least a dozen similar boxes of cremains.

Cold War II?

The scramble is on to be first with a Covid-19 vaccine. About whether the vaccine works or not, the unspoken attitude may be: Who cares? What matters is being first.

News blues…

According to a British spy agency monitoring international fiber optic cables, Russia, China, and Iran are especially competitive in targeting “vaccine research networks in the United States, Canada and Britain.”
The New York Times reports, 

Chinese intelligence hackers were intent on stealing coronavirus vaccine data, so they looked for what they believed would be an easy target. Instead of simply going after pharmaceutical companies, they conducted digital reconnaissance on the University of North Carolina and other schools doing cutting-edge research.
In short, every major spy service around the globe is trying to find out what everyone else is up to.
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted one of the fastest peacetime mission shifts in recent times for the world’s intelligence agencies, pitting them against one another in a new grand game of spy versus spy, according to interviews with current and former intelligence officials and others tracking the espionage efforts.
Nearly all of the United States’ adversaries intensified their attempts to steal American research while Washington, in turn, has moved to protect the universities and corporations doing the most advanced work. NATO intelligence, normally concerned with the movement of Russian tanks and terrorist cells, has expanded to scrutinize Kremlin efforts to steal vaccine research as well, according to a Western official briefed on the intelligence.

Last month, the world heard from Russia…

that its vaccine, named "Sputnik V" after the Soviet-era satellite that was the first launched into space in 1957, had already received approval. This raised concerns among Western scientists over a lack of safety data, with some warning that moving too quickly on a vaccine could be dangerous.
Russia denounced criticism as an attempt to undermine Moscow's research.
In a Lancet study, Russian researchers reported on two small trials, each involving 38 healthy adults aged between 18 and 60, who were given a two-part immunisation. … The report said the data showed that the vaccine was "safe, well tolerated, and does not cause serious adverse events in healthy adult volunteers".
The trials were open label and not randomised, meaning there was no placebo and the participants knew they were receiving the vaccine and were not randomly assigned to different treatment groups.

Working Russians – eligible for the test vaccine - appear skeptical.

Yuri Varlamov, a teacher in Moscow and a member of the union, said he doesn't want to take the vaccine because he doesn't believe it is safe right now.
"Before the end of trials, they cannot make it mandatory. But I know that in some schools and state bodies, people are talking about mandatory status of this vaccine by the end of this year."
Marina Balouyeva, co-chairman of the "Uchitel" union, said a petition against compulsory vaccination for teachers was more of a precaution. She is wary of Sputnik-V for several reasons. "Firstly, it is generally known that the quality of domestic vaccines is worse than that of foreign ones."
"Secondly, the vaccine was created at railway speed, which already raises concerns. It was created in haste."
Despite promises from authorities that taking the vaccine will be voluntary, she said she fears things could go differently in reality, as often happens in Russian state institutions.

Moreover, vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris of California, said she would not trust President Trump’s assurances that a coronavirus vaccine was safe, that she’d not take Trump’s

“word for [its safety]. He wants us to inject bleach,” she added, referring to remarks in April when the president incomprehensibly suggested a dangerous coronavirus treatment.
Ms. Harris’s remarks came after federal officials alerted state and major city public health agencies last week to prepare to distribute a vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November. Given that no vaccine candidates have completed the kind of large-scale human trials that can prove efficacy and safety, that time frame has heightened concerns that the Trump administration is seeking to rush a vaccine rollout ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3.

So, Russia, China, Iran … and Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Today, I meet with a real estate agent to view a couple of “appropriately sized” future homes for people like me. Practical. Not romantic.

Signs of the times?

Boaters recently took to Lake Travis to trumpet their support of The Donald in the “Trump Boat Parade.”
It didn’t go well. According to Kristen Dark, spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, “multiple vessels began sinking.”

“During the boat parade we received multiple calls from boats that were in distress and several boats did sink.”
The calls came in from “all over the parade route and described situations that included a boat taking on water, a boat capsizing and a boat “stalled and smacking on the rocks. It was all over the place.”
Dark did not know the exact number of boats that participated in the event overall. “There were a lot of boats on our lake,” she said. “And it’s a very, very large lake.”

Hmmm, extraterrestrial commentary? 

News blues…

As Trump ducks and tries to cover from the fallout of his views on military personnel, yet more insight into his worldview:

In a book due to be published next week, [fix-it man and Trump former lawyer, Michael] Cohen alleges that Trump described Mandela as a poor leader, according to the Washington Post which reported it obtained a copy of the book.
According to the newspaper, Cohen wrote that following Mandela's death in 2013, Trump said: "Mandela f---ed the whole country up. Now it's a s---hole. F--- Mandela. He was no leader."
Cohen also alleged that Trump said: "Tell me one country run by a black person that isn't a s---hole. They are all complete f---ing toilets." 

*** 

Ischgl ski resort, in Austria’s Paznaun valley is one of Europe’s most popular vacation spots. Facilities are well-run, with 45 convenient state-of-the-art ski lifts, and après-ski bars galore.
One bar with DJ booth offers a very popular feature: large red button that, when pressed, lowers the music volume and sets off a siren.
The problem?
That red button may have been a coronavirus super spreader.
Charlie Jackson, from Berkshire, partied with eight friends in the bar and reported, “You had to push [the button] with the palm of your hand. By the end of that night the button was slippery with sweat. One man alone “must have pressed it 50 times that night.” Since then,

At least 28 people who visited Ischgl in late February and early March have died of Covid-19. Four of the eight men in Jackson’s group fell ill with the virus on their return. Many thousands more are thought to have caught it at the resort. By mid-March, it was clear that tourists travelling in and out of the Paznaun valley had been the key accelerators behind the first wave of the virus on the European continent.
Outbreaks in northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland have all been traced back to skiers returning home from the Paznaun valley, and the devastating reach of the Ischgl cluster is likely to be considerably wider: an Austrian lawyer compiling a class action lawsuit against the Tirol region, alleging it failed in its public health duties, has gathered the signatures of more than 6,000 tourists from 47 countries who believe they caught the virus in Ischgl, including people from Canada, Cambodia and Zimbabwe. Around 180 of them are British citizens, who took the virus back to London, Manchester, Birmingham, Norwich and Brighton.

