November
20, 2020 12:57 AM By Alwyn
Scott
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock prices and bond yields
fell in relatively light trading on Friday as investors reacted to dwindling
aid for the U.S. economy and rising coronavirus infection rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI .SPX .IXIC
The S&P 500 and the Dow posted marginal
losses for the week,while the tech-laden Nasdaq settled a bit higher from
lastFriday’s close.
Benchmark 10-year Treasuries yields US10YT=RR
In afternoon trading, the dollar was flat
against a currency basket at 92.369 in a quiet day for currency markets. The
euro was down 0.1% against the dollar at $1.1859 EUR=EBS
Investors mostly sat pat on positions after
recognizing that a wind-down of U.S. Federal Reserve pandemic lending programs
was unlikely to have much effect, said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer,
the Bahnsen Group, a wealth management firm in Newport Beach, California.
“It would be
virtually incomprehensible that any market actor could have actually thought
that extension of the emergency provisions of the Fed was needed,” Bahnsen
said.
Much of the
money has not even been used, he added.
---- Investors remain worried about the
economic cost of rising infections and new lockdowns and restrictions, which
grew Friday. White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Deborah Birx on
Friday said more than half the United States was a virus-rampant “red zone,”
and Americans should limit gatherings on Thanksgiving Day to immediate family
members.
But
investors also are moving beyond the safety of big tech stocks to small cap and
even emerging markets as they anticipate improving economies next year, Bahnsen
said.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/stocks-bonds-fall-dollar-flat-as-fed-fears-subside-idUKKBN28003G
U.S. officials worry about
holiday spike as coronavirus surges by Reuters Friday, 20 November 2020 17:47
GMT
CHICAGO, Nov
20 (Reuters) - U.S. health authorities braced for further increases in COVID-19
infections, hospitalizations and deaths on Friday, capping a week in which the
spread of the novel coronavirus accelerated ahead of next week's Thanksgiving
holiday.
The
seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases reached more than 165,000 on
Thursday, while the seven-day average for deaths climbed to 1,359, more than
any day since late May, according to a Reuters tally of public health data.
With
hospitalizations rising across much of the nation, straining already exhausted
medical staff, officials in more than 20 states have imposed restrictions to
curtail the spread of the virus.
The White
House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, said the virus is
spreading at a high rate across more than half the country and that
Thanksgiving gatherings should be limited to immediate family members rather
than a maximum number of people.
"I
don't like it to be any number... if you say it can be 10, and it's eight
people from four different families, then that probably is not the same degree
of safe as 10 people from your immediate household," Birx told CNN on
Friday.
In a
positive sign for combating the pandemic, Pfizer Inc said it will apply to U.S.
health regulators on Friday for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19
vaccine, the first such application in a major step toward providing protection
against the virus.
Pfizer and
German partner BioNTech SE this week reported final trial results that showed
the vaccine was 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 with no major safety
concerns.
If the data
is solid, "we literally could be weeks away from the authorization of a
95% effective vaccine," U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar said on CBS'
"This Morning."
California's
governor on Thursday imposed some of the most stringent restrictions on the
vast majority of the state's population, with a curfew on social gatherings and
other non-essential activities that will start on Saturday night and end on the
morning of Dec. 21.
"The
virus is spreading at a pace we haven't seen since the start of this pandemic,
and the next several days and weeks will be critical to stop the surge,"
Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement announcing the measure a
week before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Similar
restrictions took effect in Ohio this week, while Minnesota ordered a shutdown
of restaurants, bars, fitness centers and entertainment venues from Friday
until Dec. 18 at the earliest, as the state's hospital intensive care units
were stretched to capacity.
In Illinois,
where the number of COVID-19 tests coming back positive was at an alarmingly
high 20% and new restrictions, including a ban on indoor dining, took effect on
Friday, long lines appeared again at testing sites.
More
https://news.trust.org/item/20201120154227-0ls0m
Finally,
what happens when you try to cancel Christmas? Just ask Ollie Cromwell and his dour
Puritans.
When
Christmas was cancelled: a lesson from history November 13, 2020 11.15am GMT
----Back in 1647, Christmas was banned in the kingdoms of
England (which at the time included Wales), Scotland and Ireland and it didn’t
work out very well. Following a total ban on everything festive, from
decorations to gatherings, rebellions broke out across the country. While some
activity took the form of hanging holly in defiance, other action was far more
radical and went on to have historical consequences.
Christmas
is cancelled In 1647, parliament had won the civil war in
England, Scotland and Ireland and King Charles was held
in captivity at Hampton Court . The Church of England had been abolished and
replaced by a Presbyterian system.
The protestant reformation had restructured churches across
the British Isles, and holy days, Christmas included, were abolished.
The usual festivities during the 12 days of Christmas
(December 25 to January 5) were deemed unacceptable. Shops had to stay open
throughout Christmastide, including Christmas Day. Displays of Christmas
decorations – holly, ivy and other evergreens – were banned. Other traditions,
such as feasting and the celebratory consumption of alcohol, consumed in large
quantities then as now, were likewise restricted.
Christmas Day, however, didn’t pass quietly. People across
England, Scotland and Ireland flouted the rules. In Norwich, the mayor had
already been presented with a petition calling for a celebration
of a traditional Christmas . He could not allow this publicly, but ignored
illegal celebrations across the city.
In Canterbury, the usual Christmas football game was played
and festive holly bushes were stood outside house doors. Over the 12 days of
Christmas, the partying spread across all of Kent and armed force had to be
used to break up the fun.
Christmas Day was celebrated in the very heart of
Westminster and the churchwardens of St Margaret’s church (which is part of
Westminster Abbey) were arrested for failing to stop the party. The London
streets were decked with holly and ivy and the shops were closed. The mayor of
London was verbally assaulted as he tried to rip down the Christmas decorations
with the help of the city’s own battle-hardened veteran regiments.
Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk also celebrated
Christmas rowdily. Young men armed with spiked clubs patrolled the streets
persuading the shopkeepers to stay shut.
Taking up arms and breaking the rules weren’t just about
experiencing the fun of the season. Fighting against the prohibition of
Christmas was a political act. Things had changed and the Christmas rebellion
was as much a protest against the “new normal” as it was against the banning of
fun. People were fed up with a range of restrictions and financial difficulties
that came with the Presbyterian system and the fallout of the civil war.
More
https://theconversation.com/when-christmas-was-cancelled-a-lesson-from-history-149310?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat, Please put a
trillion in the banksters’ hat. If you haven’t got a trillion a billion will
do, If you haven’t got a billion, God damn you!
Ebenezer
Squid
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
"'Curiouser
and curiouser! “
The
Lancet, with apologies to Lewis Carroll and Alice.
EcoHealth Alliance
orchestrated key scientists’ statement on “natural origin” of SARS-CoV-2 Posted on November 18, 2020 by Sainath Suryanarayanan
Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent
public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that
COVID-19 does not have a natural origin” was organized by employees of
EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S.
taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate
coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology .
The emails obtained via public records requests show that
EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak drafted the Lancet statement,
and that he intended it to “not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or
person” but rather to be seen as “simply a letter from leading scientists” . Daszak wrote
that he wanted “to avoid the appearance of a political statement ”.
The scientists’ letter appeared in The Lancet on
February 18, just one week after the World Health Organization announced that
the disease caused by the novel coronavirus would be named COVID-19.
The 27 authors “strongly condemn[ed] conspiracy theories
suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” and reported that
scientists from multiple countries “overwhelmingly conclude that this
coronavirus originated in wildlife.” The letter included no scientific
references to refute a lab-origin theory of the virus. One scientist, Linda
Saif, asked via email whether it would be useful “to add just one or 2 statements in support of why nCOV is not
a lab generated virus and is naturally occuring? Seems critical to
scientifically refute such claims!” Daszak responded, “I think we should probably stick to a broad statement .”
Growing calls to investigate the Wuhan Institute of
Virology as a potential source of SARS-CoV-2 have led to increased scrutiny of EcoHealth Alliance. The emails show
how members of EcoHealth Alliance played an early role in framing questions
about possible lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 as “crackpot theories that need to be
addressed,” as Daszak told The Guardian .
Although the phrase “EcoHealth Alliance” appeared only once
in The Lancet statement, in association with co-author Daszak, several
other co-authors also have direct ties to the group that were not disclosed as
conflicts of interest. Rita Colwell and James Hughes are members
of the Board of Directors of EcoHealth Alliance, William Karesh is the group’s Executive Vice President for
Health and Policy, and Hume
Field is Science and Policy Advisor.
The statement’s authors also claimed that the “rapid, open,
and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by
rumours and misinformation around its origins.” Today, however, little is known about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and investigations into
its origins by the World Health Organization and The Lancet COVID-19 commissionshrouded in secrecy and mired by conflicts of
interests .
