Ebola, Zimbabwe, and world of shit

This plainly shows just how damned difficult it is going to be to contain the ebola outbreak. The piece is good. Here is a bit that illustrates just how ill equipped much of Africa is to contain outbreaks within a country's borders:

While Government has done a bit of work in preparation of any case of Ebola, more still needs to be done.

For instance, the entry and exit points of the country are still highly porous. Cases that would have otherwise been picked at these points will find their way into the country without anyone noticing.

I was at Beitbridge Boarder post the other day and there was no screening to talk about both on the Zimbabwean side and at the South African side. I asked why I was not being screened for Ebola and I was told I would be screened upon return from SA.

Upon my return, absolutely nothing was done as I just entered and left the borders without any screening.

Another concerned individual passing through Harare International Airport called the Herald Newsroom a few days ago expressing concern over the screening procedures at the airport.

The immigration officials flip through all travellers' passports with one pair of gloves. The fact that they are putting on gloves means, Ebola has chances of transmission by simply holding someone's passport. But this issue of holding everyone's passport with one pair of gloves exposes other travellers to the virus. The temperature detectors are a welcome development since there is no body contact with anyone.

*heavy sigh*

If you read the article, you will see that people are frightened. Unsurprisingly, health workers are not only the most frightened, but because of their fears, the health workers are--at least according to the piece--largely the people spreading the fears. At this stage, these particular strains of ebola may be more easily transmissible than most other strains; the possible exception being Ebola Reston. If I was front line health worker in sub-Saharan Africa I am certain I would st best be concerned.

I really need to update my case charts. As of 10 October there are a confirmed 4,033 deaths and 8,399 reported cases in the 2013-2014 outbreak. Here are few troubling paragraphs from the piece:

David Nabarro, the senior UN coordinator for the international response to Ebola, said the number of cases was probably doubling every three-to-four weeks.

Nabarro told the UN General Assembly on Friday that, without a global response,"the world will have to live with Ebola forever." He said the international effort needed to be 20 times greater than it is currently.

Well, the world is likely to be dealing with ebola of one strain or another until the virus's natural reservoirs are obliterated, everyone gets vaccinated, or the virus runs out of people to infect via some other means. No, I am not going to state what should be clear from that progression.

I will do a super quick chart revision..Stand by..

Music, musicians, and me..Something completely different

First of all, I have to thank Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers for their latest: Hypnotic Eye. I know that I have made reference to this album either here or somewhere else on the Internets. Some of the tracks would have easily fit on Damn The Torpedoes. Others, not. After listening to this for a few months now I think I can place it in my Petty preference list. It is a better effort than my cherished early Petty records, DTPs, and You're Gonna Get It! It isn't as lovely as Wildflowers...which, while a TP & the HBers record, didn't list the band in the liner notes. Full Moon Fever and Into the Great Wide Open are both better to my warped sense of things than Hypnotic Eye, but it is all very close.

I love the straight up blues tune Burnt Out Town. Okay..I place Hypnotic Eye between Echo and Southern Accents.

I have a huge amount of respect for Tom Petty. He works with Dylan fer chrissakeas! I love The Traveling Wilburys, Mudcrutch, and of course Lonesome Town that the boys gave some fella named with..which is a nice segue into pepole that have played with Tom Petty. In 1994--arguably the best year for Tom Petty--he had this bloke on drums by the name of Dave Grohl...

I really have no idea how I remember asll this stuff. But there it is..

Of course Dave Grohl is the former Nirvana drummer and current frontman for Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl seems like a really decent human being..much like Petty in this regard. The Foos and Petty are the only two really actively working rock bands that I follow with anything like real interest.

A few more words before end this.. Wildflowers is by a huge margin my favorite non-grunge effort of that half decade of good American music. I might even put it in my twenty favorite albums of all time. The only comparable grunge records are Nevermind, In Utero, Pearl Jam's Ten and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger.

For anyone that wants to believe that I have forgotten Alice In Chains' Dirt, you are wrong. AIC just is not grunge. Of all the 1990s records, Dirt is likely my favorite to listen to..but it's close.

Okay, I think I can simplify this a bit. Desert island.. twenty records..what's it gonna be?
Well, I cannot tell you all twenty, but four have been mentioned above. Nevermind, In Utero, Dirt, and Wildflowers would be there with me.

Too much about that..

Musicians and me..

I really should have spent more time time playing drums and less time getting high. Why? The answer is simple. One can only do so much in this life. Between learning stuff, expanding my noggin, and engaging in various activities designed to get me chicks, I had precious little time for anything else. But really, here is why:



Kanade can play much faster, but this has a really nice groove. 11 years old. Of course age has next to nothing to do with talnet. Either you have it, or you do not. I just hope that she is practicing because she wants to, not to fulfill the vicarious wishes of another. Rock on, Kanade!

Ebola: The next AIDS?

