Baltic Dry Index. 1849 -100 Brent Crude 43.31
Spot Gold 1811
Coronavirus Cases 09/7/20
World 12,176,850
Deaths 550,843
21st
century adage: Is that true, or did you hear it on the BBC?
For more on HCQ+ working, scroll
down to Covid-19 Corner. The BBC, among most of the media and the WHO, owe
President Trump a big grovelling apology. I bet he never gets one.
In the stock casinos, more of the same old never ending story. Buy tech
stocks to push the Nasdaq higher,
fueled by the global central banks spraying endless cash on the bubble. As goes the Nasdaq, so goes all the rest of the indexes.
Never mind reality for now, (and
that reality gets worse with each passing week,) gambling is the only game in
town.
The
gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known
as gambling.
Ambrose Bierce
Asian Stocks Push Higher Led by Gains in China: Markets Wrap
By Adam Haigh
Updated on July 9, 2020, 4:56 AM GMT+1
Asian stocks pushed higher Thursday as investors continued to place
faith in policy support and shrugged off simmering tensions between Washington
and Beijing. The dollar steadied.
Chinese equities outperformed as traders watched to see if the Shanghai
Composite can extend its surge for an eighth day. Shares in Hong Kong, Sydney
and Seoul also advanced, and Japanese stocks reversed earlier losses. Futures
on the S&P 500 fluctuated after the gauge climbed to a one-month high on
Wednesday, when advances in megacaps like Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. sent
the Nasdaq Composite to a record. Gold held above $1,800 an ounce. The offshore
yuan rose above 7 per dollar to the highest since mid-March. Treasuries were
steady.
Amid signals of support from authorities and signs of frenzied buying
among retail traders, Chinese stocks have already climbed about 9% this week.
Meanwhile, investors have continued to look past news on the virus front, where
the number of U.S. infections topped 3 million, more than a quarter of the
global total. Arizona and Florida continued to report increases, albeit at
levels below their seven-day averages.
As long as central banks “have the intention of continuing to try to
provide stimulus to the global economy, markets will continue to drive higher
even as they dislocate from the fundamentals that would otherwise normally
drive earnings and stock prices,” Shana Sissel, chief investment officer at
Spotlight Asset Group, said on Bloomberg TV.
Meanwhile, oil traded near a four-month high despite U.S. crude
inventories holding close to a record and gasoline demand still at the weakest
seasonal level in more than 20 years.
More
Next, scratch Hong
Kong from the list of tourist destinations, if ever tourism becomes a viable
sector again.
Hong Kong bans protest anthem in schools as fears over freedoms intensify
July 8, 2020 /
7:05 AM
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong
authorities on Wednesday banned school students from singing of “Glory to Hong
Kong”, the unofficial anthem of the pro-democracy protest movement, just hours
after Beijing set up its new national security bureau in the Chinese-ruled
city.
New security legislation imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing requires the
Asian financial hub to “promote national security education in schools and
universities and through social organisations, the media, the internet”.
The school anthem ban will further stoked concerns that new security
laws will crush freedoms in China’s freest city, days after public libraries
removed books by some prominent pro-democracy figures from their shelves.
Authorities also banned protest slogans as the new laws came into force last
week.
The sweeping legislation that Beijing imposed on the former British
colony punishes what China defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and
collusion with foreign forces, with up to life in prison.
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung, responding to a question from a
lawmaker, said students should not participate in class boycotts, chant
slogans, form human chains or sing songs that contain political messages.
“The song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’, originated from the social incidents
since June last year, contains strong political messages and is closely related
to the social and political incidents, violence and illegal incidents that have
lasted for months,” Yeung said. “Schools must not allow students to play, sing
or broadcast it in schools.”
Earlier on Wednesday, China opened its new national security office,
turning a hotel near a city-centre park that has been one of the most popular
venues for pro-democracy protests into its new headquarters.
