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Monday/ the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine’s 90% .. take with a grain of salt?

‘Drug companies are notorious for exaggerating and skewing their early findings in public announcements to grab attention and boost investor interest’.
– Julia Belluz writing for explain-the-news website Vox

The Pfizer-Biontech vaccine candidate BNT162b2 got a ton of press here in the US today, and boosted the stock market indexes. Is the reported 90% efficacy for real? (The Phase III trial is still a tiny population vs. the 100s of millions of humans that will get the vaccine). And does 90% mean 90% of vaccinated persons will get no symptoms? Mild symptoms? Or could vaccinated people still get quite sick, but it will cut the death rate by 90%? Will it work for young people as well as old people? We don’t any of this yet.

Then there is the matter of transporting and storing the vaccine at -80°C (-112°F) in a special freezer with dry ice, and making sure two doses, three weeks apart, are given to the patient. (This is after the patient has been convinced to get the vaccine. Will Americans trust the CDC and the FDA that say ‘get the vaccine’ after their disastrous, incoherent Covid-19 messaging,  and political interference through all of 2020?).

The Pfizer-Biontech vaccine uses brand-new technology: lipid nanoparticles — fat bubbles — that surround a strip of genetic material called messenger RNA. Cells in the human body react to the messenger RNA strands by running a ribosomes over it. Ribosomes are macromolecular machines, found within all living cells, that manufacture proteins. The resulting proteins built from the mRNA strands are now the same as the ‘spike’ proteins that sit on the surface of a real SARS-CoV-2 virus. The human body detects these spike proteins, sees them as invaders and develop antibodies for the spike proteins. If the real SARS-CoV-2 virus now enters the body, the antibodies are at the ready to neutralize them and prevent them from replicating. [Graphic tweeted by Dr. Ali Nouri @AliNouriPhD on Twitter]

P.S. The leading vaccine candidates are of three kinds:
a. killed Sars-CoV-2 virus;
b. a hybrid, with spike protein bolted on to a completely different kind of live virus; and
c. messenger RNA (such as described above) that carries instructions to human cells to make spike proteins.

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Sunday/ here’s my reindeer

Behold the latest addition to my collection of Schleich animals: a reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).  In North America, we call them caribou.

Some arctic regions still have huge migrating herds of reindeer. The Taimyr herd of migrating Siberian tundra reindeer (R. t. sibiricus) in Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world, varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000 [from Wikipedia].

No, his nose is not red, and his name is not Rudolph! (In traditional Christmas legend, Santa Claus’s reindeer pull a sleigh through the night sky to help him deliver gifts to good children on Christmas Eve).
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Saturday/ President-elect Biden

Pennsylvania goes to Biden, as does Nevada. Done.
The White House reality show is cancelled. Come January, the criminals in there will be evicted, every one of them.
The two covers from German news magazine Der Spiegel say it best (one from 2017, and one from just now).

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Friday/ almost there (we hope)

By the time I checked the electoral map first thing this morning, Biden had overtaken Trump in Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes).  His lead widened throughout the day.
As of Friday night, there were still too many uncounted ballots and provisional ballots*, though, for the decision desks at the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN) to call Pennsylvania for Biden. (Same for Arizona and Nevada).

*Ballots issued to voters on the spot, but for which each voter’s eligibility to vote still needed to be checked fully.

When will we know? Maybe on Saturday, maybe only by early next week. Pennsylvania OR Arizona + Nevada will get Biden to be President-elect.

There are many ‘parlor game’ questions to entertain in the wake of Trump’s un-American, pathetic and embarrassing (for himself, for the United States) TV appearance on Thursday. He claimed that he had ‘won’ Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia; accused the vote counters of fraud and ranted about legal and illegal votes. The major networks all immediately cut away from him, refusing to be part of his lies and propaganda.

– When will Trump TV (Fox News) call Pennsylvania for Biden? They called Arizona for Biden on Tuesday night!
– Will Trump even concede that he had lost (make a speech)? If he refuses to concede, we may have a constitutional crisis on our hands. Scary.
– Will the electoral college meeting on Dec. 14, have faithless electors (that vote against the election outcome in their state)? Also scary.
– Will Trump even invite Joe Biden to the White House, per the usual protocol?
Time will tell.

Here’s 11th Ave and Pine late this afternoon. Stout Pub & Restaurant is permanently closed and boarded up.
I knew the street corner is in the distance, and I that would reach it if I kept walking.
We do not know when Biden will become President-elect, but he will get there, as long as the vote counting continues.
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Thursday/ the Keystone State is the key

It’s 1 am on the East Coast, where the Pennsylvania* mail-in votes are still being counted.
*nickname The Keystone State.

Joe Biden is about to overtake Trump on the way to claim the 20 electoral votes from Pennsylvania that he needs for the win. (The mail-in votes overwhelmingly favor Biden).

Yes, Biden can still win Arizona and Nevada (17 total electoral votes), which will also get him to 270 for the win.

