disease and pestilence

Birds are getting sick in Russia now too. Looks like the avian flu (sorry, link is in French) is headed for Europe. I feel like I'm watching a bad horror movie which is taking an inordinately long time to set up the scary parts. Lots of tension, warnings, discussion of how bad "it" (whatever the movie is about) will be when "it" happens... except of course this is reality. Stock up on canned beans and get ready for a quarantine if this stupid flu ever learns to jump from person to person easily.

Adding to the hilarity is evidence that extreme weather -- floods, drought, etc that is likely to increase as we pump more energy into the planetary system (that is, thru greenhouse gases and climate change) -- appears to boost epidemics.

But since our betters in the de facto administration running this country don't believe in climate change, we'll all be okay.