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 rep...

How screwed up the House of Representatives must be.  They tried, and   could not even impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.   Why did they even try?  Well, Donald Trump told them to do so. Speaker Mike Johnson doesn't want aid for Ukraine.  So he also yesterday tried to sneak though only aid for Israel.  That vote, too, failed to pass.  He said he would next week still attempt to impeach Mayorkas.  In the Senate, thanks to Donald Trump, it looks like the immigration part is holding back their aid package.   Senate President Chuck Schumer  now plans to bring to a vote only the Israel/Ukraine/Taiwan financial portion. I have long been fascinated with the  neutrino .   Why? It is the smallest particle, with the electron as #2.  Neither has yet been actually measured for mass size. Elementary particles  form matter and radiation. There are two kinds of particles, Fermion and Boson.  Remem...

  It is Friday in Japan, so this must still be Thursday in the USA.  I've bypassed anything linked to Covid for weeks because it is not newsworthy enough these days.  However, thought I'd touch on it today.  First, though, a few other topics: It is becoming clear what new Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican House will be doing, for they are now cherry-picking topics to support their priorities, while insisting that the budget be balanced with cuts to the IRS now, and social programs later, to pay for necessary expenditures.  Both the White House and the Senate scoff at this tactic.   Read the details . If you've lost track of Donald Trump's assorted indictments and court trials,  here is a summary . As I erroneously indicated that the U.S. ended daylight savings time this past weekend, here is the correct information.  When you go to bed  this coming Saturday night , the nation at 2AM falls back one hour on Sunday, November 5, meanin...