Congratulations Rick, you made the New York Times! In the New York Times Magazine, Bill Broad playfully detailed how North Korea’s rocket launch was used in the policy debate over missile defense. For a witty opening, he linked to a quote by reader “Rick” — posted on the blog — who noted: Pacific plankton will …
Pandemic: Response depends on Virulence
by | 2009-04-28 | 6 Comments
click on the image for a larger version R is the number of secondary cases caused by each infected person; thus R=1.1 means for each ten people sick, one more person will come down with the disease they will transmit it to 11 other people; R=3 means that each infected person transmits it to three …
Edward Teller on the ABM Treaty
by | 2009-04-27 | 2 Comments
Another dispatch from Michael Krepon’s shoebox, this one related to late Edward Teller (right) and his argument for ratifying the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty: “The ABM Treaty which is up for ratification… merely recognizes political realities. We must make a choice if we indeed care for the American people. We might decide to spend a …
Pandemics: When do you sound the alarm?
by | 2009-04-26 | 3 Comments
red=confirmed swine flu infections as of 26 April 2009 orange=suspected infections To put this into SAT format: Public health surveillance is to pandemics (and bio-weapons) as ballistic early warning radars are to nuclear war. In addition to sharing an early warning role, there are also a number of important policy issues they have in common …
