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If it’s a particularly contagious virus, it would spread across the planet in a year. “If it starts in New York, it’s going to be in London certainly within a week,” says Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle who uses computer models to analyze how viruses globe-trot. “And from there, it will quickly travel to the rest of North America and Europe.” For Longini’s computer forecasts to become reality, though, certain conditions would need to be met.

jNGon TIL that blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan's first studio recordings were with a Texas high-school band called "A Cast of Thousands," which featured as its lead singer Stephen Tobolowsky, who later became a highly-recognizable character actor best known as "Ned Ryerson" in the film 'Groundhog Day'
awnjA TIL Joseph Faber invented Euphonia, an amazing device that simulated human speech in 1844; due to ridicule over his invention he destroyed it and himself in 1850
pkYZ TIL That in 1975 $10 million worth of Huey helicopters had to be pushed off the flight deck of the USS Midway and into the sea to make way for the emergency landing of an aircraft with Vietnamese evacuees on board
Br7ob TIL of Lisa McVey, the only girl to escape serial killer Bobby Long. She was 17 when he abducted her & she was going home to commit suicide. Long held her hostage for 26 hours. Using her wit, she managed to escape & the ordeal made her realize her desire to live. She’s now a police officer.
m1Vrp TIL that Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat, controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research and was the richest man in modern Italian history.