Showing posts sorted by date for query concrete mixer. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query concrete mixer. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Saturday, February 6, 2021

“Sunday morning coming down”

© Joe Heller, hellertoons.com

And, an oldy but goody: Sunday morning coming down (4:30 mins)

News blues…

To booster shot with second vaccine or not to booster shot with second vaccine? That is the question...  particularly among experts in the now-notoriously vaccine skittish US of A.
Initially it looked like the efficacy after that one dose ― and before the second ― was about 50%. But that figure included everybody who got sick during that three- or four-week interval, and most had gotten sick in the first few days. Most likely, they encountered the virus either right before or right after getting the vaccine, before it had time to take effect.
Within 10 to 12 days after vaccination, enough time for the immune system to respond to the vaccine, incidence of disease fell sharply. Extrapolating from that, researchers concluded that efficacy from one dose was a lot higher than 50% after a few weeks, once the immune system had time to react.
That got some experts wondering: Why don’t we just give first shots to as many people as possible now, and then circle back to the second shots at a later date, when the supply is more plentiful?
Read >> “Delay Second Doses? A Guide To The Latest COVID-19 Vaccine Debate” 
***
More on good news on Covid vaccine…  (3:50 mins)
And, “The vaccines that could stop Covid-19” 
***
Meanwhile, in South Africa,
…the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines begins rolling out to provinces this week [along with] a massive security plan involving armed guards, unmarked police cars and satellite tracking ... kicked into gear to prevent the precious cargo falling into criminal hands.
SA's first vaccine could be administered as soon as Wednesday, according the health department. Bio-pharmaceutical company Biovac will this week start sending trucks across SA to deliver the cargo…. 

Healthy planet, anyone?

Way to age!
When Jon Sanders left Australia on his latest circumnavigation, which was to raise awareness about microplastics, there was no coronavirus
Like many people, 81-year-old Jon Sanders gets up and makes himself a coffee each morning. Instant, two sugars, milk. It’s a conventional start for a man who lives anything but an ordinary life.
Sanders this week became the oldest person to sail single-handedly around the world – a voyage to raise awareness about plastic pollution and one plagued by coronavirus at every port.
On 31 January, nursing cracked ribs from a night strapped into his bunk after giant waves engulfed his boat off Tahiti, the octogenarian sailed his old 39-foot yacht, the Perie Banou II, into Western Australia’s Fremantle Harbour, notching up his 11th solo navigation around the globe.
Read >> “Anything but ordinary: the 81-year-old who has sailed around the world 11 times” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Over months last year, starting in winter, I made six large 50kbg bags of compost. Having access to an elderly concrete mixer made all the difference to what is usually back-breaking work. From kitchen scraps to leaves, pond weed, saw dust, wood ash, anything organic, went through my four step composting process: kitchen waste collected in a bin near the kitchen went into an aerated bin near the compost pile for a couple of week, then mixed into the compost pile, then into bags, then titrated with other ingredients into the concrete mixer, then churned, then stored in large sacks.
After some weeks, I spread fresh compost in the garden, or continued to store the rest to use “next spring.”
That stored compost is beautiful: dark, organically aromatic, and chock-a-block with earthworms. I’m amazed at what nature wrought (along with a concrete mixer and a determined composter).
I’m now in the process of moving batches of the bagged compost to the small, manageable garden of my new home. The six original bags are way too heavy for me to move alone, so I divided each bag into 4 smaller bags. Two batches have been delivered and, today, I’ll deliver the last batch of 4 smaller bags to my new garden.
Hadedah ibis regularly visit that garden hunting for earthworms.
***
Load shedding is back! Power was off for first two hours of this morning. That was an easy one to live with - I was asleep. The next phase, from 8:00 to 10:30 am, is less manageable. 
Grrrrr, Eskom….


Saturday, November 21, 2020

Virus mass distribution

For a Trump official, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s slip of the tongue  during a telephone interview was uncharacteristically honest: “We’re working on mass distribution of the virus.”
Likely his goal was spinning reality and saying, “mass distribution of a vaccine.” 
Shakespeare said it first: “the truth will out.” 
Will Trump say to Mnuchin what Trump's famous for? "You're fired!" 

News blues…

Another horrific milestone in a month full of devastating Covid-19 records in the country. November already accounts for almost a quarter of all Covid-19 cases and 9% of deaths.  The number of US coronavirus cases surpassed 12 million Saturday - an increase of more than 1 million cases in less than a week. The number of US coronavirus cases surpassed 12 million Saturday -- an increase of more than 1 million cases in less than a week.
South Dakota is the state with highest rates of Covid in the country, replete with residents and a governor who refuse to pay attention to safety…   (4:11 mins) 
***
President Cyril Ramaphosa has pleaded with G20 Leaders to ensure all countries have access to the COVID-19 vaccine once it is available, saying the global recovery needs to be inclusive.  
"An immediate task is to ensure that there is equitable and affordable access for all countries to the COVID-19 vaccine once it is developed.
***

Healthy planet, anyone?

