ercles on 28/4/2009 at 07:22
I think Undead Gamer might have already caught swine flu, apparently command of the english language is the first thing to go.
I've spent the last 4 weeks studying virology, it's a nice luxury to have professors explain the whole situation, because the newspapapers sure as hell can't.
SubJeff on 28/4/2009 at 08:58
Meh.
Matthew on 28/4/2009 at 10:00
When all those accounts went with the flow and actually posted all those Tweets, it was the best thing.
Rogue Keeper on 28/4/2009 at 10:32
*sneeze!*
Koki on 28/4/2009 at 12:34
That was my first thought when I read the pic Matthew posted. THERE ARE NO EPIDEMIES IN MADAGASCAR!
Mr. headbone on 28/4/2009 at 12:36
This whole thing reminds me of Homer; with the pig; in "The Simpsons" movie.
LOL LOL :laff::laff:
DDL on 28/4/2009 at 13:09
Quote Posted by reizak
That's a very human-centric way of seeing it, but the total biomass of bacteria dwarfs us (careful estimate would be 2000 million tonnes vs. our 100 million). A brief report of the planet by a passing alien scout ship would most likely go something like "the dominant life form is a group of highly adaptable single-celled organisms that have harnessed bipedal creatures as their growth medium".
We're
far from being the most successful creatures around here. Your very body contains more bacterial cells than eukaryotic ones.
But then, all those assorted bacteria represent a HUGE range of species, whereas we represent
one.
And we have heavy industry, and bacteria don't.
And we can consciously direct our evolution, and bacteria can't.
Also thumbs. THUMBS.
So it comes down to how you define 'dominant' and 'successful'. ;)
To be honest, while we're on the subject of success, things like swine flu are actually pretty poor on the 'success' scale, since they have a tendency to kill their hosts. Dead people spread fewer infections than living people, and also tend to be pretty awful when it comes to amount of 'viable viral replication machinery'.
Matthew on 28/4/2009 at 13:59
Quote Posted by Koki
That was my first thought when I read the pic Matthew posted. THERE ARE NO EPIDEMIES IN MADAGASCAR!
I can take no credit, it was Digi who posted it though I'd already seen it at xkcd. Apparently though it is an intentional reference to Pandemic 2.
heretic on 28/4/2009 at 15:48
Well, the fact that we don't collectively (
http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html) remember 1976 as the first swine flu "epidemic" is somewhat reassuring, if only for swine.
"Only young Lewis died from the swine flu itself in 1976. But as the critics are quick to point out, hundreds of Americans were killed or seriously injured by the inoculation the government gave them to stave off the virus."