Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (213265)	12/13/2004 1:41:03 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577835

neolib, a flu pandemic would change that unfortunately. mercurynews.com Specter of deadly flu pandemic fails to alarm government By Dan Gillmor Mercury News Technology Columnist Suppose we knew that terrorists were about to launch a biological weapon that would kill somewhere between 10 million and 100 million people, maybe more. Suppose, further, that we knew of ways to limit the damage and prevent many of those deaths because we had detailed medical knowledge of the type of biological threat we were facing -- even if we couldn't create a precisely targeted antidote or vaccine ahead of time. Now imagine that the U.S. government was making only modest preparations -- that we were in key ways leaving the matter to a greedy pharmaceutical industry that has botched its handling of a similar but much milder hazard. It's true. Sometime in the fairly near future, a deadly flu pandemic will sweep the globe. It almost certainly will be a variant on the avian influenza (often called the ``bird flu'') that has already claimed several dozen lives in Asia and to which few humans have immunity.

To: neolib who wrote (213265)	12/13/2004 12:21:55 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1577835

Neolib, I should have added that small or isolated populations, high reproduction rates and high selective pressure (high mortality prior to reproduction)is what lets a genetic system evolve. Humans are currently just expanding, not evolving. In fact, the last few hundred years have started to wipe out a lot of racially evolved differences, so I'd say on the mean we are devolving to a common core rather than evolving. Maybe there's more at work than just evolution? For example, what Darwinian justification is there for charities that cater to the mentally retarded? Tenchusatsu