ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING

Hate to on this Sunday feature killings, but the USA had another mass shooting yesterday, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Four were killed and more than 20 injured.

Authorities are not sure who or how many were responsible.
No suspects yet.
You can be pardoned for not even knowing this happened, for something similar occurs all the time.
There have been more than 400 mass shootings in the U.S. this year.
The FBI defines mass shooting as an event in which one or more individuals are actively engaged in killing or attempting kill people in a populated area. Implicit is the use of firearm. Usually needs to have at last three deaths.

ONE THIRD of all the world's public mass shootings between 1966 and 2012 occurred in the U.S. Size of circle indicates relative number of shootings.
Not sure why that period ended more than twelve years ago, but that was from Wikipedia, and until 2012 there have been 4,011 mass shootings in the U.S.
Highest rate in Washington, DC, followed by Louisiana.
Perpetrator demographics vary by type of mass shooting, though in almost all cases they are male. Contributing factors include easy access to guns, perpetrator suicidality and early childhood trauma, as well as various sociocultural factors including online media reporting of mass shootings. In one study, 44% of mass shooters had leaked their plans prior to committing the act.
There was a period when mass shooting deaths remained lower, from 1994 to 2004 during the period of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.

Do we need better gun control?

Who are to blame? National Rifle Association, Republican Party, second amendment to the Constitution,...the list goes on and on.
Should this be a presidential campaign issue of importance? Only in tenth place at a 4% concern level.

Here are the facts and trends.

One-third of U.S. adults say they personally own a gun. Including Kamala Harris. But the breakdown is 45% Republicans and 20% Democrats.
Donald Trump owns two hand guns, but now as a convicted criminal, might have them taken away.
I was expert with an M1 rifle (that was a long time ago), .45 caliber pistol and machine gun when was in the U.S. Army, but have never owned one.
The U.S. surgeon general has declared gun violence to be a public health crisis.
Of those who do, 72% own one for personal protection.
58% of adults favor stricter gun laws.

Another Taylor Swift sighting.

Yesterday I featured From Russia with Lev. MSNBC again replays this 1 hour 32 minute documentary tonight at 9PM EDT. Don't confuse this with the 1963 James Bond From Russia With Love, which got 97/84 scores from Rotten Tomatoes, which you can stream. Title song was sung by Matt Monro.

Yesterday, I also said that my Apple 16 Pro iPhone arrived in the mail. My first photo, which is a view of downtown Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean from my seat at my iMac.

It is a beautiful day.

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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