SOME GOOD TRIVIA FOR THE WEEK

Today is September 13, but the bad luck tag on Fridays known as paraskevidekatriaphobia, is not associated with other days of the week. 109 days remain until the end of the year. Back in history on September 13:

1501: Michelangelo began work on his statue of David. I visited David when I once spent some time in Florence on a bioreactor exchange program

Is a 17-foot tall statue of the future king who faced Goliath.

He is left-handed.
Said to be worth $200 million.
The city of Florence and national government of Italy are fighting over who owns him.
There are numerous replicas, two in Florence.
The circumcision was minimal. Sometimes a fig leaf has been used to avoid censorship.

Supposedly, those four presidential four faces on Mount Rushmore today would cost $11 billion.

1609: Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him.
1788: The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the U.S., making New York City the country's temporary capital.

1898: Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
1985: Super Mario is released in Japan.

Do you get the impression that today is not important for any reason? Whoops, let me take that back. Today is International Chocolate Day.

The bean goes back to 1900 BC, and was an integral part of Aztec and Mayan culture.
But Europeans later combined it with milk and sugar during the Industrial Revolution.
I bet you did not know that Hawaii grows some, and Cote D'Ivoire of African produces 30% the world's cacao?

Dark chocolate has proven health benefits.

Powerhouse of antioxidants, which neutralize free radicals produced by the metabolism of fat.
Improves cardio-vascular health, reduces blood pressure and helps regulate blood sugar.
Linked to release of endorphins, the feel-good hormone, improving your mood.

Wednesday, September 15, is International Day of Democracy. I don't know of any particular rally in the USA supporting Democracy this week.

However, Saturday, September 18, is the #JusticeForJ6 rally for the 570 defendants arrested on January 6. While the permit, submitted by Look Ahead America led by Matt Braynard, a former Donald Trump campaign employee, is only for 500 people, a considerable number of loyalists will show up. The Proud Boys will be there, and so will White Lives Matter, a neo-Nazi group. Will Donald Trump show up? Maybe remotely. Another march on Congress? Don't count on that this time.

What else is happening this week? Well, tomorrow is finals night for season 16 of America's Got Talent, followed on Wednesday by the results show, both two hours long, with the usual assortment of alumni appearing.

None of the four judges are from America. Howie Mandel is from Canada, Heidi Klum Germany, Sofia Vergara Columbia and Simon Cowell UK.

The $1 million first prize is payable over 40 years at $25K/year, or a lump sum of $300,000.
The winner in the past has mostly been ventriloquists, with singers next.
The victor of Year One, Bianca Ryan, was the youngest, at 11. However, my favorite competitor this year is Victory Brinker, who is 9 years old. Here she is at 6 singing O Mio Babbino Caro. Also, quite a family.
The champion this year will join some of the more popular previous winners at the Luxor Hotel in Vegas from November 4. Tickets start at $49.

Typhoon Chanthu is making a curious circle just off the coast of Shanghai, bringing considerable rainfall of up to a foot. Chanthu will then re-organize, and swiftly head for Cheju Island, with eye projected to skirt the west side of Japan, making landfall over northern Honshu.

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

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the only couple in the history of this event who failed to drink bee

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