When will we actually address the problem in all its vestiges?

The UN's latest report on our climate change problems: 

Climate hazards have worsened significantly in the past decade. 

If warming isn’t slowed, the dangers will multiply. 

Societies have not done enough to adapt and stay safe. 

As warming continues, it will become harder and harder to cope. 

Poor countries face much bigger challenges than rich ones.

Making cocktails

Meet Robert Smalls

Designing a better life for others and herself

And the winner is ....

Courtesy of Florida correspondent

Something else to worry about

Courtesy of our Florida correspondent

Fighting Covid

Oregon State University and the University of Chicago have conducted studies that analyzed whether non-psychoactive compounds found in hemp could prevent infection and replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human cells. And what are these non-psychoactive compounds? Cannabis Compound CBD.

Did they work? Yes, but in mice, not humans. Some other issues:

Each study tested pure, specially formulated doses of these compounds, not commercially available products with CBD additives. Researchers say that further study is required to determine how, or if, CBD, CBDA, and CBGA can prevent or treat COVID-19 infection in human beings.

Some are doing very well

A monkey of the 21st century

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Fastest heart beat recorded?

Identical twins at 100

Their secret to longevity is “no drinking, no smoking and living a clean life so we’ll go to heaven.”

Photos from earlier ages:

He does the same thing every day at the same time

A declining birth rate

This post is based on a recent article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Their primary chart shows that U.S. birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007. And, the authors cannot explain the drop by demographic, economic, or policy changes.

Births have fallen among women in their early 20s, late 20s, and teens (in fact, the teen birth rate in the U.S. has been falling steadily since the mid-1990s). Births have fallen among white women, Black women, and Hispanic women, with the largest declines among Hispanic women. Births have also fallen among women with and without college degrees and among both married and unmarried women. The population of U.S. women of childbearing age has actually shifted toward groups that tend to have higher birth rates, not lower birth rates, with the exception of a rising share of women of childbearing age being unmarried.

Are you described here?

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Losing your Smell

Buying a used car?

A new Guinness World Record

Would you believe that strawberries can set a Guinness record? Well, here it is:

It was grown in Israel, weighs 10.19 ounces, is 7 inches long and 1 inch thick.

He likes parakeets

Winners of International Landscape Photographer of the Year awards

Here are some of the 100 winners:

Courtesy of our Florida correspondent

The Seagull Patrol

You have to say "I"...

as in “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” But Rev. Andres Arango has been saying "We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” for most of his more than twenty years as a priest.

It is a Vatican law that priests must say "I" when performing a baptism. Somehow Rev. Arango always used "We". Some of his parishoners in Phoenix did not like it and told the authorities. The leaders investigated and declared that the Reverend's baptisms were not valid. But, Reverend Arango was not discharged from the priethood as the Diocese of Phoenix felt that "Unfortunately, there is no single clear answer,” and Father Arango “remains a priest in good standing,” He is still living and serving in the Diocese of Phoenix, although he did resign from his original Phoenix church.

What is the real number?

Mass death

What next?

Hard to believe this one

A few owls

From The Atlantic

The mail was a little late

Courtesy of our Florida correspondent

What should you be eating?

Will you buy one?

A flying dog

Watch an eruption

Underwater photographer of the year

The winner:

And a couple of runners-up:

Gun numbers

From my friends at the BBC:

Not bad predictions

A friend from DC sent me the following newspaper article from May 1, 1922 - a hundred years ago.

The author, the novelist W.L. George, describes a world in which "commercial flying will have become entirely commonplace," reducing the separation of America and Europe to eight hours, and whose passenger steamers and railroads will have consequently fallen into obsolescence.

 
Some other excerpts:

"Wireless telegraphy and wireless telephones will have crushed the cable system," resulting in generations who’ll never have seen "a wire outlined against the sky." 

 "It may also be that atomic energy will be harnessed."

 "All positions will be open to [women] and a great many women will have risen high. The year 2022 will probably see a large number of women in Congress, a great many on the judicial bench, many in civil service posts, and perhaps some in the President’s Cabinet."

He likes his drum

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Wonderful photos of wildlife

Every year the Natural History Museum of London holds a competition to select the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. This year the competition drew 50,000 images from 95 countries. Here is the winner for 2021:

And the other finalists:

Breakfast?

A movie in sign language

Amazon knows the federal tax laws..

... and has figured out how to beat them.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a study which shows that Amazon utilized several legal mechanisms to avoid paying $5.2 billion in federal corporate income taxes in 2021. The result is that the company paid an "effective federal income tax rate of 6%"—far lower than the statutory corporate tax rate of 21%.

The company used such items as tax credits and deductions such as the foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) deduction—which was made available by the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law.

ITEP asserts that over the past four years, Amazon has reported a total federal tax rate of just 5.1% on over $78 billion of U.S. income.

Another case of our not doing well

Looking for misinformation

Starting to walk and live again

The Pandemic's Effect on Seniors

The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has released a survey of adults aged 50-80  that it held in January 2021. The survey was designed to assess changes in health behaviors (worsened physical activity and less daily time spent on feet), social isolation (lack of companionship and perceived isolation), physical function (mobility and physical conditioning), and falls (falls and fear of falling) since March 2020.

The results were not very good. 36.9% reported reduced physical activity levels, 35.1% reported reduced daily time spent on their feet since March 2020, 37.1% reported lack of companionship, and 45.9% social isolation. These findings were associated with greater risks of worsened physical conditioning, greater risk of falling, and worsened fear of falling.

Can you overcome distraction?

Sign language for dogs

A clothes dump

A 555.55 carat diamond is being auctioned

Sotheby's is the auctioneer; it expects the diamond to fetch $6 million, which, to me, seems low. It's a black diamond of the carbonado type, which some scientists say is over 3 billion years old. There are competing theories about the origins of the gem, named The Enigma, including that it came from space. 

Meet Jeff Bezos

Quick tour of Japan

Courtesy of our Florida correspondent

A different piano player

A star at 11

Car features in the old days

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Some thoughts on the Olympics

We got hit worse