From Worldometer (new COVID-19 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 9 1208 6222 1136 1168 82
Oct 21 1225 6849 571 703 85
Nov 25 2304 12025 620 518 118
Dec 30 3880 14748 1224 299 465
Jan 14 4142 15512 1151 189 712
Feb 3 4005 14265 1209 107 398
25 2414 10578 1582 119 144
Mar 2 1989 9490 1726 110 194
17 1289 9736 2736 171 74
24 936 10206 3158 277 55
25 1405 10470 2244 249 121
26 1165 10331 2639 257 163
Summary:
- A little relief for the USA
- Where much of this started, in the upper Eastern Seaboard--New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey-- shows a dangerous uptick in new cases
- Florida and Michigan also are looking bad.
- California still led with 242 new deaths yesterday, but their new cases number is declining.
- Europe is not looking good and same for South America. I wouldn't go traveling there anytime soon.
- Some danger in the Philippines.
- China? No new deaths. "Only" 4,636 have died, total. Brazil yesterday had 2,639 deaths.
- Worldwide, there were 622,386 new cases yesterday, with 126 million total cases and 2.8 million deaths.
- Deaths/million population
- World 355
- India 116
- UK 1855
- Czechia 2383 (highest in world)
- Nigeria 10
- Singapore 5
- Thailand 1
- Vietnam 0.4
- Tanzania 0.3
- China 3
- USA 1684
- New York 2575
- New Jersey 2739 (highest in nation)
- Wyoming 1201
- Hawaii 323 (lowest in Nation)
- Japan 71
I mention Japan at 71 deaths/million at the end because they still remain at a high state of alert and will not allow foreigners as spectators for the Summer Olympics in July. Hawaii at 323 is on the verge of totally opening up travel. Can you believe New Jersey has the highest deaths/million in the world?
I had a weighty issue scheduled today, but, hey, it's Friday. Someone this morning sent me the this mostly animation of how Rover got to Mars. I thought, wow, what an engineering achievement. Here, you watch it. This NASA project will cost about $3 billion.
I once worked for NASA at the Ames Research Center more than 40 years ago on a facet of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. That assignment changed my thinking about what we should be doing in space.
Remember, Neil Armstrong had only recently then walked on the Moon, and that, in my mind, was the greatest thing Humanity had ever accomplished. More than the technological accomplishment, it later turned out, was the political spark that eventually led to the end of the Cold War in the early '90's. We beat the Soviet Union, saved our world society, and all that was linked to our landing on the Moon.
So how did my attitude about the USA space program change? Well, since then, till today, and for many years to come in the future I suspect, I see no purpose in spending huge sums for no real reason other than romance. Our destiny is not being challenged. There is no enemy providing an incentive. There is no incoming asteroid or earth-shaking need to leave our planet. That object which killed off the dinosaurs occurred 66 million years ago. We have the technology and time to handle this type of potential event. For now we can better use our tax moneys for the people, environment, infrastructure and a thousand other more important priorities.
Sure, maintain a progressive and inspirational space effort, like SETI. But anything that costs billions or trillions needs to be re-contemplated. Six years ago it was reported that getting to Mars with humans would cost $1.5 trillion for a 2035 landing, and maybe $2 trillion if we establish a base on the Red Planet.
But then Space News said, nope, more probably $5 trillion, with a rise to $10 trillion or $15 trillion to be realistic. The U.S. Gross Domestic Product was then $17.7 trillion. I thought it made no sense then, and am even more convinced now that we should spend our tax dollars a lot more smartly.
Then along came Elon Musk, who twitted his Mars City being developed by 2050 for between $100 billion and $10 trillion.
How much, really, is $10 trillion?
- Well, the entire U.S. Interstate Highway system cost $0.5 trillion.
- All the assets in the UK is valued at around $11.8 trillion.
- Now that the U.S.'s GDP is at $20.5 trillion, only half of that.
- You can buy the 10 highest-valued companies and get $3.6 trillion in change.
- Incidentally, that $3.6 trillion can end world poverty--calculated to cost $175 billion for 20 years-- which will still leave you with $100 billion to spend.
On the other hand, if Elon Musk can build his Mars City for $100 billion (he is worth $171.6 billion, second to Jeff Bezos at $193.4 billion) using his money, terrific. He will charge a $1 million/person to get there, and maybe, depending on when you ask him, perhaps only $100,000. There are those who pay a million dollars just to move into a seniors' community. There might be a market.
In a decade or two there should be more knowledge about the dangers of cosmic rays, which some have said will make outer space travel impossible. Maybe a more advanced and efficient form of propulsion will yet be invented. But that is probably a hundred-year goal. Until we have an urgent need to leave Planet Earth, I don't see any reason for spending trillions today just to establish colonies in space, the Moon, Mars or Titan. There is too much yet to do on our sensitive globe, home to 7.7 billion humans. Maybe by 2100 something more lofty might be justified, or the Year 3000.
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