Self-mutating bogus data.

Watched a couple more episodes of Firefly and, as was the case with Popular, House and Battlestar Galactica, I'm sort of kicking myself a bit for not having watched the series sooner: it really is excellent. Damned shame it got cancelled.

Maybe Whedon can make use of the downtime to come up with some new models for his love affairs, 'cause seriously -- the "tragically-doomed romance" thing is getting tired. Mal and Inara are interesting characters on their own, but their forced, laboriously predictable and unnecessarily convoluted courtship is a subplot I could totally do without.

Anyway, here's a brief videoclip of Nathan Fillion being all charismatically self-deprecating & shit (will launch a new Quicktime window).

* * *

Oooh! Ahhh! That's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming.
- Dr. Ian Malcolm, The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Canadians to recreate 1918 flu virus

Scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg plan to follow the lead of U.S. researchers and resurrect the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, a development that has led to calls for international oversight and control of the dreaded microbe.

The Canadian researchers plan to bring the virus to life using pieces of DNA that contain the genetic recipe for the virus.

The virus will be recreated inside living cells, then harvested and used to infect animals in an attempt to identify what made it so virulent, said Frank Plummer, scientific director of the lab.

Depending on how quickly the scientists work, Plummer said, they could have a live 1918 flu virus within six months.

The micro-organism killed as many as 50 million people when it swept around the world in 1918-19.

There are fears an accidental release of the recreated microbe could be catastrophic.

Catastrophic? Ya think? The entire dire prediction news story can be read here.