THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE BLUE REVOLUTION

    From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        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     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14      4142    15512       1151        189     712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107     398

          25       2414    10578        1582       119     144

Mar     2        1989    9490         1726        110     194

          31       1115   12301          3950       458      58

April   6         906    11787          4211         631     37

May    4         853   13667          3025      3786     59 

         26         607    12348         2399      3842    101 

June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95 

         10        452     14097         2484      6138    127

         15        353       9248         2760      1470    208

         16        434       9497         2673      1411    136

         22        352       8560         2080      1129    297

         23        326       8704         2343        978    166

         29        294       7660         1917        816    226

Summary:

• Looking better for much of the world, except Africa and South America.
• While South Africa was only #7 in new cases yesterday, with 13,347 (U.S. had 11,427, and is now #9), several other countries are now into four digits.
• Brazil was #1 in new cases with 64,903, Colombia #3 with 25,880 and Argentina #4 with 24,065.
• Texas was the state with most new cases at 1,370 and Michigan had the most new deaths with 32.
• Hawaii had 33 new cases and no new deaths.
• Vermont had 4 new cases and no new deaths.
• There is a new cases uptick in parts of the Orient
• Indonesia 20,467
• Malaysia  6,437
• Thailand 4,6662
• Philippines  4,471
• With the Summer Olympics a little more than three weeks away, Japan had 952 new cases and 35 new deaths.
• South Korea  594 new cases and 2 new deaths
• Taiwan  54 new cases and 8 new deaths
• China  18 new cases and no new deaths
• Singapore  10 new cases and no new deaths

Did you know that the U.S.-Canadian border has been closed since March of last year for non-essential travel (meaning no tourists)?  And, this closure has continued, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just announcing that it will be closed until at least July 21.  Which does not mean free travel after that.  He insists that 75% of Canadians will need to be vaccinated before he will consider lifting the order.

The following posting comes from Blue Revolution Hawaii of a presentation made at the Le Meridien Hotel in San Francisco during a gathering of the Seasteading Institute:

PREAMBLE:   Floating in space is the International Space Station, a $150 billion adventure which appears to be in the process of being abandoned.  For one percent the cost, say $1.5 billion, the Pacific International Ocean Station is being planned to serve as a grazing plantship powered by OTEC for a global partnership to advance the development of sustainable ocean resources in harmony with the marine environment.  Certainly marine biomass plantations and next generation plantations, but also opportunities for innovative business practices, exciting new living habitats and maybe even a Disney at Sea.

These powerpoint slides are explained in the presentation mentioned above.  On further analysis, it was deemed possible to design, build and operate the technology portion of the Pacific International Ocean Station for $150 million.  The higher initial cost included activities such as Disney-at-Sea and the Blue Revolution Hawaii headquarters to be placed on the current site of the former Hawaiian Electric Company powerplant next to the Aloha Tower complex, which can still be considered.

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THE WORLD HAS TALENT

Some good news.  According to an article in Forbes, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may offer years-long protection against COVID-19, including variants.  Even mixing the two--one dose each--should be equivalently good.  There could be other vaccines with similar immunity power, but the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not expected to be as durable.

One more tidbit:  is Kim Jong-un on a diet or seriously ill?  At one time he was supposed to be 5'6" tall and more than 300 pounds.   When he took control nearly a decade ago at the age of 27, he was less than 200 pounds.  He proceeded to gain 14 pounds/year.  Not anymore.  He is said to be emaciated, putting his followers in despair.  Who will replace him?  Children too young.  He does have an older brother, and, of course, a sister, who is a lot more prominent, but said to be scared for her life.

America's Got Talent is well-into its 16th season.  One of my favorites this year is Jimmie Herrod, who while auditioning was told by Simon Cowell that he hated that song, and would recommend that Jimmy sing another one.  Sheepishly, Herrod essentially said that this was the only song he knew.  What a performance!  He got a golden buzzer for Tomorrow.  This will become one of the most memorable performances ever for AGT.  I urge you to click on that link.  Sophia Vergara sits next to Cowell, and she bestowed this honor.

