John Robb's Weblog

Chance to mutate

WHO  The new H1N1 flu virus could still mutate into a more virulent form..

The 1918 influenza pandemic -- which killed tens of millions of people -- began mild and returned within six months in a much more lethal form, it said. The 1968 pandemic began relatively mild, with sporadic cases prior to the first wave, and remained mild in its second wave in most, but not all countries, it said. 

Seasonal flu has a so-called "secondary attack rate" -- the percentage of contacts who catch it from an infected person -- of between 5 and 15 percent, according to the WHO. Current estimates of the secondary attack rate of H1N1 range from 22 to 33 percent.

The overall severity of a pandemic is further influenced by the tendency of pandemics to encircle the globe in at least two, sometimes three, waves.. [likely more given interconnection]

Reality Bent

Take a look at this video of augment reality.

All you need is confidence, confidence... Confidence is all you need...

Yves on how confidence/info ops are replacing real reform.

I've also noticed more than a few headlines, particularly on Bloomberg, that take any snippet of the positive and play it up. For instance, one a few days ago called a morning when stocks opened down and then moved into weakly positive territory as 'stocks gain" which was technically accurate, but when the averages again fell into losses, it was "stocks fluctuate." Please. Similarly, tonight Bloomberg tells us, "Chrysler Bankruptcy May Not Dent Economy as Cutbacks Were Set". The point of the story is that (assuming the bankruptcy goes according to plan, an open question) the plant cutbacks and furloughs had already been planned as part of the restructuring. But that means that much damage was inevitable, regardless. Saying "Bankruptcy May Not Dent" is not the same as "Bankruptcy May Do No Incremental Damage," which is what the story really says. I plan to keep closer tabs on this and readers are encouraged to e-mail sightings of misleading headlines.

Beltway Royalty

Arianna Huffington has a great post on the feting of Banksters inside the beltway.  

Tip:  You know that a nation-state, and its people, are in deep decline when it showers favors on oligarchs that recently stole it blind.

Rentiers on the march

LATimes

The vote was 51 to 45, with 12 Democrats joining Republicans in opposing the proposal, under which bankruptcy judges could order lenders to reduce the principal on home mortgages.

This will deepen the decline.  It puts, yet again, the interests of the global banks ahead of America.