Mission Blue  is a not-for-profit organization geared “to inspire action to explore and protect oceans and to unite a global coalition for an upwelling of public awareness, access and support for a worldwide network of marine protected areas termed Hope Spots.” 
Cape RADD (Research and Diver Development) became the newly-appointed Champions of the False Bay Hope Spot. Run by a small team of passionate marine biologists and conservationists, Cape RADD serves as a platform for researchers in the False Bay area of Cape Town, South Africa.
Cape RADD’s team of scientists aim to better understand the underwater world by using a variety of sampling techniques including transects, quadrats, remote underwater video and mark-recapture to monitor long-term changes to biodiversity in the area. They conduct a number of research projects including kelp forest grazer density and distribution, fish and shark population estimates, microplastic pollution, and more.   Learn more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I am rediscovering my groove after despondency, fear, anxiety dogged my last ten days. Somehow, resilience won out. I’m back in action.
***
Today, I bid farewell to the elderly concrete mixer that gifted me 5 bags full of compost. The last batch surprised: the raw material was damp after sitting in the mixer during two thunderstorms. Instead of producing drier, spreadable compost, it produced dozens of compost balls in a variety of sizes: ping pong ball, tennis ball, baseball, even a pair of semi-deflated-footballs. Not perfectly round, but off-center, the collection of balls resemble animal dung ranging in animals the size of cane rat to rhinoceros. Gardening. Gotta love it: never a dull moment.
My waders got a workout, too. Geared up - waders, gloves, sunhat with pert guinea fowl feather, and slathered in sunscreen - I entered the rain-swollen pond to weed out excess pond lilies and freshwater grasses. I recycled this vegetation by forming a new footpath through the far reaches of the garden.
The plum tree is prolific this year, with dozens of slowly ripening fruit. Naturally, this indicates dozens of future visits by the neighborhood’s monkey troop. Already the troop, numbering more than 50 fearless individuals, including this year’s crop of youngsters, enter the garden at will, pull up potatoes, root through zucchini plants, and enjoy mulberries and bird seed.
I predict too much monkey business….




Saturday, November 7, 2020

(No)Conceding Sunday

While the world waits
and watches, Trump walls off himself
(and his ego) from reality.

News blues…

For this round, at least, the excruciating counting of ballots is over. Oh, there will be a recount, and lawsuits, and Trump trashing, but the election has been decided. Biden and Harris have been declared the winners. The United State has 74 more days before the Biden/Harris team begin its four years in the office of president.
Alas, Donald Trump has 74 more days to wreak havoc on the nation that doesn’t want him around anymore. Here’s a possible breakdown of phases:
Phase 1: Donald Trump lost the election.
Phase II: Donald Trump refuses to concede.
Phase III: Donald Trump behaves as usual: plays golf  while promising litigation, and sets “his” justice department to do his bidding and his lawyers to go to court
Phase IV:
As intemperate, foolhardy and reckless as many of Trump’s actions have been to date, critics warn that they all took place as Trump faced a referendum from voters. Now, that pending job review has passed… “ He will create as much chaos as humanly possible,” said Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer who was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for, in part, arranging illegal hush money payments to keep women from revealing affairs they had had with Trump just prior to the 2016 election.
“Donald Trump will take to the airwaves, to radio and print media whining about how the election was stolen from him due to fraud and foreign interference,” Cohen said. “He could never accept the fact that he lost because he is incompetent and arrogant.” 
Never a dull moment with the Trumpster….
Big question: “Can Trump be Indicted by SDNY Prosecutors During Lame Duck Period to Test OLC Memo?”  (13:00 mins)
My answer? Yes! Please!
***
“It’s a good day for a whole lot of people” – Van Jones (2:08 mins)
***
New York, New York…  (song parody - 1:30 mins) 
***
The Lincoln Project declares its next steps:
Trump is no more. America can start anew.
Thank you!
This is your victory.
This is your moment.
History will remember every patriot who stood up, put country first, and defeated the most urgent threat to the security and stability of our Republic since the Civil War.
…Joe Biden … will become the 46th President of the United States.
Our work is not over though. Far from it. Until Trump concedes, the Electoral College votes, and Joe Biden is sworn in, we will not rest.
And as you know, this movement is not just about one man.
Until every Trump enabler is out of office and has paid a price for bringing our country to the precipice of catastrophe, we will not relent.
We are not done. But we’re sure glad to have you with us….
Our Republic, and democracy at large, were tested to the breaking point. Democracy prevailed.
Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we continue the fight for our Republic.

Healthy futures, anyone?

