Plane spotting

News blues

Judging by my current experience, reports of airlines flying half empty appear not exaggerated. Apparently, under threat of losing their “spot” in the airport business hierarchy, airlines must maintain their flights and schedules with airports. Tough and expensive for airlines, but good for “the little guy” travelers. In my case it meant the extra cost of purchasing seats – the downside – but ending up with the entire row to myself. Score!
More below on this Intrepid Traveler.

***

The Lincoln Project:
Ted Talk with Maya May  (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Airports and airplanes are mandatory mask areas: no mask, no travel.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A plethora of paperwork accompanied my trip on public transportation – most practical means of travel - to San Francisco Overseas airport (SFO): proof of negative Covid test results, QR code for Federal Office of Public Health, proof of vaccinations card. It’s enough to drive a gal to drink; accordingly, once through security (yes, shoes must still be removed – thank you Richard Reid)

 I sampled the local version of a classic margarita. 

Overpriced at $16.00/ZAR 248. 

But good to ameliorate travel angst. 

I’d worried that the travel check-in agent might be mistaken about me enjoying the row of seats alone. Thankfully, the plane was less than half occupied with masked travelers so my seat selection, aisle 24C included 24 A and B, too. 

Sleeping for most of a trans-Atlantic flight is a new experience, one I like and hope to repeat soon.

Half empty airplanes turns out to mean half empty airports, too. 

Little known fact: at my pace of walking, it takes 625 steps to cross level 1 of Gate E, Zurich Airport. It being a slow Saturday afternoon and evening, most stores and kiosks shuttered, I walked, and walked, and walked….

 
Spotted a Camel Smoking Lounge. Smoking lounges are not something I’m aware of in the US. Then again, I’m not a smoker so it’s possible smoking lounges are common….

With a six-hour layover, I entertained myself spotting airplanes perhaps common in Europe, but never-before-sighted by me.

Here's hopin' ...

News blues

As our crazy world stares into the face of another potential apocalypse of war (Russia, Ukraine, NATO, US), the language of war against a virus prevails, too.
Dr Hans Kluge, director of World Health Organization's (WHO) Europe says the continent could soon enter a "long period of tranquility" in the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Kluge cited high vaccination rates, the end of winter and the less severe nature of the Omicron variant. "This period of higher protection should be seen as a 'ceasefire' that could bring us enduring peace." It comes as a number of European nations end Covid-19 restrictions. 
Dr Kluge said some 12 million new virus cases were detected across Europe last week - the highest recorded - but officials have not seen a significant spike in those needing critical hospital care.
Here’s hopin’ …

***

The Lincoln Project:
Biden vs. Trump  (1:20 mins)
Trump Army  (0:58 mins)
Respect  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

North Carolina’s coastal highway is disappearing – "so I took a road trip to capture it"  >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’ll travel 5823+ miles today. (For enquiring minds: this is equivalent to 9370 kilometers or 5056 nautical miles.) Over the north Atlantic – over the ice and snow, too, I hope.
I plan on one more walk along the beach before I depart on public transportation to the airport. Last night’s photo says it all: 

***

Cold but crisp and clear in the San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:09am
Sunset: 5:36pm

Rainy and cool in KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:31am
Sunset: 6:54pm

Culture shock

Worldwide (Map) 
February 3, 2022 - 386,005,000 confirmed infections; 5,704,100 deaths
February 4 – 104,367,000 confirmed infections; 2,268,000 deaths
Total vaccinations to date: 10,009,975,000

US (Map) 
February 3, 2022 - 75,702,000 confirmed infections; 894,570 deaths
February 4 – 26,555,000 confirmed infections; 450,680 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
February 3, 2022 - 3,613,000 confirmed infections; 95,465 deaths
February 4 – 1,463,016 confirmed infections; 45,344 deaths

News blues

One Million Deaths: The Hole the Pandemic Made in U.S. SocietyCovid-19 has been directly responsible for most of the fatalities, but the disease is also unraveling families and communities in subtler ways 

***

On January 15, the Pacific islands of Tonga experienced a massive trauma when an underwater volcano exploded. For days, Tonga was cut off from the rest of the world with international communication networks out of commission. Dust and debris from the explosion and subsequent tsunami hindered rescue operations.
After the pandemic took hold of the world, Tonga had locked down and, by doing so, managed to keep Covid-19 at bay. That all changed after the volcanic eruption. Tongan officials worried that the arrival of aid could bring an outbreak of the virus, something that could represent a bigger danger to Tonga than the tsunami. Indeed, they were right to worry.

