MrG's Blog & Notes

* This is an archive of my own online blog and notes, with weekly entries collected by month.

[MON 06 SEP 21] THE WEEK THAT WAS 35

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: At the end of August, the US intelligence services issued a report on the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with absolutely no surprises in it. The report stated that the virus might have been natural in origin, or might have come from a lab, though it concluded that it certainly hadn't been weaponized. The bottom line was that the Chinese government was not being helpful in tracking down the origins of the virus. Having gone through the motions, the White House is likely to say little more about the matter.

The US completed its airlift out of Afghanistan at midnight local time on 30 August, with over 123,000 people hauled out of the country. It was an impressive logistical feat, conducted under difficult conditions, including some terrorist attacks. America's war in Afghanistan is over ... or is it? A force under Tajik leader Ahmad Masoud has been holding out against Taliban fighters in the rugged Panjshir Valley north of Kabul. If Masoud can hold out for another week, he'll have so much covert aid being flown in at night that the Taliban will never root him out.

Masoud presents a dire threat to the Taliban. It is based on the Pashtun tribe, which is Afghanistan's biggest, about 42% of the population -- which still means that the Taliban is trying to impose control on a country where it is outnumbered. If they don't stamp out resistance immediately, it seems likely it will spread -- all the more so because it also seems likely that the Afghan Army didn't turn over all its weapons to the Taliban. Hoarding weapons, apparently, is an ancient Afghan tradition. The Taliban has won the war, but can they win the peace?

Obviously, the purpose of the resistance is not to defeat the Taliban, instead being to press for a moderate, inclusive, and internationally-recognized central government. That is entirely in line with what the US wants. Of course, since there are still foreigners in Afghanistan who are vulnerable, any aid the US gives Masoud will be totally black and untraceable. There will only be a handful of CIA on the ground in Afghanistan, and it's very plausible they will be Afghan-born. The US will fly air support with long-range drones, and along with weapons will give the Afghans satellite phones and solar power rechargers.

* The USA is already moving on from Afghanistan, headlines being dominated by an anti-abortion "heartbeat" bill passed by Texas, which limited abortions to six weeks -- at a time when many women don't know they're pregnant. The US Supreme Court refused to consider blocking the law -- which in effect booted it over to Congress to address, which might have been the objective. SCOTUS may be getting tired of having to fight over dodgy anti-abortion bills. Now we get to see what Congress will do with the ball. The Democrats didn't need this fight right now, but there was never a good time for it.

One facet of the law allowed Texas to press lawsuits for violations of the act, to be rewarded a minimum of $10,000 USD. This was a puzzling notion, since it was hard to see how anyone attempting to press a lawsuit could show they had standing to do it, and impossible to see how they could claim damages. Backers of the bill, with an excess of enthusiasm and deficit of sense, put up a website that allowed people to submit anonymous tips of violations of the law. To no surprise, it promptly went viral and was hit with a flood of prank reports. They pulled the plug on it in less than a day. This didn't work out the way we thought it would, did it?

My own attitude towards the fighting over abortion is that I can't stand it. The no-choice gang will lose in the end, but it's wearying to put up with it in the meantime. I wish for the day when it's over and done with, so I don't have to listen to it any more.

* It was somewhat more entertaining to find out that the Thompson Committee, investigating the 6 January Capitol riot, asked phone service providers for call data relative to Republican members of Congress whose conduct on that day was suspicious. The committee is not taking prisoners. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reacted loudly, sending out a tweet:

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Actually, they would be violating the law if they didn't comply with the congressional order; Congress has a very high level of authority in conducting investigations. Commentaries on Twitter suggested that McCarthy's rant sounded suspiciously like obstruction of justice. Did you run that past a lawyer before you posted it? I was wondering what acid thing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have to say about it, but she didn't bother to notice. The MAGAbots are good at obstruction -- but when they actually have to take on a challenge, they're helpless.

