Swine Flu Is Not Done With Us Yet

I need to get some zzzzzzzzzzz's,guess I should try counting pigs or something

As long as you're not sneezing on pigs, gwe.

Speaking of news switching-- the hobbits are back, and they're mutated.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090507/sc_afp/scienceanthropologyindonesiahobbits

(Well, they're a new species, anyway...)

Abandon hope, all ye who read.

bc, for you ...

as reported on Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/chocolatefueled-race-car-_n_196861.html

a Formula 3 race car that runs on veggie oil and chocolate processing bi-products.

I guess there is new meaning to the concept of running lean...

Hey, while you guys have all been futzing around with microscopically teeny-tiny virusae, there's this new (old) giant space blob out there, about half the size of the Milky Way.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090422/sc_space/giantmysteryblobdiscoveredneardawnoftime

Not only that, it turns out this ain't the only giant space blob out there, although this one is ten times larger than the next-largest object (Rush Limbaugh).

Somebody named this particular blob "Himiko." It may have been formed virtually at the start of the universe (well, 800 million years after, but that's practically "right away").

Giant space blobs: it's what's for dinner.

Manny Ramirez just earned a 50 game suspension. He still stands to make something in excess of 40M.

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/report-ramirez-tests-positive-banned-50-games/

Mudge, all I want to know is ...

Which way is it heading?!

A race car that runs on cooking oil and chocolate? Sounds like the old Fondue 9000.

Padre Alberto Cutié is in trouble for being a practicing heterosexual. Some more material for Hiassen popping up in Florida. Hehehehe.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/v-fullstory/story/1036731.html

The REAL source of the human swine flu.
http://imgur.com/27K39.jpg

SCC: I read the story, but used the wrong figures, as I looked at 25 and read 75. Thus, Mr. Ramirez's suspension will cost him something on the order of 7.5M of a 25M salary. He'll gross something on the order of 18M this year.

Joel, I know this is a family newspaper, but all this veiled talk of teenagers and clothes, "The two viruses exchanged their genes like a couple of kids swapping school clothes" or teenagers and cars, "You could view this virus as being a bit like a 16-year-old that just got his first car" is not fooling anyone.

We know you're talking about viral s3x.

Repost form the last boodle:

When Pigs Fly
from Purple Strain

How do we create a new strain?
Unleash on the world a new cold? (so cold)
Maybe it's not too demanding
Maybe we'll just orgy with others (be bold)
Maybe they'll merge with yet others
Boink 'til they're satisfied (diversified)
Then they'll go live with another
This is what it sounds like
When pigs fly

Well, it's not like anyone could help themselves, the Padre being such a Cutie and all.

Sorry. I can't resist low-hanging fruit. Back to my cave.

Harkening back to the earlier Kit this morning, the previous one that talked about the similarity of pigs to humans--genomically, viruswise, and in some cases, structurally...

Remember the former mayor of neighboring Helotes, Texas, Jon Allan, who was in office during the exciting, lung-wracking Great Helotes Mulch Fire? He also was deeply involved at the Southwest Foundation here in town, and is a fierce opponent of xenotransplantation--tranplanting organs from chimps or pigs into humans--because of the fear of creating a Frankenstein-type virus. Check the Achenblog archives.

http://www.uncaged.co.uk/xeno.htm

"It is well established that most new emerging human infectious diseases generally have their origins in other species. A direct method of establishing new infectious human disease would be to implant infected tissues from a nonhuman species into humans thus allowing viruses direct access to human tissues... Seldom, if ever, have we had as much knowledge to prevent a future epidemic. What is lacking is the wisdom to act upon that knowledge."

Dr. [Veterinary Medicine] Jon Allan, Virologist, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Texas.

LL: Is the issue of xenotransplantation now a dead horse, so to speak? I don't have a ready answer.

Good afternoon, all.

"Pekosz said that pig flus that jump into humans usually become dead-ends, but this one has shown that it can go back into pigs. How come?"

That's easy -- the jump isn't a big asit used to be. People are becoming more swinian, and pigs are becoming more human.

If you don't believe me, allow me to submit the whole entire Internet (including media outlet blog comments) and the state of my refrigerator as evidence for the swinization of humanity, and Arnold the pig as evidence of the humanization of swine.

Or, maybe it's just me.

[Please note that the words "France," or "Men's room" were not used in the construction of this comment. Or the words "Spring Break," "hotel room," "dorm," or "minivan," for that matter. Oink you. I mean, thank you.]

bc

Well, you know, you hear tell of the stories about folks running on used cooking oil from restaurants in modified Diesels... that it really works well, except it always smells a bit like french fries.

