- Warner Music issued a DMCA takedown notice to an official Warner Music video channel. I think I need some popcorn.
- From @david_colquhoun via @BadAstronomer:
Guardian science editor’s daughter gets measles. He’s angry with the anti-vaccination brigade.
- I nearly mistyped “foreign” as “foregin.” It sounds like an appetizer you should eat before drinking gin.
- Senator Arlen Specter’s party switch is largely symbolic. He didn’t toe the Republican party line, so why expect he’ll toe Democratic line?
Category: Life
Google Goats
It’s official: Google mows goats – er, mows with goats. Google’s Mountain View headquarters has fields that need to be kept clear of fire hazards. This year instead of mowing them, they took a low-carbon approach: they hired a herd of goats to eat the grass for a week. “It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.”
Naming the Flu
Swine flu doesn’t seem to cover it. First of all it’s not a swine flu anymore. Secondly, what do we call influenza that still only infects pigs…or the next flu virus that jumps from pigs to humans? Edit: And then you have morons who think you can get the flu from eating pork.
Mexican Flu, naming it after its country of origin like the Spanish Flu or Hong Kong Flu kind of makes sense, but in today’s politically-charged climate, it ends up sounding less like an identifier and more like blame. Edit: Plus we’ve already got jerkwads scapegoating anyone who might be Mexican. (Comment threads on news sites are depressing.)
The CDC and WHO seem to be going with H1N1, but that doesn’t work either, because people get it confused with the H1N1 human flu virus that’s one of the regular seasonal flu strains.
Yeah, on one hand, what’s in a name? A flu, by any other name, would still get you sick. But there’s something to be said for precision in terminology.
Update: For a less serious take on the subject, check out posts with the #namethatflu tag on Twitter.
Carbs
Bread bowl pasta: in case you had any doubt that the low-carb craze was over.
Social Side of Swine Flu
Sad, but true: XKCD tackles the social component of swine flu.
Update: Things haven’t changed much in the Covid era, have they?
Amazon Annoyance, ATM Stupidity
- Grr. Amazon wants to stop paying me because they think I’ve been buying search keywords to link to them. No, I haven’t. Update: Two days later, they responded: it’s a bad form letter, and even if I were buying keywords, they’d only stop paying referral fees on those links.
- More concerned than usual about person sneezing in stairway.
- Bad idea: leaving your pay stub in the brochure holder by the ATM. WTF? Someone’s asking for identity theft.
- Good deed for the day: tearing it into tiny pieces and tossing the confetti in the trash.
South Coast Plaza Garden Show
I braved South Coast Plaza this Saturday, and ended up in the middle of the Spring Garden Show, which took up all the non-store space in the wing formerly known as Crystal Court. I ended up wandering the garden show for a bit.
First floor was mostly furniture and decorations. The second and third floor were mostly people selling or showing off plants of various types, tools, pots, etc., with half of the third floor dedicated entirely to orchids.
There was also this huge centerpiece in the middle of the mall. Coincidentally, I was looking through old photos from one of our trips to Las Vegas earlier that day and found the pictures of the giant flower-and-insect display in the Bellagio.
I’ve posted a few photos taken with my phone.