“Birds aren’t real”?

News blues

Well, the US is “numbah one” again, this time in its global daily record: more than 1 million diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday.  This number was gleaned from “official” tests – excluding home tests whose data is not collected by official tracking entities. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, which relies on local governments,

the highly mutated variant, combined with delayed reporting by local governments over the holidays, led to a single-day record for new cases for any country in the world. Monday’s number is almost double the previous mark of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the U.S., which itself was a doubling from the prior week.

Indeed, the US has a ways to go to get through the Omicron surge. Meanwhile, what Omicron already is teaching us as this phase of the pandemic plays out >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Recently, I posted  about Germany powering down three of its nuke-energy power plants. Today, the backlash:

The European Commission is facing a furious backlash over plans to allow gas and nuclear to be labelled as “green” investments, as Germany’s economy minister led the charge against “greenwashing”.
The EU executive was accused of trying to bury the proposals by releasing long-delayed technical rules on its green investment guidebook to diplomats on New Year’s Eve, hours before a deadline expired.
The draft proposals seen by the Guardian would allow gas and nuclear to be included in the EU “taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities”, subject to certain conditions.
…[a group of environmentalists] said the plans “water down the good label for sustainability” [and] it was “questionable whether this greenwashing will even find acceptance on the financial market”

Ah, yes, the ubiquitous “financial market”….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

With more than 1 million newly confirmed Covid infections in one day, I wonder if the less rabid within the anti-vax crowd are having second thoughts about vaccinations? Are those who believed The Donald’s prediction that, based on politics, “Kung Flu” would “one day, disappear, like a miracle” , or those who watch/listen to many anti-vax public figures who have either died or suffered torment from Covid, now trickling into a vax line and accepting the jab?
Enquiring minds wanna know….

***

With a friend’s birthday coming us this week, I’d suggested we repeat a past birthday celebration: explore downtown Oakland and Chinatown and enjoy lunch in a local restaurant. After the news of this enormous viral transmission rate, I’m pulling back on that suggestion. If either of us is to reach another birthday milestone, best we hunker down for the duration.

***

Apparently, the “Birds aren’t real” theory has been around for some time.
According to this theory, “all” the birds were killed – by airborne gas – during the Reagan years - and replaced by governmental drones.
Birds are not “real” and those one sees around – you know, flying, wading, nesting, chirping - “work for the bourgeoisie”  …. 

My gods! I had no idea that government, any government – including the Chinese government – and/or private industry were capable of such extraordinary design and execution technology to produce drones that emulate “real” birds.
Given government possesses such skill, how come government can’t figure out simple vaccine testing and treating programs?
If governments can produce drone birds that look so real – see pix below - why bother wasting such extraordinary skills and technology on dumbass humans and dumbass human activity? Why not conquer the universe?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. It’s the fault of evil, conniving George Soros, Bill Gates, and Dr Fauci.

Blue heron? "Birds aren't real" so don't believe your lying eyes!

Greater yellow legs? A drone?
Again, don't believe your lying eyes!

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:03pm
Some rain…
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:05am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Rain, rain, rain …

New Year's crapshoot

Happy new year! May 2022 be better than 2021.

News blues

This radial phylogenetic tree of SARS-CoV-2 depicts known sequences of
variants (dots) and their relationships to each other. The length of the branches indicate
how divergent a given variant is. Omicron, depicted in red, stands out for its uniqueness.
© Nextstrain 

Omicron could push the Covid-19 pandemic into its worst phase yet. Or it might not. In other words, it’s a crapshoot!
What makes the omicron variant so strange and surprising? 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Good news for the planet this new year: Germany powers down 3 nuke power plants.

Three nuclear-fired power plants will be taken off the grid in Germany on Friday as part of the country's plan to end atomic power.
"The nuclear phaseout makes our country safer and helps to avoid radioactive waste," said Federal Environment and Nuclear Safety Minister Steffi Lemke.
"It is now essential to ... advance the search for a final repository for high-level radioactive waste as well as permanent solutions for low- and medium-level radioactive waste," the environment ministry said.

