Monday, January 3
China Surprises USA With Hypersonic Missiles
China’s recent test of a hypersonic missile – a weapon described as faster, more maneuverable and a greater threat to air-defense systems than a conventional intercontinental ballistic missile – has increased tension between the U.S. and China.
It’s “a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system, and is very concerning,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a Bloomberg TV interview Oct. 28. Milley's statement was the first official U.S. acknowledgement of the test.
Hypersonic missiles travel at Mach 5, five times the speed of sound while maneuvering in the atmosphere. That's faster than 3,800 mph. Ballistic missiles can reach 15,000 mph while ascending into space. Warheads travel at about 2,000 mph once they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
China's test in August was initially reported by the Financial Times on Oct. 16. The Times said the missile circled the Earth at a low altitude before descending to its target, which it missed by about 19 miles.
Trajectory of China's hypersonic and ballistic missiles
The test is significant because it shows China has made unexpected progress on its hypersonic weapons systems and may initiate a new arms race, the Guardian reported.
The test prompted comparison of a "Sputnik moment," an historical reference to the 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union. That was a shock to Americans who were forced to realize the U.S. was being challenged for technological superiority.
“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that. It has all of our attention,” Milley told Bloomberg.
However, it's not just the hypersonic vehicle and its maneuverability that has attracted attention, as Foreign Policy reports: It's how the vehicle entered orbit.
It used a version of the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, a low-orbit missile delivery method developed by the Soviets during the Cold War. A missile descending from low orbit gives less time to be detected.
That method of delivery also means the U.S. could be attacked by flights over the South Pole. American defense systems concentrate on missile attacks from the north. READ MORE...
Being Happier
Buying things won’t make you happier. But research shows that buying time can, as long as you do it the right way.
In 1930, the influential economist John Maynard Keynes assessed how technological and economic advances had reduced the number of hours the average person worked. He predicted that within two generations, most people would work only three hours a day.
Working hard wouldn’t be a problem. Filling all that free time would, for most people, be the problem.
While Keynes got a lot of things right, he swung and missed on that one. Technological advances have not freed up the average person’s time. Neither have broader economic advances.
Nor has increased wealth. In fact, some studies show that the more money people make, the less time they think they have.Add it all up, and money can’t buy you happiness.Unless, purposefully and consciously, you use a little money to buy a little time.
In a 2017 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers surveyed thousands of people who sometimes paid other people to perform tasks they didn’t enjoy or didn’t want to do. Like mowing the lawn. Or cleaning the house. Or running errands. Stuff they needed to do, but didn’t particularly want to do.
Unsurprisingly, people who were willing to spend a little money to buy a little time were happier and felt greater overall life satisfaction than those who did not.
Correlation isn’t always causation, though. Maybe the people who spend money to buy time are happier simply because they have the money to buy time?
Nope. While relatively wealthy people who spent money to buy a little time were happier than relatively wealthy people who did not, people at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who spent money to buy a little time were happier than those at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who did not. READ MORE...
In 1930, the influential economist John Maynard Keynes assessed how technological and economic advances had reduced the number of hours the average person worked. He predicted that within two generations, most people would work only three hours a day.
Working hard wouldn’t be a problem. Filling all that free time would, for most people, be the problem.
While Keynes got a lot of things right, he swung and missed on that one. Technological advances have not freed up the average person’s time. Neither have broader economic advances.
Nor has increased wealth. In fact, some studies show that the more money people make, the less time they think they have.Add it all up, and money can’t buy you happiness.Unless, purposefully and consciously, you use a little money to buy a little time.
In a 2017 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers surveyed thousands of people who sometimes paid other people to perform tasks they didn’t enjoy or didn’t want to do. Like mowing the lawn. Or cleaning the house. Or running errands. Stuff they needed to do, but didn’t particularly want to do.
Unsurprisingly, people who were willing to spend a little money to buy a little time were happier and felt greater overall life satisfaction than those who did not.
Correlation isn’t always causation, though. Maybe the people who spend money to buy time are happier simply because they have the money to buy time?
Nope. While relatively wealthy people who spent money to buy a little time were happier than relatively wealthy people who did not, people at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who spent money to buy a little time were happier than those at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who did not. READ MORE...
Most Important Archaelogical Discoveries in 2021
Every year, we delve back through our coverage to find the most fascinating archaeological discoveries of the year, whether by a complete amateur, or as the result of years of careful study by a team of experts.
