The quantum computer is here.   Transition : The earliest intelligent life might have used fingers to compute. The Lebombo bone, dating back 35,000 BC, had 29 distinct notches. The Sumerian abacus appeared around 2500 BC.  China only used this device around the year zero. Several analog computers go back to around 150 BC in Greece with the astrolabe. In 1206 came the first programmable computer, a clock. Soon thereafter, the  equatorium .  Here is one by Johannes Schoner in the 16th century. The slide rule was invented around 1620 in England. Germany designed the first calculating machine in 1623. In 1645 Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator. Gottfried von Leibniz dabbled with a binary numeral system around 1675, the means by which all modern computers now work. In 1822 Charles Babbage's machines used the decimal system, and so did ENIAC in 1945. When I taught computer programming half a century ago, I used punched cards, something invented in 1804 by French weaver Joseph

  I looked closer at the   Worldometer  and   Our World in Data   for COVID-19 this morning, and can make several observations: The World is approaching 300 million cases and 5.5 million deaths, a mortality rate just under 2% and 0.75 deaths/1000.  On the last number, picture a thousand people.  Less than one death. The USA has 56 million cases and will soon reach one million deaths, a mortality rate of 1.5% and 2.5 deaths/thousand.  For a thousand people, 2.5 deaths.  In a two-year period ( to be about equal to the time frame of these COVID-19 deaths ), there would be 3.6 cancer deaths in the U.S. Japan has 1.7 million cases, 18,393 deaths, mortality rate of 1% and 0.15 deaths/capita. Denmark has a tests/capita rate of 18.5, with #2 Austria at 13.7, and the UK at 5.9.  The U.S. has a tests/capita of 2.4. Fully vaccinated % ( not including booster ) UAE  91% Portugal 90% Singapore  87% Cuba  85% China  84% Japan  78% UK  70% European Union  69% U.S. 62% Asia  57% India  44% Egypt  20%

                              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      8