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Saturday, October 31, 2020

THE WARPED MIND OF DONALD TRUMP

This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102 
          23       903     6526          566       656         48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53
          25       442     4629          237       463         24
          26       529     5095          288       505        40
          27     1039     7023          530       519        45          
          28     1030     7116          487       509        58          
          29     1047     7172          565       568        53 
          30       988     7513          529       550        66

Summary:   

  • The USA had 101,461 new cases yesterday, the highest ever.  According to Dr. Jonathan Reiner of George Washington University, in two weeks we'll start seeing 2,000 people a day dying in this country.
  • France is #2 with 49,215 new cases and Italy #4 with 31,082.
  • Belgium had 23,921 new cases.  They have a population of 11.5 million.  The USA has 328 million people.  The ratio difference is a factor of 28.6.  Multiply 23,921 by 28.6 and you get 329 million.  We had our worst day ever, but percentage-wise, Europe, particularly Belgium, is in a terrible new wave. 
If you could somehow meld the nature and character of all previous 44 U.S. presidents, you would have an individual who would be a good person you could trust.  PUS #45, Donald Trump, would be the complete antithesis, lying cheat, narcissistic, misogynistic, racist...anyone should be able to come up with a dozen and more without even trying.

He is reasonably intelligent with some PR sense.  So what is wrong?  His upbringing, for sure, well documented by niece Mary Trump in her book, Too Much and Not Enough.

Very simply, the problem with our president is that he is warped, leading to a distortion of true reality.  He has certain ideals, some good.  Make American Great.  Nothing wrong with that.  Aim for fair trade. Fine.  Strengthen the economy.  Terrific.

In other areas, it is too much about himself.  The judiciary?  Judges and the Attorney General?  These are his courts and his personal lawyer.  Shouldn't they be for the people?  Sure, but after him first.

The trouble, too, is that he has goals that distort the reality.  
  • If something threatens his economy and stock market, he thinks he can overcome by ignoring it.  What is a little flu that kills a few?  
  • Tests?  No, no...that would only increase the number of cases.  
  • Masks?  That shows weakness.  
  • What about those epidemiologists like Dr. Anthony Fauci?  Ignore them, for they don't know the value of the economy.  
  • What if this novel coronavirus is worse than what seemed originally?  Blame governors.  
  • In his warped mind, he has a satisfactory answer to everything, as long as the economy can be improved.

He never expected to be elected president.  But now that he experienced the power of the president, he wants to be in the White House until he dies, just like those he admires:  Putin, Kim and Xi.  Apparently, he can't be thrown in jail while heading the country.


But drats, COVID-19 threw a monkey wrench into his desired plans, for he can read the polls, and he surely will lose this second time.  There is a chance that at midnight eastern time, he could be ahead of Biden.  He has laid the groundwork for this possibility, where he would declare victory and sue states if they counted any further, planning that the Supreme Court would eventually decide.  He can't lose on this basis.  


The matter of global warming is also on Trump's rejection list, for he sees that inconvenience as an affront to his economy efforts.  He says it's a hoax, and goes out of his way to "save" fossil fuels through the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Interior.  I suspect this attitude will pull away at least 1% of Republican votes away from him, which would make a 2% difference in battleground states.



But he could be worse.  For example, the lieutenant-governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, has said there are more important things than living.  He urged grandparents to die for the sake of American economy.  Trump has not quite said this, but it's on his mind.  That's why older people, especially in Florida, are turning away from him.  Republicans who have seen the light and senior citizens, with women in general, will make the difference this year.


This is how warped minds work.  He probably today feels comfortable that he will be president for life.  This strategy might work if he can be ahead in Florida after the first reading.  Unfortunately that is one of those states that will have pre-counted early votes, and chances are that Biden will show a lead.  He can't declare victory under these circumstances.


Here is the key paragraph that will prevent an illegal Trump coup:

While election officials in the swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania are telling voters it may take a few days before results are tallied in full, officials in Arizona, Florida and North Carolina, where mail-in ballots can be processed far in advance, are expecting to have results more quickly. But if the contest is close in those states, a final count could take a long time as absentee ballots sent close to Election Day trickle in.


By now you no doubt have heard of The Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans who banded together to prevent the re-election of Donald Trump.  Here is one of their typical ads.

Song #60 is a tribute to Ethel Merman, with two finalists:

Ethel Merman played Annie Oakley in the 1946 production of Annie Get Your Gun by Irvin Berlin.  Hits were aplenty.  Then came the film of that show in 1950 film featuring Betty Hutton singing  There's No Business Like Show Business.  Here are eight performances from 1953 to 1981 of There's No Business Like Show Busines by Ethel Merman.  This, after all, is the ultimate show business song.

Out of almost nowhere came Super Typhoon Goni, strengthening from 100 MPH to 180MPH in one day.  Now, on Sunday, it's up to 195 MPH, the strongest in this region since Super Meranti in 2016 and Super Typhoon Haiyan, and causing havoc over the Philippines:


How strong is 195 MPH?  Nothing making landfall in the USA is close.  Not as dangerous today is Tropical Storm Atsani, which will head in the general direction of Guam.


YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT AT 2AM SUNDAY NIGHT (tonight) at 2AM most clocks in the USA will fall back to 1AM, ending daylight savings time.  You will gain an extra hour of sleep.  This concept was introduced by Ben Franklin in 1784.  Nothing much was done until 1916 when Germany, during World War I, moved their clock an hour ahead to save fuel.  The USA followed suit in 1918.  But this soon ended until World War II, when it was brought back.

The confusion came in 1966 when the Uniform Time Act was implemented, using March and November as the beginning and end months.  Arizona and Hawaii opted out.

I will bring this to discussion sometime soon, but should we abandon daylight savings time?  In fact, would it make any good sense to have the whole world at the same time?  That is, at midnight, the whole world is at midnight?  Think about it.

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Friday, October 30, 2020

BORAT 2, HOLIDATE AND EMILY

This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102 
          23       903     6526          566       656         48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53
          25       442     4629          237       463         24
          26       529     5095          288       505        40
          27     1039     7023          530       519        45          
          28     1030     7116          487       509        58
          29     1047     7172          565       568        53
 
Summary:  
  • Yesterday the USA had 91,530 new cases of COVID-19, the highest ever.  Worst states:
    • Texas:  7,187
    • Illinois:  6,363
    • Wisconsin:  4,870
    • Michigan:  4,109
    • Indiana:  3,618
    • Ohio:  3,579
  • But Europe is in real trouble (new cases):
    • France:  47,637
    • Italy:  26,831
    • Spain:  23,580
    • UK:  23,065
    • Belgium:  21,048
    • Poland:  20,156
    • Germany:  18,732
The positivity rate is becoming the key factor in determining whether a state opens up the economy and schools.  This is the total number of positives divided by the number of tests, times 100.  In general:
  • Guide for decision-making:
    • Less than 5%, but hopefully much less, officials are allowing the return of the economy and schoolroom teaching.
    • At 10%, everything begins to close.
  • Here are the positivity rates of some states:
    • South Dakota:  46.3% (I haven't seen anything before so high)
    • Idaho:  34%
    • Wyoming:  31.8% (yikes, Hawaii is playing Wyoming in Laramie today)
    • Iowa:  30.6%
    • Kansas:  27.6%
    • Alabama:  25.9%
    • Nebraska  23.8%
    • Nevada:  23.2% (most large Las Vegas casinos remain open)
    •  
    • Arizona:  9.8%
    • Texas:  8.8%
    •  
    • New Mexico:  8.1% (New Mexico's football team comes to Honolulu next Saturday)
    •  
    • California:  3.3%
    •  
    • Hawaii:  2.1%
    •   
    • Vermont:  0.5%
Here is a map of the World positivity rate as of today:


About November 3, now only four days away, pundits are seriously indicating that the results won't be known until the next day, if not Thursday or Friday.  My sense is that the victor will become obvious by 3PM Hawaii time on Tuesday, or 9PM Eastern Daylight Time.  Why?  Florida will have most votes counted and reported by that time.  Here is something from The New Times this morning:

Consider that Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, will be campaigning today in Texas, a state that President Trump won by nine percentage points four years ago and that Barack Obama lost by 16 points in 2012. 

Interestingly enough:

More than 9 million Texans have cast ballots so far, 

surpassing the state’s total votes cast in 2016

If this is happening Texas, Florida in 2020 can't today be like 2016 and any time before.

On this Friday, I will review three shows for your possible consideration this weekend:

                                                             Rotten Tomatoes            My Grade
                                                          Reviewers  Audiences

Borat 2 (Prime)                                         85             70                        C-

Holidate (Neflix)                                        50             59                        C+

Emily in Paris (Netflix)                             63             62                         B

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is an over-the-top...no, make that below-the-bottom, effort to insult as many people and organizations as possible, especially the Trump organization.  As that poster symbolizes, this R-rated film should have been given an X.

The producers were allowed to use real clips of Rudy Giuliani and Mike Pence, but took them out of context.  That was hilarious, but there is a supersaturation of sexual body parts.  How the reviewers gave the movie so high a rating is beyond me.