* Along roughly parallel lines, a prominent Right-wing troll named Candace Owens went to a COVID-19 testing office in Aspen, Colorado. They'd heard of her, and Suzanna Lee, the owner, replied:

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Of course, America's COVIDiots are not wising up, the latest folly being use of an anti-worming agent named ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19. A number of studies showed that it was effective to that end, but they all flunked out on review, and no reputable medical authority encourages the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19. It can be taken by humans -- sometimes humans get worms, too -- but it appears that it is most readily available for horses. There can be nasty side-effects normally, worse than the COVID-19 vaccines, and humans don't do too well with horse-scaled doses, with the result of people having to go through a detox.

In any case, THE DAILY SHOW's Michael Kosta came up with a brilliant idea:

QUOTE:

HORSEYVAX! Hell, why not? Please? Maybe? Just please get the vaccine.

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Kosta does a perfect job of imitating Right-wing MAGAbots -- he does a very good Mike "MyPillowGuy" Lindell. Incidentally, some of the comments on Youtube were good:

• "5 bucks say there is at least one person who marches into CVS asking for this!"
  
  
• "They hear the words HERD IMMUNITY and think they need to take livestock medication."
  
  
• "Now I truly understand what Trump meant when he said he was a stable genius."

It seems the only cure for COVIDiocy will be vaccine mandates, lots of them, everywhere. It's coming; more organizations are laying down the law every week. The COVIDiots will complain, and then comply. They talk big. It is, however, exasperating to watch them try to tear down efforts to keep the pandemic under control, as the bodies pile up -- and then hear them bash President Joe for not getting the pandemic under control.

* As a minor revelation this week, I finally gave up on my last MP3 player. The weak link with them is the wired earphones; the plug contact tends to become intermittent, and the wire connections tend to break. The wired earphones on my MP3 player finally went south. I contemplated buying a new set, I can get decent ones for less than $20 USD -- but then I got to thinking about the old smartphones I have that I never use. Might it make more sense to use one of them, with bluetooth earphones?

So I'm using an old Samsung smartphone as my household dedicated MP3 player right now. I'm using an old spare set of wired earphones right now, but I've got some wire-behind-the-head bluetooth earphones on order from Amazon -- also less than $20 USD, incidentally. The only problem is recharging them, but I recharge my gadgets as per custom once a week; it's no bother. There is also no contact to become intermittent, and less problems with broken wiring.

Geez, how long have I been using MP3 players? They were fun while they lasted. Given old smartphones around the house gathering dust, they just didn't make sense any more. [ED: Actually, they're still around as a cheap niche technology, updated to bluetooth headphone capability. I bought one a few years later.]

* According to an article from PCGAMER.com ("This AI-Controlled Lego Sorter Is What My Childhood Dreams Were Made Of" by Katie Wickens, 20 January 2021), one Daniel West has created a "universal Lego sorter" system based on AI technology. It features a set of subsystems:

• A bin loaded up with the parts, feeding a vibrating trough that separates the Legos, and feeds them one at a time to a conveyor belt.
  
  
• A camera that scans the part on the conveyor belt, and identifies it using a neural net.
  
  
• A set of mechanical gates that sends the identified part to one of 18 bins.

The system is controlled by a Raspberry Pi processor board, with a laptop computer running the neural network software. It's clever, if not a leading-edge application of AI technology. However, West definitely gets points for making the sorter system itself out of Legos.

[MON 13 SEP 21] THE WEEK THAT WAS 36

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: US President Joe Biden seems to be regrouping for the moment, recharging his presidency after the inevitable gloom over the Afghanistan exit. Efforts towards a massive dual spending bill appear to be on track. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has called for scaling it way down, in particular trimming parts intended to deal with climate change -- but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seems undeterred, saying it's full speed ahead.

Schumer talks a lot with Manchin, so it seems likely that the bill will make some minor concessions to him, indeed possibly to its benefit, with Manchin voting for the bill. He will do so "reluctantly" of course; he's got to pretend he's more conservative than he really is to keep West Virginia voters happy with him. If the Woke Left in Congress attack him for his reluctance, so much the better, since that will give him cover with his voters.

