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 ...

  Some good news.  According to an article in   Forbes ,   both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may offer years-long protection against COVID-19 , including variants.  Even mixing the two--one dose each--should be equivalently good.  There could be other vaccines with similar immunity power, but the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not expected to be as durable. One more tidbit:   is Kim Jong-un on a diet or seriously ill?   At one time he was supposed to be 5'6" tall and more than 300 pounds.   When he took control nearly a decade ago at the age of 27, he was less than 200 pounds.  He proceeded to gain 14 pounds/year.  Not anymore.  He is said to be emaciated, putting his followers in despair.  Who will replace him?  Children too young.  He does have an older brother, and, of course, a sister, who is a lot more prominent, but said to be scared for her life. America's Got Talent is well-into its  ...

  From the   New York Times   this morning: There is a political angle to these trends, of course. The places with the lowest vaccination rates tend to be heavily Republican. In an average U.S. county that voted for Donald Trump, only 34 percent of people are fully vaccinated, according to New York Times data. In an average country that voted for Joe Biden, the share is 45 percent (and the share that has received at least one shot is higher) . Remember  Polar Vortex , a term that was tossed about when it got abnormally cold?  Well, there is a new one for today:  Heat Dome.  Or, better yet,  Millennium Heat Dome , for what is happening in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia is ten times worse than a 100-year storm, a designation applied when something really bad occurs from Mother Nature. It was terrible this weekend, and could get worse today.  Yesterday,  Lytton BC reached 116 F .   Canada today might become the hottest...