The H1gh Council

Swine Flu

What's next?

There's a general assumption that the flu outbreak—if it isn't already cresting—is likely to decline in the near future, as outbreaks of this sort tend to be prevalent during winter in the northern hemisphere. The big question is what we can expect from this strain of flu when winter rolls around. Nobody really knows for sure. Flu strains have been identified with various degrees of virulence and drug resistance, and it's distinctly possible that the virus could further adapt to human hosts over the next few months, so public health authorities are taking reasonable precautions. The CDC has already restocked the doses of antiviral medication it distributed to the states last week, and it's putting the groundwork in place to develop a vaccine should one be deemed necessary. Complete sequencing of the viral DNA, which is now a small and inexpensive step beyond the RT-PCR testing described above, has been done with a variety of samples worldwide, and these indicate that all the circulating viruses are 99-100 percent identical. This should make producing a specific vaccine less of a challenge than it might otherwise be. Continued isolation and sequencing will be key to getting a sense of the virus' evolution in the coming months, revealing things like its mutation rate and the accumulation of changes that might help it adapt to human hosts. In the meantime, the worries over the current outbreak have at least allowed public health authorities to reiterate some basic messages that will be useful whatever develops: wash your hands often, cover your mouth when sneezing and coughing, and stay at home when you're sick.

Its amazing when you find new meanings for words

Project S&M (Seek and Manipulate) is on the drawing board. This project will be a true test of my skills, patience and willingness to learn. I am sure in the end there will be lots of blood, sweat and beers. Will be posting more as the project progresses.

Today Monday 5/4/09

Google's idea for a "Floating Data Center"

From a tech site that I read everyday I came across an article this morning about a Floating Data Center that would almost be self sustaining floating island in the water. I have been a big advocate of renewable energy and think we don't spend enough money on trying to save money and resources. I know there is no reason from natural resources that we all can't have free power, it is available all the time and its free.

Updates

Time to get back into updating the site and posting things of real interest.

Going to be placing a lot more items in the download area.

Going to start a journal of sorts about crap and new tattoos.

Adding google ads, so please feel free to click on them for fun:)