Time out

News blues

Today, we have a time out from pandemic news, Omicron news, mask mandate-or-not news….and go directly to The Lincoln Project:
Bloodlines  (2:15 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party  (2:20 mins)

***

As the walls close in on Trump and the Trumplets – that trio The Donald refers to in the media as his “children” – as if they’re 12-year-olds rather than 40-something-year-olds. (This, after his ongoing, global harassment of Hunter Biden, Joe’s “child.” See one of many examples >>  (3:00 mins) and his horrific detention of actual children on the border >> )
These days, We the People learn of Trump’s slowly-being-revealed plot to have the US military seize voting machines after the recent presidential election went against Trump’s re-election. Knowing, however, that there are constitutional “guardrails” for deploying the US military in the US – can’t happen – Trump, true Banana-Republic-like, formed his own military. Here are the head honchos: 

Head Honcho on top….
(Thanks to Trevor Noah for this >>)

Next in Line, General M.Y. Pillow.
(c) Stephen Colbert, the Late Show.

Healthy planet, anyone?

Thomas Crowther, an ecologist at ETH Zurich, says, “We should be angry about climate change and the destruction of ecosystems. But without optimism, that outrage goes nowhere…”.
Last summer, he launched Restor, an evolving mapping tool  that hopes to show where in the world people are doing optimistic things to restore or conserve ecosystems. Think of it as the “nature is healing” meme from the early days of the pandemic, but serious.

“We’ve never known where all the conservation and restoration is happening on our planet,” Crowther said. “It’s the first time we can begin to visualize a global restoration movement.”

Learn more about where nature could be healing >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Taxes done! One day after tax season opens, I filled out then put my state and fed forms into USPS. Sure, the IRS would prefer I file online but that online technology is, in my opinion, in the clunky stage. (I filed online last year whilst under lockdown in South Africa and it was not easy or convenient…
With taxes done, it was time for a stroll along the beach.
High low tide today. 

Happy waterfowl, happy humans. 

Wigeons.

One of hundreds of Canada geese....

Beware, Greeks…

News blues

Beware Greeks bearing letters...

The World Health Organization has been using letters of the Greek alphabet, in order, to name coronavirus variants. Delta was the most dominant one, followed by eight others - including Epsilon, Iota and Lambda
…
…[Read the story of] how this latest coronavirus variant became named Omicron.
And if even newer variants emerge, there are nine more letters in the Greek alphabet. The next one is Pi.

***

Last week, a loved one was diagnosed with Omicron. His wife’s had it, too. Both work in hospitals in Texas and report many, many staff have or have had it. Their kids have had it. None, thank the gods, have had bad cases, so hospitalizations unnecessary (adults have been jabbed, small kids not).
Multiple episodes of Covid are not uncommon. A student nurse in UK, for example, has suffered 4 doses of Covid >> 

Anecdotal reports of Covid reinfection in the UK are growing, including people testing positive just weeks apart in December and January, or having had the virus three or even four times. Children are also being seen with reinfections. We take a look at the science behind catching Covid multiple times.

Read "How likely are you to catch Covid multiple times  >> 

***

An alphabet, a pandemic, isolation… Now? A game: Covid Simulator. Here’s a promo >>  (1:25 mins)
Read an announcement about the game and when to expect it >> This simulator aims to allow users to visualize how quickly Covid-19 spreads, becoming a disaster. The game is an open sandbox for you to enjoy!

***

The Lincoln Project:
What are they for?  (0:24 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Due to obsessively isolating to avoid Omicron, I’ve watched a lot more Netflix than usual. I delved into the stories of assorted serial killers before stumbling onto the many facets of the story of The Unabomber, aka Unabom, aka Ted Kaczynski. I’ve watched dramatized versions from the point of view of the FBI (“Manhunt”), the man himself, his family, and the media (“Unabomber, in his own words”). Even watched the Saturday Night Live version >>  (4:06 mins). And listened to a series theme song, “The Worst – Man” >> (2:01 mins – beware, it could worm its way into your head).

***

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Last week, our planned trip to a Pt Reyes beach was delayed due to ill health. A friend and I did that trip yesterday: a perfect sunny, crisp, and clear winter day.

