Sunday, November 27, 2011

We're all going to die

Article: http://rt.com/news/bird-flu-killer-strain-119

Summary: Scientists have created a SUPER VIRUS from the avian H5N1 flu virus that now has the ability to infect humans.

H5N1 is usually a virus found in birds. Researchers infected a few ferrets with it, since apparently ferrets have similar immune systems to humans. Result: Virus can now infect people. Did I mention this virus is predicted to be able to kill off half the human population? That's 1/2. 50%. ~3.5 billion people dead.

Scary thought? Don't worry about it!

The real problem right now isn't if there will be a man-made epidemic, you see these scientists aren't so careless as to allow this new virus outside the lab. There are many safety procedures against that.

The issue here is if these scientists should be allowed to publish their work. This is a great achievement in biology and science after all... but recall current beliefs that the next world war will be fought with biological weapons. And these scientists have basically created possibly the most deadly weapon of that sort... and if they publish they'll be making the methods they used public.

Public meaning anyone has access to it, other scientists, innocent undergrads and the bio-terrorists.

So obviously they shouldn't be allowed to publish right? But the methods in this study could potentially open the scientific field up to novel ideas regarding infectious diseases. If we can mutate a disease to become infectious, we can do the opposite too can't we? The more we understand infectious diseases the more of a chance we have of finding a way to temper with their mechanisms of survival, thus saving ourselves.

So while the big guys figure out the legal details, all we regular folks can do is sit pitifully and await the results. Who knows? Maybe their methods used extremely expensive equipment that only the Netherlands can afford...

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Where'd all my ideas go?

Start rant:

  • Feeling extremely uninspired these days
  • Can't come up with new ideas
  • Unmotivated
  • Completely lost own opinion on life
  • Life is bland
  • Feels like the future's about to hit me in the face but I still can't see it very clearly
End rant.

Annoying drama aside, I actually do feel quite vague. Yes, I feel vague. There's no other word that seems to accurately describe it.

I just feel like there's nothing new in life. 

Obvious solution is to go do something new, but I have absolutely no motivation to do so. I feel like I'm just sitting around doing nothing of importance and yet perfectly fine with that. And the fact that I'm fine with it is what I'm not fine with. Did that even make sense? 

Point is, I'm uninspired and have no motivation to seek inspiration. And although it's quite clear that inspiration isn't going to go out its way to find me, I can't muster up the motivation to be the seeker. I guess I feel like everything that I want to do, I can't do. And to a point it reminds me of the Alchemist (Paulo Coelho), am I going to be one of the many people who'll never find my "personal legend"? 

So I've decided that no matter what happens, when I have a child, I'll support him/her to whatever his/her choice is... but as I made this decision I'd also rather not be blamed for not providing good guidance. It's quite annoying to try to do what you want in life when we live in a world where it seems like everything's against you rather than with you. And life just continues on without any mind to you. 

At the end of the day, it still feels like nothing you do matters while everything you don't does. I feel like society has become too rigid, making demands of us and forcing us into our assigned roles then trapping us there. I want to be able to explore the world without worries. I want to be able to make it through life piece by piece, working up to the end rather than throwing my youth away for the end result. I want to stop and smell the flowers, hell even make a basket of them along the way, but instead I find my eyes always looking down the road searching for... something spectacular. But by the time I reach it, I'm already looking on ahead for something else. 

But even though I know this, I can't listen to it. I'm not stubborn enough to believe in myself to the point where I'll allow myself to slow down. To a point I'm almost scared of believing that I can do whatever I want, simply because I'll have no excuse to not follow my heart.