It's An Ill Wind Indeed...

...that blows no one any good. This Internet start-up (upstart?) finds patterns in web traffic to predict events. They say they predicted the current swine flu outbreak. "The idea fueling Veratect and similar companies is that blogs, online chat rooms, Twitter feeds and news media and government Web sites are full of data that public health agencies could use to respond faster to problems like outbreaks of swine flu."