Tues- Could Omicron Be a Good Thing? A Texas-So Africa Wall

US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 461 Million Shots  (Population 333 Million)

CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around hoidays.




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Could Omicron Be a Good Thing?  (My Opinion)

Omicron might be more contagious than Delta.  If it is, it will inevitably be the prevalent variant in the world.

"Delta managed to take over the entire United States in a matter of weeks in early summer, changing the outlook for a country that was rolling out vaccines and hope with equal speed."

The big question is how virulent it is?  How deadly?  How likely to land someone in the hospital?

There are three options:

1. It is more virulent than Delta
2. It is the same as Delta
3. It is more benign than Delta.

If it is #1, that is a big, big problem.

If it is #3, however, that is a great thing.  That would mean a less dangerous variant of COVID could replace Delta.  

The is no a priori reason to favor any of these three possibilities at this time, and there is conflicting evidence about which it might be.

Unfortunately we don't know the answers to the two big questions.  It is more or less contagious and more or less virulent?
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The Omicron Was Already Out of the Bag.  So Much For Banning Travel From South Africa.

The new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, was present in the Netherlands earlier than previously thought, officials say.

It was identified in two test samples taken in the country between 19 and 23 November, which is before the variant was first reported by South Africa.

It is not clear whether those who took the tests had visited southern Africa.

It was previously thought that two flights that arrived from South Africa on Sunday had brought the first cases of the variant to the Netherlands.

Fourteen people on the flights to the capital, Amsterdam, tested positive for Omicron, among 61 passengers who were found to have coronavirus.

Schrödinger's Cat Was Both In And Out of the Bag
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What Happens In Greenland Doesn't Stay in Greenland

Rain fell on the summit of Greenland instead of snow for the first time on record in August, as the Northern Hemisphere experienced warmer-than-usual summer temperatures. A new study suggests that's likely to be the norm in just four or five decades.

The Arctic is expected to experience more rain than snow some time between 2060 and 2070, marking a major transition in its precipitation patterns as the climate crisis jacks up temperatures in the region, according to the study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
New climate modeling shows the transition could happen earlier than scientists had previously projected. Michelle McCrystall, the lead author of the study and climate researcher at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, told CNN that earlier modeling suggested it wouldn't occur until between 2090 and 2100.

"But with the new set of models, this actually has been pushed forward to about between 2060 and 2070, so there's quite a jump there by 20 years with this early transition," she said.

The study notes that the increase in rainfall is due in large part to the loss of sea ice. More open water and warmer air temperatures mean more evaporation, which primes the atmosphere for a wetter Arctic. The researchers say a rainfall-dominated Arctic has the potential to destabilize Greenland's ice sheet mass balance, triggering a global rise in sea levels.

"Things that happen in the Arctic don't specifically stay in the Arctic," McCrystall said. "The fact that there could be an increase in emissions from permafrost thaw or an increase in global sea level rise, it is a global problem, and it needs a global answer."

More rapidly vanishing ice could quicken sea-level rise along coastlines. Melting permafrost could release massive amounts of planet-heating gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. The “greening” of once-frozen landscapes could provide fuel for ravenous wildfires that spew more greenhouse gases into the air and further warm the atmosphere.
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Self-Replicating Robots?  Shouldn't This Terrify Us?

The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce -- and in a way not seen in plants and animals.

Formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which it takes its name, xenobots are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide. The tiny blobs were first unveiled in 2020 after experiments showed that they could move, work together in groups and self-heal.

Now the scientists that developed them at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering said they have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction different from any animal or plant known to science.

"I was astounded by it," said Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University who was co-lead author of the new research.

"Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use but when you ... liberate (the cells) from the rest of the embryo and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce."
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How Do We Hold Prosecutors Responsible for Misconduct?  Almost Always We Don't

The successful prosecution of Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers this month almost didn’t happen. And that leaves us focused on something unusual in the world of accountability for prosecutors: the indictment in September of Jacqueline Johnson, the former district attorney in Georgia’s Brunswick Judicial Circuit. A grand jury indicted Johnson on multiple charges related to allegations about her actions as the first prosecutor presented with the crime committed by Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan.

It is even unusual for bar disciplinary authorities to pursue prosecutors for professional misconduct.

Johnson is not charged with bribery or similar kinds of corruption, but rather with trying to maneuver behind the scenes in a case she quickly recused herself from.

It is still all too rare for grand juries to indict prosecutors for misusing their authority. Indeed, it is unusual even for bar disciplinary authorities to pursue prosecutors for professional misconduct. But those authorities would be wise to take their responsibilities more seriously. Sanctions affecting an unethical prosecutor’s license to practice law often best fit the violation and can be a highly effective punishment, putting aside how difficult it is to secure convictions in cases like Johnson’s.

Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr initiated the charges against Johnson, who is alleged to have tried to use her influence to protect Arbery’s killers from arrest and prosecution. Understandably, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said the indictment was “a very huge win” for accountability.

But Johnson’s case raises challenging questions about how we hold prosecutors accountable for professional misconduct.
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When Is a Wrong Number the Right Number?

A text to a wrong number landed a high school basketball team a fortuitous FaceTime call with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the defending Super Bowl champions.

