Plus ça change…

Omicats,

Worldwide (Map) 
January 20, 2022 - 338,550,400 confirmed infections; 5,568,100 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections’ 2,074,000 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered: 9,735,432,750

 
US (Map)
January 20, 2022 – 68,636,640 confirmed infections; 858,120 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections’ 406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
January 20, 2022 – 3,564,600 confirmed infections; 93,571 deaths
January 21, 2021 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.* 

A year ago we had hope for change. This year, not so much.
Sorely disappointed and horrified are those of us who wished Trump would disappear, gracefully or not, and fiddle with some sort of legacy. (A legacy library? Nah. The guy is proud of not reading - except for the bible, that is.) These posts from this time last year – The vulgarian has left the building  and Pardonathon?  present some hope that he'd disappear. Alas, he’s still around, still squawking about his stolen second presidency, still grifting although the walls appear to be closing in on him. (Will he face some sort of justice? Hmmm, I am hopeful but doubtful. He is, after all, the Trumpster, king of the cons. He could slime his way out of this, as he’s slimed his way out of everything previous to this.

 
A reminder: Today in 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the US. I miss Obama, a man with a sense of humor and integrity. Ah, the good old days.

 
* The more things change, the more they stay the same.

News blues

In South Africa, the national state of disaster has been extended by another month to February 15. Read more >> 

***

Can Omicron Cause Long Covid? It is too soon to know, scientists say, but mild initial illness may not signal reduced risk.
CDC: What We Know about Omicron – from spread to treatments, we have the tools >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Tribute – Martin Luther King  (1:30 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party  (2:00 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The following is timely although not surprising.

The cocktail of chemical pollution that pervades the planet now threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which humanity depends, scientists have said.
Plastics are of particularly high concern, along with 350,000 synthetic chemicals including pesticides, industrial compounds and antibiotics. Plastic pollution is now found from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans, and some toxic chemicals, such as PCBs, are long-lasting and widespread.
The study concludes that chemical pollution has crossed a “planetary boundary”, the point at which human-made changes to the Earth push it outside the stable environment of the last 10,000 years.

Read “Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists Study calls for cap on production and release as pollution threatens global ecosystems upon which life depends” >> 
(More on toxic pollution below.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I changed my walk routine yesterday and, instead of my usual along the beach ritual (obsessively counting masks discarded along the route) I visited the former Naval Air Station.
I know the base well. For at least a decade, I’ve served on the RAB – Restoration Advisory Board for citizen “oversight” of the cleanup of toxics used during the base’s heyday. My overlong sojourns in South Africa, plus the pandemic mitigated against our usual monthly face-to-face RAB meetings during which Navy personnel and contractors describe the progress of the cleanup. Over the past two years, meetings were either cancelled altogether or, most recently, conducted virtually. While I participate as I can online, I’ve not visited the base to walk since I returned last June. This, despite the installation of a second ferry terminal at what’s known as Seaplane Lagoon.
I love exploring this approx. 2,000 acre installation, all landfilled, with San Francisco Bay and Oakland Alameda Estuary waters bordering three sides.
These days the base slowly converts open-though-concreted spaces into apartment buildings.

(This, despite RAB members contending the ground under the sites remain too contaminated with toxic TCE and jet fuel. How do the powers-that-be respond? They explain that building restrictions include not building residences on first floors. Rather, locate businesses on first floor: “everyone knows” humans spend less time in shops than they do at home. The conclusion: no “serious” contamination likely.) And they’ve built in building codes to ensure all first floor businesses maintain strict guidelines for adequate ventilation.)
Would I purchase or rent a second or third floor apartment here?
No. I understand that entities such as the Navy and City Hall accept that cancers and environmental illness from toxics strike human beings. Their data and numbers describe how many cancers are “acceptable.” An extra cancer here or there? Ah, that falls within the “acceptable” rate – unless it’s your kid/loved one…. 

But I digress….

