Baltic Dry Index. 1540 +30 Brent Crude 45.35
Spot Gold 1927
Coronavirus Cases 13/8/20 World 20,726,572
Deaths 751,124
It is the great
multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of
the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that
universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.
Adam Smith, The
Wealth Of Nations, 1776.
Today, sadly, our update is mostly about more bad news in
the global coronavirus crisis. 1945 – 2019 is never coming back.
China reports that the virus has been found on frozen
seafood and frozen chicken wings imported from Brazil.
“A research team at the University of Florida succeeded in isolating live virus from aerosols collected at a distance of seven to 16 feet from patients hospitalized with Covid-19 — farther than the six feet recommended in social distancing guidelines.”
Both developments are very bad news for the global
economy and any remote prospect of a “V” shaped economic recovery.
Governments better start planning for “universal basic
income” for all now, and how it’s going to work, and more importantly how its
going to be paid for. Best to involve the G-20 and Bank for International
settlements.
SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 are here to stay.
Asian stocks grind higher, dollar slips as U.S. data brightens mood
August 13, 2020 /
12:53 AM
SINGAPORE/BOSTON
(Reuters) - Asia’s stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Thursday, as
investors returned to tech stocks, gold and selling dollars after steady virus
figures and a surprising jump in U.S. inflation boosted sentiment.
The rises come after a tech rally left the S&P 500 .SPX within a whisker of a record closing high overnight, in a climate where even bad news is regarded as good news if it increases the chances of more stimulus to aid recovery.
“We’d seen value outperforming over the last few days, but that was unwound last night,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Melbourne brokerage Pepperstone, pointing to a drop in U.S real yields as inflation expectations rose.
“Maybe that was enough to get people back into the short dollar, long precious metals, long tech trade,” he said.
Rising fuel costs lifted U.S. consumer prices 0.6% last month, compared with expectations for 0.3%, leaving core inflation at 1.6% for the year to July.
At the same time, the number of daily new COVID-19 infections in the United States seems to be stabilising around 55,000. S&P 500 futures ESc1 traded flat.
The bond market was steady after a huge auction and the generally upbeat mood drove selling overnight, with benchmark 10-year U.S. debt yielding 0.6622%.
A softer dollars helped gold rise steadily, adding 1% to $1,937 an ounce after whipsawing around $1,900 overnight.
More
China's Shenzhen says chicken imported from Brazil tests positive for coronavirus
August 13, 2020
/ 1:46 AM
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A sample of frozen chicken wings imported
into the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen from Brazil has tested positive for
coronavirus, the city government said in a notice on Thursday.
Local disease control centres tested a surface sample taken from the
chicken wings as part of routine screenings carried out on meat and seafood
imports since June, when a new outbreak in Beijing was linked to the city’s
Xinfadi seafood market.
Shenzhen’s health authorities traced and tested everyone who might have
come into contact with potentially contaminated food products, and also tested
food products stored near the infected batch. All the results were negative,
the notice said.
The Brazilian embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
The Shenzhen Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters said the
public needed to remain cautious when it comes to imported meat and seafood,
and must take precautions in order to reduce infection risks.
China reported on Wednesday that coronavirus had been found on the
packaging of shrimps imported from Ecuador, and several other cities have
reported cases of contaminated seafood.
In addition to screening all meat and seafood containers coming into
major ports in recent months, China has suspended some meat imports from
various origins, including Brazil, since mid-June.
---- Experts say that while the SARS-CoV-2 virus is capable of infiltrating food or food packaging materials, it cannot reproduce and cannot survive at room temperature for long.
However, Li Fengqin, who heads a microbiology lab at the China National
Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment told reporters in June that contaminated
food put in cold storage could be a potential source of transmission.
‘A Smoking Gun’: Infectious Coronavirus Retrieved From Hospital Air
Airborne virus plays a significant
role in community transmission, many experts believe. A new study fills in the
missing piece: Floating virus can infect cells.
Skeptics of the notion that the coronavirus spreads through the air — including many expert advisers to the World Health Organization — have held out for one missing piece of evidence: proof that floating respiratory droplets called aerosols contain live virus, and not just fragments of genetic material.
Now a team of virologists and
aerosol scientists has produced
exactly that: confirmation of infectious virus in the air.
“This is what people have been
clamoring for,” said Linsey Marr, an expert in airborne spread of viruses who
was not involved in the work. “It’s unambiguous evidence that there is
infectious virus in aerosols.”
A research team at the University of
Florida succeeded in isolating live virus from aerosols collected at a distance
of seven to 16 feet from patients hospitalized with Covid-19 — farther than the
six feet recommended in social distancing guidelines.
The findings, posted online last week, have not yet been vetted by peer review, but have already caused something of a stir among scientists. “If this isn’t a smoking gun, then I don’t know what is,” Dr. Marr tweeted last week.
But some experts said it still was
not clear that the amount of virus recovered was sufficient to cause infection.
The research was exacting. Aerosols
are minute by definition, measuring only up to five micrometers across;
evaporation can make them even smaller. Attempts to capture these delicate
droplets usually damage the virus they contain.
More
How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond
This coronavirus is here for the long haul
— here’s what scientists predict for the next months and years.
05 August 2020
June 2021. The world has been in pandemic mode for a year and a half. The virus continues to spread at a slow burn; intermittent lockdowns are the new normal. An approved vaccine offers six months of protection, but international deal-making has slowed its distribution. An estimated 250 million people have been infected worldwide, and 1.75 million are dead.
Scenarios such as this one imagine how the COVID-19 pandemic might play out1. Around the world, epidemiologists are constructing short- and long-term projections as a way to prepare for, and potentially mitigate, the spread and impact of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Although their forecasts and timelines vary, modellers agree on two things: COVID-19 is here to stay, and the future depends on a lot of unknowns, including whether people develop lasting immunity to the virus, whether seasonality affects its spread, and — perhaps most importantly — the choices made by governments and individuals. “A lot of places are unlocking, and a lot of places aren’t. We don’t really yet know what’s going to happen,” says Rosalind Eggo, an infectious-disease modeller at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
“The future will very much depend on how much social mixing resumes, and what kind of prevention we do,” says Joseph Wu, a disease modeller at the University of Hong Kong. Recent models and evidence from successful lockdowns suggest that behavioural changes can reduce the spread of COVID-19 if most, but not necessarily all, people comply.
----If immunity to the virus lasts less than a year, for example, similar to other human coronaviruses in circulation, there could be annual surges in COVID-19 infections through to 2025 and beyond.
Here, Nature explores what the science says about the months and years to come.
What happens in the near future?
The pandemic is not playing out in the same way from place to place. Countries such as China, New Zealand and Rwanda have reached a low level of cases — after lockdowns of varying lengths — and are easing restrictions while watching for flare-ups. Elsewhere, such as in the United States and Brazil, cases are rising fast after governments lifted lockdowns quickly or never activated them nationwide.The latter group has modellers very worried. In South Africa, which now ranks fifth in the world for total COVID-19 cases, a consortium of modellers estimates2 that the country can expect a peak in August or September, with around one million active cases, and cumulatively as many as 13 million symptomatic cases by early November. In terms of hospital resources, “we’re already breaching capacity in some areas, so I think our best-case scenario is not a good one”, says Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis at Stellenbosch University.
More
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02278-5?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
Finally, how’s WeWork doing? Another Fed corporate bailout coming?
Coworking Companies Expanded Rapidly. Now They’re Retreating Fast
Coronavirus upends their business model, exposing those with pricey leases
By Aug. 11, 2020 5:30 am ET
The world’s biggest coworking companies are starting to
close money-losing locations across the globe, signaling an end to years of
expansion in what had been one of real estate’s hottest sectors.