• Tonga will go into lockdown after recording two Covid-19 cases among port workers helping distribute international aid….
• The cases seem to confirm fears among Tongan officials that the arrival of aid could bring an outbreak of the virus….
• The prime minister, Siaosi Sovaleni, said the lockdown, which begins at 6pm on Wednesday, will be open-ended, but will last for at least 48 hours, at which point it will be reviewed.
• The nationwide lockdown will require people to stay at home, with only essential services allowed to operate. Since the lockdown was announced, people have been scrambling to get supplies, with photographs emerging of queues down the street outside banks and shops, as people seek to get cash and food.

Read more >> 

***

Why do some people get Covid when others don't? Here’s what we know so far An increasing amount of research is being devoted to the reasons why some people never seem to get Covid — a so-called never Covid cohort. 

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Amanda Gorman reminds US/us  (5:45 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The bad news: Meet the people being paid to kill our planet >> Video series about the methods in which we produce, distribute, eat and dispose of our foods. They’re spectacularly flawed, and we hope this series offers clarity on some of the many changes — from policies to diets — that we need to consider. 
The great news: loving cockatiel sings a baby to sleep  (0:59 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Pre-flight test for Covid done yesterday. Results pending. It was easy-peasy: drove up, waited in my vehicle, sent a text message to the company with my contact details, and had my nostrils scoured. Now I await results.
Meanwhile,

The Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa) urges the SA government to remove the compulsory PCR test required  for inbound international and returning South African travellers who are fully vaccinated.

Hmmm, given SA’s reputation for bungled bureaucracy, I doubt compulsory PCR test requirement will be ditched before I arrive there. Could be a LONG wait….

***

As per my desire back in November when I lacked time for an in-depth tour of the East Bay towns of Berkeley, Albany, etc., yesterday I took time out to visit that once-lovely city.
Culture shock!
So much has changed! 

Here’s a sample.
Only in Berkeley.

Despite its promising name, alas, Mad Monk Center for Anachronistic Media - 
located 2454 Telegraph Ave. on Feb. 25, 2018, 
closed suddenly after two years of operation.

A‘Moorish-Tudor fever dream’ is unveiled on Telegraph Avenue

I call it the Hobbit House although it’s
also been described as a cave dwelling, a wizard’s house
and a Moorish palace. A recently unveiled building
to house UC Berkeley students has been a long time coming
— and its unusual design is causing a stir.

Top Dog fighting for relevance in today's Berkeley.

Back in the day... Top Dog was the place for after midnight eats. 
Not much of a hot dog lover, this Top Dog offered -
still offers - the best dogs in the Bay Area.
It also offers a political perspectives - in posted flyers -
that once tended toward socialist, now tends towards Libertarian. (Groan!)  

Like many places on Telegraph, this Environmental Progress office
"Nature and Prosperity for All" is defunct.

Once a busy street offering street vendors a place to sell and interact with customers,
Telegraph is a sterile shadow of its former self. 
Disorienting to see.
Moreover, the best coffee shop on the street, Caffe Med, is gone, shuttered since 2018.

Tea shops proliferate on Telegraph these days - as do chain store. 
The times they have a-changed.

Un-Berkeley-like office space predominates between the campus and Shattuck Ave.

Pot is legal, so is signage for pot.

Groundhog Day

News blues

A groundhog, aka a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae
belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as
marmots and found mostly in eastern United States, across Canada and into Alaska.

Falling on 02-02-22 this year, Groundhog Day  in the US and Canada, is the day upon which the groundhog emerges – or not - from its burrow and foretells the weather for the next six weeks. 