Healthy coral.
© Q.U.I 
Rocky road for coral… 
Half of the corals on Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef have died since the 1990s, according to a troubling new study that analyzed just how devastating years of catastrophic mass bleaching have been for one of the most biodiverse structures on Earth. 
A Noah’s ark-like plan to house hundreds of the world’s most at-risk coral species at a publicly accessible bank next to the Great Barrier Reef could prove an important part of long-term coral conservation, marine biologists say. 
***
Green groups denounce Brazil's 'sham' Amazon tour for foreign diplomats.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Temperatures back into the lower and mid-30s (C)
I’m making more compost while I still have a concrete mixer to do the heavy work.
***
We’ll host an open house for interested potential buyers this coming weekend. Got to prep for that. It’s been almost a month and NO nibbles at all. That must change.

Saturday, October 24, 2020

“See you in court”

A new billboard in New York City’s Times Square courtesy of The Lincoln Project
First daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have threatened to sue The Lincoln Project over two Times Square billboard ads that attack the two senior White House advisers.
The billboard depicts Ivanka Trump presenting the number of New Yorkers and Americans who have died of COVID-19 and Jared Kushner next to a Vanity Fair quote.
The anti-Donald Trump Republican group snapped back with a statement that it plans to make its response ― a “civics lesson” on First Amendment rights ― as “painful as possible.” (More below.)

News blues…

Covid is spiking throughout the world, particularly in the United States: 
Nearly 225,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and the number of deaths could rise to 500,000 by February, experts warned. [The president] attacked the media for its focus on COVID-19 “CASES, CASES, CASES” after the nation hit an all-time high of more than 83,000 daily infections on Friday.
Trump said without evidence that the coverage was a plot to “create fear” ahead of Election Day. Trump told a campaign rally later in North Carolina that “you won’t hear about it anymore” after the election.
Trump falsely blamed the increase in cases on too many COVID-19 tests and ignored the fact that the U.S. leads the world in the number of COVID-19 deaths. With about 4% of the globe’s population, the U.S. has almost 20% of all COVID-19 deaths in the world.
Trump inaccurately argued that the new surge “included many low risk people.” He also said falsely that the nation’s “mortality rate is DOWN 85% plus.”
A spike in deaths inevitably follows a surge in cases. Already, the rising rate of infections has resulted in a 40% hike in hospitalizations.
***
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released another new COVID-19 guideline, this time as it pertains to those who are considered in “close contact” with someone who is infected with the coronavirus.
***
“South Africa, since the first of October has seen a slow and steady increase in the overall number of cases nationally,” says Professor Salim Abdool Karim. 
***
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump sicced their lawyers on The Lincoln Project after seeing the billboard (shown above) in Times Square. The Lincoln Project explains,
[Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump] threatened to sue The Lincoln Project for sharing truthful information.
We purchased billboard space across the country to tell the truth about the malice, complicity, and cruelty behind the White House’s failed coronavirus response.
Jared and Ivanka didn't like it, and — as they do every time they see something they don't like — they sicced lawyers on us.
We don't just have the First Amendment right to broadcast our message, it is our duty to expose the malfeasance, the cruelty, and the corruption of the Trump family.
We are not afraid of the Trump family and their mafia of stooges, grifters, and nut-jobs.
And, the latest episode of this ongoing soap opera from The Lincoln Project: 
Most people buckle as soon as Trump family lawyers issue a threat.
In addition to nearly a dozen battleground states, we are reminding Americans of the deadly legacy of the First Family right from the bowtie of Times Square — the crossroads of the world — because the world must know the malice, complicity, and cruelty behind the White House’s failed coronavirus response.
Jared and Ivanka immediately threatened to sue us, because they refuse to take responsibility for their failures and don’t want anyone to know the truth.

It’s safe to say that the world is now watching.
This is what the First Family does: defraud, con, and stiff hard-working Americans, and send a pack of lawyers to force capitulation.
They have gotten away with this playbook for their entire lives. They expect us to let them get away with it again.
The Lincoln Project lawyers are on the job…  
***
The Lincoln Project Mourning in the Republican Party  (0:55 mins)

Healthy futures, anyone?

A celebration of South Africa's feathered friends:
Part 1  (14:00 mins)
Part 2  (16:38 mins)
Part 3 (10:25)
***

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Thunder rolls overhead. Will it rain?
I’ve secured from heavy rain 5 large bags of compost I’ve blended over the last weeks. I numbered the bags, too, with each number representing a particular blend. The first 3 bags include “kraal manure” and the last 2 bags include 2 types of pond weed, plus fresh kitchen scraps.
I fantasize about taking the elderly concrete mixer with me when I move. Common sense makes me scrap that idea: my new home is under what is known in the US as a Home Owners Association – HOA - and in SA as a “body corporate.” Both would frown on someone running a concrete mixer to blend compost in her small back yard.
Perhaps I can create a Compost Team: a group to dedicated composters who collect the community’s kitchen scraps and the landscaping company’s clippings, to create community compost? Better yet, I could join an already formed Compost Team?
Good to have dreams….



