197 million, 60%, perhaps even 75% of Americans are immune!
Washington fruit
growers’ foreign sales challenged by
competition for ocean shipping containers
Nearly 28% of Washington state apples were shipped to 60 different countries during the 2018-19 season.
Exporting apples and other agriculture commodities remains a challenge due to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, longstanding trade disputes with several countries and a lack of available shipping containers from ocean carriers.
U.S. demand for products made in China, such as personal protective equipment for COVID-19, furniture and toys, increased considerably at the end of last year.
The demand has driven ocean carriers to prioritize getting shipping containers back to China as quickly as possible to get imports to the U.S. and other countries.
That has resulted in ocean carriers opting to leave the U.S. with empty shipping containers rather than filling them up with U.S.-made products, including apples grown in this state.
Info: shpr.fyi/fruitshipping
Remember the 1984 cookie cutter three-ton hunk of earth that got up and moved 73 feet away?
Weird news report from 1984 near Grand Coulee Dam in Eastern Washington:
Quoted from an unidentified 1984 publication:
“No one can figure out how, but a chunk of earth weighing tons was plucked out of a wheat field, as though someone used “a giant cookie cutter,” and put down, right side up, 73 feet away. “All we know for sure is that this puzzle piece of earth is 73 feet away from the hole it came out of,” said Greg W. Behrens, a geologist with the Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam.”
The displaced slab, mostly soil held together by roots, is about 10 feet long and 7 feet wide. Its thickness varies from 2 feet at one end to about 18 inches at the other. The shape and thickness of the piece exactly match the hole that was left behind, just like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, though it was rotated about 20 degrees. There are no marks to indicate machines were used, the Seattle Times reported Friday, and the land is fairly flat.
Watch the Seattle King5 TV News report:
https://youtu.be/JxpBc64mtYE
Supermassive black holes appear before universe had grown enough for them to accumulate
In 2017, astronomers started finding monster black holes in the very early universe. Contain-ing roughly a billion times the mass of our Sun, these black holes were surrounded by disks of in-falling matter shining so intensely that we can detect them across immense stretches of space and time.
These gravitational giants existed when the universe was only 700 million years old, or 5 percent its current age. At that point in cosmic history, the uni-verse was still a toddler. Gravity was just beginning to rein in clouds of gas and dark matter to form structures that would later evolve into mature spiral and elliptical galaxies. Stars were beginning to pop into being, but they existed in far fewer numbers than they do today.
According to the traditional picture of black hole formation and growth, the universe at this time simply had not existed long enough for black holes to bulk up to a billion solar masses. So, based on our general understanding of how black holes form and grow, these black holes should not exist.
And yet they do — posing a major challenge that astrophysicists have yet to unravel.
Info: shpr.fyi/blackholes
Yakima fairground
mass vaccination
site expanded
Since last Wednesday, the capacity of the recently opened Yakima Fairgrounds site in-creased from 200 to 1,200 vaccine doses each day and operations expanded from five to seven days a week.
Yakima’s center is primarily set up as a drive-thru site, but individuals also can walk up. Those driving should use Gate 15, and those walking on to the site should use Gate 1. People who need a fare-free ride can call 211.
The hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, except for Thursday when the hours are noon to 6 p.m. People can register at https://prepmod.doh.wa.gov/ or call 1-800-525-0127.
Since last Wednesday, vac-cine eligibility expanded to restaurant, food service, construction and manufacturing workers; anyone 60 and older; and anyone with two or more underlying conditions. Those previously eligible still qualify.
Info: shpr.fyi/fairvaccine
Effective April 15, all Washingtonians over the age of 16 will be eligible
Washington governor announced that effective April 15, all Washingtonians over the age of 16 will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.
Info: shpr.fyi/blackhole
A note about the thermometer above:
Change: Immunity required for herd immunity is now estimated to be at least 75%.
The number of Infection & Recovery (Dark Green) I’ve used is just the actual number known and reported by CDC.
However, CDC, Dr. Fauci and others suspected and reported that very many additional, originally perhaps 30% of the U.S. population, had been infected and recovered without symptoms, without even knowing they were sick or had COVID. These cannot be not counted.
Probably the same percentage of those 30% originally estimated additional infected & recovered are among the 51%, now vaccinated so I have reduced the original 30% unknown recovered number by the percent vaccinated, so now to 15%.
I have added this 15% of us who are probably immune as a lightly colored green section.
This would bring our real to-tal American immunity to around 75%- now equal to the 75% herd immunity goal!
With herd immunity, the virus continues to be spread by infected symptomatic victims, but that virus can’t spread well because 75% of the people it reaches are immune.
This is the reason that the daily number of new infections and hospitalizations has plummeted so wonderfully.
With herd immunity, masks and shutdowns may no longer be justifiable!
Dave Bunting