More
Australia warns citizens of increased risk of detention in Hong Kong
July 9, 2020 /
3:38 AM
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia warned its citizens and residents in Hong
Kong that they were at “increased risk of detention” there and urged them to
reconsider their need to remain in the Chinese territory.
In an updated travel advisory issued on Thursday, the government said
Hong Kong’s new national security law could be interpreted broadly and
Australians may be at risk of getting deported to mainland China for
prosecution.
The full extent of the law and how it will be applied is not yet clear,
the advisory said.
Australia on Tuesday warned its citizens that they may be at risk of
arbitrary detention in China.
U.S. tech giants face hard choices under Hong Kong's new security law
July 8, 2020 /
11:32 AM
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG
(Reuters) - U.S. tech giants face a reckoning over how Hong Kong’s security law
will reshape their businesses, with their suspension of processing government
requests for user data a stop-gap measure as they weigh options, people close
to the industry say.
While Hong Kong is not a significant market for firms such as Facebook,
Google and Twitter, they have used it as a perch to reach deep-pocketed
advertisers in mainland China, where many of their services are blocked. But
the companies are now in the cross hairs of a national security law that gives
China authority to demand that they turn over user data or censor content seen
to violate the law - even when posted from abroad.
“These companies have to totally reassess the liability of having a
presence in Hong Kong,” Charles Mok, a legislator who represents the technology
industry in Hong Kong, told Reuters.
If they refuse to cooperate with government requests, he said,
authorities “could go after them and take them to court and fine them, or
imprison their principals in Hong Kong”.
---- Facebook, which started operating in Hong Kong in 2010, last year opened a big new office in the city.
It sells more than $5 billion a year worth of ad space to Chinese
businesses and government agencies looking to promote messages abroad, Reuters
reported in January. That makes China Facebook’s biggest country for revenue
after the United States.
The U.S. internet firms are no strangers to governments demands
regarding content and user information, and generally say they are bound by local
laws.
The companies have often used a technique known as “geo-blocking” to
restrict content in a particular country without removing it altogether.
But the sweeping language of Hong Kong’s new law could mean such
measures won’t be enough. Authorities will no longer need to get court orders
before requesting assistance or information, analysts said.
Requests for data about overseas users would put the companies in an
especially tough spot.
“It’s a global law ... if they comply with national security law in Hong
Kong then there is the problem that they may violate laws in other countries,”
said Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of Hong Kong’s Information
Technology Federation.
More
Finally, more harsh reality.
Just exactly how will skyscrapers work in the age of Covid-19? How many will
dare to enter them if a second wave hits or the first wave never goes away? What
about Covid-19 health insurance costs? Will coverage even be available at all?
If firms head out of
city centres to safer suburban lower
level, easier to protect, bosses and workers buildings, will skyscrapers ever
become profitable again?
The cruise line
prison ship industry looks to be sunk too, in our new much more limited Covid-19
world. For now, few ports will let them in even if they could persuade passengers
and crews to return.
Office towers face tall order to be as productive as before the pandemic
Haider-Moranis
Bulletin July 7,
2020 11:34 AM EDT
As Canada plans to relax restrictions on movements and gatherings,
businesses have started to prepare for a staged reopening.
For those who work in office towers, small or tall, a safe return to
work is the joint responsibility of landlords, building managers, employers and
workers. Since provincial laws regulate workers’ safety and health, regulations
will differ across Canada. Here’s a look at some of the issues that are front
and centre when it comes to reopening office towers across Canada.
----Steve Ichelson, a vice-president with Avison Young, a global commercial real estate brokerage, says his firm is advising owners and tenants on what to expect and how to act as they return to work amidst COVID-19. Avison Young has prepared a back-to-work guide for occupants, covering a broad range of topics, starting with new and improved conventions for communication to inform all stakeholders of the changes in operating protocols even before employees return.
