Fame. Fortune. Really Fast Cars.

It looks like I may be appearing in an 'podcast' interview in another couple of days, to talk about the Writers of the Future anthology and constest.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Time to weigh in on the Flu

I haven't posted anything because I figure anyone reading me is reading Medley, anyway, and I'm only cribbing from her.

However.

Pandemic Influenza: Risk Communication: The Teachable Moment by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard.

Georgie seems to think that military personnel would be well put to use in a pandemic. What are they going to do, shoot at viruses? I remain oddly unconvinced by anything this administration says. I wonder why. Oh, yes, that's right: September 11th, Iraq, Osama, Katrina, FEMA, gutting the Endangered Species Act, 'clean air' that isn't, tax cuts for the wealthy as opposed to the poor, rampant cronyism and incompetence, torture in my name, extraordinary rendition, and the current saber rattling with Iran and the always-exciting North Korea.

The Flu Wiki

World Health Organization

Pandemic Flu Awareness Week

I tell you what I want, if I have to hunker down. I want a LifeStraw, because you know what? I can afford to spend $15 on a 50 pounds of rice, and I can trap squirrels if I darn well have to, the cats would love that, but I don't have the money to be stocking and rotating water.

What disturbs me, deeply, is that I live in a city with a high population of 'annual transients' -- college students. Who may or may not have money, but certainly won't have their heads screwed on straight if something happens. Not to mention live in cramped environs.

Ask Not Where the Buck Stops

When it comes to the US as a torturing nation. It stops at the President.

Another WTF Moment: Call A Scientist for Scientific Testimony, Would Ya?

Not a science fiction author.

Now bear in mind, I have great respect for both SF authors and scientists, given that I'm both myself but COME ON, PEOPLE, if you want an *expert witness* get a damn expert witness.

Michael Crichton's latest novel, State of Fear, is an action-packed thriller in which the hero is a scientist who discovers that climate change is all a fraud. The novel has sold well, but it was still something of a shock yesterday to find its author as an expert witness testifying on global warming in front of the United States Senate.

Crichton had been summoned to give evidence by Senator James Inhofe, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, who recently called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people".

Oh, come on. I'm writing a letter to Senator Inhofe.

Novel take on global warming .

Discussion of Crichton's appearance before the Senate subcommittee.

Critique of Crichton's 'science' in State of Fear.

Happy Birthday to US

Happy Birthday to me and my Twin.

(Wanna gimme a gift? Amazon gift certificates, or money (via Paypal), are always acceptable.

This concludes the grabby portion of our birthday.)

Eye-Opening

A Concise History of Republican Mismanagement

Insane

Nerd Gets Arrested For Being A Nerd in the Subway.

Superdome 'Anarchy' Reports "Overstated"

Reports of anarchy at Superdome overstated

How about that?

Respectful of Otters gives the best explanation why, I think.

Yesterday's Protest

In pictures: Washington protest: Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters gather in Washington to call for US troops to leave Iraq.

I refuse to support

An adminstration that condones torture.

3 in 82nd Airborne Say Beating Iraqi Prisoners Was Routine

You, too, Attorney General Alberto "Quaint Geneva Conventions" Gonzales.

In separate statements to the human rights organization, Captain Fishback and two sergeants described systematic abuses of Iraqi prisoners, including beatings, exposure to extremes of hot and cold, stacking in human pyramids and sleep deprivation at Camp Mercury, a forward operating base near Falluja. Falluja was the site of the major uprising against the American-led occupation in April 2004. The report describes the soldiers' positions in the unit, but not their names.

The abuses reportedly took place between September 2003 and April 2004, before and during the investigations into the notorious misconduct at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Senior Pentagon officials initially sought to characterize the scandal there as the work of a rogue group of military police soldiers on the prison's night shift.

He said he had acted under orders from military intelligence personnel to soften up detainees, whom the unit called persons under control, or PUC's, to make them more cooperative during formal interviews.

Interrogators pressed guards to beat up prisoners, and one sergeant recalled watching a particular interrogator who was a former Special Forces soldier beating the detainee himself. "He would always say to us, 'You didn't see anything, right?' " the sergeant said. "And we would always say, 'No, sergeant.' "

Not the acts of 'rogue' soldiers. Systemic.

[Edited Sunday: Human Rights Watch's New Accounts of Torture by U.S. Troops. Download the report in PDF format.]

WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record

GO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS.
http://www.who.int/csr/don


World Health Organization - Weekly Epidemiological Record e-mail
bulletin service

DISEASE OUTBREAK NEWS Item(s)published on the World Wide Web

http://www.who.int/csr/don

-------------------------
Avian influenza - situation in Indonesia - update 31



22 September 2005

The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has today confirmed a further human
case of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza. The case, in an
8-year-old boy, was confirmed as positive for H5N1 infection by a WHO
reference laboratory in Hong Kong. The boy remains in hospital for
observation and treatment. Current investigations in Indonesia have
produced no evidence that the H5N1 virus is spreading easily from person
to person.

Background on avian influenza in Indonesia

Since mid-2003, Indonesia has experienced outbreaks of avian influenza
in its poultry population. Prior to the new case announced today, two
human cases of H5N1 infection in Indonesia have been laboratory
confirmed, one in July and another in September. All three cases have
been investigated by the Indonesia health authorities, with WHO support,
and searches for further cases have been conducted.

As investigations have produced no evidence that the H5N1 virus is
spreading easily from person to person, WHO has not raised its current
level of pandemic alert. WHO will, however, continue to monitor the
situation closely. Given the experience of other H5N1 affected countries
in Asia, the detection of further human cases in Indonesia or elsewhere
would not be surprising.

Laboratory confirmation of cases in Indonesia has led to heightened
public concern, intensified surveillance for further cases, and
strengthened government commitment to contain the disease. As a result,
several patients with respiratory symptoms and a history of possible
exposure to the avian virus are being evaluated as part of ongoing
surveillance efforts. Samples from these patients have also been sent
for analysis by the WHO reference laboratory in Hong Kong.

Overall assessment

In all affected countries, most human cases of H5N1 infection have been
linked to contact with poultry. In a few instances, limited
human-to-human transmission of the virus may have occurred following
close contact with a patient during the acute phase of illness. In all
known instances, such transmission has been limited and has not led to
larger outbreaks in the general community, indicating that the virus
does not spread easily among people at this time.

WHO has sent all countries a document outlining recommended strategic
actions for responding to the avian influenza pandemic threat.
Recommended actions aim to strengthen national preparedness, reduce
opportunities for a pandemic virus to emerge, improve the early warning
system, and accelerate vaccine development.
-------------------------

[snip some listserv specific stuff]

This service is provided by the World Health Organization as a
complement to the web sites http://www.who.int/wer and
http://www.who.int/csr/don.

Carter Says it Was President Gore in 2000, not Bush

Carter says Gore won 2000 election

He also said about FEMA, the agency Carter founded,

When I founded FEMA "we put it together with three specific commitments," Carter remarked. "One, that it would be led [by] highly trained professionals in dealing with disasters. Secondly, that it would be completely independent and not under another agency that would submerge it. And third, that it would be adequately funded."

Bush's Suspension of Davis Bacon Act Illegal?

BUSH WAGE CUTS FOR RELIEF WORKERS MAY BE LEGAL ERROR

this emergency statute was one of numerous authorities that were rendered dormant by the National Emergencies Act of 1976, and that can only be activated by certain procedural formalities that were absent in this case.

In particular, the President must formally declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, and he must specify which standby legal authorities he proposes to activate so as to permit congressional restraint of emergency powers.

Strangely, however, President Bush proceeded as if the National Emergencies Act did not exist.

I try to limit my use of "WTF", but WHAT. THE. F?

If this is some import-export bullshit, then my response is, Bush can wave acts to permit wages less than the national minimum due to Katrina, but not this?

EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES: Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans

The FDA has recalled aid from Britain because it has been condemned as unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that these are Nato approved rations of exactly the same type fed to British soldiers in Iraq.

"The Police Start *Shooting* at Us"

Story re: Gretna closure right now on NPR. More than one incident b/w people trying to leave and cops keeping Gretna from being "another Supredome down here".

"Callous racist" accusations - city officials say "reputation blemished" b/c "New Orleans expected us to evacuate their city w/o any prep, notice, or contact". They were "completely unprepared" and not contacted by anyone from New Orleans. Gretna is the first exit after Crescent City, basically.

I'd expect the first time people tried to cross would be sufficient notice, wouldn't you?

However, note that Gretna ferried 5000 evacuees prior to their shutdown (which would also serve as notice, wouldn't it)? Some remark about someone committing arson, too.

Basically, they're saying their responsibility was to *their* people (Gretna, Jefferson's Parish), with the implied corollary that everyone else could take a flying leap. How Christian of them.

Some townspeople support(ed) the closure action, scared of "looting" and "shooting".

Others: "it was the wrong thing to do". People were trying to get across to get to TX.

Sheriff, etc., says would do the same thing again. And ask how long does it take a city to reach the (logistical) limits of its compassion?

New Orleans had a good rebuttal: how were we supposed to escape our drowned city, if you didn't let us through?

I think New Orleans wins the argument on this one.