Thursday 2 December 2021

Santa Omicroned? RSA Infections Surge.

Baltic Dry Index. 3097 +39 Brent Crude 69.25

Spot Gold 1777

Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000

Deaths 53,100

Coronavirus Cases 02/12/21 World 263,758,247

Deaths 5,242,146

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

Lao Tzu.

But was this a natural and spontaneous change? 

Today’s big news is the surge in new Covid  infections in South Africa, albeit with the hope, but not certainty, that the new omicron infections produce a less severe infection than the Delta variant.

The USA yesterday reported its first omicron infection but there’s certainly going to be more. 

Globally more countries imposed travel restrictions, vaccine requirements, and generally moved in ways that will slow the global economic recovery.

Despite the impending OPEC+ meeting, crude oil sold off on expectations of reduced oil demand from the travel restrictions. 

In the stock casinos, the usual Santa Claus rally seems to have been omicroned. Did Santa just catch Covid?

Dow finishes 460 points lower in major reversal triggered by first U.S. omicron case

The major averages fell sharply, giving up solid gains, on Wednesday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first case of omicron in the U.S.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 461.68 points to 34,022.04, after being up more than 520 points at the high of the day. The S&P 500 lost nearly 1.2% to end at 4,513.04. The broad-market index closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time since Oct. 13. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.8% to 15,254.05 after rising as much as 1.8% earlier in the session

Wednesday’s moves continue a volatile streak of the last four sessions as the omicron threat emerged.

Stocks’ reversal came after the CDC reported the country’s first case of the new, heavily mutated coronavirus variant called omicron in California. Omicron — first detected last week in South Africa — has been reported in at least 23 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Travel stocks were the biggest losers following news of the first case on U.S. shores. American Airlines fell nearly 8%, Delta Air Lines dropped 7.3%, and United Airlines slipped 7.5%. Aerospace manufacturer Boeing lost 4.8%.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Carnival got hit by 8.8% and 7%, respectively. Wynn Resorts fell 6.1% and Hilton Worldwide ended the day about 3.8% lower.

Retailers also took hits on Wednesday. Nordstrom closed down 5.3% and Kohl’s lost 5.6%. Best Buy and Macy’s dropped 4.3% and 4.6%, respectively.

----The newfound threat to the recovery from the pandemic, which caused several travel bans, is intensified by the Federal Reserve mulling a quicker-than-planned exit from its easy monetary policy.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell jolted markets on Tuesday after he said the central bank is expected to discuss speeding up the taper of its minimum $120 billion a month bond-buying program. Despite the potential disruption of omicron, the Fed chief said he thinks reducing the pace of monthly bond buys can move quicker than the $15 billion-a-month schedule announced earlier this month. Powell’s comments left the Dow down more than 650 points on Tuesday.

----The major averages have seen several volatile sessions, starting last Friday when the Dow experienced its worst day since October 2020. Stocks rebounded on Monday, only to turn downward again on Tuesday.

This week, the Dow is down 2.5% and the S&P 500 has lost nearly 1.8%. The Nasdaq Composite is down 1.5% since Monday.

On the data front, ADP’s private payroll data for November showed 534,000 jobs added that month, above expectations of 506,000.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/30/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html

First Omicron case in U.S. adds to global alarm over virus variant

TOKYO/WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Fears over the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus rose on Thursday after the first case was reported in the United States and the Japanese central bank warned of economic pain as countries respond with tighter containment measures.

The first known U.S. case was a fully vaccinated person in California who returned to the United States from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive seven days later.

President Joe Biden is working on the U.S. strategy for fighting COVID-19 this winter and sources briefed on the matter told Reuters one step will be extending requirements for travelers to wear masks through mid-March. A formal announcement is expected on Thursday, the sources said.

The White House also plans to announce stricter testing rules for international visitors.

Airlines in the United States were told to hand over the names of passengers arriving from parts of southern Africa hit by Omicron, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention letter seen by Reuters.

Much remains unknown about the new variant, which was first found on Nov. 8 in South Africa and has spread to at least two dozen countries.

----Early indications suggesting Omicron may be markedly more contagious than previous variants have rattled financial markets, fearful that new restrictions could choke off a tentative recovery from the economic ravages of the pandemic.

