Institute for Analytic Journalism

Much of what we've seen and read about the U.S. government's plan to stave off a pandemic bird flu suggests that everyone -- EVERYONE -- needs to be vaccinated. Even if we knew what is necessary to produce an appropriate vaccination, producing 280 million doses is not a trivial task.

But there may be another strategy that journalists should be asking about: Isolation strategies and then vaccination of a limited number of persons in a society. These strategies have been developed as a result of work by the simulation modeling folks, especially Josh Epstein at The Brookings Institute.

See -- and be sure to click on the videos:
Toward a Containment Strategy for Smallpox Bioterror: An Individual-Based Computational Approach

Joshua M. Epstein, Derek A. T. Cummings, Shubha Chakravarty,
Ramesh M. Singa, and Donald S. Burke
CSED Working Paper No. 31
December 2002

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Digital detectives

by JTJ on Thu 03 Nov 2005 01:30 PM MST

For those interested in the forensic process -- and in this case, computer forensics -- be sure to check out this fine, fine piece of digital detective work by Mark Russinovich, a computer security expert with Sysinternals. He discovered evidence of a "rootkit" on his Windows PC.

We don't think journalists need to know how to DO this kind of deep-diving probing, but we should be aware that it is possible and, broadly speaking, the methods if only to know the appropriate search terms.

Through heroic forensic work, he traced the code to First 4 Internet, a British provider of copy-restriction technology that has a deal with Sony to put digital rights management on its CDs. It turns out Russinovich was infected with the software when he played the Sony BMG CD Get Right With the Man by the Van Zant brothers.

Here's WIRED Magazine's take on the story, "The Cover-Up Is the Crime"

And here's what Dan Gillmor had to say about it, with additional links.

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We should be talking to -- and learning from -- each other

by JTJ on Thu 03 Nov 2005 10:57 AM MST

Another example of how journalists can learn from other disciplines comes to the surface in the form of an LA Press Club meeting Nov. 9.

"Digging deep: What reporters can learn from and about private investigators," is the topic, and the panel of speakers, though large, seems rich with potential.

Here at the IAJ we also value the well done blog, "PI News Link," run by Tamara Thompson. Check it out; enter it in your blog harvester.

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