As I recall, South Africa’s first case was confirmed in nearby Hilton, KZN after a family went skiing in Italy. 
So much for Trump et al blaming China: “the Chayna virus.” Turns out it may have been the European virus mundanely brewed up on a sweaty red button in an Austrian après-ski bar.
Irony, anyone?

***

The Lincoln Project’s recent email blast states,

It's time for an actual Commander-in-Chief.
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
Trump’s disparagement of our fallen war heroes isn’t surprising — he’s called John McCain a “loser,” whined about flags being lowered to honor McCain in his death, and said “I like people who aren’t captured” — but that doesn’t make it any less revolting.
A private citizen making these comments would rightfully be shunned and humiliated...for them to come from the Commander in Chief is an abhorrent and devastating — and completely predictable — outcome from a narcissistic draft-dodging conman’s elevation to the White House.
We know Trump is a fraud and a criminal. It’s plainly apparent that he is also a feckless coward, or directly complicit, in the face of Russia’s targeting of our troops with bounties paid to the Taliban.
Either way he is wholly unfit to be Commander-in-Chief in the first place and our troops can’t afford another term.

POW  (0:55 mins)
RVAT: American Veteran and Pastor: Explaining Why Trump's Supporters Remain Loyal  (4:55 mins)
Meidas Touch: Draft Dodger Don: Trump Hates Our Troops  (0:55 mins)  

The Choice  (1:18 mins) 
Joe Biden Pays Tribute to John Kelly's Son  (0:45 mins)
NowThis | Gold Star Father Slams Trump  (5:14 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Spring in KwaZulu Natal Midlands. Gorgeous.
Imagine: the close of a warm day – temps reached 28C / 83 F and, at 4:15pm, a balmy 19C / 67 F; sitting near the garden pond, gusty breeze lifting hair and swaying the leaf greening trees. Binoculars and camera are within reach on the coffee table, a gin and tonic in hand. 

Striped kingfisher
Click to enlarge. 

Along with many monkeys, masked weavers and many small, flitting unidentified birds, I spotted a striped kingfisher, a handful of frogs, and water bugs.
It’s about as perfect as it gets in the Midlands in spring. Well, except for Eskom load shedding: no electricity for two hours. Luckily, dinner accompanied the G&T: a bag of peanuts.

Farewell to arms

News blues…

Oh, oh! Trump has touched a nerve. Could Jeffrey Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic, “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’”  do in the prez?
Has the Trumpster met his match in the US military?

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.
Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

“A Retired General CRUSHES Donald Trump For Calling Fallen Soldiers ‘Losers’”  (4:50 mins)

VoteVets:  Gold Stars  (0:57 mins)
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow shares author Mary Trump’s story of Donald Trump’s view of the military.  (5.24 mins)

This week’s batch of political ads hammer Trump’s disloyalty to the US military and its personnel.
Not someone who likes to listen to or make predictions, nevertheless I predict The Donald will come to regret his disregard and his disrespect of The Troops.
To Americans, Trump’s attitude to women, Ukraine, impeachment, the presidency, the coronavirus, nationalists, inciting violence, can be flicked off as trivial.
His attitude to the US military? Nope. It is a giant strategic error that will sink his re-election efforts. There’s no coming back from this. 

 
Meidas Touch: Vote Out JQNI  (o;29 min)
Draft Dodger Don: Trump Hates Our Troops  (0:54 mins) 

RVAT: Republican Voter: Voting for Biden to Save American Democracy  (6:02 mins)

*** 

Despite Trump’s woeful showing in polls, the American presidential election process offers plenty of quirks. It’s not, for example, a direct democracy where majority votes determine the winner. It’s a republic bolstered by an Electoral College designed to “manage” the process and, to my mind, ensure direct democracy, aka the “popular vote” can be (has been) thwarted. Here’s why and how Joe Biden could face an uphill battle in the US election.

Healthy futures, anyone?

Dear SA  is a “legally recognized public participation process that allows citizens to co-form policy at all levels of government.” Most recently, the Department of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries invited members of South Africa’s public to amend the Environment Conservation Act Plastic Carrier Bags and Plastic Flat Bags Regulations.
Sign before the invitation closes on September 7 (so far only 5863 signatures) 
Background: 'War on plastic' could strand oil industry's £300bn investment. Major oil firms plan to grow plastic supply to counter impact of shift against fossil fuels . 

© ‘Energy companies must no more
be allowed to flood the oceans
with polyethylene than
they should be allowed
to pump the atmosphere
full of greenhouse gases.’
Photograph: Dan Clark/USFWS/AP 

An editorial in the Guardian news responds: 

Reports of plans by the oil industry to expand the supply of virgin plastics by a quarter over five years, while putting pressure on countries such as Kenya to lift restrictions on their use, show how urgently this needs to change. Plastics are not a byproduct of the fossil fuel industry. They are a product of it. The expansion of plastics manufacturing, on which companies including Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell plan to spend about $400bn (£300bn), is part of the industry’s coordinated response to the reduced demand for fuel brought about by the shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Reduce, reuse and recycle has long been anti-waste activists’ slogan, and it still serves a purpose. Encouraging people to stop consuming stuff they don’t need, to pass unwanted objects on, and recycle rubbish rather than send it to landfill are all worthwhile goals. The trouble is that it isn’t working. Currently, about 8m tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean every year, with the latest research suggesting that this quantity could triple in 20 years. A new approach is required that retains a strong emphasis on personal and collective responsibility (which help keep beaches and parks clean), while sharply increasing pressure on politicians and businesses.

