Safe Vaccines

 A rather unreal problem seems to be looming on the

vaccination question. People currently enrolled in phase 3 trials for

the Johnson and Johnson candidate are starting to say they too

would like to get vaccinated with a safe vaccine when these

become available. For recall, those in a study do not know if they

have received an actual dose or just a placebo, and the tesearchers

themselves don't know. Is the argument specious!?  Once people

opt out, we will never know the true effectiveness of that vaccine.

Here's the thing to my mind: whatever happens, the study context

will have changed with vaccination. Even if the placebo group does

not break rank, they will become less likely to develop covid-19 because

those around them won't have it. Effectively, there will be a lot less

going on not because the virus is less virulent, but because it is less present.

One can see where this is going; each national context will be different although

I would urge not to loose sight of the question of how different age groups

are protected, or how the elderly and vulnerable might spring back or not...

One moves on to the information one get get!!

Obvious

 Obvious, from outside Canada: it is Thanksgiving celebrations

in October which have spurred the spread of covid west of Quebec!!

https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2020/11/26/covid-19-l-amere-experience-du-thanksgiving-canadien_6061247_3210.html

Silly outcome

I was saddened to read that Suzanne Moore will no longer

be writing for the Guardian UK, someone I always jumped to read 

when her striking gingermop picture appeared on the site. She was a 

victim of cancel culture, encouraged to resign because of a lack of care

in defending a woman's group on the trans cancel list. Guilty

by association, as it where. Not cool, in mho!

The Guardian has a strong Web presence, and I can see the admin would

be sensitive to bad feelings. This, in fact, is one of the differences between

conventional media, and Web media. Once word gets around one is on the 

grey list, readership - and adds - can suffer. But I am also sure the admin did not 

seek this bad outcome, in part for the same reason. How strong or well-off is the 

Trans lobby anyway. 

The Biden administration is slowly being staffed in a 'representative and inclusive'

fashion. Creatives, on the other hand, keep their feathers. Let's not all get silly!!

Columnist says Guardian editor tried to fob her off with 'veggie burger' after colleagues' 'bullying' in transphobia row (thesun.co.uk)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I took inspiration from the recipe below to make a dessert

in step with American Thanksgiving. The recipe is for a very

thick pie; one for which I did not have a pie plate. Ended up

making it in a square dish, with Crescent Roll pastry for crust.

I also used one container of evaporated milk plus one cup

2% instead of three cups of milk. The mixture seemed sensible,

and filled the dish.

Cooked for an hour at 350°(with foil paper on the last 15 minutes).

The taste is fantastic!!

 https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/custard-pie/

                                                  *     *     *

What does one make for the day after the feast!?  Little coffee cookies.

From the comments, this recipe is from Morocco. One ends up with

crunchy bites that keep for three weeks. Haven't made it yet, but find it interesting

that the almonds are added to the wet ingredients. One also cooks them

in two instalments; once as a roll. and then cut like bread an on their side.

One can buy these ready-made as biscotti and I have seen them on a Starbucks

menu.

Experimental

 Like many others, I am totally stoked at the prospect

of being vaccinated and seeing life return to some

semblance of normalcy. Good work, vacc research.

I am, however, mystified by AstraZeneca whose vaccine

shows better results in the earlier group who only got

half a dose in the first shot, by misgake. A matter for

long-term research, they claim.

Here, I have a hypothesis. Won't be popular, I know.

Could it be that the first group, vaccinated earlier in the

pandemic, ended up both vaccinated and not wearing a

mask at the same time. Because the mask stops one from

infecting others, but not self. If one is actively ill, the mask

might force one to breather the virus back in!! Just an idea,

far from knowledge of the actual experimental set-up.

Don't judge me, as Internet talk would have it.

                                 *     *     *

More drama on the trials!?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/astrazeneca-defends-oxford-coronavirus-vaccine-as-disquiet-mounts-over-the-results-mf6t57rnr

Lunar

 Bientôt une base chinoise sur la Lune ? (lapresse.ca)

Celeriac

 Went on a bit of a food adventure today and enjoyed

a new vegetable: celeriac. A bit rough looking, but it

is from the celery family. How weird can it be!?

Raw, the taste really is that of celery. Celery on steroids.

Cooked, it is rather pleasant, and mixes well with other root

vegetables...

Would go well in stuffing!

Breakout Story

 Finally understood that my problem with Breakout was

that I have no access to game memory. Love 2d handles that 

in the background. Whatever highscore registers in the game, 

it stays there!! The code for Love itself is available, but that's

something else. There are also system calls that can be made, but

I'm not sure where one would do this. For now, will just scratch on

with the assignment.

All very nice to want to give the player more balls, but what is the 

condition that will trigger this!?

                                   *     *     *

Read up in Wikipedia about the original Attari game, and the drama

with Steve Wozniak's coding tour de force. surrounding it. The game is called 

Breakout because it is about inmates wanting to escape from jail. Very nice story, 

and very elegant game.

To play the original:

https://elgoog.im/breakout/

Blender Day2

 I'm a coding Ninja! Working on Tutorial 2 in aim of drawing

that 3-D pink doughtnut.

One can call up the dimensions of the object by going to Objectr Mode

and pressing  'N'.

Made the Lumpy Doughnut:

Blender, Again

 Downoaded Blender to go with Unity and the games course. This is not the first

time. I'm a musician and not that visual. Maybe this time...

Blender Guru comes highly recommended. Did Tutorial no 1

https://youtu.be/TPrnSACiTJ4

                                        

Unity First Tuto

After many attempts, managed to get the Unity Game Engine

on my computer. Had to settle for the 2018 version, but it is free!!

Below, the first learn-the-interface tutorial. One gets the idea...

Sometimes

Sometimes one just has to come clean: I do it sometimes.

I tune in to Conservative commentators because they're rather

cool. Below, Michael Knowles (Yale graduate) on Trump didn't concede!!

About Diets

 One's day-to-day life can't really be about loosing weight

through diet because that is a NOT doing ie not eating.

So what does one end up thinking about all the time? The

food one is not eating. And where does that inevitably lead?

A massive EAT of precisely those foods.

Those who have BED Ibinge-eating-disorder) are in even worse

of a pickle. A binge in the therapeutic sense isn't even much

about food any more, but about control. One gains control

over what one is thinking about through loosing control about

gorging with it.

All  that talk about loosing weight being a lot of hard work is misleading.

It may be extra work to fix a salad for a parent with young children at home

eating macaroni. Do I have kalamata olives?? Probably not. That person

has to find time and invest energy to do the diet stuff And then exercise when

dead tired: unlikely. It is not hard work otherwise. 

When one is a child, days are endless, and meals just show up. If one is

passing time till dinner as an adult coloring, one is obsessed with food.

                                    *     *     *

Looked up the word 'binge' to get the precise meaning.

What came back was : to indulge in an excessive manner. 

That sounded suspicious to me, one of those webspeak thingies. 

Asked for a translation of 'indulge' to French and got back

'se livrer' ie to give oneself over to a moment of pleasure, like

stopping for ice cream at the Mall. Not a binge, but not an exercise

in healthy eating. Pleasure.

Which reminds me that, although a meal needs to be pleasant

enough, it need not be a bell-ringer. A decent feed!

                                           *     *     *

Hospitalizations

 From Liberation: the three waves of Covid-19 hospitalizations

in the US:

Jungle Time

Been working through the lecture on Breakout, as well

as checking out what the other games in the course are.

Got engrossed in this lovely match3 game. Easy and fun;

very rewarding experience:

https://www.match3games.com/game/Jungle+Match

                                         *     *     *

I don't really pronounce myself on the US system of government,

because I have never been taught it's history. I would say, however,

that terming it 'archaic' is an abuse of language. It is complex, and

steeped in the conditions of its elaboration.

https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-constitutional-convention

RussianD

source: L'Obs (Nouvel Observateur) with AFP; posted on November 12, 2020 

translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise

Russia considers the US electoral system one of "the most archaic" in the world

For Moscow, the American system of indirect universal suffrage “considerably distorts the will of the people”.

If the Kremlin has been silent following Joe Biden's victory, it has been more vocal in criticizing American suffrage. The head of Russian diplomacy on Thursday, November 12, described the American electoral system as one of the most "archaic" in the world, after the victory of Joe Biden disputed by Donald Trump .

"They have arguably the most archaic electoral system existing among the few most important countries in the world," Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference.

A "tradition which distorts the will of the people"

The Russian Foreign Minister criticized in particular the indirect nature of the election of the president, who is elected by an elecoral College appointed by universal suffrage.

Developed in the XVIII th  century, this system requires that the winner be not necessarily the one collecting the most votes nationally, but the one who wins the key states with the most electoral votes.

"If  America is prepared to live with this tradition which considerably distorts the will of the people […] that we leave them to it" , blurted Sergey Lavrov.

Moscow did not congratulate Joe Biden

Like Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sergei Lavrov has indicated that Moscow will congratulate the winner of the election only after the publication of the official results. "Congratulations are sent before publication of the results when there is no dispute," Sergey Lavrov stressed. Unlike most countries in the world, China and Russia did not congratulate Joe Biden.

Donald Trump refused to recognize the latter's victory, announced on Saturday, November 7, denouncing, without providing evidence, fraud in favor of the Democrat, and promising legal actions to come.

The head of the Russian electoral commission estimated Monday, November 9 that the postal vote in the United States left "huge spaces" for possible fraud, echoing the rhetoric of Donald Trump's team.

Decoupling

 Robert Nystrom might be the Gwyneth Paltrow of

programming, but what he says is marvellously true. The

brain pain involved in programming is very real.

Long term solutions might be a little less idiosyncratic

because machines should eventually program themselves.

Meanwhile, I'm still on this Games course and enjoying it

once I start to understand things...

from: Game Programming Patterns, 2014.

Cakes

 his YouTube site is a true treasure trove of easy dessert recipes.

I have been trying out yogurt cakes, below:

The first is a cake using corn starch instead of flour. The

flan-like texture was predictable. Very tasty.

(The 9% fat coconut yogurt didn't hurt).

The second tastes absolutely wonderful: I made it

with pecans on top, but I eat it with grapes. (The

yogurt I used was 2% plain Scandinavian yogurt).

Certified

  For those wondering how an American Presidential election 

is actually certified:

https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/09/15/who-formally-declares-the-winner-of-the-u-s-presidential-election/

PfizerV

 source: Der Spiegel November 9th, 2020, 12:59 p.m.

Translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise

Fight against the coronavirus

Mainz vaccine manufacturer gives hope for 90 percent protection

The company Biontech has presented the first results from its phase III study: These look very promising. Approval should be applied for next week.

For the first time, there are interim results from the study phase that is decisive for approval for a corona vaccine that is relevant for Europe. As the Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech announced on Monday , according to this data, its vaccination offers more than 90 percent protection against the disease Covid-19. It also said that Biontech and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are expected to apply for approval from the US FDA from next week.

The vaccine BNT162b2 had been developed by Biontech in the "Lightspeed" project since mid-January. The phase III study, which is crucial for approval, began in various countries at the end of July. More than 43,500 people have now received at least one of the two vaccinations, which are given every three weeks. According to the manufacturer, vaccination protection is achieved one week after the second injection.

In the study, a total of 94 cases of the disease were confirmed by Sunday. According to the information, the preliminary results will only be finally evaluated when a total of 164 cases have been reached. In addition, it will be checked to what extent the vaccination not only protects against Covid-19, but also against severe courses of the disease. Overall, both the protective effect and any side effects should be observed over a period of two years.

Data should be discussed worldwide

The first interim analysis is preliminary effectiveness data, so the vaccination effectiveness can still change after a longer observation period of the test persons. The Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) also reported "no serious safety concerns" and recommended that the study continue as planned with the collection of additional safety and effectiveness data. In the meantime, the data will be discussed with other regulatory authorities around the world, including the US FDA and the European Ema. A scientific publication is apparently in preparation.

"These are great and promising data," said Gerd Fätkenheuer, head of infectious diseases, Clinic I for Internal Medicine at the University Clinic in Cologne. "It is unbelievable that in such a short period of time this progress with vaccine development and clinical testing could be achieved within a few months." The results so far on effectiveness and safety are excellent.

No primary data yet

The head of Infectious Diseases at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Marylyn Addo, who is herself leading a vaccine study, said: "These are interesting first signals, which are only given in the press release." Primary data are not yet available and a peer-reviewed publication is still pending. "We have to wait for the exact dates to make a final assessment. At the moment there are still few details about the exact dates, for example with regard to different age groups and in which groups the 94 cases occurred."

An accelerated approval process applies to the corona vaccine due to its particular urgency. Pharmaceutical manufacturers can submit individual parts on the quality, safety and effectiveness of a preparation to the European Medicines Agency Ema even before the complete application for approval. In addition to Biontech, the British-Swedish company Astrazeneca started such a rolling review process for its vaccine candidate some time ago. Astrazeneca has not yet released any Phase III data. Nothing can be said about the schedule, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

The Biontech preparation is a so-called RNA vaccine. It contains genetic information about the pathogen, from which the body produces a virus protein - in this case the surface protein that the virus uses to penetrate cells. The aim of vaccination is to stimulate the body to produce antibodies against this protein in order to intercept the viruses before they enter the cells and multiply.

Biontech and Pfizer expect to be able to provide up to 50 million vaccine doses worldwide this year, and next year they expect up to 1.3 billion doses.

Countries like Russia, China and recently Bahrain have released vaccines with restrictions and are already vaccinating parts of the population with them. But how well these vaccinations actually protect and what side effects they can have is currently largely open.

                                                        *     *     *

Complete

 I've completed the Flappybird assignment.

The gap between the pairs is now random with this change

to the pipepair definition:

The spawn of new pipepairs is now random thanks to the

following change in the PlayState mode (line 39):

And the medal and Pause features were done previously. 

Now if I could just play this game with enough skill to illustrate

the changes...

Best I can do: the medal shows up as 0 and disappears when I eventually

score 1!! Thus, the code should read when score > 5, or whatever for the level.

Still, one can see the pause function, and that the gap varies, as does the schedule

of new pipe pairs.

Medal Moment

 Back with the Flappy Bird assignment. i am now xhowing

a medal at score == 0. Need to simplify the game for myself

so that I can actually score🙄

                

              

Timezones

 Where I live, an election is an event with clear

boundaries. Because platform is important, more 

than personalities, no one is allowed to make 

pronouncements once voting has begun; and Canada 

crosses six timezones. There is also care given to annnouncements

about results, so that no feedback loops are created. Voting

in France is equally scrupulous in this respect.

Having these warm slippers of correctness on my feet, I can

only look in disbelief at this  American election.

Mail-in voting started in September, two months before the 

so-called Election Day. What is this?? Two-thirds of voting

occured through this and anticipatory voting. In effect, September

is when the election occured and it  just dragged on till closure

on the evening of November 3.

Then there is the postmark issue. Postmarks have long had

a legel sense; for instance, in Canada, postmark will register

whether an individual has sent in their tax return on time.

This is still true, although many now filw electronically. But 

the election seems to be working with ballots received, in some

areas till November 10. Odd!!

Finally, there is concern about valid and invalid entries. On the envelope 

level, this will affect more than one race because a voter is electing 

someone to both the Presidency and perhaps the House and/or Senate; 

and those House votes are where funding and approval happen. One

is tempted to be thankful the Electors can still change their minds!!

What all this brings home to me is how historically grounded the American

system is. Folks from different States pronouncing in the horse and buggy era.

But also forcing today those concerned about issues to be political all the

time. Maybe all that anti-Trump sentiment in media and on social platform

was just folks trying to vote in more complex times. And that's sorta concerning...

                                      *     *     *

I hesitate to say it🤨, but congratulations to President-elect Biden

and his team. That was a grueling campaign...

                                     *     *     *

Wolfy

 Like so many others, been holding my breath

on the American election. And no, I will not 'meddle',

as instructed by Canada's Premier Trudeau. But I do have some

thoughts about the Trump presidency. In fact, not so much about

Trumpism - what ever that means - but about the changing

context of politics and particularly political discourse.

We are all, increasingly, global citizens.Heck, I spend half my days

on European media, recipe blogs from Australia, games form Israel...

Foreign relations are delicate as never before because the government of

the day is addressing both the people and other nations at the same time.

The US quitting the Paris agreement was a very powerful move. China has since

made a commitment in, pursuant to its policy of muscle-ing out the US.

Well played!

Meanwhile, back at home however, many are obviously mortified that the US

would do such a thing. "The whole world is watching",  was a prominent chant

of anti-Vietnam protest, and it referred to American actions but also the reflection

this brought on the US as a nation. Greenpeace, after all,  is a play using media.

American prestige is something american media fight hard to protect.

A lot can be said about this twitter presidency, and I am not on that particuar feed,

But I have appreciated the openess with which the Trump era operated.

And just a tiny little meddle: why was Barack Obama allowed to campaign

for the Biden camp, like democracy itself was under siege. Crying wolf, if you

ask me!!

Russian M.

  Not clear in my mind exactly what is going down here, but seems

ominous...

https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/11/02/russian-military-forces-dazzle-after-a-decade-of-reform

How they voted!

 From Libération, clear visuals on  American voting

patterns.

https://www.liberation.fr/apps/2020/10/elections-us-2020/

BPractice

  It was along and lonely road, but I have mamaged

to get a pause function on Flappy Bird. The code changes 

are below, affecting two functions: keysPressed() and update().

What made the difference: making the paused function global, so that

the update function knows what's what.

The game now ends normally with the escape key. If I press

pause, then everything stops. The game picks up again where

I left off when I press enter. 🎈Feels like a win!

                                    

One of the wins in this adventure, for me, was understanding that one

often goes with local files where possible, to save memory in a game.

Because some games can get pretty elabotate. The procedure I am

copying form is actually a best practice illustrating this...