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What happened to the Swine Flu epidemic that frightened us all so much (not to mention the Bird Flu epidemic)? Swine Flu did kill some people here in the US, but Bird Flu seems never to have made it to these shores (and may only have been transmitted directly from poultry, not between people). Could these warnings be some sort of disinformation campaign from big pharmaceutical companies that stand to make millions from medicines (such as Tamiflu) and vaccines? Once initiated, well meaning people could then take up the warning and spread it far and wide.
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On this week’s Dreamland, (and at last year’s Dreamland Festival), we addressed the question: “Is there anybody out there?” This refers not to whether life exists elsewhere in the universe, but whether it exists in other universes outside of our own.

Researchers Alejandro Jenkins and Gilad Perez have formulated a provocative hypothesis known as the anthropic principle, which states that the existence of intelligent life imposes constraints on the possible form of the laws of physics. In other words, is alien life physically possible?
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The Swine Flu “epidemic” seems to be over, for now: Unused H1N1 vaccine is being stockpiled in warehouses across the US. Some of it expires in March, although most will be effective through May. What happened (or didn’t happen)?

One major concern was that children are twice as likely as adults to catch swine flu. A study of more than 800 people in the UK found that one in eight people developed the infection after someone else in their house, often a child, got it. This is partly caused by the fact that, despite the fact that more children die from it than adults, many children who have been infected do not display symptoms.
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In his new novel Critical Mass (which will be given away to everyone who subscribes or renews for at least 6 months through January), Whitley Strieber describes how easy it would be to smuggle a nuclear device into a major city and use this to blackmail a country into adopting Sharia law. Now it turns out that future terrorism may not need a bomb at all: A keyboard will do.

“Carry out all my demands or the entire country’s electricity will be cut off.” Is this a line from a thriller, or is it a possible threat made possible with a computer keyboard? The next step in terrorism is the attempt to cause damage to systems that are operated by computer networks, such as financial systems, power stations, hospitals, television broadcasts, and satellites.
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