If the weather is clear and the groundhog sees its shadow, it retreats to its burrow and winter persists for six more weeks. If the weather is cloudy and the groundhog does not see its shadow, spring is predicted to arrive early.
Other groundhog facts >> 
The day has its own intrigue, too, with mysterious rodent deaths and cover-ups plaguing ceremony”  >> 

and, the inevitable Groundhog Day cartoon - sign of the times

© 2021 Joe Heller - Hellertoon.com

 ***

US: Still numbah one!
Two years into the pandemic, the coronavirus is killing Americans at far higher rates than people in other wealthy nations, a sobering distinction to bear as the country charts a course through the next stages of the pandemic. 

Cumulative U.S. Covid-19 deaths per capita are highest among other large, high-income countries. Several countries had higher per capita Covid-19 deaths earlier in the pandemic, but the U.S. death toll now exceeds that of peer nations.

Sources: New York Times database of reports from state
and local health agencies (U.S. deaths); The Center for Systems Science and Engineering
at Johns Hopkins University (world deaths); World Bank (world populations);
United States Census Bureau (U.S. population)
Note: Countries shown are those with the highest gross national income
per capita among countries with a population of more than 10 million people.

***

The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the Omicron variant >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Vote while it counts  (0:55 mins)
Last Week in the Republican Party  (1:53 mins)
Winter is coming  (0:55 mins)
Abbott’s Wall  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay: Beachcombed sculptures made of ocean plastic >> 

***

Scientists at University of Sydney found fish exposed to the industrial chemical BPA in warmer waters need more food to reach a given size.

Fish grow slower when exposed to higher temperatures and a common chemical in plastic. New research suggests that a combination of plastic pollution and global heating could have a concerning impact on marine populations.
Scientists at the University of Sydney have found that fish exposed to the industrial chemical bisphenol A – commonly known as BPA – require more energy to grow in high-temperature waters.
BPA is a common chemical used in plastics manufacturing and is known to disrupt hormone signalling, with impacts in marine animals on metabolism and growth. In humans, it has also been linked to reproductive and developmental dysfunction. Millions of tonnes of the compound are produced globally each year.

Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Low tide at the tidal walkway. 

Same walkway at high tide.

Unforgettable

News blues

“The pain of this pandemic is unforgettable, and we have a responsibility to make sure its lessons are unforgettable, too.”
- US Senator Patty Murray of Washington state.

Senator Murray refers to the Prevent Pandemics Act, a sweeping new bill with powerful bipartisan support in the US Senate. It includes a new Covid commission to inform the US response to future outbreaks as well as the current impact of the disease and lay the groundwork to enshrine new powers in federal health agencies. It will also establish an inquiry into the country’s Covid-19 response similar to the 9/11 Commission, among other provisions aimed at preventing the next pandemic.
Read more >> 

***

After a recent special cabinet meeting, South Africa’s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) and the President’s Co-ordinating Council (PCC) announced a number of new Covid measures:

• Those who test positive with no symptoms do not have to isolate;
• If you test positive with symptoms, the isolation period has been reduced from 10 to seven days;
• Contacts do not have to isolate unless they develop symptoms;
• Primary, secondary and special schools will return to daily attendance; and
• The regulatory provision for social distancing of 1m for pupils in schools has also been removed.

“The rationale for these amendments is informed by the proportion of people with immunity to Covid-19 which has risen substantially, exceeding 60% to 80% in several sero-surveys.
Government commends all South Africans who continue to observe Covid-19 regulations and protocols. We also remind those who are yet to get vaccinated to go for their Covid-19 vaccination and continue observing basic health protocols to prevent the transmission of the virus.”

