How to build your own

Charles Krauthammer spells out the risks as our scientists race against the clock to figure out "bird flu" before it mutates into a more contagious form:

Why try to steal loose nukes in Russia? A nuke can only destroy a city. The flu virus, properly evolved, is potentially a destroyer of civilizations.

We might have just given it to our enemies.

Have a nice day.

What would the world be like, if a tenth or more of mankind died in only a few months? Krauthammer is probably right: It would be a destroyer of civilizations. We rely so much on buying the necessities of life from other people who know how to produce them that few of us could do without the market-driven network that supplies us. If a pandemic flu occurs, we can only hope that the networks don't collapse.

Murray, the undaunted optimist

Charles Murray is trying again to get people to talk about their differences:

Elites throughout the West are living a lie, basing the futures of their societies on the assumption that all groups of people are equal in all respects. Lie is a strong word, but justified. It is a lie because so many elite politicians who profess to believe it in public do not believe it in private. It is a lie because so many elite scholars choose to ignore what is already known and choose not to inquire into what they suspect. We enable ourselves to continue to live the lie by establishing a taboo against discussion of group differences.

It's a long essay, but well worth reading -- if you can put up with his eternal optimism.