The primary ordeal

Everyone in the house is sick at the moment, except for me and the cats. What is it about cats that seems to let them mosey along through life without succumbing to the general unhealthiness of humans? Of course, when you look this up on Google, you find that the difference is whether the disease is contagious (from one to another in the same species), or zoonotic (from one species to another). And if you look farther, you can get fairly worried, not about the lifespan of the cat so much as that of yourself, from just the latin names of the things they can give you: Leptospirosis, Echinococcosis, Ebola fever...

The problem with most things that don't go down well with human beings is that of being "too soon old, too late smart". Things that we should discover early enough to do something about end up killing us. The newly discovered adenovirus 14 seems to offer a case in point.

It's generally true, too, that it's not the big things, like the nuclear bomb, that are going to kill us. There's too much at stake for any country to start a nuclear war. Back in 1945, that wouldn't have been true, but with the sophistication of weaponry today, the deterrent effects are pretty obvious given the "assurance of mutual destruction" that nuclear weaponry guarantees. Self-interest is keeping us from launching the war to end all humanity, at least so far.

But it's the small stuff, and anyone who tells you "don't sweat the small stuff" is a maxim-izing meathead. Viruses and bacteria and decomposition have always waged war for supremacy on this earth, and the viruses are getting smarter while we...

A study I heard about today on NPR says that Americans average two hours of TV a day and only 7 minutes of reading. What a difference. TV, generally speaking, stimulates somnolence and passive acceptance, while reading triggers thought and imagination and creativity.

So dumbing down is not a myth. It's as real as global warming. And, should the trend continue, and by the law of inertia it seems likely to continue, the next generation will be stupider than we are, and so on down the line. At some point the viruses and bacteria will be well positioned to take over and become the dominant species. Just as they were in the primordial soup. Welcome back, Rotter.