TIN FOIL ALERT: Interesting Sentence in the Novel "Flu"

[Rockholm]

I started the novel "Flu" by Gina Kolata earlier this year and put it down over the summer. Just started reading it again (started over) and found this interesting sentence.....On page five it reads:

"The death curves were W-shaped, with peaks for the babies and toddlers under age 5, the elderly who were aged 70 to 74, and people aged 20-40."

Hhhmmm..."W-shaped"

Very interesing.

[Lisa]

1. another example of a "W"-shaped curve

(admittedly, more lighthearted)

The Columbia engagement, entered into quickly--Gore started teaching in February, weeks after the inauguration--suggests that he was not quite thinking things through. By most accounts, the classes themselves went well. Gore was well-prepared, he had real ideas he wanted to impart and he brought in an array of marquee names. He got Alan Greenspan to talk about coverage of the economy, David Letterman to talk about political humor, Rupert Murdoch to talk about ownership of the media. There was a legendary moment during the Greenspan class when Gore was getting very wonky, very Gorian, going on about what an economic recovery might look like, sketching graphs, saying that in one version it might look like an L, and, in another, like a U. Then he said something to the effect of: If it gets really chaotic, it would look like this. He sketched a W. Then, hard as this is to imagine, Al Gore and Alan Greenspan celebrated the joke with a high-five.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50875-2002Nov13_3.html

[DesertRat]

2. Yikes

We're all screwed now. :tinfoilhat: