The REALLY scary one is the one nobody's heard of yet. Go read The White Plague by Frank Herbert, and then try and get a good night's sleep. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93448.The_White_Plague" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9344 ... ite_Plague</a> Tell me there isn't some uber-smart geneticist that's going to get his family killed by some terrorist or government somewhere, and then loses it and makes up a nice little cocktail in his basement lab. To me, that is the ultimate form of "holy shit that is totally plausible" terrorism, and with all the Iran/Iraq/Palestine/ISIS/Christian/Jewish/blah-blah-blah shit going on in the world, it's almost like it's only a matter of time.
People are always looking to be scared, its shocking really. I think the last truly lethal pandemic to come to the US and do incredible damage by numbers was the Spanish Flu. Since then we haven't really had anything like it. Its amazing what modern medicine and sanitation have been able to accomplish.
These are the same people that eat albinos to cure ailments and sexual impotency, rape virgins to cure AIDS, still burn suspected witches alive, practice genital mutilation, and think homosexuals "Eat the poopoo" of other homosexuals. That entire continent is fucked. The general population doesn't stand a chance against the loud and well armed whackadoodles. If it wasn't for gem mines and the pyramids the whole place would have been forgotten around 1917. Read King Leopold's Ghost. Europe pulled a number on them real good.
Never mind communication. That same communication that lets everyone become a paranoid freak is also the same communication that could very well spread the news/info needed to keep people safe. Never before have we been able to disseminate life-saving knowledge and news as instantaneously. The problem comes when those highly visible agencies use it to titillate and sensationalize and play on fear to gain popularity, rather than use it to educate and help eliminate that fear. Those two concepts are at odds with each other... and guess which one most news agencies are subscribing to?
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea That link will point to this version of Ebola being the Zaire strain which has the highest mortality rate. The Journal of Infectious Diseases has a great paper from Tulane on transmission methods found here <a class="postlink" href="http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/196/Supplement_2/S142.full" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/1 ... /S142.full</a> Lets not act like we understand the virus 100%. Even the CDC admits they dont understand it thoroughly. source of quote <a class="postlink" href="http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/prevention/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/prevention/</a> For clarification I do not subscribe to the idea of sensationalism but when it comes to science I do think it is worthwhile to at least pay attention to headlines.
If anyone has an interest in air medevac stuff, I was learning this morning about the plane they use to fly these super-high risk patients from place to place. Neat stuff. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/health/ebola-isolation-treatment/index.html?hpt=hp_t2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/health/eb ... ?hpt=hp_t2</a> I mean, a CDC doctor who could be called away at any minute to deal with more Ebola / border crisis public health issues was teaching us about it. Pretty fucking cool. I guess the problem with Ebola is that most people know the name Ebola and equate it with "something really, really, really bad, dangerous and deadly" and that's it. They don't really know if it's a virus or a bacteria or how it kills people or how it spreads, just that it does. While Ebola seems to be contagious enough, it isn't as contagious as, say, influenza or SARS, because far more people by now would have died and more than 2 humanitarian workers would have contracted the disease during this outbreak. The bulk of the problem seems to be the cultural practices of the regions where outbreaks occur. Their burial practices (which, on the less grisly scale from what Nettdaddy described, also include washing and cleaning the body) are a major driver, but the number officially reported cases is almost certainly a fraction of the total number of victims, because people hide family members who have fallen ill because they want to avoid the stigma, or they will actually go so far as to break into medical clinics, kidnap patients, and take them away. It doesn't help that medical workers show up looking like plague doctors into small villages, which scares locals enough, but quite often Ebola starts appearing shortly after they visit, which makes them fear medical providers that much more. There's also plenty of local myths about eating onions/mangoes/whatever as cures or preventives for Ebola. And this is stuff I heard both from the CDC doc today, a colleague who had taken courses with the CDC, as well as just reading information from the CDC and WHO websites, which are actually quite informative.
I got to share- my wife and I just arrived to my work conference. Estas friggin nice. I'm gonna do something stupid and embarrass myself, I just know it. Its going to be sweet.
Speaking of unsanitary practices, I saw a clip on the TV showing people burying ebola victims in shallow (3-4 foot deep) graves wrapped in just a shroud. What about animals digging bodies up or the virus leaching into ground water over time? I would think cremation would be far better. On a happier note, I just discovered margaritas go surprisingly well with Chinese food. Who'd a thunk it?
A lady brought her giant schnauzer to be boarded for 3 weeks. She made 90 (yes. NINETY.) paleo meals for her dog. By hand. And numbered them. And his meds are in four different pill stacks. He's on like 12 meds. And a b12 injection. Weekly. Like. Salmon plank and eggs. And scrambled eggs and goat cheese. Things like that. IT HAS GOAT AND COTTAGE CHEESE WITH EVERY MEAL. Oh. And the dog is to be weight at LEAST once a week BY THE VET and to have the weight recorded. We also have a text number to send photos and updates.
The real question isn't if alcohol is going to be a factor, but rather, how little it'll actually take.
Man, moving house is such a pain in the ass but my new place is great with an adorable kitty. Also I have the BIGGEST lady crush on my housemate. She's so Italian and fashionable and has awesome hair and is an architect and today we went to look at vintage book stores and ate nothing but patisserie. *off to doodle our names on my schoolbooks*
My achilles heel is the microwaveable White Castle burgers. That mix of melted cheese, onions and little square pressed beef patty sandwiched in a tiny bun is more than I can handle. Not sure what I would do if someone decided to use it to manipulate me.
Friend of mine at work gave me a 6-pack of his home made ginger beer. Holy Shitsnacks is it fucking tasty. Made a blueberry pie this afternoon. I'm sitting on my deck, getting loaded off of high-test ginger beer, and eating blueberry pie. Merry Fucking Sunday!
Just finished watching 'Grandma's Boy' - it's On Demand. I know that movie is awful, but I fucking love it.
A friendly little tip to you fine folks... If you go to the local Irish festival, do NOT play a drinking game called "spot the ginger". Your liver will thank you.