Biden has also been making loud noises about raising the corporate tax rate. The Republicans have said that's unacceptable, but it's very likely to happen. That battle may be deferred; it's not clear what Congress will do next after the spending bills are out the door, but signs are that a voter rights act will be next. A reproductive rights act may be coming as well, though the Biden Administration appears to want to defer that if possible, while a judiciary bill -- for term limits on SCOTUS -- is lurking in the wings. A tax bill sounds well down the road, to be done after the other troublesome bills are passed.

In any case, the lingering issue of what to do about the Senate filibuster, in which most bills require 60 votes to pass, may be coming to a head. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has called for killing it off, suggesting a debate is approaching. Exactly how hard Joe Manchin will push back on it is unclear. We'll see what happens.

* The biggest item this week was Biden announcing a "get tough" approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it a "pandemic of the unvaccinated", and telling them: "We've been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us." He told the public:

QUOTE:

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The workforce measures will be implemented by the Labor Department's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), with fines of nearly $14,000 USD per violation. In addition, the Biden administration is calling on entertainment venues to require tests or shots, and for states to adopt mandates for school employees. It is also increasing the fines charged to people who fail to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses. Biden will use authority under the Defense Production Act to accelerate production of COVID-19 tests, and big retailers including Walmart, Amazon.com, and Kroger intend to sell them at cost.

The Republicans in Congress blasted back at this declaration, calling it "authoritarian". It was quickly noted that all of them were vaccinated. They've been screaming about court challenges, but the courts have a long tradition of backing vaccination mandates. Biden later said:

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As for lawsuits, Biden said: "Have at it." COVIDiocy is not a winning political strategy. Like 62% of Americans are fully vaccinated, like 75% have had at least one shot. Culling out the 5% who are totally zoned out suggests the GOP is playing to 20% of the population. "Does this make sense?" It doesn't make sense.

Left unsaid was what to do about vaccine disinformation circulating on Fox News and social media. One suspects the White House is exerting quiet pressure to throttle back the flow. The lingering puzzle is: where is all the disinformation coming from? It looks like somebody is driving it. Is it being bankrolled by peddlers of quack cures? The Kremlin? Do most of the people posting the disinformation have any idea who's pulling their strings?

Incidentally, after signing a bill that effectively outlawed abortion in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott then signed an executive order banning vaccine mandates. His commentary blew out irony meters across the country: "I issued an executive order protecting Texans' right to choose ... "

* The loud howling about the Afghanistan pullout continues, though it is getting tiresome. The over-the-top nature of the complaints was underlined by demands that the Biden Administration fire the State Department's Afghanistan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the withdrawal agreement with the Taliban. Fire him? Why? He was handed a hopeless task, and did what he could with it.

The protests will likely bore themselves to death eventually, but it's hard to say when. In the meantime, the situation in Afghanistan remains murky. Reports from Kabul suggest the people of the city are not too happy with the Taliban occupation, the citizens having little liking for being bullied by ignorant, heavily-armed, violent-minded hill people. It is becoming ever clearer that the end of the US occupation does not mean a return to the status of the previous Taliban regime: it's like they were a dog chasing a car, but having caught it, they don't really know how to drive.

As discussed by one Mohammad Ali Shabani, the regional political landscape is much changed from that of 20 years past. During the first reign of the Taliban, the Iranians were eager to get rid of them -- the Taliban had murdered Iranian diplomats in 1998, and the Shia Iranian regime had little use for a militant Sunni movement. Indeed, when the US charged into Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks, the Iranians tacitly collaborated with them to defeat the Taliban. However, from that time Iranian hostility to the "Great Satan" USA pushed Iran closer to the Taliban, and now the Iranians speak highly of them. With the Taliban ascendant, however, the Iranians may switch course again and help the resistance; it is weak right now, but may well not remain so with foreign assistance.

