02 December 2007

Another War to Wage

"Progress slow in war on cancer," declares a headline in this morning's Boston Globe online. Adding that to the list of endless war, we're now waging:

The War on Terror
The War on Drugs
The War on Poverty
The War on Want
The War on Cancer

Some sects are also waging:

A War on Guns
A War on Christmas
A War on Journalism
A War on Democracy
A War on English

Et cetera, ad nauseam...

Can't people find a better a metaphor than war? While I could advance arguments against the metaphor on moral grounds, I prefer to say that further "wars" should not be declared simply because doing so is too damn clichéd.

01 December 2007

Hot Zone: Uganda

WHO reported an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Uganda November 30. The outbreak, in the Bundibugyo District, features a new species of the virus, which has a 31.4% mortality rate thus far, with 16 fatal cases of 51 reported.