Help is not on the way

News blues…

MSNBC: Rep. Andy Kim: “1 Out Of Every 1,250 Americans In This Country Has Died Because of COVID" (5:45 mins) 

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With 4 percent of the world’s population, the US has 19 percent of the world’s Covid deaths. Since Thanksgiving, there has been 346,061 new infections and 2,704 deaths. This clip includes an information update with Dr Fauci. 

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An informative overview of Covid – potentially brewing over 5 decades  (11:30 mins)

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South Africa requires Covid certificates for cross-border truck traffic.  (2:20 mins)

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The last several weeks workers with the local village’s Umngeni Municipality have engaged in “popcorn” strikes, spontaneous events that block municipal office entrances. The original focus was a request for an increase in salary. Today, more action:

Protest action at Umngeni Municipality remains unresolved. A Court Interdiction was issued on 2020-11-27 to 6 respondents regarding the protests. The applicant in that court interdict is Ms Thembeka Cibane the Municipal Manager who wanted the Court to force all 6 applicants to instruct those who are protesting to stop their actions.
As a result of the court interdict, there was a public meeting at Mpopomeni Hall to discuss the way forward.
After that meeting, a decision was taken to intensify the protests by blocking all roads leading to Howick. The targeted roads includes R617, Tweedie Rd and all others access roads. Information received also indicates that today’s protest will be joined by people from Zuzokuhle and Mathandubisi areas. Roads blockade are expected to start in the early hours of Monday morning 2020-11-30.

I hope protesters wear masks….

Healthy planet, anyone?

...Scientists are finding that parasites are puppet masters, shaping ecosystems by changing the behaviour of their host species. Research in California  showed parasites were involved in 78% of links in the food chain. Rough estimates suggest there could be 80 million parasites, but only 10% have been identified….
Colin Carlson is a biologist at Georgetown University in the US who has just published a paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B arguing for a global parasite project to record parasitic life on Earth. He says we know next to nothing about them. “When we think about plants and herbivores and carnivores, there are parasites operating on every part of that food web – they’re this kind of dark matter. There are these unaccounted for links and forces in the network that we often can’t quantify.”
Carlson believes conservationists underestimate public support and interest in parasites. “People assume that because they’re gross, there’s not going to be any interest,” he says. “And I think, actually, it’s quite the opposite … People like the idea that there’s this entire hidden world within animals that we know nothing about. People love frontiers, right? They love the deep ocean and deep space and there is a frontier inside every animal on Earth.”
The global parasite project could lead to half the world’s parasites being described in the next decade, researchers say. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Cycads  typically grow very slowly and live very long, with some specimens known to be as much as 1,000 years old. Cycads are sometimes mistaken for palms or ferns because of a superficial resemblance, but they are not closely related to either group.
I’ve a special place in my heart for cycads. When I was a child, one had grown, ignored for years, in a bird aviary near my bungalow. Then, an irate cycad-knowledgeable person strongly urged my mother to remove the aviary and “protect that bloody cycad. Don’t you know it could be a thousand years old?”

A couple of youthful cycads try to live long and happy lives in this garden. Alas, caterpillars make that tough.
Last year, I noticed swarms of yellow and black caterpillars on the youthful cycads. Yesterday, I noticed relatives of those swarms had returned. Quick online research indicated these would soon develop into Cycad Moths, a blue-grey butterfly.
Despite their attractive coloring, birds avoid these critters as the diet of cycad makes the caterpillars distasteful.
I scooped dozens of these caterpillars from cycad fronds and tossed them into the pond. The Massacre of the Innocents, each of us victims of do-what-ya-gotta-do.
As a mark of respect, I watched the caterpillars drown and sunk. Sunlight illuminated their bodies on the pond bottom. 

I tell myself they’ll to enrich the ecosystem as compost…. 

unThanksgiving

The Indigenous Peoples Sunrise Ceremony, aka unThanksgiving Day, is a day of recognition little known among majority-immigrant Americans. It is, however, the day many Native Americans regret the arrival of immigrants onto their land, the continent of North America.
Several years ago, a friend and I left home at 3.33am on a rainy morning to ferry to Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, to celebrate an Indigenous Peoples’ Unthanksgiving.
 I foresee a future when Americans look back at 2020’s Thanksgiving and holiday season as a time for sober reevaluation. 