Key sharemarket indices in Japan and Australia were weaker in morning trade on Thursday after Wall Street's major averages fell more than 1% on Wednesday as investors reacted to the first U.S. case and mounting concerns about inflation. read more

Bank of Japan board member Hitoshi Suzuki said Japan's economic recovery may miss expectations if the spread of the Omicron variant hurts consumption, or supply bottlenecks persist. read more

"If the impact of supply constraints are bigger or lasts longer than expected, there's a risk economic growth may further undershoot expectations" next year, Suzuki said.

About 56 countries were reportedly implementing travel measures to guard against Omicron as of Nov. 28, the WHO said.

In the latest restrictions, South Korea on Thursday halted quarantine exemptions for fully vaccinated inbound travellers for two weeks as daily coronavirus case numbers rose to a new high. read more South Korea confirmed its first five cases of the Omicron variant on Wednesday.

More

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-tightens-covid-19-travel-rules-countries-race-quell-omicron-threat-2021-12-01/

Japan suspends all incoming flights in December over COVID-19 concerns

Dec. 1, 2021 / 2:51 PM

Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Japan's government took steps on Wednesday to suspend all air travel into the country for the month of December over growing concerns about the newest COVID-19 variant.

The country's transportation ministry is calling the move an "emergency measure" and hopes it won't last longer than the initial one-month period.

The announcement comes after Japan recorded its second case of the Omicron variant.

That patient was fully vaccinated but tested positive upon arrival from Peru. The patient has now developed a fever and sore throat, after initially appearing asymptomatic.

The country asked its airlines to immediately stop issuing reservations on all incoming flights..

More

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/12/01/japan-suspends-travel-over-COVID-19-Omicron-variant/9871638385419/

Japan retracts new flight bookings ban after criticisms

TOKYO (AP) — Japan says it has retracted a ban on new incoming international flight bookings to defend against the new variant of the coronavirus only a day after the policy was announced, following criticisms that it was an overreaction.

The transport ministry on Wednesday issued a request to international airlines to stop taking new reservations for flights coming into Japan until the end of December as an emergency precaution to defend against the new omicron variant.

The ministry said Thursday it has retracted the request after receiving criticisms that the ban was too strict and tantamount to abandoning its own people.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the quick reversal of the policy took into consideration Japanese nationals’ traveling needs. Kishida has been pushing to take strong precautionary measures after his predecessor Yoshihide Suga virtually lost his leadership position amid public criticism that his virus measures were too limited and too slow.

The request had aimed to reduce Japan’s daily international arrivals to 3,500 from an earlier level of 5,000 to tighten border controls as the new variant spread around the world, officials said.

“The request, issued as an emergency precaution, triggered confusion,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters Thursday. He said the transport ministry has retracted the request for a uniformed stoppage on new bookings.

But a limit remains in place because the daily cap of 3,500 arrivals is being maintained. New bookings can be made as long as there is room under this cap, said transport ministry official Hitoshi Inoue.

More

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-japan-72b56ba08f59676ff4b81d5c7eddef6c

Omicron unravels travel industry’s plans for a comeback

Tourism businesses that were just finding their footing after nearly two years of devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic are being rattled again as countries throw up new barriers to travel in an effort to contain the omicron variant.

From shopping districts in Japan and tour guides in the Holy Land to ski resorts in the Alps and airlines the world over, a familiar dread is rising about the renewed restrictions.

Meanwhile, travelers eager to get out there have been thrown back into the old routine of reading up on new requirements and postponing trips.

Abby Moore, a librarian and associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, was scheduled to leave for Prague on Wednesday. But the day before her flight, she started having doubts when she saw that Prague had closed its Christmas markets and imposed a citywide curfew.

“I wasn’t really concerned about my trip until the Czech Republic started what looked like a mini-lockdown process,” said Moore, who decided to reschedule her travel to March.

Less than a month after significantly easing restrictions for inbound international travel, the U.S. government has banned most foreign nationals who have recently been in any of eight southern African countries. A similar boomerang was seen in Japan and Israel, both of which tightened restrictions shortly after relaxing them.

While it is not clear where the variant emerged, South African scientists identified it last week, and many places, including the European Union and Canada, have restricted travel from the wider region.

More

https://apnews.com/article/omicron-variant-travel-industry-d90a5190aefa24ae6e076b13e9dd22d4

Severe COVID-19 survivors face higher risk of death later from unrelated causes

Dec. 1, 2021 / 11:00 AM

Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Survivors of severe COVID-19 may have increased risk of death within 12 months of initial infection compared to people who never had the coronavirus, a study published Wednesday by the journal Frontiers in Medicine found.