Yesterday, I parked my vehicle near our city’s western City Hall office and walked a section of the base.

Pan American World Airways is long gone yet its legacy lives on.
Pan American World Airways fabled China Clipper left Alameda Marina
on November 22, 1935 [its inaugural flight] bound
[for] Manila via Honolulu, Midway, Wake, and Guam.
The inauguration of ocean airmail service and commercial airflight
across the Pacific was a significant event for both California and the world. 
Read more >>

Returning to my vehicle, I discovered a Covid testing site: free tests, no wait line. 

I can drop by anytime during business hours for a free test. 

That’s what I’ll do when I prepare for my upcoming departure for SA.

 
Notice the lawn area on the left middle ground of this picture? Below is a close up of that lawn.  

An historical fact shared by a friend, former corpsman (a medic) in Vietnam during that disaster that will not be found in the history books.

During his brief stay at this naval base, this then-young-man and fellow Vietnam-bound troops, sat around on the lawn and smoked clouds of pot. That this was risqué – the base commander’s office faced the lawn – only added to their high.

Today, the Canada geese appreciate the well-kempt lawn… and don’t bother with history.

***

On January 18, the first day they were offered, I online ordered my free 4 packs of Covid-19 tests. They’re supposed to arrive within 7 to 14 days. The countdown is on….

***

Foggy in San Francisco Bay today
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 5:19pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:18am
Sunset: 7:01pm
A friend who works on an agricultural spread in KZN reported that the ongoing rainfall endangers the region's crops: corn/mealies growing but no cobs set, potatoes rot in the ground: “massive financial loss looming….”

Tsunamis

News blues

Metaphors for the coronavirus pandemic and its variants include “wave” and “surge”, even “tsunami.” It takes an actual, real live tsunami to remind us how that can look.
An underwater volcano erupted about 30 miles off the coast of the South Pacific island of Tonga. Thousands of miles away, the California coast was affected, too.
While one might expect towns along the Pacific coast to be affected, three locations mentioned in the video - Tiburon, Richardson Bay, and Berkeley Marina - located inside San Francisco Bay saw a significant water rise, too.
News outlets reported wave action throughout the day but walking along my part of the bay, I saw no rise. The tide was, in fact, one of the lowest I’ve seen. (More on this below.)

***

As for Covid-19, contradictory information continues in, well, waves and surges:

There's a growing narrative in the mainstream media, on social media — maybe even at your dinner table. That is: The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is weakening and evolving into a less deadly virus. In the future, each new variant that crops up will cause milder illness than the previous variant.
"There's this story that we're going to have variants that are progressively less severe," says Dr. Roby Bhattacharyya, who's an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
But that's completely untrue, Bhattacharyya says. "It's comforting to think there might be some tendency for SARS-CoV-2 to evolve toward a milder form. That's not what we're seeing here."

Read “Fact check: The theory that SARS-CoV-2 is becoming milder” >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Flip Flop Lindsey  (0:45 mins)
McCarthy on 1/6 (0:47 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

How do you see plant life?

The term “plant blindness” was coined in 1998 to describe our general tendency, as humans, not to see the plant life that surrounds us. The problem has understandable roots: the human brain evolved to detect difference, and then to categorise that difference as either threat or non-threat. Plants, being unlikely to attack, are lumped together and treated as background, a green screen against which dramas take place. Many plants, and especially trees, exist on a different timescale to humans – who, moreover, have spent millennia dividing existence into conscious beings and things, where the former are afforded automatic importance over the latter. Combined with the general move to cities, and then to screen-based life indoors, this has resulted in, for example, up to half of British children being unable to identify stinging nettles, brambles or bluebells; 82% of those questioned could not recognise an oak leaf.

Read the editorial >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Fascinated by the notion of seeing the effects of an underwater volcanic explosion along California’s coast – thousands of miles away – I kept an eye out for tidal action along my local beach.
Nothing. Nada.

