Ultima Thule declares war on Earth!

Stoolian attack battle cruiser

Way back in January 2006, the United States launched a small probe named New Horizons off the planet and onto a trajectory that allowed it to first visit Jupiter in February of 2007, doing a fast swing around and then heading for an encounter with Pluto in July of 2015. Had the scientists left it at that, the earth might have been spared some problems!

But no, a group of them got it in their heads to point the little craft out towards the Kuiper belt, a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, believed to contain many comets, asteroids, and other small bodies made largely of ice. And, as it turned out a warlike tribe of robots soon to be known to humans as Stoolites! Why Stoolites, you might ask. Mainly because that's what they call their little retched piece of rock - Stool! And while scientists still prefer the term Ultima Thule, that only caused those robots to get even more agitated after communications were firmly established. Then, the following message was received on December 28, 2018 – just a few days before the probe was scheduled to whiz by the rock at a distance of 2200 miles....

[Biotic organisms of [unpronounceable]. We have seen the incredibly large 'missile?' you have aimed at Stool, but with such very poor accuracy, that it is sure to miss us. You dare to attack Stool? We will respond by launching the entire Stoolian battle fleet which numbers in the thousands with orders to annihilate your pathetic tiny ball of water and rock!]

As you might guess this threat was taken very seriously, until that is, the Stoolites also sent them a picture of one of their space battle cruisers along with a detailed specification of its armament, size etc.

After doing some math, they determined that each craft was about 0.0625 mm in length! (See mock up of scaled-to-size craft below right).

'Hmm', pondered one scientist. 'It would seem that the Stoolites may be a bit myopic and they're definitely somewhat tiny!'

Another scientist looked up at him grinning. 'Do you think we should sue for peace? I mean their entire armada might just fit into a small salt shaker!' (The scientist then commenced rolling on the floor laughing).

Meanwhile, a lone robotic Stoolite stood at the helm of the flagship Fartenstark, as it headed at flank speed for the earth. One of his metal tentacles slapped the floor plate in anticipation. 'Boy', he thought. 'Will they ever be in for a surprise...'

Democrats employ the Chewbacka Defense over the wall!

My fellow Americans, Chewbacka is a wookie!

Does Chewbacka look like a wall to you?

No! That just don't make no sense!

Building new walls, does that make sense?

No! Wookies don't build walls, and that's a fact!

Now should we build a border wall using wookies?

That just don't make no sense!

Do I make sense? No, I don't make sense.

And that's why we must not build any more walls!

Flu infections take a jump in mid December!

As a disclaimer, I only pretend to know what I'm talking about. That said, there were two variants of the flu virus circulating around the country as of the latest December 15 report from the CDC. The most prevalent was Type A H1N1/Michigan/2015 bug that has been around for some years. And while it's not a very nice bug, it can cause high levels of morbidity and is contagious as hell. That virus is seen in most of the US excluding the southeast where we find a much more interest mix known as H2N3/Singapore/2016. This little bundle of snot is much more active in terms of anti-genetic drift ability and is one I would want to watch were I very smart.

TRENDS

The rate of reported ILI or influenza like illness across the US did jump up over the average US baseline and looked to be sort of following the sort of curve we saw last season. Note the rather wacky season we had in 2009-10! By Christmas, the flu season was basically over. That was not going to be the case this year with the good news being that the vaccine looked to be very effective.

Random Thoughts: Headlines as 2018 makes her exit!

Democrats are the disease, Trump is the cure!

What did the Nation ever do right, that we got Trump and not Clinton elected as President in 2016? I could not even imagine the hole we would be in under Hillary's progressive grip. Not that Trump could be considered perfect. He's overly dramatic and fight the press like a bulldog. And yest, he was exactly what the nation needed at the time! Will things get rocky over the next two years? You betcha! The Democrats are sure to pull out all the stops to thwart Trumps efforts. There are even rumors circulating that they are quite willing to destroy the Republic if needed. 


Mark Zuckerberg is a patent liar!

Face Book as a social tool has been of questionable benefit. Evidence has been mounting that tech toys are exactly what is not needed by the young. A fact that the wealthy can attest to. Evidence has also come to light that Zuckerberg lied to Congress when he said he would make efforts to lock down people's privacy. He did exactly the opposite. Companies like FB, Google and Amazon are shamelessly mining people like they were cheap coal.

The Border Wall will be built!

