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Stockpile tuna against bird flu? That's the government's advice. From AP (Preparing for a Pandemic):
Over the weekend, the government told Americans to start storing canned foods and powdered milk under their beds as the prospect of a deadly bird flu outbreak approaches the United States. The fear is that the bird flu will turn into a pandemic and drastically alter the course of American life for a time.
The Red Cross says that if there's a pandemic, we need to prepare for 10 days of being stuck in our homes, and that we may be without power and water during that time. In the event of a bird flu pandemic, Americans should plan for interruptions or delays in other services: Banks might close, hospitals could be overwhelmed, and postal service could be spotty. Experts also say that people need to begin stocking up on extra food and supplies like protective masks, flashlights, portable radios, batteries and matches.
"When you go to the store and buy three cans of tuna fish, buy a fourth and put it under the bed. When you go to the store to buy some milk, pick up a box of powdered milk, put it under the bed," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. "When you do that for a period of four to six months, you are going to have a couple of weeks of food. And that's what we're talking about." ...
A list of essential supplies follows, including water:
"We recommend that each member of your family has a gallon of water for each day, so a family of four needs to have 40 gallons of water available and you need that much water stored because there's a chance that your water will get cut off if there's a pandemic," Washington said. "Workers may not be able to make it, and plants may stop operating. Your family will need to drink water and for hygiene, for brushing their teeth and washing their hands."
 archives.gov |
| Photograph of a basement family fallout shelter that includes a 14-day food supply that could be stored indefinitely, a battery-operated radio, auxiliary light sources, a two-week supply of water, and first aid, sanitary, and other miscellaneous supplies and equipment, ca.1957. |
If you have the vaguest memories of '50s fallout shelters, you'll remember debates about whether it was okay to shoot your neighbor if he wanted to break into your fallout shelter in the event of an attack. Since your food supplies were not acquired with him in mind, it might doom all of you.
Leavitt didn't address what would happen in the event of quarantine to those who had not stockpiled water, medicines, powdered milk and toilet paper, but the images of New Orleans after Katrina don't offer much encouragment. The next-to-last thing an epidemic needs is a crowd of refugees in one place. The last is desperate people trying to break into homes in search of food and toilet paper.
Leavitt is traveling the country, spreading the message that the federal government won't be much help. The bulk of the money Congress authorized to fight bird flu is going to vaccines, which take 6 months to produce. He was at Brown in January ('Every family needs a plan', free reg.req.)
Related: State Pandemic Plans at pandemicflu.gov; here's Rhode Island's page and plan.(pdf)
Interestingly, the R.I. plan notes,
Quarantine [a period of isolation to prevent disease spread], is not effective in controlling multiple influenza outbreaks in large, immunologically naive populations, because the disease spreads too rapidly to identify and control chains of transmission. Even if quarantine were somewhat effective in controlling influenza in large populations, it would not be feasible to implement and enforce with available resources, and would damage the economy by reducing the workforce.
Bird-flu cats reject virus: At least two cats in an Austrian shelter shook off the virus without becoming ill.
iflu.org: Scare yourself silly with an up-to-the-minute world news feed on the virus.
Bird flu cartoons and graphics lighten a Malaysian government veterinary page from last October.
We're beyond this: Just an Online Minute: Bill Gates' behavioral prophecy, at Media Post:
Some media executives have long been touting the prospect of behavioral targeting, or the ability to send ads to consumers based on their interests, as determined by their online behavior.
This morning, none other than Bill Gates added his voice to the proponents of such targeting. And he didn't limit it to online ads. Rather, the Microsoft head focused on the coming paradigm for television.
"TV historically has been a broadcast medium in which everybody's picking from a finite number of channels," Gates told an audience of several dozen people in New York, at the annual meeting of Corbis -- which he founded. (AP photo is at right)
But in the future, watching TV will be a matter of "seeing what you're interested in, having ads targeted to you," Gates said. "That's becoming the standard way video will be delivered," he added. ...
Bill hasn't heard of TiVo and other DVRs, where we skip the ads? The reader has to willingly participate or populist technology will throw up a way to defeat it.
The problem with "targeting ads to your online behavior" is that it's not two-way: You can't tell the site, "I bought the car. Now I want a boat." You're "targeted" and the video will be "delivered" long after you've made your purchase and moved on.
Why the stealth approach?
Why not simply ask the reader what coupons, sales, or deals he or she would like to see this week?
"Who's got rib eyes on sale?" I'd ask, or "Who fixes dryers?" and soon, "Who has lisianthus for sale?" And every few years I might be shopping for something a lot bigger.
I find it irritating when Amazon sends me emails for books and CDs "you might like" based on Christmas gifts I've bought for people with tastes far from mine. Dummies.
Thanks to my colleague Andrea for the pointer.
What goes up: The Hutchison-Effect: The New Philadelphia Experiment? at Google Video.
American Antigravity shows a two-minute clip of things flying upwards. More at
americanantigravity.com