Low tide, looking east towards Oakland Hills.

 

Low tide, looking west towards South San Francisco.

Rather, the low tide was, if anything, lower than usual. 

I assume water rise depends upon the angle water from the Pacific enters the bay through the narrow one mile wide Golden Gate. The towns mentioned as affected by rising water – Tiburon, Richardson Bay, and Berkeley Marina - are north of my island town. Perhaps the tsunami-driven water entered the Golden Gate from a southern angle and maintained a relatively straight trajectory. (Heading towards my section of beach would have required the surge suddenly to veer south - highly unlikely though I'd have appreciated that.)

***

A friend and I had planned to visit Duxbury Reef today, along the Pt Reyes shoreline  . It would have been a first visit in some years for both of us. (I visited Kehoe Beach back in July 2021 – a different part of Pt Reyes.)
Alas, my friend succumbed to a bad cold ten days ago. His at-home Covid test revealed no Covid: big relief. Alas, the congestion remaining in his lungs persuaded us to forgo the trip for now. 

Next week perhaps.

Kehoe Beach, 2018.

While we’d planned the trip prior to yesterday's South Pacific volcanic eruption, this sign - permanently posted near another Pt Reyes beach - warns an unwary visitor.

***

Usually, while at the beach, I gather assorted debris – manmade and organic – and create odd beach sculptures, one example shown below. (Taken with iPhone camera so detail is murky.)
I miss not doing that today. 

Next week perhaps.

 

I cast around on the beach and construct in situ art,
usually of the totem variety.
Traces of my last visit may still remain on the beach.
Nah. It's long gone.... That's the nature of natural "art."

The beat goes on

Worldwide (Map) 
January 13, 2022 – 317,486,000 confirmed infections; 5,516,000 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 92,314,000 confirmed infections; 1,977,900 deaths
In last 28 days: 44,936,600 confirmed infections; 182,290 deaths
Total vaccinations dispensed to date: 9,546,3634,000
News from one year ago: Five countries doing well against Covid: New Zealand, Senegal, Iceland, Denmark, and Saudi Arabia. 

US (Map) 
January 13, 2022 – 63,232,340 confirmed infections; 844,650 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 23,071,100 confirmed infections; 384,635 deaths
In last 28 days: 12,809,100 confirmed infections; 40,417 deaths.
News from one year ago: “The death toll from Covid-19 has now passed 380,000 across the US".

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
January 13, 2022 – 3,540,900 confirmed infections; 92,830 deaths
January 14, 2021 – 1,278,305 confirmed infections; 35,140 deaths
In last 28 days: 309,860 confirmed infections; 2,604 deaths.
News from one year ago: “SA recorded 806 new Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours, its highest ever single-day deaths so far.” 

News blues

In South Africa:

A Covid-19 vaccine trial in SA will assess the safety and impact of varying doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer shots as boosters for those infected with HIV and the wider population.
The study carried out by the Johannesburg-based Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute will recruit about 300 health workers, of which about a third will be HIV-positive, said Dr Lee Fairlie, head of child and maternal health at the institute.
With about 8.2-million people in SA, or 13% of the population, infected with HIV, the effectiveness, or immunogenicity, of Covid-19 vaccines in generating an immune system response in immunocompromised individuals has been a key concern. HIV causes Aids, which weakens the immune system.

Read more >> 

The beat goes on… that is, the beat of misinformation about vaccines’ adverse effects:

South Africa’s health department has again encouraged the public to report any adverse events after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.
This comes after a video clip of a man who appears to have throat cancer was spread on social media, saying it was caused by a Covid-19 jab.
The video was shared by the leader of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) Kenneth Meshoe, who said it occurred after the man received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said some patients may suffer swelling or tenderness, including in the throat, after getting the Pfizer vaccine, but this usually goes away within 10 days.
It said such swelling is possible after any vaccine, as it could be a sign the body is making antibodies, as intended.
“It is also possible that this swelling will show up on imaging tests and could be mistaken for progression of certain cancers — primarily breast, head and neck, melanoma, and lymphoma. On imaging tests, the lymph node enlargement may be detected for a longer period.”

Read recommendations >> 

The Lincoln Project:
NPR Trump (1:45 mins)
Under Watters’ Top 10  (1:40 mins)
Ernst Owning the Libs (0:21 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party (2:20 mins)
Sad  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Andy Thorn plays music outside… and a wild fox comes to listen  (1:39 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Coal King and Senator Joe Manchin is at what politicians call “an inflection point” … a time to “pivot”… As duly-elected Prez Biden and Congressional Democrats apply pressure for Manchin to support For the People Act – y’know, secure democratic voting rights - I got in on the act. I contacted Manchin and urged him to vote FOR the Act. You can contact him, too:

… contact Senator Manchin to share your concerns. If you have …insight or questions you can contact Senator Manchin’s West Virginia office at 304-342-5855 or Senator Manchin’s Washington, D.C. office at 202-224-3954. Or submit and online form. West Virginians with a 304 or 681 area code can contact Senator Manchin’s office through a toll-free number at 855-5737.

I also contacted Senator Kyrsten Sinema  and sent her an online message.
By the way, both senators offer a long list of topics on dropdown menus from which constituents select their topic of concern. Neither senator offers the option “vote” or “voting”. Kinda telling, no?

***

After European nations suspended most air travel from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe in November 2021, EU member states have agreed to lift this air travel ban.
Now, to figure out what that might mean for a solitary traveler from California.

If it gets squirrelly, I can pull out a friend’s recent gift: an at-home Covid test. What do I mean by squirrelly? For example, obtaining test results take “up to 48 hours”. CDC states, “you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test (regardless of vaccination status or citizenship) no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States.” So, there’s a discrepancy in timing of test results and boarding a plane or arriving in another country. Example, a flight to/from South Africa takes at least 30 hours. I will take a test in a local facility and carry proof of that, but I’ve no control over when that facility emails my results; could be anywhere between 15 and 48 hours. Bureaucracy, being what it is, could deem my test results “old”/expired anywhere along the route. Then what?
Perhaps I can pull from my back pocket my friend’s test kit gift and perform the test at passport control?
Always good to have a backup plan to attempt to outwit stolid bureaucracy and bureaucrats.

***

In the meantime, I entertain myself by spying on local waterfowl on my daily walk.

Stilt.

Oyster catcher.

Golden eye amid reflections.

Standing at Point A looking eastward toward Point B.

Standing at Point B looking westward toward Point A.

***

Today, California sunset – 5:12pm - and SA sunrise – 5:12am - is synchronized: 

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 5:12pm

No rain....   

Midlands, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:12am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining….

Surging surge

News blues

Omicron – forecast as “milder” – is pushing the US to the brink of collapse:

Dire shortages as U.S. nears record for COVID-19 hospitalizations But it may get much worse. Already struggling hospitals could house about 300,000 covid patients later this month if models, which even researchers say are difficult to forecast, are correct.

Read “U.S. breaks record with more than 145,000 covid-19 hospitalizations” >>

Additionally,

The United States surpassed its record for covid-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday [January 10], with no end in sight to skyrocketing case loads, falling staff levels and the struggles of a medical system trying to provide care amid an unprecedented surge of the coronavirus.
[January 10’s] total of 145,982 people in U.S. hospitals with covid-19, which includes 4,462 children, passed the record of 142,273 set on Jan. 14, 2021, during the previous peak of the pandemic in this country.
But the highly transmissible omicron variant threatens to obliterate that benchmark. If models of omicron’s spread prove accurate — even the researchers who produce them admit forecasts are difficult during a pandemic — current numbers may seem small in just a few weeks. Disease modelers are predicting total hospitalizations in the 275,000 to 300,000 range when the peak is reached, probably later this month.

