The trials of antiquated hotels

I've started taking a compact linksys router like this with me preconfigured with wpa2 when I travel so I don't have to deal with that.

It's small enough that there's no trouble finding room for it in my bag and cuts down on a lot of aggravation.

What, you don't own a router?

About that AIDS/plague thing, I heard about it. It is weird that you don't see bubonic plague type mortality rates with AIDS though. I find it hard to believe that such beneficial genes could have diluted so quickly. There were outbreaks of plague until nearly the industrial age.

You could probably establish a peer to peer wireless connection between your laptops and enable internet connection sharing on the one plugged into the wall. Don't ask me how to do this since you're probably using windows and I haven't used it in years. There's probably a guide on the net to show you how to do this for situations like yours. Then again if you start messing with your net configuration your machine might altogether loose its ability to connect to the net, just before this major case.

AIDS takes a lot longer to run its course than the Plague did. Plague victims have about five days before they're dead. AIDS has to develop from HIV, and even when you have full-blown AIDS something else has to kill you.

This is the first I've heard of this cellular port/genetic mutation thing. In the movies, we'd design a genetic alteration and drop a vial of liquid into village wells all across Africa, homeopathy-style. But even in real life, it's an interesting thought.

This is really interesting.

I know nothing of genetics or medicine or any other science but being an avid reader of Darwin and all things about evolution I was skeptical back in the days when NPR discovered AIDS and informed the world that the human race would soon be extinct.

Without knowing any better I postulated that no disease could ever wipe out humans because some humans would have something in their genetic makeup that would make them immune and that through evolution that genetic trait would spread though the population over several generations. Thus, in some future time the world human population would be largely immune to AIDS.

In my imagined scenario the virus or disease always loses in the end and the human race goes on even though many individuals do not. Something like the smallpox vaccination speeds up a process that would occur on its own in time. It could be that the only reason bubonic plague still exists at all is because it can infect non-human animals.

Of course, another possibility is that I could be completely full of crap.

Flash Gordon, one has to love a man who has an idea,but absent proof realizes he may be wrong.

You would make one lousy human caused global warming nut.

I like that.

Either a purchased router, wireless access point, or (preferably) switch would provide several connections, and that shouldn't cost more than thirty bucks from the local Wally World or Target.

Another alternative would be, in a Windows XP machine, to navigate to Start->Control Panel->Network Connections, and then set up a shared internet connection. There are some pretty in-depth guides on the matter out there.

This genetic thing, Europe got hit hard by bubonic plague, but Africa did not (so far as I know). Europeans have a lower AIDS rate than negros. Sounds plausible.

Wait a minute, though. Bubonic plague came from SE Asia, right? How bad is AIDS there?

Then, there's the question of whether the genetic change is dominant or recessive?

A firewall router is a really good idea. I suspect all of you know or at least read Dr. Pournelle - consider his travel kit suggestions.

Best to use a hardware firewall on a local net and to have extension cords that will handle a bunch of plug in transformers for assorted gear.

"from the local Wally World or Target."

They are in DC. No Wally World and only one Target until you get out of the district. DC city council works hard to keep it that way.

When in DC, and I was there last week, I prefer to stay at the Hotel Washington. But only because I like to drink and the Old Ebbitt and then walk over to the pedestrian mall between the White House and Blair House and smoke a cigar, talk to the cops, and look at the peace protestors who have been there since Reagan I or something.

However, last week the HW was booked and so I ended up at the Fairmont Washington on 24th and M. Very nice hotel. Were it not for the distance from the office that I generally visit, and the fact that it is a $13 cab ride (or a long walk) to the Ebbitt, I would definitely stay there again.

No, I have never stayed at the Mayflower. May do it in the future sometime though. Just for giggles.

An Airport Express (or a clones by one of the other router manufacturers) is pretty handing for providing encrypted WiFi in a hotel room.

Check out the most recent paper on the CCR5 link between small pox and HIV infection...
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16248677

it is available free. They cannot establish a link between a selective event and the origin of the CCR5 -delta32 allele from the previous study. I am a microbiologist not a human geneticist so this is out of my field but it seems that the authors conclude that the occurrence of this allele in the European population is about normal for alleles within the European population. Additionally, the allelic variation is within normal parameters for differences between European/African/ and Asian Societies.

BTW-the allele doesn't occur in Asian populations either.

Additional recent publications show that CCR5-delta32 mice strains are not resistant to Y.pestis infections (the plague microbe).

Unfortunately, the problem with HIV is that can infect us using multiple ports. CCR5 is one of the many chemokine receptors that HIV can use the enter macrophages. Unlike bacteria, viruses are much more plastic in their genetic content. Bacteria are living and thus require a certain set of genes to maintain life. Viruses have very minor requirements genetically as they usually pervert the host cell machinery to reproduce.

Sorry for being long winded but it is an interesting topic.

I've updated by blog about this. Darn! It was too good to stay true!

I've updated my blog about this. Darn! It was too good to stay true!

For you out-of-towners, may I recommend Restaurant Nora at Florida and R Street, a couple of blocks from Dupont Circle. The menu is organic but definitely not vegetarian. Good for celebrity-watching, too. Last time I was there I saw Stephen Stills.

For an out of towner, I've seen a few celebs/pols. Just last week I saw Michael Barrone walking across the street in Georgetown. I bumped into, literally, Dan Rostenkowski at Reagan National once. Saw George Stephanopolous sitting in first class on a plane where I was, of course, riding in steerage. Saw Jack Kemp getting on a plane once. Saw Sam Donaldson walking around looking very confused at Reagan one afternoon. Have seen Secret Service ninjas walking around on the White House roof, and carrying their nifty little 5.7mm FN bullpups while patroling the grounds.

A study was done at an isolated English village on living decendants of plague survivors. They were found to have a Delta gene?, or something that immunized against it.

Did they have spittoons? An in-house bar? Other Amenities? Apparently the Democrat candidate endorses the "aids-was-developed-by-the-evil-white-man-to-selectively-kill-blacks" theory by not repudiating that big bag of wind pastor of his.

Flash Gordon - Maximum mortality rate for a naturally occuring infectious disease is 80% with E. Bola. There are neurotoxins that do a better job that are produced by non-virulent organisms (the botulism endotoxin comes to mind), and there are synthetic organisms that kill at higher rates, but there just isn't anything that could theoretically kill 100% of humans, IMHO. Now, the further we dilute the gene pool through genetic engineering and health care advances, the more likely it becomes that some strange gene that we consider a horrible disease could be the phenotype that would survive such a pandemic. Imagine the irony - we cure a genetic disease, and find that those with said disease are the only ones who can survive the next plague.