It then occurred to me that there are similar spinoffs throughout the world, and what would a top ten look like.  Way back in 2005 Simon Cowell arranged for Britain Got Talent to be produced.  However, there was a dispute, so he came to the U.S. and put on his first show as America's Got Talent in 2006.  The difference with the earlier American Idol is that the presentations are not limited to singing:  any talent and any age.

Thus was created the Got Talent franchise, with shows in Africa, Albania, Arab world, Argentina, Armenia, Asia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Central Asia, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, East Africa, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakstan, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Moldova, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Vietnam.  Whew!  Many of them continue to today.  Then there are Kids/Planets/World Got Talent shows and various Champions productions.

Thus, you would think that the two America's Got Talent Champions seasons would result in the top two performers ever, for there were two seasons (2019 and 2020), and the competitors were the best from throughout the world.  Each had seven episodes and the grand champions were magician Shin Lim in 2019 and an acrobatic dance group V.Unbeatable in 2020.  There will be no third season, at least not until they get a sufficient list of new international winners.

For the USA, here is one list of the most successful performers:

• #1  Terry Fator (Season 2):  in 2018 this ventriloquist was in the top ten of highest-paid comedians.
• #2  Jackie Evancho (right photo, Season 5, who came in second):  became the youngest solo singer to go platinum.
• #3  Lindsey Stirling (also Season 5, and only made it to the quarterfinals):  a dancing violinist, has 12 million subscribers on YouTube, goes on tour and finished second on Dancing with the Stars.
• #4  Darci Lynne Farmer (Season 12 winner):  ventriloquist (singing impressionist) has gone on tour and came in second to Shin Lim in the first champions show.

Don't understand why, but Shin Lim, winner of Season 13, was listed only at #8, although he continues to have his own Vegas show.    #7 Grace VanterWaal (11), #6 Mat Franco (9) and #5 Melissa Villasenor (6).  But those are only American talents.  What about the world?

Can't find anything of noteworthiness.  Here is a compilation of the best auditions of the past decade from the world over that was put together late in 2019.  However, the first one was not particularly fabulous to me.  The second was Kodi Lee, the blind autistic singer/pianist who won in season 14. 

I won't pick a favorite, but here are my three most memorable auditions:

• Kodi Lee

• Susan Boyle (by the way, if you watched this video, you would have heard her mention she wanted to be like Elaine Paige...well, here is Paige singing Memories from Cats...and the first few moments are silent, so keep watching--and here they are more recently)
• Jackie Evancho (that's her today in the above photo)

The fifth session of season 16 is on NBC tonight.

If you went to Google today you would have wondered why this doodle:

Nothing to do with Chinese New Year or when I was born (I'm a dragon).  The graphic celebrates the 115th birthday (he was born on June 29) of Mexican artist Pedro Linares Lopez.  While this particular papier-mache' creation was by doodler Emily Barrera, the concept relates to a feverish dream Linares had in 1945 of a mythical creature.

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THE UPCOMING TEDxBlueRevolutionHawaii

From the New York Times this morning:

There is a political angle to these trends, of course. The places with the lowest vaccination rates tend to be heavily Republican. In an average U.S. county that voted for Donald Trump, only 34 percent of people are fully vaccinated, according to New York Times data. In an average country that voted for Joe Biden, the share is 45 percent (and the share that has received at least one shot is higher).

Remember Polar Vortex, a term that was tossed about when it got abnormally cold?  Well, there is a new one for today:  Heat Dome.  Or, better yet, Millennium Heat Dome, for what is happening in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia is ten times worse than a 100-year storm, a designation applied when something really bad occurs from Mother Nature.

It was terrible this weekend, and could get worse today.  Yesterday, Lytton BC reached 116 F.   Canada today might become the hottest spot on Planet Earth.  When has that ever occurred?  Then again, Death Valley is expected to reach 122 F today, so maybe not.