Read more >>

It’s not just the US. World Healthy Organization suggests more than half of Europe could be infected in next 2 months >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

“One of the hardest things to grasp about the climate crisis is the connectedness of all things.” Add to that, the interconnectedness of biomes, ecosystems, and environments that, out of balance, lead to pandemics such as this coronavirus. We still have very little idea of the genesis of this virus. We do, however, know far more about what we can expect if we do not address environmental imbalance. Resistance to address these real issues is endemic. Take what we know about burning coal and the roots of climate change.
Senator Joe Manchin, West Virginia, aka King Coal, represents a powerful person bought and paid for by Big Coal. With Manchin’s help the dying coal industry is pulling one final heist — and you and I and our planet may pay the price >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Hunkered down from assorted coronavirus variants, socially distancing from potential human “vectors” - plus dealing with cold winter, I’ve delved into many – oh, let’s call them – obsessions.
Reading? ✔
Always a reader. My online library tracker, Reading Insights, states I’ve read every day for 181 weeks.
Baking? ✔
Rediscovered baking. I make my own bread. I cook. I even gather online recipes for future tasting treats. I’ve watched most episodes of the Great Baking Shows - British, and Kiwi, and Canadian….
iPhone’s battery charging graphs? ✔

I create “designs” from these graphs. I like capturing the “red zones” – below 20% charge remaining – as accent color. The intensity of this obsession ebbs and flows but hasn’t evaporated. As we see with this latest version. 
Exercise? ✔
Too cold to swim but encouraged by my Steps app, I reach my daily goal of 6,000 steps/2 miles each day. Overseen by the pitiless Steps app, it’s either walk or delete the app as I do not want a “forever” record of not walking on my phone.
My latest obsession?
Drum roll … American serial killers. ✔
Specifically, Netflix documentaries on American serial killers Ted Bundy, Wayne Williams, Henry Lee Lucas….
This trio was operating within the US when I first arrived in the country. I heard about them peripherally, but was busy adjusting to my new life, new country, new family, and new friends to pay attention. Registering serial killers was at the bottom of a long list of more important adjustments – and, as Goete suggests, I may not have had the imagination to cope with such activity.
Ponder Goete’s words: “Few people have the imagination for reality.”
Indeed.
Superficially “knowing about”/watching fictionalized versions of the violence and horror that humans inflict upon one another is different to focusing on this human psychological phenomenon. Different, too, from traveling in a war zone. (Been there, done that .)
TV, movies, and online media “neutralizes” horror by normalizing it, making it ubiquitous therefore superficial, merely entertaining background to TV’s main role: advertising and selling goods and services.
Today, soaked in the reality of these three serial killers’ actions, I’m re-evaluating Goete’s words and also allowing my imagination to grapple with the heretofore unthinkable: Civil war in the United States of America.
With lack of effective pushback from “leaders” in a position to pushback – the Department of Justice, the duly-elected current president, sane members of the US Congress, concerned (and sane) Americans – Trump/Trumpies ongoing insurrection and slow-moving but real coup endangers the country and We the People.
Information to imagine this reality:

• Christiane Amanpour interviews Prof Robert Pape and his new study shows the single biggest motivation for the Jan. 6 rioters  (17:40 mins)
• Prof Robert Pape’s report as Powerpoint pdf >> 
• Insurrectionist movement in U.S. is larger and more dangerous than expected, research finds >> 
• Prof Barbara Walter on likelihood of another US civil war?  (14:45 mins) If none of the others, do watch this interview!

***

New information on this mural first mentioned December 19, 2021 post. Back then I didn’t know who was the artist. I suspected, incorrectly, a local muralist I know as Michael who lives and paints in this island town. 

Rather, this Webster Gateway Mural – aka From Land and Sea, was created by Oakland muralist Dave Young Kim  and Reno, Nevada artist Erik Burke. 

It is 34 x 110 ft / 10.36 x 33.5 meters.

***

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 5:10pm

Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:11am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining….

