Lucky bird

“Oh, that’s a lucky, lucky bird….”
Donald J Trump was not referring to his expectation that he’ll avoid a future as jailbird for assorted tax and constitutional crimes. He was congratulating Corn and Cob, the turkeys he pardoned from become meals for Thanksgiving 2020.  (1:50 mins)
As comedian Steven Colbert noted, “An innocent turkey pardoned by a lame duck.” 

***

Note, below, the exponential increase in numbers of Covid infections and deaths…
Worldwide (Map) 
November 26 – 60,334,000 confirmed infections; 1,420,500 deaths
October 29 – 44,402,000 confirmed infections; 1,173,270 deaths
September 24 – 31,780,000 confirmed infections; 975,100 deaths

US (Map) 
November 26 – 12,771,000 confirmed infections; 262,145 deaths
October 29 – 8,856,000 confirmed infections; 227,675 deaths
September 24 – 6,935,000 confirmed infections; 201,880 deaths

SA (Tracker)  
November 26 – 775,510 confirmed infections; 21,2010 deaths
October 29 – 719,715 confirmed infections; 19,111 deaths
September 24 – 665,190 confirmed infections; 16,206 deaths 

News blues…

Hunger for Thanksgiving…  (2:20 mins)
Travel for Thanksgiving… 

***

More than 3,200 new infections in South Africa in 24 hours. 
Western Cape considers local restrictions to fight resurgent Covid-19 

 ***

What will The Lincoln Project do next? The group made a difference in the recent election as well as presented new ways of understanding Republicanism, what it means to be American, and demonstrated one way to push back against lies and deceit.
Their recent ad: The Lincoln Project Gives Thanks,  (1:43 mins).
Right back at ya, TLP: Thank you!

Healthy planet, anyone?

South African lizards pollinate 'hidden flower' in Drakensberg 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My pall of despondency briefly lifted today when two realtors dropped by to take another look at my mother’s large property so as to revamp the online marketing description. The current description garnered not a single nibble from potential buyers. 

Californian’s hot real estate market ensures most properties receive multiple offers over the asking price and sell quickly. Here, one gets nary a sniff? 
Living in a double holding pattern – pandemic and waiting to sell – is a nightmare.
Additionally, I’ve spent almost a year here – six months more than planned – trying to establish a safer home for my frail mother. 

It's tough, when delivering yet more cooked giblet meals for The Dog, she greets me with a barrage of complaints: “I can’t stay here… I’ll die if I stay here … their vegetables aren’t cooked enough… they don’t give me enough tea … people here are old … I’m moving back to my house: you can live in the top section and I’ll live in the bottom section….” 

She was shocked when I said, “I don’t want to live in the top section. I have my own plans and my own place.” 

She's unfamiliar with someone, anyone - never mind her daughter - disagreeing with her ready-to-implement plan-of-the-day and refusing to fall in line.
Not only did I not fall in line, I suggested she make more of an effort to reach out to others instead of rebuffing efforts others make towards her, and that she stop complaining….
Oh boy!
The fur’s gonna fly!

Moving on

US President-elect Joe Biden is naming his cabinet and the country is moving on…. 

Now to roll out an actual, coherent plan  to address the pandemic across that nation and the world.

News blues…

Lockdown booze ban saved 21 lives a day: Shocking stats reveal how badly SA is impacted by alcohol abuse, with young men bearing the brunt.

A report on unnatural deaths in SA during the second alcohol ban shows the devastating effect that booze has on the country.
Researcher Kai Barron of the Berlin School of Economics, says the data showed “the five-week sales ban reduced the number of unnatural deaths in SA by 21 per day, which is substantial”...

***

South Africa’s health ministry confirms 2,493 new cases in the past 24 hours from 20,288 tests — a positivity rate of 12.2%  

The ministry also confirmed 115 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the national death toll to 21,083. Of the new deaths, 45 were in the Eastern Cape, 20 in the Free State, 19 in Gauteng, 16 in the Western Cape, 10 in KwaZulu-Natal, and five in the Northern Cape.
There have also been 716,444 recorded recoveries, at a recovery rate of 92.8%.
The figures are based on 5,325,631 total tests to date, of which 20,288 fell in the past 24-hour cycle.

***

US sets record for Covid-19 hospitalizations amid fall surge 

There are 88,080 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19, setting a record for hospitalizations amid a continuing fall surge, according to the Covid Tracking Project. This is the highest number of Covid-19 hospitalizations the nation has ever experienced since the pandemic hit the US.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Amazing creatures of our amazing planet: each arm of an octopus may have a mind of its own…. 

