A FEW ESOTERIC ITEMS OF POSSIBLE INTEREST

In December I completed a cruise on the Diamond Princess, a wonderful experience that spurred the possible 46-day cruise on the Grand Princess from Los Angeles to Singapore I am contemplating as the first leg of my final around the world journey.  Well, the Diamond Princess yesterday confirmed another 10 passengers (doubling the number afflicted, now all in hospitals in the Yokohama area) with the Wuhan coronavirus.  Another 171 people have been tested, so chances are that more are coming.

The problem with the 3,700 quarantined on board the ship is when does the 14-day quarantine start?  If another few are confirmed, will it be 14 days from the latest person identified?  It's not that they can continue to party.  They are all confined to their rooms.

As I reported the other day, Thai doctors are using a cocktail of antivirals, and so far, even though Thailand has the second most coronavirus cases, no one has died.  Further good news is that China is beginning to use Remdesivir to better cure patients.  This drug was developed by Gilead Sciences, and has proven useful for the Ebola virus and MERS-coronavirus, possibly also SARS.  Wuhan is also closely looking at Chloroquine (right) long used to treat malaria patients.  Nature reports:

If you've been keeping up with the Wuhan coronavirus, you have read that Hong Kong is again ticking off the Chinese leadership by demanding that this colony can block anyone from China to enter.  They have partially succeeded.  In the midst of looking up entrance points, I noticed that two years ago the longest sea bridge, 34-miles, was opened to connect Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland city of Zhuhai.  Cost?  $21 billion.

Unlike those Wuhan hospitals which only needed a few days to build, it took nine years, fighting off environmentalists who were worried about the endangered Chinese white dolphin.  Several hours of travel have now dropped to 30 minutes.  Nearby Shenzhen is building another sea bridge of about the same length expected to open in 2024, and with no particular opposition, will cost around $5 billion.  See a problem with democracy?

Switching subjects, yesterday I reported on global climate warming.  Here is one contributor that will surprise you.  While earthworms certainly have a beneficial role in soil fertility, they increase carbon dioxide emissions from soil by 33% and nitrous oxide by 42%.  It's not that you need to kill earthworms, it's more that in the past scientists have given credit to them for helping reduce global warming.  Apparently, they worsen this condition.

How would you like to own a car that uses sunlight to charge itself?  The Lightyear One uses photovoltaic cells to generate 7.5 miles of travel every hour.  It takes 60 hours to fully charge the vehicle, which is capable of traveling 450 miles.  You can also fast-charge using electricity for 350 miles of travel distance in one hour.  The car is being produced by a Dutch start-up company of an engineering student team that won the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge race in 2013, 2015, and 2017.  You can be among the first 500 to pick-up a car in 2021 for only $135,000.  Otherwise, the price will later jump to $170,000.

There has been a long-lingering controversy about whether maguro (blue-fin tuna) is better consumed fresh or after aging.  Revolving sushi chain Kura Sushi (sells 70 million plates of aged maguro sushi annually--with each costing a little less than a buck) recently announced that new research with Tokyo University indicates the optimal aging time for maguro was 48 hours.  This revelation confirmed customer satisfaction, where sales of aged fish have increased by 50%.

The reason is that the amount of umami present in the flesh increases by 40%.  What is umami?  I explained this term a few weeks ago, which is a savory flavor associated with glutamates.  The super-freezing and thawing process for blue-fin tuna has become an art to enhance umami.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke it's all time record, closing 89 points higher to 29,380.  Why?  Maybe Donald Trump's acquittal.

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