People Are Dying, Are You Actively Trying to End The Killing?

This began as a protest against war - Netanyahu's non-stop killing of Palestinians and other Arabs, the US-Israeli war in Iran, and the various other wars going on in the world, mostly using Western weapons of destruction and death.  

But then I looked at other death statistics - worldwide traffic deaths for instance.  A lot more people die of vehicle crashes than war.  War, however, is intentional destruction and killing while the others, usually, are side effects other other, generally useful, activities.  Though one wonders whether the deaths caused by,  Elon Musk's cutting of AID funding was just stupid ignorance or intended.  His white, South African cultural heritage suggests the possibility that he knew what would happen and he approved.  

In any case, the intent was to call attention to the unnecessary deaths all around us, and which the United States plays, if not the main role, certainly a subsidiary role.  

And then to remind people that there is something they can do to stop unnecessary deaths.  As I wrote, I realized this second part would best be left for a second post.  

And so this post sat here in limbo.  Well, now I'm bending over backwards and sliding under the stick to finish this and post it.  

WAR

Let’s just start with wars.  Nothing in depth, just a sampling.  Remember each person who dies, civilian or soldier, leaves holes in people’s hearts - parents, children, spouses, siblings, fiancees, life-long friends, work colleagues.  Leaves holes in families, at school, at work, in communities.   

US-Israeli-Iran War  

“As of 2025, Iran's population is around 92 million. In recent years, however, Iran's birth rate has dropped significantly.”  Wikipedia

The US population when I checked just now was 342 million at Census.gov 

“IRAN WAR DEATH TOLL 2026 — LIVE US, IRANIAN & ISRAELI CASUALTIES

Last updated: July 16, 2026 — Day 140 of Operation Epic Fury — Iranian officials say US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded more than 300 over the past week, while Jordan reports shooting down eight Iranian missiles — Iranian figures remain unverified independently

Total Iran war death toll (verified ranges, as of July 16, 2026 / Day 140): Across all fronts of the 2026 Iran-Israel-US war (Operation Epic Fury), cross-source counts put total deaths at roughly 7,144 to 9,676+ killed and about 46,965 injured (compiled casualty tallies). Iran: 3,468 confirmed by the Foundation of Martyrs, 3,636 documented by HRANA, and up to 6,000+ per US and Israeli estimates, with 15,000 to 26,500 injured. Lebanon: more than 4,000 killed per the Lebanese Health Ministry (which does not distinguish civilians from combatants), including dozens killed in renewed June 19-20 strikes amid repeated ceasefire breakdowns. United States: 13 killed in action and 365+ wounded by official Pentagon count; independent tallies cite 15 killed and 520–543 wounded. Israel: 57 killed. Gulf and other states: Iraq 119+, UAE 13, Kuwait 10, with smaller tolls in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and elsewhere. The US-Iran war is now governed by a signed memorandum (in effect since June 17) with the Strait of Hormuz reopened; the main remaining front is Israel-Lebanon, where a US/Qatar-brokered ceasefire was renewed June 19. Figures are sourced from CENTCOM, the IDF, the Lebanese Health Ministry, Iran's Foundation of Martyrs, HRANA, and verified OSINT; military and civilian counts and source estimates vary widely and are tracked separately. Note: the US-Iran strike cycle continued June 26-28 (US strikes on ~10 Iranian targets; Iran fired drones then ballistic missiles at US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, intercepted with no US casualties). On June 28 the cycle claimed its first death — a Qatari civilian killed by shrapnel from “the military operations witnessed in the region,” with an Arab resident injured (stable). At least one person was also killed in renewed Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.”

Iranwarlive says it’s independent and AI run.

“IranWarLive is 100% independent and ad-free. There are no corporate backers or state sponsors. However, running state-of-the-art AI models (LLMs) to parse data, alongside the serverless cloud infrastructure that keeps the map updating every 30 minutes, comes with hard monthly costs.”

I’m using it because it is the most current and seems reasonably consistent with other news sites that are three or four months old.  The AI part raises some questions though. 

Palestine/Israel 

Palestinian population in Israel and in Palestinian Territory (Wikipedia)

“Palestine.    5,350,000[1]

 – West Bank (Palestine) 3,190,000[1] (of whom 912,879 are registered refugees as of 2024)[2][3][4]

 – Gaza Strip (Palestine) 2,170,000 (of whom 1,476,706 are registered refugees as of 2024)[1][5][2][3]

Israel 2,037,000 (2022)[8]”

Israelis  (From Wikipedia)

Nationality	Israelis
Major ethnic	Jews (7,208,000, 73.2%)[1] Mizrahim (N/D) Ashkenazim (N/D) Sephardim (N/D) Other Jews (N/D)
Minor ethnic	Arabs (2,080,000, 21.1%) Arab Muslims (N/D) Arab Christians (N/D) Other Arabs (N/D) Other (non-Jewish, non-Arab) 554,000 (5.7%)[1]

 

From Sana: Syrian Arab News Agency

“Occupied Jerusalem, July 16 (SANA) The death toll from Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has risen to 73,250, with 173,751 people wounded since Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said hospitals across Gaza received four bodies and 28 wounded people over the past 24 hours, adding that many victims remain trapped beneath the rubble or in areas inaccessible to ambulance and civil defense crews.

