IT'S DESKTOP CLEARANCE DAY

From Worldometer (new deaths yesterday):

DAY USA WORLD Brazil India South Africa

June 9 1093 4732 1185 246 82

July 22 1205 7128 1293 1120 572

Aug 12 1504 6556 1242 835 130

Sept 3 1094 5886 830 1083 174
9 1208 6222 1136 1168 82

Oct 8 957 6420 730 967 160

21 1225 6849 571 703 85

Nov 4 1199 8192 276 511 74

11 1479 10178 564 550 60

17 1615 10502 676 472 118

18 1964 10970 754 587 124

Summary:

As predicted, getting worse for the USA. How do we compare with other countries?

New Cases

USA 173,768
India: 45,439
Brazil: 35,345

Deaths/million people

Belgium: 1278
Peru: 1068
Spain: 899
Brazil: 786
UK: 783
USA: 772
Mexico: 765
Japan: 15
South Korea: 10
China: 3
Taiwan: 0.3

In the U.S. many red states (followers of Donald Trump) are having real problems getting their citizens to wear masks. However:

South Korea reported a jump in COVID-19 cases recently. Six days above 100 new cases/day, but all below 200. Notice that the U.S. yesterday had 173,768 new cases. This surge in South Korea resulted in the announcement of a $90 fine for not wearing masks in public. This penalty from a country that has experienced 10 deaths/million, compared to the U.S. with 772 deaths/million.
Why are there so few cases and very little deaths in Taiwan? Remember, Taiwan has had only 0.3 deaths/million, a factor 2570 less than the U.S. On April 3 the fine for not wearing a mask on public transport could get you a $500 fine.

While those democratic countries are perhaps a bit more authoritarian, do you think, perhaps, that the White House Administration and Republican governed states should take this pandemic a lot more seriously? You don't need to totally close down the economy. There are problems with a lot of people in an indoor setting, and you can't really continuously wear masks in bars and restaurants, but you can enforce office and school mask-wearing.

My desktop is getting full. Here are some of the better ones. The rest, I'm deleting.

About China:

About Japan:

Hey, the USA, too, is advancing:

Mysteries about the Egyptian Pyramids:

The amazing onion:

Chinese geese/ducks are well-trained, but I guess where they end up?

Food prep:

Dogs:

A few about Donald Trump:

Monster mask:

Good news:

Cute dogs and cats:

Baby exercising:

My favorite #39 is the 1896 Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss. While the typical performance lasts for half an hour, you only remember the first few seconds. Of course, Stanley Kubrich's 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is the reason why.

The first recording was made in 1935 by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The first stereophonic record was by Fritz Reiner with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1954.

Elvis Presley used this as his opening fanfare in 1973 in Honolulu. Here is Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite. That is the full one hour concert, with 3 minutes of explanation first.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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