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Turns out this isn't the first panic over "swine flu"
Only 1 person died from swine flu in 1976. Hundreds of Americans were killed or seriously injured by the inoculation the government gave them to stave off the virus.
Of course it isn't just about ratings and selling papers. Some of it is human nature. I think we enjoy panicking.
I understand that people have a hard time taking history into account. If it didn't happen in one's own lifetime it becomes an abstraction, and therefor not something to learn from. But "bird" flu was only, what, 3 years ago? The "global pandemic" of bird flu killed a little over 200 people world-wide over the course of about 5 years.
Before that was y2k. It was supposed to shut down every computer, crippling all of modern civilization.
The supposed financial "crises" hasn't even wore itself out, and already we are on to our next one.
I stopped watching/reading "news" a long time ago, and yet somehow I keep hearing about this stuff.
I keep imagining to myself that somehow humanity is going to collectively stop being so stupid.
I know how terribly deluded I am.
I think I should just give in.
Anyone know where I can buy one of those masks?
ozone layer...where did it go? media is no longer giving a blow by blow account by the hr.
did changing over to another dupont chemical
and outlawing their out of date patient chemical fix it?
what is the relation the media has with dupont?
look out for those killer suv's. did this media witch hunt kill gm?
June 4, 2009 6:00 PM
sam said...
an after thought on y2k:
1) it was bad, we just did not know what, what was thought was not close to the real problem.
2) WE STARTED CORRECTING THE DATE PROBLEM IN THE 80'S AFTER ALL GOV REQUIRED MASTER FILES TO BE RETAINED FOR YEARS AND A FUTURE DATE IN THE RECORDS HEADER WAS USED BUT AT Y2K THE DATE WAS LESS THEN A 2 DIGIT YR PREVIOUS YR AND THE SYSTEM WOULD START DELETING MASTERS.
3) changing the date code from 6 digits to 8 (mo/da/yyyy) was a major business in the 90's millions were made..some companies even offered luxury cars as company crs to get programmers....even russian programmers were imported...it was booom time plus new internet systems etc...
4) pc were modified with new chips, some could not and were replaced in mass (we were
receiving new pc at a rate of severl trailer loads per week.
5) all current systems were modified and test during the 90's...systems that were regulated by gov especially needed mod's
because of the use of dates to flag a regulation change in program
Y2K BIGGEST PROBLEM WAS BECAUSE ALL CHANGES HAD BEEN MADE, PEOPLE HAD ALREADY CHANGED OR BOUGHT NEW PC'S, COMPANIES NO LONGER NEEDED THE SERVICES OF SO MANY PROGRAMMERS NOR DID THEY HAVE THE MONEY TO DO OTHER CHANGES.
BUSH INHERITED THE END OF THE 90'S BOOM
PROGRAMMERS LAYED OFF, COMPANIES HEAVELY INVOLVED IN CHANGES DIED, PC COMPANIES MARKET
DIED..CLINTON DIDNOT CREATE THE BOOM NO MORE THAN A SURFER CAN MAKE THE WAVE HE RIDES ON, NOR DID BUSH CREATED THE LACK OF A WAVE TO RIDE ON.
June 3, 2009 7:18 PM
mom said...
hmmm... what about the computer flu, uh, I mean virus, (or worm? or spy?) that I just wrote you about in the last blog? Is that just more media hype?