As always, archaeology news takes us around the globe and throughout the ages, from the earliest days of human history through to the contemporary era. Here are our picks for the 2021 archaeological stories worth revisiting.
Stonehenge Revelations
Stonehenge at sunrise in 2015. Photo by Freesally, public domain.
The ancient circle of stone monoliths on the U.K.’s Salisbury Plain is one of history’s most enduring mysteries. But while we may never fully understand this ancient structure, experts are learning more and more about it each year.
Thanks in no small part to the late Robert Phillips, a diamond cutter who made repairs to a fallen stone at the site in 1958, we now know that the massive monoliths are made from a nearly indestructible matrix of interlocking quartz crystals—which is why the monument has stood for millennia. Phillips drilled a three-and-a-half foot core sample during his work, which he was allowed to keep as a souvenir. He returned it in 2019, allowing scientists to conduct valuable testing on the stones, which are now protected under English heritage law and cannot be sampled.
This year also saw archaeologists discover a former stone circle in Wales that closely matches the dimensions of Stonehenge’s inner ring. That suggests that the site’s inner stone circle was originally erected 175 miles away and moved to Salisbury Plain—and carbon dating shows it was built 400 years before Stonehenge proper. If this all seems too unbelievable to be true, just wait: it perfectly matches a Stonehenge legend that Merlin stole the monument and moved it to England.
Original Flavor Pompeii—and a New Version in Egypt
The lost city discovered by archaeologists near Luxor in Egypt. Photo by Zahi Hawass, courtesy
As always, archaeology news takes us around the globe and throughout the ages, from the earliest days of human history through to the contemporary era. Here are our picks for the 2021 archaeological stories worth revisiting.
Stonehenge Revelations
Stonehenge at sunrise in 2015. Photo by Freesally, public domain.
The ancient circle of stone monoliths on the U.K.’s Salisbury Plain is one of history’s most enduring mysteries. But while we may never fully understand this ancient structure, experts are learning more and more about it each year.
Thanks in no small part to the late Robert Phillips, a diamond cutter who made repairs to a fallen stone at the site in 1958, we now know that the massive monoliths are made from a nearly indestructible matrix of interlocking quartz crystals—which is why the monument has stood for millennia. Phillips drilled a three-and-a-half foot core sample during his work, which he was allowed to keep as a souvenir. He returned it in 2019, allowing scientists to conduct valuable testing on the stones, which are now protected under English heritage law and cannot be sampled.
This year also saw archaeologists discover a former stone circle in Wales that closely matches the dimensions of Stonehenge’s inner ring. That suggests that the site’s inner stone circle was originally erected 175 miles away and moved to Salisbury Plain—and carbon dating shows it was built 400 years before Stonehenge proper. If this all seems too unbelievable to be true, just wait: it perfectly matches a Stonehenge legend that Merlin stole the monument and moved it to England.
Original Flavor Pompeii—and a New Version in Egypt
The lost city discovered by archaeologists near Luxor in Egypt. Photo by Zahi Hawass, courtesy
of the Center for Egyptology.
Do the discoveries ever seem to stop in Pompeii? A newly excavated thermopolium, a kind of Roman fast food restaurant, began welcoming visitors this summer. Archaeologists were able to identify the space in part because it was decorated with frescoes featuring some popular ingredients in Pompeii cuisine, such as roosters.
Other Pompeii finds this year included an intact chariot, slaves’ quarters, and evidence of thriving Greek theater scene.
But Pompeii isn’t the only ancient city found nearly intact. In fact, a smaller “mini” Pompeii was found hidden beneath vines in Verona by construction workers. And in Egypt, another wellspring of ancient treasures, 2021 saw what’s being hailed as the nation’s most significant discovery since Howard Carter uncovered King Tut’s golden tomb nearly a century ago: the abandoned city of Luxor.
The city was a royal metropolis outside the city of Thebes built by Tutankhamun’s grandfather, King Amenhotep III. His son, Akhenaten, appears to have abandoned the city when he started a new religion worshipping only the sun god, Aten. READ MORE...
Do the discoveries ever seem to stop in Pompeii? A newly excavated thermopolium, a kind of Roman fast food restaurant, began welcoming visitors this summer. Archaeologists were able to identify the space in part because it was decorated with frescoes featuring some popular ingredients in Pompeii cuisine, such as roosters.
