Rapid-fire update

In order of being ordered:

• The IFC Global Business School Network website I've been updating has moved to the production database, so if you want to see my handiwork, visit www.ifc.org/gbsn. Your comments are welcome; please be advised that my deflections are at the ready: "Oh, that's standard IFC webpage format," and "They gave me the content; I just posted it," promise to be heavily used. (Sarkiness aside, I think it's a decent site for a very interesting program.)
  
  
• We're experiencing high carbon monoxide levels at home. The previous residents left us a detector, which alarmed for the second time in a couple of weeks on Sunday night. The fire department came out and confirmed the elevated levels, though still below any health advisories we could find. Unfortunately, they could not trace the CO to an appliance. In fact, the lowest levels they found were right next to the furnace. So we'll just diagnose this non-specific, systematic problem. Piece of cake...
  
  
• A belated happy Valentine's Day to all and birthday to Aunt Ann.
  
  
• Ookla the Mok - a band that finally answers the question: What if They Might Be Giants were more (yes, more!) geeky, more (yes, more!) nasal, and not quite as musically talented/creative? You've got to love music that makes innumerable references to comic books, turns Dylan into a word problem, and offers incisive criticism of Sting's musical career.
  
  
• I'm writing a short paper about the SARS outbreak. It's fascinating, and the early months (Nov 02-Feb 03), when the disease existed in China but no one outside knew about it, read like a thriller. The Chinese government's behavior was truly reprehensible. I understand that there are reasons for a country not to report health problems (fear of (often unjustified) trade and travel restrictions), but the suffering they caused to their own citizens, never mind outher countries, through their secrecy and deception is shocking. And the word from the UN, before SARS, was that they were doing the same thing with HIV. Hopefully they are changing their approach.