Pervasivelight 5.0

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination – and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year

ABC’s doing a reboot of V, looks like fun

Zombie movie, from the zombies point of view.

Total budget £45

Holy sh*t, looks like the crazies may have been right.

The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” Gibbs said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “But there are lots of others.”

Even a broken clock is right twice a day, get your tinfoil hats ready

I’m a specialist doctor in respiratory diseases and intensive care at the Mexican National Institute of Health. There is a severe emergency over the swine flu here. More and more patients are being admitted to the intensive care unit. Despite the heroic efforts of all staff (doctors, nurses, specialists, etc) patients continue to inevitably die. The truth is that anti-viral treatments and vaccines are not expected to have any effect, even at high doses. It is a great fear among the staff. The infection risk is very high among the doctors and health staff.

There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do. Staff are starting to leave and many are opting to retire or apply for holidays. The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities, at least in the hospital where I work it. It is killing three to four patients daily, and it has been going on for more than three weeks. It is a shame and there is great fear here. Increasingly younger patients aged 20 to 30 years are dying before our helpless eyes and there is great sadness among health professionals here.
Antonio Chavez, Mexico City

also, a google map of known infections here

The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century.

There are no sunspots, very few solar flares – and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.

The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting.

The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period.

I wonder how this will affect the infamous hockey stick?

From USA today

A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.

Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.

Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.

From the Washington Post in 2006

Norfed struck the first gold- and silver-backed coins — which, to avoid charges of making its own money it calls “rounds” — in 1998 at its private mint in Idaho. Today the group claims to have more than $20 million in Liberty coins and notes in circulation, and about 2,500 merchants who accept Liberty Dollars for goods and services from doughnuts to tattoos.

But there’s a potentially more sinister side to all this. A 1999 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center calls Norfed a far-right anti-government group that has “long claimed that American dollars are . . . part of a vast conspiracy by international bankers to defraud the rest of the world.” The center links some Norfed devotees to far-right hate groups.

There’s your hopey changey right there.

I’m actually pretty surprised by the results of this sidebar poll conducted by the New York Daily News. I would have thought the numbers against would be higher. Especially in NYC.

I would have thought the numbers agains would be higher. Especially in NYC.

I know that Moral Flexibility’s not doing much with the zombie thing anymore, but last week at SXSW interactive I met the guys behind Lost Zombies a “Community Generated Zombie Documentary” and immediately thought of him and the Zombie Squad.

Looks like a really fun project!

So New York’s started counting it’s chickens, and currently on the buffet table the following:

According to Paterson, the stimulus aid to New York will include:

-$11 billion more in federal Medicaid funding. About 70 percent will go the state, the rest to county and big city governments that administer the health coverage program for the poor. The money will be split: $1.9 billion for the current fiscal year, $5 billion in 2009-10 and $4.2 billion in 2010-11.

-$2.5 billion to restore education cuts. The money will be split over the next two fiscal years and could be enough to eliminate Paterson’s proposed cut in education for the fiscal year beginning April 1.

-$556 million in “flexible relief” over two years to support government programs approved by the governor and Legislature.

-$940 million for high-needs students in schools and $760 million for special education, both spread over two years.

-$180 million to increase the maximum Pell Grant for college students to $500.

-$1.25 billion for mass transit and $1.1 billion for highways and bridges. State officials say each $1 billion of this aid could produce 10,000 construction and permanent jobs.

-$1.3 billion more for food stamps over two years; $1.3 billion to nearly double the length of time a jobless worker can collect unemployment checks, up to 59 weeks; and $100 million more for child care services for low-income parents trying to hold jobs.

Can someone tell me exactly what Patterson’s planning to stimulate with 1.3Bn worth of food stamps and nearly a billion for ‘high-needs’ (whatever that is) students?

From Reason, a non-comprehensive listing off porky products from the stimulus package.

• $5.5 billion for making federal buildings “green” (including $448 million for the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters)
• $198 million to design and furnish the DHS headquarters
• $200 million for workplace safety in Department of Agriculture facilities
• $75 million for the Smithsonian Institution
• $300 million more for hybrid and electric cars for federal employees (see below)
• $180 million for construction of Bureau of Land Management facilities
• $500 million for wildland fire management
• $110 million for construction for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• $522 million for construction for the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• $412 million for Centers for Disease Control headquarters
• $500 million earmark for National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland
• $100 million for constructing U.S. Marshalls office buildings
• $300 million for constructing Federal Bureau of Investigation office buildings
• $800 million for constructing Federal Prison System buildings and facilities
• $307 million for constructing National Institute for Standards and Technology office buildings
• $1 billion for administrative costs and construction of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office buildings
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees
• $125 million for the Washington, D.C. sewer system
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings
• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Veterans Administration’s “National Cemetery Administration”
• $60 million for Arlington National Cemetery
• $75 million to construct a new “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations
• $2 billion for a FutureGen near-zero emissions powerplant in Mattoon, Illinois
• $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars
• $650 million for the digital TV (DTV) transition coupon program
• $1.2 billion for summer jobs for youth
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
• $750 million earmark for the National Computer Center
• $10 million to fight Mexican gun-runners
• $850 million for Amtrak (on top of its regular subsidy)
• $100 million for lead paint hazard reduction
• $275 million for flood prevention
• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation
• $650 million for abandoned mine sites
• $1.3 billion for NASA (including $450 million for “science” at NASA)
• $100 million to clean up sites used in early U.S. atomic energy program
• $10 million for urban canals
• $1.5 billion for carbon capture projects under sec. 703 of P.L. 110-140 (though the original section only authorizes $1 billion for five years)
• $500 million for state and local fire stations

I’d advise stocking up on the 3 F’s (Food, Fuel, Firearms) cause we are so screwed…

update: Looks like I’m not the only one who hates it.

must be some of those new fangled “fast” zombies.

Joe Gasaway with the Illinois Department of Transportation said someone altered the IDOT message boards on southbound I-255 at Highway 162 to say “daily lane closers, due to zombies” this morning.

Someone warn Canada… oh sh*t, Moral-Flexibility is down… we’re too late!

while the source isn’t exactly unimpeachable this is worrying.

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

Anyone know how common YP is in Algeria?