The common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, … has three hearts, and eight limbs with 200 suckers that can feel, taste and smell its surroundings. Scientists remain divided over whether it has one brain or nine. In mammals, most neurons are in the brain, but with octopuses, two-thirds are in their body and arms, enabling each arm to do complex tasks, such as opening jars to obtain food, apparently independently from the central brain.
After much experimenting with underwater mazes and other contraptions, scientists concluded that octopuses could solve various problems with one limb and then communicate the experience to other arms via the central brain.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I grew up in KwaZulu Natal’s rural Valley of a Thousand Hills, elevation 759m/2490ft. 

Elevation of my current home in the Midlands: 1032m/3386ft. 

That 273m/896ft difference means, among other natural wonders, cooler weather and smaller critters, including smaller snakes. Indeed, overall, there appear to be fewer snakes here than in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, home to large snakes, from non-venomous mole snakes to lethal black- and green mambas as well as rinkhals (spitting cobra), adders (puff and night), rock pythons, etc. During my childhood, I’d find snakes relaxing under or on a bed, in cupboards, on verandahs, on footpaths…. I recall finding a puff adder wrapped around cistern plumbing, three inches from my young, vulnerable spine, as I sat upon the toilet.
Until yesterday, in two years, I’d seen only three small snakes here. I spotted the fourth in the veggie garden while I rearranged potato plants uprooted by invading monkeys. Small, black, and whiplash fast, it burrowed into debris.
Like me, monkeys are terrified of snakes. As I child, I saw Jacko, our pet vervet monkey, faint at the sight of a rubber snake placed under his shelter.
Maybe the small, black snake in the potato plants can help dissuade neighborhood monkeys from regular and destructive incursions into the garden?
It has certainly dissuaded me …

Serving the turkey

© The New York Times 

No overt concession by the Trumpster, but concession is implicit. 

The White House on Monday stopped the blockade on cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition. 
“President Trump’s government on Monday authorized President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to begin a formal transition process after Michigan certified Mr. Biden as its winner, a strong sign that the president’s last-ditch bid to overturn the results of the election was coming to an end,” The New York Times reported. “Mr. Trump did not concede, and vowed to persist with efforts to change the vote, which have so far proved fruitless.” 

Irony triumphs. Remember when Trump mocked Carrots the Pardoned Turkey for refusing to concede White House after the last election?  

News blues…

With Trump heading to the exit, fighting the pandemic can begin in earnest.  

***

When will South Africans get the Covid vaccine?  (8:14 mins)

***

Not directly related to Covid-19, but fascinating: New Genetics Research: Migration made African immunity stronger  (5:22 mins)

***

Now This: Right to stand up  (4:49 mins)

As mentioned before, The Lincoln Project was founded by a group of Republican political strategists specifically to defeat Trump and Trumpism. This project, unique in American history, chose humor, satire, and historical references to raise awareness about and to fight back against Trump and his Republican enablers. I am not a Republican, but I’ve shared The Lincoln Project content and ads in my pandemic posts. Along with appreciating the Project’s aim and goals, I’ve enjoyed their work – and learned a lot more about what makes the co-founder tick. The Lincoln Project has (lightly) softened my view about Republicanism. Enjoy the latest salvos:
Remove Republic from Republican  (1:00 mins)
Mourning in the Republican Party  (0:55 mins)

"It's a Republic, if you can keep it…
The framers of our Constitution designed a system of checks and balances with three coequal branches of government, empowered to reign in the most reactionary and radical ebbs and flows of popular opinion, and to secure the fundamental, inalienable rights of all Americans.
The survival of our Republic as it was conceived is dependent on each branch of government remaining disciplined and independent of one another, and remaining loyal only to the Constitution and the American people—not to a party, nor, especially, to one man.
The U.S. Senate, the upper chamber of the legislative branch, was once touted as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” And throughout our history, there have certainly been times that were true.
But the current Republican Senate majority’s loyalty to the American people and the Constitution has been replaced by absolutist partisanship, a zero-sum, no holds barred political calculus, and allegiance to a party led by a deranged, unhinged, immoral narcissist.
This allegiance to power and partisanship over the needs and interests of the American people, and the illiberal, nativist populism Trump espouses, is Trumpism.
But, while Donald Trump will leave the White House in a matter of weeks, Trumpism has proven to be a persistent, pernicious force that will not so easily be removed.
Donald Trump brought our nation to the precipice of calamity—a cliff we are only beginning to slowly inch back from—and he did so with support, guidance, and counsel from sycophants who encouraged and enabled his worst ideas and instincts.
We must hold accountable those in power who, at the very least, did nothing to prevent Donald Trump’s desecration of our nation's highest office and revered institutions.
We now know the names of those who cannot be counted on to hold truth to power, put country over party, and defend the Republic.
All of them."

Healthy planet, anyone?