Wednesday, October 21, 2020

“Not much”

The President of the United States, faced with a still-raging virus that has sickened 8.2 million Americans and killed 221,000, says that there is "not much" that he would have done differently if he could do things all over
In the real world, where people scramble every day to assist others and stay safe themselves during a global scourge, the numbers of infected and dead around the world continue to rise.
Worldwide (Map
October 22 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths
September 24 – 31,780,000 confirmed infections; 975,100 deaths

US (Map)  
October 22 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths
September 24 – 6,935,000 confirmed infections; 201,880 deaths
Covid-19 is surging in small-town America.

SA (Coronavirus portal)  
October 22 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths
September 24 – 665,190 confirmed infections; 16,206 deaths

Argentina, emerging as a recent hotspot of concern, surpassed 1 million coronavirus cases last Monday, with smaller cities seeing some of the most notable upticks.
Doctors have had to quadruple the number of beds for COVID-19 patients over the last month. At least 60% of those tested recently are coming back positive for the virus.
Across Latin America, three other nations are expected to reach the 1 million case milestone in the coming weeks — Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The grim mark comes as Latin America continues to register some of the world’s highest daily case counts. And though some nations have seen important declines, overall there has been little relief, with cases dropping in one municipality only to escalate in another.
The trajectory is showing that the pandemic is likely to leave no corner of Latin America unscathed.
“The second wave is arriving without ever having finished the first,” said Dr. Luis Jorge Hernández, a public health professor at the University of the Andes in Colombia. 

News blues…

CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report finds:
…an estimated 299,028 excess deaths occurred from late January through October 3, 2020, with 198,081 (66%) excess deaths attributed to COVID-19. The largest percentage increases were seen among adults aged 25–44 years and among Hispanic or Latino persons. 
***
Johns Hopkins Health Policy Forum’s Fireside chat with Dr Fauci.  (41:00 mins)
***
The Lincoln Project:
Imagine  (0:58 mins)
Mourning in Iowa  (0:55 mins)
Deadbeat  (0:55 mins)

My most recent (fundraising) email from The Lincoln Project states:
We are poised to go down in history as the tipping point in this election…
But we can’t be complacent; we must finish the fight.
Right now is the most intense, and most expensive, part of the entire election. We are laser-focused on expanding our coalition and driving turnout of potential Lincoln Voters in the final 13 days before Election Day…

Trump will not relent in his efforts to steal this election — we must ensure a resounding repudiation that truly humiliates him, so he has no choice but to concede.
… Our nation's choice is America, or Trump.

All the way back in January, Steve Bannon told the Associated Press that if The Lincoln Project could move 3-4% of Republican voters away from Donald Trump—the "Bannon Line," as we call it — we would be a threat.
Well guess what? That was what we set out to do, and that's exactly what we've done.
And now, our historic movement is being recognized as the deciding factor in this election.
The first step in eradicating Trumpism is repudiating Donald Trump and evicting him from the White House.
That first step is within reach, but it's wholly dependent on the actions we take right now.
For over three years, Trump has eroded our democratic norms, crushed our institutions, and has now literally left us all for dead.
While his enablers in the Senate have stood idly by, patriots like you are taking a stand against the most un-American president in history.
The “Bannon Line” has been hit, breached, and stormed past.
We are winning.
Trump is losing.

But we have to finish the fight.
The email continues with its request for funds to continue the work. (Go to The Lincoln Project if you’d like to contribute. .)

Healthy futures, anyone?

A reminder about amazing and lovely creatures that (currently) exist on our planet – and why We the People must struggle to return our shared planet to health.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Not a single nibble on the house sale.
Worrisome.
My solution? Blending compost in an elderly concrete mixer. Five bags full and counting. And imagining the well-nourished plants in my future. 
***
Lockdown is getting really old…. 
As we say in South Africa, "vasbyt" 



Thursday, October 15, 2020

We’re voting – bigly!

John McDonnell/
The Washington Post
via Getty Images

Pundits predict a blowout election for Biden and against Trump. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over… but if the lines for early voting are any indication, punditry is correct.
(Left) On the first day of early voting in Virginia, a long line of voters wait to cast their ballots at the Fairfax County Government Center.