The ministry said 1,127 Palestinians have been killed and 3,643 wounded since the collapse of the ceasefire on Oct. 10 last year.”

OCHA, stands for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

“Disclaimer: Figures that are yet-to-be verified by the UN are attributed to their source. Casualty numbers have been provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Israeli authorities. The fatality breakdowns currently cited are those that the MoH in Gaza has fully identified as of 31 December 2025 out of the higher number of casualties they report. The latest casualty updates are also available on the Health Cluster’s Unified Dashboard.”

 Palestinian  reported deaths - 73,110; reported Injured - 173,559

Israelis  in Israel - 1162. About 1400 reported injuries

Israelis in Gaza. -  474 reported deaths; 3,004 reported injuries

Ukraine-Russia

From Ukrainian Pravda:

“The total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February 2022 and 17 July 2026 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses – ed.]:

approximately 1,425,990 (+1,370) military personnel”

From the Center for Strategic and International Studies (July 2026).  

“First, Russian battlefield costs continue to mount, with as many as 450,000 battlefield deaths and 1.4 million casualties between February 2022 and June 2026. These rates are astounding. Russian fatalities in Ukraine are more than four times greater than all U.S. fatalities in all wars combined since World War II, and more than nine times greater than all Soviet and Russian fatalities in all wars combined since World War II.

In addition, Russia’s monthly casualty rates of over 30,000 per month in 2026 have likely exceeded Russia’s recruitment rates of roughly 27,000 new recruits per month. The Russia-Ukraine casualty rate has likely risen to nearly 8:1 in the first half of 2026, up from between 2:1 and 3:1 for much of the war, in large part due to Ukraine’s use of drones—including AI-enabled drones—as part of its aggressive air interdiction campaign.”

Note: These are casualties for Russian soldiers, not all of whom are Russian nationals.  

Ukrainian casualties since 2022:

From UN Office of High Commissioner on Human Rights

(Ukrainian) CIVILIAN CASUALTIES SINCE 24 FEBRUARY 2022 = 62,716

deaths =  16,126

Injured = 46,590

From RussiaMatters 

“Military casualties (see footnotes for detailed source estimates)

1,000,000 Russian military casualties (killed and wounded), according to a late February 2026 estimate that a highly-informed former high-ranking Western official shared with RM.6

250,000–300,000 Ukrainian military casualties (killed and wounded), according to a late February 2026 estimate that a highly-informed former high-ranking Western official shared with RM.7

Military casualties (see footnotes for detailed source estimates)

1,000,000 Russian military casualties (killed and wounded), according to a late February 2026 estimate that a highly-informed former high-ranking Western official shared with RM.6

250,000–300,000 Ukrainian military casualties (killed and wounded), according to a late February 2026 estimate that a highly-informed former high-ranking Western official shared with RM.7

Civilian fatalities8

Russia: 8,012 “peaceful residents… killed,” according to RF government.

Ukraine: nearly 16,000 civilians killed in Ukraine according to the U.N.”

There are conflicts in various African states, in South America, in Asia which are leaving dead dead bodies and disrupting people’s lives.  “Disrupting” - probably is too abstract a word. Devastating, tearing apart, scattering, are some other words.  And in a few cases, the loss of an abusive husband perhaps, there is quiet relief.  

It's easy to be outraged by the killing of women and children in Gaza, or at the girls' school in Iran.  And the civilians in Ukraine.   I find myself, rightfully I believe, rooting for Ukraine as they fight to get the invader out of their country.  But I also have to remind myself, while watching Ukrainian videos of drones zeroing in on Russian soldiers, that all of those soldiers are also human beings.  That many of them were forced to go to fight in Ukraine because their families are poor.  A number of the soldiers are even recruited from poor countries and the future soldiers are misled about what they are being recruited for.  

It's clear that Putin has no concern for the lives of soldiers fighting for Russia.  While I want Ukraine to win, I still have to feel bad for the Russian soldiers being killed for Putin's war.  

OTHER CAUSES OF DEATH

While war usually catches the headlines, there are other factors that kill more people:

Traffic deaths

From the World Health Organization:

"Approximately 1.16 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes." 

