Today, back to Covid-19.   During the past week , the World had nearly 400,000 new cases with 1830 deaths, dominated by the U.S. at 135,000  new cases and 722 deaths.  Of course, the numbers are considerably higher around the globe for many countries have stopped reporting.  Note, though, that the flu has blown past Covid in deaths, for a bad year produces nearly 1000 deaths/ week, with weekly highs more than 2,000 in those years.  But first, some departures into a couple of newsworthy topics. Chris Christie yesterday announced he is leaving the Republican primary race, and took jabs at all his opponents in the process. This move significantly will impact on the New Hampshire primary.  Nikki Haley now has a decent chance to beat Donald Trump, more so if DeSantis and Ramaswamy also drop out. Trump 39% Haley 32% Christie 12% Ramaswamy 8% DeSantis 5% However,  two days ago  I reported that the third primary on February 24 in South Carolina, where Haley was once governor, still has Trump a

  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, meaning you will have an extra hour to

The first law of ecology is that title above, at least as written in Barry Commoner's 1971  The Closing Circle:  Nature, Man and Technology .   A  further searc h indicated that the adage is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, who died in 1519.  But there is very little to support this contention. From German  philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 1769: In nature everything is connected, everything is interwoven, everything changes with everything, everything merges from one into another . Close, but what about U.S. jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who wrote: If the world is a subject for rational thought it is all of one piece; the same laws are found everywhere, and   everything is connected with everything else;   and if this is so, there is nothing mean, and nothing in which may not be seen the universal law. And there is an environmental inspiration from U.S. naturalist John Muir in 1869: When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the