Other Pompeii finds this year included an intact chariot, slaves’ quarters, and evidence of thriving Greek theater scene.
But Pompeii isn’t the only ancient city found nearly intact. In fact, a smaller “mini” Pompeii was found hidden beneath vines in Verona by construction workers. And in Egypt, another wellspring of ancient treasures, 2021 saw what’s being hailed as the nation’s most significant discovery since Howard Carter uncovered King Tut’s golden tomb nearly a century ago: the abandoned city of Luxor.
The city was a royal metropolis outside the city of Thebes built by Tutankhamun’s grandfather, King Amenhotep III. His son, Akhenaten, appears to have abandoned the city when he started a new religion worshipping only the sun god, Aten. READ MORE...
Sunday, January 2
Our Global Community
Average Global Individual Income is less than $20,000/year
9.5% of the Global Population live in extreme poverty of $1.90/day
400 Million people in the world lack access to basic healthcare
20% of the Global Population lack access to adequate housing
Less than 20% of the Global Population live in a free country
8.4% of the Global Population live in a full democracy
56 million global individuals have a net worth of over $1,000,000
How does that make you feel?
In other words does any of this data bother you at all?
Are you just glad that none of this data pertains to you?
I have lived in the USA for 70 years and lived in Cairo, Egypt for 4 years and the quality of life is substantially different in each of those 2 locations... most of us take for granted life in the USA with our access to damn near anything that we want, when we want it...
Perhaps this is a naive point-of-view, but shouldn't life be about human beings taking care of human beings?
Shouldn't those that have give to those that don't have... but, that is not to say that those people to whom we are giving simply stop trying because we are giving to them... that is a mentality that is unacceptable...
Most of the people that HAVE do not want to share what they have with those who HAVE NOT...
Not only do we have these basic problems globally, but we still have wars and conflicts because stronger people want to take away from weaker people which is how the animals in nature live... or is it?
Do the animals in nature KILL for pleasure and because they are stronger or do they kill to survive?
Some of us believe in God...
Some of us believe that God is an extraterrestrial...
Some of us believe that extraterrestrials visited earth and share their knowledge with us to help us evolve faster...
Some of us believe that extraterrestrials will return one day to see how we have evolved...
Are these extraterrestrials only going to be concerned with those that HAVE or will they look at how we treated each other???
My 2022 Resolutions
I have decided that for 2022, I will make he following resolutions but not necessarily listed in rank order of importance:
1. Maintain a average daily calorie intake of no more than 1,600 calories...
2. Be more tolerant of my relatives...
3. Not become obessess with stupid, liberal politics...
4. Exercise 3 times each week for at least 30 minutes...
5. Accept people for who they are not necessarily what I think they should be...
6. Shower and Shave every other day...
7. Stop biting my fingernails...
8. Be more tolerant of the LGBTQ+ people...
Saturday, January 1
Friday, December 31
What I Got From/Gave To 2021
2021 for me started with me turning a year older two month earlier...
2021 for me was a continuation of me receiving cancer treatments for non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and metastatic Melanoma...
2021 was an agreement for me to continue teaching Business classes for King University...
2021 was the year that President elect Joe Biden began his 4 year presidency...
2021 was the year of enormous government spending under the guise of fighting COVID-19 that result in structural inflation...
2021 was the year that the Biden administration shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline...
2021 was the year that the Biden adminstration completely open our Southern Borders to illegal immigration.
2021 was the year that saw the biggest increase of illegal drugs enter the USA in 245 year history...
2021 was the year that the Biden administration continued to blame former President Trump for all the problems they were facing...
2021 is the year that the Biden adminstration pulled out of Afghanistan which was the worst insult and humiliation to American dignity and our American soldiers since ending the Vietnam War in shame...
2021 was the year that ended the relationship that I previously had experienced with my brother, my sister, and my daughter...
2021 was the year that showed positive results from all four of my CT Scans...
2021 was the year that resulted in a positive heart cath procedure...
2021 was the year that I became good friends with Daniel a legal immigrant from Mexico...
2021 was the year that I finished writing 3 - 300 page novels...
2021 was the year that my three cats taught me how to be patient and willingly give unconditional love...
2021 was the year that I got my two COVID vaccine shots and booster...
2021 was the year where no vacations were taken due to COVID-19...
2021 was the year that my conservative views outweighed my liberal views.
