Swine Flu A Bit Of A Misnomer

I don't usually comment on health issues (as it doesn't fall into the "describing geeky things that happened last night" camp), nor do I generally link from Boing Boing (as it would be unlikely for most people to see a BB article here first, statistically speaking).

But this - this I found interesting:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that, people in the U.S. infected with the virus have either traveled to Mexico recently or have been exposed to someone returning from the country. The CDC originally thought the virus was a straightforward swine flu virus. However after closer analysis determined it is a new virus containing a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses.

-- Swine Influenza Update from a Nurse: Virus, Panic, Precautions, and End of the World Websites.

Which is pretty creepy considering this thing's special trick seems to be hopping from species to species. I don't know how likely it is for a bug to go from say, swine to human and then human to human and then, uh, human to turtle - but it sure sounds like a great House episode if there ever was one.

Course, others don't agree:

Meanwhile, the UNRELIABLE sources are in full bloom. Rightwing and survivalist commentary ranges from decrying the swine flu as a bio-terror attack (Terror Pigs?) to celebrating this as the beginning of the Rapture.

Apocalypse swine.

This is the way the world ends, people. Not with a bang.

But a snort.


Update: Apparently the "cross-gene" theory is being disputed, and the swine flu may be all swine after all.

Snort.

Zombie Yule Tide 2008 Meme

Corvus doesn't have a recent version of this meme up, I caught it off Facebook - but the rules are set as thus:

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:

1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you

My picks:

Weapon (First Choice): Bayoneted Shotgun
At one point they were against the Geneva Convention, but they exist nonetheless. I simply can't resist the possibility of bringing a shotgun to a zombie fight, but also realize that ammo will be finite. Hence, the pointy thing at the end.

That said, I acknowledge that this might constitute two weapons instead of one, so:

Weapon (Second Choice): Shamshir
A shamshir is a type of sword, similar to a scimitar but not as heavy. It's light, so it won't wear you out as you swing, it's biased towards slashing and not stabbing - which is how you should confront a zombie anyway, and it's one handed so you'll have a free hand to grab impromptu weapons, open doors, press buttons or hold that damsel in distress you find along the way.

Song: Calling Out Remix By Lyrics Born
It's an upbeat, slightly egotistic, anthem with a backbeat you can fight to ... and it doesn't sound so bad on infinite repeat either.

Celebrity Guest: Bruce Campbell
Look, I know it's cliche and I know old Bruce is an actor and hasn't actually defeated an army of darkness before, but c'mon - it's Bruce freaking Campbell and zombies. That's like peanut butter and chocolate for the most part. Plus, I would assume Bruce would be irrationally optimistic in such situations, which is the kind of attitude I would want around.

A co-worker offered up Simon Pegg as a reasonable alternative, should Bruce be otherwise occupied by 100 other requests.

Apokalyptica 2008: Tales of the Zombie War

Tales of the Zombie War is an interesting mashup between a zombie genre fansite (a la but not limited to World War Z) and short fiction contest. The next round of fiction is due March 1st and offers a $50 prize.

That's actually pretty decent purse for a shortfic setup that doesn't try to require any door fee or whatnot. And the rules are clearly trying to cast the lot above normal fanfic. For a site unaffiliated with Max Brooks, it's a damn nice thing to do.

Happy Apokalyptica 2008

Apokalyptica is winter holiday of celebrating the fact that the world has not, in fact, come to an end once again. Usually I'm more on top of promoting it during December, but that was one wild and crazy month for us. Apokalyptica has always been a bit of underdog as holidays go, being all removed from Wikipedia and stuff.

I'll try to get some updated posts for this holiday month when I get a chance, and maybe it will motivate me to finish at least a part of This Town Is Dead, the IF I'm working on.