 July 2010 (UTC) Hello, more great summer weather here. We're in the middle of shorebird migration, and herons seem to be on the move. Two evenings ago saw a black-crowned night heron, a great egret, and two green-backed herons, in addition to the usual few great blue herons, just at our one local pond. I've been reading books about historical epidemics, and the threat of new ones (bird flu); pretty interesting. It had never occurred to me that all epidemics are political hot buttons, but now of course it seems obvious, as they can have huge economic effects. Nobody wants to be the first to admit their country (village, town, state, etc.) is infected, because people will then avoid the region, and the stigma and economic damage can be long lasting. Apparently epidemiology routinely has to deal with public relations, governmental actions, news control, etc., in addition to the purely biological issues. Back to our subject, I just edited a couple of sentences of my comments - one that I had mentioned before that I thought was impolite, and one at the end of my post of 17 June, which you haven't answered yet. I thought maybe the second question, that I have withdrawn, was too difficult, and that was keeping you from responding. If that's not it, could you let me know what the problem might be, and maybe I can think of a way around it, so we can continue our discussion of Lyme disease testing? Thanks very much, hope all's well with you,   17:26, 28