What were we thinking when we acted rashly and ignored an out-of-control pandemic?

News blues…

As Thanksgiving week draws to an end, more experts are warning the Covid-19 pandemic will likely get much worse in the coming weeks before a possible vaccine begins to offer some relief. 
[Across the US] More than 205,000 new cases were reported Friday - which likely consists of both Thursday and Friday reports in some cases, as at least 20 states did not report Covid-19 numbers on Thanksgiving. As of Saturday evening, more than 138,000 new cases and 1,100 deaths had been reported, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The US has now reported more than 100,000 infections every day for 26 consecutive days. The daily average in the week to Friday was more than 166,000 - almost 2.5 times higher than the summer's peak counts in July.
The number of Covid-19 patients in US hospitals reached record levels on Saturday evening, with 91,635 Americans hospitalized with Covid19, according to the COVID Tracking Project. 

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Overnight numbers of new Covid infections in South Africa, were, again, above 3,000.

Motherwell resident Ntombizanele Majamana, 56, urged [health minister] Mkhize to convince the cabinet to impose strict regulations in Port Elizabeth. “I have lost many relatives to Covid-19,” she said.
 “I wish we could return to the strict lockdown because [then] people adhered to the rules. At the moment people are acting as if Covid-19 is gone, they are attending churches, funerals and traditional ceremonies in numbers.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Reuters photographer Gleb Garanich says: “…the animal world need not only be found in the wild. I was on my way to cover a protest near the Ukrainian parliament and had deliberately left 90 minutes ahead of time as I like to take pictures early in the morning in the city centre”…
This photo essay reminds us that beauty is all around, if we have eyes to see…. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Spotted my fourth snake yesterday, the first green one. It was fast but I registered a fresh shade of green, not more than 14 inches long, and what I’d categorize as a youthful body. Could have been any of a range of “green snakes” … 

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Marketing in South Africa is highly dependent on “passion”. Marketing professionals are “passion about,” feel “passionately,” and employ variants of this word to flog anything, from cannabis oil to shoes, to manufacturing, to pharmaceuticals… 

Recently, an email from a pharmacy declared, “we are passionate about delighting our clients…”  

One wonders what drugs they’re pedaling. 

More of the same

News blues…

Like elsewhere in the world, South Africa’s Covid infections are surging: more than 3,370 new cases in the past 24 hours. Numbers are “concerning,” says Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. 

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Black Friday, indeed: ‘Terrified’ retail workers face brutal Black Friday choice: Risk catching COVID-19 from ‘entitled Karens’ or get fired.

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Whackjobbery is baaaack! The recent surge in whackjobbery (see definition) submerged during the swampy election, but it’s back – and as whacky as ever. Even diehard whackjobs are confusing their ideologies as QAnoners fight the “MAGAverse” and all threaten to boycott, well, something or someone.
It’s funny, in a macabre way - as long as adherents leave their guns home - but it's a challenge to keep the factions straight.
Mike Rothschild, writer and researcher on conspiracy theories working on a book about QAnon, offers a primer:

“At its core, Q mythology is a theory that Trump is the sole savior from a cabal of Satan-worshipping, pedophiliac Washington elites…
It's really hard to put aside that worldview, even for just a couple months, to get behind a conventional election.
When you've been spending years thinking all elections are rigged, the deep state controls everything, nothing you do matters and the only way to stop it is for Donald Trump to win every state, be president for life and destroy his enemies — you're so caught up in believing this radically enormous thing, that you miss the very small thing right in front of you….” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The shebeen (unlicensed “bush pub”) across the road hosted a party last night. It began at 7pm or so – and continues… (currently 7am next morning). Music, singing, dancing, fighting, yelling… sounds like a hellava party. Our security alarm sounded at 2:44am last night. A check of the property revealed no incursions. 

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Zebra suit… Lockdown across South Africa, instituted mid-March, shut down my swimming routine at the pool in a gated community. Soon as the facility reopened in September, I started swimming again.
This gated community also currently houses my mother in the Care Center. It’s a high-end facility that my mother agreed would suit her needs. Alas, she’s changed her mind. Alas, I lost patience with her constant reversals and complaining – "not enough tea, hard veggies, old people" (she’s 87), etc. etc. Alas, when we selected her room, we agreed overlooking the parking lot was the option that allowed her regular views of wild animals – small groups of zebra, impala, and warthogs – and an intriguing assortment of bird life. This has proven true. So far, she’s not complaining about the view. But I am. Alas, the view includes the only entryway to the swimming pool This means our currently troubled relationship affects my swim routine: I hesitate to enter the pool in full view of my mother while not dropping by for a visit.
Friends to the rescue: one friend suggested that, when I head to the pool, I wear a zebra suit as a disguise!
Friends. I luv ‘em!