Peter Daszak, Rita Colwell, and The Lancet Editor
Richard Horton did not provide comments in response to our requests for this
story.
https://usrtk.org/biohazards-blog/ecohealth-alliance-orchestrated-key-scientists-statement-on-natural-origin-of-sars-cov-2/
U.S. CDC reports 251,715
deaths from coronavirus November 20, 20206:48
PM
(Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 11,650,817 cases of the novel
coronavirus, an increase of 185,095 cases from its previous count, and said
that the number of deaths had risen by 2,045 to 251,715.
The CDC reported its tally of cases of the
respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm
ET on Nov. 19 versus its previous report a day earlier.(bit.ly/3nupR2j
The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect
cases reported by individual states.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-usa-cdc/u-s-cdc-reports-251715-deaths-from-coronavirus-idUKKBN2802HE?il=0
COVID-19 reinfection unlikely
for at least six months, study finds November 20, 2020 10:57 AM By Kate
Kelland
LONDON (Reuters) - People who’ve had COVID-19 are highly
unlikely to contract it again for at least six months after their first
infection, according to a British study of healthcare workers on the frontline
of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The findings
should offer some reassurance for the more than 51 million people worldwide who
have been infected with the pandemic disease, researchers at the University of
Oxford said.
“This is
really good news, because we can be confident that, at least in the short term,
most people who get COVID-19 won’t get it again,” said David Eyre, a professor
at Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health, who co-led the study.
Isolated
cases of re-infection with COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2
virus, had raised concerns that immunity might be short-lived and that
recovered patients may swiftly fall sick again.
But the
results of this study, carried out in a cohort of UK healthcare workers - who
are among those at highest risk of contracting COVID-19 - suggest cases of
reinfection are likely to remain extremely rare.
“Being
infected with COVID-19 does offer protection against re-infection for most
people for at least six months,” Eyre said. “We found no new symptomatic
infections in any of the participants who had tested positive for antibodies.”
The study,
part of a major staff testing programme, covered a 30-week period between April
and November 2020. Its results have not peer-reviewed by other scientists but
were published before review on the MedRxiv website.
During the
study, 89 of 11,052 staff without antibodies developed a new infection with
symptoms, while none of the 1,246 staff with antibodies developed a symptomatic
infection.
Staff with
antibodies were also less likely to test positive for COVID-19 without
symptoms, the researchers said, with 76 without antibodies testing positive,
compared to only three with antibodies. Those three were all well and did not
develop COVID-19 symptoms, they added.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-reinfection/covid-19-reinfection-unlikely-for-at-least-six-months-study-finds-idUKKBN28015E
MMR vaccine may protect
against severe illness from COVID-19, study finds Nov. 20, 2020 / 4:59 PM
Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine appears to offer at least
some protection against COVID-19 , possibly preventing severe illness from the
disease, a study published Friday by the online journal mBio
found.
Among 41 people born in the United States who received the
shot -- known as the MMR vaccine -- eight had immunity against the new
coronavirus or had no symptoms after becoming infected, the researchers said.
This apparent immunity against severe COVID-19 may have
been because of their high levels of antibodies -- or immune cells that fight
off infection -- against the mumps, they said.
Seventeen people who received the MMR vaccine but had lower
mumps antibody levels developed only mild COVID-19 symptoms, while those with
the fewest mumps antibodies after vaccination suffered moderate illness or
needed to be hospitalized for treatment.
"This
adds to other associations demonstrating that the MMR vaccine may be protective
against COVID-19," study co-author Dr. Jeffrey E. Gold said in a
statement.
"It
also may explain why children have a much lower COVID-19 case rate than adults,
as well as a much lower death rate," said Gold, who is president of
Watkinsville, Georgia-based World Organization, which led the research.
More than
95% of all children in the United States receive their first MMR vaccination at
12 to 15 months old and a second shot between the ages of 4 and 6 years,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which strongly recommends
the shot.
More
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2020/11/20/MMR-vaccine-may-protect-against-severe-illness-from-COVID-19-study-finds/7641605890132/
Finally, MedCram.com takes an in depth look at Moderna’s
vaccine compared to Pfizer’s vaccine.
Vaccines, Moderna compared to Pfizer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZvsqBCvB00
Next, some very useful vaccine
links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World Health Organization -
Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine
Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
FDA information . https://www.fda.gov/media/139638/download
Regulatory Focus COVID-19
vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some more useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
Winter
Watch.
The Arctic winter sea-ice expansion and
northern hemisphere snow cover. From around mid-October, the northern
hemisphere snow cover usually rapidly expands, while the Arctic ice gradually
expands back towards its winter maximum.
Over simplified, a rapid expansion of
both, especially if early, can be a sign of a harsher than normal arriving
northern hemisphere winter. Perhaps more so in 2020-2021 as we’re in the low of
the ending sunspot cycle, which possibly also influenced this year’s record
Atlantic hurricane season.