New signage in and around buildings will also provide an obvious
reminder to returning employees that things have changed. The new signage could
be extended beyond lobbies to sidewalks outside to keep the returning employees
at safe distances while they wait for their turn to board the elevators.
Avison Young is not planning to take the temperature of those entering
their buildings — without new regulations, building managers may not be able to
enforce mandatory temperature checks.
However, they may still ask a standard
set of questions to all returning employees to gauge their possible exposure to
COVID-19. Many building managers are planning to increase the number of
security professionals in their lobbies to direct pedestrian flow and prevent
crowding.
Elevators
Elevators in tall buildings are a bottleneck that will play a big role
in determining whether employees will be able to get to and from their floors
in a reasonable amount of time. The suggested capacity is now four people per
car, down from nine to 12 in the past. Asking some elevator riders to face the
wall is one option that some buildings are considering in order to squeeze more
riders onto each car.
The estimate for the time it will take to populate a tall building to
full occupancy with limited elevator capacity ranges between 90 minutes to four
hours. Many returning employees might receive a scheduled boarding time for
their ride up and down the elevator. That could leave lobbies looking like the
long queues at theme parks, as visitors wait for their favourite rides.
Limiting the number of elevator rides each employee takes in a day is
also an option. Employees might be limited to use the elevator at
lunchtime or for coffee breaks. Smokers would have to use stairs to get to the
street level and back.
----Improving and maintaining air quality is another concern that building managers will have to grapple with. Avison Young is upgrading air filters to MERV-13 to protect airborne pathogens from travelling through ventilation. Subsequent upgrades will include UV filtration and dehumidification to keep air dry.
Open office spaces are also being reconfigured to keep workers at a
distance from each other. An area that accommodated 72 workers might now hold
28, Ichelson said. The same goes for small- to medium-sized meeting rooms:
those that might have held 15 to 20 people in the past will now be reduced to
half or one-third capacity.
More
The World’s Cruise Ships Can’t Sail. Now, What to Do With Them?
Hurricanes, humidity, expired permits—they’re all costly threats to empty ships.
----
Since mid-March, only a small handful of the world’s 400-or-so cruise ships
have been able to accept passengers—all on hyperlocal itineraries. A few
dozen are sailing the world with purpose, repatriating crew members from every
corner of the globe. The rest are sitting idle in cruise ship purgatory, unable
to sail commercially for the foreseeable future. (In the U.S., the industry has
agreed not to resume business at least until Sept. 15.)
The problem for many cruise lines? Idling through the pandemic isn’t just bad for the company’s bottom line, it’s a potential death warrant for their costliest assets: the ships themselves. From mechanical issues to hurricane risks to regulatory hurdles that can constitute criminal offenses, it’s a quagmire that the industry has never faced on this scale before.
The expense is staggering. In a
recent SEC filing, Carnival Corp.—whose
nine brands comprise the world’s largest cruise company—indicated that its
ongoing ship and administrations expenses would amount to $250 million a
month once all its ships are on pause. With the company saying it’s unable
to predict when cruises resume, that’s a long-term line item on a balance sheet
that logged $4.4 billion in
losses in the second quarter alone.
More
The BBC, taxing poor people in Britain to pay astronomical sums to rich people, who then insult their Brexit beliefs and views.
Covid-19 Corner
Though
hopefully, we are passing/have passed the peak of new cases, at least of the
first SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, this section will continue until it becomes
unneeded.
Today, good news and a
potential vaccine complication, (when we get one.) First the good news, but why
not add zinc? Looks like most of the media and Democrats owe an apology to
President Trump. Anti-Trump to the bone, I bet he never gets one.
Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine Cut Death Rate Significantly in COVID-19 Patients, Henry Ford Health System Study Shows
July 02, 2020
DETROIT –
Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick
patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – and without heart-related side-effects,
according to a new
study published by Henry Ford Health
System. In a large-scale retrospective analysis of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020 across the system’s six hospitals, the study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. None of the patients had documented serious heart abnormalities; however, patients were monitored for a heart condition routinely pointed to as a reason to avoid the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.
