My series on evolution began last Sunday with  THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION .  But before I get into Humanity, some speculations on the future of the Iran War:  I asked Google AI: How long do you think the Iran War will last? Not much of a response:    The duration of the war will largely depend on the success of these targeted strikes, Iran's ability to resist, and the willingness of all sides to seek. Repeated what has been mentioned in the past: President Donald Trump expects the war to last 4 to 5 weeks. Israel thinks this will go on for months. Iran wants a slow, protracted war of attrition. In other words, who really knows how long the Iran War will last. The weekend price of WTI crude oil is $99.30/barrel and Brent crude at $103.89/barrel.  Google AI:  what do you think the price of oil will be early this coming week and into the future? Bullish Pressure : Continued military activity near Kharg Island and the Strait of Hormuz is keeping supply rest...

Deloitte published their assessment of Rome's 2000 year-old Colosseum, which could well cost from $250 million to $1 billion to build today.  You can  read the details here , but, ta-da, it is worth $79 billion.  It would rank   #14 in the current list of world billionaires . There are moments and experiences, says Mastercard, that are priceless, but many famous historical artifacts are also in that category, especially those of Leonardo da Vinci. Some of his works do have known values.  A prominent one, and most expensive art piece ever sold, is  Salvator Mundi,  which was bought by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman in 2017 for $450 million, some say as a gift to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and today has a value closer to $500 million, or half a billion dollars. To the right is how the Leonardo pictured Jesus Christ, but it is still not clear if he finished it in the 1490s while working in Milan on  The Last Supper , or in Florence a...

Before I go into my Wednesday science topic, one note about COVID-19.  Of course, with so many tests now taken at home and not reported, surely the 100,000 or so new cases/day in the U.S. must be higher.   Here is one estimate by the University Columbia's Jeffrey Shaman : Shaman's research group turned to using models to estimate the "ascertainment rate" — the portion of real infections that were being captured in official case counts. That rate has fluctuated — at the end of 2020, they estimated one in four cases were being counted. During the omicron surge it was closer to one in six.   Now with the widespread availability of at-home rapid tests that aren't reported to health departments, Shaman thinks the true number of cases may be in the ballpark of eight times higher than case counts. In other words, instead of 100,000 new cases a day, the true number may be 800,000 cases per day. As terrible as that may sound, I think there is a silver lining.   So m...