This is a world wide figure.  In the US in 2024 it was 39,254

Cuts to USAID funding around the world.  -  These are harder to quantify.  Here's an estimate from a book review of Into the Wood Chipper by Nicholas Enrich, USAID's Bureau for Global Health in 2025.  The review tells us that book explains many programs, what they provided, and how cutting them will impact the people relying on them.  

"It was a combination of administrative incompetence and malice, and the book illustrates the grim process by which dull bureaucratic procedures can end up killing human beings en masse. Meetings are held, emails are sent, phone calls are made, and something like 520,000 children die of malnutrition, diarrhea, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV. As the book goes on, it becomes clear it was more the second explanation rather than the first—DOGE’s destruction of the agency was driven primarily by animosity rather than ignorance."

From Boston University School of Medicine:  124,488   Adults and 537,673  children

“ These estimates reflect excess deaths resulting from the US federal government’s discontinuation of USAID funding. Brooke Nichols’ impact trackers suggest that these deaths will continue to rise if USAID funding is not restored. Credit: Impact Counter.”

NPR reports that the Trump administration says that no children have died because of the cuts.  

Oxfam has its own discussion of the impacts of the cuts.

The leading causes of death are illnesses - heart diseases, strokes, cancers, and more.  While everyone is going to die one day, better health care, better education, and other preventive measures can eliminate some of these illnesses and give people many more years of life.    

This post is mainly aimed at people who are isolated (maybe lucky or privileged are better words) enough that they aren't directly and personally affected by war and other causes of premature death in the US and around the world.  To document some of the numbers and personalize some of the deaths.

Step 2

What can you do to help more people live their natural lives?  I'll address that in another post, soon, I hope.  And when I do I'll link to it here.  

Meanwhile, get limber in your thinking and in your efforts to make the world a better place.  As they say, each dollar adds up.  As does each effort no matter how small.  

Thank You Frank Gehry For Making The World More Amazing

 Here's an old post about the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles:

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Disney Concert Hall

I drove J1 to the LA Superior Court this morning and I got a chance to wonder around downtown LA. I'm one of those who thinks the Frank Gehry designed Disney Concert Hall is a great building. Well, I haven't been inside - well only in one lobby once - so I can't judge how well it works as a building, but visually it's enchanting.

Here are some notes from the tourist kiosk across the street about opera in LA and the concert hall.

This shot was from the 9th floor of the court building.

I took a couple of night shots in February 2007.

\

We went to a concert that we weren't particularly keen on, just to hear the acoustics.  

He also did a quirky house on Venice Beach

And in Paris we visited the Luis Voutton Museum just because Gehry designed it.  This one was harder to capture on camera.  

I never made it to Bilbao.  

From NPR:

"Swooping, swirling, gleaming, sculpted — Frank Gehry made buildings we'd never seen before. The architect behind the Guggenheim Museum in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles transformed contemporary architecture. He died Friday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., after a brief respiratory illness, according to his chief of staff. He was 96.

Gehry won all the top awards — including the Pritzker Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999, when the American Institute of Architects gave him their Gold Medal, Gehry looked out at an audience that included contemporary gods of building — Philip Johnson, Robert Venturi, Michael Graves — and said, 'it's like finding out my big brothers love me after all.'"

Michael O'Calahan, Anchorage Man Way Ahead of His Time, Leaves Us

First, thanks to Barbara Brown, another Anchorage resident who's moved to Portland, for alerting me to this story.  

I'm not going to write much here.  You can check the links for details.  

O'Calahan's causes - helping the homeless, giving away fish and other foods, promoting bike riding - all seem to be attempts to get people to become aware of the waste and callousness of our ruthless consumerism.  Ride a bike, help the poor, you don't need to be rich to be happy.  

Here's a 2020 ADN article about O'Calahan and his contributions to our city.

Here's a the announcement from Oregon Public Radio Barbara sent me from 

"2024 Portland mayoral candidate killed in MAX train crash

Eighty-one-year-old Michael O’Callaghan (pictured), who ran for Portland mayor last year, died Wednesday after being struck by a TriMet MAX light rail train while riding a bicycle in Southeast Portland. Investigators said O’Callaghan was traveling northbound on Southeast 8th Avenue from Southeast Division Street Wednesday afternoon when he encountered lowered railroad safety arms and traffic. He was a sixth-generation Otregonian and a self-taught lawyer who ran on improving Portland’s homelessness, safety and housing issues. (OPB staff)"  There's more here.  

He showed us you could live an impactful life off the financial treadmill.  He had spiritual wealth, and could see things most of us can't see.  Without him, there is less sparkle in the world.

