Notes: Anthrax is all over the news. Leaders are trying to get the public to see it in perspective by contrasting anthrax with influenza, the virus that kills thousands each year. I saw a story reporting that Romania has 20 to 30 cutaneous anthrax cases each year transmitted to humans from livestock, yet there's no panic. Diagnosed early on, antibiotics appear to be curative of the infection.

That made me wonder about the sense of panic. There's a difference in being robbed of your wallet and in losing it, though the result is the same. Being robbed provokes fear, while losing your wallet brings frustration, not fear. Maybe it's that criminal element of intent that's feeding the panic -- that creepy, paranoid feeling that someone is out to intentionally get us. 10.21.01