IS THIS PARADE OF PLANETS NOW ONGOING UNUSUAL?

Sat at my computer this morning, and I began by citing the new Hughes fire in Los Angeles Country, contrasted with the freeze in the South; a host of developments regarding the idiocy of President Donald Trump's commandments; and remarked about the 2400th aid truck in the Gaza Strip. As important as they were, just erased a couple of hours work, and instead will today post on a few entertaining aspects of life today.

Here is something absolutely free, the cosmic event of 2025: a parade of planets, which will be visible to the naked eye all month, beginning this week.

The key date is in two nights, January 25. Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars will appear to line up a few hours after dark.
Uranus and Neptune will be there, too, but require binoculars or telescopes.
Got it so far? Six planets, plus a seventh, Earth, from where the viewing is being done.

Some go further, saying that the feature attraction will be the appearance of the final, and closest to the Sun planet, Mercury, later in February into March.

Tokyo: February 22, 166-degree sky sector;
Mexico: February 25, 170-degree sky sector;
New York: February 25, 157-degree sky sector;
Hong Kong: February 27, 174-degree sky sector;
Berlin: March 2, 141-degree sky sector;
London: March 2, 142-degree sky sector;
Sydney: March 3, 122-degree sky sector;
São Paulo: March 4, 126-degree sky sector;

Watch this video.

But is all the above really true?

We now only have 8 planets, since Pluto became a dwarf planet.
Thus, if we see seven planets in the sky, with Earth as #8, we will view all 7 other planets while being on the 8th, Earth.
To begin, astrophysicists say that for all eight to align within 1 degree of the sky would happen every 13.4 trillion years ago. So this has never happened because the Universe is only about 13.8 billion years. This I comprehend.

Well, what about within 3.6 degrees? Every 396 billion years. So never yet, and never will, because our Sun will transform into a white dwarf in 6 billion years, after swallowing up Mercury, Venus and Earth. This also makes sense.
Okay, what about all 8 at the same time in the sky over 180 degrees (that is the entire sky from where you view). It is said that the last time this happened was in the year 949. Next one? 6May2492. So this does occur.

Thus, on February 28, will we see all 8 planets at the same time? Well, Forbes has an explanation. But I'm confused.
Here is a Vocademy explanation deprecating the social media verbiage as an exaggeration of reality.
And another debunker.
So will we see all seven planets at one time from Earth this January or February or March? I'm not sure. If I find an answer I can understand, I'll later let you know.

Watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, featuring Nicholas Cage. Free on Netflix. Very entertaining. Rotten Tomatoes scores of 87/87, and here is what they said:

Nicolas Cage stars as... Nick Cage in the action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage must accept a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones. With a career built for this very moment, the seminal award-winning actor must take on the role of a lifetime: Nick Cage.

Finally, did you see Saturday Night Live's cold open spoof of MSNBC's Trump Special? Rachel Maddow (Sarah Sherman), Joy Reid (Ego Nwodim), Chris Hayes (Andrew Dismukes), Stephanie Ruhle (Chloe Fineman) and Ari Melber (Marcello Hernández).

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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