2021 was the year that we ended our obligation to cable , ending our contracts with phone, wifi, and cable...
2021 is the year that I combine 3 blogs into 1 blogs and increased the number I views I had been receiving each day...
2021 was the year that my 11 year old Siamese cat was diagnosed with cancer...
2021 is the year that I stopped taking Xarelto and my propensity to bruise easily disappeared even though I had purchased an electric razor...
2021 is the year that I had a couple of root canals but the dentist did an excellent job of minimizing the pain...
2021 was the year that we got a refund check from the IRS...
2021 was the year of heavily promoting CRT in our public school systems...
2021 was the year that the BLM movement stalled...
2021 was the year that I personally refused to become WOKE...
2021 was the year that special prosecutor Durham announced that the Steele Dossier was a HOAX...
2021 was the year of the substantial decline of institutionalize religion...
2021 was the year that the US Government acknowledged the existence of UFO's...
2021 was the year that we had to replace our five year old water softener...
2021 was the year that my 2015 Venza needed a set of new tires...
2021 was the year that my 20 year old microwave needed to be replaced...
2021 was the year that I set up my first playlist on iheart radio of over 600 songs...
New Year's Resolutions
TOP 10 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2022
Celebrating the New Year is a time-honoured tradition around the world. It’s about new beginnings and the hope for a better future, but it seems especially poignant when the year we’re leaving behind has been so difficult. New Year’s Resolutions are therefore likely to be at the top of many people’s to-do lists this holiday season. If you, like so many others, are looking to reprioritise old commitments and grasp new opportunities in 2021, here are 10 resolutions you could consider.
1. FOCUS ON IMPROVING YOUR HEALTH
One of the biggest lessons to come out of 2020 is the importance of staying healthy, and this is why a healthy lifestyle should be your number one priority for the New Year and beyond. You will need to determine what success looks like in order to set the right goals. Do you need to quit smoking or drinking? How much weight do you want to lose (or gain)? How often are you going to exercise? Do you need a nutrition plan? Be specific and maybe keep a record of your progress - because reaching little milestones along the way will help you stay on track. You’ll also need to make the journey realistic and enjoyable; for example, try to find activities and healthy foods you actually like. Whatever your ambition, make 2021 the year you take control of your health.
2. LOOK AFTER YOUR FINANCES
The second biggest lesson to come out of 2020 is that the only certainty in life is uncertainty. No one could have predicted a global pandemic would strike and yet the events of this year make plain the importance of preparation: both for the future and the possibility of falling on hard times. This is why it’s a good idea to focus on improving your financial security. This goal will require careful financial planning; such as reviewing household spending, managing debts, increasing cash flow and building up savings. Creating financial security will not happen overnight but with enough patience and dedication, you could achieve stability and peace of mind – both of which are also vital to your general health and wellness.
3. PURSUE AN ASPIRATION
Everyone has a list of aspirations, dreams and grand ambitions. If there’s one thing at the back of your mind however, that you’ve always talked about doing but somehow never found the time for, then make 2021 the year you really pursue it. Do you have an idea for a book? Have you always wanted to research your family tree? Do you long to learn a language? Or run a marathon? If you’re going to stick to this resolution, you’ll need to pick the goal that excites you the most – and then find a way to set it in motion by taking small steps towards it every day.
4. INVEST IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
We’ve come to appreciate, now more than ever, the simple joy of being with the people we love, which is why you should show appreciation to them in ways big and small. Try to make time for family and friends, but remember the quality of time spent together is what matters most. If distance proves an obstacle, even a simple phone call could mean the world to someone you love - and it’s a chance to ask how they’re doing and if they need any support. Moreover, as we get older and life gets more hectic, we can too easily forget how important it is to have friends. Challenge yourself to invest more in your friendships, look to build new ones and perhaps reach out to someone who once meant a lot to you but with whom you’ve since lost touch.
