Judy Stone of SciAm explains the alphabet soup that describes flu viruses.
Muddled about all the new flu viruses?
It’s hard to keep up with the changing names in the news. H1Nwhat? Bird flu. Pig flu. MERS. SARS. Here is a quick overview of this dizzying, dyslexia inducing array, with what you need to worry about, even if some aren’t yet in your backyard.
The American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium (led by rock-star astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson) put together a video with their Digital Universe Atlas showing how much of the universe we have already discovered.
Our universe is unimaginably, jaw-droppingly massive. It’s stunning that we’ve learned as much as we have, too.
‘Murrica is broken, folks. Our lovely little security state has gotten out of control.
After a 14-hour trip, I wanted to stretch my legs. So I stood up, anxious to find myself back in the room, especially after having written to the DHS. “Take a seat,” the officer at the door sternly said to me. I told him I wanted to stretch my legs after the long flight. He told me I wasn’t allowed to stand up. You are also not allowed to use your phone or electronic equipment. I was also slightly surprised to find as many children in the room as there were cameras.
“Sir, I’m a U.S. citizen who wants to stand while being detained. Am I not allowed to stand?” I said, pointing to the Asian man and Pakistani woman standing with their toddler strapped to the man’s chest. Anyway, there were only two empty seats in the room with a capacity of 60.
“Sit down!” he repeated for the sixth time, and came and confiscated my phone, which I was using to try to text my coworkers who were waiting to share a car home.
via Davos to Detention: Why I Hate Coming Home to America | Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.
Two inches of snow caused massive gridlock and laid bare the governmental fault lines of the Atlanta region. It was Raleigh 2005 all over again. I know I took a dig at the Wake County Public School System for its Tuesday closure but it’s certainly better than gridlock.
As an Atlantan, I’m concerned that this storm revealed just how unprepared we are in case of real disaster. If Atlanta, the region, wants to get serious about public safety, its mayors, county officials, and state officials will need to start practicing regionalism instead of paying lip service to it. And whether threatened by a dangerous pandemic, a major catastrophe, or just two inches of snow, we need to have ways to get around—and out of—the city other than by car.