Student Vinny Tartaglia added the number to the group chat for the freshman basketball team at Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy in Pontiac, thinking it was his teammate’s, according to NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit.

"Y’all meant to add me to this?" the person Tartaglia inadvertently messaged asked. "You know who I am?"

The person then revealed his identity.

"I’m Sean Murphy-Bunting," the Michigan native and cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wrote before sending along a selfie of himself in the team’s locker room.

The high schoolers in the chat didn’t believe him.

Murphy-Bunting then FaceTimed them, offering a one-of-a-kind meet and greet with the Bucs players.

"Leonard Fournette walked us through the locker room and showed us all the players," Nate Seaman, one of the teens in the group chat, told the news station. "Sean Murphy-Bunting, Mike Evans, Lavonte David, Gronk (Rob Gronkowski), Richard Sherman. That’s when we all said, 'Where’s the GOAT?'"

A few minutes later, none other than star quarterback Tom Brady appeared on the screen and asked, "What's up, fellas?"

The teens “lost their minds,” P. Jason Whalen, a father of one of them and a counselor at the school, shared in a Twitter thread.

“They didn’t have to do that for us,” Seaman said. “They could have easily said, 'I’m going to leave the group chat' and just left, but Murphy-Bunting and Fournette made our day.”

The call ended with Murphy-Bunting saying “ball out this season” to the boys.

"What an awesome experience for our boys and what an amazing group of guys on the Buccaneers," Whalen tweeted on the serendipitous call. "I’m sure they had a good time laughing at the fact that the Super Bowl champs got randomly added to a freshman basketball team group chat."

Look at the Kids on the Bottom





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Pass the Chips.  And Pass the Chips Act!

A massive semiconductor chip shortage has led to an estimated $210 billion in lost sales in the automotive industry alone this year as carmakers struggle to meet the needs of consumers. Just yesterday, Toyota announced that the month of October saw a 26% drop in production compared with last year, leading to 20% fewer global sales. It’s something that’s clearly on the mind of U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who believes the country is at an “inflection point” when it comes to boosting semiconductor production in the U.S. as the Biden administration also pushes for a goal of 50% of new cars being manufactured in the country to be electric vehicles by 2030.


We're at an inflection point and we have to make choices," Raimondo said. "If we're serious about restoring American leadership in the global economy, we have to start by rebuilding our semiconductor industry so we can meet the demands of this moment.”

Producing semiconductor chips, Raimondo said, is “necessary for our American economic competitiveness, it's necessary if we're going to meet our climate change goals, and it's necessary to create jobs.” One way to get there is by passing the CHIPS Act, a bill that allocates $52 billion to boost the domestic semiconductor manufacturing sector. Introduced last year, the bill was passed by the Senate in June but has yet to be taken up by the House.
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Did the Truth Sneak Out?



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The QOP Never Misses a Chance to Say Dumb Things












A simple wall between Texas and South Africa would seem the wisest move.
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Maybe the New Wall Could Prevent This

From NBC News:

Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising rapidly in a populous South African province where the new omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected.

Hospitalizations across the country have increased by 63 percent since the beginning of the month, according to data from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. In Gauteng, a province that includes the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, hospitalizations are up by nearly 400 percent since the beginning of the month, from 120 for the week ending Nov. 6 to 580 for the week ending Saturday.

The South Africa diseases institute, part of the group of researchers and government institutions that first reported the variant to the World Health Organization, said in a statement that omicron cases were found in Gauteng at “a relatively high frequency.”

In a statement Sunday, the WHO cautioned against drawing conclusions about a link between the omicron variant and the increase in hospitalizations.

South Africa has vaccinated about 28 percent of its 60 million residents with at least one dose, according to data collected by the science publication Our World in Data. As a whole, African countries have vaccinated about 10 percent of their populations, compared to 64 percent in North America.

"The WHO" Warned?  Was It Pete Townsend or the Whole Band?
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No Shutdown Likely.  Congress Keeps Kicking that Can.

Washington and Wall Street were optimistic Monday that Congress can pass a bill to fund the government and avert a partial shutdown before a Friday deadline.

Democrats and Republicans appeared to be coalescing around a bill to fund the government through late January or early February, a personal familiar with the discussions told CNBC.

A lapse in government funding can lead to furloughs of federal workers and a lapse in some government services.

So This Won't Happen?


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Strip Clubs Seem Like a Really Dumb Way to Waste Money

A Houston man has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison after he was accused of using federal COVID-19 relief funding on a Lamborghini, a Rolex watch and trips to strip clubs, federal prosecutors said.

Lee Price III, 30, was sentenced Monday to 110 months in prison. Price pleaded guilty in September to wire fraud and money laundering.

“Mr. Price hopes that others will learn from his reckoning that there is no easy money,” Price’s lawyer Tom Berg said in an email to news outlets. “He has the balance of the 110-month sentence to reflect, repent and rebuild his misspent life.”

Prosecutors accused Price of fraudulently using more than $1.6 million in funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, which gave low-interest loans to small businesses struggling during the pandemic.

According to prosecutors, Price also used the money to buy an $85,000 pickup truck and to pay off a loan on a residential property.
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