There was rain the last few days, with beautiful fall colors still around. It’s good to get out of the house and go for a walk, rain or not. This is a street corner on Capitol Hill here in Seattle.
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Wednesday 3.00 pm/ Biden 253, Trump 214

Reporting and graphic from the New York Times.

Biden wins Michigan. (Arizona is imminent .. was in fact already called for Biden by none other than Fox News, last night). Nevada is at 86% with Biden holding a slim lead.

Update 9.00 pm: No further update for the day from the NYT. Associated Press (usually very cautious) have awarded Arizona to Biden (253 goes to 264).
Oh! New single-day record for Covid-19 cases in the US: more than 100,000.

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Wednesday noon/ Biden 237, Trump 213

Reporting and graphic by the New York Times.

Wisconsin is now projected to go to Biden. Biden holds leads in Michigan (16 electoral votes), Arizona (11) and Nevada (6). 237+16+11+6 = 270 for the win. Pennsylvania may be lost to Biden (the hope is that the mail-in vote will catch him up).

Amazingly, the once-in-a-century pandemic that brought on an economic collapse, made very little difference. The polls of Biden +8% missed the mark by a very wide margin (more like Biden +2%), and Republicans stuck to their party.

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Tuesday 11.35 pm PST/ still counting

When all of the votes are counted Joseph R Biden of Delaware will be elected the 46th President of the United States.
– Steve Schmidt from the Lincoln Project @SteveSchmidtSES on Twitter

Good enough for me. I’m going to try to get some sleep. (I see Trump has already falsely proclaimed that he had won, as he had said he would do).

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Tuesday 9.35 pm PST/ my nerves are shot

A sign of confidence from the Biden world: Rufus Gifford, one of his deputy campaign managers, tweeted shortly before midnight East coast time ‘We’re going to win’.  – Thomas Kaplan reporting for the NY Times

It’s still early, but I already feel like Evinrude from The Rescuers.

Evinrude, the dragonfly from The Rescuers (1977), sitting on a leaf stem and worn out, after he had narrowly escaped the jaws of the alligator in the swamp.
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Monday/ is our future red, or blue?

In The Matrix (1999 film), the main character Neo is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill by rebel leader Morpheus.
The red pill represents an uncertain future — it would free him from the enslaving control of the machine-generated dream world and allow him to escape into the real world, but living the ‘truth of reality’ is harsher, and more difficult.
On the other hand, the blue pill represents a beautiful prison — it would lead him back to ignorance, living in confined comfort, without want or fear, within the simulated reality of the Matrix.
As described by Morpheus: ‘You take the blue pill … the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill … you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.’ (Neo chooses the red pill and joins the rebellion).
– [From Wikipedia].

The voting ends tomorrow, and then the counting starts.
My fervent hope is that the early results be reassuring — and not terrifying.
Georgia, Florida and North Carolina sit on the East coast, and have experience will mail-in voting. They will also provide breakdowns of in-person and mail-in voting.
If Biden wins even just one of them, it will confirm his status as solid favorite to win.
If Trump wins all three, both candidates still have a path to victory.

A very detailed map of the 2016 election results. It is remarkable how the densely populated cities are Democratic islands in a sea of Republican counties. [Graphic by the New York Times].
I live in the bluest of the blue districts. (More than 9 out 10 people vote Democratic where I live). But yes, there are districts in King County that vote Republican.
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Sunday/ catch me the sun

Kyk of jy vir my die son kan vang
Daar’s ‘n kamer in die huis waar ons die son kan hang
Dis donker by die venster in die middel van die dag
Onthou jy nog hoe helder die kamer kon lag

(See if you can catch me the sun
There’s a room in the house where it can be hung
It’s dark by the window in the middle of the day
Remember how brightly the room would play)

– from Sonvanger (‘Sun Catcher’), written in 2002 by South African singer-songwriter Valiant Swart, with my rough translation added.
Sun catcher refers to a pendant that reflects and spreads sunlight around a room, in the form of rainbows and flecks of light.

We’re back on standard time here in the United States.  We turned back our clocks by one hour last night.

Some 32 states have now engaged in legislation to establish Daylight Saving Time (DST) as the official time year-round. For this to become a reality though, Congress has to approve an amendment to the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

The end of a beautiful day. This is 13th Ave & Harrison St on Capitol Hill, looking towards the Space Needle (tiny, in the distance). Sunset is 11 mins away, at 4.51 pm. 
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Saturday/ forget Halloween

Friday saw a single-day record of 99,155 new cases, and the crossing of the 9 million mark, for cases nationwide.
No matter.
Trump – from the Republican Party of Death – is still holding super-spreader rallies, in the dying days of his dead campaign.

‘Good people – on both sides’. The white supremacists that marched at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 2017, that Trump refused to denounce. [Photo: Edu Bayer for The New York Times]
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Friday/ Berlin’s new airport

Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt airport (code: BER) is finally, at last, open for business. Its opening this Saturday is 9 years late. Numerous scandals had devoured huge sums of money and ruined many a reputation.