That Guardian photo shared above? I’m not sure where it was taken but I can attest to it being no exaggeration, and not a one-off.
In 2000, I traveled to Midway Island, north of Hawaii, with the Oceanic Society, to aid research on spinner dolphins.
Midway is a breeding ground for Laysan albatross and our group visited the atoll at the end of the breeding season after the healthy birds had departed. Only sick, dying, and dead birds remained. Too many of the dead birds echoed that photo: starved to death from ingesting too many BIC lighters, bits of colored plastic, small plastic containers, etc. 

A healthy Laysan albatross 

It’s estimated about five tons of this sort of plastic is fed to chicks each year at Midway Atoll alone. The volume of plastic in a chick's stomachs causes death by dehydration as well as by sharp plastics fatally puncturing portions of the digestive tract.

***

As a ceramic sculptor, I focus my art on alerting viewers about the dire shape of our planet due to heedless misuse of its bountiful resources.

(c) Jabula-arts
Click to enlarge. 

This piece is from my “Heedlessness” series – so named after a line from Rumi’s poetry: “Heedlessness is a pillar that supports our world….”   
This piece maps the Great Pacific garbage patch, and the pelagic critters dependent upon healthy oceans. The life raft – embedded in the headdress – is a common motif in my work.

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Delving into a whole new arena of South African culture: weapons, arms, ammunition.
Keeping in mind America’s pro-gun, shoot-first-ask-questions-later culture, I warily drove to the local gun shop carrying three of my mother’s elderly weapons: a pellet gun, a single-barrel shotgun, and a Berretta pistol/handgun, along with her gun licenses. My goal was to learn how guns are managed here and either to sell or consign the gun shop to sell the weapons, or hand them over to be neutralized.
At the gun shop, the gun expert called the local police station to confirm the licenses had been issued “after the new law went into effect.” They had. But the police also had a record of my mother owning a 38 revolver.
I called my mother from the store and learned that that revolver had been stolen seven years ago. She couldn’t remember if she’d reported the theft.
Problem # 1: According to the police, she had not reported the theft – and must do so. Daunting thought: besides more bureaucracy, my frail 87-year-old mother – as the owner of the weapons – must go in person to the police station… which means wearing a masks and waiting outside in the coronavirus-socially-distanced line, in the hot winter sun.
Apparently, not reporting the theft will create a paper trail nightmare for her relatives (me!) after she passes.
Problem # 2: Word on the street states never surrender weapons to the police as “the police” are likely to sell the guns to “bad guys” to perpetrate bad deeds.
Urban legend? Shaggy dog story?
Who knows?
If the paperwork associated with surrendering weapons is anything to judge by, Problem # 2 never happens. Nor is it something within my control. My job is to take my mother and her guns to the police station, stand in line, do the paperwork, hand over the guns, and return my mother to her home. 

Nevertheless, the frequency with which I’ve heard this warning, however, makes me wonder about the underlying truth.
In the end, it’s yet another reason to avoid the arcane world of guns and gun-ownership.

In the dark!

After a short reprieve, Eskom – and South Africa – offers lack of energy, again. 

In my area, we fluctuate between Stages 3 and 4 – that is, no electricity from 2am to 4am, then 10am to 12:30pm, and 6pm to 10:30pm. (Can’t figure out the difference between these schedules. I guess it’s an Eskom thing.)
Back in 2019, President Ramaphosa said Eskom would be “unbundled” into three separate firms responsible for three different business areas: generation, distribution, and transmission. Alas, this process of unbundling process will “take until 2022”. 

Don’t hold your breath. In the meantime, 

Eskom has failed to meet some of the conditions attached to the R59billion it received from the government last year to service its debt through the special appropriation bill.

Hmmm, well, I guess Eskom knows what it is doing. NOT. Moreover, we’re heading towards summer. Who needs electrical light when we have universal light?

News blues…

With 193 police officers dead from Covid-19, South African has its first police hospital: 160 beds for personnel struck with coronavirus and based at the Tshwane SAPS Academy.

While the new hospital fits into the force's long-term plans for its members, its first duty will be to assist officers who have been exposed to the coronavirus.
Deputy police minister Cassel Mathale said, “We have been compelled to respond decisively and innovatively to curb the rapid spread of this pandemic and to ensure that we protect our front-line workers … to continue to deliver much-needed services to our citizens. What we are witnessing today is a step in the right direction.”

Healthy futures, anyone?

First, the bad news. Back in May, more than 350 elephants mysteriously died in northern Botswana’s Okavango Delta – a mass die-off clustered around waterholes. Scientists, nonplussed as to why, described the event as a “conservation disaster”.

Three months later, most surviving elephants have fled. Last week a plane flew over the Okavango Panhandle, an area in the north-west of the delta where most of the deaths occurred, and eight elephants were spotted, when normally you would see hundreds. Dr Niall McCann, director of conservation at UK-based charity National Park Rescue said, “It is understandable, I’m sure you or I would flee if all our friends and relatives were dying, and that’s what the elephants appear to have done.”
Elephants are now reported to have started dying in a similar way in neighbouring Zimbabwe. At the time of writing, 22 have died, with numbers expected to rise. Dr Roy Bengis, retired chief state veterinarian of the Kruger national park, says …it is unclear if there is a link between the two incidents. 
There have been many competing theories about the cause of the deaths in Botswana. Human-elephant conflicts are common in the Okavango delta, an agricultural area home to 15,000 elephants and 16,000 people but poisoning or poaching are unlikely to be to blame. Cyanide was ruled out because no scavengers died and tusks were left intact … Pesticides and anthrax were tested for and also ruled out.

Now the good news:

The population of ibex recently introduced to the French Pyrenees is thriving more than a century after the native species was wiped out in France. 

Officials have counted 70 newborn ibex this year at the Pyrenees national park and nearby Ariege regional park in the craggy mountains that separate France and Spain.
The French population now stands at some 400 animals, though they are not the original Pyrenean Ibex, the last two of which in France were shot and killed in 1910.
The new animals are western Spanish ibex, another subspecies of the Iberian ibex that began to be brought over from a Spanish reserve in 2014.
Recognisable by their long, curving horns, the ibex is a wild goat can easily scamper up cliffs in search of grass, leaves and moss.
“In relation to the initial goal of establishing a viable core population, for now we can say the operation has been a success,” Jerome Lafitte, head of fauna operations at the Pyrenees park, told Agence France-Presse. Matthieu Cruege, director of the Ariege park, said: “These are majestic animals, and it really is exciting when you’re able to see them.”

Daily Maverick webinar: Economic State of Play: South Africa’s Debt Tale of Woe.  Hosted by Sasha Planting with Nazmeera Moola and Mamokete Lijane 

***

Political ads: enjoy ‘em while you can. That vigilant guardian of democracy, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, “This election is not going to be business as usual. We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy. That means helping people register and vote, clearing up confusion about how this election will work, and taking steps to reduce the chances of violence and unrest.”
[Sarcasm alert] Gosh, thank you, Mark Zuckerberg. With you reducing the chances of violence and unrest. I feel so much safer.
Meidas Touch: Had Enough Trump?  (0:52 mins) (And, oh, yes, I've had more than enough Trump, thank you very much!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m working with and around Lockdown Level 2 to ensure a relatively calm move for my mother on September 16.

I’ve reserved a mover. I’m scrounging boxes from local stores and used 5 of them to carry donations of ceramic ornaments to the local SPCA. more ceramic ornaments to go. I’ve run Blue Book-like valuations on my mother’s Toyota for sale. Today, I’ll pick up boxes and I’ll drive 2 rifles and one Beretta pistol – and licenses – to the local gun shop to sell on consignment.
I’m also looking at properties for sale in the around – just in case, a “chip off the old block,” I decide to change my mind about fleeing this country and, instead, decide to remain. That is, not remain remain but live part of each year here and there, California. Hey, changing my mind willy nilly is part of my DNA: like mother, like daughter.
[Sarcasm alert]. Why not sign up for semi-darkness generously served up by Eskom?

Killing ‘em softly

© Tom the Dancing Bug
Click to enlarge.  

South Africa remains at Lockdown Level 2. My small sampling of local peoples’ infection mitigation efforts: compliance with wearing masks. 

America never locked down and Americans show spotty compliance with wearing masks. (No incentives – other than staying alive - and no repercussions for failing to do so.) 

Some Americans protect themselves and others by wearing masks, others refuse to wear masks (it “infringes on our freedoms”).
Residents of both countries, however, appear subliminally to agree: “been there, done that.” 

Widespread perception? The pandemic as almost over. 

It is not. 

***

Compare today’s numbers with those of a month ago: 

Worldwide (Map)
September 3 – 26,940,000 confirmed infections; 861,870 deaths
August 6 – 18,753,000 confirmed infections; 706,800 deaths
US (Map)
September 3 – 6,114,000 confirmed infections; 185,710 deaths
August 6 – 4,824,000 confirmed infections; 158,250 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
September 3 – 630,596 confirmed infections; 14,390 deaths
August 6 – 529,900 confirmed infections; 9,298 deaths

News blues…

While KwaZulu Natal now has the second highest rates of infection in South Africa – 113,237 or 18 percent of all confirmed infections: 

Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced on Monday night that [countrywide] 1,985 new infections had been recorded in the past 24 hours. This is after 2,505 new cases were confirmed on Sunday night and 2,418 on Saturday night.

***

Remember all the Trumpie finger-pointing at China (“Chayna”) as the source of America’s Covid-19 problems? Not so. Majority of cases in the US have “viral lineages …in Europe”.
A new study, “Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in the Boston area highlights the role of recurrent importation and superspreading events” claims a Biogen conference held in Boston, MA on 26 February 2020

... turned into a superspreading event, seeding infections that would affect tens of thousands of people across the United States and in countries as far as Singapore and Australia.
The study ... gives an unprecedented look at how far the coronavirus can spread given the right opportunities. …Researchers analyzed the genetic material of the viruses infecting the patients’ cells. …All told, the scientists analyzed the viral genomes of 772 people with Covid-19 between January and May…. Most of the viral lineages in Boston have a genetic fingerprint linking them to earlier cases in Europe. Some travelers brought the virus directly from Europe in February and March, whereas others may have picked up the European lineage elsewhere in the northeastern United States.

Read “One Meeting in Boston Seeded Tens of Thousands of Infections, Study Finds.”  

Hmmm, maybe it came from … Norway?  (lily white, forest raking…). 

***

Meanwhile, reports from the White House suggest Trump and aides are resigned to, and okay with, the virus’ inevitable spread. 

Internal struggles among medical advisers have divided the White House [with] …resistance from the top down. Now, with two months to go until the election, the White House is focused on reopening the economy and mitigating the virus to a limited extent, or just enough to keep hospitals from being completely overwhelmed.
They're doing it with the imprimatur of newcomer adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist whose voice within the White House is drowning out task force members the public had come to know and trust. Task force meetings are growing more infrequent, ostensibly because its head, Vice President Mike Pence, is often out of town on campaign trips.
… The internal goal is to keep things just under control until a vaccine comes out, two senior administration officials said. "You can't stop it!" one senior official said of the internal thinking on the virus. 

***

The political ads keep coming…
The Lincoln Project: Ratings  (0:55 mins)
Meidas Touch:

Trump’s Mental Unhealth with Bandy Lee  (2:25 mins)
I’m voting for Joe  (1:00 mins)
Vote Vets – Losing  (1:20 mins)
Really American: In Trump’s America  (0:50 mins)
Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT): Vietnam Vet and Counterterrorism Official Knows Trump is Not Good for the Military or our Country  (6:00 mins)
The Daily Show: How Holy Is Donald Trump? (4:44 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The apricot tree shows signs of spring with a sprinkling of pink blossoms.
Masked weaver birds are in full nest-building mode.
With some decisions made and confirmed – Care Center’s deposit and first month’s rent paid – next big step: euthanizing three old dogs. These dogs are old, obese, and incontinent. They haven’t a hope in hell of being “re-homed.” Moreover, my mother’s plan for her dogs? Rather than rehome them with people she doesn’t know and wouldn’t trust to care “properly” for her dogs, she’ll euthanize, cremate, and save the ashes until she passes. At that point, yours truly is instructed to combine my mom’s and the ashes of dozens of former dogs and transport them to her previous rural home. That the land now belongs to a corporation is a minor issue. I’m instructed to “just dig a hole and slip the bag into the ground.” I balked at euthanizing the two younger, healthy, continent dogs. I’ll seek new homes for them. 

How hard can it be?

Then and now…

News blues…

With all the Trump craziness, it’s easy to forget: 

California’s fire woes continue…. 
Ramaphosa’s political woes continue…  
Zuma rears his head…. 
Coronavirus still has the upper hand… 

***

The Lincoln Project: Ratings (0:55 mins)
Meidas Touch:

Trump’s Mental Unhealth with Bandy Lee  (2:25 mins)
Trump Terrorism (1:00 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The US Embassy published another series of repatriation flights, one or two for almost every day of September. 

For details contact: 

https://za.usembassy.gov/ 

Tel: 012-431-4000 (outside South Africa: +27-12-431-4000) 

Johannesburgacsmessage@state.gov 

***

I’m taking to heart Kate Murphy’s essay “We’re All Socially Awkward Now” as she tackles an overlooked side effect of the pandemic: awkwardness. She writes: 

Social skills are a muscle, and right now they’re atrophying. Our personalities are getting flabby.
“The signs are everywhere… people oversharing on Zoom, overreacting or misconstruing one another’s behavior, longing for but then not really enjoying contact with others.”
Kate takes an everyday interaction and breaks it down into countless decisions — each decision a chance to get it wrong, each one an atom of anxiety. “Social interplay is one of the most complicated things we ask our brains to do.” You’ve got to “get the timing and pacing right, as well as titrate” — I love the choice of that word — “how much to share and with whom.”

Definition of titrate:
In chemistry: ascertain the amount of a constituent in (a solution) by measuring the volume of a known concentration of reagent required to complete a reaction with it, typically using an indicator.
In medicine: continuously measure and adjust the balance of (a physiological function or drug dosage). Example: “each patient received intravenous diazepam and pethidine, the doses being titrated according to the response"
A few years ago, Kate wrote a popular essay about attachment theory that began:

We humans are an exquisitely social species … thriving in good company and suffering in isolation. More than anything else, our intimate relationships, or lack thereof, shape and define our lives.”
Intimacy is on the rocks right now. Kate’s advice is to cut one another — and ourselves — some slack. And she has guidance to share from people who’ve survived much more extreme bouts of isolation, like in polar outposts and solitary confinement.

Kate Murray’s column resonates as isolated, locked down, implementing huge changes in the life of my elderly mother, I reached out for advice and support, not from family, but from professionals and new acquaintances … and “share” (over-share?) via this blog.
As I’ve intimated elsewhere in this blog, I left South Africa at 19 and since then, apart from the last 8 months, have never again lived here.
Looking back, I understand that my youth made me determined to grow as an adult, and to do it elsewhere.
My real home in South Africa was the wonderfully rural and relatively safe outdoors of the Valley of a Thousand Hills. The people I grew up with – aka “family” - was a collection of 2 adults and three children who shared DNA, not a nurturing, emotional support system.
Along with the stress and turmoil of my current life in South African, a great gift is the opportunity to look back and understand the context of “then” and “now.” The day by day posts shared in the blog allow me to share multiple perspectives, grope through the past with the present as context, maintain level-headedness despite fear, stress, longing – and respect my mother’s humanity as equal to my own.
It’s fascinating, humbling, frustrating, and very human.
I accept the challenge and intend to do it justice.

Coming to terms

Sixty-something days to the election and, to date, the 2020 election campaign cycle has racked up a bill close to US $10 billion.
Imagine if, instead of the awful Citizens United decision,  Americans outlawed outrageous spend on political campaigns and diverted that money - US$10 billion–and-growing - on making health care affordable, or addressing homelessness, or improving education, or offering free, mandatory classes on critical thinking to all Americans.

News blues…

In 2019, it was … unusual… for Speaker Pelosi, of the US House of Representatives, to disallow the president of the United States to deliver The State of the Union address.
That was then. 
Now, a governor of an American state begs an American president not to visit! And mayors of American cities throw down against a president for inciting violence… 

Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin urges Trump to “reconsider” his upcoming trip to meet with law enforcement and survey the damage following demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism. Evers writes, such a visit,

… “may only delay our work to overcome division and move forward…. Kenosha and communities across Wisconsin are enduring extraordinary grief, grappling with a Black man being shot seven times and the loss of two additional lives at the hands of an out-of-state armed militant. I along with other community leaders … are concerned about what your presence will mean for Kenosha and our state…[that] “your presence will only hinder our healing….” 

Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian said the timing is wrong for Trump’s visit on Tuesday. “I think that you have a community that’s in the process of trying to heal… It just seemed to me, and I think others, that it would be better for us to get them to actually heal up the process of what’s going on and start dealing with the concerns that we have that need to be addressed.”
He added that he could not comment on the details of President Trump’s visit because it was under the workings of law enforcement and not his office, but he said that this is not the time.

Portland Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler took on Trump in an impressively passionate rebuttal of Trump’s incitement.  (12:00 mins) 

So far, Trump’s ignoring these requests and said,

…he would go to the region,  even though he was unwelcome, in his latest effort to cast himself as the “law-and-order” president going into the November election. The White House has said he will use the visit to support local law enforcement and “survey” damage after anti-racist demonstrations, but the move mirrors his administration’s efforts to cast such protests as violent riots rather than calls for change.

Buckle up….

***

Trump’s latest election ploy? “Swift boating” Joe Biden. 
 

***

Reality raises inconvenient truths.
Remember: the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally that gathered in South Dakota earlier this month? How cyclists scoffed at wearing masks?
So far, more than 100 attendees have tested positive for COVID-19 after they returned home to their respective states.

Benjamin Aaker, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association, said it’s almost impossible to track the true impact of the rally in spreading the virus.  Many more unidentified positive cases likely exist for every confirmed positive, he told The Washington Post. Those unidentified positive individuals will likely proceed to infect others in their communities, but it’ll be impossible to trace the resulting community spread back to its ultimate source in Sturgis.
According to an analysis of anonymous cell phone activity shared with The Associated Press by Camber Systems, which specializes in aggregating cell data for health researchers, 61% of all the counties in the U.S. have been visited by someone who attended Sturgis.

Remember: the 2½-hour long final night of the Republican National Convention with Trump on the South Lawn of the White House, addressing an in-person audience of 1,500 largely maskless supporters?

Most attendees sat inches rather than feet apart and sweated profusely in the August heat as they clapped, whistled and chanted, “Four more years!”
The fervor was infectious at this potential super-spreader event, where supporters flouted CDC recommendations to hear Trump recite his dream list of successes, one of which was how wonderfully he’s combated the pandemic.

Remember:Reality is a hard task master.

*** 

Don Winslow Films: An Open Letter to Republicans   (2:20 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m gear up for an emotionally taxing roller coaster ride: “retrenching” (“laying off”) my mother’s long time employees, accompanying my mother to euthanize three elderly, incontinent dogs and adding their cremains to her collection of cremains (at least two dozen dogs plus cremains of a few people), hiring someone to move big items to her new care center abode, setting up the place for her to move into, and settling her in. After that, packing up and disposing of her remaining goods (giving away, donating, and auctioning), cleaning, patching, painting before “staging” her house for sale, hosting potential buyers, and staying sane for the “3 to 4 months” it takes to process paperwork through a moribund bureaucracy further impeded by unanticipated shut-downs due to coronavirus. Then, it’ll be December – “the festive season” – an inauspicious time to purchase a ticket and fly back to California – mid-winter.
The good news? 

1) While taxing and ultimately do-able, days will be graced by the beauties of emerging spring. 

2) An opportunity to grapple with who I am, where I came from, where I'm going, and how to make the most of what I learn to fully enjoy the rest of my days on planet earth.

Jitters

Some days it hits hard: what another four years of Trumpism would do to the US and to people across the world.
Prejudice. Corruption. Chaos. Violence. Unjust justice. Lack of leadership. Strong arm tactics. Increasing poverty of the majority juxtaposed with exorbitant wealth of a tiny minority .
Not to be dismissive, but … I’ve little faith that human beings in leadership positions have the desire or a clue as to how to pull out of our planet’s nosedive into tragedy. Nor do I have faith that We, the People, can work constructively together to change our trajectory.
(Sorry to begin your week on a downer.... Care to prove me wrong? I welcome it.)

News blues…

Quickie news bites:

A UN summit on biodiversity, scheduled to be held in New York next month, will be told by conservationists and biologists there is now clear evidence of a strong link between environmental destruction and the increased emergence of deadly new diseases such as Covid-19.
Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of farming and the building of mines in remote regions – as well as the exploitation of wild animals as sources of food, traditional medicines and exotic pets – are creating a “perfect storm” for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people, delegates will be told.
Almost a third of all emerging diseases have originated through the process of land use change, it is claimed. As a result, five or six new epidemics a year could soon affect Earth’s population.
“There are now a whole raft of activities – illegal logging, clearing and mining – with associated international trades in bushmeat and exotic pets that have created this crisis,” said Stuart Pimm, professor of conservation at Duke University. “In the case of Covid-19, it has cost the world trillions of dollars and already killed almost a million people, so clearly urgent action is needed.”  

***

Papua New Guinea’s battle against a climbing rate of Covid-19 infections is being hampered by the most basic of shortages – access to clean water –public health experts have warned.
Case numbers have jumped from just 11 cases two months ago to 424 on Friday, with four deaths. And efforts to contain escalating case numbers throughout the archipelago, and to prevent outbreaks across the Pacific region, are being hamstrung because thousands cannot access clean water for hand-washing and cleaning.
“The latest statistics indicate that 55% of people in the Pacific have access to basic drinking water … the lowest in the world,” said David Hebblethwaite, leader on water security and governance at the Pacific Community. “In terms of access to sanitation, we have crept just below sub-Saharan Africa … this is clearly a health issue related to hygiene and handwashing.” After an initial outbreak in the capita, Port Moresby – with cases centred on healthcare workers at the country’s largest hospital – infections have now been detected across PNG … The actual rate of infection is likely many times higher than the official figure: fewer than 16,000 tests have been conducted across the entire country since the pandemic began. 

Healthy futures, anyone?

Flying hundreds of feet above the ground in a motorized paraglider, George Steinmetz has photographed the world's most remote environments from the sky. Over the past four decades, Steinmetz has captured pictures from the mega dunes of the Namibian desert to rice paddies in Yunnan Province, southwest China.
Each location was unique, but the Steinmetz noticed a common theme - humans were changing the planet.
He could see how even the most isolated places had been damaged and their wildlife decimated as they were exploited for resources…
In 1997, Steinmetz purchased his first motorized paraglider and set off to take pictures of the Sahara Desert. After that, Steinmetz… spent some 15 years flying over every extreme desert in the world… [and] to survey and photograph forests, oceans, cities and farmland…

***

A view into “How anti-Trump Republicans are working to defeat him.” (5:11 mins)
The Lincoln Project: 

School  (0:25 mins)
Don  (1:25)
Trump Talks Trump  (0:55 min)
Meidas Touch: Tick Tock, Trump  (0:55 min)
End The Misery (The Misery Index)  (0:55 min)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Rain. And forecasts for rain off and on over the next week. Who knows whether the weather will play out according to the weatherperson, but spring is on the way – and welcome.
Cheers me up.

Belonging

Amy Klobuchar tweet.

Briefly a 2020 presidential candidate, Amy Klobuchar’s tweet refers to the White House as the house belonging to all Americans, and not as a Trump branding opportunity. 

The humorous tweet (meme?) also references the all-American lawn as contested territory, the eye of the storm between public and private spheres: 

The state of a homeowner’s lawn is important in relation to their status within the community and to the status of the community at large. Lawns connect neighbors and neighborhoods; they’re viewed as an indicator of socio-economic character, which translates into property- and resale values. Lawns are indicative of success; they are a physical manifestation of the American Dream of home ownership. To have a well maintained lawn is a sign to others that you have the time and/or the money to support this attraction. It signifies that you care about belonging and want others to see that you are like them. A properly maintained lawn tells others you are a good neighbor. 

News blues…

MSNBC interview with Steve Schmidt, The Lincoln Project co-founder. (3:35 mins)

Sixty-five days and counting before the US presidential election. From 14,000 miles away, I see large swathes of Americans anxious at the possibility of The Donald remaining in office for another four years. It is a terrifying thought. Surely it is not possible? Alas, documentary film-maker Michael Moore warns,

Donald Trump appears to have such momentum in some battleground states that liberals risk a repeat of 2016 when so many wrote off Trump only to see him grab the White House. Moore said, “Sorry to have to provide the reality check again.”
Moore, one of few political observers to predict Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, said that “enthusiasm for Trump is off the charts” in key areas compared with the Democratic party nominee, Joe Biden.
“Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC [Democratic National Committee] to pull this off?”

Polls show The Donald’s approval in the 40s – including “the bump” from the RNC. How is it possible that 40 percent of Americans approve of the man’s performance as president? It’s mind boggling. 

***

The role of political ads in this election…

Really American: Keep Tucker Dunks Trump on TV  (1:00 min)
Put Don and Eric on TV  (0.26 min)
Meidas Touch: Bye Eric: A Total Phony  (1:15 mins)
Trump Failed: The Results Speak For Themselves  (0:25 min)
VoteVets – The First  (1:24 mins)

***

Daily Maverick webinar, The Inside Track: Don Magashule: The Godfather of the Free State.  Hosted by Pauli van Wyk with Scorpio investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

While driving, I often listen to RSG Radio (Afrikaans, pronounced “Er”, “Es”, “Ge-uh” – guttural “g”). It’s soothing – probably because I don’t always understand what being said but grasp enough to get the big picture.
Radio hosts discuss gardening and present news items, and their musical offerings are delightfully behind the times. Today, I listened to elevator music version of Rolling Stones, “Satisfaction,” and a male vocalist doing The Shirelles, “Will you still love me tomorrow?”
It helps that, due to Lockdown Level 2, all my car trips are local. This means I’m tuned into RSG for stints not longer than 10 to 15 minutes. Just enough time to keep my brain translating the Afrikaans with non-demanding background music.

***

Successful visit with real estate agent.After dipping a toe into the arcane world of buying and selling residential property real estate in South Africa, I found commonalities with the agent. A brief off-topic conversation about which high school I attended – Girls High – and he asked about girls I might have known then. Indeed, I knew several of the names he mentioned.
A feature of life as an adult immigrant is knowing no one who shared one's primary or high school years. In California, I never meet anyone I knew as a child or teenager. In small town South Africa, I frequently run into childhood acquaintances.
An unfamiliar feeling – belonging – suffuses me when I recognize and talk to someone I knew decades ago. It feels good.

*** 

Monkeys from the neighborhood troop uprooted more of the snap pea seedlings I’d recently transplanted. They also uprooted another set of pole beans that I’d tried to disguise under a flight of outdoor steps. It’s maddening. News from a small town in rural Japan universalized my frustration:

…local farmers have been dealing with hordes of hungry monkeys eating up potatoes, onions, eggplants and cucumbers.…
Three older women who call themselves the “Monkey Busters” …use air guns to scare monkeys away from the crops.
The women are so dedicated to the cause they often show up to a monkey sighting still in their aprons so not a moment of monkey-scaring is wasted.
Monkey Busters don’t kill their targets, [but] fire warning shots followed up with firecrackers and other loud noises.
…Monkey Busters leader Masako Ishimura said, “We were really troubled by the monkeys’ damage to the crops, so the three of us cooperated to get rid of the monkeys. I will continue to do my best for the region with the feeling of not losing.” 

I’ll not use guns or fireworks on local monkeys, but I’m Sympatico with Japanese farmers.
Maybe I should try wearing an apron?

***

Weather report signals cold and wet next few days, but that can’t hide the signs of spring all over: plum, trees, Pride of India trees, many trees and plants are blossoming….
I’m so ready for spring.
Best news? It’s raining….

Settling in

After a week of anxious waiting for Internet re-connection, I’m settling back into my blogging routine.
Scanning the news presents a disconcerting view: Covid-19 has not, as Donald Trump promised,  “disappeared, like a miracle." Humans’ attention toward the pandemic, however, is disappearing. Odd, as infection rates continue to increase. Peru – 622,000 confirmed infections - has replaced South Africa – 620,250 confirmed cases - as the fifth most affected/infected country.
Unsure whether to celebrate South Africa’s status or mourn Peru’s.

News blues…

India’s rate of infection climbs precipitously, just trailing Brazil: 3,467,000 compared to Brazil’s 3,805,000.