Hear, hear! Germany. (This is an abbreviation for “hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!”) Read more about Germany’s decision >> 

***

As noted in a recent post,  E. O Wilson passed away recently. His legacy will live on.
Read an interview with him on his advice on saving Earth >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Sunny but cold in the San Francisco Bay Area. View from east bay.

I bundle up for my daily walk: undershirt, shirt, sweater, coat, muffler, and gloves. My Covid mask keeps my face warm.
Waterfowl are happy.

Initially I thought I'd photographed buffleheads (top). Rather, they're goldeneye ducks.
The lower photo is a female goldeneye. 
(c) S. Galleymore

What's the weather like in:
SF Bay Area? 
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:01pm
Some rain expected Monday and Tuesday then more sunshine.

...and in Howick, KZN? 
Sunrise: 5:03am
Sunset: 7:02pm
Forecast calls for rain, rain, rain for the next ten days…

Auld lang syne

Worldwide (Map) 
December 30, 2021 – 284,807,650 confirmed infections; 5,425,550 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 82,656000 confirmed infections; 1,804,100 deaths 
28 days ago: 21,007,475 confirmed infections; 196,000 deaths
56 days ago: 17,480,000 confirmed infections; 202,000 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 9,086,524,300

US (Map) 
December 30, 2021 – 53,659,715 confirmed infections; 823,120 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 19,737,200 confirmed infections; 342,260 deaths
28 days ago: 4,609,478 confirmed infections; 39,563 deaths
56 days ago: 3,323,525 confirmed infections; 35,185 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
December 30, 2021 – 3,433,555 confirmed infections; 90,935 deaths
December 31, 2020 – 1,039,165 confirmed infections; 28,035 deaths
28 days ago: 456,945 confirmed infections; 1,064 deaths
56 days ago: 383,250 confirmed infections; 855 deaths

Post from one year ago >>

News blues

All things Omicron:

• It's gonna get worse before it gets better – at least in the US where reports declare nearly half a quarter million cases in 24 hours. 
• A quick look at current state of Covid tests and testing >>  (3:45 mins)
• How to tell if you’ve been infected with Omicron  (1:33 mins)
• Omicron’s virulent surge amid conflicting messaging makes it tough to figure out which activities are safe on any given day. It’s time to recalculate your Covid “risk budget” >> 
• Tomorrow, 31 December will be the second anniversary of the day that health authorities in Wuhan reported an unknown pneumonia outbreak to World Health Organization (WHO) colleagues in Beijing. This time last year, Michael Standaert visited Wuhan to report on how the city had changed since the emergence of the coronavirus. One year later, he reports “normality” returns to Wuhan, but pain over the handling of the Covid outbreak endures >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Legacy (1:45 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party  (2:12 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A big win along South Africa’s Wild Coast:

Shell will be forced to halt oil exploration in vital whale breeding grounds along South Africa’s eastern coastline after a local court blocked the controversial project.
The court order calls for an immediate halt to Shell’s seismic tests which involve blasting sound waves through the relatively untouched Wild Coast marine environment, which is home to whales, dolphins and seals.
… Wilmien Wicomb, an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre, said the case held “huge significance” because it showed that “no matter how big a company is, it ignores local communities at its peril”.
“This case is really a culmination of the struggle of communities along the Wild Coast for the recognition of their customary rights to land and fishing, and to respect for their customary processes….”

Read the good news >> 

***

Of the US’s western states, California leads in habitat loss.

… the 11 westernmost contiguous states excluding Alaska and Hawaii — lost more than 4,300 square miles of what it calls "natural lands" in that decade-long period to human development such as logging, mining, road-building and urban development. That's an area bigger than Yellowstone National Park, as the Center points out.
And of all the eleven states studied, California lost the largest amount of natural land to development between 2001 and 2011. Californians sacrificed 784 square miles of natural landscape to human industry in that decade, an area just a hair smaller than Los Angeles and San Diego combined, almost a fifth of the total land lost across the West.
That's a huge amount of land lost just in California.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Cloudy, rainy, cold in the San Francisco Bay Area. I bundle up for my daily walk: undershirt, shirt, sweater, coat, muffler, and gloves. My anti-Covid mask keeps my face warm.
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 4:59pm
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:01am
Sunset: 7:02pm

On the cusp of old/new year’s eve, enjoy… and be careful out there!

“Don’t look up”

News blues

Oh-oh. Omicron. “The US is averaging 198,404 new Covid-19 cases each day… 47% higher than a week ago and the highest such number since January 19 [with] about 71,000 Americans hospitalized [and] an average of 1,408 Americans dying - a 17% increase - from Covid-19 each day during the week ending Sunday [Boxing Day]….
"I think we're going to see half a million cases a day - sometime over the next week to 10 days…." 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Oceana  analyzed e-commerce packaging data and found that Amazon generated 599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2020. This is a 29% increase of Oceana’s 2019 estimate of 465 million pounds. The report  also found that Amazon’s estimated plastic packaging waste, in the form of air pillows alone, would circle the Earth more than 600 times. By combining the e-commerce packaging data with findings from a recent study published in Science, Oceana estimates that up to 23.5 million pounds of Amazon’s plastic packaging waste entered and polluted the world’s waterways and oceans in 2020, the equivalent of dumping a delivery van payload of plastic into the oceans every 67 minutes.

Read the report >> 

***

© Photograph by Jason Edwards /
National Geographic

Edward O Wilson, naturalist known as a ‘modern-day Darwin’, dies aged 92. 
If you have not yet read E. O. Wilson, start with “Trailhead”, in the New Yorker 

***

Can't help but notice my mom died in the same year as many elevated and creative humans died ... including friend and San Francisco’s own, poet Jack Hershman.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Audience responses to Adam McKay’s 2021 movie, “Don’t look up!” range from “that’s excellent satire” (I’m in that group) to “a disaster!” 

 Along the lines of generational commentary movies, “War of the Worlds” and “Dr. Strangelove”, Netflix’s “Don’t look up!” highlights the diversity of the human mind accepting/not accepting our current human/planet condition.

If you watch it, watch and listen carefully - there’s a lot going on, including hard-to-articulate depths on how We the People distract ourselves from troublesome “reality.”

***

Obsessions, reprise
North/south solstices, December 27, 2021: 

San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 4:57pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:59am
Sunset: 7:01pm
Rain, rain, rain….

... update on battery charging obsession  

 

The interval between charges to create this design? More than 25 hours, among the best re-charge intervals (at least for an iPhone). The interval between charges to create this design? More than 25 hours, among the best re-charge intervals (at least for an iPhone).

 

Baking obsession continues. Yesterday, tried a recipe for dinner rolls. The rolls weren’t bad, just meh - I doubt I’ll revisit that recipe.
I did page through many recipe books and watch assorted online recipes and YouTube cooking shows.
I’d planned to troll various local thrift shops for low price/good quality cooking equipment. Alas, Omicron’s apparent ubiquity changed my mind. Moreover, in another week, Omicron allowing, there’ll be a wider choice of discarded equipment as people toss out the old and make room for the new… from Christmas gifts.

Hiatus

News blues

Suffered head- and body aches for Christmas. Naturally, it crossed my mind that I’d not only contracted the dreaded Omicron, but that I’d brought it to the house of my friend most fearful of contracting Covid. A quick scan through my activities of the last few days left me puzzled as to where I could have contracted it. Surely I could not have. I’m careful. My only community-oriented activity is grocery shopping but I’m judicious and I keep my distance from others. I did visit the dentist but the day before Christmas so likely too recent for Omicron to manifest. 

I double-checked the symptoms provided by Dr. Bruce Patterson, who works for single cell diagnostic company IncellDx and the Chronic Covid Treatment Center and who is a long-haul COVID expert. He reports he has not seen as much of a loss of taste and smell compared to the previous variants. This jibbed with my experience: delicious aromas from cooking our holiday meal suffused the house. Additionally, Patterson said, ‘“the one thing that’s always present with COVID-19 patients is fatigue”  - including the Omicron patients he has seen so far.’
I was just achy, not fatigued.
I swallowed a Tylenol at bedtime.
Yay! Awoke this morning feeling fit and aches free.
In case you're wondering, here’s the latest checklist of what constitutes mild, moderate and severe COVID >> 

***  

In sad news Desmond Tutu passed away. Long live Desmond Tutu! 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Who GAF about Christmas?  (0:35 mins)
Covid Vaccine  (1:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Ten great city projects for nature: photo essay >> 
Age of Extinction: photo essay >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Rain, rain, rain on the holiday but we took advantage of a brief hiatus and walked the neighborhood. Nothing as exciting as water flowing free and fast down gullies and into canals….
Took these photos in my neighborhood the day before the holiday. 

