Swine Flu Infects World of Warcraft

[lovinglinux]

"Somebody alert the World Health Organization - the swine flu has been discovered in Azeroth."

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91403-Swine-Flu-Infects-World-of-Warcraft


Research play games to study pandemics

"OTTAWA — Experts studying pandemics such as the swine flu have long been stymied by computer models that lacked one critical variable: free will."

http://www.canada.com/Life/Research+play+games+study+pandemics/1551047/story.html

[LightB]

I really hate that game.

[johnb820]

I would have expected it in Second Life first.

[handy]

I would have expected it in Second Life first.

LOL

I agree, it seems like the perfect environment for socially transmitted diseases to spread; you could probably even market them there...

[nothingspecial]

Maybe it will infect facebook.

[Bodsda]

Maybe it will infect facebook.

I hope so, that site is evil

[Kingsley]

I'm sure there's a Facebook app for swine flu by now

[Glucklich]

LOL! That is funny.
A Portuguese comedian made a pretty good joke about it. He said: "Just imagine some guy's obituary: "Joe Something; 1976-2009; Good father, loving husband and victim of the Swine flu"". LOLOL! Then, they changed it to 'Mexican flu'... After naming it 'swine', not a good idea to change it to Mexican. Then came just random letters with the number 1 twice or simply the letter A. I guess it's fine now, but I think the joke will live on.

[NightwishFan]

I really hate that game.

I agree.. (Worth a bit of trolling..)

[nathang1392]

aww man. swine flu is scary.

[handy]

Try imagining how scary men are to swine?

The intolerable conditions created by man, to farm the swine for maximum shareholder profit is what has caused the whole situation in the first place.

So I'll replace your:

aww man. swine flu is scary.

With:

aww man, man is scary.

Any swine that die from the disease are better off.

If you don't believe me, have a look at the documentary Earthlings that is in my signature?

[hanzomon4]

Try imagining how scary men are to swine?

The intolerable conditions created by man, to farm the swine for maximum shareholder profit is what has caused the whole situation in the first place.

So I'll replace your:

aww man. swine flu is scary.

With:

aww man, man is scary.

Any swine that die from the disease are better off.

If you don't believe me, have a look at the documentary Earthlings that is in my signature?

From what I understand they get the flu from us.... MAN FLU

[handy]

From what I understand they get the flu from us.... MAN FLU

The reason they get sick is due to the conditions they are kept under - housing/nutrition/high doses of drugs/chemicals.

[Edit:] I expect this thread will be closed any minute, due to the fact that it has started to talk about something meaningful.

Swine flu over the cuckoo's nest.

[Edit:2] Corporate pig farming practices (on properties in Mexico) of the most cruel kind, are apparently responsible for this human flu.

[HermanAB]

I think I just recovered from this stupid flu. Had it for several weeks. It may be better called schweinehund flu...

[sqrooup]

As long as you don't break out in a rasher. And you take your oinkment!
:lolflag::lolflag::lolflag::lolflag:

[monsterstack]

Are you trying to tell me the swine flu? How? Was it strapped to a chair in Ballmer's office?

[Fingers & Thumbs]

I may catch it; when pigs fly.

[handy]

Here is another note, that in this case I am spreading on the subject that is spreading like a virus around the world:



Dear friends,

Evidence is emerging that traces swine flu to giant factory pig farms that are dirty, dangerous, and inhumane. Sign the petition to the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to investigate and regulate these threats to our health:

Sign the Petition!
No-one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but it is becoming clear where it came from – most likely a giant pig factory farm run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz, Mexico.(1)

These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they're rapidly multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty warehouses and sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health risk to more than just our food -- they and their manure lagoons create the perfect conditions to breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) must investigate and develop regulations for these farms to protect global health.

Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at reform, so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can't ignore. Sign the petition below for investigation and regulation of factory farms and tell your friends and family and we will deliver it to the UN agencies. If we reach 200,000 signatures we will deliver it to the WHO in Geneva with a herd of cardboard pigs. For every 1000 petition signatures we will add a pig to the herd:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been nearly paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel, banned pork imports and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the spreading virus. As the threat shows signs of subsiding the question becomes where it came from and how we stop another outbreak.

Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose farm is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any connection between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness worldwide pays huge sums of money for research to argue that biosafety is ensured in industrial hog production. But the WHO has been saying for years that 'a new pandemic is inevitable'(2) and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health.(3)

Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in concentrated large-scale operations, and the devastating economic impact on small farmer communities of bloated large-scale operations.(4) Smithfield itself has already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.(5)

But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of increased global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by profit at the cost of human health, means that instead of being shut down - these sickening factory farm operations are propagating around the world and we are subsidising them (6). In the wake of this swine flu threat, let's hold industrial pig producers to account. Sign the petition for investigation and regulation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into the impact of factory farms on human health, we could put in place tough farm practice rules that will save the global population from future animal borne lethal pandemics.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

in hope,

Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis, Raj, Veronique, Milena, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

(1) Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm:http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html
Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.story

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blamed-on-industri-09-05-01

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictable-pandemic.html?full=true

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.html

(2) WHO pandemic information
http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19

(3) FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public health
FAOand CIWFand http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm

(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:
CIWF andPETA

(5) Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare and environmental damage
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-trouble-with-smithfield-article03132008

http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf

(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farmshttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-out-700-million-for-factory-farming-in-England.html