Disasters
Justin Jr. “J.J.” 2004-2011
JJ died suddenly yesterday. Our family had never had a pet and has never had the experience of losing one unexpectedly. We are deeply sadden and in mourning. I don’t grieve gladly or for long. I have had uncles drop dead and barely paused between emails, except to reflect that the world was an ever [...]
Michael Lewis: When Capitalists Try to Destroy Capitalism
If the global financial collapse has a silver lining it’s the Vanity Fair accounts by Michael Lewis of how three different European countries responded to the meltdown. We can only hope that Lewis adds to these reports and turns them into another best-selling book. Lewis (Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short) is [...]
The First Rule of Holes
California is quickly learning the first rule of holes: when you find yourself at the bottom of one, stop digging. Banks, insurance companies, and pension funds buy government bonds because they are a very safe investment. Suppose they have to choose between the bonds of: a) Mexico. The world's newest narco-state, so beloved by its citizens [...]
The Peter Pandemic
Three days ago, I felt like crap. Sudden onset aches, chills, and nausea with a 100 degree plus fever. I didn't go home because I did not want to expose my family to Mexican pig flu. I had not been south of the border recently, but plenty of people around here have been, so I [...]
Coldest Winter Ever: Climate or Weather?
Four research keep track of global warming and other climate changes: the UK’s Hadley Centre and Royal Statistical Society along with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the University of Alabama at Huntsville. All four centers recently updated their data, which confirms that we just had the largest 12 month change in weather that [...]
The Big Picture
God’s eye view of Southern California, courtesy of the European Space Agency. It does not begin to tell the story of the anxiety, confusion, frustration, and loss that more than a half million people evacuees feel tonight. My Mom evacuated the Witch Canyon fire and my brother evacuated Slide, some 60 miles away. Her house [...]
"No Power in the Market and No Voice in the System"
Bill Gates’ Harvard commencement address is being circulated widely in Silicon Valley — and with good reason. He gave an outstanding speech (rather, he wrote an outstanding speech — he cannot deliver a speech to save his life). In the tradition of commencement speeches, Gates reminded grads of their social obligations — a noblesse oblige [...]
Best News So Far in 2007: A Universal Flu Vaccine
OK, it took a coupla days to cross the Atlantic, but the Brits report that they and some Swiss pharma companies are close to developing a universal flu vaccine. Says the Daily Mail: British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease. Described [...]
Emergency Care Needs Emergency Care
Suppose you don’t have a health plan because your employer or your government don’t provide one and you don’t carry personal insurance. You get sick — so what do you do? Easy — you do nothing. Tough it out. But what do you do when your kid wakes up with asthma? Or when you finally [...]
Now that we have vaccinated several million chickens…
New Scientist does a nice job summarizing the current state of flu vaccine production. Let me break their article into questions and answers. Q: We keep hearing that H5N1 will mutate, become transmissible, and trigger a pandemic. Is this really likely? LAST month, eight members of a family in Sumatra fell ill with H5N1 bird [...]