The study was published today in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, the peer-reviewed, open-access online publication of the International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID.org).
Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine at Henry Ford met specific protocol criteria as outlined by the hospital system’s Division of Infectious Diseases. The vast majority received the drug soon after admission; 82% within 24 hours and 91% within 48 hours of admission. All patients in the study were 18 or over with a median age of 64 years; 51% were men and 56% African American.
“The findings have been highly analyzed and peer-reviewed,” said Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of Infectious Disease for Henry Ford Health System, who co-authored the study with Henry Ford epidemiologist Samia Arshad. “We attribute our findings that differ from other studies to early treatment, and part of a combination of interventions that were done in supportive care of patients, including careful cardiac monitoring. Our dosing also differed from other studies not showing a benefit of the drug. And other studies are either not peer reviewed, have limited numbers of patients, different patient populations or other differences from our patients.”
Zervos said the potential for a surge in the fall or sooner, and infections continuing worldwide, show an urgency to identifying inexpensive and effective therapies and preventions.
“We’re glad to add to the scientific knowledge base on the role and how best to use therapies as we work around the world to provide insight,” he said. “Considered in the context of current studies on the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, our results suggest that the drug may have an important role to play in reducing COVID-19 mortality.”
The study also found those treated with azithromycin alone or a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin also fared slightly better than those not treated with the drugs, according to the Henry Ford data. The analysis found 22.4% of those treated only with azithromycin died, and 20.1% treated with a combination of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine died, compared to 26.4% of patients dying who were not treated with either medication.
“Our analysis shows that using hydroxychloroquine helped saves lives,” said neurosurgeon Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO, Henry Ford Medical Group and Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of Henry Ford Health System. “As doctors and scientists, we look to the data for insight. And the data here is clear that there was benefit to using the drug as a treatment for sick, hospitalized patients.”
More
Current Evidence
Supporting the Use of Orally Administered Zinc in the Treatment of COVID-19
Hunter N.B.
Moseley1,2,3,4,5,* 1Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry 2Center
for Clinical and Translational Science 3Markey Cancer Center 4Superfund
Research Center 5 Institute for Biomedical Informatics University of Kentucky,
Lexington KY, United States
*Corresponding
Author: hunter.moseley@uky.edu
Keywords: COVID-19,
zinc, zinc lozenge, SARS-CoV-2, oral mucosa, confounding factor, chloroquine
Supporting Materia Links: https://github.com/MoseleyBioinformaticsLab/COVID-19_oral_zinc_treatment_hypothesis
Abstract:
This
review presents current evidence supporting the following hypothesis: COVID-19
severity can be reduced with the administration of zinc in an orally and
gastrointestinal absorbable form. This supporting evidence (scientific premise)
includes a variety of prior published work along with relevant data present in
public scientific repositories that support the mechanistic idea that zinc
concentrations in the oral mucosa, gastrointestinal tract, and possibly other
parts of the human body can be elevated to the level that is inhibitory on the
RNA-dependent RNA polymerase replication and transcription complex (RDRP-RTC)
of SARS-CoV-2.
There
are several implications for this hypothesis. First, zinc represent a highly
available nutrient that can be administered in the possibly therapeutic dosage
range of 100 mg to 200 mg per day for short periods of time with no appreciable
toxic effects. However, many zinc lozenges currently available on the market
are not formulated to maximize oral absorption of zinc.
But
zinc can be quickly obtained, oral treatments produced, and then added to
treatment protocols, even in developing nations. Second, oral zinc treatment
may be synergistic with other drugs being actively studied and used in the
treatment of COVID-19. Specifically, chloroquine is a known zinc ionophore and
a possible mechanism of action for this drug and its similar derivatives is to
increase zinc concentrations to a level that is inhibitory of SARS-CoV-2’s
RDRP-RTC, particularly in the lung epithelium.
Moreover,
dietary zinc and zinc depleting drugs could be confounding factors in current chloroquine
and hydroxychloroquine clinical studies that are currently underway.
Next the potential
vaccine(s) complication. Most [all?] vaccines contain adjuvants, often
aluminium salts, that can produce unwanted other effects. Any vaccine that’s going
to be used widely, needs a lot of serious testing to screen out any harmful
effects.
Immunologic adjuvant
In immunology, an adjuvant is a substance that potentiates and/or modulates the immune responses to an antigen to improve them.[1] The word "adjuvant" comes from the Latin word adiuvare, meaning to help or aid. "An immunologic adjuvant is defined as any substance that acts to accelerate, prolong, or enhance antigen-specific immune responses when used in combination with specific vaccine antigens."[2]In the early days of vaccine manufacture, significant variations in the efficacy of different batches of the same vaccine were correctly assumed to be caused by contamination of the reaction vessels. However, it was soon found that more scrupulous cleaning actually seemed to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines, and that some contaminants actually enhanced the immune response.
There are many known adjuvants in widespread use, including aluminium salts, oils and virosomes.[
----Medical
complications
Humans
Aluminium salts used in many human vaccines are regarded as safe by Food and Drugs Administration,[25] although there are multiple studies suggesting the role of aluminium, especially injected highly bioavailable antigen-aluminum complexes when used as adjuvant, in Alzheimer's disease development.[26]Animals
Aluminum adjuvants have caused motor neuron death in mice[27] when injected directly onto the spine at the scruff of the neck, and oil-water suspensions have been reported to increase the risk of autoimmune disease in mice.[28] Squalene has caused rheumatoid arthritis in rats already prone to arthritis.[29]In cats, vaccine-associated sarcoma (VAS) occurs at a rate of between 1 and 10 per 10,000 injections. In 1993, a causal relationship between VAS and administration of aluminum adjuvated rabies and FeLV vaccines was established through epidemiologic methods, and in 1996 the Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force was formed to address the problem.[30] However, evidence conflicts on whether types of vaccines, manufacturers or factors have been associated with sarcomas.[31]
Controversy
As of 2006, the premise that TLR signaling acts as the key node in antigen-mediated inflammatory responses has been in question as researchers have observed antigen-mediated inflammatory responses in leukocytes in the absence of TLR signaling.[4][32] One researcher found that in the absence of MyD88 and Trif (essential adapter proteins in TLR signaling), they were still able to induce inflammatory responses, increase T cell activation and generate greater B cell abundancy using conventional adjuvants (alum, Freund's complete adjuvant, Freund's incomplete adjuvant, and monophosphoryl-lipid A/trehalose dicorynomycolate (Ribi's adjuvant)).[4]These observations suggest that although TLR activation can lead to increases in antibody responses, TLR activation is not required to induce enhanced innate and adaptive responses to antigens.
More
Some useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
Rt Covid-19
Covid19info.live
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC
energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards.
Contest between superconductivity and insulating states in Magic Angle Graphene
Date:
July 7, 2020
Source:
ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences
Summary:
A team of researchers develop a set of entirely novel knobs to control
correlated electrons and demonstrate that superconductivity can exist without
insulating phases in Magic Angle Twisted Bi-layer Graphene.
If you stack two layers of graphene one on top of the other, and rotate
them at an angle of 1.1º (no more and no less) from each other -- the so-called
magic-angle, experiments have proven that the material can behave like an
insulator, where no electrical current can flow, and at the same can also
behave like a superconductor, where electrical currents can flow without
resistance.
This major finding took place in 2018. Last year, in 2019, while ICFO
researchers were improving the quality of the device used to replicate such
breakthrough, they stumbled upon something even bigger and totally unexpected.
They were able to observe a zoo of previously unobserved superconducting and
correlated states, in addition to an entirely new set of magnetic and
topological states, opening a completely new realm of richer physics.