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project: Abbot Abased  (0:43 mins)
Trump's Texas speech in 90 seconds (1:28 mins)
Unlikely (1:20 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Globally, around 2.2 billion people and 27 percent of all food crop production is located near drying-out freshwater basins.
Less than 3 percent of Earth is covered in freshwater. And while that percentage has remained pretty constant, population growth has not. Only 1 percent of freshwater is accessible to the 7.7 billion people and counting.
Read more >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Record snowfall, moisture, and low temperatures along the east coast while the west coast enjoy crisp, sunny days with no rain forecasted. Scary.
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:11am
Sunset: 5:32pm
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:29am
Sunset: 6:56pm

Changes

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Always interested in how regions and communities change over time, I photographed changes afoot in a friend’s city neighborhood.
Background: Last year, while I was locked down in South Africa, the city's original library – traditional, with actual books on loan – was torn down to make room for yet another batch of cookie-cutter single-family homes. 
A new library, under construction across the road, will focus not on books, but on “community meeting spaces”. It will offer computers for members to access the Internet and online services, but the book section will shrink to less than a third of its former space – despite the new library being twice the size of the former building.
While I read a lot, I seldom read physical books anymore, nor would I want to revert to reading physical books. Instead, I download my reading matter from once-traditional now-online libraries. Reading on my cell phone in the dark at 2 o’clock in the morning is far easier than turning on the bedside lamp, sitting up to hold a heavy book, and reading pages of print. Yet, within my chest beats an incongruous  heart that objects to a “library” not offering physical books.
The “places” offering me downloadable books are still public libraries – those of the cities of Berkeley and San Francisco – and their downloadable offerings far outpace the number of books they can physically house. But they do house books which means they still fulfil the definition of “library” – derived from the Latin word liber, meaning "book.”
Perhaps, instead of calling the new building a “library” call it a “community center”, in Latin, a conventu elit, or in Spanish – to reflect 21st century California, centro Comunitario?

Constructing the new residences began this year. First, a model home was built for families to view and, if interested, to purchase a building site upon which to build the house. 

New homes are being built now.
Yesterday, I began a photographic record of this new growth.
I plan to follow up this record when I return from South Africa. 

Future community center aka "library"

Background right, behind pole: The model home upon which
the rest of the residences will be designed.

Future entryway to the community from the street.

Future residential community, formerly a library and parking lot.

 David Bowie: Changes (3:39 mins)

Uncertainty

News blues

Lungs on Covid
"This is what happened to a 54-year-old man's lung on COVID-19 (he later died).
HiP-CT scans show that in severe cases, the lungs’ blood vessels are severely damaged:
Here, airspaces are colored with cyan, open blood vessels are colored in red,
and blocked, damaged blood vessels are colored in yellow, Nat Geo reports. 
Researchers say images like this, created by the world’s brightest x-rays,
not only are helping scientists understand the virus—they are so scary that
they are prompting their friends to get boosted. See more images."

 © PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCA LOCATELLI AND ESRF, HUMAN ORGAN ATLAS

The FDA pauses monoclonal antibody treatments

The Food and Drug Administration announced that it would limit the use of two monoclonal antibody COVID-19 treatments, made by pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly. Those treatments had been successful at keeping symptomatic patients out of the hospital in earlier waves, but did not work against Omicron, the agency said. A third, less common monoclonal treatment, called sotrovimab, can still be used.

Read more >> 

***

Life with antibiotics: “When you deal with uncertainty, you err on the side of the prescribing, which is not necessarily the right thing to do,” says University of Maryland Medical Center infectious disease physician Jacqueline Bork.

… overuse of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic may be making the problem worse.
More than 750,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections annually, and that number is expected to reach 10 million by 2050. In the United States alone, antibiotic- resistant microbes cause more than 2.8 million infections and over 35,000 deaths annually.
… more than half of the nearly 5,000 patients hospitalized between February and July 2020 were prescribed at least one antibiotic within the first 48 hours of admission.
… Antibiotics only kill bacteria and not viruses like SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. But pneumonia can be caused by fungi, bacteria, or viruses, and figuring out which pathogen is responsible can take at least 48 hours, and sometimes include invasive procedures to confirm the cause of the infection. Sometimes the tests don’t identify the culprit. “Many of us were probably overprescribing a good amount of antibiotics.

Read “Superbugs were already on the rise. The pandemic likely made things worse.”>> 

***

The Lincoln Project: This is Josh Mandel …running for US Senate seat from Ohio. (0:41 mins)
Music that captures the moment >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

No sign of rain in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s warm and an early spring may be on its way….
San Francisco Bay Area
Sunrise: 7:14am
Sunset: 5:29pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:26am
Sunset: 6:57pm