In spite of dramatic efforts by all the members of the Democratic Party to stop the Wall from being improved, it will get the funds, in the end. The problems generated by an average of 60 thousand illegal aliens crossing each day WILL be felt as time goes on. The problem is similar to the frog in the pot of water analogy. The process has been so slow, relatively speaking, that neither the frog or the citizens of the United States really understood that they were in trouble. As December fades, we currently have about 22 million undocumented and illegal aliens living on our soil. The drain they are exerting on the Feds is in the 100 billion dollar range per year! That's a tenth of a trillion. That's a disaster waiting in the wings, in a country whose entitlement and healthcare systems are going tits up.

No CR! Shut er down!

As the date for a government shutdown approaches, many people have expressed bad feelings about Trump doing that over a tiny 5 billion dollars needed to fund border security. Schumer along with other extreme progressives really doesn't care about something that he voted for himself under Obama. No, what matters above everything else for him, is the desire to stop Trump at any cost to the Nation. That's not leadership, Mr. Schumer, that's a sign of incipient political dementia. History will record the Democrat Party actions of this and other key issues, over the past two years, in a very poor light.

Jim Morrison, the End!

Iconic, tragic and prescient. That was Jim Morrison. Loved the man, the icon and the heart!

USDA and FDA needs to step it up on food labels!

There are many strains of the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) and most of those strains are harmless. As a matter of fact many of these guys live in the intestines of healthy humans and animals.You might even say that they are ubiquitous on planet earth. That said, a few varieties of E. coli cause disease by producing via their production of the Shiga toxin. The bacteria that make these toxins are called "Shiga toxin-producing" E. coli (STEC), and the most commonly found STEC in the United States is E. coli O157:H7. If you happen to be unlucky enough to ingest these bad dudes via infected produce or water, you could develop severe symptoms, especially if you are a young or elderly person.

In general the USDA and FDA do a superb job in insuring that the food that we Americans consume is safe. But, outbreaks can and do happen. And, when they happen, locating the geological site of the source infection is time critical. Then, once the source is known, it is equally important for them to spread the word far and wide. And that, sadly is not what happened in the latest Romaine lettuce outbreak in November of 2018! Part of the problem in finding the source stemmed from the fact that much of the produce consumed domestically is not very well labeled as to where it was grown or, sometimes, even what country it came from! Only the local grocer would likely even have that information on hand. The consumers, well, they are pretty much left in the dark. That shortsighted approach to National safety needs to change....

I would like to see better and more effecting labels for all our produce and fruits! Will such a program be difficult - yes, most likely. But it is needed? Ask any of the 43 who became sick, recently, about that!

The Flu Season is upon us!

Even as the official beginning of the Flu season was back in November, there just hasn't been much to report as most states were seeing only sporadic of ILI or Influenza Like Illness cases being reported. That was as of the latest report put out by the CDC on December 8. At the time, the vast majority of viral infections were of the H1NI Type A variety. Following in a more scientific description:

Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection was associated with significant morbidity (the condition of being sick), mainly among children and young adults. The majority of patients had self-limited mild-to-moderate uncomplicated disease. However, some patients developed severe illness and some died. In addition to respiratory complications, several complications due to direct and indirect effects on other body systems were associated with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection. The main complications reported in hospitalized adults with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 were pneumonia (primary influenza pneumonia and concomitant/secondary bacterial pneumonia), exacerbations of chronic pulmonary diseases (mainly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma), the need for intensive unit care admission (including mechanical ventilation, acute respiratory distress syndrome and septic shock), nosocomial infections and acute cardiac events. In experimentally infected animals, the level of pulmonary replication of the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus was higher than that of seasonal influenza viruses. Pathological studies in autopsy specimens indicated that the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus mainly targeted the lower respiratory tract, resulting in diffuse alveolar damage (edema, hyaline membranes, inflammation, and fibrosis), manifested clinically by severe acute respiratory distress syndrome with refractory hypoxemia. Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09-related pneumonia and other complications were associated with increased morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients.

I was unfortunate enough to contract this bug back in late September, and that was right before I had gotten a shot. I can attest to the fact that this is not a very nice bug to get as I was laid up for over a week, before then contracting pneumonia. The whole ordeal took about four weeks to recover from!

Today (December the 15th), some early reports indicated that not a few states were moving from sporadic and low to moderate and even higher levels of infection! And yes, it's not too late to get a vaccine shot at your nearest clinic. And, the good news is that this years 'blend' turned out to be just the right 'medicine'! Remember, after getting your shot, that it will take up to two weeks before your immune system is geared up to fight the real thing. And while getting this vaccine may not keep you from catching the flu, it will certainly take the effects and symptoms down a few pegs!