News blues…

In the US, more than 12.8 million people have already voted
As many as 80 million Americans are expected to vote early, by mail or in person. 
Thousands of people, some braving hours-long waits, glitches and politically motivated obstruction, are flocking to cast early ballots and writing the story of a pandemic-era election that may change how America votes.
Heavy turnout at early voting centers in Georgia and Texas comes as many voters elsewhere take advantage of mail-in ballots, defying President Donald Trump's misleading attempts to cast the election as the most corrupt in history.
***
Call it what it is: voter suppression.  (3:25 mins) But, voters persevere – some standing doggedly in line for up to 11 hours. 
You go, voting Americans! 
***
An extraordinary feature of this election cycle is that, for the first time in my more than four decades living in the US – first time ever in the modern era? - honorable Republicans are speaking out, fiercely, publicly, against dishonorable Republicans.
Republican ideology is, in general, not “my cup of tea.” Republican policies and goals are inimical to mine and also, I believe, to a healthy planet and healthy societies over the long term. Nevertheless, I applaud the goals of individual Republicans (Michael Steele, below) and groups of Republicans (The Lincoln Project’s ads and efforts regularly shared). 
It’s comforting to know that ideology differs, but agreement exists on core principles and ethics.  
Michael Steele, in his latest news interview, tells Americans, “Remember The Elected Officials Who Made You Stand In That Line" (4:20 mins)
***
South Africans have been under Lockdown since March 15. Level 1, currently in effect, was due to end October 15, but let’s stay safe. 
***
The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in the Western Cape has experienced 40 attacks against staff since the start of the lockdown.
According to data  … attacks occur in hotspot areas. In a recent incident…a crew was robbed of their personal belongings at gunpoint while waiting in traffic in Philippi, Cape Town. In these hotspot areas, known as “red zones”, EMS staff need to wait for police escorts before entering a high crime area in order to provide emergency health services.
***
The Lincoln Project states:
In our ever-growing movement, we’ve joined forces with an incredible list of patriotic Americans in our mission to defeat Donald Trump and end Trumpism.
Now, we’re proud to present "Commander in Chief" by Demi Lovato.
Demi's new song is a fierce rebuke of the president’s lies and corruption, and a lament for the Americans who are suffering and dying on his watch.
The Lincoln Project is honored to have produced this music video, and we’re giving you an exclusive first look:
"Commander in Chief" by Demi Lovato  (3:11 mins)
We’re proud to stand with you, with Demi Lovato, and with the rest of the patriots who will defeat Donald Trump on November 3.
Our coalition is growing larger by the day; momentum is building for those of us on the right side of history.
Enjoy,

Healthy planet, anyone?

Daily Maverick webinar: The Climate Risks We Face . Hosted by Kevin Bloom with Bob Scholes and Makoma Lekalakala.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I delivered what I though was the correct chair – and cushion - to my mother at the Care Center. Alas. Wrong! No arms rests. I asked Center staff if they had a chair with arm rests my mother could use. They did. Alas, she did not want that chair. Deflated, I returned the “wrong” chair – and cushion - back to the house.
***
With a potential sale of the house looming, I’ve expected my brother to claim and collect sundry tools – including his elderly concrete mixer I’ve used in the past to mix compost. With many collection dates scheduled then not cancel without notice - including Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday this week - tools remain.
I modified the adage, “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade” to “when no-shows hand you dirt, make compost.”
I wheeled out the elderly concrete mixer and mixed up two large bags of compost. 
I tossed in kitchen scraps, recycled potting soil, bone meal, swamp cypress needles, kraal manure, vermiculite, peat, assorted leaves, handsful of pond weed, sawdust, ash, fertilizer pellets….
It’s heavy work for an old lady, and dusty, but filling bags with sweet smelling home-made compost is fulfilling and joyous.
I imagine the plants that will enjoy snacking on this fecund feast in the future.
Satisfaction!



Saturday, July 4, 2020

Handed trash? Make compost!

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo 
demonstrates how to wear a mask.
Click to enlarge
These days of surging pandemic, even America and Americans see the value of face masks in reducing the risk of contracting Covid-19.

News blues...

