Why quarantine is preferred?

New strain of H5N1 bird flu emerges in China

...those vaccine-induced antibodies do not recognise the Fujian virus, although they do attack the virus strains that Fujian has now replaced.
This means the Fujian strain has a selective advantage in vaccinated birds. "This novel variant may have become dominant because it was not as easily affected as other strains by the current avian vaccine," says Guan. That may also be why H5N1 infection in Chinese poultry has surged, rather than decreased, despite increased poultry vaccination.

Worryingly, the antibodies being used to develop human vaccines for H5N1 ... do not recognise the Fujian strain. This means the current experimental pandemic vaccine would not work against any pandemic virus that emerged equipped with Fujian surface proteins.

In the face of mutating pathogens it's easy to see why monitoring and quarantine are favored weapons against epidemics.

Firefox Vs. Acrobat

Firefox Vs. Acrobat - macosx.com

I just switched to Firefox 2.0 as my default browser under Mac OS X. When a friend emailed a link to a PDF document, I clicked it as usual.

Out of the box Firefox, unlike Safari, cannot view PDFs inline. That's okay, I really just want it to open it in Preview.

Alas, that's not an option. Firefox gives me the choice of saving to disk or of opening with Adobe Acrobat.

Gah.

I searched through the files in my Firefox profile directory. There were no direct references to Acrobat.

According to macosx.com the fault lies outside of Firefox. The thread suggests using Finder Info to make Preview.app the default viewer for all PDF documents. The suggestion did not work for one of the thread participants, and it doesn't work for me, either. Preview.app is already set as my default for all PDF documents.

A find|grep through ~/Library/Preferences turned up one promising hit:
./com.apple.internetconfig.plist

Unfortunately that's a binary property list file and even property list editor can't display its content in a human-intelligible way.

Solution

I closed Firefox, moved ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconfig.plist out of the way, and followed my friend's link again. This time Firefox let me choose between saving to disk and opening with Preview.app.

Interestingly, Firefox did not create a new copy of the plist file for me.

Better Solution

A less radical solution also works: when Firefox asks how you want to handle the PDF, tell it to save to disk. Also select the checkbox labeled "Do this automatically for files of this type from now on."



After downloading, open Firefox Preferences, switch to the Content pane, and click the "Manage..." button at bottom right.



The list should now contain an entry for PDF. Select it, edit, and change to open with a different application than the default.

Dilbert's Voice Regains His Voice

Bizarre, and fascinating, and uplifting: The Dilbert Blog: Good News Day

(Via Bodyhack.)

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

It's fun to track permutations of British actors through stage and screen. The casts of the "Harry Potter" series, "Gosford Park", "Love, Actually", "Tristram Shandy", and so on, are all interwoven. And now another pair for the mix: Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

A few months ago Bobi and I watched "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story". It was funny, non-linear, convoluted, recursive in a way that not many movies are. Shades of Douglas Adams.

Stephen Fry appeared in the film in a small role, that of Parson Yorick. He had a much more prominent role in the Special Features section of the DVD, wherein he visited the house in which Laurence Sterne wrote the book on which the movie was based, and discussed the author's life and bizarre afterlife with (I think) the caretaker of the house.

Wikipedia summarizes Sterne's unquiet quietus:

...Sterne's body was stolen shortly after it was interred and sold to the anatomists. [I thought they said "resurrectionists" in the DVD, but never mind.] It was recognised by somebody who knew him and discreetly reinterred. When the churchyard of St. George's was redeveloped in the 1960s, his skull was disinterred (in a manner befitting somebody who chose for himself the nickname of "Yorick"), partly identified by the fact that it was the only skull of the five in Sterne's grave that bore evidence of having been anatomised, and transferred to Coxwold Churchyard in 1969. The story of the reinterment of Sterne's skull in Coxwold is alluded to in Malcolm Bradbury's novel To The Hermitage.

Fry played Parson Yorick in the film. Sterne used the nickname "Yorick". Fry and host discuss this during the tour, linking the nickname to Sterne's humorous taunting of death, which swirled around him as he wrote the book. They note the irony that, in 1969, only the skull and femurs were retrieved: these constituents of the Jolly Roger were believed by some (the Knights Templar?) to be the minimum set of earthly remains necessary for resurrection.

But that's not what this post is about.

