Popularity Contest 2009
5 Aug
Swine Flu.
Sigh.
Okay fine, the ‘H1N1′ virus then since apparently the term ’swine flu’ is offensive to jewish people…or pigs…no, not jewish pigs. Come now, don’t be rude.
Once again it seems to be the only thing I hear about, mostly through the spittle enriched rants of panicking doomsayers. The reason the swine news is back in full swing is because well, a 22 year old Stellenbosch kid died the other day. It’s tragic I know.
That was our first recorded death.
But now it’s become a popularity contest.
Not to be bested by the Western Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal had their first fatality as well, a 44 year old man from Pheonix.This means that Gauteng should announce a death by Friday and then the competition really kicks off! What province will be the ultimate winner?!?! We’ll just have to wait to find out!
So that’s now 2 out of an estimated 700 cases in the country. Less than 1%. In fact, less than 0.5%. About the same percentage of fatalities around the world.
Now while 6000, the most trustworthy Scientist I know (since he has a sense of humour), has said there is reason to worry…forgive me if I’m not going to panic just yet.
At the moment, more people die from regular old flu and that’s going to be the bigger concern in my mind. Sometime. I’m sure it’ll be something I worry about at some point, just not now.
In other popularity news, Stephenie Meyer (you know, the author of the sparkly vampire books) is being sued for copyright infringement by an author who’s name I’ve already forgotten. Yesterday, gossip rags got their dirty little hands on the legal docs listing this author’s woes. Apparently, she wrote a book a couple of years ago. A book which Stephenie Meyer’s last Twilight book, Breaking Dawn, has a striking resemblence to.
Among these similarities are:
Both books contain a post wedding sex scene.
Both books contain a scene about a woman who’s sick because she’s carrying a child with “evil powers”
Both books contain a scene with the death of the main character’s wife
That’s just some of them listed apparently but if those are the strongest arguments, I’m sorry but I have to cry BULLSHIT. You see, in the realm of Paranormal Romance (a genre the Twilight novels technically fall under) there is a remarkable lack of originality. They all pretty much deal with the same themes and situations.
Although, if we are sue happy…then L.J. Smith, author of Vampire Diaries, should sue Meyer as well – their series share similarities in a BIG way. I doubt Smith will though since her books did really well when they were released years ago and she’s getting her own T.V. show for them in October.
What about the Jane Austen estate? Or the distant relative of Shakespeare? I’m pretty sure the content of her books merit being sued by them if ‘copyright infringement’ just means ’share some similarities’.
While we’re about it, when is J.K. Rowling going to be sued by the entire population of Fantasy authors for taking bits and pieces from their ideas?
Hell, I’m thinking I should sue Robot Chicken for writing a skit which has a remarkable resemblence to a script I wrote at college….if a remarkable resemblence means it was about a baby fighting a dog. (It’s actually a pretty decent script and I’m keeping it around for when I can finally get around to animating it).
I can understand that this little known author may be pissed off that her book didn’t recieve as much attention as Meyer’s franchise – especially when you consider that Meyer’s writing sucks. Unfortunately for this chick, the writing sucking is part of the charm that draws you in and makes you feel like a teenager again…and those that are teenagers can’t really spell words like ‘mom’ these days so I doubt they care. But really, the arguments she’s given for actual infringement is a bit of a joke and it just ends up sounding like she’s trying to piggyback the success of Twilight. Especially considering how many tweens will run out and read her book just to compare.
From Swine flu to Twilight…I hate fame whores.
Related posts:
So if fame whores are out, are famous whores then in? O.o
Craig´s last blog ..Fighting for Your Weekend
Well Paris Hilton is still making money from doing…nothing so I guess it is?
To be frank here, if you have access to the Internet, you’re not in danger of swine flu to be honest. We’re priviliged to buy vitamins and antibiotics. The only people that are killed are those with previous health complications or have an underlying sickness or would’ve died from normal flu anyway. The guy that died in Stellenbosch was diagnosed with pneumonia or hyperthermia (sp?) or something before they confirmed it later that it was swine flu. So, if you’re not going to look after yourself, you are going to suffer the consequences.
NielDLR´s last blog ..FlickMyFaceYouTwit
You know, I’ve never taken an antibiotic a day in my life, never as a kid because my mom refused to and never as an adult because I don’t see the point…but apart from that, I fully agree with you.
I’m sure 6k will be here soon to tell us why we’re wrong though
As the existentialists or the postmodernists or the semioticians or someone with a fancy name said, everything has been written before. Whcih is pretty crap, if I want to write a book how can I avoid the lawsuits?
Po´s last blog ..Who’s got the monkeys?
Meh. There’s a big difference between “being concerned” (which is what I advocated) and “panicking”. There’s no point in panicking.
The mortality rate will rise now that we are seeing Tamiflu resistant strains. And if the virus mutates to become more dangerous.
But you know all this. And still, you insist on mocking me.
6000´s last blog ..Sick
*sigh*
Mr DLR > Antibiotics work against bacteria, swine flu is a virus. If you’re so clued up “via the internet” why make a basic error like that?
Vitamins won’t protect you against swine flu either.
Yes, Muller died as a result of pneumonia. Pneumonia that he wouldn’t have contracted if he didn’t have swine flu. He also had no underlying health problems. So put that in your (wind)pipe and smoke it.
AIDS patients die of TB – why do they get TB? Because they have AIDS (and because they don’t have access to the internet, apparently).
6000´s last blog ..Sick
Ok..Ok.. OK.. I will stop eating pork ( I will miss the bacon) for awhile..
First it was the Cows (madcow) then Chickens (birdflu) now the Pigs (swineflu) .. I hope the veggies dont get any funny ideas or I may just end up dying from starvation..
Briget´s last blog ..Change = Bah! Humbug!
6k – I knew you’d set us straight
That’s why you are my favourite scientist and I don’t dabble in such things.
B – The broccoli is going to revolt any day now. Any day!
Broccoli is already revolting.
(Unless served with a cheese sauce).
6000´s last blog ..Good start, but…
No, even with cheese sauce broccoli is revolting. (Not sure what it’s revolting against though of course…)
Craig´s last blog ..How to Remove an Adobe AIR Application off Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
I must say I was impressed with the efforts the hospital and health ministry (is that right? sounds vaguely harry potterish) to contact people and screen anyone and so on. Much better than the panic and flailing arms I kind of expected (not to be cynical or anything).
I like broccoli, it’s the Brussels Sprouts that cna’t be trusted.
Helen´s last blog ..
@6000 – Ok, I might not know all about that medicine type stuff. So I’m glad you corrected me. However, as far as my knowledge goes, he died because of swine flu that was a final catalyst on his already weak immune system (because of pneumonia). Thus, vitamins and stuff like echinaecea (sp?) if taken on a regular basis boosts your immune system, thus when you get swine flu, it’ll merely feel like a strong case of the flu. If you look after yourself, stay in bed, drink lots of water, take many vitamins then I don’t see how swine flu will affect those, like us, who have the knowledge. (I’m not talking about tamiflu resitant strain here, that’s a whole nother ball game).
The reason so many people die of swine flu (which in any case is not much compared to normal flu) is because the people don’t have the proper medication and know how of their sickness to care for themselves. Apparently the Ruan guy had a his b-day two days before his death and he played his first gig in the two weeks that he had some illness. I call shenanigans. He probably put way too much strain on his body and it complicated it. Thus when he contracted pneumonia, then swine flu came and bam: coffin.
And haha what I meant by the access to internet is referring to a certain class.
NielDLR´s last blog ..FlickMyFaceYouTwit
So glad you guys are able to converse amongst yourselves