SCIENCE IS THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9     1093    4732        1185      246         82

July       5       251    3572          535       421       173

             7       993    5504        1312       479       192

           12       380    4118          659       500       108

           15     1001    5760        1261       614       107

           19       412    4606          715       675         85

           22     1205    7128        1293     1120        572

           26       450    4307         556       715        114
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
            3       467     4430         514       514        213

            5     1362     6292       1394       849        345

          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          16       522     4525         582       961        162
          18     1358     6312        1365    1089        282
          21     1170     6062        1031      953        225
          22       974     5349          823      918        144
          23       430     4247          495      846          72

          24       510     4356          679      854        100

Summary:  A bit worse, but not much.

Interesting that a Florida judge struck down Trump sycophant Governor Ron DeSantis' requirement that all public schools open their classrooms for in-person instruction.  Looks like all states faced with a similar edict will now do the same.

While the USA seems to be easing into some recovery, looks like Spain has caught up to us as outliers, per The New York Times:

They kind of did the same thing as us, by opening up their economy too quickly even if the positivity remained high.  Spain is now using the military to assist with contact tracing.  Better than nothing, but I'm afraid that is not enough, unless they have an abundance of quick test kits available, which they don't.  Here is a clip of why we don't have universal rapid tests today.  Linked to this info was a comment about asymptomatic venereal diseases that could place more condoms for sex in the same league with more masks for COVID-19:  60% of cases are asymptomatic!!!  Click on that graph, which is another study, and worse, if you wish to actually read it.

The New York Times also said:

Republicans mounted what Times reporters called “a fierce and misleading defense” of Trump’s record on race relations and the coronavirus. Here’s a fact-check.

Plus:  The late-night comedy hosts all watched the start of the Republican convention.

What to watch for tonight at the RNC?  Who cares.

With all the immigration headlines, it's still not quite clear if the Hispanic vote will be any better for Joe as it was for Hillary.  Kamala as veep should increase the African-American turnout.  You would think that the independent vote would swing in Biden's direction because of all the immorality and corruption associated with Trump.  There are no  wholesale defections, like ultra-liberals, who have chosen to stick with the Democrat ticket.  However, the deciding factor could be Republicans.  Read these:

• Republican national security advisors (not that many, but their attitude just further condemns Trump)
• Republicans who previously voted for Trump (they come with influence and money--plus any vote not going to The Donald but to Joe means a +2)

Moving on to my focus of the day, the difference between religion and science is that the former represents the truth, which never changes, and the latter, the search for truth, which is always changing.  Too many, for whatever reason, did not quite get it in some compulsory introductory science course, and forever harbored angst, fear and, many times, mistrust of science.  To quote an article from The Huffington Post:

The U.S. has a science problem. Around half of the country’s citizens reject the facts of evolution; fewer than a third agree there is a scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, and the number who accept the importance of vaccines is ticking downward.

When the leader of the country, Donald Trump, calls Global Warming a hoax, that further compounds the matter.  When he doesn't listen to his coronavirus experts, the result is a U.S. death total that will soon approach 200,000.

One of the fundamental problems with science, though, is that it can't quite answer some fairly universal questions.  How did this all begin?  The Bible has a clear-cut answer.  The best astrophysicists can do is the Big Bang.  Then they lose further credibility by hinting that we can't see, touch or measure 95.4% of our Universe.

Then, to impress you, they come up with this evidence of how insignificant we are:

Of course, too, God has been using this tactic since the Creation.

So how do I end a science posting with a joke or something interesting?  National Geographic provided their selection of the top 20 scientific discoveries of the past decade.

Then again, here are two nobodies selecting the top science story of each year from 2010 to 2019.  Quite good, actually, if you can skip through the introduction, and I show it because some of these scientific bests were about space.

Is this good science, the building of dams to produce hydroelectric energy to replace fossil fuels?  Or is it politics and weaponization.  China has built 87,000 dams and now largely controls the water that flows into Southeast Asia through the Mekong River and into India/Bangladesh through the River Brahmaputra.

Here is a scientific fact.  People age.  Put to music, some nostalgia seeing how famous people looked in high school.  Keep in mind, though, that scientists are working on reversing aging, like in the Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons.  Some won't want to look like their high school days.

Once Hurricane Marco came and went rather quietly, slipping between Beaumont, Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Now Category 1 strength, Hurricane Laura shows scary potential to be seriously damaging, depending on where she makes landfall, which, interestingly enough, looks to be just about exactly where Marco entered.  However, projections are all over the map.  Previously projected to strengthen to Category 2, now more likely a 3, and, horrors, perhaps 4, which covers the range from 130 - 156 miles/hour.

In the Orient, Typhoon Bavi formed just east of Taiwan, has strengthened to 95 MPH, and is moving between China and the Koreas.  Landfall is projected for North Korea tomorrow. 

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