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Corvallis, OR, United States
My personal obsession with prion diseases with smidges of music I like and rescue dog advocacy from a disabled Oregonian.

6.21.2005



Song in my head: Iraq violence surges....It's gotten much worse....yet Cheney keeps telling....lies chapter and verse................................................................Mad Kane




Public Health was one of the subjects I studied as an undergraduate. It was from this course work and later as a health inspector and quality control manager in food processing plants that I learned how inefficient and confusing government agencies can be. In this light, I read that I am not alone in my distrust of state and federal government providing the best information in case an avian flu outbreak occurs. As Revere says so well.............


Sometime next week (we hope) three collaborating bloggers (Revere of Effect Measure, Melanie Mattson of Just a Bump in the Beltway, and demfromct of The Next Hurrah) plan to launch a new experiment in public health. Many knowledgeable people believe a serious pandemic from avian influenza is possible in the near future. In a highly interconnected world, the consequences could be grave, with widespread illness and mortality accompanied by major stress on the social system in almost every affected locality. Few, if any, national governmental authorities have prepared for this, despite adequate warning.Because such an event would be geographically widespread it will leave each local area to cope with and solve problems on their own. In such a circumstance, any preparation, however limited, can save lives and suffering. And to make these local preparations, knowledge is not only empowering, but essential. Rather than leave these preparations solely to governmental authorities and rather than restrict knowledge to designated "experts," both of whom have failed to prepare adequately, it is necessary to begin to undertake many needed tasks ourselves. The Flu Wiki is our first try at a mechanism to facilitate this.

Fantastic idea.

ALTER-ABLED NEWS

Via BoingBoing, this triple amputee has got it going on!! -LINK-

Via The 19th Floor, sexuality and being alter-abled -LINK- photo exhibit NSFW.

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