Browsed by
Tag: virus

Virus News!

Virus News!

Comments 4 comments

You have got to read this article on the virus at Discover! How did I miss this before???? Unintelligent Design A monstrous discovery suggests that viruses, long regarded as lowly evolutionary latecomers, may have been the precursors of all life on Earth by Charles Siebert, Photography by Jörg Brockmann From the March 2006 issue, published online March 15, 2006 Now the viruses appear to present a creation story of their own: a stirring, topsy-turvy, and decidedly unintelligent design wherein life…

Read More Read More

Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed

Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed

Comments 1 comment

In Santa Fe, Michael told me that at some point Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson had gotten married. Huh? Whew. Can anyone confirm? I guess they’ve been an item for some time – I don’t know how I could have missed that. Two of my favorite talents, but so very different. I’ve been listening to a lot of both of them in the last few days. I’ve really been enjoying the music from Anderson’s “Strange Angels.” Then I discovered her…

Read More Read More

Nuclear Plans, Libby’s Friend, Scope of War, SOTU

Nuclear Plans, Libby’s Friend, Scope of War, SOTU

Comments 0 Comment

Some recommended reading – do your homework. Saving the World By Stopping the Pentagon’s Programs By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet All that work against nuclear proliferation – gone, gone, gone. Another way we make the world a more dangerous place. Then there is “Complex 2030,” a proposal to consolidate and update the entire nuclear complex, including the opening of a new plutonium “pit” facility capable of producing 125 new bombs a year. Estimated price tag: $150 billion over 25 years. The…

Read More Read More

Flu-like Symptoms? Diagnosis Needed

Flu-like Symptoms? Diagnosis Needed

Comments 2 comments

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…

Read More Read More

(W)retched

(W)retched

Comments 3 comments

I spent much of the last thirty hours or so in a state of utter wretchedness. And retching. And intensified misery thinking of W. And retching. And wretched. I don’t know whether it was food poisoning, or a virus, or what. Even worst than the nausea and vomiting was the horrible alternation between the sweats and the shivers. I would just about start to get warm and then I would be soaking the sheets. Then I’d fling off the sheets…

Read More Read More

Religion as a Virus: Dawkins on Religion

Religion as a Virus: Dawkins on Religion

Comments 2 comments

Richard Dawkins (Oxford prof., father of meme theory, author of The Selfish Gene) argues against irrational, militant religion in the two-part Channel 4 UK documentary “The Root of all Evil?” (Jan. 2006). Dawkins goes too far by including all forms of faith – not all are in direct contradiction to independent thought and constructive doubt! (Please chime in on this – esp. Progressive Faith Bloggers!) Still, his arguments are very persuasive in terms of the malignant, dangerous, and destructive forms…

Read More Read More