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 Saturday, October 5, 2002
Disease kills 3 million people each year. Electronic Telegraph Oct 5 2002 6:54PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]
You have to really appreciate a news article that tries to humanize a disease that kills millions a year by rattling off some of its victims. Like Alexander the Great, Dante, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Byron. I mean, these guys really have relevance today to what this disease is doing in Africa, much less England. I guess it makes it easier to know that old Alex had the same disease you do ;-) 10:59:13 PM 
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Second-hand sales blamed for bedbugs' comeback. New Scientist Oct 5 2002 12:47PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]
Looks like they are biting. A nasty insect and one that is capable of leaving a nasty bite. Now all I need to find out is if car boot sales are some arcane British term for some normal American activity. I know boot is the same as show, but I have a hard time visualizing a car shoe. Or maybe it refers to shoes sold out of the trunks of cars? Hummm. 10:55:43 PM
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Your Genome on a CD: $500000. Salt Lake Tribune - Mapping and reading J. Craig Venter's genome took 15 years, $5 billion and some of the world's most sophisticated computers.
Your own genetic map - a snip at ' 450000 Guardian
Get Your Red-Hot Genome CD Wired
BBC - Boston Herald - The Daily Texan - and 6 related » [Google Technology News]
Well, I guess Venter has to make a living. But there are several questions I have: What is the verification? I mean, how do I know that it is MY DNA on the CD? How much mis-sequencing is there? What is the error rate? I would guess that at $1000 a genome, there will not be a lot of error checking. This could have very important ramifications. WHat sorts of second opinions are there? What is the liability for the company if it says someone has the gene for Huntington's and they really don't? People believe that we have really sequenced the entire human genome We haven't. We've only sequenced the pparts that can be cloned and sequenced. We currently feel that the rest is not important but I would not bet that is a certainty. There are still many things to learn. 10:47:24 PM
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Bill Watterson. "People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children." [Quotes of the Day]
I miss Calvin and Hobbes.
Maurice Sendak. "There must be more to life than having everything." [Quotes of the Day]
Not just a children's author.
Joseph Stalin. "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." [Quotes of the Day]
What a fun guy. This is one guy whose death was not a tragedy. There are several others we could name.
George Bernard Shaw. "The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it." [Quotes of the Day]
Old George must have been great at parties. 10:19:48 PM
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"U.S. Senator Robert Byrd Senate Remarks: Rush to War Ignores U.S. Constitution" [Daypop Top 40]
Only the NYTimes excerpted this speech in any large measure. Most papers gave the Cliff's Notes version. It is a very important speech. Byrd comes closest to being the most respected person in the Senate, with a reputation of being THE Constitutional expert in the group. He understands the rules of the Senate. It is difficult to get something through the Senate without his blessing. He is always someone to listen to. How many other politicians would start a speech quoting a Roman historian? And the quote uses big words like improvident. He quotes Abraham Lincoln on a topic that is EXACTLY what we are looking at today: giving the President the ability to attack countries whenever HE percieves a danger. While this Caesar quote may be a hoax, it does invoke a spirit that would fit right in with the views of many of the most important people in Amewrican history. That is why it is so popular. I am really glad I read Robert Byrd's speech. I wish I could vote for him. He has much more than half a brain which is twice as much as the Representative from Washington, Jim McDermott, has. Personally, I would feel better waiting until after the mid-term elections. That is what was done, I believe, in our previous war with Iraq, so as to remove any pretense that the rush to a decision was based on partisan politics. We already know that this is not being done this time almost assuredly because of partisan politics. The Republicans are already using it as an election gambit. It will be an interesting few years here, I am afraid. 10:04:37 PM
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TRAPPED, CUFFED & BUSSED: "Two Diamondback (Univ. of Maryland student newspaper)reporters covering the IMF-World Bank protests were arrested Friday morning and manacled for 23 hours. Surrounded by hundreds of protesters in Pershing Park, Washington Metropolitan Police circled and arrested the entire group. Jason Flanagan and Debra Kahn were there as impartial observers, and despite the newspaper's efforts to release them, they were stripped of all their possessions - even their shoelaces. What follows is a first-person account of their arrest and detention." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson]
A nice description of what it was like to be arrested when you are just doing your job. The infraction "failure to obey" never gets upheld in court in these cases. Most of the time there is no proof that anyone was actually told to leave. And in most cases, even if they wanted to leave, they are not allowed to. All of these people will eventually get bumped from the system, with no or minimal charges. I like it when innocent people get the choice: pay $50 bucks and get out in maybe another 12 hours or stay here for up to 72. None will be tried but it does serve its purpose of intimidating anyone who might be tempted to go to any protest to watch. All this sort of behavior does is politicize moderates. It will be interesting to see how things escalate, as the powerful try to exercise their power. 9:26:59 PM
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Well, I'm still getting bounced emails from someone who has a Klez-infected computer. I have to keep deleting them before they fill up my mail box. I think we have it narrowed down but it has been slow for those of us that keep getting bombarded. 9:19:27 PM
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