Darth Wong wrote:To be honest, I never entirely understood the great appeal of Mexico as a vacation destination. It's a third-world country. What does it offer that you can't get at more civilized destinations? If you go to the beach on the California coast line, is this a vastly different experience than going to the beach in Mexico?
It offers very little. I went to Mexico for my honeymoon. I found the trip to be more expensive than a typical trip I would normally take to Florida (with less to do to boot!). I don't eat or drink in massive quantities to take advantage of the all-you-can-eat or drink deals. I found the being cooped up on the resort to be boring after a couple of days. You can't go walking outside because it may be dangerous and if you do decide to go on an excursion it will end up costing you more money. Actually, we did take a cab into town (something I will never do again if I ever lose my wits and return to Mexico. Sorry to get off topic.
Just came home from an interesting excursion - lots of overheard talks in the barbershop, supermarket and on the street about swine flu. Some choice quotes:
Some dumb fuck 20-something whacko: "What have we got to worry about, it's just another lie, just like SARS - do you know anyone who got SARS?"
Old conservative cunt 1: "It's obviously terrorism - I mean you get it from pigs right. They've got that thing against pigs. So muslims aren't going to catch it."
Old conservative cunt 2: [same as above, but apply Jew instead of muslim and "Zionist conspiracy" instead of "terrorism"]
And my personal favourite from a group of uni student looking sorts in the supermarket:
"It could be worse, at least it's not zombies."
You know it's bad when a comment involving zombies is the most rational thing you hear on a topic.
weemadando wrote:Just came home from an interesting excursion - lots of overheard talks in the barbershop, supermarket and on the street about swine flu. Some choice quotes:
Some dumb fuck 20-something whacko: "What have we got to worry about, it's just another lie, just like SARS - do you know anyone who got SARS?"
Wow, they actually believe whole world revolves around their tiny little community? If things did not happen in their town, then it is impossible to believe that a virus was spread in other parts of the world?
Humans are such funny creatures. We are selfish about selflessness, yet we can love something so much that we can hate something.
weemadando wrote:Just came home from an interesting excursion - lots of overheard talks in the barbershop, supermarket and on the street about swine flu. Some choice quotes:
Some dumb fuck 20-something whacko: "What have we got to worry about, it's just another lie, just like SARS - do you know anyone who got SARS?"
Wow, they actually believe whole world revolves around their tiny little community? If things did not happen in their town, then it is impossible to believe that a virus was spread in other parts of the world?
Not all of the world is as cosmopilitan as Singapore. Although people who are so paranoid they don't trust the news agencies tend to be idiots. A more sane comment was that this is overblown like SARS... except having problems overblown prevents them from getting out of control in the first place.
If you drink enough, go to SB and check out the relevant thread there.
Let him land on any Lyran world to taste firsthand the wrath of peace loving people thwarted by the myopic greed of a few miserly old farts- Katrina Steiner
weemadando wrote:
It's pretty much a case of potential cases (severe flus with matching symptoms) would have blood samples taken and sent to the WHO or CDC, whoever has the closest labs for testing.
A doctor can go: "Ayup, that there's a flu." But without actually looking at hte little buggers, to the best of my knowledge it's practically impossible to distinguish between strains without extended periods of observation.
Errr. Blood or sputum samples?
Let him land on any Lyran world to taste firsthand the wrath of peace loving people thwarted by the myopic greed of a few miserly old farts- Katrina Steiner
weemadando wrote:
It's pretty much a case of potential cases (severe flus with matching symptoms) would have blood samples taken and sent to the WHO or CDC, whoever has the closest labs for testing.
A doctor can go: "Ayup, that there's a flu." But without actually looking at hte little buggers, to the best of my knowledge it's practically impossible to distinguish between strains without extended periods of observation.
Errr. Blood or sputum samples?
Cool and sooooo much fun... "Sir/Mam, take five deep breaths and cough."...."Now spit that good stuff here in this cup."
Yeah, sooo much fun.
As an aside; Strep P, Staph A, Kleb and other bugs are easily picked up on labs. Virals are a bit trickier, though a lab rat will say other wise, more a job of exclusion rather than a 'solid hit'.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong
But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
weemadando wrote:And my personal favourite from a group of uni student looking sorts in the supermarket:
"It could be worse, at least it's not zombies."
You know it's bad when a comment involving zombies is the most rational thing you hear on a topic.
