Onward and Upward

The first steel beam was put in place in the effort to
rebuild 7 World Trade Center in New York. The 52-story
building is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005.
Using lessons learned from problems identified in the Twin
Towers, emergency exit stairwells will be twice as wide as
required under the code so that people can exit going down
while fire fighters have room to go up. In addition, in order
to keep the stairwells clear of smoke, they will be
pressurized.

Down and Out

The State of Virginia Attorney General announced
its first felony indictment of a man accused of sending
spam. While I think this is a Good Thing, the article alleges
the spammer sent [placing pinkie finger next to side of mouth] at least 10,000 emails a day. 10,000? Is that
all? With spam filling up my email accounts I figured it was
a few people sending a lot of spam. But if it’s true that
this guy is number 8 on the top 10 list of spammers,
where is all the spam coming from?

The Low Down

This article
describes a vaccination strategy
that targets the so called super-spreaders. This is
especially relevant this year due to the great demand for
vaccines due to flu outbreaks in the western U.S. but can be
used in any population where disease is spreading but there
is a lack of vaccine sufficient to inoculate the entire
population. The study concludes that innoculating about 20
percent of a population is sufficient to stop a disease if
you can get to the right people.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone -
Aloha!