However, any human in the region of Death Valley has air conditioning.  How many Canadian homes have this luxury?  Heard that the State of Washington is only around 20% air-conditioned.  I recall once being at my brother's home in Las Vegas, and there was a blackout.  The temperature was around 113 F.  But we went to a casino, which is equipped for those temperatures, and I survived.

So much for vaccines and the heat.  Today, I follow-up on what I started yesterday.  I might have exaggerated a bit.  I'm not taking on a real job beginning today.  However, an organization with which I'm affiliated, Blue Revolution Hawaii, was selected to manage a TED special event this year, and I no doubt will need to help.

Blue Revolution Hawaii was launched a decade ago.   All postings prior to 2021 can be found at that site.  The following was posted yesterday on their blog page:

Members of Blue Revolution Hawaii Board

Leighton Chong: Intellectual property attorney

Benny Ron: Aquaculturist

Patrick Takahashi: Dreamer

John Farias: Agriculturist

Dante Carpenter: Ocean engineer/politician

Emeritus:

George Ariyoshi: Former governor

Fujio Matsuda: Former university president (deceased)

Matthew Matsunaga: Former state senator

Kaiu Kimura: Director of Imiloa

Blue Revolution Hawaii has three goals and targets of opportunity:

• Hold a Blue Revolution summit of billionaires to interact with potential Blue Revolution staff. Presentations will touch on the science, technology, economics, legal, environmental and sociological factors.

• 
  $150 million to design, build and operate the Pacific International Ocean Station (watch a Seasteading Institute presentation) by 2030, an offshore technology transfer platform to initiate the development of marine biomass plantations, ocean ranches, sea biopharmaceuticals, enhancement of marine environment (remediation of global warming and taming of hurricanes) and related fields.  Funding will be sought from a billionaire or two.

• 
  $150 billion to commission the first floating city by 2050.  The private sector will undertake this mission.  The platform will initially be located close to Hawaii to host the 2050 World Ocean Exposition.  The first World's Fair was held a century ago at The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.  There have been three ocean expos:
• 1975 in Okinawa.
• 1998 in Lisbon.
• 2012 in Yeosu.
• After the expo, the city will be towed closer to the equator to minimize ocean storms.  
• No hurricane is known to have crossed the equator.  
• Plus, the warmest surface temperatures are in this region.  
• Anywhere in the deep ocean, the seawater temperature is 4 C at a depth of 1000 meters, which can thus be combined with the surface waters to generate electricity and produce freshwater, with the resultant effluent utilized to support industries.

• 
  This fluid is rich in minerals in the exact Redfield ratio to serve as a natural fertilizer for biomass plantations and initiating marine growth for ocean ranches.
• The ocean is the next frontier to produce sustainable food, energy and a cornucopia of products, while enhancing the marine and atmospheric environment.

A cost-matching fund to initiate the Blue Revolution has been established with the UH Foundation at the University of Hawaii.  A sum of $500,000 has been endowed for this purpose.

The cost of the project is such that primary funds will not be sought from governments and companies.  The most promising source is likely to be a billionaire, or team of them, seeking a legacy and with the vision to develop the next frontier for future resources in harmony with the natural environment.

To begin the process of fund-raising, we have been granted a TEDx license to organize a Countdown event to link with the upcoming global climate warming discussions preparing for the 2022 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  COP3 in 1997 created the Kyoto Protocol and COP21 produced the Paris Agreement in 2015.

While minor adjustments can still be made, the TEDx Blue Revolution Hawaii event will occur on 11 December 2021.  It is our understanding that we can select from other TED talks that will occur this year to complement our local speakers, and even seek input from world leaders in the field to participate remotely.  A working group is being finalized to plan for this event.

These Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conferences began in 1984, and over 3500 TED talks have been posted and viewed several billion times.  There is now a variety of TED events.  Originally there was only one conference/year at a cost of around $10,000/person to participate.  TEDx  is just one of the spin-offs, targeted for independent events like global warming.  We would very much welcome your involvement.

Tomorrow, I'll again borrow from their posting on the science and engineering associated with their Pacific International Ocean Station (PIOS).  Their TEDx event could very well spur funding for PIOS, leading to the Blue Revolution.

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