Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Across the Sea of Suns. Furious Gulf.

These two books in the Gregory Benford Galactic Center series, especially Furious Gulf, feel to me like masterpieces in fiction.  Benford writes “hard” science fiction that is heavy in physics and science, some of which is a little fantastic and hard to believe, but it makes for great stories.  His idea that the galaxy would be dominated by mechanical life forms intolerant of biological life has a convincing feel to it.   These books are a wild ride that stretch the imagination as to what is possible.  I especially enjoyed listening to them on Audible, because the performance of the readers gives the stories extra flavor.

 

Monday, February 25, 2013

RE: flu vaccine was effective in only 56 percent of people who got the shot

Had a cold late last week and felt pretty bad, but it seems not as bad now.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

From: Trout, Larry R

 

This was unusually low, and was probably pulled down by a 27% average for those above 65.

In one strain, it was about 50% on the general population, but only 9% for the above 65 crowd.

Usually these are about 40% effective >65, and 60% in the general population.

 

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6207a2.htm?s_cid=mm6207a2_w

 

http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/55/7/951/T4.expansion.html