Oh, it's already been broughten.

Today's post is dedicated to the very beautiful Lainey Awesomeface Bobainey, who is illin' like a villain today. Get Well Soon, SugarTits!

Yes, it is No Whining Wednesday again, and here I am, trying desperately not to whine. I'm midway through my third week of being stupid sick, which is angering me. But, today is the first day in those 2.5 weeks that I actually feel pretty chipper, so yay! Go me. Also, I didn't get super angry at traffic today like I have been (I'm really, REALLY cranky when I'm sick. You can imagine the joy of my coworkers), so go me again!

In other news, Pajiba has announced the start of the Cannonball Read II: Electric Bookaloo: In My Pants: Not Without My Library Card: Mother May I Read With Danger for November 1st. I'm very excited about it! So much so that I started a whole separate blog just for my Cannonball Reviewing! The gist is this: You read a book a week for a year (or rather, 52 books in a year), and blog a 3-4 paragraph review of each one. Books have to be at least 200 pages, and there are no graphic novels allowed (and I think no children's books? I'd better get a bit more familiar with the rules...); I know they can be fiction or non-, and short story collections have to have at least six stories. Anyway, there are lots of awesome people joining in, and it's for a good cause (a donation to the college fund of a little guy who lost his mom, a Warrior Queen, to leukemia earlier this year. Plus, literacy, yay!). Please, check it out and also feel free to join in! I've got a list of about 20 books so far, all of which have been laying about the house in various states of un-read-ness. Feel free to give me suggestions, though I won't necessarily take them!

Meanwhile, classes are going strong still. Halfway through the semester (and I could've had three books for the Read with my Films & Literature class, but I think we'll be finished with the third before the Read begins, so only 2 from there. It's too bad, too, because I just finished The Virgin Suicides, and I have ...thoughts and feelings. Perhaps I'll blog about it anyway, as a practice review). Saw The Limey for the first time in my other class the other night, still love Terrence "Badass" Stamp. Possible more now. I've got a new niece on the way (just got a text that my sister-in-law was induced, so any time now!). So far, her name is Summer Austin. She'll be joining big sisters Sumayah Angel and Savannah Anne, who are both happy that she wasn't born on their birthdays (10/8 and 10/4 respectively) so they don't have to share.

So everything's pretty sweet, even if I am tired from the sickness, which I am NOT down with at all, by the way, thankyouverymuchDisturbed. And now, I'd better get back to work before I get fired and REALLY have something to whine about...

Bubonic plague. Now THERE'S a pandemic.

Here's a paraphrase of a comment I posted on Pajiba this morning:

150 people dead in Mexico .... out of, what, 108 million? I mean, it's sad for their families and everything, but.. pandemic? Really? I don't think this counts as a pandemic. I don't even think it qualifies as an epidemic. Let's consult Merriam Webster:

ep·i·dem·ic : affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time

Nope.

pan·dem·ic : occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population

Nope.

It's less than 1% of the population. Just of Mexico. Actually, it's like one/1,000,000th of the population. Previous pandemics have killed up to 1/2 the population of a given continent (or the human population... let's see, divided by... carry the one... 2/100,000,000th of the world pop).

So, nope.

/paraphrase

Then I went to the BBC news website. Here's what it had to say regarding numbers in this "pandemic":

• Out of 168 deaths in Mexico, only 8 are confirmed to be swine flu.
• There is 1 confirmed death in the U.S.
• In the rest of the world, there are a total of 157 confirmed and 13 suspected cases.

Here's the breakdown:
U.S.-109 confirmed cases. That's cases, NOT deaths.
New Zealand-3 confirmed, 13 suspected cases.
Canada-19 confirmed cases.
U.K.-8 confirmed cases.
Spain-10 confirmed cases.
Israel, Costa Rica-2 confirmed cases each.
Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Peru-1 confirmed case each.

So that's a total, then, of 9 confirmed deaths from swine flu, and 160 more possible deaths. Since all 170 of the instances where people have the virus have evidently been reported, one presumes that those people are seeking medical attention and are going to recover, since it's easily treatable. An international panic is happening over 9 deaths.

9.

Let's assume pessimistically for a moment that all 160 unconfirmed deaths in Mexico turn out to be definitely swine flu. And let's also suppose that those 170 other reported cases die as well. That's a total of 339 deaths. Now let's suppose those people have all infected 3 other people each, and those people all die. That's a total of 1,356 deaths from swine flu. Now let's look at the world population: and we'll round down to 6.7 million. Even assuming this, it's still only 2/100,000ths of the population of the world.

Again, look at the definitions of epidemic and pandemic above. To me, an "exceptionally high proportion of the population" is just that... exceptionally high. Like, 25% high. But let's say, for the sake of argument, that 10% can be considered exceptionally high. That means a minimum of 670,000 people need to be infected. We've got 669,661 cases to go before we reach epidemic proportions. Can we please stop panicking about every little thing? Please?

It's no Black Death, people (cripes, it's not even the Hong Kong flu epidemic of '68). Now there's a pandemic for you.

Here's something to make you feel better though:

Aww! Now there's something you could die from... perhaps it should be called the Adorable Death.

(Cross-posted at Vox)