It's Sunday and not much happening anywhere of much concern to me.  I could go spiritual, but can't think of anything worthwhile. Two items, though, the tiniest possible, and the second as vast as it can be, caught my attention: Fundamental physicists just reported that a fundamental particle had more mass than expected, throwing the whole field into turmoil. A W boson is supposed to have an energy effect of 80,357,000 electron volts. Hard to believe this is even physically possible, but a team of 400 scientists associated with the U.S. Fermi National Accelerator Lab reported in  Science  that they measured 80,433,000 ev.   This difference of a slightly more than one part in a thousand means that their understanding of nature is wrong! So what is the solution?  Run another 10-year study or two. Then what happens if the Fermi result is confirmed?  Then quantum mechanics will need to find another Standard Model. Perhaps all this bewilderment will someday instead be settled when

David Leonhardt of the  New York Times  this morning in his briefing started with: Good morning. An unvaccinated child is at less risk of serious Covid illness than a vaccinated 70-year-old. That statement was based on an article by Emily Oster, a Brown University economist, from an  Atlantic  article in March, which got angry reactions as being insensitive and misleading.  The key point is that, sure, this kid will not get seriously ill...BUT COULD SPREAD THE VIRUS!!! Oster was right about the risk factor: Oster more recently said she would be vaccinating her children once they became eligible, and also: I do not want them to get Covid. I am worried about their immune-compromised grandparent. I would like to avoid quarantine and keep them in school . The Leonhardt report went further to say: Different elderly people will respond to the risks in different  ways, and   that’s OK . Some may decide to be extremely  cautious until caseloads fall to low levels. Others —  especially those wi