People age 65 and younger who survived their initial infection, despite suffering serious illness, are more than three times likely to die over the next year than those who never had the virus, the data showed.

Adults age 65 and older who survived severe COVID-19 have more than double a higher risk for death in the ensuing year compared to uninfected people in the same age group, the researchers said.

And severe COVID-19 survivors of all ages are overall 2 1/2 times more likely to die over the next 12 months than uninfected people.

Only 20% of people with severe COVID-19 patients who die do so as a result of typical health complications associated with the virus, such as blood clots or lung failure, researchers said.

"We now know that there is a substantial risk of dying from what would likely be considered to be an unrecognized complication of COVID-19," co-author Arch Mainous said in a press release.

---- The study suggests that severe COVID-19 may significantly damage long-term health and highlights the importance of preventing severe disease through vaccination, he and his colleagues said.

The virus can cause severe symptoms and death for vulnerable people, particularly older adults and those with certain underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the pandemic has continued, greater attention has been placed on so-called "long-haul" COVID-19, or persistent symptoms of the virus such as severe fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive decline and depression that can last for months.

A study Mainous and his colleagues published in September found that people who recover from serious illness from the virus were more likely to be hospitalized for other reasons over the next six months than those uninfected.

More

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/12/01/COVID-19-severe-survivors-death-risk-study/1421638367958/

The only way to ensure that inflation expectations remain safely anchored near the FOMC's target is to keep inflation close to that target on a consistent basis.

Jerome Powell.

Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,  inflation now needs an entire section of its own.

Up first, well if Erdogan says so it must be true, right? But if inflation can be quickly fixed, why hasn’t he done it?

VW says going EV won’t be cheap.

Erdogan tells Turks not to panic, inflation can be quickly fixed

ISTANBUL, Dec 1 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Turks should act with reason and avoid panic after the lira slumped to record lows, adding that Turkey's current 20% annual inflation could be solved rapidly.

In a speech to lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament, Erdogan said it was unfair to judge the Turkish economy based solely on the inflation rate.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/erdogan-tells-turks-not-panic-inflation-can-be-quickly-fixed-2021-12-01/

Volkswagen exec warns battery technology and materials will cost north of $30bn

Wednesday 01 December 2021 1:11 pm

Volkswagen’s planned European battery cell plants and securing vital raw materials will cost as much as 30 billion euros ($34 billion), board member Thomas Schmall said, putting a price tag on the expansion for the first time.

Schmall, who is in charge of technology at Europe’s largest carmaker, said in an interview at  the  Reuters Next conference that Volkswagen would seek outside partners to fund it.

“We are talking about 25 to 30 billion (euros) … including the vertical chain of raw materials, not only the factories,” the 57-year old said, adding VW would not have to take the lead on funding and was not aiming for a 50/50 investment split.

“It depends on the partnership model we will establish in the next months. We’re open to discuss it. For us it’s necessary that we can control … the technology roadmap, the timing, the costs and the availability to enable our rollout.”

Schmall is overseeing Volkswagen’s ambitious plan to build six large battery cell plants in Europe by the end of the decade, a strategic pillar in its bid to overtake Tesla and become the world’s top electric vehicles seller.

Sweden’s Northvolt, the first plant in which Volkswagen owns a fifth, will start production premium cells for the German carmaker from 2023. The second plant, to be built jointly with China’s Gotion High-Tech in Salzgitter, is to start in 2025.

Four more plants will follow by the end of the decade, most likely in Spain, eastern Europe and two additional locations that have so far not been disclosed.

Costs will be 1 billion to 2 billion euros per plant while capacity will range from 40 up to a maximum of 80 gigawatt hours (GWh), depending on the chemistry as well as whether enough energy supplies are available, Schmall said.

---- Volkswagen, which plans to submit its next five-year investment plan to the supervisory board on Dec. 9, is pursuing a mix of strategies, which might even include becoming a shareholder in a mining firm.

“You will see the full range,” Schmall said, also referring to fixed and mixed price contracts with suppliers. “You have to tailor-fit solutions, necessarily, to specific raw materials.”

This also requires making sure that materials are procured sustainably, which, in Volkswagen’s case, includes transparency reports, supplier ratings, and efforts to phase out some materials, most notably cobalt.