I am eager to go and check it out, and I will definitely put the airport BER on my list of destinations to fly into, once this pandemic has subsided.

Architecturally, the airport is a three-wing complex with colonnades. Reviewers like its great viewing terrace, and lots of parking spaces and restaurants. Its destinations are somewhat limited, though, as are the power outlets in the waiting areas. (Ouch. It helps that more and more airplanes now have USB ports or power outlets in the seats of their planes). [Photo: Marcus Bredt/gmp]
Inside Terminal 1. There will be no fuss, no big party, no fireworks – just a small reception. The opening date has been pushed back so many times, and we are in the grip of a worldwide pandemic, after all. (Is that red artwork a network of blood vessels?).
[Photo: Markus Mainka/imago images]

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Thursday/ claws out

It’s National Cat Day. Yes, I know: these are not your garden variety house cats!
BeArizona, a popular wildlife park near the Grand Canyon, adopted these two jaguars in October 2018.

Nacho is the black one (melanistic) and Libre is the spotted one (rosette). They are brothers and will turn six years old on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Fancy that, the same day the presidency of the United States will be clawed back from The Orange Imposter.

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Wednesday/ 6 days to go

70 million voters have cast their vote. Voting ends in 6 days.
There is no question that Biden is still in a good position.
At the national level it looks like it will be Trump 43%* | Other 3% | Biden 54%.

* Says Christopher C. Williams @Chriswilliams5C on Twitter: We ALL should step back & reflect that 40% of our fellow AMERICANS are “freely’ voting again for a wanna-be autocratic grifter. Who would care less if they all die.

This graphic shows a solid Biden win even if the state-by-state polling is off by as much as they were in 2016. So hopefully we will have a Biden victory result by Tuesday night, even if some battleground states are still counting their votes. [Source: New York Times]
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Tuesday/ a dromedary

Oh, look! A dromedary had landed in my Amazon order of last week (for light bulbs, and a hub ethernet switch).
OK, I confess: I picked the camel and added it to my order.  I needed to brighten up the shipment’s mundane content.

The 2019 dromedary from German toy figurine maker Schleich. Very nicely detailed, as always from Schleich. Dromedaries make up 94% of the world’s camels. (The Bactrian camel with its double hump make up most of the rest. The wild Bactrian camel is the third species of camel, and is critically endangered).
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Monday/ not a good day for progressive citizens

Trump installed his third Supreme Court justice on the bench today, with the help of Moscow Mitch and his conniving Senate Republicans.

The American people, who have preferred the Democratic nominee for president in six of the last seven presidential elections, are now subordinate to a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Christine Pelosi is a Democratic strategist & daughter of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The annotations in red are mine. I don’t believe I need to justify why Trump belongs in jail. As for Justice Barrett, she was confirmed by the Republicans without a single vote from the Democrats, WHILE an election is underway with 60 million votes in, AND with Trump the criminal ON HIS WAY GETTING VOTED OUT. (Trusting that I don’t have to eat those last few words).
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Sunday/ a new all-time high

Today, the U.S. set a new record for new cases averaged over a 7-day period: 68,954.
The previous high was 66,844, set on July 23.
– The COVID Tracking Project @COVID19Tracking on Twitter

A new record for the 7-day moving average. Yes, hospitals have learned how to increase the survival rate of critically ill patients. Still, more than 800 lives are lost every day in the United States, a number that has been increasing since September.
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Saturday/ it’s Marmite – or nothing

I again picked up my groceries that I had ordered online, yesterday.
I forgot to review the substitutes that that the in-store picker had made, beforehand. (They pick a ‘similar’ item if they had ran out of the exact one that you had ordered).

Well: the Marmite that I had ordered was replaced with dry yeast.
Yikes. No! Cannot do that. They are absolutely not equivalent! I told the store this on the feedback form afterwards (without yelling at them).

Yes, they both have ‘yeast’ on the label, but Marmite is a spread used on toast, bread and crackers, and is NEVER used for baking the way that the dry yeast is. The problem is that most grocery stores here in the United States put the Marmite on the baking goods shelf, next to the yeasts, instead of on the condiments shelf next to other spreads that you put on bread and toast.
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Friday/ it’s scarf time

It’s time to get out the woolen hats and scarves here in Western Washington. It was 48 °F (9 °C) as I headed out the door, while there was still a little gray daylight left.

I don’t know the name of this tree, but the yellows and oranges of its leaves are spectacular.
New construction on 15th Avenue. Looks like there are three condominium homes, judging from the three mailboxes on the sidewalk. Interesting rusty metal finish (iron oxide?). They would go for oh, $1 million or so, each. Great general location, BUT 15th Ave is busy and noisy in daytime.
Here’s the Walgreen pharmacy on the corner of 15th & Republican saying ‘COVID-19 VACCINE NOT YET AVAILABLE‘ on the door. (Wow. Can it be that people are beating the doors down, so to speak, inquiring about the vaccine every day?). We do need a vaccine. We’re hitting new daily record high numbers of cases here in the United States.