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization reports:

Climate-heating gases have reached record levels in the atmosphere despite the global lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
There is estimated to have been a cut in emissions of between 4.2% and 7.5% in 2020 due to the shutdown of travel and other activities. But the WMO said this was a “tiny blip” in the continuous buildup of greenhouse gases in the air caused by human activities, and less than the natural variation seen year to year.

***

The underwater farm on an Irish island  (3:17 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The security system is still enabled when neighborhood monkeys arrive in our garden. Yelling through my bedroom window does not discourage them. I wonder if, perhaps, they look forward to the resident crazy lady’s morning greeting?
Hats off to British musician Paul Barton playing the piano to hundreds of hungry monkeys in Thailand .

Early Santa

Covid-19 won't stop NORAD from tracking Santa's Christmas Eve flight around the world.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, responsible for protecting the skies over the US and Canada, says it will be ready to follow Santa on December 24 as he flies from the North Pole to visit children's houses all over the world.
This will be the Santa Tracker's 65th anniversary. It dates back to a typo in a 1955 Sears ad and an Air Force officer, who's now known as the "Santa Colonel."
NORAD was even able to keep the tradition going during the [Trump-inspired] 2018 government shutdown.

News blues…

Recently, G20 leaders – excluding Trump, who played golf instead – pledged online to “spare no effort” to ensure the fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide. They offered no specific new funding nor a roll out plan to meet that goal.
I offer no insights on funding, but I have a suggestion on distribution: Santa’s Christmas Eve flight around the world.
There may be more Santa skeptics in the world than there are Covid-19 skeptics in the US, but surely even a diehard skeptic wouldn’t argue when a clatter of reindeer hooves sounded on the roof and, from heaven, a frozen package of vaccine dropped through the chimney?
Rollout is an challenge. Temperature, for example, is key to maintaining vaccine efficacy:

[Covid-19] vaccines use a novel technology—strands of messenger RNA (mRNA), held within lipid particles—that is vulnerable to degradation at room temperature and requires doses to be frozen for transportation, then thawed for use.
…The Moderna vaccine may have an edge: Unlike Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s offering, it does not have to be stored at –70°C, but can tolerate a much warmer –20°C, which is standard for most hospital and pharmacy freezers. 

African countries have a disadvantage: hospitals and pharmacies are in short supply and many that exist likely lack freezers.

A challenge beyond distribution:

We are likely to need several Covid-19 vaccines to cover everyone and as a contingency, in case the virus mutates and “escapes” the ability of one vaccine to neutralise it, a real possibility in light of the discovery of an altered form of Sars-CoV-2 infecting European mink. But we also need better methods of diagnosing and treating the disease. The recent suspension of two major vaccine trials due to serious adverse events is a salutary reminder that there’s much still to learn and a pandemic, while no one would wish for one, provides scientists with a golden opportunity for learning.
Like most Covid-19 vaccine candidates, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are injected into the muscle, from where they enter the bloodstream and stimulate the production of antibodies to Sars-CoV-2 (specifically to the protein that forms the spikes covering its surface). But antibodies are only one component of the body’s adaptive immune response, which develops over time, in response to invasion by a virus or other pathogen. There is also innate immunity, which we are born with and that is mobilised instantly upon infection, but is not tailored to any specific pathogen.
“There are a lot of moving parts to this,” says immunopharmacologist Stephen Holgate, of the University of Southampton in the UK, who wonders why scientists have focused on so few of them.

I assume it is out of the question to suggest scientists and G20 leaders – minus Trump – meet online with Santa to work out the details?
[Note: I admit a tongue-in-cheek flavor. Given the current moment replete with “alternative facts,” conspiracy theories, and old fashion lies, let it be known: editorial comments are satire… born of frustration, pandemic fatigue, and loss of confidence in top down leadership.]

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay: The tiny, magical world of pygmy seahorses, one of the most elusive fish on the planet. 
Note photo #10: “a new species of pygmy seahorse, Hippocampus nalu … spotted in Sodwana Bay, in north-eastern South Africa … the first pygmy seahorse to have been recorded anywhere in the Indian Ocean.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday, I dreaded visiting my mother at the Care Center. Her ongoing complaints debilitate, from not enough cups of tea, “cold” tea, too many “old people,” “hard” vegetables (she’s old school English and expects cooked vegetables the consistency and color of Pablum), “unhappy” dog, “nobody” walks The Dog, etc., etc.
I groaned as I filled out the Covid tracking documents before entering the facility,  and learned my mother's escalating her complaints. Nevertheless, carrying two containers of cooked giblets and one container of rice – for The Dog – and a bottle of my mother’s favorite wine, I squared my shoulders and cautiously entered her room.
She was asleep. 
I set the dog food in the ‘fridge, placed the wine on the floor near her bed… and skedaddled.

Oh, I do believe in merciful Santa….