MetaFilter posts tagged with virus

Why are evolutionary biologists bringing back extinct deadly viruses?

homunculus — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:22:38 -0800

Darwin's Surprise. "There may be no biological process more complicated than the relationships that viruses have with their hosts. Could it be that their persistence made it possible for humans to thrive?" [Via Disinformation.]

It will get on all your disks, It will infiltrate your chips, Yes it's Cloner!

amyms — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:59:23 -0800

The Computer Virus Turns 25. "I guess if you had to pick between being known for this and not being known for anything, I'd rather be known for this. But it's an odd placeholder for (all that) I've done." In 1982, ninth-grade student Rich Skrenta decided to play a prank on his friends. He wrote the Elk Cloner virus that infected Apple II machines. It is thought to be the first computer virus to be unleashed "in the wild." Related: A History Of Viruses.

Obesity may really be an epidemic

umop-apisdn — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:21:03 -0800

Obesity has been called an epidemic in the United States. Looking at an interactive statistic [CNN, flash] of the state-by-state numbers is sobering ^mf. 64% of adults are overweight and approx 25% are obese [Wikipedia 1, 2]. The usual suspects have so far been a culture of low-exercise ^mf high-consumption (due to urban sprawl, driving, TV, ... ), microbes ^mf, genetic predisposition, and bad diet (the ubiquity of junk food with its high levels of fat, sugar and salt. Recently the high fructose levels in the common American diet has also been noted. Fructose comprises 50% of table sugar and up to 90% of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), both ingredients found in copious amounts in most American 'convenience' foods. [Wikipedia: Fructose#References, Wikipedia:HFCS]).
Now it seems that a decisive assessory is a common virus, the Human Adenovirus-36, which may really make obesity an actual epidemic. [Int. Journal of Obesity, CNN]

They're gonna get in.

EarBucket — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:53:07 -0800

Defend your server from viruses with, for some reason, flamethrowers and machine guns. Happy Friday!

Six degrees of Typhoid Mary. And that's just the sophomores.

jfuller — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:00:39 -0800

I love my friends...My friends love me...We're just as friendly...As friends can be...And just because...We really care... Whatever we get, we share.

Small Number of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus

defenestration — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:31:06 -0800

Small Number of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it. Oops!

The Origins and Evolution of Intelligence

MetaMonkey — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:33:17 -0800

The origins and evolution of human intelligence: parasitic insects? viruses? mushrooms? neural darwinism? foraging? machiavellian competition? emergence? or something else?

I'm absolutely sure that no antibody test in medicine has any absolute meaning.

Sticherbeast — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:38:05 -0800

Dr. Stephen Lanka claims that H5N1 doesn't exist. Or AIDS. Or disease-causing viruses in general. "In humans, in the blood or in other bodily fluids, in an animal or in a plant there never have been seen or demonstrated structures which you could characterize as bird flu viruses or flu viruses or any other supposedly disease-causing virus. The causes of those diseases which are being maintained to be caused by a virus, also those in animals, which can arise quickly and in individuals either one after the other or several at the same time, are known since a long time back. However much you stretch things in biology, there is simply no place for viruses as the causative agents of diseases. Only if I ignore the findings of Dr Hamer’s New Medicine, according to which shock events are the cause of many diseases, and the findings of chemistry on the effects of poisonings and deficiencies, and then if I ignore the findings of physics about the effects of radiation, then there is a place for imaginings such as disease-causing viruses."

O Brother

setanor — Mon, 15 May 2006 22:21:30 -0800

W32/Hoots-A : Where overworked internet fads leave the basement and become exposed to the harsh light of day. "Why the author should want to print out pictures of an owl is, of course, anybody's guess..."

You know what crazy is? Crazy is majority rules. Take germs for example.

missbossy — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 01:32:08 -0800

It is estimated that due to an infected polio vaccine, 10 million to 30 million people in the United States from 1955 through early 1963 were inadvertently exposed to live Simian Virus #40, a pathogen linked to various cancers. If it happened before, maybe it happened again. Perhaps AIDS was just another accidental contamination originating in an American lab - this time a hepatitis vaccine gone wrong. Why assume conspiracy Dr Cantwell?