But first, a terrible beginning for Japan.  On New Year's Day, a   7.5 earthquake struck Japan . So far, 57 have perished, and roads into the Noto Peninsula remained unaccessible.  The highest tsunami hit 4 feet, so nuclear powerplants were not affected. Then later in the day, at Haneda Airport, an Airbus 380, Japan Airlines JL516, while landing from a Sapporo flight, collided with a Coast Guard plane on it's way to bring supplies to the earthquake area.  Five crew members on the DHC-8 JA7221 ( photo to the left ) were killed, and the pilot is in critical condition.  Amazingly, everyone, all 400 or so crew and passengers, safely escaped the burning super jumbo-jet, which is a total loss.  The plane has a value approaching  half a billion dollars .  Of course, what is human life worth? We have a lot of rainbows at 15 Craigside, where I live.  Yesterday. On New Year's Eve, we had a special dinner followed by poker. Note above that the sirloin roast had no fat.  That is bec

First, the covid pandemic.  China is undergoing a serious outbreak, and the   world is close to imposing a quarantine for the entire country .  However, there was   considerable New Year's Eve celebration in Wuhan , so maybe it's not so bad, at least at the site that caused this all.   Most wore masks, and feared getting infected.  Asked why they showed up into a packed crowd, the general conclusion is that after almost three years of confinement...people just wanted to have a nice time. Yet, in that  same article , the UK-based health data firm Airfinity reported that there are now 9000 DEATHS/day in China.  THE WHOLE WORLD HAD 9686 DEATHS FOR THE ENTIRE PAST WEEK, OR 1384 DEATHS/DAY.  MORE The World mortality rate for this 7-day period was 0.32%, based on 9686 deaths and 2,958,173 cases.  That is, just about 3 million cases for that week. If China's mortality rate was about the same, that would mean 2.8 million new cases/day or around 20 million new cases this past week.