Mailund on the Internet

Another week, another list…

Computing/programming

• HPC and abstractions (bbgm)
• Innovation or committee (bbgm)
• Does support for open source applications really suck? (Greg Laden)

Flu

• Swine flu: humans, a dangerous species (Effect Measure)
• How do we know how many people die from flu each year? (Effect Measure)
• H1N1/2009: where are we? (Effect Measure)

Genetics

• Human population structure, part n (Gene Expression)

Genomics

• Major themes from Biology of Genomes meeting (Genetic Future)
• Cold Spring Harbor Biology of Genomes meeting (Genetic Future)
• Why don’t we finish the human genome first? (Discovering Biology in a Digital World)

Paleontology

• Bone crushing super wolf went extinct during last ice age (Not Exactly Rocket Science)
• A curious skull from Calaveras County (Laelaps)

Research life

• What to do when your boss says: “Keep your head down” (Adventures in Ethics and Science)
• What? I need to find a post doc position a year in advance of my defense? (DrugMonkey)

Statistics

• “Buffett and Munger: Stay Away From Complex Math, Theories” . . . On the other hand, knowing some math can keep you from being fooled by silly formulas (Statistical Modeling)

Ok, most of last week, I mainly read posts about the flu, and I’ve already linked to several of these, but in this summary I’ll link to a few more (and the token other topics).

Evolution

• The biggest challenge in selling evolution (Dawkins)

Flu

• Swine flu: I beat a dead horse (Effect Mesure)
• Swine flu: pictures, big and small (Effect Measure)
• Swine flu: Is this a perfect time to panic? (Neuron Culture)
• Swine flu: just a statistic (Effect Measure)
• Scientist very hard at work (Neuron Culture)
• Swine flu: Why I’m not complaining (Effect Measure)
• Swine flu: More on the genetics (Effect Measure)
• What does the WHO pandemic scale mean? (Aetiology)
• Swine flu: A virus by any other name (Effect Measure)
• Why swine flu is resistant to Adamantane Drugs (The Scientific Activist)
• The new swine flu: Don’t panic but there is a very bad WCS (Greg Laden)
• Swine flu: Case definitions and tough decisions (Effect Measure)
• Swine flu: The overreaction overreaction (Effect Measure)

Genetics

Programming

• Learning from MySQL experts (Amix)

Yes, people are still talking about the pig flu:

• How long does it take to sequence an influenza virus? (Aetiology)
• Flu news you can use (Neuron Culture)
• Nonoptimal virulence and avian influenza (Mike the Mad Biologist)
• World Health Organization raises pandemic alert level (Ars Technica)

While I have read a bit about the flu and find it interesting, if scary, I am by no means an expert, but luckily there are other bloggers around who does a good job at writing about it.

Check out these links:

• Swine flu: What did you expect? (Effect Measure)
• Swine flu and the Mexico mystery (Neuron Culture)
• Outbreak vs epidemics (Slate)
• Understanding the outbreak: an influenza biology primer (Ars Technica)
• Swine flu: what do CFR, virulence and mortality rate means? (Effect Measure)

Also check out the Flu Wiki and you can follow the spread of the swine flu at google maps.
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It is all over the news these days, the swine flu from Mexico.  The US has declared an emergency and the first cases have appeard in Europe.

How bad can it get?  Pretty bad, actually.

We are better prepared than we were in 1918, but still, we also travel a lot more, so a pandemic can spread fast if measures are not taken.

With the scare of the bird flu the last couple of years, one would hope that goverments are prepared, but of course it can also end up with a “boy that cried wolf” situation where people do not take the flu serious enough.

This might be a bad time to go to a busy airport, but I’m off to Heathrow now…

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