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Investigating Chronic Wasting Disease
windows writes "The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch has an article in today's newspaper on efforts by many states to test for chronic wasting disease. The disease affects deer and elk, and is similar to Mad Cow Disease in how it destroys brain tissue giving it a spony appearance under a microscope. Due to the rapid spread of the disease recently, most states are enlisting the assistance of hunters to provide brain stems of deer, to test for the disease. The purpose of this study is just to determine how far geographically the disease has spread. It is not yet understood how the disease is spread or if it is a threat to cattle or humans."
Maybe because Taco is a homophobe who lives four streets over from his mother in Holland, Michigan.
Good job being socially concerned, Slashdot.
in soviet russia, trolls are shot in the head
How can you be so sure it won't be chocolate mousse? Call me a cock-eyed optimist and a dreamer.
Either way, it tastes okay anyway!
Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
"...most states are enlisting the assistance of hunters to provide brain stems of deer, to test for the disease."
Now the rednecks and hillbillies will have a government approved reason for hunting defenseless animals for entertainment.
This wouldn't happen IN SOVIET RUSSIA. IN SOVIET RUSSIA, THE STATE HUNTS YOU!
Actually, I suppose it would. IN SOVIET RUSSIA, they probably hunted endangered species for shits and giggles.
Knunov
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
November 26, 2002 | Paul Thurrott
According to a new Aberdeen Group report, open-source solution Linux has surpassed Windows as the most vulnerable OS, contrary to the high-profile press Microsoft's security woes receive. Furthermore, the Aberdeen Group reports that more than 50 percent of all security advisories that CERT issued in the first 10 months of 2002 were for Linux and other open-source software solutions. The report muddles the argument that proprietary software such as Windows is inherently less secure than open solutions. And here's another blow to the status quo: Proprietary UNIX solutions were responsible for just as many security advisories as Linux in the same time period. Could Windows be the most secure mainstream OS available today?
"Open-source software, commonly used in many versions of Linux, UNIX, and network routing equipment, is now the major source of elevated security vulnerabilities for IT buyers," the report reads. "Security advisories for open-source and Linux software accounted for 16 out of the 29 security advisories--about one of every two advisories--published for the first 10 months of 2002. During this same time, vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft products numbered seven, or about one in four of all advisories."
The stunning report makes several claims that seem to fly in the face of widely accepted beliefs. First, the Aberdeen Group says that Windows-based Trojan horse attacks peaked in 2001, when CERT released six such advisories, then bottomed out this year, when CERT didn't issue any alerts. However, Trojan horse-based attacks on Linux, UNIX, and open-source projects jumped from one in 2001 to two in 2002. The Aberdeen Group says this information proves that Linux and UNIX are just as prone to Trojan horse attacks as any other OS, despite press reports to the contrary, and that Mac OS X, which is based on UNIX, is also vulnerable to such attacks. Even more troubling, perhaps, is the use of open-source software in routers, Web servers, firewalls, and other Internet-connected solutions. The Aberdeen Group says that this situation sets up these devices and software products to be "infectious carriers" that intruders can easily usurp.
According to the Aberdeen Group, the open-source community's claim that it can fix security vulnerabilities more quickly than proprietary developers can means little. The group says that the open-source software and hardware solutions need more rigorous security testing before they're released to customers. This statement is particularly problematic because many Linux distributions lack the sophisticated automatic-update technologies modern Windows versions contain.
We can rail against Microsoft and its security policies, but far more people and systems use Microsoft's software than the competition's software. I believe that we'll never know how secure Linux is, compared with Windows, until a comparable number of people and systems use Linux. But despite the fact that Linux isn't as prevalent as Windows, we're still seeing a dramatic increase in Linux security advisories today. I think the conclusion is obvious.
Hunting queers was outlawed years ago, so nobody in America cares about AIDS day. ;)
Back in 1981, My boss was one of several ppl who went to raygun to ask for money (2 million USD) for the epidemialogists to track the current cases. They actually went 2x, and both time were turned down. At the time, he commented what a fool raygun was and how this was going to become much worse. My boss (Dr Trent - A top CDC virologist and mormon bishop) was the first person asked to head the AIDs project when our government finally decided to do something about it. He turned it down as being too full of politics. What is sad is that 20 years later, we have not learned our lessons. CO's owens asked bush for 18M for research on CWD and was rebuffed that this was unneccesary. Personally, I do not like Owens, but has was trying to do the right thing. Now, Bush is the moron who will allow for more future problems.
BTW, best estimates of US's AIDS cases in 1980-1981 put the numbers at < 1000. While there was no way for CDC to track all the infected, they could have put a serious dent in it.
Bush could have done the same with CWD, which I suspect really will be the same prion as Mad Cow/CJD.