More

https://www.cityam.com/volkswagen-exec-warns-battery-technology-and-materials-will-cost-north-of-30bn/

Coffee prices are at 10-year highs, and analysts say they have much further to go

Published Wed, Dec 1 2021 1:45 AM EST

Coffee prices have reached a 10-year high, and analysts expect tightness in the market to continue all the way into 2023.

Coffee contracts for December delivery ended Monday’s trading session at $2.34 per pound. On Thursday, coffee futures on New York’s Intercontinental Exchange reached $2.46, marking the highest price since 2011, when the commodity broke above $3 per pound.

Meanwhile, the International Coffee Association’s benchmark price was $2.07 per pound on Friday, up 85% from a year earlier.

Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, told CNBC that over the past 12 months, “a perfect storm of events [has been] conspiring to give our beloved bean a boost.”

“The question for future price action is how much of these developments are potentially longer-lasting,” he said in a phone call. “I think we need to focus on what’s been unfolding in Brazil this year, where we’ve had a generational low in temperatures, a very quick spell of frost which hit some of the growing areas, and we’ve had a period of drought – this has left the 2022 crop in a bit of a precarious state.”

Hansen added that these adverse weather events would affect the yield later this year, as well as in 2022 and potentially even 2023.

---- Alongside bad weather, global supply constraints have had a substantial impact on the coffee market because producers and roasters — the companies that refine coffee into the product we drink — are often located in different countries. Market uncertainty is also stemming from exporting countries such as Ethiopia, which is on the brink of a civil war, and Vietnam, which is seeing a rise in Covid-19 cases that could hit production.  

“I think on balance we have a market which is, for the first time in years, starting to show some tightness,” Hansen added.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/01/coffee-could-rally-for-years-after-hitting-10-year-high-analysts-say.html

Transitory isn’t the only thing Fed should retire

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is ditching the word “transitory” as a way of describing the current high rate of inflation. He and his global peers could usefully retire another unhelpful rhetorical device: so-called forward guidance.

The head of the U.S. central bank said on Tuesday that it was probably a good time to retire read more the term he and other rate-setters have used to justify a cautious approach to monetary policy in the face of sharp rises in consumer prices. That’s welcome, if overdue . Pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions are persisting much longer than Powell and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey had anticipated, and their verbal contortions have grown increasingly unconvincing.

Words have become an important part of central bankers’ armoury over the past decade as official interest rates sank to record lows near or below zero. Forward guidance – that is, comments about the future path of policy – offered them a way to influence markets and pin down borrowing costs. But the tool has drawbacks when the economic outlook is as uncertain as it is now . As Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said last week, central banks’ guidance should always be conditional on how circumstances evolve. However, traders and investors tend to interpret policymakers’ signals as hard and fast commitments.

The problem is one that the UK central bank knows all too well. Its former boss, Mark Carney, made a link between unemployment and policy rates but then didn’t behave in the way financial markets expected as jobless rates fell. And his successor, Andrew Bailey, gave the markets whiplash when the Bank of England unexpectedly left interest rates unchanged earlier in November read more .

Far better to be open about how policymakers’ thinking is fluid, especially when the economy is too. True, that will probably make asset prices somewhat more volatile, but it would avert long-term damage to central banks’ credibility. Skill in wielding a weapon means knowing when to put it down.

https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/transitory-isnt-only-thing-fed-should-retire-2021-11-30/

European Commission to inject €300bn into global infrastructure

Wednesday 01 December 2021 11:53 am

The European Commission is set to inject €300bn into global infrastructure, which is expected to create around 38m jobs in the process.

The hefty investment scheme, known as Global Gateway, is also intended to bolster trade to the European Union (EU), strengthen supply chains and tackle climate change.

The projects that will receive fiscal boosts will be dotted across the globe, with the plan mirroring China’s Belt and Road initiative, which saw it reinforce infrastructure in neighbouring countries in a bid to level up the wider region.

The cash will come from EU institutions, including financial institutions such as banks, alongside governments.

“The EU will offer its financing under fair and favourable terms in order to limit the risk of debt distress,” the Commission said in a statement.

The initiative will also “make sure projects deliver, by offering attractive investment and business-friendly trading conditions, regulatory convergence, standardisation, supply chain integration, and financial services”.

In bolstering national resources in surrounding states, the Commission said the Global Gateway plan aims to forge closer ties with other countries.

More

https://www.cityam.com/european-commission-to-inject-e300bn-into-global-infrastructure/

In the United States, after World War II, it took about two decades for the message to slowly seep in that inflation was going to be a permanent fact of the American way of life. 

Murray Rothbard.

Covid-19 Corner

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

S.African data suggests Omicron gets around some, not all immunity

Wed, December 1, 2021, 5:02 PM

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The Omicron variant appears able to get around some immunity but vaccines should still offer protection against severe disease, according to the latest data from South Africa where it is fast overtaking Delta to become the dominant variant. 

  Omicron, which has raised global fears of a surge in infections, was first detected in southern Africa last week and has prompted governments across continents to impose travel restrictions and take other measures to try and contain it. 

  The new variant has been detected in five out of nine South African provinces and was likely to be present all over the country, the latest official report showed on Wednesday. 

  The daily number of reported cases doubled to 8,561. It was not known how many of those were Omicron as not all test samples are subject to genomic sequencing, but an official presentation said Omicron was "rapidly becoming the dominant variant". 

  Omicron accounted for 74% of the 249 virus genomes sequenced in South Africa in November, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), which is collecting data as part of a wider national network for genomic surveillance. 

  South Africa conducts genome sequencing on only a small proportion of total samples collected each week. The NICD did not give a total number of confirmed cases of Omicron infection. 

  "(The) mutation profile and epidemiological picture suggests Omicron is able to get around some of our immune protection (to cause infection) but the protection against severe disease and death from vaccines should be less affected," the latest report from the surveillance network said. 

More

https://www.yahoo.com/news/omicron-present-five-nine-south-170208276.html

Hospitalizations up sharply in South African province where omicron variant detected

Tue, November 30, 2021, 3:50 PM

Coronavirus hospitalizations are sharply increasing in a South African province that has been identified as an early hot spot of the omicron variant, raising concerns about the new strain as health officials work to learn more about its transmissibility and severity.

The Gauteng province - which includes Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa - has seen hospitalizations spike by almost 400 percent since the beginning of November, according to NBC News.

During the week ending Nov. 6, hospitalizations in the province rose from 120 to 580, according to data from South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), cited by NBC News.

Hospitalizations, however, have hardly increased in other provinces in South Africa, NBC News noted. Large spikes were only discerned in two of the nine territories in recent months.

----South Africa has reported more than 33,000 new COVID-19 cases and more than 230 deaths in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University.

More

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hospitalizations-sharply-south-african-province-155022798.html

Brazil and Japan report first cases of the omicron variant

Brazil and Japan joined the rapidly widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant Tuesday, while new findings indicate the mutant coronavirus was already in Europe close to a week before South Africa sounded the alarm.

The Netherlands’ RIVM health institute disclosed that patient samples dating from Nov. 19 and 23 were found to contain the variant. It was on Nov. 24 that South African authorities reported the existence of the highly mutated virus to the World Health Organization.

That indicates omicron had a bigger head start in the Netherlands than previously believed.

Together with the cases in Japan and Brazil, the finding illustrates the difficulty in containing the virus in an age of jet travel and economic globalization. And it left the world once again whipsawed between hopes of returning to normal and fears that the worst is yet to come.

---- The pandemic has shown repeatedly that the virus “travels quickly because of our globalized, interconnected world,” said Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. Until the vaccination drive reaches every country, “we’re going to be in this situation again and again.”

Brazil, which has recorded a staggering total of more than 600,000 COVID-19 deaths, reported finding the variant in two travelers returning from South Africa — the first known omicron cases in Latin America. The travelers were tested on Nov. 25, authorities said.

Japan announced its first case, too, on the same day the country put a ban on all foreign visitors into effect. The patient was identified as a Namibian diplomat who had recently arrived from his homeland.

France likewise recorded its first case, in the far-flung island territory of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Authorities said the patient was a man who had returned to Reunion from South Africa and Mozambique on Nov. 20.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious disease expert, said much more will be known about omicron in the next several weeks, and “we’ll have a much better picture of what the challenge is ahead of us.”

---- In the meantime, a WHO official warned that given the growing number of omicron cases in South Africa and neighboring Botswana, parts of southern Africa could soon see infections skyrocket.

“There is a possibility that really we’re going to be seeing a serious doubling or tripling of the cases as we move along or as the week unfolds,” said Dr. Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, a WHO regional virologist.

