Quarantine Diary #65 – 5/22/2020 Shontay & Irresistible Iridescence

Science Daily website reports this scientific discovery. Bats have an unusual mammal response to viruses they encounter; they don’t get sick to fight the virus like the rest of us mammals do. Instead they act as a kind of long-term host for viruses. A bat is a repository of the viruses it has encountered in its batty life.

The viruses live inside bats in stasis, the viruses don’t die but they don’t increase, either. All is well and under control unless the bat gets stressed. Then a bat system can’t maintain the stasis needed to keep the virus at bay. That’s when virus multiplies inside the bat, eventually sickening and killing the bat. While it is sickening, the bat sheds virus. I suppose it sheds by breathing or pooping/peeing, though the article doesn’t say.

Stresses include loss of habitat, possibly other sicknesses we don’t know about – and the stress of being in a market. The act of catching a bat and keeping it in a cage is trauma to the bat (it would be to me, too). While the bat is caged, its immune system loses its careful balance and the bat can shed the diseases such as Covid-19.

One of the world views we humans need to get over is believing/assuming that animals don’t have emotions, or that whatever feelings they have don’t matter to us.

Bats are fellow creatures who become toxic when yanked out of their habitat.

BTW calling Chinese markets “wet” markets seems racist to me. These are farmers’ markets like we have. Wet means the food is local and washed (wet), not pre-packaged. Until I read otherwise, if I talk about these markets at all, I will call them local markets because that’s what they are.

I understand that the pathertic and wild creatures (cats and dogs, pangolins and bats) in cages to be sold for food are awful. But the term ‘wet’ isn’t about those animals, it refers to the process of buying unpackaged food. If we want to protest wild or “pet” animals being sold for food, let’s be specific about the animals and not denigrate the entire system of a local market.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200506133614.htm

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I talked with Shontay yesterday. She’s my friend who is a single mother of four kids, ages 4-10, who is home with them through the upheaval of this pandemic.

This is the biggest stress in her life in the past weeks. She was raised by her mom and grandmother. Shontay was especially close with her grandmother, she learned many of her cooking and home-keeping skills by doing them with her loving grandma.

Shontay said this, “She made sure she was at everything I was in.”

Her grandmother is increasingly ill with Alzheimer’s dementia. The family knew at some point in the future they would need to move her to a facility; that moment is here now. Yesterday Shontay was going into Milwaukee to the home where her grandmother lives with Shontay’s uncle. They were hosting a small (about 10, including kids) family birthday party for their beloved grandmother, realizing this was probably the last they would have with and for her.

It is always hard to lose a family member. It’s even harder to slowly lose the person who was your path, your light, the smile that called you to stand up straight and be proud of yourself and do your best. When one grows up in a not-rich, urban neighborhood, the adults who believe in you and call you forward are treasures and it is wrenching to lose them.

The dad of Shontay’s two (awesome) daughters is a correctional officer in Milwaukee’s House of Corrections. Covid is rampant in the jail; he caught it and was out for three weeks. They are so short of staff that they called him to come back early. He tried but couldn’t get through his shift and had to go back home. He was finally cleared to return to work by the Army. Interesting that the army is stepping in to administer testing. Shontay says that he says that they try to keep inmates separated inside the jail, but it doesn’t work well.

Next week the daycare where her two boys (ages 4 and 5) go is reopening. Now it is up to Shontay whether she will have them go back. Shontay herself has asthma so this decision is ridiculously hard to make. If the boys go to daycare, Shontay could possibly return to her part-time job as a caregiver. But she is much more likely to get sick from her boys bringing it home.

This is the real time American situation she is in. She has enough income because both of the dads of her kids pay their child support and also help out with extra things as they can. But that income is stretched thin no matter how you look at it.

She has been taking the kids outside to play more. They girls are getting good at jump rope and hopscotch! The boys try but with much less finesse than their big sisters. I’m smiling as I sit here. These kids are all happy smiling kids. The little boys will hug anyone their sisters like; they are adorable.

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Yesterday while we were working in the yard, Len glanced up and said something to the effect of “Holy Cow!” I looked up and pulled my phone out of my pocket and took photos. Len ran in the house to get his crackerjack camera – and by the time he was back the clouds were gone. Though later in the afternoon we saw more fantastic clouds similar to the noon clouds but without the iridescence.

Len has been following for years this website about clouds and light and the physics of these amazing sights. Click into it to learn and admire lots more! Mr. Cowley is an expert and he is in Great Britain. This is the conversation that happened:

Les Cowley

  Atmospheric Optics - www.atoptics.co.uk
  Optics Picture of the Day - www.atoptics.co.uk/opod.htm

From Len to Les Cowley:

On Thu, 21 May 2020 at 18:33

These were taken in Waukesha, Wisconsin, at about noon on May 21,2020.

From Les Cowley to Len:

On Thu, 21 May 2020 at 18:35

Many thanks.  The internal cloud structures are unusual, I will have to enquire what they are.

Later in the day, From Les Cowley to Len:

The bubbly cell-like clouds are altocumulus lacunosus, there is more about it on the following link

  https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/august-2016/

Ian Loxley of the Cloud Appreciation Society 
  https://cloudappreciationsociety.org

came up with that info.

They are unusual images and I would like to put them on my site. If that's OK I will let you know when it happens.

From Len to Les Cowley:

On Fri, 22 May 2020 at 15:09

Thank you! This is fascinating.

The clouds were unusual. It was a relatively clear, sunny day with several unusual white clouds moving fairly quickly across the sky. The interior structure was moving quickly, as though it was boiling up and rolling about itself inside. The iridescence was near the fringe and most visible when the cloud was close to the sun.

I have been a fan of your site for several years, and fan of unusual effects in the sky for even longer (especially since I saw an arc above the winter sun in Calgary in the early 70's - sadly, no pictures!).

I have attached the higher-resolution images. Please use the on your website. 4708 and 4709 are by Len Lamberg; 5896-5899 are by Mary Beth Danielson. Both pictures were taken at noon on 5/22/2020 in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

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From Les Cowley to Len:

Thanks for the higher res images. They are good because I shall crop and zoom in on the clouds.  I am not sure when the page will go up as I only change OPOD - Atoptics Highlights about once a week. Otherwise I get so short of time for other things!  Whatever, I will write.

Incidentally, your description tallies well with Ian Loxley's explanation.  Pockets of warm air boil upwards expanding and evaporating the cloud to form bubble like voids.

My own interest in atmospheric optics also stems from the 70s. In about '73 I was dragged out of the lab to see my first halo display.  Memory has it that there were arcs everywhere. I was hooked.

 Best..

Les