Please! No more!

News blues

Last week, a new variant reported from southern France. (Scroll to “WHO downplays French variant”.)  
This week? Deltacron: 

A new variant of COVID-19 with 10 mutations from Omicron and genetic background similar to the Delta has reportedly been detected in the small European country of Cyprus. Dubbed ‘Deltacron’ by the researchers, the new COVID-19 variant has been found to have infected 25 people in the country until now. 

Read more >>

***

How do key COVID-19 metrics compare to previous waves? Our World in Data presents interactive charts to view comparisons. Sobering info at your fingertips >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Dagger  (0:55 mins)
Last year in the Republican Party  (2:17 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A murmuration of starlings at sunset in Rome, Italy.

Between 1 and 4 million starlings come to Rome during their annual migration every winter 

Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images 

© Guardian News: Week in wildlife pictures 

Our fragile world: photo essay >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Monday. A day to catch up on pressing chores. .. more pressing now that I’ve actually managed to contact a South African travel agent. Alas, the area towards which I’m heading continues to suffer torrential rain.
The good news?
California beginning to experience slighter longer daylight.
Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:09pm
California on track for spring  – at least a minute more daylight each day over the last few days.
Fiat lux! (“let there be light”.)
Every minute counts…
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:10am
Sunset: 7:03pm

Rain continues...   

Teetering

News blues

What happens when a health-care system crumbles?

At first, there’s just a lot of waiting. Emergency rooms get so full that “you’ll wait hours and hours, and you may not be able to get surgery when you need it.”
When patients are seen, they might not get the tests they need, because technicians or necessary chemicals are in short supply. Then delay becomes absence. The little acts of compassion that make hospital stays tolerable disappear. Next go the acts of necessity that make stays survivable. Nurses might be so swamped that they can’t check whether a patient has their pain medications or if a ventilator is working correctly. People who would’ve been fine will get sicker. Eventually, people who would have lived will die. This is not conjecture; it is happening now, across the United States.

Read more >>
This article is specific to the US where medical care is very expensive, not easily dispensed, and geared towards generating and supporting high medical insurance premiums. The medical system in South Africa – with a quasi-infrastructure overall and shaky medical care in general - serves the vast majority without medical insurance.

***

Notes from the Covid front lines:

…health care workers are not superhuman or robots, and are subject to human feelings and emotions just like everyone else. Never before have I endured such resentment and cynicism at unvaccinated patients and their reckless, selfish choices. Choices that enable this pandemic to propagate and destroy lives and families. Thus, it is only natural that throughout the country we are seeing widespread staffing shortages across all health care disciplines.

Read “I'm An ICU Doctor in Rural Ohio. This Is the Horror I Face Every Day Due To COVID-19.” >>

On the same topic:
An incoming tide of patients is slowly drowning UMass Memorial Medical Center, and the US military's National Guard is working to plug the gaps. In wave after daily wave, the emergency crews pull up to the ambulance bay, dropping off patients for which there is no room. 

Read more >>

And, 

Ambulances in Kansas speed toward hospitals then suddenly change direction because hospitals are full. Employee shortages in New York City cause delays in trash and subway services and diminish the ranks of firefighters and emergency workers. Airport officials shut down security checkpoints at the biggest terminal in Phoenix and schools across the nation struggle to find teachers for their classrooms.
The current explosion of omicron-fueled coronavirus infections in the U.S. is causing a breakdown in basic functions and services — the latest illustration of how COVID-19 keeps upending life more than two years into the pandemic. “This really does, I think, remind everyone of when COVID-19 first appeared and there were such major disruptions across every part of our normal life,” said Tom Cotter, director of emergency response and preparedness at the global health nonprofit Project HOPE. “And the unfortunate reality is, there’s no way of predicting what will happen next until we get our vaccination numbers — globally — up.”
First responders, hospitals, schools and government agencies have employed an all-hands-on-deck approach to keep the public safe, but they are worried how much longer they can keep it up. 

