Reader D. Taylor mentioned this article from the New England Journal of Medicine on H5N1 Avian Influenza–Continuing Evolution and Spread [1]. It begins: “There is no question that there will be another influenza pandemic someday. We simply don’t know when it will occur or whether it will be caused by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. But given the number of cases of H5N1 influenza that have occurred in humans to date (251 as of late September 2006) and the rate of death of more than 50%, it would be prudent to develop robust plans for dealing with such a pandemic”
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In case you missed them, Mish Shedlock’s November 19th blog entries on the U.S. housing market [2] are “must reads.”
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Rich at KT Ordnance [3] sent us a link to this article with details on the new U.S. $1 coins. [4] Gee, shiny “gold” coins. Why doesn’t Uncle Sugar show some intellectual honesty and just mint them out of aluminum, since they don’t have any intrinsic value anyway? And why did they move “In God We Trust” to the rim of the coin? Our coinage just hasn’t been quite the same since 1964, when silver was phased out.