This is really interesting. Because of GPS sensitivity, scientists have discovered that a giant ’silent’ earthquake is taking place on the West Coast of North America. Instead of taking seconds, this type of quake takes weeks.

SARS
China has admitted that the death rate from SARS is five times what they previously acknowledged and infections were double the previous number.
At this stage of detection it is known that the mortality rate is 1 in 25. That could be higher, they just don’t know yet.

I mentioned the morbidity rate yesterday.
Morbidity rate: The number of cases of a disease found to occur in a stated number of the population. An annual rate figure would give the incidence of a disease - the number of new cases in that year.

Hong Kong is desperately struggling to bring SARS under control.

President of the Hong Kong Society of Surgeons and dean of medicine at the Chinese University, Sydney Chung Sheung-chee, said yesterday he was personally devastated by the outbreak.

“It is a holocaust,” he told the South China Morning Post.

“It is a war with an unknown enemy. It is the worst medical disaster I have ever seen.”

The Prince of Wales Hospital, where Dr Chung treats SARS patients, has had 69 medical staff struck down by the illness.

“I feel terrible seeing my colleagues struck down one after another,” Dr Chung said.

He said one doctor’s lung function was “totally destroyed”, highlighting the stress such cases cause among professionals.

Medical officials aren’t given to hyperbole, if anything they tend to be cautious and under report.
They think universal precautions are slowing the spread, but they just don’t know. There is no drug, treatment is supportive.
It is possible that it is a new strain from the family of coronaviruses. They just don’t know yet.
A coronavirus causes the common cold and other respiratory illnesses.
SARS has now been reported in 14 countries.
China’s Guangdong province is ground zero.
It’s hard to know the real spread of SARS as the world becomes aware.
1353 infected, 53 dead. This innocuous looking chart from WHO is updated daily.

Iraq
The Kuwaiti Red Crescent had to abandon an aid convoy after it was hijacked when it crossed the border with British Troops.

Tens of thousands of prepared meals and ration kits of rice, oil, sugar and cereals destined for farms just north of the Iraqi border, had instead been hijacked soon after leaving Kuwait.

“That aid didn’t get to the farms where the women and children are, our people lost control and young Iraqi men began emptying the trucks,” he said.

There have been chaotic scenes in the streets of Safwan.

“It went to the well, young and healthy.”

If the young and the healthy are getting the food inland, or keeping it, so be it, but it appears NGO’s will have to rethink their distribution structures at this time and stay flexible.

US Ambassador
To put it in a nutshell the US Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci has the federal liberals all huffy. Tough.
Hello Ottawa. If our feds censure or expel him, I suspect the Canadian people will be emailing Ottawa and telling them to get a clue.

Blogdex has been hacked again.

The Command Post, a collective blog like MetaFilter, Slashdot, Fark, and Kuro5hin is doing very well for it’s first week. It has had over 60 bloggers posting over 300 entries.

Technorati has also been doing well. It’s similar to Daypop and blogdex, and I like their blog/news update page. It appears to be supporting lesser known blogs while staying on top of what is happening.
It’s a blog tool worth signing up for. Here is what this blog’s page looks like.

Ibedim from Spain is starting an interesting discussion on liberation theology.
And The Gutless Pacifist is looking at protest.

Jeff Jarvis (a big media guy) who has been a major promoter of blogging, has an article called Confessions of a War Blogger in the New Jersey Star Ledger that is worth a read.

Living Room models a loving response to an angry troll.

I’ve found this Coolog spider in my log….any techy types know about this site?