We are, to put it bluntly, locked in permanent evolutionary war with the earth's bacteria and viruses. Sometimes we mount an effective Big Push, making inroads against a particular illness. (Total victories, such as the eradication of smallpox, are rare.) On other occasions, the enemy breaks through our battle lines with catastrophic effects, and an epidemic - such as the flu outbreak that devastated postwar populations in 1918 - ensues. On our side, we have an arsenal of antibiotics, antiviral drugs, vaccines, pesticides and antiseptics to protect us. On their side, there is the simple, mind-bogglingly multitudinous nature of germs combined with their perpetual, random attempts to mutate past our defences.

Originally posted by dbates
Sounds like they have it really pinned down to an exact science .

"He buddy, how do I get to the Department of Motor Vehicles from here?"

"Turn left, or maybe just go straight for 2 miles, or possibly just drive to another town, or it might just be in between your house and your neighbor's."

"For example, in 1874 - with the money he received from the sale of an electrical engineering firm that held several of his patents - he opened his first complete testing and development laboratory in Newark, New Jersey.

At age 29, he commenced work on the carbon transmitter, which ultimately made Alexander Graham Bell's amazing new "articulating" telephone (which by today's standards sounded more like someone trying to talk through a kazoo than a telephone) audible enough for practical use. Interestingly, at one point during this intense period, Edison was as close to inventing the telephone as Bell was to inventing the phonograph. Nevertheless, shortly after Edison moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, N.J. in 1876, he invented - in 1877 - the first phonograph.

In 1879, extremely disappointed by the fact that Bell had beaten him in the race to patent the first authentic transmission of the human voice..."