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THE ENIGMA: A Black Diamond

      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
       14          2303       7872          238        430       128
       19          2374       8972          349        493       156
       20          2700      9225          324        703       139 
       21           2777       9091          396        489       103

Summary:  
  • Daily deaths have been stuck for the World at just below 10,000/day since late October.  
    • Keep in mind that a year ago, specifically on 24January2021, there were 16,503 new deaths.
    • The World Bank predicts that this number will begin to decline around now, and drop to 5,000 early in March, then decline further to several hundred/day by May.
  • Nature earlier this week reported that the 5.5 million official COVID-19 worldwide deaths are grossly underreported.  Depending which model you use, this should be from 2 to 4 times higher.  The red line represents the "true" deaths.  IHME is the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington.
    • One problem is that there is no consistency on what exactly is a COVID-19 death.
    • To counteract this problem, researchers now use something called excess mortality.
      • Use the average deaths for the previous five years to get an average number of deaths.
      • While this method itself is flawed because of population growth, certain adjustments were further made to also include deaths from armed conflict and natural disasters.
      • Using this modified approach:
    • Then there are countries like China, India and African countries which do not share true data.  They think that the count should be much, much higher, perhaps by a factor of 10 for India.  India by itself could have about the same number of deaths as what the world is showing today.
    • As horrible as that might be, they speculate that the 4600 reported deaths in China should instead be 150 times higher, or 750,000.
    • The study compared excess mortality for previous pandemics and the Spanish Flu of a century ago (the m is for million, and the mean death age is for the U.S. and Europe only):
METRIC          COVID-19  2009 Flu   1968 Flu   1957 Flu   1918 Spanish Flu
                                                H1N1       H3N2       H2N2          H1N1
Mortality Rate  .15-.28%       .005%        .03%         .04%             1%
Actual deaths    12-22 m         .4 m         2.3 m        3.1 m            75 m
Mean death age  73-79            37             62              65                27

Note in particular that the H1N1 virus killed younger people, while COVID-19 preyed on the elderly.

That should have been enough for today, but I'll go on to articulate further on The Enigma, that Black Diamond from outer space you might have recently read about.  First, from Wikipedia:

  • Carbanado, also known as black diamond, is one of the toughest forms of natural diamond.
  • Consists of diamond, graphite and amorphous carbon.
  • Found in alluvial deposits in regions such as Central African Republic and Brazil.
  • Is more porous than other diamonds.
  • Typically pea-sized or aggregates of tiny black crystals.
  • Formed 3 billion years ago by direct conversion of organic carbon under high pressure in the Earth's interior.
  • Can be created by meteorite impact through shock metamorphism.
  • Also radiation-induced by spontaneous fission of uranium and thorium.
  • Lighting strikes.
  • Could have originated in outer space from a supernova at least 3.8 billions years ago and brought Earth as an asteroid.
  • The Amsterdam Diamond weighs 33.74 carats and has 145 facets, being cut from a piece from Africa which was 55.85 carats.  Sold in 2001 for $352,000, the highest price ever paid for a black diamond.
  • The Spirit of the Grisogono has a total of 36.69 carats (black and white diamonds).
  • The Rembrandt is 42.27 carats and is at the Diamond Museum in Amsterdam.  Was cut from a 125-carat rough.

While I'm at this, heard of a Chameleon Diamond?

  • Colored diamonds are much rarer than white diamonds.
  • But Chameleon Diamonds are not very rare.
  • Yet, very little is known, for this version was only identified in 1943.
  • Under normal circumstances, it is green.
  • Under other conditions, the color ranges from brown to yellow/orange.  If the stone is in the dark for 24 hours or heated to 200 C, it becomes bright yellow/orange.  The change is not permanent.
  • Color change comes from thermocromism or photochromism from traces of nickel and nitrogen.
  • The most famous is the 31.32 carat Chopard Chameleon.
  • A small 8.08 carat stone was estimated to be worth $2.1 million.
  • Then there is the Lugano Chameleon Diamond Ring with 3.5 carats of CD, enhanced with 2 carats of pink diamonds, set in rose gold.

So on to The Enigma, from the Smithsonian magazine:

 

  • Did it come from outer space?  No one knows for sure.  Part of this problem is that is is cut, and origin can best be determined from analysis of the outer surfaces.
  • 555.55 carats with 55 facets.  Largest cut diamond in the world.  Next is the Star of Africa 1, or Cullinan 1, a white diamond at 530 carats.
  • The shape is based on the Middle-Eastern palm symbol of Khamsa, which means five in Arabic.
  • It's up for sale and expected fetch around $7 million.
  • Sotheby Dubai says it will travel to Los Angeles, then London, for online auction from February 3-9.  Cryptocurrency will be accepted.

I'll end this Saturday posting with another newsworthy item:  Baby Shark shot past 10 billion views on You Tube.  How big is this?  #2 Despacito by Luis Fonsi only is up to 7.71 billion, and Johny Johny Yes Papa (46 minute version) by LooLoo Kids at #3 with 6.12 billion.  A crazy story, for the LooLoo Kids emanate from Romania, but the concept, sung to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, sort of came from India more than 60 years ago.  

Five years ago I saw Jokgu, a chicken, play a song on the piano on America's Got Talent, then I checked if this was real, and saw on You Tube this fowl doing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  So I ordered an electronic keyboard on Shopify to also become proficient with this song.  Today, I have yet to master Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

South Korea did it to us again.  Remember Gangnam Style by Psy in 2012?  At one time it held the record and was the first to reach 1 billion.  Now down to #11 with 4.32 billion.

Pink Fong, a South Korean educational entertainment company known for children's songs, did it to us.  They took a nursery song from the 1900's, heard at sing-along summer camps and playgrounds.  They added K-pop style music, and simplicity made Baby Shark so popular.  Here is another version from Blackpink.

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