There is discussion about Borat 3.  Borat 1 was 14 years ago, so the timing is about right if that ever happens.


Holidate was disappointing.  Not sure what went wrong.  Sometimes funny, many times silly, with a lot of bumps.  Yet, it was reasonably entertaining.  I didn't see a maturity rating, but it might well be a mild R, but compared to Borat 2, this was more like PG.


Emily in Paris is a series with ten episodes.  I've only seen one, and was impressed enough that I'll go back  soon for #2.  The attraction is Paris, which I hate.  The problem is the Roma gypsies.  I thought they came from Romania, but it turns out they're from northern India.  Actually, there are almost 2 million of them in Romania, so there is a link.  There could be up to half a million in France, and in Paris they are known to surround you in groups to pick your pocket.  They prey on the feeble, like me. Turns out that the USA is home to a million Romani people.  Tracey Ullman is one.

Anyway, about the series, what you see are the splashy attractions of Paris, which is a fascinating city.  That is just about right for me, as long as I'm not there.  Much of the activity has to do with Emily, who speaks no French, trying to build relationships in the office her company has taken over.  Lily Collins does well as a fresh and somewhat naive American in a sophisticated society.


Song #61 will from:

Showboat came much earlier, starting with Edna Ferber's 1926 novel of the same name, covering life on the Mississippi River from 1887 to 1927.  The Broadway show was first produced by Florenz Ziegfeld in 1927, and was a radical departure from the norm.  The key roles were played by Norma Terris as Magnolia, Howard Marsh as Gaylord, Helen Morgan as Julie and Jules Bledsoe/Paul Robeson as Joe.  The music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (but this is the same person as the next two productions on this finalist list).  Films followed in 1929 (Irene Dunne,Allan Jones), 1936 (also Dunne/Jones/Robeson) and 1951 (Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, William Warfield).   Ol'Man River and Make Believe were subsequently sung by the above.

Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein had two great Broadway shows during World War II:  Oklahoma in 1943 and Carousel in 1945.  Similarly, the films accordingly followed, with the former in 1955 and latter in 1956.

Oklahoma was Rodgers and Hammerstein first musical, based on a 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs, with the setting in Claremore, Indian Territory in 1906.  Wow, they eventually won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 and Oscar for the film in 1956.  The original cast included Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts and Celeste Holm.

The movie (RT: 88/76) came in 1955 and featured Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger, Charlotte Greenwood, Eddie Albert, and James Whitmore. First film on Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen, and simultaneously in CinemaScope 35 mm.

Carousel ran on Broadway so long that the primary performers included John Raitt, Howard Keel, Jan Clayton, Barbara Cook, Audra McDonald, Renee Fleming, Jerry Orbach, Fisher Stevens and Edward Everett Horton.  Christine Johnson Smith was the original Nettie Fowler who sang my #61 song, You'll Never Walk Alone.  She died a decade ago at the age of 98.  Rene Fleming sang that song on Broadway and here again two years ago.


The film (RT: 83/61) was released in 1956 and starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.  Claramae Turner sang You'll Never Walk Alone in the movie.

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Thursday, October 29, 2020

#62: WUNDERBAR

This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102 
          23       903     6526          566       656         48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53
          25       442     4629          237       463         24
          26       529     5095          288       505        40
          27     1039     7023          530       519        45
          28     1030     7116          487       509        58

Summary:  The World and USA are on our third wave.  Will this one be the worst?

The New York Times indicated the following this morning:

Among the most successful Canadian regions have been the four small provinces along the Atlantic Ocean, all of which have almost extinguished the virus. They have done so by largely closing their borders — a strategy that has also worked in several other countries, including Australia, Ghana, Taiwan and Vietnam, despite skepticism from some political liberals around the world.

Hawaii just re-opened up to tourism, and the great majority will come from the USA.  I worry about a next wave for the state.

My song #62 will come from:

The King and I by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein opened on Broadway in 1951 with Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, who made his show biz debut.  There are several worthy songs, especially Getting to Know You.  The film came in 1956 with Deborah Kerr (sung by Marni Nixon) and,  again, Yul Brynner.

If I did not watch Classic Arts Showcase this morning, Wunderbar would not have been #62.  Here were Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison, and I was enchanted.  Kiss Me Kate, (Rotten Tomatoes:  91/67) with lyrics by Cole Porter, opened on Broadway in 1949 and won the Tony for Best Musical.  The show was inspired by Alfed Lunt and Lyn Fontanne in their 1935 production of Shrew.  In 1953 Kiss Me Kate became a film, with Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel.

