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Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (noun)
[POR-tent', POER-tent'] 
1. an indication or sign that something is about to happen, especially something evil or calamitous; an omen: "Many employees viewed the first layoffs as a portent of larger rounds to come."
2. prophetic or ominous significance
3. something marvelous or wonderful
Origin:
Approximately 1575; borrowed from Middle French, 'portente'; from Latin, 'portentum': a sign, an omen, from neuter of 'portentus,' past participle of 'portendere': to foretell, to predict ('por-': forth, forward + 'tendere': to stretch, to extend). In action:
"An exodus of business-class refugees from the virus has begun as the World Health Organisation warns against non-essential travel to affected areas.
In an already unsettled and apprehensive world, SARS seems 'a portent of darkness', says Yvonne Cossart, the Bosch professor of infectious diseases at the University of Sydney. Nor is the feeling - in Cossart's words - that evolution is 'coming back to bite us' necessarily misplaced.
There is a very real possibility, says Cossart, that SARS may be the unforeseen consequence of some environmental manipulation, some change to agricultural practice or amplification of human activity in previously untouched locations.
That kind of thing can - and with increasing regularity it has - prompted animal viruses to cross into humans.
'I think we see emergence of new infections every time we do something that involves changing our relationship with each other and the environment - and we are doing that on a massive scale,' says Cossart."
Julie Robotham. "Every breath you take," The Sun/Sidney Morning Herald (April 5, 2003).
"According to sources with US units deployed along a vast curving front, stretching from just south of Kerbala to the south-west of Baghdad to north of Kut, a full-scale armoured assault against Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard units could begin within three days.
The attack is planned to last up to 10 days. Military strategists add that the second and most dangerous phase of the operation - the fighting to take Baghdad itself - could take up to five weeks.
The order to move on Baghdad comes as an Iraqi suicide bomber, the first of a wave threatened by Saddam and other senior Iraqi officials, blew himself up at a US checkpoint near Najaf, killing four American servicemen.
The suicide bombing is seen as a portent of the bitter nature of the combat to come, including the fear among many officers on the ground that Iraq will use chemical weapons to counter any advance against Baghdad."
Peter Beaumont, Ed Vulliamy. "Saddam: I'll hit UK with terror squads," [Saddam's deputy warns that Britain and America are to be targeted by suicide bombers, as US prepares for final assault on Baghdad] The Observer (March 30, 2003).
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