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HOT NEWS OF THE DAY

    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
Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194
April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37
May    4         853     13667         3025     3786     59 
June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95
 July   7          251      8440        1595        817       411
Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532      423 
Sept  22       2228     9326          839        279      124
        29         2190      8859         643        309      108
Oct    6         2102       8255         543        315       59
        19          2005      7528         401       160        80 
        27          1594      8671         433        734        62 
Nov   3          1436      7830         186        458        23
        24          1594      8270         176        396        22 
Dec    1          1633      8475         266        477        28
          8          1324      7894         231        159         36
        17          1653      7359         126        289         35 
        22          1634      7686         137        434         99
        23          1149       6942        100        374         75
        29          1777       7393         147        268         81
        30         1354       6758          154        220       126 
Jan    7          2025       6729          148        285       140
        12          2283       8425          138        380       181

Summary:
  • In new deaths, we're back to the peak of this past September, but still half that of a year ago.
  • Of course we're #1 with 829,209 new cases yesterday, with France #2 at 361,719 and India #3 at 247,417.
  • On a new cases/million of population basis:  
    • U.S.  2483
      • California  2856
      • Maryland  1823
      • Kansas  3834
      • North Dakota  3836
      • Rhode Island  5402
      • Hawaii  2509
      • U.S. Military 9259 (population of Hawaii is the about the same as the number of active duty personnel)
    • France  5522
    • India  177
  • I've been reporting that Japan seems to have defied the Omicron variant.  Part of this was a lockout of many international countries. 
    • Yesterday Japan had 6394 new cases, or 50.75 new cases/million.  Still very low.
    • Today?  I think this number will at least double, with the Omicron variant finally getting a foothold in the country.  But 100 new cases/million is still pretty good.  
    • The World Bank projects that Japan will go up to more than 400,000 new cases late in March.  That would be 3175 new cases/million, even worse than the U.S. today.
    • Watch what happens to Japan.
I notice that there are two dangerous groups today:  the unvaccinated and children.  Two months ago the CDC recommended that anyone 5 years of age and older could be vaccinated.  Today, the 5-11 year old group is only 17% vaccinated.  Mississippi is only at 5%.  Schools are today a mess.  But many districts still mandate attendance, and this lowly vaccinated cluster can easily get infected and bring the Omicron home.  But almost never mind, for Omicron has been so contagious that youngsters vulnerable to becoming a COVID-19 victim have probably already been stricken.

The New York Times this morning showed a group of city graphs indicating that this Omicron variant surge is peaking, and should soon precipitously drop:

In South Africa, the new daily cases fell by 70% during the past month.  In the UK, where pandemic trends have frequently been a few weeks ahead of the U.S.:


Previous peaks seem to have lasted for two months.  Omicron's goes up and down in a month.

However, there is a time lag for hospitalizations and deaths, so both should continue to increase for another two weeks.  Here is where we are with Omicron compared to the Delta peak a year ago:

Note:  about three times more cases, but half the deaths.

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, said that while 3,000 employees recently tested positive for the virus, ZERO vaccinated employees were hospitalized.  Before their vaccine mandate, an average of more than one United employee died each week.  However, the Supreme Court just scuttled President Joe Biden's vaccine/testing mandate for companies with more than 100 employees.

While the 6January2021 House probe lingers on to embarrass the Republican Party, Democrats are also making an issue of democracy and the right to vote.  Here is something interesting;

  • Only 16 years ago, the Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The Senate voted 98-0, with two not voting.
  • This happens all the time, and in 1970, 1975 and 1982, the vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan.  
  • In all three years, a Republican president signed the act into law.
  • Interestingly enough, there are 16 Republicans still in the Senate from 2006, and they all then voted for this act.  Yet all 16 are against the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
  • Why?  They've bought into the party strategy promoted by Donald Trump to win future elections by rigging the election process.
  • There will be no voting rights law enacted this year, for setting aside the filibuster law will need to first be accomplished, and it now won't, but Democrats felt the best they could do was try to embarrass Republicans and hurt their incumbents in upcoming elections by showing what they said during the debates coming up.  What Republicans are doing is an attempt to promote autocracy and destroy democracy.
  • While compelling, sadly, what Independent Senator Angus King said earlier this week, will this year be ignored:
In the winter of 1891, the House of Representatives passed a voting rights bill to protect the rights of African Americans to vote. A very simple proposition. It was filibustered in the Senate, and it died. And what we saw was 75 years of constraint on the rights of African Americans to vote. I know about that because I grew up in Virginia, I saw it, I saw it, I saw the effect that it had on my Black friends and neighbors. There’s an old hymn we used to sing in St. Paul’s Church over in Alexandria, a Christian, a Protestant hymn: once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide. That is the moment that we’re at right now. The point I want to make is that that vote in 1891 changed American history for the worse for 75 years. A few people changed American history for the worse in 1891. I don’t want to see us make that mistake again. 

James Hansen just sent me, with co-authors Makiko Sato and Reto Reuedy, a paper so new that you can't yet find it on the world wide web:  Global Temperature in 2021.  Essentially they said that the global surface temperature in 2021 was +2F relative to the 1880-1920 average.  2021 was only the 6th warmest year in the instrumental record.  However, the 8 warmest years on record have occurred in the past 8 years.  The land, apparently, is warming 2.5 times faster than the ocean.  They predict that 2022 will be affected by irregular El Nino/La Nina cycles, but that 2023 could set a new record high.

Have you seen a supernova?  Unlikely, but scientists just saw one.  Some facts:

  • Approximately one supernova occurs somewhere in the Universe every second.
  • But our Milky Way only averages two supernovae per century.
  • Johannes Kepler (remember that telescope that found exoplanets?) observed one, and that was over 400 years ago.
  • Most of our chemical elements are made in a supernova.  Suns can create elements up to iron, but heavier elements need higher forces and temperatures, only attainable when a giant star explodes.
  • For a short period of time, a supernova can outshine an entire galaxy, releasing in a single burst as much energy as our Sun will in its 10 billion-year lifetime.
  • A supernova does not just disappear.  Some become stunning sights, like the Crab Nebula.

So what recently occurred?

  • Supernovas are usually only detected after they happen.
  • However, astronomers detected a red supergiant, about ten times larger than our Sun, about 130 days before the explosion.
  • This star was first found in 2020 by the Haleakala Pan-STARRS telescope.
  • The star was in a galaxy 120 million light years away.  You know how far away that is?  It would take light 120 millions to reach us.
  • So they watched it get brighter and brighter, and actually captured the final flash, using the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea.
  • Oh, our Sun is too small to become a supernova, and will instead finally shrink into a white dwarf.

Watch a University Hawaii re-creation of the death of SN 2020tlf.

There was a long period when eggs were supposed to be bad for you.  Cholesterol for one.  Today, an egg a day is like an apple...keeps the doctor away.  The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, in fact, promote eating two eggs/day.  While the American Heart Association only recommends one egg/day, a 2018 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that the consumption of up to 12 eggs per week would not have any negative effect on your health.  Note, of course, that you don't want to do this if you have diabetes.  Watch this video:

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