5. LOOK AFTER YOUR MENTAL HEALTH
In addition to making time for other people, it’s also vital to keep some for yourself to avoid burnout. To get the most out of your downtime, you should do things you enjoy - such as take a bubble bath, listen to relaxing music or watch a feel good movie. Self-care isn’t just about pampering either - it could be going for a run, practicing yoga or meditating. You could even consider taking on a pet, as caring for a pet has many emotional, mental and physical benefits. Whatever your method, it’s time to shake off the stress of this year and look forward to feeling refreshed in the new. The most important thing to keep in mind however is if you find yourself struggling with your mental health, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
6. LIVE MORE SUSTAINABLY
The New Year is the perfect time to change your lifestyle and start living life the way you want to live it. It’s become increasingly obvious that human activity is having a detrimental impact on our planet, but there are things you can do to help tackle environmental challenges. Even little changes could have a big impact; for example, you could eat less meat, use reusable utensils and shopping bags, shop locally and leave your car at home on certain days. As a consumer, you also have the power to decide what corporations your cash supports. An argument could be made that there’s no longer room for brands that don’t do the right thing, and you can become an advocate for change simply by purchasing from companies that are sustainable, pay fair wages and are committed to being cruelty free.
7. DISCONNECT FROM YOUR PHONE
Today it’s almost impossible to look around without seeing at least one person on their phone. Likewise, if you find yourself constantly reaching for yours it might be time to cut back. There are plenty of apps you can use to track your weekly screen time and, once you have a grasp of the current situation, you could schedule blocks of time to put your phone away and bring your average down. If social media has stopped being fun, you might want to take a break from that too – or at least unfollow the accounts that make you feel bad about yourself. It’s important to recognise if you’ve become addicted to your phone and then to slowly disentangle aspects of your life from it. Above all, make it your mission to reconnect with reality and focus on living more in the moment.
8. READ MORE BOOKS
This year more people than ever have found solace in books. There is pure enjoyment and escapism to be found in reading. Even if you didn’t discover a love of reading during lockdown, there are many reasons to make it a resolution for next year. Reading can teach you something new and expands your worldview, it’s proven to lower stress levels, improve memory and concentration, and contributes to better writing skills. You could set a numerical goal - reading say 30 books by the end of the year. Alternatively, you could diversify your bookshelf by trying out new genres or selecting works by authors from across the world.
9. GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
As 2020 draws to a close, there is a sense of high anticipation that things will soon get back to ‘normal’, but New Year is also the chance to change things up a bit. Reflect on what you’ve learned about your old routine this year and challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone in 2021. The beauty of this resolution is that it can be accomplished more than once and your goals can be literally anything: take a class in something you know nothing about, try out for a sports team, join a dating app, or work towards conquering a fear. If you keep trying new things, keep learning, and keep going you might find 2021 to be the most fulfilling year of your life so far.
10. PLAN THAT ONCE IN A LIFETIME TRIP
Everyone has a dream destination – the 1 place that you would give just about anything to visit. Undoubtedly, your wanderlust will have been stoked by the inactivity of this year and now that a vaccine has arrived, the New Year is definitely the time to finally think about travel once again. You will have to be realistic about where and when you can go as well as what you can afford. Still if travel is your priority, you will find a way to make sufficient preparations to turn your dream into a plan of action. So what are you waiting for? Take the plunge and start planning that once in a lifetime trip.
Reviewing 2021
Apparently, the pandemic-induced time distortion that defined 2020 didn't get the memo about the new calendar year. Looking back, the events of 2021 turned out to be just as mind-meltingly difficult to keep track of as last year's.
But we are once again here to jog your memory about the wrong timeline we continue to live through.
There's a reason why, in the beginning of the year, people were already doing retrospectives on what went down in the first week and first hundred days of 2021. It was kinda darkly funny at first, the impossibility of keeping up with the sheer amount of timeline-breaking, unprecedented shit happening. Then it just went on, and on, and on, and stopped being funny and started messing with our grasp on reality again.
Whether you spent 2021 still trying to process 2020 or simply did not have the capacity to clock it all in the memory bank, we've compiled a list of the good, the bad, the weird, and the forgettable from this year. While this isn't a list of all of the year's major moments (otherwise, we'd be here well into 2022), we're sure you'll find lots that make you want to launch into a rambling Matthew McConaughey monologue about time being a flat circle.
1. Bean Dad and Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical rang in the new year as the first viral memes of 2021.
While their energies could not have been more different, you couldn't escape these viral characters if you were online in the first week of 2021. #BeanDad discourse — over the dad with a polarizing method for teaching his daughter how to open a can of beans — triggered Twitter into a spiral of their non-bean-related daddy issues. Meanwhile, the Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, which began as a somewhat sincere joke on the app, gave us hope for wholesome content by raising over a million dollars for struggling actors.