Formerly resistant mask-deniers now urge their use. (Texas; RepublicansOhio;  California; even Trump-sycophant Pence.)
Donald Trump?
Not so much. “Trump Trip to Mt. Rushmore, Masks & Social Distancing Not Required
This, while the US leads the world in number of infections: closing in on 3 million.
Trump, the “stable genius,” focuses on what’s really important: lying, obfuscation, and ignorant division:
… [Trump made] an impassioned appeal to his base while in the shadow of Mount Rushmore [and] instead of striking a unifying tone, railing against what he called a "merciless campaign" by his political foes to erase history by removing monuments some say are symbols of racial oppression.
"As we meet here tonight there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for," Trump warned.
"Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children." 
Many Native Americans would agree with Trump about “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”
Unfortunately, Trump is ignorant of history – and irony – and fails to recognize how apt is his summary of Native American history since the first boatload of Pilgrims set foot in North America.
For many Native Americans, the 79-year-old Mount Rushmore, with four white faces carved into the granite, is a symbol of similar oppression, especially offensive because it's located in South Dakota's Black Hills, which they regard with reverence. 
Trump is a 19th century throwback longing for the good old days when the rabble knew its place and could be/was abused at whim and will.
He’s Cecil John Rhodes without the horse - or the self-made wealth. (FYI: Rhodes apparently was frightened of horses and loathed horse riding. Sickly as a youth and never robust, he was depicted on horseback because it made him look tall and manly.)
Who will have the last laugh?
Good question.
We, the People – and I mean the people around the world – must come together to stand up to Trumpism and the laissez-faire attitude of politicians (looking at you Republicans and Democrats). If we don’t, we are – and democracy is - sunk . Already struggling, We, the People could easily be back in the position of rabble abused at whim and will…
Consider the latest direction of US federal regulators who,
... quietly shredded the most significant banking reform enacted after the 2008 financial crisis last month. When they were done, they patted banks on the back for continuing to shovel cash to their shareholders.
Not a single Democratic regulatory appointee voted for the measure to strip what was left of the Volcker Rule of its meaning. Congress approved the Volcker Rule in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform package, which was meant to curb excessive risk-taking at the nation’s largest banks by barring them from making speculative bets in securities markets for their own benefit. The rule also forbade banks from holding a financial interest in hedge funds or private equity funds that were involved in such markets.
That principle has been under assault in the decade since. In a concession to Wall Street, the original law allowed big banks to invest up to 3% of their capital in hedge funds and other speculative vehicles and turned the issue over to regulators to hash out the details. The result was nearly 300 pages of loopholes and exemptions.
Last week, regulators at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) simply shredded what was left of the statute. Under the new interpretation, bank investments in venture capital funds are wholly exempted from the rule, as are investments in funds that focus on long-term debt investments. 
A significant problem, of course, is that Trumpies, "his base", anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, “the poorly-educated”, the “Basket of Deplorables”, you, me, Antifa, people whose views we dislike, etc., must be included and have a say in our collective future.
The world has had more than 2,020 years to figure out how to come together and live generatively. We’ve failed.
Can we do it now, under pressure?
To speak metaphorically: handed trash and bulls***, can we make compost?
***
Anti-Trump ads come so thick and fast these days it is hard to keep track. Moreover, how many times can We the People be shown the dismal failure of the Trump presidency without tuning out?
Overkill is real. One can see too much of a point of view.
Having said that, here are a couple of new ads/editorials:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Concrete mixer = a blessing for titrating compost ingredients.
Who knew the satisfaction of watching – and sniffing the healthy aroma of – compost as it tumbles in a concrete mixer?
Excellent compost is, of course, made around the world without fossil-fuel-energy-consuming mixers.
I, however, have limited physical strength and I find the recycled (free) mixer liberating.
Three bags full of compost await spreading to nourish seeds.
Naturally, Murphy’s Law is in play (summarized: what can go wrong, will go wrong). I spent half an hour troubleshooting why the elderly electric mixer wasn’t powering up, and another hour repairing the elderly three-prong plug – twice! – before mixing commenced.
All appears well; another day of composting awaits.


Read   Week 1 |   Week 2   |  Week 3  |  Week 4 |  Week 5  | Week 6  |  Week 7  |  Week 8  |  Week 9  |  Week 10   |   Week 11  |   Week 12  |  Week 13 | Week 14Week 15  
Watch  Videos of Garden Creatures







Friday, July 3, 2020

Flagging...

On the cusp of Day 100 (ironically also Independence Day in the US) I confess: I’m flagging.
I want to take a break from posting each day and I’m afraid that if I do, the discipline of posting each day will lead to an overall breakdown in Lockdown discipline.
Then what?
Sanity mostly intact, I’ve completed Lockdown Days 1 to 99 by gardening, scooping leaves from the pond, doing household chores (grocery shopping, etc.) cooking (vegetarian), reading and writing, walking the neighborhood and talking to neighborhood dogs, and isolated but communicating with faraway friends and family….
The next 100 days will bring us into mid-October.
What will happen between now and then?
Enquiring minds wanna know…

You can help. Email me info on how you’re coping and ideas you’d like to share: raisingsandradio at gmail.com.

News blues…

Dismal news on the Covid-19 front…
  • a new form of the coronavirus has spread from Europe to the US. The new mutation makes the virus more likely to infect people but does not seem to make them any sicker than earlier variations of the virus…. researchers call the new mutation G614, and they show that it has almost completely replaced the first version to spread in Europe and the US, one called D614.
  • There have been at least 182,260 cases of coronavirus in Texas, according to a New York Times database.  As of Friday morning, at least 2,562 people had died. (My son and his family live near Houston. He works in a hospital and was unknowingly exposed to a Covid-positive patient this week.)
  • The United States reported 55,220 new coronavirus cases Thursday, ... the largest daily increase for any state in the United States on Thursday. 
The end of this weekend will see more than 11 million infections worldwide. The US will continue to lead with at least 3 million infections anticipated by Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Located on the border of a suburban village and “farming area,” the road outside this house changes from (pot-holed) tar to dirt. It’s dry this time of year and each vehicle that passes raises clouds of dust.
Much of that dust appears to settle on my car.

In the US, I would either wash my car at a self-serve, coin operated facility or push coins into the slot of a fully automatic car wash.
In SA, everything at a petrol/gas station is conducted by attendants: drivers wait while attendants pump petrol/gas, check oil and water, and clean windows.

