EARTH ARK: Part One

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

Oct 6 2102 8255 543 315 59

Nov 3 1436 7830 186 458 23

Dec 1 1633 8475 266 477 28

Jan 7 2025 6729 148 285 140

28 2732 10,516 779 862 133

Feb 2 2990 12,012 946 991 175

24 1823 9,809 996 304 40

Mar 2 1778 7,756 335 173 28

11 1022 6002 465 88 28

16 982 5579 354 59 40

I've virtually annually written about St. Patrick on March 17. Today, Let me just say that this a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, where Lent once got in the way of drinking alcohol.

However, a loophole was found in the 1960's. No kidding. This day is also celebrated in the UK, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and USA, even Hawaii. Tonight I bring to the dining room table a bottle of Irish Whiskey. Maybe a Redbreast. We are tonight being served corned beef and cabbage.

Success!!! The James Webb Space Telescope sent its first true image yesterday, a star called 2MASSJ17554042+6551277, more commonly known as TYC 4212-1079-1, located 2000 light years away, and up close, 16 times brighter than our Sun:

From all reports, the Federal Reserve will soon initially raise the federal funds rate a bit, perhaps 50 basis points, or 0.5%, and continue doing so until the benchmark rate reaches as high as 2% by the end of the year. There is concern about consume prices rising 7.5% on an annual basis in January, a four decade high. HISTORICALLY, THE MARKET TYPICALLY DROPS RIGHT BEFORE A STEEPER-THAN-NORMAL RATE INCREASE. Funny, though, as the U.S.market surged after Feds announced their intent to raise rates.

The S&P is already down 8% from its 3January2022 record high. Keep in mind that historically, a year after major rate decisions, all the markets increase around 20%. There are always exceptions.

On the Trump-front, one of his senatorial candidates yesterday questioned the existence of evolution. Said Herschel Walker: At one time, science said man came from the apes, did it not? That's what's interesting, though. If that is true, why are there still apes? Thing about it. He will be running against Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock.

Yesterday I posted on THE ULTIMATE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. Today, and every year around St. Patrick's Day, I will return to the subject of EARTH ARK, for I saved this portion of the future of intelligence in our Universe for more definitive clarification. Part One today just introduces the subject, which is to determine the ideal composition of life to include in our first attempt to send the first EARTH ARK to an ideal extrasolar planet.

Of course we all know about that 600-year old Noah, who in The Bible built that fabled ark. It was supposedly in Mesopotamia sometime between 2,000 and 10,000 BC that this effort succeeded, I think. It took him around 50 years to build his ark. Incidentally, you can today view Johan's Ark in the Netherlands and Ark Encounter (left) in the U.S.: $100+ million version in Kentucky of I-75m built by Answers in Genesis.

That's all for today. In a year, further speculative details on what life (or robots or cyborgs or AI) forms to be sent out on the first EARTH ARK, plus what the ship will look like, how fast it will travel, energy details, wormholes, cost and whatever else. If this blog site can continue on for a millennium, perhaps by then an actual design can be provided.

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 suspicio...

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...

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

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