We need some humor, so here is a clip from The Late Show four years ago where then President Barack Obama urged people to vote.  This time he is doing it more personally, as you might have seen this week on television.

Awa Odori is a traditional dance most popularly performed on the island of Shikoku in Japan during the Obon Season.  You can't beat this performance for cuteness, but you'll need to wait for 1 minute and 40 seconds or so to enjoy the effort of this rather young performer.  

Kochi on that island has another festival called the Yosakoi Matsuri.  I've been to this event a couple of times because close by is a deep ocean laboratory just like at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii on the Big Island.  Living there is Mac Takahashi, former University of Tokyo engineering professor, who wrote a definitive text on ocean thermal energy conversion, and is in the process of translating my SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth.  Here we are with now, probably, the eminent active scholar of OTEC,  Yasuyuki Ikegami (at the top) of Saga University.


Hurricane Zeta was a mile per hour short of being a Category 3 when it struck Louisiana, causing three deaths and leaving a couple of million powerless.  The next to come will be Eta, which has a 60% chance of attaining hurricane strength, making it the 29th of the year for the Gulf/Atlantic, breaking the all-time record:


A similar storm Typhoon Molave struck Vietnam, its fourth in a month, killing more than 25.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

OPERATION WARP SPEED vs DR. MERCOLA

This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102 
          23       903     6526          566       656         48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53
          25       442     4629          237       463         24
          26       529     5095          288       505        40
          27     1039     7023          530       519        45

Summary:
  • Yup, this new wave is looking really bad, with the U.S. new deaths back up to quadruple digits, and  75,072 new cases. Worst day ever.  States with highest number of new cases yesterday (and some are battleground states with the presidential election less than a week away)
    • Texas  6889
    • Wisconsin  5262
    • California  4914
    • Florida  4298
    • Illinois  4000
    • Michigan  2657
    • Missouri  2619
    • Ohio  2537
    • Pennsylvania  2273
    • Minnesota  2164
    • North Carolina  2141
    • Hawaii  64
    • Maine  57
    • Vermont  30
  • The world yesterday had 459,020 new cases, the second highest ever, next to 482,596 the day before.
  • Europe is looking even worse than the USA.
  • China had 16 new cases and no new deaths.
  • I took a trip to Thailand in February when it was #2 in COVID-19 cases to China.  Today?  #147.  Yesterday they had three new cases with no deaths.  Instead, they're in the midst of their regular revolutionary uprising period  that will slowly undermine the influence of the monarchy and military.
  • The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays (and if you weren't aware, Manta Rays) 3-1 in game six of the World Series.  They might have won just in time, for their third baseman Justin Turner found out he tested positive in the 7th inning, and left the dugout.  However, he returned for the celebration (he is the one with the bountiful red beard), and, as you can see, no one is wearing a mask.  It would be a miracle if no else tested positive today.  They might not have a team if they had to play a seventh game today.  Worse, while still in Texas, they are returning home to a resurging infection rise in Los Angeles.  That makes it two-for-two for city, though, for the Lakers were just crowned NBA champions.

A vaccine development plan was introduced by President Donald Trump in early April.  Congress had already allocated nearly $10 billion in the CARES Act the previous month.  It took the administration until May 15 to officially announce Operation Warp Speed (OWS). Virtually every federal organization is involved.  The FDA on on June 30 indicated that this vaccine would need to be at least 50% effective to gain approval.  

At that early stage Rick Bright, head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, resigned because he said there was political pressure to too dangerously accelerate the process.  Plus, he wore a mask, which Trump hates.  Moncef Slaoui of Moderna was selected to head OWS.

In August eight companies were chosen with a budget of $11 billion to expedite development of their vaccine candidates:

The goal is to distribute hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of the year.

The USA purposefully did not want to cooperate with China, European Union (except that AstraZeneca is working with the University of Oxford) or the World Health Organization.  Not sure how much China has spent so far, but the European/WHO coalition has raised $8 billion.

Virtually everyone seems supportive of a need for a vaccine.  Then there are some quibblers.  I'm mixed in my reaction to Dr. Joseph Mercola, an alternative medicine promoter.  As most in osteopathy, he is anti-vaccine in nature.  However, many seem to follow him, and I was sent this rather long summary of where COVID-19 vaccine stands, from his point of view.  

The confusion about osteopathy is that their views are sometimes right, yet medically controversial, not in actual science, but in mixed truths and some unnecessary hype.  I've come to a conclusion that Mercola's followers believe him because they are healthy and think that is because of listening to his advice.  The truth is that most people are relatively healthy no matter who they believe, even medical science.

From The Ringer:

Mercola offers himself up as the only honest man in medicine, ready and willing to refute the arrogant lies of other doctors. He is rewarded for this effort. Business research firm Hoover’s estimates that Mercola.com LLC brings in around $9.8 million annually, with additional income from Mercola.com Health Resources LLC ($5.2 million) and Mercola Consulting Services LLC (around $320,000). His website bills itself as the “#1 Natural Health Website.” It is the top “Alternative Health” website, according to Alexa, more popular than Tony Robbins’s self-help page. (While “alternative health” is a vague category, in Mercola’s case, it means he gloms onto nonsense about the dangers of modern medicine — not that he is a champion of experimental but evidence-based procedures.) 


But what is The Ringer?  It is a sports and pop culture network founded by Bill Simmons in 2016.  They were  recently acquired by Spotify.  Bill Simmons is a 41-year old sports guy from ESPN who studied the Middle East in college and was a comedy writer for Jimmy Kimmel.  

So who do you believe, the Operation Warp Speed spokespeople or Joseph Mercola?  This is almost like asking, do you think Donald Trump lied more before he caught the coronavirus, or after?  The problem is that both sides are flawed. OWS because Donald Trump will influence what they say, and natural medicine advocates just don't like vaccines and Big Pharma. 

The answer will come in the timing.  If Joe Biden becomes president, chances are that his science dominated decision-making will be more believable, even though pharmaceutical firms are not exactly angels.

It's clear to me that anything like herd immunity through vaccinations will not come for another year or longer.  Initially, no matter what anyone says, people will be reluctant to take those injections, and you'll probably need to take two.  Historically, less than 50% of the population takes the annual flu shot, and, after all these years, this vaccine is sometimes less than 50% effective.

Did you know that the flu vaccine has been this ineffective?

If you can't read that fine print, it says the 2010-11 vaccine was the best at 60% and the 2014-15 injection was only 19% effective.  In case you were wondering what happened last year (2019-20), the efficiency was 39%.

What can be expected of the COVID-19 vaccine?  Well, to begin with, no vaccine has yet been found for the previous coronavirus SARS virus.  If you look at what path these pharmaceutical partnerships are taking, like linking to a chimpanzee infection, you need to be a really optimistic to hope for an efficiency of 70% or higher.  

Then, how do you get citizens to take the shot?  When the seasonal flu vaccine was made available in 1989, only 9.1% were brave enough to do it.  Even today, 50% is a high annual figure.  On the other hand, for children from 19 months to 35 months old, 90% regularly get inoculated for measles, mumps and rubella.

A president will probably not want to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for the simple fact that no one knows what will be the long-term effects of a new vaccine until a year or two passes.  Especially if it turns out that "only" 0.5% of people who get infected actually become a terminal statistic of this coronavirus.  The Spanish flu had a mortality rate of 2.5%, while the seasonal flu stands at 0.1%.  At what point does mandatory kick-in for a virulent virus?

Favorite song #63 will come from:

7 July 1990, the eve of the FIFA World Cup Final in Rome.  There was a live audience of 6000, with global television.  Jose Carreras, Placid Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti were in concert with conductor Zubin Mehta.  It was Carreras' return from leukemia.  Their live album won the Grammy and became the best-selling classical album of all time.  They repeated this for the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris and 2002 in Yokohama.  The wow factor still stands out as the peak of popular classical music, and this article published this summer announced a special 30th Anniversary CD/DVD set.

There is a question mark because just about any Impossible Dream performance is good enough for me.  My life has been dotted with a series of impossible dreams:  laser fusion, hydrogen, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and the blue revolution.  I remember turning in my final report to the NASA Ames Research Center on a better way to search for extrasolar planets with a symbol of the Man from La Mancha on the cover entitled, To See the Impossible Dream.  This was in the mid-70's, and a planet outside our solar system would not be confirmed for another two decades.  The concept I advanced was not well-received, maybe because of the cover.


The song was composed by Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion for the 1965 Broadway musical Man of La Mancha, sung by Richard Kiley, who won a Tony.  The film followed in 1972 with Peter O'Toole.  Simon Gilbert was the voice of O'Toole.  There have been others:
There are of course many more.  They're all good.  I have a #63, Impossible Dream, with no performer.  Just the song.  This will happen a lot when I get to classical music.

Hurricane Zeta should strengthen into a Category 2 and make landfall over Louisiana in a few hours:


Around the same time as Zeta touches Louisiana, Typhoon Molave at around the same strength will make landfall over Vietnam, just south of China Beach, or Danang:

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