<nettime> the science of disease

[Bill Spornitz <spornitz@mts.net>]

I can tell you this:  I've spent many years on the edge of science. 
 From the edge you can see the Center, but,<- the good thing is->, you
don't feel the attraction of the vectors that draw you to the center.  It
is the attraction of the vectors....

Canada is going through an episode with Bovine Spungiform Encephalopathy
or some such; the Cash Border is closed to beef and the people are whining
because they can't have their cows ground up and fed to the americans.

There's a lot of disease in the news these days. From Anthrax to West Nile
virus to Big-Dick Multi-Militarism; the rock-clinging monkeys' days are
awash with dis-ease and dis-order. (Yes, most of it self-inflicted) of
global scope and scale.

As I said, I'm at the fringe of this science culture looking in and, right
at this moment, this is what I see: I see a question, to whit:

     If there's only one sick cow in Canada, can it really be called a
disease?

Okay. I know about pandemic annihilation; my subconscious is adrift in
readily available Technicolor(tm), but I also know that if only one cow is
sick; there's only one of them.  (What I'm not too sure about is this:
when you have nothing, do you only have one of them?  If so, please call
it the Spornitz transform: 0=1 or some such.)  Maybe it's a (commonly
heard) False Positive.

You get my drift? Two Weapons of Mass Destruction. One Sick Cow.  Twenty
three people sick with something so hideous, the call it SARS.  About four
million Africans dead from (pick one)Aids, War, Famine..



It's kind of embarrassing.





-b




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