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Showing posts with the label Boris Johnson

WILL IT BE SAFE TO CRUISE THIS YEAR?

      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      41

NEWS OF THE DAY

This week will feature a lot more science, with a nostalgic entry tomorrow, but focusing on the latest issue of  Scientific American  from Wednesday: What was the worst day ever for Planet Earth?  Which could well have been the best for us, as mammals began to develop. What was the worst event for Humanity? World War II? 70,000 years ago when  Homo sapiens  almost became extinct . Our biggest killer, heart disease, explained. First contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. A cosmic mystery is a fast radio burst.  The brand new Chinese 500-meter Tianyan "Eye of Heaven" detected 1,652 independent bursts from just one source over a period of 47 days.  So what?  Well, in a few thousandths of a second ( this is a tiny period of time much shorter than one second ), one burst produces as much energy as our Sun does in a whole month. The Ukraine War, if we survive, will spur more serious talks about total nuclear disarmament. On to the stories of the day: This weekend 13 mass shoot

CURRENT AFFAIRS

Yesterday I declared nothing much was happening around the world worthy of my time.  Today, okay, that was a gross minimization of the reality.  The world population will reach 8 billion in just about a year.  All kinds of things are occurring.   For example, what about the shock that none of the defendants ( whittled down to worst four ) were convicted of the planned kidnap, trial and possible murder of  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer !  Why? Overly aggressive FBI informants. Michigan law  since 1931 provides for a mandatory life sentence for conspiracy to commit murder. Perhaps a plot is not a conspiracy, but whatever, the defense did well.  Apparently this is indeed a free country and you can say almost anything you want. The far right has stoked potential violence to a new normal. How ballsy of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson walking around the ruins of Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  Wait a minute, isn't he about to be ditched because of the partygate s