the primrose path

An interesting article about the use of inflammatory additives in flu vaccines to help stimulate the immune response. Not currently in use in the US, this is still an interesting, and little known aspect, of vaccination:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/health/22vacc.html?

This book's greatest contribution has less to do with its coverage of the 1918 pandemic itself, than the circumstances around it. (In my opinion) the best chapters are the first few that have to deal with the establishment of the medical establishment in this country and the emerging field of laboratory science at the turn of the 20C; also those chapters dealing with the political situation in which the 1918 epidemic emerged in this country.

( Why is it the peripherals are often more interesting than the main topic? )

And for no other reason than I've been thinking of it, an abstract from an article I read in the New Yorker several years ago about Capt Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) navigating the Great Barrier Reef TWICE in an open boat. Totally badass, and still capturing my imagination five years later!

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/08/04/030804fa_fact_alexander

She apparently wrote a full-length treatment of the material which I intend to read in the not-too-distant future. However what I need right now is something that lifts my spirits.