Going woolly

Twenty-eight weeks of Covid-19 Lockdown. I've got to say there's never been a dull moment during lo, these many weeks. And, Internet revived at 1a.m. this morning. I was more than ready.

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Covid-19 numbers do not look good. Compare today’s numbers with those of a month ago:
Worldwide (Map)
October 1 – 33,881,275 confirmed infections: 1,012,980 deaths
September 3 – 26,940,000 confirmed infections; 861,870 deaths
US (Map)
October 1 – 7,233,199 confirmed infections: 206,940 deaths
September 3 – 6,114,000 confirmed infections; 185,710 deaths
SA (Coronavirus portal)
October 1 – 674,340 confirmed infections: 16,735 deaths
September 3 – 630,596 confirmed infections; 14,390 deaths 

SA is now 10th on the list of countries leading rates of infection, surpassed by (from first to ninth): US, India, Brazil, Russia, Colombia, Peru, Spain, Argentina, Mexico.

News blues…

• Global Covid report: Rio cancels Carnival for first time in a century as global deaths near 1 million 
• One million coronavirus deaths: how did we get here? 
• 'Confounding': Covid may have already peaked in many African countries 
• Neanderthal genes increase risk of serious Covid-19, study claimsStrand of DNA inherited by modern humans is linked to likelihood of falling severely ill 

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The Lincoln Project:
Focus Group  (0:24 mins)
Le Creimos  (1:13 mins)
With Vote Vets: Our Moment  (1:28 mins)
The Collapse  (0:56 mins)
I’m Smart  (1:20 mins)
She’s back! Sarah Cooper, How to Drugs  (1:03 mins)
Meidas Touch: By Rudy  (0;55 mins)

Healthy futures, anyone?

We all know about plastics and microplastics gumming up our planet, our oceans, our wildlife, our lungs, our digestives systems. Plastic is an indestructible material. It breaks down but never goes away.
That may be changing.

A super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two. 
The super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tonnes of such clothing is either dumped in landfill or incinerated….
The super-enzyme was engineered by linking two separate enzymes, both of which were found in the plastic-eating bug discovered at a Japanese waste site in 2016. The researchers revealed an engineered version of the first enzyme in 2018, which started breaking down the plastic in a few days. But the super-enzyme gets to work six times faster.
“When we linked the enzymes, rather unexpectedly, we got a dramatic increase in activity,“ said Prof John McGeehan, at the University of Portsmouth, UK. “This is a trajectory towards trying to make faster enzymes that are more industrially relevant. But it’s also one of those stories about learning from nature, and then bringing it into the lab.

I’m all for it… well, sort of. We, the people, have a remarkable history of jumping to miracle conclusions before a thorough checking out of new discoveries. Remember Agent Orange. Fertilizer. Genetically modified organisms….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mystery revealed. I’ve noticed, occasionally, what looks like evidence of trampling in areas of the garden pond. I’d hoped it might be otters – clawless otters and river otters frequented the pond before my mother fenced them out to fence in her dogs. I considered it might be a dog, but nah. The dogs aren’t interested in pond life. 

Today, I saw… a pair of woolly necked cranes foraging in the pond, trampling the pond foliage.

Swimmingly

Still no internet. But the end of the month is nigh. Tomorrow, first day of the month of October, my internet service begins again.
I’ve been in South Africa eight, going on nine, months!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Big day! Finally, after almost 7 months with the swimming pool shutdown due to Covid-19, it re-opened and I re-upped my swim pass. It hurts not to swim. At first, it hurts to swim. I’ll push myself through the hurt, start off slow – only 100 meters today – and, if I keep pushing, I'll soon be back in swim shape. And next time I visit the pool, I’ll remember to carry a towel. On a cold day, using one’s shirt as towel after a swim and a shower is no fun.

Club Fed?

Still no Internet. Sigh.

News blues…

The walls are closing in on The Donald. Ironic that, after talking, talking, talking about building walls, it’ll be walls that do him in. His notorious tax dodgery is catching up with him.
Funny how taxes – not paying them – seems eventually to catch up with many a heretofore successful tax dodger. Given how replete history is with stories of the IRS catching up with dodgers, I wonder why tax dodgers think they can outsmart the IRS?

When the Trump-as-president fiasco is over, the Feds can open an entire new wing of Club Fed for Trump, his crooked family, cabinet, enabling congresspeople, Attorney General, and assorted hangers-on – at least the American hangers-on. The Russian, Indian, Chinese, etc., hangers on will escape. Who knows? Perhaps, to avoid justice a la IRS, the Trump entourage will relocate to Russia. Doesn’t Moscow already host a Trump hotel? If not, he’ll have time to build one. He can call it Mal-a-lardo.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Two nights ago, a marvelous, joyous, and loud chorus of frogs in the garden pond. Since then, rain.
I’m not complaining about rain – at least not yet. Plants were parched and dosing them pond water via watering cans gets old fast. Moreover, rain is the best medicine. Then again, the forecast predicts rain every day except this and next Wednesday – that’s ten days of rain.
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With spring in full swing, birds, bugs, frogs appear, even the occasional mosquito has sniffed then sampled my ankles.
A joyous sunbird supped nectar from red salvia blossoms yesterday. It was the first time I’ve seen a sunbird in action. I was able to grab my camera and photographed it, but the photo shows none of the bird’s spectacular curving beak or iridescent plumage.
Another smaller variety of sunbird has returned to nest on the verandah. This is the third year running it has elected to lay eggs and bring up a family in a shaggy nest hanging off a plant pot on the well-trafficked verandah. Alas, the nest hangs on the dark side of the pot so not easily photographed by an amateur. Nor is it polite to shine a spotlight on a wild creature’s nest to snap a photograph ….
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My goal was to put my mother’s house on the market on October 1. I’d arranged for a professional painter to come today, but rain prevented that. ***
The good mother and dog news: they’re settling into their new lives. Moreover, my mother is exercising more since Jessica “wants” to walk four or five time a day.
Way to go mom!

Orange is the new orange

Still no Internet. Sigh.

News blues…

Reading the news on my cell phone is better than not reading the (US) news at all. None of it is good for POTUS Trump, or the Trumpettes (Ivanka could go to jail? OMG! ), Lindsay Graham, Moscow Mitch, etc., all staring into the abyss that is The Donald.
One good thing: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – “AOC” – slapped back at those who had a field day squawking about her $250 hairdo. Turns out Trump spent $70,000 (ZAR 1.23 million) in one year for his hairdos.  I wonder how much it’ll cost The Donald to find a hair color that matches the orange jail jumpsuit he’ll be wearing after he’s sentenced for tax fraud? 

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Comedian John Mulaney , not usually a political funnyman, elegantly delving into politics with a light hand. A horse in a hospital.

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News viewers who have the luxury of seeing news inside and outside the United States know that that mainstream US news presented to mainstream US audiences is palpably different to the same news presented in, say, the UK, or Europe. That is, the fact are similar, but the manner in which it’s presented in different countries is markedly different. Moreover, the same news outlets frequently presents the news differently. Take CNN, for example. CNN in the US is far gentler – less pointed, more flattering - than CNN in UK. More importantly, CNN UK delves deeper and offers more nuance that the US outlet.
CNN UK also covers a far wider range of news. CNN US covers US news… unless the US is waging war on another country, then that other country is mentioned as a foe.
Fair and balanced?

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The Lincoln Project Whispers II  (0:54 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Before meeting a friend at a local café today, I accessed the café’s Internet, responding to business emails and glancing at the news.
Having only brief internet connection for someone with my level of regular use is frustrating. At a café, it is more so as access is limited to the goodwill of the café’s manager.

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After loading years-worth of rubbish into my elderly mother’s elderly China-manufactured Chana pick up, the gardener accompanied me to the local municipal refuse dump. Unlike in California, dumping rubbish in designated spots in KZN is free. KZN’s designated fills frequently were once pretty valleys easily filled with garbage of all sorts.
People work hard at dumps, and few are actually hired and paid to work there. Most workers are freelancers known as rag pickers, people who pick up rags and other waste material from the streets, refuse heaps, etc., for a livelihood. 

Rag picking is a hard way to earn a living anywhere. It is particularly hard at a dump site. It’s easier and there is less competition rag picking in neighborhoods before the municipal refuse trucks arrive to haul away trash. Working solo or with a companion or two, a neighborhood rag picker sorts through bagged household trash and takes anything worth saleable. (Naturally, no one ever takes plastic bags or torn or broken plastic items. Those things eventually end up in the ocean.) Rag pickers at dump sites compete mercilessly to grab discards as they arrive, frequently pulling discards before the delivery vehicle stops. 

I threaded the lightweight Chana uphill through inches-deep mud, following the site manager’s hand signals, dreading the moment the Chana bogged down in mud and avoiding driving into rag pickers already digging through our load.

Unloading wsa fast and efficient as rag pickers examined each item. Who knows what recyclable treasures await? Something could mean the difference between eating and not eating at the end of the day.