With this car, a crowd would most likely go to watch a race and then develop an urge to find a Baskin-Robbins for a hot fudge sundaes.

Getting a sponsor shouldn't be hard, even in these times when even some NASCAR teams are running

Joel, a cake is "done" people and pigs are "finished."

Looking at several reports, it seems Manny will take his lumps and not appeal.

Rather adult of him.

Surprisingly.

:-)

I believe this story and many of its related public health issues shouldn't fall off the diminishing-in-number pages of newspapers--or from the papers' websites.

For the example, there's the critical issue of whether the government, as well as physicians and medical researchers, exert far more effort protecting and studying and dioagnosing men's health before that of women's.

You do know the story of the U. S. Dubuque and swine flu, don't you? I recall that my mother used to buy Dubuque hams, which humors me slightly, considering that it's swine flu were talking about.

Here's the story of one of the latest actions by the U.S. government and military to prevent the circulation of swine flu among the ranks of the U.S. Navy:

Associated Press--one day ago:

The U.S. Navy says it has canceled the deployment of a ship and ordered its entire crew to be treated with anti-viral drugs after a crew member's illness was confirmed as swine flu.

Navy spokesman Lt. Sean Robertson said there are also about 50 suspected cases of the virus from crew members on board the USS Dubuque, which is based in San Diego. He said the crew member with the virus and those suspected of being ill from it have already completed treatment and are recovering.

The ship was scheduled to leave June 1 on a humanitarian mission to the South Pacific. Robertson said the Navy is exploring options to still meet their commitments.

LL: And how many people who were in close contact with Judy Trunnell, the 33-year-old pregnant mother from Harlingen, Texas, who died while having swine flu, were given the antivirals Tamiflu or Relenza?

Recall that she was hospitalized on April 14 almost immediately after taking maternity leave from her teaching position, and U.S. health officials, including the CDC, knew that they had two cases of a brand new swine flu in California in mid- to late March?

As Dr. Dennis Carroll pointed out at teh House subcommittee meeting about pandemics on the Hill yesterday: Too often the cause of death on a death certificate should read "Poor Coordination."

There are many questions that remain to be answered, and much reporting that needs to be done. How unfortunate the situation that the public loses interest in public health when an individuals's mortality isn't in imminent danger.

Weed, thanks for that bio-fuel racing update. I have friends that race some biodiesels - they run out of steam on the straights, but they can seriously fry tires (ahem) coming out of corners.

Mudge, news of that space blob went 'round the astrophysics sites over the past couple of weeks, and is generally thought to be one of the first galaxies under construction. We're sorta looking at a Google Earth picture of a constuction site 13 Billion years ago. Interestingly, Limbaugh's ancestry may go back to this gigantic proto-galactic blob. If not his, then maybe Rove's.

bc

Yet another boffo review...

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/movies/08trek.html

:-)

SCC: USS Dubuque *sigh*

But given how pork-laden our government is, maybe I was right the first time.

I mean given Arianna Huffington's earlier book, "Pigs at the Trough"...

And the L.A. Times isn't quite so boffo, but still good!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-trek7-2009may07,0,7954153.story

Anybody up for imaginary lunch?

I have a pot of beef barley vegetable that's been simmering on the back burner since 9 a.m. The browned beef carmelized nicely prior to being placed in a mixture of homegrown (formerly frozen) Roma tomato chunks with juice and chicken stock. Vegetables include sauteed onions, celery, cauliflower, green beans, carrots and corn.

I have 11 quarts (12 quart stockpot). Let the faxing commence.

gwe, congratulations on your last day of work for a little while. Happy to send the cookie recipe.

This ought to raise some real hackles. It does mine.

May 1, Wall Street Journal:

The four earliest confirmed cases are divided evenly between California and Mexico. In fact, it appears two children in California got sick in late March, several days before the first two known Mexico cases in early April.

Tuesday, April 14--Judy Trunnell, a pregnant schoolteacher, hospitalized in Harlingen, Texas.

In the interim, flu breaks out in Mexico.

Saturday, April 25--News breaks about two, possibly three cases of swine flu in Schertz, Texas, with the Henshaw family quarantined. I blog about the Texas cases this Saturday--mainly because my husband had to put in eight hours of work from home that weekend and I thought I could see what was coming. First reporting on CNN.