California gulls enjoy the temporary ponds.

***

Meanwhile, travel restrictions to and from southern Africa will be lifted on Monday. Time to rethink travel plans.... 

Soon, I'll leave the land of the winter solstice with:

Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 4:56pm
Rain, rain, rain….
and travel to the land of the summer solstice with:
Sunrise: 4:59am
Sunset: 7:00pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Pesky numbers

Worldwide (Map) 
December 22, 2021 – 277,088,800 confirmed infections; 5,376,100 deaths
Over last 28 days: 17,480,000 confirmed infections; 202,000 deaths
Total doses of vaccine administered: 8,798,205,750

US (Map) 
December 22, 2021 – 51,537,000 confirmed infections; 812,100 deaths
Over last 28 days: 3,323,525 confirmed infections; 35,185 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
December 22, 2021 – 3,353,110 confirmed infections; 90,587 deaths
Over last 28 days: 383,250 confirmed infections; 855 deaths

News blues

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new forecast that estimates the Omicron variant is already the dominant variant in the U.S.
New York state posted an all-time record of new Covid cases. Over the last weeks, new cases have climbed in the Northeast and Midwest. The nation’s Delta wave isn’t over and an Omicron wave has just begun. Read more >> 
Cleveland-area hospitals put ad in local Cleveland Plain-Dealer stating, “HELP”, in response to the latest Covid-19 health crisis exploding in Northern Ohio. The ad continued:

“We need your help. W now have more Covid-19 patients n our hospitals than ever before. And the overwhelming majority are unvaccinated. This is preventable.

Read more >> 

Yet, in Japan, numbers of new Covid infections plummet. Why? No one knows.  
And in South Africa’s Gauteng province – the epicenter of that country’s infections – Covid cases appear to have peaked with the impact of surging infections less severe than previous waves.
Read more >> 

How to make sense of the case and hospitalization data as Omicron takes off. Both metrics are important, but all of our data doesn’t matter if we don’t do anything with it.

***

Dr Sanjay Gupta breaks down how Omicron variant compares to other variants  (3:50 mins)

***

The Lincoln Project:
Corporate Accountability  (0:53 mins)
Santa Trump  (0:30 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The U.S. is gently discouraging states from building new highways A recent urges states to fix roads before constructing new ones, and to consider climate-friendly projects like bike lanes. 

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Raining in the Bay Area. Forecast calls for more rain over the next several days. I’m not complaining about the rain (took a walk along the foggy, damp beach anyway) but the tedium of Omicron-forced isolation can overwhelm.
Today’s baking obsession? Baked custard with sherry syrup.
My upper left arm – site of the booster shot – has been sore although that’s passing.

Winter solstice - San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:21am
Sunset: 4:54pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Summer solstice - Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:57am
Sunset: 6:59pm
Rain, rain, rain….

Seek and ye might find

News blues

The numbers speak: Omicron variant accounts for 73% of recent U.S. COVID-19 cases, CDC with New York state reporting a record number of Covid-19 infections 
While COVID Externalities Have Changed  this phase of the pandemic need not be about individual sacrifice. What’s required now is merely communal common sense.
Common sense, however, is in the ‘eye of the beholder’. Confusion continues to reign. The public has been told vaccine is effective against Omicron and vaccine is ineffective against Omicron.
"Effective":

Moderna announced Monday that a third dose of its mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 appears to provide significant protection against the omicron variant. The company said that its authorized booster can “boost neutralizing antibody levels 37-fold higher than pre-boost levels,” which it described as reassuring. 

"Ineffective":

Early evidence shows a “clear” drop in the effectiveness of current Covid-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant of coronavirus, according to the head of the European drugs regulator, who says it will take time to reach a consensus on whether variant-targeted vaccines will be needed. >> 

Given the confusion, fear, lack of coherence, I almost envy the absolute certainty displayed by whackidoodle anti-vaxers >> 
Almost. But I’ll stick with science.