It's that bad, apparently, according to these idiots (stuff begins after 0:46, before that, it's just the latest announcement by the Health Secretary, with captions the maker seems to find funny):
But seriously, sanity is high over there, compared to some freaks here in Mexico, who tout conspiracy theories that range from the bizarre to the downright ludicrous: illuminati, free masons, whatever. A few but loud insist it's been all orchestrated by the Mexican government (as if it controlled the CDC and the WHO). Last night I shot downas many of their nonsensical claims on Yahoo! Answers until I just got tired. Meh.
[EDIT: Apparently, you can now post YouTube videos in here as well. Thanks a lot, if it's all in order, please feel free to edit it out if not.]
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20 GET UP$:IF UP$="" THEN 20
30 GOTO BATHROOM
...
GENERATION 29
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Take it up with my representative:
As the leader of the Official Australian Branch of the Illuminati, I can promise you that we are not involved.
More seriously, RSOE is showing suspected cases down in Victoria. Might be spreading here in Aus, too.
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PainRack wrote:If you drink enough, go to SB and check out the relevant thread there.
Its already been pushed back to Page 2.
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The WHO has bumped the alert status to a 4 - "Verified human-to-human transmission able to cause community-level outbreaks. Significant increase in risk of a pandemic".
Still no need to panic. Keep washing your hands.
Oddly enough, while looking for a lightbulb last night I stumbled across our long-forgotten stash of facemasks, still sealed in their package. Hm... Well, between those, our two boxes of plastic gloves, and several bottle of handcleaner I guess we're prepared.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Next of Kin wrote:
It offers very little. I went to Mexico for my honeymoon. I found the trip to be more expensive than a typical trip I would normally take to Florida (with less to do to boot!). I don't eat or drink in massive quantities to take advantage of the all-you-can-eat or drink deals. I found the being cooped up on the resort to be boring after a couple of days. You can't go walking outside because it may be dangerous and if you do decide to go on an excursion it will end up costing you more money. Actually, we did take a cab into town (something I will never do again if I ever lose my wits and return to Mexico. Sorry to get off topic.
Well, if you stay at a fucking resort, of course it´s going to be boring. Resorts are the definition of boredom. If you´re too scared to walk around outside, then Mexico or similar countries are not the right destination for you. Of course it´s not really too dangerous to walk around outside. Hint: The locals and thousands of tourists do that all the time.
If, on the other hand, you´re not a paranoid person, countries like Mexico can be awesome and cheap countries to travel in. If your idea of a good vacation is getting to know different cultures, people and mentalities then countries like Mexico are good to travel.
If your idea of vacation is lying on the beach for two weaks then you can just as well go to California, southern France or Fuerteventura.
BBC News wrote:Israel renames unkosher swine flu
Yakov Litzman
Litzman is one of eight ultra-Orthodox members of the government team
Israeli Health Minister Yakov Litzman has been updating a nervous public on the swine flu epidemic - and he started by renaming it for religious reasons.
"We will call it Mexican flu. We won't call it swine flu," said Mr Litzman, who belongs to the ultra-religious United Torah Judaism party.
Pigs are considered unclean under Jewish dietary laws. Muslims also do not eat pork for similar reasons.
Israel has yet to confirm a case of the flu which has claimed 100 lives.
Mr Litzman said there was no indication the virus had reached Israel, but precautionary measures and monitoring wwer required because of the heavy air traffic between Israel and the US, which has a number of confirmed cases.
Religiously sensitive
Yakov Litzman serves as deputy health minister in the recently-formed government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took the position of health minister himself.
Mr Litzman is one of eight ultra-Orthodox Jewish ministers and deputy ministers in Mr Netanyahu's administration.
Correspondents in Israel say scientists are concerned the new religiously sensitive name could could be seen as stigmatising Mexico.
The North American country has had the most cases of swine flu, but it is not necessarily where the disease first emerged.
Swine flu is a respiratory disease caused by a type of influenza which usually infects pigs.
Until now it has not normally infected humans, but the latest form clearly does, and can be spread from person to person - probably through coughing and sneezing.
There is no evidence that it can be transmitted through eating meat from infected pigs.
But this story is slightly out of date. There has been a confirmed case of swine flu (take that, ultra-Orthodox assholes) in Israel.
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SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
It's even more stupid because, for Jews, the only prohibition on pigs is eating them - keeping them as pets, using pig products for non-dietary purposes (such as medical uses), etc. are all completely OK under Jewish laws. Touching a pig does not make one unclean. The word "pig" isn't offensive to normal Jews.
