On the  covid front , South Korea, with 161,355 new cases this week, and the USA, with 79,513, had 87% of all new cases in the world this week.  However, many countries have stopped reporting. The good news is that S.Korea's weekly death rated dropped 38% and the USA 58% this past week. The USA led in most new deaths this past week with 171, Brazil #2 and S. Korea #3.  These three countries accounted for 73% of all world deaths. Only 116 days to Christmas.  You can already buy a few gifts of topical moment.  One thing about Donald Trump is that you can purchase all kinds of stuff featuring him.  As for example:      2.  The big seller, however, is his  mug shot mug .  Soon after his booking, just on Saturday, August 26, sold more than $4 million worth.  Want one?  You have a choice from  Amazon.com .  Only $17. Joe Biden articles can also be bought.  Only $16 for his Cup O' Joe. It gets cheaper with Rudy Giuliani.  Only $15. This can go on and on, for even  Sidney Powell has a

A week ago I posted on  Death by a Gamma Ray Burst?   This week, I focus on another space invader, a large asteroid.  PBS has had several documentaries on this topic:   The Asteroid and the Dinosaur  and   Dinosaur Apocalypse . The scientific term for the above is  Impact Event .  The biggest Earth event might have been the  Big Splash , or the Theia Impact: This when our Moon was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Theia, the mythical Greek Titan, was the colliding body, mother of Selene, the goddess of the Moon. The isotope ratios of lunar and terrestrial rock are identical. There are many theories, but one is that the Moon was formed by the tangential impact upon Earth of a body the size of Mars. Much of this giant-impact consensus emerged from a 1969 conference held at Kona, Hawaii.  Those who don't believe are called the agnostics. But our solar system is today quite different, and planet-sized impact neighbors are no longer present. 2 billion years ago an asteroid cal

Tokyo Electric Power, operator of the damaged Fukushima nuclear facility,   discharged 11,500 tons of untreated water into the Pacific Ocean .  That was way back on 5 April 2011, almost a month after that   Great Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Cataclysm .  That chart is NOAA's accounting of where this radioactive fluid went two years later. Wikipedia   reported on the most recent discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant: Discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant   into the   Pacific Ocean   began on 24 August 2023, following the   Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster   triggered by the   2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami   on 11 March 2011 in Japan. Due to the massive tsunami that disabled the cooling systems at the nuclear plant, three reactors experienced meltdowns, leaving behind melted fuel debris. Water used subsequently to cool the debris became contaminated with radioactive   nuclides . [3]   The m

So what is happening today?  Nothing much of import:  National Bow Tie Day, National Cherry Turnover Day, National Red Wine Day, International Read Comics Day, National Thoughtful Day, National Bridge Remembrance Day and National Power Rangers Day.  All sanction by an organization called   National Day Calendar .  How does one get a national day?  Well, Hasbro/Saban jointly with NDC, just declared August 28 to be National Power Rangers Day.  Has thus been annually celebrated yearly since 2018.  So how do you celebrate this day?  Fans are encouraged to share memories and cosplay the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which premiered in 1993.  But what is National Day Calendar?  It was created in 2013 by Marlo Anderson, the so-called Guru of Geek, from his perch as podcaster of the Tech Ranch.  Must have been popular, for a million people visited his site that first year, and 10 million are expected to ping-in this year.  He said this hobby has become a major distraction to normal business ho