For those regulars of this blog site, I will get to our American Melody cruise on the Mississippi River.  But first, my topic of the day: the  Cicada . This is not a travel site.  No city/town has that name. Not about those swarming insects from 13- or 17-year broods.   Anyway, this happens not to be one of those springs when they emerge .  Although there will come a few stragglers, like this one shown.  Brood XXIII will strike in 2028.  In prime cicada years, you can more readily find chocolate chip cicada cookies. The Cicada I'm referring to today is the  new COVID variant . This will be an encore, for this variant first appeared in 2024. Cicada is nickname for BA.3.2, which first infected people in South Africa. Cicada is responsible for 30% of Europe's COVID ailments. More: Scientists say that Cicada carries   70 to 75 new mutations   in the spike protein, the portion that the human immune system recognizes and targets. That's m...

  I just watched on HBO Max,   Fukushima:  A Nuclear Nightmare,   a 2026 British-American documentary directed by James Jones and Megumi Inman, exploring the 11March2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.  A gripping film.  Too new to be rated by   RottenTomatoes.   Read my   Huffington Post   article on   The Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami:  The Aftermath . The production features Ikuo Izawa, a Tokyo Electric Power Company supervisor at the nuclear site, who deserves an Oscar for his performance.  He was there from Day 1 as one of the  Fukushima 50  and worked at the site until help came.  From  Wikipedia : There were 800 workers at the site when the tsunami struck on 11March2011. These 50 volunteered to remain to stabilize the nuclear reactors for the crucial first few days 6 am  Wake up 7–8 am  Meeting at the anti-seismic building  10 am Breakfast (biscuits about 30 pieces and ...

President Donald Trump failed to get any of America's close allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.  Canada, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Poland and Japan.  "I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need," Trump wrote in a   post on Truth Social   on Tuesday.   "Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea," Trump said.  China, also no, and read this from  Quora: SETROSEA   ·   Follow Posted   by   KILLUA   Jan 31 BREAKING NEWS: WAR ALERT CHINA SENDS TYPE-055 DESTROYER TO IRANIAN WATERS.. At least one or more type-055 destroyers of Chin...