Ken Jennings knows about everything.  That now includes the afterlife. That's the title from  National Public Radio  about him. What do you know about Ken Jennings?  From  Wikipedia : He will turn 50 next year. Is the highest-earning American game show contestant, from five different venues, including $4.5 million just from Jeopardy!, where he holds the record for the longest winning streak...of 74 wins. Before 2003, contestants were limited to 5 consecutive wins. Previous to Jennings' run, Tom Walsh had the highest winning streak, of eight. Ken began his reign on 2 June 2004. In that  first episode,  he almost lost in Final Jeopardy, until Alex Trebek accepted his answer as correct.  There was a technicality.  If not for that, the story of Ken Jennings would not have happened and Jeopardy might now be no more. Win streak ended on 30 November 2004 to challenger Nancy Zerg.  He won $2,522,700. In 2011 the competitors were Jennings, Rutter and Watson, the IBM computer, and IT

        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       411 Au

I promised to post Part 2 of my SETI series today, but I'll again delay it. Tomorrow for sure. Today, back to the pandemic.   The   Star Advertiser   this morning had a startling front page headline: FLU PROVES DEADLIER THAN COVID   Essentially, here is what the article said:  In Hawaii, on an annual basis, the combined deaths for flu and pneumonia are higher than the 12-month death total for COVID-19.  Keep in mind that the death rate of this pandemic virus is 10 to 66 times that of the seasonal flu, so the latter higher than the former is a bit scary.  And why such a wide range? Using data from  Worldometer: The world mortality rate of COVID-19 is 2%.  This means that 2 die for every 100 cases. Depending on who you ask, the mortality rate of the seasonal flu is anywhere from  0.03%  to  0.1% . The matter of asymptomaticity causes a lot of confusion, for that 2% fatality figure for COVID will someday be much lower when the total cases count also includes this group.   Thus, the st

  From  Worldometer  (new 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     3      1094    5886          830     1083       174             9      1208    6222        1136      1168        82 Oct      8        957    6420          730       967       160           21      1225     6849         571       703         85 Nov     4      1199      8192        276       511         74             11      1479    10178        564       550         60           17      1615     10502       676       472       118           18      1964     10970       754       587       124            19      2065     10758       644       584       115           20      1999     11136       521       562         88           23        972       7951       344       481         65 Summar