Sunday, April 26--The first "emergency" (as I've seen it labeled) news conference from the White House briefing room about swine flu, with Robert Gibbs in the background--and Jack Brennan, Janet Napolitano and Richard Besser speaking on behalf of the government agencies they represent: DHS and CDC

Monday, April 27--a toddler from a very well-to-do family in Mexico dies in Houston, the child sick with swine flu and an underlying medical condition (unknown)

Tuesday, April 28--(NYT) A vial containing swine flu virus arrives at a laboratory in Westchester Couty, New York, containing nose and throat swabs form a California child, one of two to be diagnosed with the new swine flu strain in the U.S., to developed into seed stock or the reference strain. Samples were also sent to Australia, Britain, Hungary and Russia.

Poor coordination. Too little too late. There are hauntingly eerie paragraphs from Barry's "The Great Influenza" to match the timeline above--page 310, I think.

LA Times has spectacular photos of the fire in Santa Barbara.

Thinking of "poor condition", wallpaper for the rebuilt kitchen arrived (they apparently had to print it), so I called the paper hanger. He's recovering from pneumonia. Just a reminder that while flu got some attention, the regular bad stuff was still going on.

Locally, car dealers are going out of business or changing hands, fast. It feels like an epidemic.

Big bolt of lightning, big crash of thunder here right now.

*cowering under desk*

Ridge won't run.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/ridge-out-democratic-prospects.html?hpid=topnews

It's happening everywhere Dave. Our little suburb had only one dealeship; saturn. It closed a couple of months ago when gm announced they wouldn't make more saturns anymore. A sign appeared earlier this week at the old saturn location that a kia dealer is moving in soon. So it goes.

dbG, your soups sounds delicious. Yummy! I'd ask for some but I have to run some errands and then do a major workout. Helps the stress levels.

I just had a bit of canned chicken mixed with chopped green grapes and celery and a little mayo. It's really quite good...was a sample at Costco, of course. If you go there on a Saturday, early afternoon, you can get nearly an entire lunch.

Ridge might run if he were standing near a lightning strike.

Great writing Joel.

Wouldn't it be nice if news reader types on tv would be able to let go of the hysteria. All that the overwrought, in your face, 24 hour tv reporting ever seems to breed is more hysteria.

From a news perspective, this flu episode really demonstrates how good print or reading based media lends itself to calm rational news reporting more quickly than other forms of media. There are and always will be exceptions, though.

Cogsworth is gay? The horror!

Who else is in the Disney closet? Jiminy Cricket? Sebastian the Crab? Chip and Dale?

To get the straight scoop you must go to an authoritative source-

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film

Gleick's book "Chaos" talks about how tricky it is to tell when an epidemic is really receding.Population cycles are nonlinear and messy. Almost as bad as stocks.

Don't come out just yet, 'Mudge...

Another red blob headed your way.

Hey Windy - my costco sampled the chicken with their Kirkland brand organic salsa, tortilla chips and refried beans. It was pretty good although I like the grapes, celery and mayo combination. I think I might try that...

Come out? I was never in, Scotty. Oh, you mean out from under the desk.

Oh, yeah, I see it on the radar.

Well, be that as it may, I think the Boodler needs a pick-me-up. I see a lot of heads bobbing out there. So here ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBZDTK9Yhko

All your databases are belong to us...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050702515.html

All your Boodlers are belong to us too, apparently...

Oui. Le, Boodle, il est mort. *le sigh*

Il est not neither mort. Il est just un peu dormi.

Je suis le LOL, IM.

It was all for a good cause; I just sent flowers to my mother for Mother's Day. I'm sure other boodlers were occupied doing good deed as well.
I paid some bills too. And laughed at k-guy's link to the Onion's bit on the ST movie.

You all went to the Jack Aubrey Académie de Mauvaise Française, right?

My picture of a bike riders looking at a Staten Island Ferry has been viewed 120 times.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yellojkt/3505934210/in/pool-tdfbbt2009/

The organizers say that Sunday was the rainiest Five Boros Ride since 1983. Still, I made all 42 miles and then some.

I was busy as well, attending younger daughters Art Class as school - it is Education Week, they were working on their own versions of Van Gogh's Sunflowers - they are in Grade Three - you can imagine the interesting results.

I am proud to say my version of the pictures was awarded an "A" from the teacher - perhaps only because my daughter repeatedly took the picture to show the teacher.

This evening we attend Pasta night, eldest will be serving with her classmate - the honour of being the graduating class, they have been looking forward to this for years - I am less enthused about the food which from experience is pasta with sauce from large containers of sauce warmed and pour over the pasta. There are lots of baskets to raffle off though and I have been informed I would love to win the garden basket. It is a fun evening though.

