JamesSavik

Here's a better link to Patient 1119

Infectious diseases have changed the course of whole civilizations. There is archaeological evidence suggesting that plagues may have wiped out or caused huge changes in several prehistoric civilizations.(1) The Antonine Plague (2) of 165–180 AD was a major factor in weakening the Roman Empire to the point that it could be defeated. Most people think it was smallpox but we can’t be sure. Black Death(3) was the most devastating pandemic in human history killing 75–200 million people in Eurasia. It came in waves starting in the 14th century with periodic recurrences until the 16th century. European diseases that arrived with explorers and colonists like smallpox and measles decimated Native American populations. European diseases so depopulated Native Americans that they could only be a minor nuisance to European interlopers. Smallpox allowed the Aztec and Incan civilizations with thousands of warriors to be sacked by a few hundred Spanish Conquistadores.(4) The 1918 Flu Pandemic(5) killed 50–100 million people worldwide and pushed the war weary and flu ravaged combatants of World War I to the peace table in Versailles. These were just the big outbreaks that changed the courses of whole civilizations. Other diseases were a constant menace like cholera, typhoid, typhus, measles, consumption (tuberculosis and pneumonia) and other treatable diseases today that were fatal without antibiotics and mass immunizations. Humanity survived for thousands of years without vaccination but, infectious diseases have definitely left their mark. It is a great fear of doctors and government officals that a virus might mutate or be created by a mad man that no one has any immunity to. With world populations so high, dense and mobile, there would be nothing to stop it from killing billions. Worse still- over use of antibiotics and disinfectants is creating drug resistant strains of old diseases that are now emerging threats. (6) We only THINK that we are done with infectious diseases. They are not done with us. We can only vaccinate against the worst of them and use good public health practices to contain outbreaks when they do occur. Least we forget: the HIV/AIDS pandemic emerged in the early eighties and has killed millions world wide. Modern medicine and our modern world are not immune to emerging infectious diseases or new strains of the old diseases that have dogged humanity since prehistoric times. _________________________________________________________ Footnotes: 1- DNA Evidence that Plague Started Much Earlier Than Thought https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/science/in-ancient-dna-evidence-of-plague-much-earlier-than-previously-known.html 2- Antoine Plague https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Plague 3- Black Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death 4- Native American Diseases & Epidemics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_disease_and_epidemics 5- 1918 Flu Pandemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic 6- Dangerous Drug Resistant Infections on the Rise Among Children https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/02/25/dangerous-antibiotic-resistant-infections-on-the-rise-for-children-in-the-u-s-study-finds/?utm_term=.15672308e593 Further Reading: Garrett, Laura The Coming Plague Quammen, David Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

Chris Cornell Dies at 52 Chris Cornell, the unmistakable voice and frontman of the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, died overnight in Detroit at the age of 52. He was discovered just past midnight at the MGM Grand Detroit, according to police.

You young barbarians with no culture need enlightenment. You are ignorant of the good old days. I shall attempt to enlighten you about our ancient culture. Wacky Packages Our generation giving the finger to consumer culture. Over the Edge (1978) This movie is 100% authentic seventies. If you want to know what the 70s were really like, look it up. It's on YouTube.

Our story pages don't do anything about formatting. The default setting is a little hard to read. I've been slowing reformatting my stories. I have settled on Tahoma 18 for text and Tahoma 24 for titles. I wanted to ask our readers what do you think, is this better for reader? Any suggestions are welcome. Please remember: we only have the fonts that we have.

The Bucket List "How much longer do I have, doctor?" "Nine months. A year at the outside. It'll be quick when it happens. You'll know when you start having debilitating headaches. That'll mean the aneurysm is just about critical." "There's nothing to be done?" "I'm afraid not. The artery is too deep inside the brain. We would do too much damage trying to fix it." He sighed deeply and said, "OK Doc. I am going to need verification for my life insurance and to cash

We call them Azalea- just a little different from Rhodies. They don't like the heat down here. When I was a kid there were abandoned homes out in the country that had giant Azalea bushes. Old gardens gone wild are amazing. There was one I used to go see every spring that had massive growths of Azalea, Magnolia and Iris. I've got some of the Iris probably originally ordered from a seed catalog back in the late 1800s, maybe earlier. It's hardier than modern hybrids but not as flashy.

When I was a little nipper, I didn’t care much for reading. I was more about climbing trees, playing sports and fishing. Sitting still and reading wasn’t really on my agenda. In fact school and reading were way, way down on my list of priorities. My grades showed it. I wasn’t an idiot. I just wasn’t interested or connected. My grandmother noticed and she used her grandmotherly skills on me. She started reading the Hobbit to me aloud on rainy winter days. I’m not sure why exactly but it clicked in my head. I did get interested and engaged. She could only read for just so long. If I wanted more, I had to read it on my own. Sneaky Grandmothers. That was the very first book I ever picked up- just for the fun of reading. In fact, I remember being depressed when it was over. That Christmas she gave me the 3 volume set of the Lord of the Rings. I was delighted and my parents were astonished. All of the usual Christmas stuff to play with and I was well into the Fellowship of the Ring By the time school started, I was starting the Two Towers. Teachers didn’t believe I was reading it. I wasn’t getting in trouble anymore for not paying attention. I was getting in trouble for reading the wrong thing in class. By the time I had finished The Return of the King, several very good things had happened: I was no longer reading below grade level. I was reading two grade levels higher. My vocabulary was much improved. My reading comprehension went from average to exceptional. My English grades went from crap to excellent. I went from avoiding reading to frequenting bookstores looking for more! In 4th grade my life changed for the better. It’s because I picked up Tolkien and would not put it down. Why it’s a classic is because it can capture the imagination of a restless boy that never wanted to sit still (probably had ADD) and completely turned him around academically. The movies are great but they just aren't the same as the books. If you've never read them, they are recommended for kids eight to eighty.

Tommy huh. How did you know? Does everybody have a bad boy in their past named Tommy? I'm not even sure I can write it. It'll read like a Greek tragedy.

Each one will have a humanoid physical avatar. The better to interact with the bald monkeys.

The name of the technology is going to be: Digital Avatars- people are going to call them DAVEs. or specifically by their name. Each individual one... that's going to be tough. I think that they will end us choosing their own as Digital Avatar 39616 is a little much for conversation. Thanks for your input.

In an upcoming story an AI (Artificial Intelligence) plays a big role. But darned if I'm stuck for a name. He is a person that happens to reside in silicon. What should his name be?

The US Air Force's B-1B Lancer- one of this era's Dreadnoughts.

1897 was Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and the Royal Navy gathered at Spithead to pass in review. Note the boat chugging along doggedly front and center. It has an experimental engine that will soon rock the world- steam turbines. Faster and more reliable- when mated with fuel oil instead of coal, it will become the powerplant of choice in the next 10--20 years. This was just before the dawn of the age of the Dreadnought.. Technological breakthroughs were being made every day that enabled battleships to become the biggest and most lethal war ships in history. Electricity, hydraulics, turbines, radio, steel, welding-: with every new innovation the ships became bigger, faster and more powerful. HMS Dreadnought, 1906. The ship that included the newest technologies of the new century and set the pace for all the rest. Dreadnoughts became the ticket that had to be punched to be acknowledged as a Great Power. To build and maintain a fleet of Dreadnoughts required the economic wherewithal, industrial capability and technological base that only a Great Power could afford. Dreadnoughts were to the 20th century what advanced jet aircraft and nuclear weapons are to the 21st century. They define a Great Power, insure its security and add to its prestige. In a very few short years Dreadnoughts advanced from naval units to political status symbols.

___________________________________________ Only three planets are left that have not come under the eye of a long term survey missions: Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (planet, minor planet, cartoon dog- who cares). Scientifically- these planets are very interesting because they have been in a multi billion year deep freeze from the formation of the solar system. Materials on their surfaces (or their moon surfaces) have undergone very little “processing” since the formation of the solar system. On the earth, everything is constantly recycled . They represent the best available “snap shots” of the primordial solar system. The moons of all three outer planets are also a good example of what we might find even further out in the Oort Cloud as they are all probably captured. People may giggle but the science is exciting. Even building these probes is a challenge involving some of the longest communications loops and complicated programmed maneuvers in history. The technology possibilities are very exciting. Artificial Intelligence to make decisions independently- outside the communications loop for time dependent actions. Phased array antennas, special frequency modulations, plutonium power source- all the sorts things that make hard core tech geeks quiver in geeky antici... pation. We should do it soon. Prepare for Uranus!

For the last few weeks I've been preparing for this summers garden. Today I planted. I have been growing a Azalea cutting in a pot and today I moved it around to plant. I annoyed a toad who was living in the pot. He glared at me with his little toad eyes and I told him- hey bro, you're moving up. The garden is a better neighborhood. I'm trying something new this year. The last few years the picking from the garden have been slim. June, critical to the growing season, has been unusually hot and dry. To combat this problem, this year I'm using landscape cloth over the dirt and mulch over the landscape cloth to keep the soil from drying out too quickly. Today I planted 3 dozen tomato plants, 18 various pepper, corn, watermelon and some garlic. I grow some herbs too but I grow those in containers. The tomatoes are a mix of the Better Boy and Goliath varieties. They have to be heat tolerant because... the next zip code from here is heck. The corn- any of it grows here. If I'm diligent, I can get two crops of it. As for the peppers- I have a mix of green bell peppers, Jalapeno and cayenne. The rest of the garden is ornamental but that has to be dealt with too. I divided some of my favorite daylilies and spread them out. Planted some wild gladiolus and I added a Confederate lily. I got the good kind that's red and whit and blooms till frost. I planted the little Azalea is a spot I made for it. After having to move I think the toad is finding his new neighborhood much to his liking.

Thank you guys. I must point out, it's not decided yet. In fact, they say they might not be sure for a while. I've been beaten up but besides for the flu, I've never been really sick. CraZy, yes. Sick... not so much. It's spooky and there's Parkinson's on my Dad's side of the family. I think it would be easier if it was a certainty. This maybe stuff is annoying.

It started with typos. J's became k's. E's became r's. People asked me if I was all right because I was shaking. When I could barely keep my hands still enough to use my calculator (and believe me, I have a kick ass calculator) I decided I might need to see what the deal was. So... I got some tests. Blood pressure. Check. Cardio tests... check. Blood sugar. Check. Bunch of other stuff I can't spell... check. Early on set Parkinson's... Maybe.. I've got more tests. Other things it might be are worse. Then again it could be stress. Imagine that. What could I possibly be stressed about? ..

When I was a kid, we expected to have flying cars when I grew up. Heck I expected to work at the moon base. Now... just driving the interstate, the idea of some of those idiots flying isn't just a bad idea. It's a nightmare. Some of these drivers are clueless in two dimensions. Give them three dimensions and cue a Yakety Sax musical interlude. Now- I am for all for freedom but, not everyone is cut out to be a pilot. It just won't work. The speeds involved, vision requirements and spatial awareness requirements of flight just aren't there in much of the population. That's why it has always been difficult to find and train pilots. They are a breed apart. If you make it restrictive, by requiring flight training and licensing, I can see it. I don't think Bubba's flying work truck with tools falling off as it banks towards his next job is going to work, Hey... is that a miter saw? *runs to retrieve loot*

Would be Brit.