Stephen Fry looked familiar. IMDB showed that he'd done the Black Adder series, so maybe that's where I'd seen him before. He was also credited as the narrator of the British audiotape recordings of the Harry Potter series. So Fry extends the permutations of British actors beyond stage and screen to audio books.

I checked Netflix to see if he'd made any other movies that I recognized. No joy. But Netflix did carry a television sketch-comedy series, "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", from the late 1980s, featuring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

I've just rented it. It wasn't great. Most of the sketches consisted of two Britishmen standing or sitting, having long-winded conversations. They were almost, but not quite, as dull as this post.

Some bits did make me laugh out loud. For example Hugh Laurie's piano ballad, "Mystery," proved that a seated, long-winded monologue can be hilarious when accompanied by music.

My favorite sketch was introduced by Stephen Fry, playing the host for a public access education series. What would you call it, "University TV" or something like that. But, rather than introducing a segment on Elementary Bookkeeping, Mr. Fry pleasantly announced that he was presenting bloopers culled from the education series archives.

Yep, a blooper reel from public access television. From the early 1970s. Flash to Hugh Laurie in polyester and shaggy hair, screwing up a chalkboard presentation on the path traced by a point on a rolling wheel.

But that's not what this post is about.

Hugh Laurie looked familiar. IMDB showed that he'd done the Black Adder series...

Finally I recognized him from "House", a television drama. Laurie plays the gruff lead character, who speaks in a low, gravelly, American-accented voice. Not at all funny. Not at all British. Now that's a bit different.

What the hell is this post about?

Democracy Inaction, continued

Via Dave Winer: Olbermann on The beginning of the end of America.

Does this sound overblown? Maybe it is. But it bugs me.

The USA I love would treat all of its prisoners according to the Geneva Conventions. It would not pass acts which make it possible to abuse its own citizens.

Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War. To some, that's a good precedent for suspending it now. But the U.S. Constitution says it can be suspended only in special circumstances.

"The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."

-- Article One, section nine, U.S. Constitution

These circumstances held when Lincoln made his suspension. It's not at all clear that they hold now.

The current suspension is supposed to apply to non-citizens. But as Olbermann notes, that does not prevent its suspension for citizens, "by mistake."

"Oops, sorry! Your unfavorable article made us think you were an enemy combatant. We arrested you and beat you up by mistake. Please don't make a fuss about it; we wouldn't want to make the same mistake again."

[2006/10/24: Okay, that's specious. Trying to obscure abuse of power through intimidation is pretty common, not some unique consequence of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.]

"You Have the Body"

"The writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action."

-- Harris v. Nelson, 394 U.S. 286, 290-91 (1969)

Habeas corpus makes it difficult to arrest people without cause. Here is one possible consequence of its suspension:

...'What was he arrested for?'... Most people, crazed by fear, asked this question just to give themselves a little hope; if others were arrested for some reason, then they wouldn't be arrested, because they hadn't done anything wrong...

This was why we had outlawed the question 'What was he arrested for?'

'What for?' Akhmatova would cry indignantly... 'What do you mean what for? It's time you understood that people are arrested for nothing!'

-- "Hope Against Hope" via "Gulag: A History"

That Could Never Happen Here

I don't believe our government could abuse this power for very long. It's hard to imagine that they could pull it off on a large scale. People would notice. Congress would investigate. Abusers would be punished.

But why give them the chance? They just might exceed our imaginations.

The U.S. has held citizens, without charge, for years at a time. It has prevented them from meeting with their lawyers. It has prevented them from hearing the evidence against them.

It has done these things only rarely. I would prefer that it never be allowed to do them at all.

---

Footnote

The story of Kurt Gödel's interview for U.S. citizenship used to be funnier.

...the judge continued, "Anyhow, it was under an evil dictatorship ... but fortunately, that's not possible in America." With the magic word dictatorship out of the bag, Gödel was not to be denied, crying out, "On the contrary, I know how that can happen. And I can prove it!"

Google Earth tour of Karaganda

We've posted lots of blog entries and photos of places we visited on our trip to Karaganda. Wouldn't it be cool if you could take a virtual tour of the town and see where the pictures were taken?

Okay, probably not, unless you're a geek like Bobi and me. In which case you probably have Google Earth installed on your computer. In which case, here's a KMZ file to guide you around the town. Have fun!

Kazakhstan Trip.kmz (2006/10/18)

[2007/12/17 The file has moved -- Mitch]

Democracy Inaction

How do we curb the executive branch of our federal government? Or, at least, the Secret Service?