After months of dust accumulating on my car, I elected, for the first time, to use a local car wash.
What I could see of the car wash facility as I waited in line appeared fully automatic.
An attendant with an official-looking receipt book showed me a menu of options - wash only; wash and dry; wash, dry, wax; interiors detailed, etc.
I selected wash and dry.
At the attendant’s signal, I moved my car into the facility.
Surprise! The entire process is manual: two workers (including the menu-wielding attendant) hand wash, hand dry, and, I assume, hand wax, all vehicles!
Manual washing makes sense in a country where employees vastly outnumber employment.
Cost for wash and dry? ZAR 85 - US$ 5.00 (That’s cheaper than a coin operated self-serve car wash in California – with drying-by-driving option.)
***
Another day to ponder the pandemic while making compost with a concrete mixer (and brewig compost tea/fertilizer).


Read   Week 1 |   Week 2   |  Week 3  |  Week 4 |  Week 5  | Week 6  |  Week 7  |  Week 8  |  Week 9  |  Week 10   |   Week 11  |   Week 12  |  Week 13 | Week 14
Watch  Videos of Garden Creatures








Thursday, July 2, 2020

Those pesky numbers

Week 14's pesky numbers compared to Week 13's
  • July 2 - worldwide: 10,729,340 confirmed infections; 517,055 deaths
    June 25 - worldwide: 9,409,000 confirmed infections; 482,190 deaths
  • July 2 – US: 2,688,250 infections; 128,104 deaths
    June 25 - US: 2,381,540 infections; 121,980 deaths
  • July 2 - SA: 159,333 infections; 2,749 deaths
    June 25 - SA: 111,800 confirmed infections; 2,205 deaths
And, despite all the staying at home going on around the world, atmospheric CO2 continues its upward trajectory
  • 27 June 2020: 416.05 parts per million
  • This time last year: 413.50 ppm
  • 10 years ago: 391.44 ppm
  • Pre-industrial base: 280ppm
  • Safe level: 350ppm
Reading from Mauna Loa, Hawaii . (Source: NOAA-ESRL)
Scientists have warned for more than a decade that concentrations of more than 450ppm risk triggering extreme weather events of temperature rises as high as 2C, beyond which the effects of global heating are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.

News blues…

A brief scan of new numbers:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Ah, the satisfaction that comes with recycling an elderly concrete mixer into a compost mixer….
For months, I’ve composted kitchen scraps and collected leaves, ash from veld fires, pond weed, sawdust, peat, vermiculite, even excavated soil from mole hills….
Today, those ingredients – including earthworms - went into the concrete mixer… and came out as sweet smelling, fecund, garden soil. (Earthworms came out dizzy but alive – and ready, I think, for the upcoming garden phase.)
Figuring out how to start the mixer was a challenge. Incentivized by a potential 220-volt jolt if I got it wrong, I consulted the Internet – which wasn’t much help. I spent some time searching for the on/off switch, then, finally, realized there was only a three-prong plug to push into a live socket.
Voila!
It was hard work, but the sweet smell of compost made it all worthwhile!
***
(c) Charles J Sharp, Sharp Photography
Click to enlarge.
Yesterday, I spotted a Giant Kingfisher perched on the overhead electric power cable peering into the garden pond.
It was in the same spot today.
The Giant Kingfisher is Africa’s largest kingfisher species – up to 18 inches tall – and it dives from its perch to catch crabs, fish, and frogs.
In this set of four photos by Charles J Sharp, a female Giant Kingfisher returns to perch with a tilapia from Lake Naivasha, Kenya. She smashes the fish against a post to break its spine.

Ah, can’t help thinking of my goldfish!
Haven’t seen goldfish fin nor tail for weeks. I assumed they’d dived deep for warmth.
Would the Giant Kingfisher offer any insight into goldfish whereabouts?



Read   Week 1 |   Week 2   |  Week 3  |  Week 4 |  Week 5  | Week 6  |  Week 7  |  Week 8  |  Week 9  |  Week 10   |   Week 11  |  Week 12  |  Week 13  | Week 14












Wednesday, July 1, 2020

No immunity in the community

What does it mean when members of a country’s elected governing body does nothing while the leader of a major country refuses to lead during a pandemic, shuns advice, and chooses to play golf and Tweet (“The Lone Warrior”) rather than attend to deadly perils that citizens face?
One of my friends would answer: “It means a decadent ruling class…”
Another friend would say that “It means the governing body is maneuvering behind the scenes to solidify their positions….”
Another friend would say, “It means they’re all fascists….”
(I love my friends for their points of view: never a dull moment.)
I would answer: It means We, the People of the world, are in deep, deep trouble….

