One quick summary of Donald Trump's hush money trial, then on to the Moxy Matter. Court is closed today so Trump can attend son Baron's graduation in Florida. Continues Monday on the final day of the defense trying to break down Michael Cohen. How many more Republicans will show up in person for the trial on Monday?  Can't imagine Melania will. Prosecutors called 19 witnesses.  Defense...zero, unless they surprise the judge and prosecution. Final arguments, as currently planned, should come on Tuesday. Hate to say this will be a hung jury, but in this day and age, not totally comprehending why so many remain Trump fans. it's difficult to imagine that all 12 jurors  will vote guilty. Hung jury not all that bad for Democrats, for this will just mean this trial will again be held, but when? Our OMGA ( O ur  M onumental  G lobal  A dventure ) circumnavigation was mostly good, but had some down moments. At least two of the cruises had Covid outbreaks, something that always

Thursday has served as Covid day since the pandemic.  No more, but here is an update, for I keep knowing of people who are still getting infected. What to know about the FLiRT variants of Covid-19 .  New variants are distant Omicron relatives from JN.1, which was responsible for the surge of cases this past winter. FLiRT because mutations include the letters F and L for one, and R and T for the other. KP.2 in particular is rising, now accounting for 25% of new cases at the end of April.  However, KP.2 is less infectious than JN.1. Current vaccines protect against FLiRT variants. Here is the  latest summary : Total cases. #1  USA  112 million #2  India  45 million #3  France 40 million #4  Germany  39 million Total deaths. #1  USA 1,219,487 #2  Brazil  711,380 #3  India  533,570 Of course, India significantly under reports.   One WHO report estimates that their death toll is 10 times higher than reported. For political reasons, WHO tends to protect China.  Chances are overwhelming that

SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the pandemic virus first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019.  Why that name?  Because it looked genetically similar to the virus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.  You've regularly seen the COVID-19 virus as a sphere with what looks like golf tees sticking out of the surface.  First, this virus is so small that you can't see it using an ordinary microscope. Bacteria are between 0.2 and 2 micrometers, so you can't even see this in a compound light microscope. Viruses are not measured in micrometers, but nanometers, which is one-thousandth a micrometer.  The coronavirus is just 50 nanometers across, or 0.05 micrometers. But visible light ranges from 300 to 700 nanometer, so light photons are too large to distinguish something so small as 50 nm. You thus turn to an electron microscope, invented in 1930, but improved to what is now called a Scanning Electron Microscope, or SEM.   Yes, instead of photons, something so small as an electron mus