I’ve looked forward to December 20 for weeks. That would have been Booster Day: the first day I’d be eligible for my 6-month vax booster. Alas, I could not get it! More on this odyssey below….

The Lincoln Project:
Mark Meadows Unlocked  (1:30 mins)
Yearning in America (0:56 mins -  This one brought tears to my eyes….)

Healthy planet, anyone?

First, the scary news: “Himalayan glaciers are melting at an "exceptional rate…” Almost half the glacial ice in the world's tallest mountain range will soon have disappeared compared to just a few centuries ago >> 
Then… celebrate what is now >>  
Happy solstice 2021 >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Booster Day? Not so fast!
Yesterday was the first day I was eligible for my Covid (Pfizer) booster jab. I’d tried earlier to get the jab – based on anticipated travel to SA – but was refused. After Omicron arrived I revisited plans and accommodated reality. Then, the big Booster Day arrived.
Day 1: I trotted off to the pharmacy at the local grocery store and… learned that their operations have changed since my last shot in June. Now, customers must make online appointments. And that day, they offered only Moderna shots.
I hesitated. How I might react to a Moderna booster? My physical response to Pfizer was negligible – slight sensitivity around the injection site. Friends who mixed doses reported Moderna presented stronger reactions than Pfizer. Do I want to risk being laid low over the holidays?
Back home, I researched the latest on Pfizer/Moderna mix. Moderna is reported to have slightly higher efficacy rate than Pfizer and, since I’ll visit my Omicron-nervous friend over the holiday weekend, I want to assure all that I’m taking advantage of the current best care available.
Travel had been a large part of my booster equation. The news about international travel, however, is not good: “Southern African nations join European favorites on CDC's list for 'very high' travel risk ."
I decided to take the Moderna jab. I tackled the grocery store’s pharmacy online reservation site. Not a great user experience: I could make a reservation at a pharmacy about 15 miles away but not at the pharmacy 2 miles away. I’ll return to the local pharmacy, make an in-person reservation, and wait.
Day 2: Pharmacy staff were helpful, agreed the online reservation system was ‘buggy’, and signed me up for a then-and-there appointment. Since both Moderna and Pfizer were available, I opted for Pfizer – albeit with a dash of last-minute indecision: what if Moderna is more efficacious? What if post-shot symptoms are worse? What if…?
I filled in the paperwork – for Pfizer - and chatted with the only other person in line for a jab. I learned that he’d taken his first Pfizer shot back in March – early days for shots – at a local sports arena complex. It was a massive drive-through operation managed by FEMA – Federal Emergency Management Agency – and other Federal agencies. (Press Release from April 2021.)
Then the pharmacist called me and I eagerly followed him and pulled up my sleeve to expose my upper left arm.
He asked, “Pfizer or Moderna?” “Um, I’m not sure.” I equivocated.

“Let me know if you want Moderna as I’ll change the paperwork and have you fill it out again.”
That did it. “No need to change the paperwork. Let’s go with Pfizer.” 

“You sure?” 

“Yes, I know what to expect from Pfizer. I’ll stick with Pfizer.” 

He reported his second Pfizer jab had knocked him out and he’d missed a day of work.  

An observation: Months of Lockdown in SA and months following the easing of Lockdown - when my mother was struggling with her health – blocked from my mind the day-to-day Covid-related happenings in California and the US. While I carefully followed US news, nevertheless I lost a year of early Covid history in the US… although I gained a year of Covid-related history in SA.
Lordy, when will it be “safe-enough” to return to SA and take care of business – and have assurance I can return to California after that, unimpeded by Covid?

***

I took advantage of my visits to the pharmacy and walked along the bay. The birds did not disappoint.  

Marbled Godwits.

American avocets? And that gorgeous duck? A pintail.

Lesser egret

***

Winter solstice - San Francisco Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:21am
Sunset: 4:53pm

More rain predicted. Snow pack deepening in Sierras. Yay!   
Summer solstice - Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 4:56am
Sunset: 6:59pm

Rain, rain, rain...