News blues…

Testifying at the Senate coronavirus hearing yesterday, Dr Anthony Fauci said, “We are now seeing 40,000 cases [of Covid infections] per day. I won’t be surprised if we see 100,000 per day if this does not turn around. I am very concerned.”
Trump, meanwhile, has been largely silent on the continued spike in cases, instead focusing on vandalized statues and his own ego. As more than 40,000 new cases and more than 800 new deaths were reported in the U.S., the president was busy tweeting “photos of 15 people the U.S. Park Police said it is attempting to identify ‘who are responsible for vandalizing property’ in a park in front of the White House.” 
Moreover, to celebrate July 4th this year, Trump plans to insert himself amongst George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, South Dakota, on Friday for an early Fourth of July fireworks celebration and flyover, the first of its kind in more than a decade. The event will gather "thousands" together during a global pandemic with no social distancing, and comes amid a national conversation on monuments with racist histories.
Need I add masks and social distancing will be optional?

Another point of view regarding the wearing of masks.
Most examples of people failing to follow social distancing measures [in the UK] are not evidence of individual selfishness, said John Drury, a professor at the University of Sussex and one of the country’s leading behavioral psychologists, but rather of the hardships that many face and the failure of public officials to offer clear guidance or provide for their needs.
“Despite media campaigns to vilify some people as selfish and thoughtless ‘covidiots,’ the evidence on reasons for non‐adherence shows that much of it was practical rather than psychological,” Drury and his colleagues wrote in a recent paper in the British Journal of Social Psychology. “Many people had to cram into Tube trains to go to work because they needed money to survive and government support schemes were insufficient. People were told they could go out to exercise, but those in urban areas had limited public space. And some employers failed to provide the support for social distancing and hygiene. Those with less income and wealth also live in more crowded homes.”
Now, with Boris Johnson encouraging people to eat, drink, and be merry — and the decision to relax restrictions further on a Saturday seems designed to facilitate just that — it’s no wonder that the public seems to be adopting a looser stance toward the coronavirus.
But it remains the government’s responsibility to make sure that the lifting of lockdown restrictions doesn’t result in a second wave of infections. Many health officials have looked on with dismay as the U.K. and the U.S. press ahead with reopening plans despite the lack of robust testing and tracing systems that would allow them to identify and isolate new outbreaks quickly, before they spread throughout the community.
Talking about statues…
The statue of British colonialist 
Cecil John Rhodes was removed 
from the University of Cape Town 
as a result of a month long protest 
by students citing the statue 
"great symbolic power" which glorified 
someone "who exploited black labour [sic] 
and stole land from indigenous people".
(Charlie Shoemaker/Getty Images)
Click to enlarge.
The current wave of protests sweeping the world is nothing new to South Africans.
Students orchestrated the removal of the Cecil John Rhodes statue from the University of Cape Town campus back in 2015. Now, activist groups in the city are threatening to dismantle more relics of the past if the government does not act to remove them.
Lester Kiewit reports that the Black People's National Crisis Committee will intensify protests if those demands are not listened to. "These symbols inflict psychological violence on the minds of people whose ancestors were murdered by people who are being glorified by statues," said a member of the group.
Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC’s The Last Word, interview: Bill Moyers: Instead Of A 'Soul,' Donald Trump Has An 'Open Sore'
This interview is from 2017, shortly after the Charlottesville violence that resulted in one death (and about which Trump said, “great people on both sides”). Moyers’ words are still timely in 2020 as he explains that the inherent message of Confederate statues in the South “was not to honor the soldiers of the Civil War. It was to remind blacks and whites that the force of the state would still be used to subjugate them to a different form on slavery. All of those [statues] could come down without affecting history at all…. We could put them in museums where teachers could explain why they were put up in the early part of the 1900s. (Segment at about 6:30 min and continues at 10:00 min).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another warm and sunny winter day that I began with an early walk around the neighborhood.
I passed the house with the black Great Dane that, as usual, barked and stalked me. His barking, as usual, alerted the two dogs guarding the corner house who then barked and stalked me, too.
As usual, I pass and talk to the dogs: “Hello, dogs, what good barkers you are, dogs…” As usual, they bark (“stay away from our house, stay away, we say…”)
Today, however, I met a young girl who lives in that house. She told me the dogs’ names: Zack and Chloe.
Now our relationship – dogs and mine – changes forever.
Tomorrow, I’ll pass and say, “Hello Zack. Hello Chloe. What a good barker you are, Zack. What a good barker you are, Chloe….”
I’m dying to see how they respond.
***
I collected two large bags of dry leaves from a neighbor’s avocado tree (“avocado pear tree”)… plus three planters made from recycled tires/tyres.
Back home, I raked dry leaves of the exotic camel’s foot tree, and collected a bucketful of soil from mole hills dotted around the garden as well as another bucketful of wood ash from a recent veld fire outside.
I’ll combine leaves, mole hill sand, wood ash, and other ingredients with compost and mix in a recycled concrete mixer to produce wonderfully rich soil for the veggie garden.

Tens of thousands of people around the world struggle with a deadly infection while millions more struggle to remain infection-free.
Gardening is a metaphor for regeneration.


Read   Week 1 |   Week 2   |  Week 3  |  Week 4 |  Week 5  | Week 6  |  Week 7  |  Week 8  |  Week 9  |  Week 10   |   Week 11  |   Week 12  |  Week 13 | Week 14