Staring at Strangers

Up Your Nose

 

Are you already sick and tired of the blue or white standard-issue mask? Does the mask, coupled with a Bluetooth earbud, make you look more unattractive than you already are? Maybe it’s time for you to try the nose mask on for size.

 

Instruction for usage

• Gentry insert it into the nose to cover the entrance of the nasal passages. (Do not to insert them too deep.)
• Not recommended for reuse.
• Keep reach out of children. This product is not intended for child use.
• Stop using it when you notice unusual reactions and consult to physician.
• Do not use if you have sensitive nasal conditions.

Technorati Tags: nose filter, mask, swine flu, pandemic

Masked Illusions

It might stop the flu, but it probably won’t.

About one in ten, maybe one in twenty, people in Morelia are donning the tapaboca, otherwise known as The Mask. There doesn’t seem to be a distinction between social class and The Mask. I look at the Masked People, wondering if they’re already the sick ones or are going to be the survivors. They seem to be looking at the Unmasked Ones with the disdain reserved for those who regularly have unprotected sex with complete strangers. Silently chortling about how ineffective a mask pulled down past its owner’s chin can be, particularly a disposable mask worn for a week or so at a time, I walk on, still Mask-free, taking my chances. The price of masks has tripled in the past day. If it gets really bad, which it isn’t, I’ll go cowgirl, tying a handkerchief over my mouth and nose. I’m not going to let a piece of paper get between the world and me.

Putting a clean pair of Jockey briefs over one’s head could be just as effective.

 

Technorati Tags: tapaboca, mask, swine flue, pandemic

Same Swine, New Battles

 

Technorati Tags: swine flu, pandemic, paranoia, Lee Camp

Chicken Little and Swine Flu

• Most of the Mexicans who thought they had swine flu didn’t.
• Outside of Mexico, no one’s died from the swine flu.
• There were more confirmed reports of malaria in New York City during 2007 than confirmed cases of swine flu in all of Mexico City.

Considering the vast distance between the number of people traveling and those who've actually come down with the diseases (remember, there are only a very small number of confirmed cases), it's actually more likely that a traveler would return home with a social disease than swine flu.

So why does all of America have its knickers in a twist? Correct me if I’m wrong, but did Mexico issue a travel advisory warning its citizens about the dangers lurking in the E.U.A.?

 

Technorati Tags: pandemic, swine flu, epidemic

When Pigs Fly

Barack Obama was promised a crisis within the first hundred days of his term. Apparently a crashing economy wasn’t enough. Enter swine flu.

Before Hilary Clinton and Obama visited Mexico, we didn’t have a swine flu problem. We just had to settle for narcoviolence and a lousy economy. Of course, I’m not pointing a finger at anyone, but I’m just saying….connect the dots.

Close the schools. Enact a 10-day ban on public events. Issue an advisory against attending religious ceremonies. Grant special powers authorizing certain people to be isolated, homes to be searched, and travelers inspected. Do these measures sound familiar, harking back to another era?

Mark me suspicious.

Meanwhile, life not far from Mexico City goes on.

 

Technorati Tags: pandemic, swine flu, bioterrorism

Hattie Carroll, Reincarnated

 

Twelve Heads in a Bag

Thanks to Richard Grabman of The Mex Files for turning us on to The Krayolas.

 

Technorati Tags: narcocorrido, Dylan, Krayolas, Mexico

 

The Next 9/11?

The next terrorist attack on the U.S. may not be televised because there may be nothing to film. 

In an article entitled Computer Spies Breach Fighter-Jet Project, today's Wall Street Journal reports that computer spies have downloaded several terabytes of data on the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter program.

This is just one of the many recent attacks against computer networks in the U.S., which have escalated dramatically in the past six months.  The WSJ quotes one "former official" as saying "There's never been anything like it."

So what other networks are being attacked? Networks that control the U.S. electrical distribution system, the Air Force's air-traffic control systems and other critical civil and military networks.  If these cyber spies have developed the ability to interfere with these systems, they could wreak havoc in both civil and military life. 

U.S. counterintelligence chief Joel Brenner warned that with regard to U.S. air traffic control systems, "our networks are being mapped," and that a potential situation may arise where "a fighter pilot can't trust his radar."

Technorati Tags: 9/11, counterintelligence, Joel Brenner, networks, computers, United States, systems, terrorist attack, Joint Strike Fighter program, Defense Depatment

Was the Book Just a Passing Fad?

David Weinberger seems to think that books may turn out to have been just an accident of paper.

It’s easy to lament the demise of used bookstores, the downfall of public libraries, and the rise of the dastardly Kindle, but think, for a moment, of the number of friends and acquaintances you may have, educated, decent people, respected in their communities even, whose homes harbor nary a book. Frightening, eh? And that goes double in Mexico, where reading books is simply  not an act performed in public. At least among decent folk.

Technorati Tags: book, digital culture, Kindle

Why It is Good to Boost Marketing, R&D and Acquisitions During a Recession

Read this fascinating article in this week's The New Yorker to find out why it is good to boost marketing, R&D and acquisitions during a recession, and how the benefits last well into economic recovery.

Technorati Tags: recession, marketing, R&D, acquisitions, The New Yorker, economic recovery

Dangerous Attractions in Michoacán

Travis Whitehead, a reporter for The Brownsville Herald, was in Michoacán last weekend for the annual Domingo de Ramos artisanal fair, and he shares his take on the attractive dangers  here.

 

Technorati Tags: Michoacan, Domingo de Ramos, Morelia, Uruapan