Before science day, a couple of news items: Nothing to seriously worry about, but  our U.S. Congress has to act by 11:59PM Friday night before government funding runs out .   First, there is an announced compromise, which is shaky, and there seems to be no way for the full Congress to act until next week. Anyway, this stopgap measure is only until very early March, when they need to pass another stopgap bill. But not to worry anyway, for  since 1976 the Congress has had 22 funding gaps . Each time, the nation survived. Congressional leaders  met with President Joe Biden  today in the White House, and tried to work out something to combine immigration with Israel/Ukraine war funding. Easy to blame Republicans for what is happening. Let's see if Speaker Mike Johnson survives this mini-crisis, for he committed the cardinal sin of actually working out a deal with Democrats, and will need them to actually pass the needed legislation in the House. About that circ...

         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       ...