It's the Muslims who have pig taboos beyond not eating them.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Well, northern Indiana has its first confirmed case, a student at Notre Dame college. I'm a little surprised - I would have expected our first case in this area to come out of Chicago, what with all the international traffic in and out of the airports, but go figure. The student in question has not been to Mexico nor is a close contact with anyone recently in Mexico, but since all it takes is some passer-by sneezing on a susceptible person the idea that a college student on a campus full of other students from all over picked up the swine flu isn't really a huge leap.
Was hoping to take the husband out to see the new Star Trek movie and I wanted to see the Wolverine one - really hope this doesn't impact those two little outings. Might pass on eating while at the show if there are more cases, as that would probably increase possible risk, but at this point I'm not intending to alter our plans for attending the movies.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Heres my question... Ok, so lots of people are getting infected, and it seems its easily transmissible...but, how many people are dying? exactly how serious is this type of flu when it hits a human? I ask because depending on that is how much I really worry... I mean, the whole world could become infected and it wouldn't mater if it was a weak virus. but if people are dying from the dises easily, well thats more an issue
Praying is another way of doing nothing helpful
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Crossroads Inc. wrote:Heres my question... Ok, so lots of people are getting infected, and it seems its easily transmissible...but, how many people are dying? exactly how serious is this type of flu when it hits a human? I ask because depending on that is how much I really worry... I mean, the whole world could become infected and it wouldn't mater if it was a weak virus. but if people are dying from the dises easily, well thats more an issue
Death toll in Mexico City is 153 now, but almost impossible to define out of how many infected. Estimates are somewhat less than 2,000 still in the news, which suggests a 7.5% fatality rate there (a worldwide pandemic would usually infect about half the world population, so that would mean 225 million deaths worldwide), but I suspect the fatality rate is much lower and the number of infected much higher since I doubt they can test everyone, or even that everyone has gone to the doctor. Right now in the USA the number of tested cases is 60 but the actual is in the several hundreds as it now stands... With no fatalities, which presents a slight bit of a mystery.
The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. -- Wikipedia's No Original Research policy page.
Crossroads Inc. wrote:Heres my question... Ok, so lots of people are getting infected, and it seems its easily transmissible...but, how many people are dying? exactly how serious is this type of flu when it hits a human? I ask because depending on that is how much I really worry... I mean, the whole world could become infected and it wouldn't mater if it was a weak virus. but if people are dying from the dises easily, well thats more an issue
As previously mentioned it seems to have a mortality rate of around 5-7 percent currently, but given that it's still a fairly small sample size and being well treated, that's likely on the low-ball side of things. The concerning part was that it was taking down HYA (Healthy Young Adults), which shows that this is a mean fucker of a virus.
Are the risks to die of it once you´ve caught it lower in a country with better medical standards or is there just nothing besides hoping that your body can take it?
Broomstick wrote:It's the Muslims who have pig taboos beyond not eating them.
Ironically, this taboo is not supported by the Koran. The injunction is against eating pig flesh, with no mention given to anything else that might be done with a pig. Somehow it has come to be widely believed among Muslims that they're not supposed to even touch pig products, even though it would actually not be against the teachings of Islam to, say, butcher hogs for a living.
Crossroads Inc. wrote:Heres my question... Ok, so lots of people are getting infected, and it seems its easily transmissible...but, how many people are dying? exactly how serious is this type of flu when it hits a human? I ask because depending on that is how much I really worry... I mean, the whole world could become infected and it wouldn't mater if it was a weak virus. but if people are dying from the dises easily, well thats more an issue
As previously mentioned it seems to have a mortality rate of around 5-7 percent currently, but given that it's still a fairly small sample size and being well treated, that's likely on the low-ball side of things. The concerning part was that it was taking down HYA (Healthy Young Adults), which shows that this is a mean fucker of a virus.
Healthy Young Adults in Mexico City. We have no idea if all the smog and shit they breath every day complicated matters or if poor health care complicated it, or if just that bunch had secondary infections that did them in or if it was JUST the virus.
Considering only a small sample size in Mexico let alone the itty bitty sample in the US, I'm not williing to throw my hands in the air and start screaming like a girl.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong
But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
Tamiflu and Relenza have recovered even hospitalized US cases, so even the serious cases are treatable if rapidly counteracted--if you get the flu, go to the doctor immediately, immediately, immediately, even if you have to pay a huge amount to do so, those drugs work best in the first 48 hours, and there's no way to tell whether or not you have the swine flu or regular flu until that period of maximum effectiveness for anti-virals has already passed.
The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. -- Wikipedia's No Original Research policy page.