Read “Omicron Boom Spurs Breakdown of Vital Services Nationwide. Disruptions are evident in everything from health care to public transit to air travel.” >> 

And, confused by the CDC’s new isolation guidelines? You’re not the only one. America’s COVID Rules Are a Dumpster Fire >>

***

The South African government has decided to take a more pragmatic approach while keeping an eye on severe COVID and whether or not health systems are imminently under threat. This reflects acceptance that governments will increasingly be looking for ways to live with the virus cognisant of the detrimental indirect effects that restrictions have been having on the economy, livelihoods and other aspects of society. This is particularly pertinent in resource constrained countries such as South Africa.

Read more >>

***

The Lincoln Project: Seb/Ted  (0:37 mins)
Our own Trevor Noah and the Daily Show comment on, Ted Cruz: The Booger on the Lip of Democracy  (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Who knew? 

Actually, I knew. It’s tough not to know when, each day in the office, one makes a cup of coffee with a high-end Keurig delivering coffee with a one-time-use plastic pod, along with two or three one-time-use plastic crème pods, a one-time use sugar packet and, if one doesn’t bring along a reusable ceramic mug, a one-time-use polystyrene cup. 

I also knew our office was one of dozens of similar offices on one floor – and millions across America - with Keurig coffee makers. Worry spurred these photos I took to record my ritual cup of joe.
Now, huge surprise! NOT!

The millions of machines that require single-use plastic coffee pods are not, after all, great for the environment, not even close. Finally, Keurig is roasted and, one hopes, toasted (as in burned, not celebrated).

The Competition Bureau, a regulator in Canada tasked with snuffing out deceptive business practices, said Keurig Canada will pay a $3 million penalty for not being transparent about the recyclability of its products. The bureau said that it and the company had voluntarily reached a settlement to pay the penalty plus give an $800,000 donation to an environmental charity and cover $85,000 in Competition Bureau expenses….
Keurig was investigated for claiming customers could recycle its pods by removing the aluminum foil lid and dumping out the coffee grounds. The bureau found the instructions to be insufficient for the pods to be widely accepted into recycling programs and noted that Quebec and British Columbia were the only provinces recycling K-Cups.

Read more >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Howick Falls reaching flow capacity.  (Previous post with photos.) 

Midmar Dam is a huge man-made water reservoir serving Kwa Zulu Natal.

With all the rain falling in KZN – and predicted to continue – in the area, Midmar Dam, too, is beginning to overflow . (At about minute 1:50 of this clip, Howick Falls. - 2:27 mins)
And a clip of streets flooding in the province’s legislative capital >> 

Previous posts describe my attempts to address the largely blocked stream that flows through the bottom of my mom’s property. It overflows with too much rain and floods the garden, then water rises toward the house. One of the two culverts designed to drain water under a service road is totally blocked. The other culvert drains at less than 20 percent capacity. I’ve attempted to engage the local municipal department responsible for such maintenance. I describe their response at my temerity to request service as uninterested, inconclusive, in a word, incompetent. A shrug as equipment is driven away.
Property taxes up the wazoo; Thanks very much for continuing to pay. Alas, service unavailable. (One supervisor told me workers cannot complete the work because “too many snakes.” I advised I’d taken a close look at the blockage and, in 2 years, never seen a single snake. Another shrug before entering her car and driving away - never to  return.)
With the amount of water falling and flowing in the area, I’m both worried about the property.
I’m also worried about traveling to SA and, after 30 to 36 hours of traveling, finding the area too flooded to allow safe transit to the house.
Africa. Continent of surprises.

