Geekonomics

Swine flu and Twitter

Apr 27, 2009 16:55

So this geek is in Silicon Valley right now and just had a nice Vietnamese pork chop for lunch this afternoon till I read about swine flu spreading. Now, I'm worried about whether I'll be able to get back next week without being quarantined or something since California is one of the affected areas.

As I hunted for information on the flu, pretty good information showed up, such as five things you need to know about the outbreak, to the almost comical.

There are solid reasons to suspect that this new Mexican swine flu is NOT a naturally occurring event but instead is an Advanced Biological Warfare recombination DNA genetically engineered virus. The new Mexican swine flu has elements of DNA from the following: Avian flu, human flu Type A, human flu Type B, Asian swine flu, and European swine flu. A strange combination never seen before and having less than 1/10 percent chance of being a natural event. Human and animal viruses from four or more continents suddenly recombine in a new flu during a non-flu season, which spreads from human to human with a 10 percent fatality rating. (emailed from a friend, without source)

But I'd have to say that the best I came across was this story about how Twitter, one of the best sources of real-time news, could be misused to propagate wrong information!

Well, this thing just started, so who knows what might happen the rest of the week. But let's all pray for safety. This geek still wants to go home next week!

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