I’ve posted before about the latest swine flu and it’s similarities to the 1918 version that killed more people than all the wars of the 20th century combined. Over the weekend, I attended a talk given by Toby L. Merlin, the Deputy Director of the Influenza Coordination Unit at the CDC. It was fascinating and […]
Author Archive | weeklyrob
H. pylori
Latest Wilson’s Quarterly (I can’t link to the specific article) tells me all about H. pylori, the microbe that causes ulcers. (For those of you who still think that ulcers are caused by stress or spicy food, try to catch up, for crying out loud. People have already won the Nobel prize for disproving that.) […]
Latest List of Top Books
Newsweek has published a “meta-list” of The Top 100 Books of All Time. And since they did it by plugging other people’s lists into a model, they didn’t even have to make a single decision. Fiction and non-fiction are mixed. Poetry and prose. I’ve read five of the top ten, and about 35-40 of the […]
Shut Down the Internet
Iran and China show their colors nice and bright during troubles. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, so when a government tries to stop communication and the press during troubled times, we know that the government is diseased. Urumqi has lost its Internet rights. We just saw this in Iran, so it’s no surprise that another […]
Violence in Urumqi
It’s pronounced /oo room chee/ with the accent on room. The Uighurs are rioting. My wife and I spent some time there a decade ago or so. It didn’t seem a particularly nice place at the time, and the surrounding desert is dust and wasteland. Sometimes beautiful and sometimes just desolate and empty. The Uighurs […]
Summer Reads
From The Guardian, a list of the best summer reads of all times. I don’t know what constitutes a summer read. I’ve read, and really liked, the first item on the list. So I was all prepared to go through the list, giving my opinions on all the ones I’d read. But, um, well, I […]
4th of July
It was a radical idea. A government formed by the people, with their consent, and with a threat attached: Do what’s right by us, or we’ll tear you down and try again. Here are a few more reasons, slightly less majestic, that the American spirit should be appreciated.
Books
I’m a book guy. I like good books to read, and I like pretty books to look at and handle. But I don’t like musty-smelling books. For those who do, there’s Classic Musty Scent. Check out the list of compatible files. [Link from @foliosociety]
Ants Own Everything
It’s been awhile since I posted about ants (here and here), but they keep being cool. BBC News has a headline called: Ant mega-colony takes over world In short, they believe that a huge colony has spread all over (probably hitching a ride with humans), and members won’t fight against each other.
Walk Tall Walkman
Thirty short years ago, the scene changed. Happy birthday, Walkman! This kid wore one for a week and wrote a little report (remembering to use lots of big words like “plethora” and “aesthetically.” Kids have to prove that they’re adults). The most best line was: “It took me three days to figure out that there […]