Great kit Joel.

We we, shriek.

p. 310, John M. Barry's "The Great Influenza"

[Surgeon General Rupert Blue, head of the United States Public Health Service] Blue knew of the possibility of influenza in the United States. On August 1, the Memphis Medical Monthly published comments by him warning of it. ... And he made no effort whatsoever to prepare the Public Health Service for a crisis.

Many of those under him were no better. The Commonwealth Pier outbreak began late in August, and by September 9 newspaper victims were reporting that influenza victims filled "all hospital beds at the forts at Boston harbor," Camp Devens had thirty-five hundred influenza cases, and Massachusetts hospitals were filling with civilians. Yet the local Public Health Service later insisted, "The first knowledge of the existence of this disease reached this officer Sptember 10th."

The virus had reached New Orleans on September 4; the Great Lakes Naval Training Station on September 7; New London, Connecticut, on September 12.

Not until September 13 did the Public Health Service make any comment... The same day Blue did issue a circular telling all quarantine stations to inspect arriving ships for influenza.

LL: Sound anything like CDC's Besser, and DHS's Napolitano, Brennan not making a public announcement until Sunday, April 26--a month after the U.S. government knew it had a novel, new virus in San Diego, against which there is no herd immunity?

Fredericka Whitfield on Wolf Blitzer's CNN show moments ago announcing that there are now more than 900 cases in the United States.

Sharpton on Blitzer's show, after Sharpton, Gingrich, Bloomberg meet at the White House earlier today over a "national security threat." Turns out, it's a "crisis in education." Gimme a break. White House eager to switch the subject, I'm quite sure.

All the French I ever knew I learned from Pepé Le Pew. Some goes for Spanish and Speedy Gonzales.

That explains the humour. I was often LOL at Aubrey's attempt in French. O'Brian started out as a French-English translator and it shows.
There is nothing a translator loves more than a joke you need to understand both languages to understand.

Thanks for the Mother's Day reminder, shriek. Just placed my order.

SCC: Reviewing reporting by the Express-News...Trunnell of Harlingen left on materity leave on April 14, and was hospitalized within days

So, I just concluded a minor debate taking place all day today on a friend's Facebook page on the subject of gay marriage. A Friend-of-my-Friend is in the camp who feels that somehow it would be discrimination against Christians for "the gays" to have a right to marry (my friend is in the "what could possibly be wrong with gay marriage?" camp). Presumably he calls them "the gays" because, like Ahmedinajad, he "has never met one". This did not stand in the way of his claiming that "in his experience" homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, not an innate property.

Anyway, I say concluded, because I believe we have reached some sort of truce between modern social reality and his unbelievably backward... I mean, I think we found common ground between his heartfelt beliefs and the rights of others by agreeing to the formulation that I have considered for a while to be the only philosophically palatable solution: the problem is that marriage is a social construct with a significant religious component, so that the government's intrusion into the realm of performing any form of marriage is an unwarranted establishment of religion. Government should get out of the "marriage" business entirely and stick to the civil union business for everyone, regardless of sexuality or creed. Let religious institutions reserve the word marriage for a spiritual bond that they layer on top of the legal bond. Then they can define marriage however they darned well please. A religious ceremony of marriage thus can form a "common-law civil union", but the operable term is "civil union" for the legal status of everyone who is legally partnered, and a civil union is the only thing that a justice of the peace can perform.

This is, of course, a purely semantic solution. However, the most durable objection to gay marriage has been on a point of pure semantics -- many people have been willing to accept "civil union" but their hackles are raised by using the word marriage for a gay commitment. OK, fine, but many activists are similarly offended by the separate-but-equal status of "civil union" and "marriage" while both remain subject to governmental recognition (or lack thereof). The only way to avoid discriminatory classes of citizenship is to deny the word "marriage" from anyone, so long as government is involved.

I await my evisceration on the legal issues surrounding this relatively unimportant point that so incenses so many people to the extent that they would amend the Constitution to specifically disqualify certain civil rights, rather than just let people get along.

CNN: WHO's Dr. Keiji Fukuda said there is a possiblity that the number of cases worldwide of swine flu could be 2 billion.

New Kit!

I like your idea SciTim, makes a lot of sense to me. Marriage is a social construct that's grounded in religion. The problem I see is whether or not lawmakers can see this as a viable solution to the debate or will their personal convictions keep them from entertaining the idea.