What Caught My Eye Today - Contagion, Universe, Mississippi, Bourbon

Contagion - As if flu season isn't bad enough, now there's...well, we're not quite sure, but it's kind of bad. A British man infected with a new virus from the same family as SARS has died, bringing the worldwide death toll from the previously unknown disease to six. Is it just me or does the phrase unknown disease scare the bejeezus out of you? The virus, called novel coronavirus or NCoV, was unknown in humans until it emerged in the Middle East last year. Usually you expect these sorts of things to come out of Africa or Asia.  Way to step it up, Middle East. There have been 12 confirmed cases worldwide - including in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Britain, and so far 6 patients have died. If I did my math correctly (and I'm pretty sure I did) that makes for a 50% mortality rate.  Again, unknown disease...yikes.  NCoV was identified when the World Health Organisation issued an international alert in September 2012, saying a completely new virus had infected a Qatari man in Britain who had recently been in Saudi Arabia. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that includes those that cause the common cold as well as the one that caused SARS, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a 10th of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

Universe - Scientists are still sorting out the details of last year's discovery of the Higgs boson particle, but add up the numbers and it's not looking good for the future of the universe. Researchers have come to the conclusion that, "it may be that the universe we live in is inherently unstable and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out." Okay, first of all, lighten up fellas. A lot can happen in several billion years. Secondly, it must be nice making bold predictions that have absolutely no chance of being proven or disproven. Physicists last year announced they had discovered what appears to be a long-sought subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, which is believed to give matter its mass. Work to study the Higgs' related particles, necessary for confirmation, is ongoing. If confirmed, the discovery would help resolve a key puzzle about how the universe came into existence some 13.7 billion years ago, and perhaps how it will end. According to scientists, "this calculation tells you that many tens of billions of years from now, there'll be a catastrophe." Scientists had grappled with the idea of the universe's long-term stability before the Higgs discovery, but stepped up calculations once its mass began settling in at around 126 billion electron volts - a critical number it turns out for figuring out the fate of the universe. Earth will likely be long gone before any Higgs boson particles set off an apocalyptic assault on the universe. Physicists expect the sun to burn out in 4.5 billion years or so, and expand, likely engulfing Earth in the process. Don't get me wrong, I love science. What I don't get is all this doomsday talk about something that may or may not happen billions of years after the Earth ceases to exist which, oh by the way, probably won't happen for billions of years. Seriously, science geeks, maybe you should take up a hobby or something.

Now, let's take step back from the ledge a bit, shall we?

Mississippi - Mississippi just became the final state to officially ratify the Thirteenth Amendment serves as the final punctuation mark on a dark chapter in American history. Now then, for those of you who chose to sleep through civics class, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution (yes, that's what Amendments are attached to) outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude and was adopted in December, 1865. After seeing Lincoln in theaters last November, a middle-aged recent immigrant from India  did a little bit of Internet research only to discover the Mississippi never got around to actually ratifying the amendment. The state did vote to ratify the amendment back in 1995, nearly 20 years after Kentucky, the second-to-last state to ratify the amendment, held its vote. At first I was ready to dump all over Mississippi, but then reconsidered.  It isn't as if Mississippi was the only state to drag its feet on ratifying this amendment. Eight other states (Oregon, California, Florida, Iowa, New Jersey, Texas, Delaware and Kentucky) also did not ratify the Thirteenth Amendment at the time.  That said, 130 years is a really, really long time to drag one's feet.  And even then, Mississippi managed to screw things up.  However, through an apparent clerical error, Mississippi never officially notified the United States Archivist of the ratification, meaning that they've officially been on the side of slavery for a century-and-a-half. Mississippi finally sent in the paperwork to complete its belated ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Is it possible the folks in charge of such matters may have been "hittin' the till" a bit too hard?

Which brings us to our final item of the day...

Bourbon - Maker’s Mark executives announced that they’re reversing the decision to water down their bourbon. Show of hands, people. Who didn't see this coming?  You don't mess with Mother Nature and you certainly don't mess with a man's bourbon. When the company announced plans to cut the alcohol content in its bourbon from 45% (90 proof) to 42% (84 proof) due to supply problems, customers were mad. Really mad. Turns out, people would rather deal with a shortage of their favorite bourbon than a shortage of alcohol in their bourbon.  In defense of Maker's Mark, they really were trying to do a solid for their patrons.  Basic economics say that when supply is short and demand is high, prices will tend to rise.  The upstanding folks at Maker's Mark were trying to avoid price hikes by increasing supply, which would have required diluting their bourbon by a few percentage points.  It is worth noting, that almost every other bourbon on the market is a mere 80 proof, so even if Maker's Mark went forward with its new blend, it still would have been more potent than any other bourbon.  Taking all that into consideration, I think the conclusion is pretty clear.  What the heck, were they thinking?  You don't mess with a good thing.  Just ask Coca Cola how well that New Coke deal worked out.