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Avian flu is so potent, Ron Bailey finds, that it causes people to run around like decapitated chickens even before they're infected.
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|10.19.05 @ 1:39PM|#
"intimate exposure to poultry"
I guess now would be a good time to kick the chicken fetish.
|10.19.05 @ 1:45PM|#
Homeopathic medicine would suggest just the opposite. Get a can of chicken soup, take out one drop of the broth, dilute it 10 million times.
Then place 5 drops of the dilution under your tongue. You are now protected.
|10.19.05 @ 2:15PM|#
Oh yeah! Well, you may laugh NOW, but just wait until you're in your back yard pecking, scratching, clucking, and crowing at the rising sun!
|10.19.05 @ 2:21PM|#
The articles I've been seeing talk about the possibility that this might mutate into something superfatal and supercontagious among humans. And yes, there is that possibility. There always has been the possibility that an animal virus will mutate into something deadly to humans, just like there's always the possibility that an asteroid will hit us or the Yellowstone supervolcano will plunge the planet into a five-year winter.
You know how the media runs in these cycles where it harps on one of those doomsday scenarios that are guaranteed to happen sometime in the future, yet statistically unlikely to happen to us? It was rocks from space a few years ago, and now it's the superflu pandemic possibility.
|10.19.05 @ 2:27PM|#
Mmm, supervolcano. My favorite doomsday scenario.
On the other hand, 'rocks from space' is a bit scarier to me, not because of the probability of it happening, but because of the likely outcome. I can shrug at chickenflu and say, 'Well, I'm young and healthy; I'll probably be fine.' But a major rock-from-space event is going to be a species-ender for humanity.
If we're going to panic about doomsday events, I'd prefer it to be about the ones that could happen, that have happened in the past, and that suggest a low probability of the continued existence of humanity.
|10.19.05 @ 2:47PM|#
If we're going to panic about doomsday events, I'd prefer it to be about the ones that could happen, that have happened in the past, and that suggest a low probability of the continued existence of humanity.
SUPERVOLCANO! Yellowstone's has blown three times before, it can and will happen again, and there's a good chance it will kill off all of humanity, because we're talking the possibility of a five- or six-year winter with almost NO growing seasons ANYWHERE in the world. Even the equatorial zones freezing over!
The only human survivors will be the ones who have those huge supplies of freeze-dried food in their bunkers. Great coda for humanity, huh?
A supervolcano almost wiped us out 78,000 years ago. DNA analysis shows the human population bottlenecked back then--we're all a LOT more closely related than we'd otherwise be.
And now that I've set the mood by thinking about the extinction of humanity, I really do have to get back to work.
|10.19.05 @ 2:52PM|#
I don't mind telling you: this bird flu thing is just plain scary. But then, so was SARS...and West Nile.
|10.19.05 @ 2:55PM|#
So now instead of stockpiling a week's worth of food/water, you're telling me I need 5 or 6 years worth? (Plus enough to get through the first growing season, I suppose)
I give up... I'm stockpiling enough booze and narcotics for a 2-week bender, so I can go out on a high note when the big one blows.
|10.19.05 @ 2:57PM|#
Who can tell by the cackle of a hen whether she has laid or lied?
|10.19.05 @ 2:59PM|#
You can make a great sight gag out of a few feathers, a sneeze, and the phrase "bird flu."
|10.19.05 @ 3:09PM|#
joe,
Are you trying to lead us into another sex toy discussion?
|10.19.05 @ 3:29PM|#
The fine line between erotic and kinky is crossed when you go from tickling with a feather to using the whole chicken.
|10.19.05 @ 3:33PM|#
Show me that fine line!
|10.19.05 @ 3:47PM|#
Joe, that was quite funny! :-)
Jennifer, in your list of scary things that are bound to kill us all, you left out shark attacks. Remember a few years ago when sharks were going to be the death of us all?
|10.19.05 @ 4:17PM|#
Naw, that was the Africanized killer bees.
|10.19.05 @ 4:18PM|#
In related nooze, Study Reveals Pittsburgh Unprepared For Full-Scale Zombie Attack
I know we've got some members in the Pittsburgh area. Thoughts?
|10.19.05 @ 4:54PM|#
Bird flu? A good plan B.
taktix|10.19.05 @ 4:56PM|#
I'm in Pittsburgh. Zombies have been a manageable problem for some time, but ever since Ed Rendell issued stricter sentences for people who use guns in zombie-defense, we've seen a large increase in the zombie population, especially the 180-to-240 age group.
|10.19.05 @ 4:58PM|#
Randall Flagg,
You were one of my favorite bad guys.
|10.19.05 @ 5:31PM|#
"I'm in Pittsburgh"
I'm afraid of catching whatever it is Tommy Maddox had last Sunday.
gaius marius|10.20.05 @ 10:07AM|#
Yellowstone's has blown three times
and it's "due", according to my television, plus or minus 20,000 years....
|10.20.05 @ 10:56AM|#
Gaius--
I'd heard it was 60,000 years overdue. Geologically speaking, Yellowstone is due to blow any second. But in human terms, of course, that means anytime between right now and two hundred thousand years hence.
I re-watched the BBC "Supervolcano" movie last night. My main complaint is that is was a two-parter but it should have been a three-parter; it ended with the end of the eruption but I wanted to see what would happen over the next five years, when it's close to impossible to grow any more food and the remaining supplies are simply not sufficient for the remaining population. THAT problem would lead to some fun libertarian bull sessions!
|10.20.05 @ 11:26AM|#
Ugh.
Re-watched?
Jennifer, how could you?
I'm still waiting for JerryBruckheimerMichaelBay to make a $300 million action shitfest extravaganza about the Yellowstone caldera. (Which, if it goes off, my posting will cease. For some of you, this will be an unintended bonus, I'm sure.)
|10.20.05 @ 2:00PM|#
What if the Yellowstone caldera erupts at the same time as the New Madrid fault busts loose?
gaius marius|10.20.05 @ 2:12PM|#
and an asteroid at the same time, mr bartram! quick -- someone get on the phone to universal! we got a movie!
|10.20.05 @ 3:01PM|#
You fools, it's the sharks that are going to get us. Yes, the sharks await you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth.
|10.20.05 @ 5:27PM|#
we got a movie!
I'll get started auditioning the starlets.