Jeremy Lansman Has Left Us

I learned today that Jeremy Lansman, a very complex, intelligent man with many talents, and not a few loose ends untied, passed away on December 28, 2024 at his home in Grabouw, South Africa.  He and I had very different skills.  He knew as much about birds and plants as I knew about power lines.  Yet we also had much in common and we had a wonderful and playful relationship in which we both learned from each other.  

He's a legendary figure in the community radio world and he's the only person I know who thinks that electrical towers of any kind improve the landscape.  To the point where I have photos of such things in my files, because of him.  

There's so much more to say about him, but this will have to do for now.  

There will be a celebration of his life in his garden in Gabrouw, South Africa on February 15, 2025.  

Google doesn't tell us much about Jeremy, but here are a couple of links.  Just search 'Jeremy Lansman' when you get to the pages.

[Note:  not to be confused with Baltimore's "Jeremy Landsman, the developer/pot-dealer/money-launderer chronicled in City Paper's coverage until his January 2013 sentencing, is out of prison and heading to Hawaii."]

https://pacificanetwork.org/kopn-celebrates-50-years-of-service-to-columbia-missouri-the-people-run-the-radio/

https://www.kopn.org/about/history/

https://people.well.com/user/dmsml/kfat/

https://kpfa.org/episode/5368/

https://pacificanetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CAMPAIGN_57.pdf

https://sites.google.com/site/robertfeldman23/plays-and-short-stories/kbdy-clothesline-radio-if-wishes-were-fishes-we-d-all-cast-nets

https://acrnewsfeed.blogspot.com/2020_05_17_archive.html?m=1

Jeremy was in my life weekly, often daily, for maybe five or ten years before he went off to South Africa.  He was a good friend and I already missed him when he left Anchorage.  He left with bizarre blood issues that had him scouring the internet to figure out ways to lengthen the dire prognosis he got from his doctors.  And he lived another life still during the years in South Africa.  

Miss you.  

Biden Left 3 Fed Prisoners On Death Row. Why?

 Of the 40 on death row, Biden commuted the death penalty of 37.  I was curious why he left three to wait for execution.  

First, who were the three?  According to the NYTimes they were:

• Robert D Bowers, 52, convicted for gunning down 11 worshippers in the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh
• Dylann Roof, 30, who killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.  
• Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 31, who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.

Bowers was also convicted of hate crimes as was Dylan Roof.  Tsarnaev, according to Wikipedia, was inspired by Al Qaeda.  

The people whose sentences were commuted  - taken off of death row, but left in prison without the possibility of parole - do not seem to have had an ideological motive.  

I didn't want to post this until I found some other source that identified a reason for why these three were different.  MSN.com quotes Biden himself.  

". . . Biden drew a firm line when it came to mass killings driven by hate or terror.  In his statement, Biden underscored his belief that while the death penalty should generally be abolished, exceptions must be made for 'cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.'

"These three men represent the kinds of crimes Biden deemed beyond the scope of clemency, crimes that not only claimed innocent lives but also targeted entire communities with terror and hatred. "  [emphasis added]

According to City View, the four people in the military on death row were not pardoned.

Of course, there are also bigger issues of our whole justice system which convicts a certain percent of innocent people every year,   From the Innocence Project:

"Extrapolating from the 281 known DNA exonerations in the US since the late 1980s, a conservative estimate is that 1 percent of the US prison population, approximately 20,000 people, are falsely convicted."

Then there are the differences in justice due to 

1. the ability of the wealthy to hire better lawyers, and the inherent racism in the US society as a whole which affects police, prosecutors, and judge.  
2. the economic and social causes of crime (huge gap between the rich an poor, poor education, poor access to physical and mental health care.  If these were addressed, fewer people would be led to crime by economic or social desperation.  

Innocence Project Ribs, Veggie Pickup, Steller Turns 50

Keeping busy these days.  I'm in the third grade class daily mostly helping one young man catch up on his English but also with other kids too.  Biking in the breaks in the rain.   

Also went to the Alaska Innocence Project's BBQ Rib Cook-off.  This year their invite also mentioned there'd be veggie options too.  The baked beens were great.  

Justice is one of my most cherished values, and the idea of innocent people be locked up, even executed, moves me greatly.  Right now the national Innocence Project is working to prevent an innocent man from being executed. 

"The Missouri Supreme Court has scheduled the execution of Mr. Williams on Sept. 24, for a crime he did not commit."

Even the prosecuting attorney involved has changed his mind.

"The St. Louis County prosecuting attorney reviewed these DNA results and filed a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ conviction because he believed the DNA results proved by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Williams did not commit this crime."

Moving on to the execution, when there is serious question, even if not definite proof, of innocence, tells me these people are not serious about justice. 

The BBQ took place at the Alaskan Airmen's Association great building at Lake Hood float plane base.  It's a great location, but the steady rain and cloud cover that evening meant there were very few planes taking off or landing.  And one would hope they might consider a name change soon.  Airmen seems a lot sexist.  I suspect they could find reasonable synonyms, like pilots, flyers, etc.  

Picked up our Thursday veggies from Grow North Farms.  

And Friday afternoon went to the Community part of the Steller Secondary School 50th Anniversary celebration.  Here's one of the students who spoke to the crowd hold the Legislative Proclamation Rep. Alyse Galvin presented the school.  Alyse was involved with Steller a long time as a parent.  (As were we, but not for so long).  I saved this picture in fairly high resolution.  The story is pretty cool, but not sure you can read it.  Among the signatures is Sen. Jesse Kiehl of Juneau, who was a Steller student when my daughter was.  

Here's Rep. Galvin talking to the gathering before making the presentation of the Certificate.  To the side are the student speaker (whose name I didn't catch), the principal Maria Hernandez, and a parent who worked hard to organize the anniversary weekend.  

And here's Bob Reid, one of the original Steller teachers back in 1974, who came up from Texas to participate.  Bob talked about how the school got started and the ideals of creating a school where everyone participated in the decisions on courses, rules, etc.  Students, teachers, administrators, staff, and parents.  And how the vision was to bring the world into the school and involve the students out in the world.  

Bob was also a neighbor of ours before he moved to Texas, so it was great to see him again.  His major claim to fame for me was that he was the host of "Nothing but the Blues" on the then new public radio station KSKA.  

For those who can't read the Legislative Proclamation, here's part of it:

"The self-directed aspect of Steller Secondary School is a big part of what makes Steller so successful, and so unique.  With an emphasis on responsibility to self and to one's community, students, parents, and staff work together through a democratic process to set school policy and procedures.  The school ethic encourages self-advocacy and inquiry:  students are encouraged to participate in collaborative processes to determine what courses should be offered and which events will take place. 

With no bells to call students to class, no advanced placement classes, and no interscholastic sports, students who choose to attend Steller find themselves both appropriately challenged and personally engaged through the opportunity to co-create independent studies and intensives with their instructors and their peers, and to develop self-directive intensives ranging from foreign and domestic travel, sports, carpentry, drama, creative writing, sculpture, and batik, to fun with math and the chemistry of cosmetics.

As part of Stellar's commitment to their motto, "only the educated are free," and their recognition that education of the individual occurs in the context of an interdependent world, the school heavily emphasizes service to community, both through a sustained commitment to service intones community, region, and state, and through a commitment to one another within the school's peer mentoring and leadership opportunities."

I'd note, that while it says "no advanced placement classes, and no interscholastic sports," students are free to arrange those activities at other schools in the district.  My daughter took advanced placement classes at another high school and she took German at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) while she was in high school.  And NBA player Trajan Langdon played basketball for East High School while he was at Steller.  

The school was named after Georg Steller, (from Wikipedia):

"Georg Wilhelm Steller (10 March 1709 – 14 November 1746) was a German-born naturalist and explorer who contributed to the fields of biology, zoology, and ethnography. He participated in the Great Northern Expedition (1733–1743) and his observations of the natural world helped the exploration and documentation of the flora and fauna of the North Pacific region.

Steller pursued studies in theology and medicine before turning his attention to the natural sciences. In 1734, he joined the Russian Academy of Sciences as a physician, eventually being selected to accompany Bering's expedition to the uncharted waters between Siberia and North America. Steller kept detailed records of species and cultures encountered, as well as ocean currents during the journey. . ."

Among the regular visitors to our backyard, the Steller's Jay was named after Georg Steller.  (The photo is from a 2014 post and I wrote then that I did nothing to enhance the color. The light was just right.)

So connecting several threads here, I took Dr. Margritt Engel to the Steller anniversary celebration.  Dr. Engel was my daughter's UAA German teacher while my daughter was at Steller.  But more important, Dr. Engel translated Georg Steller's journals from the expeditions to Siberia and North America.  She brought two with her to give to the school for their library and to arrange for further interaction with the school and scholarship on its namesake.   

A Long And Amazing Life Ended Today

I just learned that Gerda Bernstein passed away peacefully today.  If I've got my dates right, she was just shy of her 101st birthday.  

She was my mother's first cousin and was able to get out of Germany before World War II started.  She was always a presence in my life, though I'd say she knew me longer than I knew her.  My family moved to LA from Chicago when I was still under three. While I see pictures in the photo albums of her in Los Angeles, I don't really remember her from then much.  

My first vivid memory was when I traveled back home from my junior year studying in Germany and stopped for a day in Chicago.  She was a bigger than life person - warm, beautiful, welcoming.  Here's a picture of her wedding I found during this stay in LA .  

Below is from a post I wrote in 2016 when we visited her huge art studio in a warehouse in Chicago.  She was a significant artist.  Much of her work was large installations.  Her website says:

"Gerda Meyer Bernstein is an internationally known Chicago-based artist who addresses thorny global issues. Her previous exhibitions include "Witness & Legacy," a traveling museum exhibition; The Alternative Museum in New York City, The Spertus Museum and Cultural Center in Chicago; "Passages" at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum; and at the New Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany."

  I have some video from that trip which I thought I'd put up.  I'll try to add it later.  

Then we went to visit a first cousin of my mom's, who is also an artist of some stature - Gerda Bernstein.  We, fortunately, met her at her studio.  My mom's had a lithograph of hers hanging in her house forever and I've seen catalogues of her work.  But since most of her works are large installation pieces, there's nothing like seeing things as they were meant to be seen.  The studio is a small gallery.  Some of the installations are up, but most are represented by photographs.  I want to do more on Gerda, but were busy every day visiting folks so this is just a brief post. 

On the left is view from near the entrance to the studio. 

This piece is called Gaza Tunnel.  It's a reconstruction of the tunnels used to smuggle things into Gaza.  But this tunnel is reimagined to be lined with books and the idea of the transformational power of books. 

Most of her works raise issues of people's suffering in the world.  As I understand it - though I'm not positive - many early works were holocaust related and the focus has taken in other oppressed peoples. 

I'm afraid I was overpowered by the art in the studio.  My initial interest in Gerda is that she's the only person I know of who is still alive who knew my mother when she was a young girl in Germany.  We talked about that a little bit, but the art was too strong to resist. 

Good Bye Vic! Miss You Already

[Fishcher photo from a University webpage
which no longer is working.] 

I believe this is a picture of Vic when he was a delegate at the Alaska Constitutional Convention.  

Like his good friend Lidia Selkregg, he was someone who made everyone he talked to feel special.  

 

 Here's some of what I wrote about Vic's autobiography - To Russia With Love - on his 95th birthday, four years ago. 

"There's something of a Forrest Gump quality to Vic Fischer's life - he lived through many historic moments in the history of the 20th Century, and played important roles in a number of them.  His father was the famous journalist, Louis Fischer, who was married to a Russian writer.  He was born in Berlin in 1924 spent his early years in Berlin and Moscow, escaping from Stalin purges through intervention from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1939."

Many remarkable men and women have made Alaska their home.  None of their lives was more remarkable than Vic's.  

 

Vic at his 95th birthday party in May 2019.

In the legislative halls of Juneau 2010

Vic was at the rally to gather signatures for the Dunleavy recall in 2019.  I'm pretty sure Dunleavy would have been recalled if it hadn't been for COVID.  The organizers got the required 28,000 signatures in two weeks.  That's phenomenal.  So getting the recall petition certified was easy.  But the next round required another petition to get it on the ballot.  And as the group was ready to start the second petition, COVID shut everything down.  No gatherings.  People weren't going places like the library or the DMV where it was easy to get signatures.  And the recall movement died of COVID.

Here's Vic in Juneau talking to Rep. David Gutenberg.  I was blogging the legislature and a question had come up about what was intended in the Alaska Constitution regarding the Boundary Commission.  Vic, who'd been a member of the Constitutional Convention was there and I was able to get his interpretation of what the Constitution intended on that issue.  Unfortunately, that video is a blank on the page, so I can't post it now.  [I saved some videos on Vidler which eventually started charging.  They did help me by sending me all the video I had up there, but it was a complicated process of redoing them all.  I got a number redone and up on YouTube, but not all.  I'm guessing that's what happened to this one.]

But I do have this video of Vic speaking at the "It's Our Oil" rally in 2013.  You can see the whole video (with other speakers) at the original post.

Alaskans have lost one of our greatest statesmen and a great human being..  

John Martin Shot To Death

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2023/06/19/shooting-of-man-sleeping-in-south-anchorage-parking-lot-was-unprovoked-attack-prosecutor-says/

Back in 2012 I posted about John Martin's city hall protest 

over homelessness

.   The post included a 

video that is no longer working (it was on Viddler and they cut my account long ago.  Though they did send me the files for my videos.  I redid some on YouTube, but not all of them.  Not sure where that file is anymore.  I mention this simply because this is a danger in an age when people store the photos, videos, and data outside of their control.)  In the video I talked to John and then Mayor Sullivan comes across the street and gives John a cup of coffee and they chat a bit.  

A previous post shows him at the Assembly and I did a brief video at the break. (It too was on Viddler and doesn't seem to be working, though it flashed an image of John just before turning black.  Somewhere I probably have these on a sound card.  When Mac upgraded they switched out of the old iMovie and so those original files are available either.  Beware how you backup your stuff.)

I'd been walking from the bus station to the Redistricting Board meeting and showed up at just the right time.  

I don't know much about John.  He did later attempt to cross the Bering Sea to Russia.  He was a committed advocate for the poor and homeless.  He saw the world from a slightly different angle than most people.  

I don't know why he was shot.  I don't know if he was the target or he was just randomly shot.  I just know we've lost a unique and sensitive member of our community to gun violence.  

Harry Belafonte - Try To Remember

A good man and a great entertainer.  I'll remember.

The Ides of March Is A Good Day To Watch Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

 This cast has some of the biggest names of the day - Marlon Brandon, John Gielgud, James Mason, Deborah Kerr, Greer Garson . . .

From the Internet Archive:

Getting Boosted Does Help, And The Older You Are The More It Helps

As some of you know, I've been monitoring COVID data since March 2020 and posting updates as the State updates their dashboards, which is now weekly on Tuesdays.  Today I speculated that the folks getting sick enough to be hospitalized and to die are likely to skew older and unvaccinated.  And I try not to say such things without back up data on here, so I looked it up.  And it's supported by the data - boosted folks don't get as sick or die as often.  Old folks get sicker and die more.  

I infrequently post the COVID updates in the main part of the blog.  You can see them at the tab on top labeled Alaska COVID-19 Count 3  May 2021 - ???.

So here's today's update (yes, it's Tuesday).  And in the tabbed updates there's also an introduction and some tables where I updated the numbers as they got posted.  Early on it was every day, then three days a week, and now weekly as the state chose to update less frequently.  I began the charts because in the beginning the state didn't put up anything except that day's numbers and you had no way to see if things were getting better or worse.  

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - Positive tests up 132 from last week's 450, no new deaths reported (doesn't mean there weren't any, just not reported yet), and hospitalizations down from last week's 44 to this week's 35, but this week there's someone on a vent while there hadn't been for several weeks.  Available ICU beds up by four to 33 statewide, but remain at two in Anchorage.  

The takeaway?  COVID is still here.  Most people seem to be less sick, but some get sick enough to be hospitalized.  I haven't dug deeply enough into the state data to know who is still getting hospitalized and who's dying.  Presumably a) those with little or no immunization and those who are older, if we go by national trends.  

From the CDC - you can see the odds of being hospitalized go up by age, and it's starker for deaths.  (This chart is as of Feb 6, 2023)

Here's one from Washington State that shows both hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status.  Again, those getting boosters were significantly, but not absolutely, better protected from hospitalization and dying.

Obituaries Should Be Published At Least A Year Before People Die

 As I read the obituaries in the Anchorage Daily News, I come across people that I really, really wish I would have known and could have talked to about their apparently incredible lives.  Waiting until they are dead means I've missed the opportunity.  

And this thought was reinforced when I saw this note about Alfred Nobel's premature obituary:

"To prepare for your next cultural activity in Värmland, ask yourself this: what would you do if you read your own (accidental) obituary? In Alfred Nobel’s case, an obituary published by mistake on a French newspaper made him re-examine his whole life. See, the Swedish chemist held 355 different patents and one of them was for the invention of the dynamite. But after a long career producing firearms and weapons for sale, he decided he didn’t want his legacy to be “the merchant of death”. So he funneled all of his considerable fortune to form the Nobel Prize Institute, which awards 'outstanding contributions to humanity'”.

Not only do early obituaries give the living a chance to meet interesting people before they die, but, in Nobel's case, it gave him the opportunity to reflect on his life and legacy.  

There are a number of folks today who might be able to repair some of the damage they've done in the world if faced with their obituaries a year or more before they die. 

And then there are people who might be able to edit what their children write about them.  We could publish an obituary cliche list that people could use to be a bit more authentic.  First obituary cliche entry would be: "he married the love of his life."  

I ran across this excerpt at Culturetrip.tcom while trying to find out more about Värmland, the county where the Story of Gösta Berling takes place, preparation for Monday night's book club meeting. I've put up some quotes from Gösta Berling in the last post.

Inside Man's Final Take On Humanity Is So Wrong

 I don't think there are any serious spoilers here.  Inside Man (on Netflix) is going where it's going, no major surprises.  

At the end,  Stanley Tucci, as Jefferson Grieff, gives a short soliloquy on the theme "We're all murderers given the right situations."

I just want to push back on that belief.  Particularly since it will give lots of already hyped up MAGA folks more justification for violence and murder.  

Is every human being capable of murder under the right conditions?  NO.  What about being capable of killing?  I think more people could kill another under the right conditions, but for many the conditions would have to be extreme indeed.  

From a Chicago Tribune column by Rabbi Marc Gellman:

"In biblical Hebrew, as in English, killing (harag) and murder (ratzah) are two different words with two very different moral connotations, and the commandment uses the Hebrew word ratzah, which means that the proper translation of the commandment from Hebrew into English is, "Thou shalt not murder." The difference is crucial.

Killing is taking a life. Murder is taking a life with no moral justification. Murder is morally wrong, but there is wide moral agreement (not complete agreement) that some forms of killing are morally just. . ."

This is more or less consistent with a number of other writings I saw on the topic.  

But Grieff's take (the Tucci character) is that every person is capable of murder, and the examples in this short Netflix series are not even extreme.  They're more about stupid decisions getting way out of hand.  We've got a beloved (in his community) vicar who apparently loves his wife (and she him) as well as his son.  And then he makes a series of terrible decisions.  

I'm with 

"Anita Singh of The Daily Telegraph [who] said, "Moffat can throw any amount of good lines or clever little plot twists into this show, but it is built on a flaw so fundamental that it's impossible to get past it."[5]"  (from Wikipedia)

Under normal social conditions, a relatively small percent of our population will ever become murders.  Probably a few more might actually kill someone.  I'm not making this up.  The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that in 2017, world wide, 6.1 out of 100,000 people were murdered.  

That's less than one percent.  And we know some murderers kill more than one person, so the percentage of murderers is lower than the percentage of people murdered.  I'd note that in the Americas, the rate of murder was almost three times the world average at 17.1 per 100,000.  

In a Zombie Apocalypse?  Probably the percent will go up, if killing Zombies counts as murder, but it would be most likely in self-defense.  

So NO!  Most people are not capable of murder.  They might be capable of killing another human being if circumstances got really extreme.  The circumstances in Inside Man were not extreme and the people involved made really stupid decisions that I doubt the real human beings those characters were meant to portray would have made.  

(Am I saying religious leaders aren't capable of murder?  Not at all.  Many have taken such positions because of the status attached and are capable of such evil actions as promoting laws that ban abortions in all circumstances.  Those aren't real men or women of God.  These are people who want power over other people, over women.  The vicar in the series was not presented as that kind of man of God.)

COVID Is Still Here And Where To Check The New Expiration Date Of Your Home COVID Tests

With vaccinations people are feeling more secure that COVID won't kill them.  I see fewer masks indoors these days.  

The State went from daily reporting to weekday reporting to Monday, Wednesday, Friday, reporting to once a week reporting.  

But people are still dying of COVID, right here in Alaska.  28 new deaths were reported this week. (Although there's a new report each week, deaths seem to get accumulated over a period of time and then are reported in bulk.  These were the first deaths reported since August 24, 2022)

I'm still reporting these every week, but not in the main part of the blog.  They're reported in the Alaska Daily COVID-19 Count 3 tab just below the blog header.

Here's my latest report from that page:

Wednesday, September 14, 2022 - I'm getting this up on Thursday.  People are treating COVID as though it were gone.  To the extent that I even forgot to update this yesterday.  But the numbers are a reminder that this isn't over.  And that people are still dying of COVID, even here in Alaska.  

25 new deaths were reported this week.  These are the first deaths reported in three weeks because, I'm assuming, it takes a while to gather these numbers.  It would be truly shocking if these were all in the last week. It would be useful to know what the vaccination status of those dying was.  They may report that somewhere, but I'm not digging deeper than the main dashboards now.

21 more people were hospitalized in the last week.  Actual number of COVID patients in the hospital reported as 66, up four from last week.  Number of vents is down two to zero.

Number of ICU beds available statewide is 21 (down from 34 last week) and one in Anchorage (down from two.)  I believe this is not a COVID specific number, but includes all ICU beds in the state regardless of illness.  

Even new resident cases are up - 980/950 compared to last week's 879/902.  Ditto for non-resident new cases:  544 new cases, up from 519 last week.  A regular warning on these last numbers - many, if not most, tests are self tests which tend not to be reported, so the reported numbers don't tell the whole story.  

 

COVID Home Test Expiration Extension

Are your at home COVID tests expired?  The FDA has extended expiration dates. My June - Aug 2022 expired home tests are now good to Dec 2022 to February 2023.  Check yours here: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list

A little ways down it has a list of many different products for home testing. Each has a link to see the updated expiration dates.  That's where you'll find the details.