Archeologists have discovered the oldest Egyptian mummy dating about 3200 BC.
I’ts hard to think backwards, but that is old, 5000 years old.
Puts life in perspective in a lot of ways.

connexions has an overview of the death penalty using the official stand of the United Methodist denomination. The post acknowledges the rift about this contentious issue. The oddest things caught my attention like the size of the Resolution book.

The current Book of Resolutions, adopted by the 2000 General Conference, includes 863 pages and addresses hundreds of issues.

Two posts on the war also caught my attention. Mike Todd asks who benefits from all the weapons shown in TV coverage and Living Room looks at the spike of Australians taking ’sick days’ to watch the coverage of the start of the Iraqi war and the element of entertainment involved in the coverage.

Jordon Cooper posts a picture of a seemingly cute war figurine from the Hamilton Collection. Take a close look at it before you read his post, and ask yourself, what is wrong with this picture?

Iraq
Two countries, united in a goal, two separate ways of doing things. Military and political differences between American and British troops are straining relationships between the allies in Iraq.

The difference in approach was epitomised yesterday when the Royal Marines in four southern Iraqi towns swapped their helmets for berets as a sign of goodwill. American troops wear helmets at all times and checkpoint troops cover their faces with goggles and scarves.

US commanders are also said to have instructed their troops to adopt tougher tactics to weed out militiamen. “Everyone is now seen as a combatant until proven otherwise,” one Pentagon official is reported as saying before Monday’s checkpoint shooting.

British military sources spoke at length about the hard-won experience of UK troops from manning checkpoints and policing in Northern Ireland. “There is no doubt that with that experience, as well as in peace support operations in countries such as Bosnia, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, the British have learnt the art of restraint,” one source said.

“The Americans have got a more blanket approach to things,” said another. “You will never see their Marines wandering around in berets. They still wear hard helmets in Bosnia. You have got to be very careful you do not win the battle and lose the war. We have to be sensitive and we do not want to build up any resentment in the country.”

Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is under a state of emergency as rain continues to fall, causing serious flooding problems. Two people died outside Bridgewater when their car was swept into the La Have River.

SARS Travel Warning Issued
WHO has revised its travel advisory of March 15th and upgraded it to a rare travel warning to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong.
Several countries have issued their own guidelines for travel, while others have followed the World Health Organization advisories.
Here are the latest warnings from Health Canada (federal)
The Ontario government is keeping it’s on line information updated, after issuing it’s health warning March 26th and provides FAQ’s on quarantines, spread, symptoms, and other pertinent information.
Here is a site listing phone numbers in Canada if you need information in your province.
An interesting side note: The countries largest supplier of medical garb is scrambing to manufacture guideline appropriate face masks.

But the supply of N-95 respirators or masks doesn’t come close to meeting demand since severe acute respiratory syndrome surfaced in Canada, Greg Snow, manager of communications for 3M in London, Ont., said Monday. “We’re talking of orders in the millions, of demand in the millions of respirators, where we might more usually be talking in terms of thousands,” he said. “So there’s an enormous increase in demand in the last couple of weeks.”

Vietnam has not reported any new cases for a week. Irene Q says there are currently 8 suspected cases in Malaysia, and one death under investigation. Singapore has not reported any cases for a few days. (blogger archive bug - post Wednesday, April 2nd)

Hong Kong residents are getting panicky. Here are some good first person accounts.

Canada: 151 suspected or probable
Ontario: 124 probable or suspected
NB and Sask: one each suspected
Alberta: 7 suspect
PEI: 4 suspect
BC: 2 probable 12 suspect

17 countries
Total reported cases: 1804
62 deaths
USA has jumped by 10 to a possible 69 cases.
The UK is reporting in now.
WHO