Former US President Donald Trump Launches $99 NFT Trading Cards
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
Under images of two of the cards, one showing him as a roughneck with a shotgun and the other as a superhero, this is the first paragraph.
Former US President Donald Trump has launched a collection of digital trading cards depicting him in various guises including a superhero, astronaut and Nascar driver.
In the superhero picture he has a T on his chest.
I would think a W with an anchor would have been more appropriate.
Should I Get Depressed About A World Ruled By Putin, Trump And Xi?
When I read the reports of the mid-term elections in the United States, Putin’s War in Ukraine and Chairman Xi’s coronation as Emperor for Life, I despair.
As I suspect do many others!
Voters In Trump Counties Far More Likely To Die Of Covid
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Americans in areas that voted for President Trump are almost three times more likely to die of Covid-19 than those in counties that supported Joe Biden, an analysis has found.
In the most strongly pro-Trump areas there was an almost sixfold difference in pandemic mortality with the most pro-Biden areas, according to National Public Radio (NPR).
I suppose Trummkopf will say it is fake news.
Covid: Biden Vows 100m Vaccinations For US In First 100 Days
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the introductory paragraphs of the article.
US President-elect Joe Biden has set a goal of 100 million Covid vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.
He said his first months in office would not end the outbreak and gave few details on a rollout plan but he said he would change the course of Covid-19.
Introducing his health team for when he takes office on 20 January, he urged Americans to “mask up for 100 days”.
I can see a few rocks ahead in his plan.
Vaccine Production
According to media reports, the number of vaccinations has declined since Friday because of delivery issues with the Pfizer vaccine.
In Tracking COVID-19 Vaccination Statistics, the number of vaccinations in the last few days are as follows.
- 15th January – 324233
- 16th January – 549920
- 17th January – 205235
- 18th January – 204076
The figures have been declining because of these delivery issues.
Pfizer say they are updating the factory in Belgium to increase production.
I don’t believe that, as the United States will be needing a million does per day, that they can get enough production on a reliable basis.
A Federal Lockdown
I believe that to get the virus under control in the United States, the country must follow the route of countries like France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK and have a period of perhaps a hundred days of total lockdown.
But I doubt that would be possible in the United States.
Mask Wearing
I don’t believe that Americans will mask up for a hundred days.
The Anti-Vaxxers And The Trumpeteers
I can see them having a field day!
Especially, if Joe Biden adds some strong legislation to curb the spread of the virus. Which in my view is needed.
Conclusion
It’s going to get a lot messier and probably more dangerous in the United States in the next few months.
Trump And The Open
This BBC story today, which was entitled Trump National Stripped Of 2022 US PGA Championship.
The Times also has an article today, saying that Trump has been lobbying hard to get The Open allocated to his course at Turnberry.
I have a feeling that the access and the fact that in 2024, the Open will go to Troon will scupper Trump’s ambitions.
Good crowds will need good transport access and preferably by rail to a large population centre with lots of hotels.
- 2021 – Royal St. Georges – The nearby Sandwich station is being lengthened to take high speed trains from London, especially for the tournament.
- 2022 – St. Andrews – Perhaps too short a time to put in the long-promised rail link to Leuchars, but the train service to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow from Leuchars is good.
- 2023 – Royal Liverpool – The course has a nearby station at Hoylake and Merseyrail are getting new fleets of classy Swiss trains. Enthusiasts could always take the ferries part of the way from Liverpool.
- 2024 – Troon – The rail line to Glasgow goes past the course and there’s time to build a temporary station if needed.
The other courses on the active rota for the Open are.
- Carnoustie – The nearby Golf Street station is used during major golf tournaments.
- Muirfield – This course has had other problems. But the rail links are not good.
- Royal Birkdale – Like Royal Liverpool, it has a nearby Merseyrail station.
- Royal Lytham and St. Annes – This course has a station and it looks like the rail link will be upgraded soon.
- Royal Portrush – The nearby railway station was rebuilt for the 2019 Open
There is no rail line anywhere near Turnberry.
I feel that the R & A have enough excuses to avoid giving the Open to Turnberry.
It looks to me that Trump bought the wrong golf course.
‘Natural’ Nasal Spray Could Stop Virus Before It Enters The Body
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the two introductory paragraphs.
A Canadian nasal spray that has been shown to stop the coronavirus from spreading through the body will begin its first UK clinical trial tomorrow.
The SaNOtize nitric oxide spray is designed to prevent the virus from passing through the nose to the respiratory system. The trial will be run by Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Surrey.
I shall be watching SaNOtize‘s development with interest, as something that could be similar got my life on track!
I am 73 and I was a very sickly child, despite the persistence of the GP, who delivered me, who was the superbly-named Dr. Egerton White, to try and sort out my problems.
I was always, having terms off school with respiratory problems, probably caused by the London smogs of the 1950s. We lived in Southgate and they had as bad smogs as anyone.
In the end, with the connivance of a pharmacist called Halliday, they formulated a nasal spray, that worked. I can still smell it!
My health improved with the Clean Air Act and during University in the seaside city of Liverpool.
Later, I worked for ICI on chemical plants and there was an unfounded story, that the pensions were good, as working on ammonia plants and the like kept you clear of all the viruses going around. But on retirement in all that clear air, you got everything that was going and died soon after leaving work. Hence the pension scheme had more money than it needed.
My health also improved, when at fifty I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free.
Now after returning to London after the death of my wife and son to cancer, and suffering a serious stroke, my head is all choked up by the pollution. The Covid-19 lockdown makes it difficult to take the cure, which is a couple of days by the sea. Biarritz, Gdansk and Liverpool work a treat.
Trump Got It Wrong!
Trump was advocating injecting bleach to cure the Covids.
- Note that bleach is a strong alkali
- This spray is based on nitric oxide, which when mixed with water forms nitrous acid.
- Wikipedia says not to mix-up the weak nitrous acid with nitric acid.
So Trummkopf couldn’t tell his alkali from his acid, which surely is a recipe for disaster.
Nitric Oxide
This is part of the introduction in the Wikipedia entry for nitric oxide.
An important intermediate in industrial chemistry, nitric oxide forms in combustion systems and can be generated by lightning in thunderstorms. In mammals, including humans, nitric oxide is a signaling molecule in many physiological and pathological processes. It was proclaimed the “Molecule of the Year” in 1992. The 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for discovering nitric oxide’s role as a cardiovascular signalling molecule.
I remember a fascinating BBC Horizon program about nitric oxide’s role as a signalling molecule.
- It started with research done by a veterinary professor at Glasgow University, who believed that after experimenting with penises from dead bulls, concluded that nitrous oxide had something to do with it.
- But his ideas were so out-of-kilter with established thought, that his research was sidelined at conferences in journals.
- Reasons like it was a poison and such a simple molecule were given.
- Then in London, someone who knew of his research, had a patient dying of toxic shock syndrome.
- He suggested injecting the lady, with large amounts of nitrous oxide, in the hope they could save her life.
- Her partner agreed.
And as it worked, there was a very happy ending.
I
Two More Life-Saving Covid Drugs Discovered
The title of this post, is the same as this article on the BBC.
With all the reporting of the shenanigans going on with Trump in the United States, this important story seems to have been buried in the news.
This is the first two paragraph of the BBC articles.
Two more life-saving drugs have been found that can cut deaths by a quarter in patients who are sickest with Covid.
The anti-inflammatory medications, given via a drip, save an extra life for every 12 treated, say researchers who have carried out a trial in NHS intensive care units.
The drugs are tocilizumab and sarilumab, which appear to be readily available.
So what was that sore-loser Trump doing?
Certainly nothing to fight the most dangerous pandemic to hit the world for a hundred years.
If he had got to grips with the pandemic in the United States, his name would have gone down in history for all the wrong reasons.
Instead, he’ll be remembered for two words beginning with I; idiot and infamy.
Is There A Link Between Tocilizumab And Coeliac Disease?
I always check new drugs proposed for the covids against coeliac disease, ever since I found that Dexamethazone could be used to treat coeliacs, who couldn’t stick to a gluten-free diet.
I found nothing for sarilumab, but I did find this article for tocilizumab (Actemra), which is entitled Will You Have Celiac Disease With Actemra?.
This is the summary.
Celiac disease is found among people who take Actemra, especially for people who are female, 50-59 old, have been taking the drug for 1 – 6 months.
The phase IV clinical study is created by eHealthMe based on reports of 55,370 people who have side effects when taking Actemra from the FDA, and is updated regularly.
Strange! Like the incorrect American spelling!
The Most Important News Of The Day
It has nothing to do with that soon-to-be-ex President across the Pond, except that he would brand it a waste of money and a fantasy.
If he did call it a fantasy, he’d at least know something about fantasy.
This article on Recharge is entitled Work Starts To Build World’s First Commercial Liquid-Air Energy Storage Plant.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Work has started to build the world’s first commercial liquid-air energy storage facility near Manchester, northern England, along with a visitor centre that aims to turn the pioneering project into a tourist attraction.
A joint venture between UK-based Highview Power and independent solar/natural-gas plant developer Carlton Power will build and operate the 50MW/250MWh “CRYObattery” — which may later be expanded to add more storage — in the village of Carrington, close to Manchester United’s training ground.
The visitor centre will open in the first quarter of 2021, with the plant planned to start operation in 2023.
- That seems to me to be an ambitious time-scale.
- On the other hand, the plant appears to be composed of well-proven readily-available components, so it will not be too challenging.
Whether Trummkopf likes it or not, construction of the second plant in the Democratic-voting state of Vermont, will surely be starting in the near future.
- He would like the fact that at 50MW400 MWh, the American battery is larger.
- He wouldn’t like the fact, that it is replacing a coal-fired power station.
- It will give eight hours of full-power as opposed to Manchester’s five.
- As both plants are rated at 50 MW, I suspect the two plants are identical on the energy generation side.
- Vermont would just have more tanks to store the liquid air.
It is my view, that these two, will be the first of many.
US Election 2020: Donald Trump’s Speech Fact-Checked
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the introductory paragraph.
President Trump spoke early on Friday about the US election count, making a number of accusations of fraud for which he did not provide evidence.
I liked some of the BBC’s analysis on this statement.
I’ve been talking about mail-in voting for a long time. It’s really destroyed our system. It’s a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt.
The BBC said.
The president himself has voted by post in the past. He lived outside the state he was registered in, Florida, and requested a postal vote.
Surely, that makes him a hypocrite. Or did voting by post make him corrupt?
Is Trump’s Recovery From The The Covids Down To His Mother?
Donald Trump’s mother was born Mary Anne MacLeod at Tong on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
This Google Map shows the position of Tong to the island’s capital of Stornoway.
This is Wikipedia’s introduction to the village.
Tong is a village on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, 4 miles (6 kilometres) northeast of the main town of Stornoway on the B895 road to Back and Tolsta. The population of the village is 527 (2001 census). Fishing forms part of the local economy.
Families probably have to have granite in their genes to survive in places like that for decades.
By reputation, Highlanders are not wimps.
I have just looked up the rate of the covids in the Highlands.
The latest figure of lab-confirmed cases is 185.7 per 100,000 of the population, which compares to 617 for the whole of Scotland and 1952.4 for Manchester.
Is there something in Highland genes, that resists the covids?
The Anonymous Widower 