Possibly the best news I’ve read all year: a new study has uncovered (a) that the H5N1 avian flu can’t easily penetrate the human upper respiratory tract, and (b) precisely why.  So yes, bird flu could still mutate into a human-to-human form and kill a whole bunch of us, but scientists are getting a handle on what mutations to look for and how the damn thing works.  And in the meantime, just keep your alveoli covered, and you should be fine.*

The bad news: the environment may not be about to kill us, but we certainly seem to be about to kill it.  Global warming is going to be worse than we thought.  So don’t go buying any coastal real estate.  By the time our great-grandkids are hyperblogging (or whatever the hell), goodbye London, goodbye New York, goodbye many of the world’s greatest cities.  If you live in Miami, you have a few decades, but let’s just say I wouldn’t go betting on the Dolphins to win the 2105 Super Bowl.

*The word “Alveoli,” incidentally, plays a big part in one bit of the upcoming book.  So everything connects.