CDC: Ebola could be 'the world's next AIDS'. Could be is a long way from where things stand today. The article is rife with errors. *shakes head* Here is a taste:

"I've been working in public health for 30 years," Frieden told a World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in Washingtony.[sic]

"The only thing like this has been AIDS. And we have to work now so that this is not the world's next AIDS," Frieden said.

SARS is a much bigger threat..and it is really infectious sans any mutations.

It seems the height of irresponsibility to equate an virus that does not express symptoms for years with one that does so in 21 days or less.

Noted virologist, Nathan Wolfe has stated that other strains of ebola not yet discovered may possess additional transmission modes, but so far, only fresh aerosols have been shown to spread the Reston variant of ebolavirus. That said, there is this.

I need food now.

nVidia Shield

I think that nVidia has done a really interesting thing with the new Tegra K1 Shield "Gaming Tablet." As my usual reader knows, I am a real cheapskate when it comes to consumer electronics. It is the K1's GPU benchmarks that are most fascinating. In benchmarks, it is a killer. Don't Be Evil Google is using the SoC(System on Chip) solution in the upcoming Nexus (tba), so nVidia has some momentum. For me, I cannot see spending 300USD on any tablet that will not run all programs I use in a given day, and seamlessly sync when I desire.

Thought about another way, this SoC design has more CPU/GPU power than both a PS3 and the XBox 360! In a tablet. This kind of processing power should be aimed at 4K displays. Just where does one find 4K video to stream? If I was a gamer, I might be tempted at 300 beans. Perhaps Black Friday will put one into my cheaper than oughtta be legal range, or perhaps Evil Google's next device will land in my price range.

A quick diversion into local politics...

The GOP candidate for US Senate in my little state moved here a day or two ago. A few things about Scott Brown.

His voting record as two year US senator:

In his first year, he voted with Obama administration only 70% of the time. In his second--and last year--he voted with the O administration 78% of the time. If you extend the curve, Brown would be setting Obama's policy by now.

The source for the figures is that radical lefty rag, the Congressional Quarterly.

One of Brown's big points is that our current Senator in my district voted with the president 99% of the time. That puts her 14th among democrats.

Scott Brown is Obama's no. 1 GOP senator when his voting record is scrutinized. Strangely, Mr. Brown--if that's his real name--fails to bring this up.

For the thinking voter, Brown doesn't have the cred to vote out Senator Shaheen. New Hampshirites know where Shaheen stands on the big issues, whilst Scott Brown claims he was been ermm, unaware of his vote on immigration. This is a guy that will say anything to become self-important again. He is most certainly a narcissist(Playgirl centerfold for 10K, anyone?)*, and perhaps his metal dysfunction goes beyond that. He was not the right choice for MA, and he is an even worse choice for NH.

*I cannot fathom as to how the guy got paid to show off that never-in-the-gym body. I think I have it..it was the MTV era. Real work was shoved aside for guys with lovely nails. "That ain't workin."

WaPo just doesn't get it.

America can’t lead the world in innovation if the FAA keeps dragging its feet on drone rules

Sorry WaPo but South Korea is the world's most innovative country, and the Korean's lead is very likely to widen. South Korea's patent activity is already second in the world(the US is fifth in this forward looking indicator), and as importantly South Korea is far more connected(per capita..amd it's fast) than the US.

Where is all the global climate change?

Exactly where onr would expect it to be on this water planet. The physica are too easy. Air at sea level is roughly 1000x less dense than water. It will be very strange indeed if the two mediums ever have a one to one correspondence. Humanity will have either left the planet by then--and we know just how easy it is to bundle us all up and move to hospitable new real estate, or we will likely be very near extinct.

I hope to make a few brief posts today, but I still have a boatload of work to catch up on. *sigh*

Sad day for ebola news.

The virus, which causes fever and bleeding, has killed at least 3,439 people. Of course the WHO figures are always behing the disease. The Reuters piece gives a just-the-facts timeline, as well.

I have nothing else today. Between coding an emergency bulb planting, I am pretty well done. I blame my fatigue on my bulb wholesaler not providing me with special planting instructions. I knoew that Fritillaria need to put into the ground soon after arrival, but in checking the Interners, they are supposed to be planted directly after receiving them. I have had them in a very cool dry place since their arrival on 1 Oct. The plants are way more finicky then typical bulb plants. In talking to the wholesaler, they noted that they did not specify "plant IMMEDIATELY," so in the advent of duds, I will get free replacement product next autumn. It really does make a difference who you get your plants and supplies from..much like anything else.

Perhaps I can save the plants!

This post was meant for two days ago. Sorry about that.

Faux News "journalist" Chris Wallace gets schooled on ebola..

What is wrong with Fox News? The simple answer is that every piece is heavily slanted to press people's fear button. here Chris Wallace gets some science slapped on his im-propaganda. The inability of what passes for conservatism today to use easily obtainable sets of data before concluding issues is really insulting.

I haven't seen any new WHO data on current numbers of cases and hence deaths, so I wait to update charts once that it available.