The Taliban's relations with the Arabian Peninsula countries have also shifted considerably. Before 9-11, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were two of only three countries in the world to recognize Taliban rule, the third being Pakistan. Saudi Wahabinist Sunni preachers found Afghanistan a fertile ground for their extreme doctrines. However, 9-11 forced the Saudis and the UAE to cut ties with the Taliban, and the current Saudi regime is trimming back the power of the Wahabinists. The Saudis were not involved with the evacuations from Kabul, though the UAE did provide some assistance.

Although Qatar did not recognize the Taliban regime in its existence from 1996 to 2001, for the last 11 years Qatar has hosted dialogue with the Afghan group and, with the blessing of three US administrations, has also allowed Taliban representatives to operate a political office in Doha since 2013. The 2020 US-Taliban agreement was signed there. Qatar has been a hub of practical and diplomatic activity relative to Afghanistan since the US withdrawal.

Qatar, it seems, is now positioning itself as a venue for international mediation. Squabbling with its neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula hit a high level after Qatar backed popular uprisings during the Arab Spring -- but now, in part thanks to American impatience with the squabbling, Qatar has generally mended fences. Kristin Diwan, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, says:

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It's clearly working, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying during a recent visit: "As we carry forward, our diplomacy here, we know that Qatar will be our partner, because this is not the first time that Qatar has stepped up to help in Afghanistan."

James Dorsey, a senior fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, observed that Qatar, by making itself indispensable, is working to protect its security:

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So what next in Afghanistan? Simple answer: the Great Game continues.

* Ivory has long been used to produce art objects -- but not any more, since the ivory trade was banned internationally in 1989. Black-market trade in ivory still persists, and there's also a lot of old art objects in need of restoration that use ivory. That suggests a need for a convincing, low-cost ivory substitute.

Researchers at TU Wien (Vienna) and the Austrian 3D printing company Cubicure GMBH, a spin-off of the university, have now created such a substitute, which they call "digory". It consists of a polymer resin mixed with calcium phosphate -- which has various forms, one of the simpler being Ca3(PO4)2 -- that is 3D printed, being cured with ultraviolet. Once printed in the desired shape, the item is polished and color-adjusted to create a deceptively authentic-looking ivory substitute. Professor Juergen Stampfl, from the Institute of Materials Science & Technology at TU Wien, said:

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The team already had experience with similar materials, for example having investigated ceramic materials for dental technology. The digory composite features calcium phosphate particles with an average diameter of about 7 micrometers, mixed in a special resin, along with extremely fine silicon oxide powder. The mixture is then processed at high heat in Cubicure's 3D printers using the "hot lithography process" -- laying down a layer, which is cured with a UV laser, and then laying down another layer. Ivory is translucent, so the concentration of calcium phosphate is critical: too much, and the end product is opaque. They tweaked the color of the casket items with, of all things, black tea.

[ED: It should seem straightforward to print elephant tusks in this way, and then give them suitable weathering. If it could be done cheaply, then the black market trade in ivory would dry up; the black marketeers would find it more profitable to sell fake tusks as the real thing, and the suckers wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It's not like they could complain to the law about being cheated if they did.]

[MON 20 SEP 21] THE WEEK THAT WAS 37

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: The major excitement this last week was an election in California to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. The recall didn't seem likely to work because California is a solidly Blue state -- but Newsom has some image problems, and there were concerns that Democrats might not turn out to vote to keep him in office. What amplified that concern was the peculiar nature of California's recall procedure: there's no follow-up election, whoever gets the most votes becomes governor instead. That might mean a governor who was elected on, say, 25% of the vote.

