Marching music for primaries in Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington plus Democrats Abroad

I closed Four years of the COVID-19 pandemic by telling my readers "Stay tuned for this year's edition of Marching music for the Washington, Mississippi, Democrats Abroad, and Georgia primaries." I'm going in alphabetical order by state, which happens to be by poll closing time east to west, followed by a non-North American drum corps and Rose Parade band to represent Democrats Abroad. I kick off the music to watch and listen while waiting for results with with Spirit of Atlanta | #DCI2021 | "Bottle Tree" from Drum Corps International (DCI).

Spirit of Atlanta of Atlanta, Georgia, performs a segment from the corps' #DCI2021 production, "Bottle Tree," during the DCI Celebration events hosted August 12-14 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

DCI hasn't uploaded any more recent shows, so I'm following up with Spirit of Atlanta – "Up Down and All Around" | DCI Finals 2023 from Pageantry Innovations, which at least isn't a bootleg of the FloMarching video, so it will stay up.

Enjoy Spirit of Atlanta's 2023 production, “Up Down and All Around” from the perspective of their synthesizer performer & audio engineer.

Much like Vic Firth Marching, a drum stick maker whose videos I've embedded as part of this series, Pageantry Innovations is an instrument and equipment maker, in this case the carts for the synthesizers and soundboard. That makes this advertising, but I'm O.K. with that.

Georgia also has an all-age corps, Atlanta CV. Watch Atlanta CV Drum & Bugle Corps 2018 Show Clip By Box5TV, an official clip from Drum Corps Associates.

Provided by Box5TV, enjoy this show clip of the 2018 AtlantaCV from DCA World Championships!

Follow over the jump for the rest of the drum corps and marching bands representing Georgia, Mississippi, Washington, and Democrats Abroad.

The U.S. passes 30 million reported COVID-19 cases as cases spike in Michigan, a pandemic update

I told my readers "The next milestone will likely be 30 million cases in the U.S., which should happen before 600,000 deaths. I'll report on both when they happen" near the end of Vox and FiveThirtyEight on the future of COVID-19, a pandemic anniversary update. The first happened late last week, as CBS Evening News reported in Coronavirus cases spike across U.S. at alarming rate

New coronavirus cases are on the rise in many states, but nowhere are cases spiking more than in Michigan. Mola Lenghi takes a look.

CBS Evening News uploaded that on March 25, six days ago. CBS News (CBSN) updated the situation in Michigan and elsewhere in Health experts warn of the next U.S. COVID surge as several states see cases rise.

The U.S. coronavirus death toll has topped 550,000 as experts warn the next surge of cases is already here. But as CBS News' Omar Villafranca reports, doctors say the rise in cases can be slowed. Then, Dr. Dara Kass, an emergency room doctor and medical contributor for Yahoo News, joins CBSN's Elaine Quijano with more.

As I'm typing this, Johns Hopkins lists the current U.S. case count at 30,405,361 and total deaths in the country at 551,503. That's a grim update.

As a Michigan resident, I'm even more glad after seeing both clips that my wife and I got our first dose of the vaccine last week. Here's to our staying safe and healthy until we get our second and final doses next week.

CNN presented the national picture and more expert reaction in CDC director gives emotional warning of 'impending doom'.

After announcing that the United States has surpassed 30 million cases of Covid-19, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said she had a feeling of "impending doom" about the pandemic.

I'm with Dr. Leana Wen; we're in a race between vaccines on one hand and variants on the other. We need people to continue wearing masks and staying socially distant in public even after they are vaccinated at least until this wave is over. Otherwise, we could stumble at the finish line of this pandemic. That's both frustrating and dangerous.

That completes the look at the U.S. passing 30 million cases, nearly 10% of the country. Follow over the jump for videos about the next milestone, 600,000 dead in the U.S. from COVID-19.

Perseids vs. Supermoon and other space and astronomy news

For the second time this summer, a Supermoon tops this week's space and astronomy news, this time in competition with another spectacular sky event, the Perseid meteor shower.  Several videos feature both events, but Science at NASA's ScienceCasts: Perseid Meteors vs the Supermoon gets to go first.

Which is brighter--a flurry of Perseid fireballs or a supermoon? Sky watchers will find out this August when the biggest and brightest full Moon of 2014 arrives just in time for the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower.

Follow over the jump for more of the past week's space and astronomy news originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Ebola outbreak) on Daily Kos.

NASA's next giant leap and other space and astronomy news

One of the reasons I follow space exploration news is what I wrote in Progress on Orion and other space and astronomy news.

