All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

In the mouth of the whale: lobster diver swallowed by humpback lives to tell the tale | Massachusetts | The Guardian

A commercial lobster diver who got caught in the mouth of a humpback whale off the coast of Cape Cod on Friday morning said he thought he was going to die. Michael Packard, 56, of Wellfleet, told WBZ-TV after he was released from Cape Cod hospital that he was about 45ft (14 meters) deep in the waters off Provincetown when “all of a sudden I felt this huge bump, and everything went dark”. He thought he had been attacked by a shark, common in area waters, but then realized he could not feel any teeth and he wasn’t in any pain.

“Then I realized, oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth … and he’s trying to swallow me,” he said. “And I thought to myself OK, this is it – I’m finally – I’m gonna die.” His thoughts went to his wife and children. Source: In the mouth of the whale: lobster diver swallowed by humpback lives to tell the tale | Massachusetts | The Guardian

Garland vows fight against voting limits that violate law | TheHill

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday the Department of Justice (DOJ) would double its voting rights staff while condemning a number of recently passed state laws and issuing a stern warning that the department would combat voter restrictions that run afoul of the law. Garland said the department will also take measures to limit gerrymandering while setting guidelines for absentee and mail voting ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. “We are scrutinizing new laws that seek to curb voter access, and where we see violations, we will not hesitate to act,” Garland said during a speech in Washington. “We are also scrutinizing current laws and practices in order to determine whether they discriminate against Black voters and other voters of color.”

Source: Garland vows fight against voting limits that violate law | TheHill

Global COVID deaths in 2021 have topped all of last year’s | CIDRAP

COVID-19 deaths in 2021 worldwide have surpassed the total number of COVID-19 deaths in all of 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data yesterday. As of Jun 10, 1,884,146 people have died of COVID-19 in 2021, compared with the 1,880,510 in 2020.

The numbers highlight how unevenly the pandemic has spread, now hitting poorer nations harder, as they scramble to vaccinate their populations.

South America hardest-hit continent

The United States, Brazil, and India have the most COVID-19 deaths, according to Statista, but even as these outbreaks have started to slow or decline, other countries struggle with vaccine access, new variants, and burdened healthcare systems.

Source: Global COVID deaths in 2021 have topped all of last year’s | CIDRAP

Woody Peony 100 mm

Michael Stephen Wills Photography

See my May Woody Peony postings for background on this peony variety.

These photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr and the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens stabilized with the Manfrotto BeFree Carbon Fiber tripod with ball head.

The morning breezes of May caused me to “up” ISO to 1600 for a faster shutter speed at higher f-stop.

Taking full advantage of the macro lens, the higher ISO helped to maintain sharper focus on the highlighted feature, in this case the stamens.

A gallery of macros with various settings and aspects of the bloom.

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

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♫ In The Summertime ♫ (Redux)

Filosofa's Word

Just yesterday I said that I have been re-duxing too much and need to go in search of original songs, ones that I haven’t played here yet.  And then what do I do?  I come along tonight and redux another one!  This came to me while showering this evening and it wouldn’t leave my head.  I was pretty sure I had already played it and yep … I did … back in 2019, but heck, that was two years ago, right?  My friend Roger who lives across the pond where it never gets very hot and always rains, said it got to 67° F there a few days ago and he immediately went into summer mode!  Here, it has hit 90° two days already, although this week we’re back to 70s and rain.  Anyway, I digress (and ramble) … this song, and thoughts of another pandemic summer having planted in…

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Thoughts From The Mind of Filosofa

🙂 🙂 🙂

Filosofa's Word

I seem to have a real knack for getting ‘punished’ by the great Tweety god, aka Twitter aka Jack Dorsey and his robocrew.  I find it hilarious that Margie Greene, Matt Gaetz, Don Junior, Lindsey Graham and the rest can say pretty much whatever they wish, but when I make what I consider an innocuous reply to a post, I am suspended.  Here’s what happened …

The two-faced toadie Lindsey Graham made a really stupid comment whereby he said that …

“If Trump was right about the lab leak, it would change the image the public had of President Trump regarding the Coronavirus …”

I nearly choked on my laughter when I saw that one, and immediately just had to respond with …

No, Stupid, Trump is still single-handedly responsible for the more than 600,000 U.S. deaths, as he kept telling us it was “no big deal” and would be…

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In the Bolivian Amazon, COVID-19 Vaccines Keep Communities Safe | UNICEF USA

The Yuqui community live deep in Bolivia’s Amazon, but that hasn’t kept them safe from communicable diseases like tuberculosis, which kills 10 percent of the population every year, according to UNICEF Bolivia’s Keyla Ávila. Now the arrival of COVID-19 poses a new threat to this vulnerable indigenous group.

Source: In the Bolivian Amazon, COVID-19 Vaccines Keep Communities Safe | UNICEF USA

Study: Kids with COVID-19 may be as contagious as adults – UPI.com

Nose and throat samples collected from children with COVID-19 contain as much virus as those taken from infected adults, suggesting they may be just as contagious, a study published Friday by JAMA Pediatrics found. This is true for both symptomatic and asymptomatic people, though children are more likely to be symptom-free than adults, the data showed.

Source: Study: Kids with COVID-19 may be as contagious as adults – UPI.com

Tracking Viral Misinformation – The New York Times – “Fauci book” profits go to National Geographic, not to Fauci

In truth, Dr. Fauci is not making any money from the book, which is about lessons he has learned during his decades in public service, and the listing was pulled for a simple reason: the publisher had posted it too early.

Dr. Fauci “will not earn any royalties from its publication and was not paid” for the book, “Expect the Unexpected,” said Ann Day, a spokeswoman for National Geographic Books, its publisher. She said Dr. Fauci also would not earn anything for a related documentary. (Dr. Fauci did not respond to a request for comment.)

The book, which compiles interviews and speeches given by Dr. Fauci during his 37 years as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was taken off the websites because “it was prematurely posted for presale,” Ms. Day said. She added that proceeds would “go back to the National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education and to reinvest in content.”

In a statement, the national institute noted that the book had not been written by Dr. Fauci himself. The institute also confirmed that he would not earn any royalties from its publication.

The falsehood about the book and Dr. Fauci spread widely online. On May 31, the right-wing outlet The Daily Caller published an article about the book’s appearing for presale online. Some conservative Republicans, including Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona and Dan Bishop of North Carolina, seized on the article and claimed without evidence that Dr. Fauci would be profiting from the book.