Fortunately for Newsom, his primary opponent was Larry Elder, a black far-Right talking head, who focused criticizing Newsom's attempts to control the COVID-19 pandemic in California. Newsom, instead of lamely remaining on the defensive, took the offensive, declaring his commitment to getting Californians to vaccinate and fight the pandemic. It worked, with the NO vote not so far under 2:1. STAR TREK alumnus George Takei, a popular Twitter poster, commented:

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Elder talked before the vote about challenging it, which also did him no favors; giving the lopsided nature of the vote, not surprisingly he's shown little inclination so far to follow up on his threat. Transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner got 1% of the vote, petulantly complaining about the injustice of it all, to widespread mockery on Twitter.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a similar situation, having called an election on the basis of getting a stronger majority in Parliament. It may have backfired on him, since the opposition is proving more formidable than expected -- but it's also ended up being a plebiscite on COVID-19, and it may indeed strengthen his hand. We'll see.

* Elder claims the experience should give him a leg up on the national political scene. Possibly, but not a good bet: like author and Senate hopeful JD Vance, he's jumped on the Trump Train just as it's headed for BRIDGE OUT.

It is strange that, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rightists believe that opposing efforts to control it, particularly vaccinations, is a path to political success. That antagonizes, even frightens, well more people than it pleases -- and it's strongest only at the outset, with enthusiasm fading over time.

One of the current trends in the pandemic is that it is killing off loud COVIDiots, many of them who had run local Rightist radio shows. One of the latest was Bob Enyart, who had once read obits of AIDS victims on the air while playing Queen's ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! While gloating over the deaths is unseemly, there wasn't much restraint from Twitter:

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The secret is, of course, that Fox has a vaccine mandate, and they're all vaccinated. It's not at all a secret. Of course, many of the tweets referenced ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

On another front in the vaccine wars, pop singer Nicki Minaj relayed a story about a cousin in Trinidad -- where Minaj was born -- who had got a COVID-19 vaccine, and suffered swollen testicles. The health minister of Trinidad replied that the story wasn't true, and the White House suggested that Minaj could speak to one of their doctors to set the record straight. This went viral as "#TesticleGate".

So far, Minaj hasn't replied. It appears that the White House is starting to selectively target high-profile loudmouthed anti-vaxxers. The White House is taking a more indirect approach to dealing with the misinformation from FOX, since FOX would like nothing better than a barking contest with the White House. FOX, not incidentally, has been backing up Minaj.

* On 18 September, there was a rally in support of those who had been arrested in the 1 January Capitol riot. There were fears that there could be trouble, so the police were out in force -- but there were more police than there were demonstrators, possibly even more journalists. The rally passed without incident. BRIDGE OUT.

* In more serious news, the US has signed a defense pact with Australia and Britain -- named "AUKUS" after the signatories -- the centerpiece being a new fleet of eight Australian nuclear-powered attack submarines, built with US and British assistance in a technology-sharing exercise. The Australians made it clear they had no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. The Chinese reacted angrily, declaring that the three countries were "severely damaging regional peace and stability, intensifying an arms race, and damaging international nuclear non-proliferation efforts."

That was rich, considering the Chinese have been demonstrating considerable belligerence in the South China Sea. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the pact was not meant to be adversarial -- which was rich as well -- and said it would reduce the costs of Britain's next generation of nuclear submarines. Johnson told Parliament that the submarines were only a first step: "Now that we have created AUKUS we expect to accelerate the development of other advanced defense systems including in cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and undersea capabilities." It would seem the Chinese were less distressed by the submarines than by the emergence of a clearly anti-Chinese Anglophone defense pact that is just getting warmed up.

The French were also very upset, since it meant the abrogation of a 2016 deal with Australia to build a new fleet of conventional submarines. The US government did what it could to placate them -- though Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was not contrite, saying the French submarine deal had been in trouble for a while, and the Aussies had made it clear they weren't happy with it. In any case, this is clearly only an opening round in an anti-Chinese military buildup in the East Pacific -- with a particular focus on missile tech, to neutralize Chinese local air and naval superiority.

* As discussed by an article from NEWATLAS.com ("Paper-Folding Art Reduced To The Nanoscale In Engineering Breakthrough" by Nick Lavars, 22 December 2020), everyone's familiar with the Japanese craft of "origami" -- the word translating to "fold-paper" or paper-folding, with figurines and trinkets fabricated by folding sheets of paper. There is a variation called "kirigami" -- meaning "cut-paper" -- in which the paper to be folded is cut in a pattern first.

A team of researchers has now implemented nanoscale kirigami. The team began with ultrathin films, making carefully placed kirigami cuts throughout them. Inherent stresses in the films then caused them to bend around the cuts into a desired 3D structure. According to the researchers, these shapes could find use in all kinds of areas, including tiny robotic grippers; spatial light modulators for optical applications; or controlling airflow on airplane wings. The team are continuing their work, one avenue of investigation being to add actuators that could "motorize" their nanoscale 3D structures.

Horacio Espinosa, who led the research, says: "By combining nanomanufacturing, in-situ microscopy experimentation, and computational modeling, we unraveled the rich behavior of kirigami structures and identified conditions for their use in practical applications."

[MON 27 SEP 21] THE WEEK THAT WAS 38

* THE WEEK THAT WAS: The Thompson Committee investigating the 6 January Capitol riot tends to its work and only occasionally drops bombs in public. This last week, the committee dropped a bomb, issuing subpoenas to four Donald Trump aides: former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino; former adviser Steve Bannon; and Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who had also served as an aide to Republican Representative Devin Nunes. They are being asked for private depositions and records.

Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of two Republicans serving on the committee, tweeted after the subpoenas were sent out that he is looking "forward to getting a full accounting of everything that happened in the Trump White House on, before, and after January 6th. And we're just getting started."

All four of the former Trump staffers were part of a larger records request the committee had sent to government agencies last month when it requested the records of hundreds of former Trump staffers, campaign employees, and supporters who were connected to Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Defiance of the subpoenas is contempt of Congress, which has a maximum jail sentence of a year and a maximum fine of $100,000 USD. Contempt can be established by a simple majority of vote of either branch of Congress. Enforcement is by the Department of Justice, or the Washington DC district attorney's office.

There is a complication that Donald Trump can invoke privacy through executive privilege, but the Biden White House can override it. That is likely to lead to some court action, but it is unlikely that the courts will block the White House. Adam Schiff, who as an ex-Federal prosecutor is clearly leading the investigation, told CNN's Chris Cuomo:

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In somewhat related news of the 2020 election agitation, the "Cyber Ninjas" who were conducting a bootleg audit of the election in Maricopa County, Arizona, reported on their effort -- to reveal that there had indeed been an error in the vote, but it was that Biden had won by over 300 more votes than had been counted. There was great mockery in response. Trump is in decline, though he's not out of business yet.

* Last week, the leaders of Australia, India, Japan, and the USA met at the White House as the "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue" or "Quad" for short. The alignment is not really anything new, it's just got a public face now. The foursome -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and US President Joe Biden -- announced in a joint statement after the talks:

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The leaders also voiced support for small island states, with a focus on their economies and environmental efforts; asked North Korea for restraint of its nuclear program; and pushed for global distribution of vaccines. Several agreements were announced, including one to bolster supply chain security for semiconductors, and to combat illegal fishing and boost maritime domain awareness. They also declared a 5G partnership and joint efforts on climate change.

The word "China" was not used, but anybody with sense knew what references to "coercion" meant. The Chinese foreign ministry was not fooled, announcing: "A closed, exclusive clique targeting other countries runs counter to the trend of the times and the aspirations of regional countries. It will find no support and is doomed to fail."

It is an interesting question of if Joe Biden wants the US to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade alliance. Donald Trump shot down US membership, and Biden has been cautious about signing up with trade groups -- but his caution appears to be mostly driven by public image, not any fundamental disagreement with trade pacts.

Incidentally, after Biden had an apologetic phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, French indignation over Australia's cancellation of a French submarine in favor of acquiring eight nuclear attack submarines under the AUKUS agreement has blown over. The Biden Administration was clearly caught flat-footed by the dispute -- possibly because the Australians didn't suggest the French submarines were any big deal.

* As discussed in an editorial by David Andelman on CNN.com ("A COVID Pass Takes France By Storm", 20 September 2021), in July French President Emmanuel Macron implemented tough measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in his country. While there has been some resistance -- the French are not noted for reverence of authority -- on the whole, the French seem relieved to have Macron take charge, Andelman writing:

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The law passed in July requires every adult in France to present a "pass sanitaire" before entering places like restaurants, cafes, museums, theaters, and sports stadiums. Now, all French health workers must have received at least the first dose of the vaccine in order to continue to work, with antivaxxers facing suspension without pay. Similarly, members of the military and firefighters must be vaccinated or be "assessed as unfit for their mission." Over 80% of French people over the age of 12 have had at least one vaccine dose, and the number continues to ramp up.

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Schools are open -- they were never fully closed -- and business activity is lively. Tourists are welcome if they have been vaccinated. Late in 2020, polls showed that France had the lowest percentage of people willing to get vaccinated, with only 40% saying they planned to get vaccinated. However, antivaxxer sentiment was not deeply felt, a French official telling Andelman: "The anti-vax movement is not that representative of the French population. It's a small portion of the population, and we have more and more people that are now vaccinated."

Macron successfully took control of the narrative, driving a plan that works. The pandemic in the USA has been discouraging -- not so much because of the hardship, though that is undeniable, but because of the noisy efforts to undermine the fight against it. The experience of the French suggests that the resistance exists on the fringes of society; and it is weak, easily defeated. There is basis for confidence that, a year from now, we'll have the pandemic behind us.

* As discussed in an article from SCIENCENEWS.com ("A Study Of Earth's Crust Hints That Supernovas Aren't Gold Mines" by Emily Conover, 13 May 2021), the refinement of astrophysics in the second half of the 20th century outlined the history of the creation of elements. The Universe after the Big Bang was nothing but hydrogen, some helium, and traces of lithium. Short-lived giant stars then performed fusion reactions to produce the elements up to iron; since fusion reactions above that point absorb energy instead of released it, once a giant star acquired an iron core, it collapsed in a supernova, spewing its heavy elements out into the cosmos.

What has not been clearly understood was the origin of elements heavier than iron, like gold. There was long speculation that they were by-products of supernova explosions, due to cramming atoms full of neutrons -- under the "rapid neutron capture" process, or "r-process". More recent thinking has suggested they were made by collisions of neutron-star pairs, driving the r-process. However, the problem with that scenario is that heavy elements show up in some very old stars, which were born before neutron stars had been around long enough to collide.

A study from a team led by physicist Anton Wallner of the Australian National University in Canberra has thrown more fuel onto the fire. The researchers decided to see if they could find evidence for heavy elements created in the r-process in the Earth's crust and picked up by the Earth. They started with a 410-gram sample of Pacific Ocean crust and sorted it out with a mass spectrometer system, hunting for plutonium-244, a marker for the r-process. They found about 180 plutonium-244 atoms, deposited into the Earth's crust within the last 9 million years.

Since iron-60 is created by fusion processes, not the r-process, they then hunted in the same for iron-60 atoms, finding about 415. Plutonium-244 is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of 80.6 million years, while iron-60 has an even shorter half-life of 2.6 million years. That means they haven't been on Earth for a long time, geologically speaking. When the researchers tallied iron-60 atoms to their depth in the crust, which suggests how long ago they had been deposited, the researchers saw two peaks at about 2.5 million years ago and at about 6.5 million years ago, suggesting two or more supernovas had occurred in the recent past.

If the plutonium-244 had been created in those two supernovas, the supernovas didn't make enough of it to account for the abundance of heavy elements in our neighborhood of the Galaxy. Right now, astrophysicists are diverging from a solution, instead of converging on one.