India has set a new national record of daily coronavirus infections, reporting more than 77,000 cases in 24 hours, just shy of the global one-day record tally held by America. 
India’s health ministry reported 77, 266 new cases on Friday, taking its total cases to 3.39 million, data from the federal health ministry showed. India also recorded more than 1,000 new deaths taking total fatalities, to 61,529, the fourth highest total in the world, behind the US, Brazil and Mexico.
The country has recorded the highest single-day caseload in the world every day since 7 August. The largest ever one day rise is 78,427, reported by the US on 25 July.

*** 

The Lincoln Project: Chayna  (1:00 min)
Trump Hires the Best  (1:00 min)
Ready  (1:00 min)
VoteVets - Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Must Resign Or Be Fired  (0:55 min)

Healthy futures, anyone?

Here’s an idea for concerned world leaders to emulate. Costa Rica, forward thinking in conservation and sustainability, rewards farmers who carry out sustainable forestry and environmental protection through its PES - payments for ecosystem services program. .

Costa Ricans have powered a mass conservation movement across the tiny Central American country. While most of the world is only just waking up to the importance of trees in battling the climate emergency, Costa Rica is years ahead.
"It is remarkable… In the 1970s and 1980s Costa Rica had one of the highest deforestation rates in Latin America, but it managed to turn that around in a relatively short period of time." 
Costa Rica is the first tropical country to have stopped -  and subsequently reversed - deforestation. …
In the 1940s, 75% of Costa Rica was cloaked in lush rainforests. Then the loggers arrived … and cleared the land to grow crops and raise livestock. It is thought that between a half and a third of forest cover had been destroyed by 1987.
… In1996, [the government] made it illegal to chop down forest without approval from authorities and the following year it introduced PES. Today almost 60% of the land is once again forest. Cloud forests envelop the country's mountain peaks, thick rainforest lines the beaches of the south and dry forest sweeps the northeast. This rich landscape is home to around half a million plant and animal species.

***

The bad news? The MV Wakashio oil tanker that struck a coral reef last month in Mauritius was scuttled on Monday. Since then...

At least 40 dolphins have died mysteriously in an area of Mauritius affected by an oil spill from a Japanese boat… …
[A spokesperson] from the Mauritius fisheries ministry said 38 carcasses had washed up on the beaches so far. Autopsy results on 25 dolphins that washed ashore on Wednesday and Thursday were expected in the coming days.
Veterinarians have examined only two of the dolphins, which bore signs of injury but no trace of hydrocarbons in their bodies, according to preliminary autopsy results. The two autopsies were conducted by the government-run Albion Fisheries Research Centre.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Move views of this Hoopoe
scroll down the page.

Signs of spring: yesterday, an African Hoopoe searched the lawn for food. Assume the sparse feathers on her head and neck indicate fraternization with horny male African Hoopoes. (During mating, male birds in the throes of passion, and in an effort to stay aboard, pluck the female bird’s neck feathers.) 

Compare this sleek, unruffled male African Hoopoe. (Courtesy of Birds of Eden  ) 

*** 

The week in wildlife pictures as a reminder to celebrate what’s out there.

*** 

Another red letter day in my quest to settle my mother into a caring care center: visit with the real estate agent recommended by my mother’s lawyer. Since I’ve lived in California for decades and was never invited to participate in selling her former property, it will be, as we Americans say, “a learning experience.”

Altered realities

A cartoon message
 for Trump supporters. 
Click to enlarge.

The plus side of no Internet connection for a week?
Not tuning in to the Republican National Convention.

News blues…

California fire map and tracker 

California fires live updates 

 ***

Interview with Mary Trump: 'Repulsed And Heartbroken' After Uncle's RNC Speech | MSNBC (7:20 mins)

New York Times opinion writer at large, Charline Warzel writes about Trump’s convention,

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned covering the daily information wars of the Trump era is that a meaningful percentage of Americans live in an alternate reality powered by a completely separate universe of news and information.
Some are armed with their own completely fabricated facts about the world while others, as the journalist Joshua Green wrote in this section in 2017, rearrange our shared facts “to compose an entirely different narrative.” There is little consensus on the top story of the day or the major threats facing the country. You will have noticed this if you’ve ever watched a congressional hearing and flipped between CNN or MSNBC and Fox News. The video feed is the same but the interpretation of events is radically different.
Personally, I’ve never seen a clearer demonstration of the Two Universes phenomenon than this week’s Republican National Convention.
For three nights, in a shameless display of loyalty to President Trump, the party has conjured up what my colleague Frank Bruni described as an “upside-down vision” of the world. Theirs is a universe in which the coronavirus pandemic is largely in the rear view (on Aug. 25, 1,136 Americans died from the virus) and where, according to Representative Matt Gaetz, radical Democrats threaten to “disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS-13 to live next door.” A universe where the existential dangers of climate change pale in comparison to those of cancel culture — even as the West is ravaged by blackouts and wildfires and the Gulf Coast is slammed by a devastating hurricane.

Hear, hear, Charlie!

***

Catching up on political ads
The Lincoln Project:
Decency  (0:55 mins)
Protect  (0:55 mins)
Concoctor  (3:15 mins)
Goodyear  (0:25 mins) 

Don Winslow Films: The Real Kellyanne Conway (All’s I can say is, WOW! Kellyanne Conway’s daughter speaks out.)   (1:25 mins)
Really American: Polluter in Chief  (1:37mins)
Longtime Republican and Trump Voter: Voting for a Democrat For The First Time  (5:55 mins) (Editorial comment: sharing this guy’s view despite not agreeing with his pick of all his presidential candidates. He, however, is showing common sense for this year’s election.)
Second Trump DHS Official Comes Out For Biden  (2:15 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

First full day re-connected to the Internet so, between forays into the garden to dissuade monkeys from further “exploration” of seedlings, and sharing time with my mother over cups of Rooibos tea, I plan to catch up on what’s happenin’ in the world….