***

The latest news on international travel: airline for New Zealand was awarded first place "due to its excellent incident record, number of cockpit innovations, pilot training and very low fleet age." "Air New Zealand is a leader in this field with comprehensive retraining." 
Air New Zealand doesn’t service South Africa from the US.
Etihad Airways – UAE – in second place.
Qatar Airways came in third, with Singapore Airlines and TAP Portugal achieving fourth and fifth place respectively.
Australian carrier Qantas is missing from the top five despite holding the title of world's safest airline from 2014 to 2017, as well as 2019 to 2021 (no clear winner could be found in 2018). Australia's flag carrier takes seventh place this time due to a "slight increase in incidents coupled with the fleet age” after a Qantas Boeing traveling from the Australian city of Perth to Adelaide in Western Australia was diverted due to a fuel imbalance, in an occurrence classified as a "serious incident."
Of these carriers, only Qatar serves the US. This means up to a 24 hour layover in Doha. Am I up for it?
Enquiring minds wanna know….

Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:08pm
The good news? Sunset happening one to two minutes later each day. Weather, still cold although sunny for part of the day.
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:09am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining …with more rain predicted for the next 10 days. The vulgar South Africanism that describes my consternation, oh, gats!

Touch of reality?

News blues

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Trump and the Trumpies attempting a coup in the US Capitol. Here’s the actual, real, and legitimate US vice prez and prez – Harris and Biden – addressing the nation >>  (33:04 mins)
Here, too, is comedian Stephen Colbert’s memories of the day a year ago when “the fecal matter truly hit the oscillator”…  (10:43)
And from Mary Trump: “He must be feeling the walls closing in…” >>  (6:06 mins)
It’s been a year of Trump and Trumpies pushing “Stop the Steal”  and The Big Lie  about his failed re-election. (Genesis of The Big Lie in “real life”.)
Amid the libraries-worth of journalism written since then, politically centrist journalist Jennifer Rubin presents an important opinion piece: “Trump idolatry has undermined religious faith”,

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Back to Covid: Has Omicron peaked or plateaued in some regions? Experts say there are early, tentative signs that the omicron wave has peaked, or is plateauing, in the places that were among the first to be hit hard by the variant. 
Despite the mixed messaging, confused communication, and often conflicting information presented to the public about Covid-19, the pandemic, and the many viral mutations, thoughtful humans still seek further information. Lucky for us, researchers oblige. Next week we might have information that conflicts, but here’s the current knowledge on symptoms and severity of Omicron – at least for this week.

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The Lincoln Project: Biden  (1:55 mins)
Which is it, Ted?  (0:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Life on vanishing coasts – photo essay >> 

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“Postcards From a World on Fire” >> 

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More calls for the US to address its plastic waste:

Environmental organisations across Latin America have called on the US to reduce plastic waste exports to the region, after a report found the US had doubled exports to some countries in the region during the first seven months of 2020.
The US is the world’s largest plastic waste exporter,  although it has dramatically reduced the overall amount it exports since 2015, when China – previously the top importer – said it “no longer wanted to be the world’s rubbish dump” and began imposing restrictions. Elsewhere around the world imports are rising, and not least in Latin America, with its cheap labour and close proximity to the US.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The past seven months in California have been disorienting, partly because the pandemic began while I was gone and American culture moved on, partly because this is my first winter in California in four years and, cold weather coupled with Omicron, produces involuntary isolation.
Amid what feels like waves of crazy – mounds of conspiracy theories, lies, and corruption, and unimaginably large numbers of Americans remaining in Trump’s conspiracy cult of the absurd, do I perceive a glimmer to push back from Biden and Attorney General Garland? Both men, heretofore appearing like deer-in-the-headlights, issued strong statements yesterday. 

What will today and tomorrow bring?
One issue? American perception. One article on Garland, for example, states, “Garland is under increasing pressure from the left.” In fact, Garland is under pressure from all Americans concerned about the country’s direction. That this is described as “the left” is an indication of how far right the country has become over the last decade.
All in all? Life and living is increasingly precarious these days.

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Bay Area, California:
Sunrise: 7:24am
Sunset: 5:06pm
Cold, foggy, and drizzly.

 
Howick, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:07am
Sunset: 7:03pm
Still raining ….