Music, Space, Covid and Fertilizer

There is a new film out about the song American Pie.

Lyrics here.

---------------------------

and then there is the movie about Elvis. Ruby saw it and said it was good, but I haven't discovered where to watch it...Supposedly it will be on HBOMax in August, but we only have ordinary HBO on our cable network so it might be awhile until we see it..

-------------------

for those of us who are old, it might be good to remember when mankind first stepped upon the moon 53 years ago.

in other Space news, the photos of NASA's Webb telescope are amazing.

but the biggests space news is not NASA, but private enterprise, (especially Space X, but also other private companies), China, and smaller countries are also doing this.

Behind the Black follows the various space news.

---------------

but are things starting to turn around after a 50 year descent into depravity and destruction?

Well, on the medical front, the latest Ebola epidemic in central Africa is over. Bet you didn't even know it happened.

A total 11,139 (alive) and 161 (deaths) alerts were investigated; 1,076 contacts were identified and followed; 909 laboratory samples (805 blood and 104 swab) were tested and 2,037 persons vaccinated (301 contacts vaccines, 1301 contacts of contacts and 435 Health care workers).

--------------

here, covid is still around (about 2000 cases a day but few deaths) but the real number is  probably much higher because the community surveillence numbers of random population is higher. 

The government is pushing vaccine booster, but they are not popular, so the gov't might have to throw out a huge number of out of date shots.

 I got my basic AZ vaccine, but no booster. Why? Because the original vaccine was for the original Covid virus, and it doesn't work well against mutations like Omicorn varient. 

But the good news is that this is mild and a lot fewer deaths from it. For example, no recent covid deaths: just the normal ones (and only one of the neighbors, who was dying from heart problems, tested positive). But the cases mean that some beds are set aside for covid isolation. 

We have elders from the area die every couple of days,  But the neighborhood is upset because a neighbor's 40 year old grandson just died of a heart attack. No he didn't just get the vaccine and he didn't have covid. He had cirrhosis from alcoholism.

our main problem now is Dengue fever, the fact that a lot of kids didn't get their routine shots, and the worry about the high price of food that could cause hunger in the next few months.

The high price of diesel and fertilizer. BBM is trying to find cheap fertilizer for the small farmers, but if they can't improve things, a lot of small farmers will go broke and the crop will be smaller than usual.

On top of this, there is a bird flu epidemic in local poultry, meaning fewer chickens and higher prices for KFC /Jolibee fried chicken and balut.

Covid is still a major problem: a huge increase in cases in Asia.

Much of Asia is in the midest of an outbreak of these varients: Japan reports 150 thousand cases, which is overwhelming their hospitals, partly because the staff is sick and/or in quarantine and unable to work. But deaths? Not so much. Indeed, it's hard to find the number of deaths. For example, this article reports everything in detail but at the end says:

The number of seriously ill patients in the capital was 18 on July 20, a decrease of one from the previous day.

this website reports 135,239 new cases and 54 new deaths in Japan

So why is China locking everyone down? And what is it about their bank problems?

if one has to take the MSM of the US with a bit of scepticism, one really has to wonder what news stories are being censored in China.

THen you have a worldwide farmers revolt against the green tyrants. From the ManilaTimes

The farmers' actions in the Netherlands mimicked previous protests around the world and could foreshadow similar uprisings against government overreach. For example, the so-called yellow vest movement in France began as a protest against increased nationwide fuel taxes. Similar protests could soon happen in the UK and parts of the European Union where natural gas and energy costs are near historic levels, according to Benny Peiser, the director of the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation. In the UK, increased prices are expected to send 24 percent of households, or about 6.5 million households, into fuel poverty.