How Not To Blog ?

Shipments of dealy virii via FedEx have been occuring for years. I personally know a FedEx packaging supervisor who claims that all kinds of improperly-packaged and dangerous shipments are sent out through the carrier. Not only that, the employees open many such shipments without proper protection.

Here's an article, by the Associated Press, about the safety of such shipments.

Every day, deadly germs are shipped across the country and around the globe, right alongside the books, gourmet foods and birthday presents sent through FedEx Corp. and similar couriers.

Often their journeys can be circuitous, too.

Follow, for instance, a single vial of the potentially deadly flu virus causing a world health scare because it was included in test kits sent to more than 4,000 laboratories. It was grown in a Virginia lab, spent time in a Cincinnati freezer and passed through a small medical company on the Mexican border before it finally arrived at a Milwaukee lab.

The article continues...

Last month, a FedEx truck carrying five boxes of samples of anthrax, flu, tuberculosis, salmonella and E. coli collided with a car in Winnipeg. None of the dangerous germs escaped.

In 2003, a FedEx package containing West Nile virus exploded at the Port Columbus International Airport in Ohio. Firefighters suspected dry ice caused it to burst open. No one was injured, but 50 workers had to be evacuated.

...

As it turns out, most of the Cincinnati company's test kits with the 1957 bug were ultimately assembled and shipped via FedEx and DHL by Proficiency Testing Service, a tiny Meridian subcontractor in Brownsville, Texas.

Further, the article states "FedEx said its employees and customers are "rigorously trained" to handle dangerous biological material and federal laws and company policy mandate packages be clearly labeled and properly packaged."

That's simply not true.

These shipments were sent over 5 months ago. A couple of countries (no telling how many shipments) say they did not receive the shipments. Don't FedEx and DHL offer international tracking? Wouldn't they be able to track a package of peanuts sent from the US to Lebanon or Mexico over five months ago?

Good timing! Just as the number of meteorites hitting the earth and near-earth asteroids are increasing dramatically, scientists soften the asteroid risk-assessment system so that possible near-earth rendevous or collisions won't sound so bad.

If you believe the India Daily, "...some of these asteroids are artificially made invisible by the extraterrestrials and is used as their UFO bases for intergalactic travel." (That passes for news?)

Here's a site that lists some creativity techniques like other people's definitions, anonymous voting, assumption surfacing, and six thinking hats to name a few.