Adding to this year’s winter concerns,
a developing La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific. While the La Nina effect
on the winter weather of western Europe is weaker than that of an El Nino
pattern, which tends to make for a milder winter, a La Nina pattern tends to
make for a colder winter.
Northern Eur-Asia turned snowy fast in
mid-October. The Arctic sea ice
expansion was slow, and from a very low level at the end of September, but with
the vastly expanded snow cover, sea ice formation sped up.
With the Laptev sea ice virtually back
to normal, at the end of the third week of November I’m starting to think that
it will likely be a normal to slightly warmer winter ahead for western Europe.
The failure of the Kara Sea ice to
return to normal, would lead me to bet on a warmer western European winter ahead.
US National Ice
Center.
https://www.natice.noaa.gov
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.
Getting single-crystal diamond
ready for electronics Date: November 10, 2020
Source: Osaka University
Summary: Researchers polished
single-crystal diamond to near-atomic smoothness without damaging it. This will
improve the performance and sustainability of future electronics.
Silicon has
been the workhorse of electronics for decades because it is a common element,
is easy to process, and has useful electronic properties. A limitation of
silicon is that high temperatures damage it, which limits the operating speed
of silicon-based electronics. Single-crystal diamond is a possible alternative
to silicon. Researchers recently fabricated a single-crystal diamond wafer, but
common methods of polishing the surface -- a requirement for use in electronics
-- are a combination of slow and damaging.
In a study
recently published in Scientific Reports , researchers from Osaka
University and collaborating partners polished a single-crystal diamond wafer
to be nearly atomically smooth. This procedure will be useful for helping
diamond replace at least some of the silicon components of electronic devices.
Diamond is
the hardest known substance and essentially does not react with chemicals.
Polishing it with a similarly hard tool damages the surface and conventional
polishing chemistry is slow. In this study, the researchers in essence first
modified the quartz glass surface and then polished diamond with modified
quartz glass tools.
"Plasma-assisted
polishing is an ideal technique for single-crystal diamond," explains lead
author Nian Liu. "The plasma activates the carbon atoms on the diamond
surface without destroying the crystal structure, which lets a quartz glass
plate gently smooth away surface irregularities."
The
single-crystal diamond, before polishing, had many step-like features and was wavy
overall, with an average root mean square roughness of 0.66 micrometers. After
polishing, the topographical defects were gone, and the surface roughness was
far less: 0.4 nanometers.
"Polishing
decreased the surface roughness to near-atomic smoothness," says senior
author Kazuya Yamamura. "There were no scratches on the surface, as seen
in scaife mechanical smoothing approaches."
Furthermore,
the researchers confirmed that the polished surface was unaltered chemically.
For example, they detected no graphite -- therefore, no damaged carbon. The
only detected impurity was a very small amount of nitrogen from the original
wafer preparation.
"Using
Raman spectroscopy, the full width at half maximum of the diamond lines in the
wafer were the same, and the peak positions were almost identical," says
Liu. "Other polishing techniques show clear deviations from pure
diamond."
With this
research development, high-performance power devices and heat sinks based on
single-crystal diamond are now attainable. Such technologies will dramatically
lower the power use and carbon input, and improve the performance, of future
electronic devices.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201110081555.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
This weekend’s musical diversion. More from the oboe King. Tomaso Albinoni Oboe Concerto
in D minor op 9 no 2 (3rd movement) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LshdKZreRV4
This weekend’s great chess game. Lost in 12 Moves! || Vidit vs
Firouzja || Prague Chess Festival (2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQLMncztFQ
This weekend’s numbers problem. Well
it’s autumn and we have more time indoors to kill.
Zero Factorial – Numberphile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfk_L4Nx2ZI
In more polite
circles, John Jerk and his brother are called “the little fellows” or “the odd-lotters”
or “the small investors.” I wish I knew Mr. Jerk and his brother. They live in
some place called the Hinterlands, and everything they do is wrong. They buy
when the smart people sell, they sell when the smart people buy, and they panic
at exactly the wrong time. There are services that make a very good living out
of charting the activity of Mr. J. and his poor brother. If I knew them I would
give them room and board and consult them…. I would push the pheasant and
champagne through the little hatch of his cell and ask Mr. J. what he was going
to do that morning, and if he said, “buy,” I would know to sell, and so on.
- “The Day They
Red-Dogged Motorola,” The New York World Journal Tribune, Oct. 30, 1966. George J. W. Goodman aka “Adam Smith.”
No comments:
Post a Comment