Mythical plans

News blues…

SA: My early morning Covid stats app declared more than 3,000 new infections across this country in the past 24 hours.
US: Even with 181,490 new cases on Wednesday, millions of Americans defied official advice not to travel or gather for Thanksgiving on Thursday. This is the third daily rise in a row, and hospitalisations hit 89,959 cases, a record for a 16th day in succession. 

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Conspiracy theories frequently revolve around a coherent plan emanating from a central cabal coordinating lockstep coercion aimed at “taking over the world,” or the city, or the county, or the state, or the whatever….
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lead lawyer in his “ongoing series of false claims about election fraud, laid out the whole shebang during a, um, sweaty press conference on Thursday” :

"This pattern repeats itself in a number of states, almost exactly the same pattern, which to any experienced investigator, prosecutor, would suggest that there was a plan from a centralized place to execute these various acts of voter fraud specifically focused on big cities and specifically focused on, as you would imagine, big cities controlled by Democrats. And particularly focused on big cities that have a long history of corruption."

The one big, glaring weakness in such theories?
Two or more humans together barely agree on what to eat for dinner, never mind adhere to a “plan from a centralized place.” (Think Soviet Union….) Despite an agreed-upon “platform,” Democrats barely control party apparatchiks – think AOC and “the squad”, Dianne Feinstein – never mind act coherently.
If a coordinated “centralized place” presented a coherent people-and-planet-friendly plan, I’d quickly join it. I’ve participated many so-called “political action” planning sessions and experience proves it is ludicrous to suggest groups of humans are capable of agreement, never mind successful coordination. It just doesn’t happen. We’re genetically incapable of agreeing upon and sticking to a long-term plan. That’s why we’re destroying our beautiful life-sustaining planet.

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The Lincoln Project offers thanks:

While this year presented unique challenges for all of us, we still have so much to give thanks for.
We are thankful for unity — an unprecedented coalition of over 80 million Americans united behind Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to reject Donald Trump.
We are thankful for democracy — despite egregious and seditious attacks, we, the People, remain sovereign and in charge of our Republic.
We are thankful for honesty, integrity, and merit — as the Biden transition kicks into high gear, it is relieving and exciting to witness the restoration of moral, principled, and qualified leadership and expertise to the White House.
Above all, we are thankful for you. Your dedication and support for our mission is truly the only reason we are here.
You fought to protect our democracy.
You restored honor and decency to the White House.
You defeated Donald Trump.
Thank you, for being a watchdog for our country’s institutions, a gatekeeper for our nation’s highest offices, and a dedicated patriot.
Our work is not over—far from it.
We will keep up the fight against Trumpism as long as we have you standing with us.
We hope you have a safe, restful, and joyful Thanksgiving.
From co-founders: Reed Galen, Jennifer Horn, Mike Madrid, Steve Schmidt, Ron Steslow, Rick Wilson

Healthy planet, anyone?

Amazing gift that will keep on giving: New Zealanders Dick and Jillian Jardine, whose family have owned and worked the land for 98 years, have gifted 900 hectares of pristine land by the edge of Lake Wakatipu to the crown, saying it is “the right thing to do”.
The stretch of land at the foot of the Remarkables range will become open to everyone in 2022, after being handed over to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for “the benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders”. 

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Back in 2018, the US state of Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources built a bridge over Interstate 80 to reduce traffic accidents in Parleys Canyon caused by wandering animals. Last week, the agency released a video of the bridge in use - aiding moose, porcupines, deer and even bears across the busy highway. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
Thirty-six weeks of waiting….
Temperatures are dropping back in California, specifically where my semi-abandoned houseboat is docked. The outboard motor is exposed to the elements. It’ll crack if temps drop below zero – as forecast by weather people. I’ve reached out via text to request fellow mariners cover the motor with an old cloth or bag or towel or…. 

Fourteen thousands miles away and I rely on the “kindness of strangers…”