2. Capitol insurrectionists made Jan. 6, 2021, a day America will never forget.
Yet even so, it's hard to wrap our brains around the fact that this horrifying event, where a Trump-supporting mob incited by the president stormed the Capitol, happened less than a year ago. Living through history really does funny things to time, doesn't it?
3. President Donald Trump was impeached (again) on Jan. 13 then acquitted (again) on Feb. 13.
Trump was the first president in American history to be impeached twice, the first time for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and the second time for incitement of an insurrection. But we collectively forgot all about that in about five minutes. Guess we were preoccupied!
Demonstrating just how broken our society is, though, online platforms like Twitter and Facebook (now Meta) actually banned his ass for inciting violence. I guess even an anemic amoeba like Mark Zuckerberg has more of a spine than our government leaders when it comes to threats against American democracy.
4. Bernie Sanders' mittens and JLo's “Let's Get Loud” performance turned Biden's inauguration into a fever dream.
Honestly, no 2021 inauguration was ever going to be "normal." But in the midst of all the fear and post-traumatic stress of the Capitol riot, the internet found two bizarre things to distract us. TO READ ABOUT THE OTHER 40 THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN 2021, CLICK HERE...
The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2021
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From amazing firsts on Mars to the impacts of climate change on Earth, these science stories stood out as the most important of 2021 Photo illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons
Covid-19 dominated science coverage again in 2021, and deservedly so. The disease garnered two entries on this list of our picks for the most important science stories of the year. But other key discoveries and achievements marked the year in science too, and they deserve more attention. NASA and private companies notched firsts in space.
Scientists discovered more about the existence of early humans. And researchers documented how climate change has impacted everything from coral reefs to birds. Covid-19 will continue to garner even more attention next year as scientists work to deal with new variants and develop medical advances to battle the virus. But before you let stories about those topics dominate your reading in 2022, it’s worth it to take a look back at the biggest discoveries and accomplishments of this past year. To that end, here are our picks for the most important science stories of 2021.
Last year the biggest science story of the year was that scientists developed two mRNA Covid vaccines in record time. This year the biggest Covid story is that the rollout of those vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, and one other by Johnson and Johnson, haven’t made their way into a large proportion of the United States population and a significant portion of the world.
The Covid Vaccine Rollout Encounters Hurdles/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/3e/7f/3e7fc1d6-7427-41eb-af5a-13f2d8a3efc4/1_gettyimages-1291452606_web.jpg)
A healthcare worker receives a vaccine in Miami, Florida. Almost 40 percent of the United States population hasn’t been fully vaccinated. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Last year the biggest science story of the year was that scientists developed two mRNA Covid vaccines in record time. This year the biggest Covid story is that the rollout of those vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, and one other by Johnson and Johnson, haven’t made their way into a large proportion of the United States population and a significant portion of the world.
As of this writing on December 21, roughly 73 percent of the U.S. population has received one dose, and roughly 61 percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. An incomplete rollout allowed for a deadly summer surge, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant. Experts pointed out that vaccination rates lagged due to widespread disinformation and misinformation campaigns. It didn’t help that some popular public figures—like Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers, musician Nick Minaj, podcast host Joe Rogan and rapper Ice Cube—chose not to get vaccinated.
Luckily, by November, U.S. health officials had approved the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as five, providing another barrier against the deadly disease’s spread, and Covid rates declined. But while the wall against the disease in the U.S. is growing, it is not finished. As cases surge as the Omicron variant spreads around the country, building that wall and reinforcing it with booster shots is critically important. In much of the rest of the world, the wall is severely lacking where populations haven’t been given decent access to the vaccine.
Only 8 percent of individuals in low-income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and a WHO Africa report from this fall said that on that continent, less than 10 percent of countries would hit the goal of vaccinating at least 40 percent of their citizens by the end of the year. Globally, less than 60 percent of the population has been vaccinated. The holes in vaccination coverage will allow the virus to continue to kill a large number of individuals, and allow an environment where possibly other dangerous variants can emerge.
Perseverance Notches Firsts on Mars/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/61/e8/61e874de-53d1-4165-9b51-00b5db71ad61/2_pia23492_2_msr_b_mars_2020_with_tubes_on_surface_web.jpg)
NASA's Perseverance rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the surface of Mars to be retrieved on a future mission. NASA / JPL-Caltech
NASA's Perseverance rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the surface of Mars to be retrieved on a future mission. NASA / JPL-Caltech
Thursday, December 30
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