Seriously, how?

I just returned from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, once part of the gulag archipelago. Maybe that's why the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is unsettling. Ostensibly it applies to unlawful combatants, who (I think) have not been accorded protection by the Geneva Convention. However (I think) the act as approved could also be applied to any U.S. citizen.

It seems implausible that this sort of thing could lie in our future. But it's up to us to jealously guard against it.

There is hope that the Military Commissions Act will be challenged in the courts. I believe it should be challenged, if only to clarify the conditions under which it could be used to detain (and torture -- er, interrogate harshly) U.S. citizens.

Legal groups, such as the Center for Constitutional Rights, are already preparing to challenge the constitutionality of the law in court, as Democracy Now! noted in an interview with the Center’s president, Michael Ratner, and with Senator Patrick Leahy, who was very critical of the bill’s implication.

I wonder how my congressmen voted... GovTrack knows.
Here's the record for the House of Representatives, and for the Senate.

Representative Udall: nay
Senator Domenici: aye
Senator Bingaman: nay

Arlen Specter explained why he ultimately voted in favor.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) voted for the bill after telling reporters earlier that he would oppose it because it is "patently unconstitutional on its face." He cited its denial of the habeas corpus right to military detainees. In an interview last night, Specter said he decided to back the bill because it has several good items, "and the court will clean it up" by striking the habeas corpus provisions.

I hope he's right.

Music and Movies from Kazakhstan

When Vladimir drove us around Karaganda he always had the radio on, tuned to the news or to Russkom Radio. Since returning to the states I've been trying to track down some of what we heard.

YouTube has been pretty helpful. I haven't actually found many of the songs I've sought, except for chart-topping crap like Romantika. (Funny: when this played in the car I thought it was an advertisement.) But YouTube has uncovered some interesting Kazakh music videos.

Some of the videos celebrate the country and its past. A few of these are quite moving, especially for someone whose girlfriend is adopting a Kazakh girl.

Musicola
The search has also turned up a Kazakh group named Musicola. Hidden among the dance music on their site is a song called Arman Zholdar (road of dreams?) which is full of unusual textures. In it Karina Abdulina, the singer of the group, uses her voice more as a musical instrument than as a carrier of lyrics.

The Nomad
Thanks to YouTube and IMDB I even found out about a movie which was playing in Karaganda while we were there, a romanticized tale of how the country came to be: The Nomad. It was produced by the Weinstein brothers and stars Jason Scott Lee. Small world...

Saiga antelope

Saiga antelope - Saiga tatarica - ARKive

When we were in Karaganda Bobi and I visited the regional museum. Inside we found several interesting exhibits, on subjects ranging from the Karaganda Gulag[1] to the Golden Warrior [2] to -- well, we couldn't figure out what this thing was.



It looked kind of like a cross between a reindeer and a moose -- or maybe a reindeer and Zoidberg.

After a couple of days of sporadic googling we learned it was a steppe antelope.

[1] The web has some indirect references, e.g. Welcome to Ukraine:

Karaganda is the centre of Kazakhstan’s coal production, but in the soviet times it was the hub of Gulag concentration camps.

[2] See also Talgar Mountain Peak:

In 1969 - 1970 while the archaeological excavations in [Issyk] hill a grave of the so-called "Golden man" was found. It was a mummy of the young warrior. All his clothes was decorated with gold. Nowadays the image of the "Golden man" is one of the symbols of Kazakhstan.

Industrial Design

The Department of Style - TiVo Series3

Bobi has a Samsung VCR/DVD player, now several years old. She likes to watch TV with the lights off. So we sometimes have trouble changing channels, on account of we're holding the remote backwards. Which is why the above blog entry caught my eye.

I like the new remote. It has more texture on it, so it is easier to find the buttons without looking[...] There is asymmetry in the textures, which solves the problem with the old remote where you can pick the thing up backwards and rewind instead of commercial skip.

Thoughtful design is so impressive.

OmniGraffle 4 and Subversion

Subversion doesn't like OmniGraffle documents: "invalid control character ... in path".

Fortunately many others have already encountered this problem and published a workaround. Here's a nice summary.

I use OmniGraffle, not OmniGraffle Pro. The workaround looks good from here.

Writing takes energy

So many notes on paper from the Kazakhstan trip... and no energy to transcribe them. It's a good thing nobody reads this stuff, else I might feel guilty.