I assumed my friend and I would easily negotiate the steep, even treacherous path to the beach. After all, I’ve done it many times before. (Back in the day, when I needed a break from civilization, I’d pack my sleeping bag and a bottle of water and make for the cliffs. There, I’d scope out a cleft in the cliffside - a spot where no one with malicious intent could easily approach without waking me -  climb into the bag, and spend a moonlit night in awe of our world’s natural beauty.) Yesterday, alas, I realized my friend has a bad knee and attempting to reach the beach was unwise. 

I missed not collecting assorted beach debris and making a beach sculpture, but a healthy knee was preferable.
As they say, “chit happens….

Weekender

News blues

Who knew? “Face masks can make you more attractive"  (2:12 mins)
Maybe promoting these study results in the US would persuade anti-makers to mask up? Perhaps promote on online dating sites? Worth a try....

***

When Covid-19 hit SA and stigmatisation was at its peak, many healthcare workers were shunned in their communities due to fear of the virus.
So when two Cape Town clinics started doing home visits to patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) — those most at risk of Covid-19 complications — some were reluctant to take part.
But thanks to healthcare workers’ perseverance, the crisis-management strategies they introduced to accommodate these patients has paid off.
According to a new study by the University of Cape Town (UCT), managing stable NCD patients at home rather than at clinics, is the future and should be retained even after pandemic.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Trump’s Judges  (0:40 mins)
Package deal  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Stretching along the ocean floor for nearly 2 miles and
covered with rose-shaped coral, the reef is one of the largest
such discoveries at depths of more than 30 metres.
© Guardian News. Photograph: Alexis Rosenfeld/AP

The good news:

A huge coral reef has been discovered off the coast of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean’s “twilight zone”, offering hope that more pristine ecosystems are waiting to be discovered at unexplored depths.
Stretching along the ocean floor for nearly 2 miles, the reef, covered in rose-shaped corals, is one of the largest such discoveries at depths of more than 30 metres, where sunlight levels are much lower.

Read more >> 
Least you forget: the bad news on coral reefs >> 

The view from Comb Ridge in Utah’s Bears Ears national monument.
Biden’s announcement served as a key victory for
environmental and Indigenous groups.
© Guardian News. Photograph: Reuters.

More good news, this time on restored environmental protections

Joe Biden restored environmental protections [back in October 2021] to three national monuments and their vast expanse of vital ecosystems and sacred Indigenous spaces, reversing cuts made by Donald Trump.
“These protections provide a bridge to our past, but they also build a bridge to a safer and more sustainable future,” said Biden. “One where we strengthen our economy and pass on a healthy planet to our children and our grandchildren.”
Biden signed three proclamations that increased the boundaries of Bears Ears to 1.36m acres, while restoring the Grand Staircase-Escalante to 1.87m acres – both spanning large swaths of southern Utah. He also reinstated protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine, about 130 miles off the coast of New England, and extended limits on commercial fishing. The proclamations unraveled moves made by Trump, in which he slashed 85% of Bears Ears, leaving wide swaths of the site vulnerable to mining and other commercial activities.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Trip to the beach delayed last week due to ill health will take place tomorrow. Looking forward to sharing photos.

***

San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:19am
Sunset: 5:21pm
Minutes of daylight increase each day. Hooray! Yet, in what ought to be wet winters in California, fires burn >> 

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:20am
Sunset: 7:00pm

Short is sweet

News blues

American and wondering who’s paying for all that ivermectin? Well, you are. That is, insurers and taxpayers shelled out more than $130 million for a drug that doesn’t work.

Last August, author Kao-Ping Chua, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, noticed an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that noted a dramatic increase in ivermectin prescriptions during the pandemic. Before 2020, ivermectin prescription rates from US doctors were low—just a few thousand a week for parasitic diseases like scabies. Yet by the week ending August 13, 2021, as the Delta variant began to sweep the United States and ivermectin advocates proliferated, that number had skyrocketed to 88,000 prescriptions.
Chua recalls, “I thought to myself, I really hope insurance is not paying for that.”
No such luck. Chua’s team looked at an insurance database of 5 million patients with private insurance and 1.2 million with Medicare Advantage from December 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021. They identified about 5600 ivermectin prescriptions and found that private insurers paid 61 percent of the claims and Medicare Advantage paid 74 percent—roughly $36 and $39 respectively.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Gutless  (0:30 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Terrific photos of South Africa >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Walked later than usual yesterday, that time of day when people get off work and exercise their dogs. While not a dog owner, I was struck with how many people are. Indeed, at least half of the dog walkers walked two dogs – all on leash of course.

 Spectacular sunset...

(c) S. Galleymore

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….