The retreat reflects an effort to
slash costs at a time when the coronavirus is reducing demand for office space,
and perhaps for years to come. It also shows how bigger coworking firms, in a
race to sign as many leases as possible and grab market share, overexpanded and
became saddled with debt and expensive leases.
The share of coworking spaces that
have closed is still small. In the first half of the year, closures
accounted for just 1.5% of the space occupied by flexible-office companies in
the 20 biggest U.S. markets, according to CBRE
Group Inc
Scott Homa, head of office research
at brokerage JLL, says the impact has been modest partly because some
operators have been able to get rent relief and because closing locations takes
time. But JLL estimates that of the roughly 4,500 coworking locations in the U.S.
a fifth, or about 25 million square feet, will likely close or change
operators.
IWG
PLC, the world’s biggest flexible-office firm by number of locations, said
recently it had closed 32 locations in the first half of this year because of
the coronavirus pandemic. The company plans to close around 100 locations in
the second half of the year, or 4% of its total spaces, according to its chief
executive, Mark Dixon.
More
The statesman who should
attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their
capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but
assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single
person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so
dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to
fancy himself fit to exercise it.
Adam Smith, The
Wealth Of Nations, 1776.
Covid-19 Corner
What Scientists Know About Airborne Transmission of the New Coronavirus
Aerosol experts, from engineers to doctors, weigh in on the ability of tiny droplets to transmit the virus that causes COVID-19
Over the past few months, an increasing number of scientists, clinicians,
and engineers have called for greater recognition that aerosols, in addition to
larger droplets can transmit the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. While
the difference is literally miniscule, acknowledging this route of transmission
would result in significant changes in how the public can bring an end to the
global pandemic. In the near term, it would inform social distancing and mask
wearing recommendations from local governments, and in the long term, engineers
and architects will need to rethink ventilation and air filtration in the
design of everything from schools to cruise ships.
Aerosols are microscopic particles that can remain airborne for hours,
and carry pathogens up to dozens of meters, under the right conditions.
Scientists who study airborne infection generally consider aerosols to be
particles smaller in diameter than five micrometers, or 0.005 millimeters, less
than one-tenth the width of a human hair.
Larger droplets, commonly referred to
as “droplets,” expelled by sneezing or coughing tend to fall to the ground or
other surfaces rather quickly, while aerosols hang around for minutes to hours.
How long a virus can remain airborne depends on the size of the droplet
containing it. “That determines everything about how far it can travel, how
long it can stay airborne before it falls to the ground,” says Linsey Marr, a
professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.
More
Scientists Think They Found the Coronavirus’ Weak Spot
Critical hit!
by Dan Robitzski / August 11 2020
It all comes down to a tiny region right next to the virus’s spike proteins, which latch onto new host cells, according to research published last week in the journal ACS Nano. Explaining the weakness requires a little bit of a primer on biochemistry, so bear with us, but the Northwestern University scientists suggest targeting this weak point could render the virus inert.
Here goes: It can be difficult to conceptualize, but the microscopic interactions among molecules, proteins, and cells interact really boil down to electrostatics. Opposite charges attract and like charges repel each other, just like on a magnet. Well, this tiny region on the coronavirus, located just 10 nanometers from the part of the spike protein that gloms onto a victim’s cells, has a positive charge.
Because the receptors on our cells that the virus targets have a negative charge, the two are pulled together by this electrostatic force and create a tight bond that ultimately allows the virus to infect the cell. This weak-spot region had been hiding in plain sight: 10 nanometers is impossibly small to humans but a fairly large clearing when it comes to electrostatic interactions, so other researchers may have assumed it was just too far away to matter.
The scientists behind the discovery tested their work by blocking the region with a negatively-charged molecule, which then prevents the coronavirus from being able to target a host cell. But unfortunately, turning that molecule into an actual treatment will be time-consuming and tricky work.
Russia Says It Has Approved an Untested COVID Vaccine
Its effectiveness and safety have yet to be
proven.
11 August, 2020
Russian president Vladimir Putin has announced that the country has approved a coronavirus vaccine, becoming the first country in the world to do so. Throwing caution to the wind, the vaccine has yet to complete Phase 3 trials, a vital step most experts believe is critical to proving a vaccine both safe and effective.
Just last week, the World Health Organization reiterated the need for caution, warning Russia directly to not stray from the usual testing to ensure the safety.
The move is likely a claim to victory for Putin. Yet, no peer-reviewed evidence has yet to surface of the approved vaccine being safe.
“It works effectively enough, forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, it has gone through all necessary tests,” Putin said during a Tuesday morning meeting, as quoted by The New York Times. He also extended thanks to the scientists behind the efforts and for “this first, very important step for our country, and generally for the whole world.”
Putin also announced that one of his daughters took the vaccine. Officials have also told CNN that at least 20 countries and some US companies expressed interest in the vaccine.
The vaccine was approved, but Phase 3 trials, generally the final stage of testing involving tens of thousands of participants, are only starting tomorrow.
That’s a massive red flag to experts. “The collateral damage from release of any vaccine that was less than safe and effective would exacerbate our current problems insurmountably,” Danny Altmann, Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London, told the Science Media Centre.
“This is a reckless and foolish decision,” Francois Balloux, Professor of Computational Systems Biology at University College London said, according to the Science Media Centre.
“Mass vaccination with an improperly tested vaccine is unethical,” Balloux added. “Any problem with the Russian vaccination campaign would be disastrous both through its negative effects on health, but also because it would further set back the acceptance of vaccines in the population.”
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.
Smart bricks store energy in the walls themselves
Michael Irving August
11, 2020
Boring
old bricks might not seem like something that can really be made high-tech, but
researchers keep proving us wrong. Now, a team has found a way to turn bricks
into energy storage devices, using them to power a green LED in a proof of
concept study.
A
brick wall doesn’t exactly do much – sure it holds up the roof and keeps the
cold out, but maybe the bricks could pull their weight a bit more. That was the
goal for a team of scientists at Washington University in St Louis, who wanted
to test whether bricks could be used to store electricity.
The team started with regular red bricks, then gave them extra abilities
by coating them in a conductive polymer called PEDOT. This stuff is made up of
nanofibers that work their way inside the porous structure of the bricks,
eventually turning the whole into “an ion sponge” that conducts and stores
energy.
In particular, these bricks become supercapacitors, which can store
larger amounts of energy and be charged and discharged more quickly than
batteries. They can be stacked together to make a bigger or smaller energy
storage device, and the whole wall is then finished off with a coat of epoxy to
keep the elements out and the electricity in.
In tests, the team showed that a brick could charge to 3 volts in 10
seconds, and then light up a green LED for 10 minutes. It even worked
underwater. Scaling it up, the team says that these power bricks could be
hooked up to renewable sources like solar cells, to run an array of
microelectronic sensors and lights. And as a supercapacitor, the bricks could
be recharged hundreds of thousands of times every hour.
“PEDOT-coated bricks are ideal building blocks that can provide power to
emergency lighting,” says Julio D’Arcy, lead author of the study. “We envision
that this could be a reality when you connect our bricks with solar cells –
this could take 50 bricks in close proximity to the load. These 50 bricks would
enable powering emergency lighting for five hours.”
The method is reportedly simple and inexpensive to perform, and can be
done on brand new bricks or to recycle old ones.
Source: Washington University in St. Louis
Consumption is the
sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought
to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the
consumer.
Adam Smith, The
Wealth Of Nations, 1776.
The Monthly Coppock Indicators finished July
DJIA: 26,428 -1 Up. NASDAQ: 10,745 +243 Up. SP500:
3,271 +89 Up.
The NASDAQ
has remained up. The DJIA and SP500 have turned up. With stock mania running
fueled by trillions of central bankster new fiat money programs, I would not
rely on the indicators.
No comments:
Post a Comment