A recurring theme of this blog is my fear that the United States is acting out one of the great tragic tropes of science fiction--turning its back on space as part of its decline as a civilization, which I explored most recently in Space News for the second and third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.  Therefore, I'm interested in any signs that the U.S. will resume independent crewed spaceflight, if for no other reason than to rub the naysayers noses in it, as I wrote in Mars, solar flares, and this month's stargazing in this week's space and astronomy news.

NASA provided another sign of hope last week in NASA's Next Giant Leap.

It was 45 years ago that Neil Armstrong took the small step onto the surface of the moon that changed the course of history. The Apollo missions blazed a path for human exploration to the moon and today NASA is taking its Next Giant Leap to near-Earth asteroids, Mars and beyond. As we develop and test the new tools of 21st century spaceflight on the human path to Mars, we once again will change the course of history.

The event was also mentioned in NASA: Apollo 11 celebration, Next Giant Leap anticipation on This Week @NASA.

There was more celebration of Apollo 11’s 45th anniversary at several events around the country – and more opportunity for the agency to highlight its “next giant leap” to send humans to Mars. Those events included a ceremony during which Kennedy Space Center’s Operations and Checkout Building was renamed on July 21, in honor of Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong, who passed away in 2012. The facility, which was used to process and test Apollo spacecraft, is now being used to assemble NASA’s Orion spacecraft. Also, ISS astronauts appear in the House, Space station cargo ships, Extreme underwater mission underway, RS-25 Engine installed for testing, and more!

Follow over the jump for more general space news along with stories from deep space to the inner Solar System.

Science from the fans in the stands

In Research from BCS Championship universities, I described the science generated by Florida State and Auburn, the schools participating in the event.  Now, it's time to document the science generated by the fans of pro football teams participating in the NFL playoffs.  Here are two stories from last night's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Polar Vortex) on Daily Kos that share this connection.

First, some real science from the University of Washington via PhysOrg: Scientists to observe seismic energy from Seahawks' '12th man' quakes by Bill Steele on Jan 10, 2014.

University of Washington seismologists this week installed two strong-motion seismometers at CenturyLink Field in Seattle to augment an existing station in recording shaking from "earthquakes" expected on Saturday during the NFC divisional game between the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints.

The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is preparing a special website at www.pnsn.org/seahawks for the game to display seismograms from all three seismic stations in near-real time, and seismologists will also be available to explain interesting signals. Seismologists also will highlight interesting signals in tweets (@PNSN1) and on Facebook (thePNSN).

Seahawks fans, collectively known as "the 12th man," have a well-known reputation for generating noise and shaking in the stadium during games. Perhaps the best-known example occurred on Jan. 8, 2011, during a 67-yard touchdown run by the Seahawks Marshawn Lynch that helped Seattle defeat New Orleans in an NFC Wild Card game.

The seismogram for the sequence of events leading to the score and the point after illustrates this entry.

Scientists hope to record similar shaking during Saturday's game to better understand how the stadium responds to the activity, and to measure the energy transmitted to the ground within the stadium and within the surrounding neighborhood.

History repeated itself yesterday, as Seahawks beat Saints 23-15, advance to NFC championship game.  It looks like they'll be facing the 49ers, who are beating the Carolina Panthers halfway through the fourth quarters as I type this.  I'll be rooting for the 49ers.

Next, a health story with a human interest angle from UCSD: Football Fans Team Up for Organ Match by Jackie Carr on January 08, 2014.
Random stadium seat assignment leads to lifesaving transplant surgery

In October 2013, Louis Munoz donated one of his kidneys to William Lynch. The organ match would not have occurred without a bit of serendipity and a big love of football. Munoz and Lynch had been childhood friends, but hadn’t seen each other in years – then they found themselves randomly seated next to each other at a Chargers game.

“Louis and I knew each other as kids and then lost touch. Years later, by surprise, we ended up sitting right next to each other at Chargers games,” said William, a middle school teacher. “When I started missing games, Louis asked me why and I explained that due to kidney complications, I’d been unwell. His wife half-jokingly suggested that he give me a kidney.”

Louis immediately volunteered to be tested as a possible donor. William initially declined his friend’s offer, believing another donor would come through. But when that didn’t happen, Louis followed through and proved to be a match.

The Chargers are playing in the next elimination game today.  They're underdogs against the Denver Broncos.  That's not stopping me from rooting for them, so there will be an all-California Super Bowl.  If that happens, I'll be rooting for the Chargers, but I'd be happy with either winning the NFL championship.