The Los Angeles County firestorms are now a week old.  While four of the seven fires have been contained, the largest, Pacific Palisades, is still only around 15% contained, and the most deadly in Eaton, with 17 of the 25 deaths, remains two-thirds uncontrolled.  Worse  Santa Ana winds of up to 70 MPH will return later today , with red flag warnings extending for the counties of San Luis Obispo to San Diego.  While other states (including Republican Texas) are pledging assistance to California, looks like the incoming pathologically vengeful  President Donald Trump  will continue to lie and criticize enemies in his second term, for he blamed Governor Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden for the fire.  Of course they are Democrats, and California did not vote for him.  States like Hawaii will also be in big trouble in the four years to come, for Harris, percentage-wise, got more votes from Hawaii (61%) than California (59%). More about Trump regard...

In a word, yes, you should continue to worry about Covid-19 when you travel.  Although we luckily avoided getting sick on our 53-day world journey, just around the time we returned, three of the residents at 15 Craigside where we live came back from trips and tested positive.  I also learned that we have a resident who traveled outside of Hawaii on three occasions after the pandemic was declared over, and each time contracted this virus while on the road.  They were all up-to-date in every Covid vaccination, including the latest booster.  But because of that, symptoms were mild. As I once devoted Thursdays to this disease, let me today bring you up to date on the latest info. In 2017, the leading causes of deaths in the USA were heart disease, cancer and accidents. During the pandemic, Covid-19 replaced accidents at #3. In 2023: Heart disease:  702,880 Cancer:  608,371 Accidents:  227,039 Covid-19:  186,552 Stroke:  165,393 Respiratory causes...

Today,  March 14 is Pi Day,  that mathematical constant 3.14...  Thus, the third month of the year, March 14.  Sometimes this day is honored on July 22 because 22 divided by 7 is a very close approximation of pi.  UNESCO in 2019 designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics. Celebrations often involve eating pie or some kind of pi recitation.  Founded in 1988 by Larry Shaw of the San Francisco Exploratorium.  Although there is no practical reason to calculate pi to so many digits, a Swiss team found the first 62.83 trillion of them. Two bits of politics before I get into the Norovirus.   Delay...delay...delay .  When one wants to delay a court trial, it's because you're guilty.  That's certainly the case with Donald Trump, and looks like his strategy is working.  Pushing these trials until next year is key to his avoiding jail, for if he beats Biden, Trump can pardon himself or kill the process if he becomes preside...