Doppelganger comes from Germany, where  doppel  means  double  and  ganger  is a  walker,  that is, a person who looks like you.  If you encounter your doppelganger, recent  scientific evidence  indicates that you probably have similar genetics. We all have hair in the same area of the body and the same number of limbs, eyes, nose, and so on.  With 8 billion of us living on the same planet, it's only to be expected that some will have physical counterparts.   Let's take someone at random.  Say, the writer Ernest Hemingway, who passed away around 60 years ago. In 1977 an International Imitation Hemingway Competition began in Harry's Bar and American Grill, Century City, California.  The winner got two round-trip tickets to Florence, Italy, and dinner for two at Harry's.  Not sure why, for the  Harry's Ba r where Hemingway drank was in Venice.  The contest is now held at Sloppy Joe's in Key West...

It's Saturday, and I will be watching the Hawaii-Tennessee Little League baseball game, plus range of NCAA football matches.  But first, a short entry. From the  New York Times: But the situation changed around 2015, with the death rate mostly rising over the next several years. One reason seems to be   distracted driving . By 2015, two-thirds of U.S. adults owned a smartphone, up from almost none in 2006.  This year, 115 Americans/day die on the road. Was the pandemic a factor? The most plausible theories tend to involve the mental health problems caused by Covid’s isolation and disruption. Alcohol and drug abuse have increased. Impulsive behavior, like running red lights and failing to wear seatbelts, also seems to have risen (as my colleague Simon Romero   has reported ). Many Americans have felt frustrated or unhappy, and it seems to have affected their driving. Ethnic death rate: Why is the Asian death rate so low? Week started with two Japanese pork dishes...

                   From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):     DAY     USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849   ...

                  From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):     DAY     USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849    ...

The latest photos from the   James Webb Space Telescope   were again noteworthy.  While earlier shots peered deep into space, the newest two featured Jupiter: See that white spot?  This is the Great Red Spot, a storm so big that it could swallow Planet Earth.  Why is the color white?  That circle reflects a lot of sunlight.  This is the usual graphic. The image also shows two tiny moons, Amalthea and Adrastea.   How many of you know how many moons are circling Jupiter ?  There are 80, plus other moonlets.   The largest moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, all discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.  There is a naming-pattern to these moons:  lovers and sexual partners of Roman god Jupiter, or his Greek equivalent Zeus.  23 of them have yet to be named.  They should begin to add those of  Eros . Actually, there are Chinese astronomical records reporting in 356 BC that Gan De detected a moon of Jup...

First, very good news.    Pfizer-BioNTech submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize its Omicron-specific vaccine : The shot targets B.1, BA.4 and BA.5 variants that are responsible for nearly 100% of all current cases in the U.S. What about that  BA.2.75 subvariant , which replaced BA.5 in India as the dominant strain?  No word yet, but my analysis of the evolution of both is that they came from the same variant, BA.2, so there has to be something good to this link. Intended for anyone 12 years or older. Dr. Ashish Jha, who coordinates COVID for the White House, and will effectively replace Dr. Anthony Fauci as the face of the administration on this subject, said that this booster could be available by early to mid September. Moderna's version, very similar to Pfizer's, will soon also come before the FDA. I feel happy today, so for my nostalgic Tueday posting today, I selected: STANFORD SWEEPS PENN STATE FOR NCAA VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHI...