So Are the Days

Her breath sneaks out of the top of the mask and fogs up her reading glasses. She moulds the metal strip a little tighter over the bridge of her nose. The pubs are closed again. No income. Still casual after all these years. Another extension of lockdown is expected to be announced at 11am.

I’ll have to get online and apply for a payment.

At the shopping centre a man and his son are standing outside the pharmacy. Waiting? The father wears a football jersey and a long thin plait of hair runs down his back. He is mock fighting with his son. The boy jumps in trying to score a tap on his dad, then jumps back to avoid being slapped. The boy is not wearing a mask, neither is the father. Where is security?

Today, it is only ‘him’ she sees defying the…

By Jon Miltimore
Foundation for Economic Education

More than 100,000 people flooded streets in France over the weekend and multiple COVID vaccination centers were vandalized as opposition grew to the government’s most recent pandemic strategy. In President Emmanuel Macron’s latest incarnation of lockdowns, government officials have decreed that unvaccinated individuals will no longer be allowed to enter cafes, restaurants, theaters, public transportation and more.

Needless to say, people were not happy.

France’s approach is unique, but it’s just one of many countries around the world imposing new restrictions as fears grow over a new variant of COVID-19. Australia’s recent restrictions have placed half the country under strict lockdown—even though a record 82,000 tests had identified just 111 new coronavirus cases—while restaurants in Portugal are struggling to surviveamid newly imposed restrictions.

One country not making much news is Sweden.

Sweden, of course, was maligned in 2020 for foregoing a strict…

July 28 (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) on Wednesday raised its 2021 sales forecast for its COVID-19 vaccine by 29% to $33.5 billion, and said it believes people will need a third dose of the shot developed with German partner BioNTech to keep protection against the virus high.

The company said it could apply for an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a booster dose as early as August.

Data showed that a third dose generated virus-neutralizing antibodies more than 5 times higher in younger people and more than 11 times higher in older people than from two doses against the more easily transmissible Delta variant of the virus.

“All in all, I think a third dose would strongly improve protection against infection, mild moderate disease, and reduce the spread of the virus,” Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said on a call to discuss quarterly…

What is the best age in human life? Have you heard the saying, ‘life begins at 40?’ I don’t know the sense of it. Does it mean that the first three decades are just a waste of time? That’s going to be a pile of massive rubbish then! Anyway, I’ll find it out soon. What about the 20s? Usually, most of us have already graduated from school at this stage. We have also found a decent job. Some of us were trying to save money to buy a dream car, to invest in a house, or to travel the whole world. At this point, we are starting to enjoy our freedom. No more school, less parental restriction and we handle our lives in our own ways. Oh! Also, people usually find their life partners in their mid-20s when everyone is already stable and ready to build a new cycle…

A controversial 1972 MIT study, The Limits of Growth, predicted the collapse of civilization – and new research confirms the gloomy scenarios.

By F. William Engdahl

Global Research

Origins of the Crisis

According to German-based Statista Research Department, some 80 percent of all goods globally are carried by sea including oil, coal, grains. Of that total, in terms of value, global maritime container trade accounts for some 60 percent of all seaborne trade, valued at around 14 trillion US dollars in 2019. This ocean shipping has become the arteries of the world economy for better or worse.

This is a direct consequence of the 1990’s creation of the WTO with new rules favoring out-sourcing of manufacture to countries where production was far cheaper, that is as long as ocean transport was cheap. After China became a WTO member in 2001, they became the greatest beneficiary of the new rules and within a decade China was called the “workshop of the world.” Entire industries such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, chemicals as well as…

Updated 

The success or failure of Australia’s coronavirus fight relies to a remarkable degree on just one thing, new modelling has found.

And that thing is whether individual Australians now follow official advice — and just stay home.

The data comes from a complex model of how COVID-19 could spread in Australia, which finds:

• Coronavirus will continue to spread virtually unchecked unless at least eight in 10 Australians stay home as much as possible.
• If that slips even slightly — to seven in 10 people — the fight to ‘flatten the curve’ will be lost.
• It also suggests that…

Always have hope, dear hearts. Despite the things or people that tear your heart apart, believe anyway. There is always someone in your corner. Believe anyway. Go to the campfires where the loving people are. Sit beside them. Link arms. Laugh until your sides hurt. Sing with them. Listen. Watch their eyes sparkle when you arrive and when you share your heart. Your tribe can be pieced together like a beautiful quilt. You are a work of art and a work of heart. Simply you. Simply me.
Simply Kate ❤

Lucas, born in the early hours of Wednesday, 18th July 2012.

This is Lucas, one week old

The parents of Lucas on the day of his birth in Wollongong Hospital

Great Grandma Uta with Lucas

Great Grandparents, Uta and Peter with Baby Lucas

Three aunts of Lucas stayed with him for hours in the hospital room.

Ebony, the Mum, likes the attention her baby son is getting

Happy faces all around

Great-Aunt Caroline with the baby

Grandma Monika and the three Aunties had been staying already for about an hour with the proud parents and the Baby when Caroline, Peter and I arrived. They stayed for another hour or so after we left!

A week later we saw Ebony at her home. Caroline holds Lucas with Ebony looking on.

Caroline took this picture