May 5, 2009
Afghanistan's only pig quarantined in flu fear

Almost as funny/fucked up as the headline:

Shabby and rundown, Kabul Zoo is a far cry from zoos in the developed world, but has nevertheless come a long way since it suffered on the front line of Afghanistan’s 1992-4 civil war.
Mujahideen fighters then ate the deer and rabbits and shot dead the zoo’s sole elephant. Shells shattered the aquarium.
One fighter climbed into the lion enclosure but was immediately killed by Marjan, the zoo’s most famous inhabitant. The man’s brother returned the next day and lobbed a hand grenade at the lion leaving him toothless and blind.

May 5, 2009 - 8:46pm   |   PERMALINK
April 30, 2009

TED Talk: Laurie Garrett: What can we learn from the 1918 flu pandemic?

If you are susceptible to panic over this Flu business, don’t watch this video.  It talks about flu pandemics in the context of the Avian flu and the 1918 pandemic.  By all signs, H1N1 isn’t as deadly, but this stuff is still just shocking.  If we’re as ready now as we were when this video was made (2 years ago) we could be screwed if this gets worse.

April 30, 2009 - 11:21pm   |   PERMALINK
FILED UNDER: Swine Flu panic now 
Screenshot from the “Google H1N1 Swine Flu Map”
“Get directions?” Seriously?  To a lethal flu outbreak?  I’ll pass.

Screenshot from the “Google H1N1 Swine Flu Map”

“Get directions?” Seriously?  To a lethal flu outbreak?  I’ll pass.

April 30, 2009 - 4:32pm   |   PERMALINK
FILED UNDER: swine flu google 
Do You Have Swine Flu?

This is just getting silly…

I do wonder, however, if in another week Swin, er, H1N1, will have the same “it’s-funny-because-you-think-you-could-never-get-it” humor (very similar to how AIDS is discussed) that it does now.  I think that will depend on the final mortality rate for it - if it stays at where it is now, I think this will blow over.  If, however, we’re looking at double-digit death rates from those that acquire this, it’s going to get not funny very quickly.

April 30, 2009 - 4:25pm   |   PERMALINK
FILED UNDER: swine flu AIDS