So far, there is no theory that has been able to explain
superconductivity in magic angle graphene at the microscopic level. However,
this finding has triggered many studies, which are trying to understand and
unveil the physics behind all these phenomena that occur in this material. In
particular, scientists drew analogies to unconventional high temperature superconductors
-- the cuprates, which hold the record highest superconducting temperatures,
only 2 times lower than room temperature. Their microscopic mechanism of the
superconducting phase is still not understood, 30 years after its discovery.
However, similarly to Magic Angle Twisted Bi-layer Graphene (MATBG), it is
believed that an insulating phase is responsible for the superconducting phase
in proximity to it. Understanding the relationship between the superconducting
and insulating phases is at the centre of researcher's interest, and could lead
to a big breakthrough in superconductivity research.
In such pursuit, in a study recently published in Nature, ICFO
researchers Petr Stepanov, Ipsita Das, Xiaobo Lu, Frank H. L. Koppens, led by
ICFO Prof. Dmitri Efetov, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary group of
scientists from MIT, National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, and
Imperial College London, have delved deeper into the physical behaviour of this
system and report on the detailed testing and screening-controlled of
Magic-Angle Twisted Bi-layer Graphene (MATBG) devices with several
near-magic-angle twist angles, to find a possible explanation for the mentioned
states.
In their experiment, they were able to simultaneously control the speed
and interaction energies of the electrons, and so turn the insulating phases
into superconducting ones. Normally, at the magic angle, an insulating state is
formed, since electrons have very small velocities, and in addition they
strongly repel each other through the Coulomb force. In this study Stepanov and
team used devices with twist-angles slightly away from the magic-angle of 1.1°
by ± 0.05°, and placed these very close to metallic screening layers,
separating these by only few nano-meters by insulating hexagonal boron nitride
layers. This allowed to reduce the repulsive force between the electrons and to
speed these up, so allowing them to move freely, escaping the insulating state.
By doing so, Stepanov and colleagues observed something quite unexpected.
By changing the voltage (carrier density) in the different device
configurations, the superconductivity phase remained while the correlated
insulator phase disappeared. In fact, the superconducting phase spanned over
larger regions of densities even when the carrier density varied. Such
observations suggest that rather than having the same common origin, the
insulating and superconducting phase actually could compete with each other,
which puts into question the simple analogy with the cuprates, that was
believed previously. However, the scientist soon realized, that the
superconducting phase could be even more interesting, as it lies in close
proximity to topological states, which are activated by recurring electronic
interaction by applying a magnetic field.
Superconductivity with Magic-Angle Graphene
Room temperature superconductivity is the key to many technological
goals such as efficient power transmission, frictionless trains, or even
quantum computers, among others. When discovered more than 100 years ago,
superconductivity was only plausible in materials cooled down to temperatures
close to absolute zero. Then, in the late 80's, scientists discovered high
temperature superconductors by using ceramic materials called cuprates. In
spite of the difficulty of building superconductors and the need to apply
extreme conditions (very strong magnetic fields) to study the material, the
field took off as something of a holy grail among scientists based on this
advance. Since last year, the excitement around this field has increased. The
double mono-layers of carbon have captivated researchers because, in contrast
to cuprates, their structural simplicity has become an excellent platform to
explore the complex physics of superconductivity.
“I
wonder what Juncker is doing," thought the BBC’s Head of Fake News.
"I wish I were there to be doing it to the British people, too.”
"I wish I were there to be doing it to the British people, too.”
With
apologies to A.A. Milne, and Winnie-the-Pooh
The Monthly Coppock Indicators finished June
DJIA: 25,813 -2 Down. NASDAQ: 10,059 +196 Up.
SP500: 3,100 +75 Down.
The NASDAQ has remained up.
The S&P and the DJIA still remain down despite the best efforts of the Fed
to get them to go higher. The Dow has now gone negative.
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