Emerging disease news: Ebola may shut off immune defenses. Researchers report the identification of a protein that Ebola uses to antagonize the body’s secretion of interferon, necessary in orchestrating the immune response against the invading virus. MSNBC

Ira Glass is coming to San Diego to give a lecture, so here’s this puff piece in a local paper about how he’s the hippest thing on National Public Radio. According to him. Trying to be ironic about it doesn’t make a hipper-than-thou attitude any less execrable. It would only be a slight exaggeration if I said I never move faster than when I reach to retune the radio when he comes on. And I wrote to my local NPR station to tell them I wasn’t going to contribute to them anymore as long as their fundraisers featured his smug, self-satisfied pitches with their vicious undertones of humiliation to less with-it listeners. The station manager tried to tell me I don’t have a sense of humor (which I found very funny).

Not happy with one definition? OneLook® Dictionaries lets you look up a word in hundreds of online dictionaries with several clicks. Over in the left column, I’ve added a lookup box that gets you there too.

Japan’s new ‘salaryman’ Kintaro: think Dilbert gone ballistic. Christian Science Monitor

Physicians’ Attitudes About Involvement in Lethal Injection for Capital Punishment

The majority of 482 physicians surveyed approved of most aspects of participation in executions disallowed by the American Medical Association, “indicating that they believed it is acceptable in

some circumstances for physicians to kill individuals against their

wishes. It is possible that the lack of stigmatization by colleagues

allows physicians to engage in such practices.” Archives of Internal Medicine

Chameleons suck. New Scientist

Today’s the day the swallows leave San Juan Capistrano. Until March 19th…

Nader supporters urge at least some to vote for Gore. A group calling itself “Nader’s Raiders for Gore” accuses Nader of going back on a pledge to campaign only in those states where a vote for him would not hurt Gore’s chances. ‘”It is now clear that you might well give the White House to

Bush. As a result, you would set back significantly the social

progress to which you have devoted your entire, astonishing

career,” the group wrote Friday in its open letter to the

consumer advocate.’ The appeal has been rejected by Nader’s press secretary. “Greens for Gore” has taken a similar stance. “If the last minute exit or public opinion polls in your state

show Gore or Bush clearly projected to win, then vote Nader. If

it is too close or undecided at that point, then vote for Al

Gore.” I’ve previously blinked Nader advisor Steve Cobble’s “Your Vote Doesn’t Matter,” suggesting that progressives vote for Nader in states where (and only where) one of the major candidates has locked in the electoral college votes already. Singer Ani Difranco, a Nader supporter, has written an open letter urging Oregonians to vote for Gore.

An article in The New Republic suggests that Nader may actually be seeking a Gore defeat by working so hard for swing state votes. The theory is that a Bush presidency would galvanize the progressive movement. [The last time I remember anyone reasoning like that was when people jokingly suggsted we might bring on the Revolution by electing George Wallace!]

These CNN maps show the status of the races for each state’s electoral votes. They will be updated regularly until Election Day, and can help you decide whether, and how, to waste your very own vote. Here are the current “tossup” states: