I'll start today with a concern about how the USA has been invaded by the Delta variant, comparing how many new cases occurred yesterday:
New Cases/Million Population
- #1 U.S. 143,537 431
- #2 India 40,078 28
- #3 Iran 39,049 648
- #4 Brazil 35,891 168
- #5 UK 32,961 483
- #6 France 28,554 437
- Florida 24,869 1157
- Texas 24,869 489
- #7 Indonesia 24,709 89
- Louisiana 5,387 1149
- Hawaii 549 392
Florida and Louisiana are particularly suffering. Both are low in vaccination rate, while Florida is especially battered because of a batty governor. One positive about the Delta variant is that it is scaring the un-vaxed to get vaxed.
The mortality rate average for the World is just around 2%, so to predict the new deaths in ten days to two weeks, multiply the new cases figure by 0.02.
- Thus, the new deaths after that period for the U.S. should be around 2870.
- However, there are now many more younger people being infected, so it would not be surprising if this mortality rate drops to 1%. This would mean 1435 new deaths/day in ten days to two weeks. Yesterday, 660 died in the U.S. from COVID-19. So this pandemic is definitely getting worse in the USA.
- Similarly, Hawaii, which has been experiencing from zero to 3 deaths/day for months, could well jump to 10/day, but should be around 5/day in that 10-day to 2-week period from now because the elderly are now mostly vaccinated. A month ago 15 Craigside residents were at 97%.
Cruise lines are in desperation. First of all, it was not only the Diamond Princess and Grand Princess that experienced COVID-19 early last year. Turns out that only from that first February case to June of 2020, over 40 ships showed positive tests in the initial wave of this pandemic. On that link I note that the Ruby Princess had 852 cases and Celebrity Apex experience 224, Disney Wonder 200 and several more exceeding 100 cases. Wow! There were also multiple suicides among the crew for stress and repatriation problems. I don't ever remember reading about any of this.
Cruise lines stocks also recently got socked when six passengers on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas tested positive, including four who were already vaccinated. There are 5000 passengers and crew on sold out AoS cruises. Just run the numbers. If Moderna/Pfizer vaccines are 95% effective, 5% are vulnerable. This means 250 will be in danger. Then there will be more because some vaccines are not as effective, and there will be a few others who faked their vaccination cards.
With the school year just beginning, and elementary school students almost all not yet being vaccinated, looks like the U.S. and much of the world will have serious problems for the rest of the year, and longer. My world cruise that leaves in January is now definitely in jeopardy. September 21 will be crucial, for on that day we will need to pay the full payment. If the Dubai World Expo extends its closing date into April or May, that would be influential. They can't go any further in time because it is really, really hot there in the summer. I know, I've been there. It was October, and still already seriously uncomfortable.
Today I will focus on two topics that make you wonder about the validity of what appears in the media. I'll start with the claim by Donald Trump supporters that he will be re-instated as president in August. What's the story on this?
Way back in November after the presidential election, cyber con man Dennis Montgomery, who has previously been known to have been in trouble with the Pentagon and was once into junk bonds, promoted a conspiracy theory that the CIA and or China were somehow involved in hacking the U.S. election results.- Without initially citing this source, Pillow Guy Mike Lindell used that bit of information to feed Conservative media outlets about the return of Trump in August.
So Lindell is now hosting a cyber symposium in South Dakota to today release the big news that China hacked the voting machines, and that Biden would voluntarily give up his posting on the weight of this incontrovertible evidence.
- Alas, on Wednesday, the air was let out of the pillow, as Josh Merritt, Lindell's personal cyber expert, admitted there was no proof. Who is Josh Merritt? He is previously known as AKA Spider/Spyder, who was involved with another of those Trump lawyers, Sidney Powell (that's her to the right), regarding doings of military intelligence.
- What a bunch of jokers capturing too much media space, but this ignominious ending of the Pillow Guy's ranting is worthy of retelling.
- The first official government report on UFOs was conducted by the U.S. Air Force, released in 1969 and called Project Blue Book. Of the 12,618 sightings, 701 were identified as unidentified.
- In 1994 the Air Force also completed a study related to the 1947 Roswell incident. Conclusion: the items were consistent with a crashed balloon. No alien bodies and no extraterrestrial materials.
Today, Part 2, the U.S. government's report on UFOs:
- Senator Marco Rubio was instrumental in the commissioning of the report.
- Released to Congress a week ago, this was a preliminary assessment.
- Only nine pages long.
Compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence created by the Pentagon last year.- Previously, all government reports debunked and discredited UFOs going back to the 1940's.
- Covered 144 observations going back to 2004, and in 143 of them, found that too little data existed to make any conclusions. The 144th was a deflating balloon.
- Five potential explanatory categories were established:
- airborne clutter
- natural atmospheric phenomena
- government and industrial development programs
- foreign adversary systems
- "other"
- Pentagon will formalize this task force mission.
What the report did not do was rule out extraterrestrial origin. That is a first. However, there was no statement about that link. When asked, one of the officials said:
That's not the purpose of the task force, to evaluate any sort of search for extraterrestrial life. ... That's not what we were charged with doing.
However, flying saucer believers should not necessarily celebrate. Your federal government just said the same thing using different words.
One development caught my attention. Earlier this week, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb got a call that he was getting some new research money, which was followed by a billionaire visiting him at home to talk about aliens. Said Loeb: Never have I ever seen a situation where a faculty member gets funding without looking for it and even meeting the donor.
This new effort has a name, the Galileo Project. It's relatively simple: establish a network of small telescopes around the world to watch the skies in hopes of capturing something weird, Currently funded at $1.755 million, none from the federal government, some of his rich contributors include William Linton, founder of a biotech firm, who is also into researching magic mushrooms, and Frank Laukien, who has a scientific instruments company.
Loeb first got interested in this topic only in 2017 when asteroid Oumuamua passed by Planet Earth. Discovered through a Halemaumau Crater telescope on Maui, a Hawaiian name was bestowed, meaning scout or messenger. It looked and behaved in unusual ways that Loeb thought could be some kind of extraterrestrial craft, and wrote a book on the subject: Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. I have an uncomfortable feeling that he has joined the ranks of the believers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke its all time record for the third straight day, rising 15 to 35,515.
Now I need to spend a couple of nights here to finish the bottle. Note in the mirror a reflection of me taking this photo. My next global adventure will skip Japan, but I'm thinking about another one that will begin in the Fall of 2022. Across the street is Robuchon's, which also needs to be visited.
I'll close with a birthday dinner. 15 Craigside is reacting to the Delta variant, and last night was our last supper in our dining room, at least until the end of the month, and maybe for the rest of the year. Beginning breakfast today, they are delivering our food to our apartment. Bob and I have birthdays one day apart in September. So we celebrated last night:
Our combined ages add up to 174. We were both born in the year of the Dragon. With that information you should be able to calculate our ages next month. Did some research and found that the dobash cake, also known as doberge and dobosh, was created at Brennan's Steakhouse in New Orleans.
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