More

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-oceans-mozambique-08b63b7e889463b1627623da26a86da4

Greece to make COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for people over 60

Nov. 30, 2021 / 5:22 PM

Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans Tuesday to fine people over the age of 60 if they aren't vaccinated against COVID-19.

"Greeks over the age of 60 ... must book their appointment for a first jab by Jan. 16," he said in a statement to his Cabinet, according to the BBC. "Their vaccination is henceforth compulsory."

Mitsotakis said the unvaccinated will be fined $113 monthly starting in mid-January. The funds collected will go toward the Greek health system, which is overtaxed by rising hospitalizations linked to the pandemic.

"It is not a punishment," he said, according to Bloomberg. "I would say it is a health fee."

Greece reported 7,486 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday amid a record high spike of cases since the start of pandemic. The country reported 90 deaths Tuesday, which, despite the record number of cases, is about on par with two earlier spikes in deaths in November 2020 and spring 2021.

Since the start of the pandemic, Greece has had more than 930,000 COVID-19 cases and 18,000 deaths.

Mitsotakis' vaccination requirement will be put before a vote in Greece's parliament, where the measure is expected to pass. If it does, Greece will be the first country in the European Union to require vaccinations for people based on age group.

More

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/11/30/greece-Greece-COVID-19-vaccine-fine/8981638305473/

Omicron Variant - The Good, Bad, and Ugly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsKYcBu9SWY

Approx. 5 minutes.

Next, some 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 vaccineshttps://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Trackerhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine trackerhttps://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker

Some other useful Covid links.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Rt Covid-19

https://rt.live/

Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)

https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national

 

Technology Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.

Ice-cream-like electrode may unlock cheap storage for renewable energy

Nick Lavars  November 30, 2021

Devices known as flow batteries attract a lot of attention from scientists looking for affordable solutions for grid-scale energy storage, but are they affordable enough? A team at MIT believes there is room for improvement on this front, and has developed a novel electrode material likened to soft-serve ice cream that they believe can be integrated into a "semi-solid" battery to store renewable energy on the cheap.

Flow batteries are a particularly enticing proposition when it comes to storage of renewable energy, as they are flexible, scalable, and far cheaper than lithium-ion. These devices store their energy in a liquid held in two tanks, collecting or releasing it as the liquids pass ions through a special membrane that turns chemical energy into electricity.

Because the storage capacity of the system can be scaled up simply by increasing the size of the tanks and therefore the amount of liquid electrolyte they can hold, flow batteries may offer a way to store vast amounts of renewable energy at relatively low cost. Also working in their favor is that they can store this energy for potentially months at a time, filling inevitable gaps in the intermittent supply offered by solar and wind.

The MIT researchers set out to design and build a more affordable form of flow battery that uses cheaper chemicals than current candidates, such as redox flow batteries that rely on vanadium. The team carried out extensive experiments in the lab in a search of a more affordable electrical conductor, finally landing on a recipe for a sludgy mixture with a consistency likened to molasses that seems to offer the desirable properties.

The winning formula, with a texture similar to soft-serve ice cream, is made of a thick black mixture containing dispersed manganese dioxide (MnO2) particles with an electrically conductive additive in carbon black. When the mixture is pumped from the tanks toward the membrane, the carbon black reacts with a conductive zinc solution to efficiently convert chemical energy into electricity.

A semi-solid flow battery featuring this mixture was put to the test alongside other energy storage systems, with the team looking to see how they compared in terms of operational costs. Because it uses a slurry-like mixture in place of the watery solutions featured in conventional flow batteries, it does require more power to pump it from the tank to the membrane. But even accounting for this, the scientists say their novel semi-solid flow battery performed well.

They calculated the capital costs of running it across eight-, 24- and 72-hour durations, and found that for any storage lasting longer than a day the design came up trumps against a vanadium redox flow battery and a lithium-ion battery.

“We performed a comprehensive, bottom-up analysis to understand how the battery’s composition affects performance and cost, looking at all the trade-offs,” says study author Thaneer Malai Narayanan. “We showed that our system can be cheaper than others, and can be scaled up.”

More

The research was published in the journal Joule

Source: MIT

https://newatlas.com/energy/ice-cream-electrode-flow-battery-renewable-energy/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=9b5de623f0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_12_01_09_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-9b5de623f0-90625829

I do not think it is an exaggeration to say history is largely a history of inflation, usually inflation's engineered by governments for the gain of governments.

Friedrich August von Hayek.

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