Sunday, November 28, 2021

Icy Field

 

18 comments:

  1. DON’T PANIC! [Click]

    The South African doctor who treated early cases of the [Covid-19] Omicron variant told the BBC countries could be "panicking unnecessarily" and the symptoms she had seen were "extremely mild".

    Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, said she had first encountered the variant in patients who had fatigue, aches and pains, but no cough or change in sense of smell or taste. "We haven't admitted anyone," she said.

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    1. “Israel will forbid the entry of noncitizens for two weeks, starting at midnight Sunday night, in an attempt to stem the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant in Israel and to allow experts time to assess its level of transmissibility and resistance against existing vaccines,” the Washington Post reports.

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    2. Thanks! I wondered why they chose it...!

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    3. I was puzzled by it too; they considered things I would not have thought of. Standard Oil went to a lot of work to decide on the name "Exxon." Among other things, they wanted to make sure it did not mean *anything* in *any* language.

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  2. The bustling hidden world of hedgerows [Click] They have considerable ecological and financial benefits.

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  3. Revival of Northern Soul! [Click] Wow! Looks like it skipped a generation.

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  4. What happens when America’s coal plants die? [Click] Granted that the technology is new, there is no mention of repurposing the power plants as grid-scale electrical storage facilities—which strikes me as an economic no-brainer.

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    1. Only Vermont organic honey and Vermont maple syrup for me!

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  6. Goodbye to the job: how the pandemic changed Americans’ attitude to work [Click] “Millions of workers have been leaving jobs that offer long hours and low pay – and for many the release has been exhilarating.”

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    1. Don’t read too much into my posting of the following; but it does strike me as interesting.—Alan

      Friedrich Engels’ introduction to “The Gotha Program,” by Karl Marx (1886):

      The sighed-for period of prosperity will not come; as often as we seem to perceive its heralding symptoms, so often do they again vanish into air. Meanwhile, each succeeding winter brings up afresh the great question, “what to do with the unemployed”; but while the number of the unemployed keeps swelling from year to year, there is nobody to answer that question; and we can almost calculate the moment when the unemployed, losing patience, will take their own fate into their own hands. Surely, at such a moment, the voice ought to be heard of a man [Karl Marx] whose whole theory is the result of a life-long study of the economic history and condition of England, and whom that study led to the conclusion that, at least in Europe, England [and, by parity of reasoning, the United States. -—Publishers] is the only country where the inevitable social revolution might be effected entirely by peaceful and legal means. He certainly never forgot to add that he hardly expected the English ruling classes to submit, without a “pro-slavery rebellion,” to this peaceful and legal revolution.

      —Frederick Engels
      November 5th, 1886

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      Wikipedia: Gotha Program [Click]

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    2. By the way, I had a dream shortly before waking this morning that took (as far as I know) a first-ever turn: I imagined myself as a (kindly and unpretentious, of course) Tsar!

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  7. Comet Leonard coming [Click] It will be visible to the naked eye; best viewing in early December, but probably still visible (atmospheric conditions permitting) around Christmas.

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