Which science fiction writer are you?
I am: William Gibson
The chief instigator of the “cyberpunk” wave of the 1980s, his razzle-dazzle futuristic intrigues were, for a while, the most imitated work in science fiction.
(Yeah, but that’s not why I like his books!)
Sometime tonight, I will have received one million hits to the VirusHead site. That includes visitors to the entire site, including the blog.
I’ve had the virushead.net domain since 2001 (after hosting a version of the BabyBoo subsite from 1999-2001 on a free hosting site).
Given that, it may not be that big a deal to have accumulated a million hits. It’s been more than five years. Only in the last couple of years have daily hits of over a thousand become commonplace.
Still, a million is a great big number. Yay!
The Union of Concerned Scientists has issued an alert on the proposed nuclear armament expansion program.
Urge the Administration Not to Build New Nuclear Weapons
The Bush administration is proposing to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, recreating the type of design, development, and production capability for nuclear weapons used in the United States during the Cold War. Fortunately, a mandatory environmental impact review of the Bush administration’s so-called “Complex 2030†proposal allows you to submit comments on this dangerous plan. Send a letter telling the administration to abandon its plans to produce thousands of new nuclear weapons and instead focus on cutting the already oversized U.S. nuclear arsenal.
What about our treaties? What about our supposed views on weapons of mass destruction?
Personally, I don’t see much of a resemblance. The face recognition technology still needs a wee bit of work. I hope we’re not really depending on this sort of thing for national security…
Recent
About ten years ago
About twenty years ago
Maybe I spent too much time wallowing in viral topics for my dissertation, but I’m gradually getting a little concerned. I’m trying to disentangle coincidence, influenza, and another virus with “flu-like symptoms.”
The flu virus is spreading fast in the Southeast, with Georgia, Alabama and Florida reporting the highest activity, the CDC says. See the CDC weekly flu map.
James Brown died early Christmas morning. Phyllis Brown (widow of DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, who was shot down in his driveway on the orders of his political opponent) has died – at 52 – with “flu-like symptoms.” (By the way, isn’t that odd? Brown-Brown? I’m assuming that the king of soul and the woman who wouldn’t give up aren’t related – anyone know for sure?).
Late last week, Ben (6) was sent home from school on the last day with a temp of 104. The doctor’s offices were completely mobbed with sick children (and adults) and we were there for hours. He’s still sick, and both John and I are heading in the same direction. Several friends and their children – same thing. I’m taking extra precautions and we’re got a semi-quarantine going here. I’m walking around disinfecting doorknobs and trying not to be obsessive.
Ben tested negative for both influenza and strep throat. We were told that it was an unidentified virus with “flu-like symptoms.” It started with high fever and a sore throat, and moved into dry coughing and sinus congestion. I’ve got albuterol on hand if he starts wheezing, but I’m concerned because he doesn’t get sick very often – and when he does, he doesn’t get high fevers like this.
Where is the diagnosis for what seems to be a somewhat dangerous and pervasive non-flu virus? Is anyone tracking this? Are the flu-like symptoms disguising another possible epidemic? These are the things that keep me up at night. I can’t find any regional stats at the CDC web site. Comment if you have any information.
I’m playing around with a new theme here. I wanted something a little brighter.
Something is messed up with the categorized blogroll. The links don’t display properly and they seem to be breaking the column. Drat.
There are a few other little clean-up tasks to do with the theme too. It might take me a little longer than usual.
Please bear with me while I figure it all out between doing other things.
Advice welcome.