President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19.  The four shots and Paxlovid worked well. Authorities don't know how best to  de-stigmatize Monkeypox , but: The global   monkeypox outbreak   appears to mostly affect men who have sex with other men.   A study published   in the   New England Journal of Medicine   found that 98% of people diagnosed with the virus between April and June in more than a dozen countries identify as gay or bisexual men, and   the WHO says   that 99% of U.S. cases are related to male-to-male sexual contact. Maybe the best policy is to just focus on this community. As of a week ago there were  14,000 cases and only 5 deaths.   While in the past  monkeypox  had a 5% mortality rate, the strain that is currently dominating has a much lower death rate, similar to COVID-19 before vaccinations.  There is a vaccine, and if given within four days of exposure, protects about 85% of the time.  There are also antivirals and immunoglobulins to treat the disease. The

I'm a bit confused about the spotty  hospital COVID-19 crises hitting various sites in the USA .  The South African Omicron variant wave seems to be rapidly declining, where those infected seemed not to be so sick, so  hospitals were not challenged .  Best as I can tell, it is more the combination of staffing and supply shortages, plus the sudden onslaught of new cases because Omicron is so contagious. The latest Omicron outbreaks are coming during the winter and holiday periods in the U.S., so the perfect storm of less distancing, fewer masks when in family/friends groups, ability of this Omicron virus strain to quickly attack those who are not fully vaccinated/boosted, and even more so to those unvaccinated, plus the unlucky few who are supposed to be protected, seems to be exacerbating this new peak.  It is summertime in  South Africa , so they were "lucky" to have faced this variant at this time. One bit of good news for the elderly is that in Denmark this  Omnicron v

  There is a glacier in Antarctica that is melting away and could completely collapse in as soon as  three years , but more probably within  150 years.   Thwaites Glacier in Western Antarctica is around 74,000 square miles, roughly the size of Florida, and from 2600 to 3900 feet deep.  This glacier has already lost a trillion tons of ice since 2000, with an annual ice loss that has doubled in 30 years.  It is also called the  Doomsday Glacier  for if it escapes into the ocean, after quick melting, the  sea level could rise by over two feet , according to  Ted Scambos .  That would doom places like Waikiki, and also New York City and Sydney, among a whole coastal range of cities around the world. Worse, if this begins to occur, then the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet could go, doubling the sea level rise to 6 feet.  There is 8 times as much ice in the Antarctic than Greenland, and 50 times as much as in the mountain glaciers of the world. Most of the water on Earth is saline ( 97%) , w

If I tried to list the ten best days of my life, no doubt among them would be my birth, a few graduations, marriage, and assorted other great ones, including maybe even travel, where the  best could well have been that one day in Venice  when I first met my Blue-bar Pigeon, had lunch at Quadri of white truffles and several glasses of wine ( this is the dessert, and count the number of glasses ), topped off with a special concert of  Four Seasons , in the theater where Vivaldi partially composed them. Well, yesterday featured the TEDx program hosted by Blue Revolution Hawaii, that was beamed to the entire world.  Some day the TED organization will again present this effort by adding it to their system package.  You can go to the  BRH website  for other information.  Should you wish to watch my presentation, click on  THIS .  In this 18-minute talk, I only lightly touched on the  Pacific International Ocean Station , our proposed $150 million floating structure to initiate at-sea technol

I keep referring to Ray Bradbury's 1953  Sound of Thunder , for merely stepping on a butterfly in his short story significantly altered the future of humanity.  Of course, this also means that every breath you take, every move you make, would likewise do so.  But purposeful action can particularly make that crucial difference. From this tale came the term  butterfly effect , a concept of chaos theory not made popular until a decade later.  While any accidental act can drastically alter the future, a more specific decision can most surely affect the future regarding that topic.  Incidentally, the movie,  The Butterfly Effect , a 2005 film starring Ashton Kutcher, garnered 33/81 ratings from  Rotten Tomatoes , which attracted my interest because I usually side with the viewers. While Senator Joe Manchin will sign off on the Democratic wish-list bill, which has dropped in value from $3.5 trillion to less than half that value, gaining a last gasp life support to the incubative-state of