Ebola

[VtaGeezer]

In a nutshell. Thankfully (so far) although there are mutterings (mainly from those who are in direct opposition to it) the BBC should be open to advertising, and therefore be compromised. Many many years ago in the 70's and early 80's we had a wonderful investigative series on each monday night on commercial TV, called 'World in Action'. They never let advertising considerations ruin their integrity and told it how it was.


But commercial constraints moved in on things and integrity went out the window together any modicum of quality over cheap and cheerful appealing to the lowest common denominator.

I listen to BBC quite a lot on sat radio.  They can get into the weeds on trivia sometimes, but that's the cost of broad range reporting.  If one listens to BC, you'll here reports on substantial matters (eg Ukraine, Africa)  never touched on American commercial TV or radio unless there's a big headline event.  We have PBS and Natl Public radio, but they've largely gone for the fluffy feature stuff too.

[pate]

I apparently missed this:

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Third-Nebraska-Medicine-Ebola-Patient-Dies-282915551.html

He's dead, I guess we start the 3 week (or is it month?) Ebola watch countdown timer starting on Nov 17th...

[Yorkshire pud]

I apparently missed this:

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Third-Nebraska-Medicine-Ebola-Patient-Dies-282915551.html

He's dead, I guess we start the 3 week (or is it month?) Ebola watch countdown timer starting on Nov 17th...

Millions will die, just in Nebraska.

[b_dubb]

Over 50 million 'Muricans have already been liquified by the creeping ebola!  You just don't know it cause the media has been focusing on stupid shit like Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan and how the 'Murican voters re-elected 97% of politicians despite the fact only 11% "approve". 

Holy shitstorm Batman!

[VtaGeezer]

I apparently missed this:

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Third-Nebraska-Medicine-Ebola-Patient-Dies-282915551.html

He's dead, I guess we start the 3 week (or is it month?) Ebola watch countdown timer starting on Nov 17th...

Imported cases shouldn't count. It's harsh, but he was a goner when he arrived.  Family was paying and they insisted he be brought back to the US.

[Kelt]

LOL... funny lil` limey thinks his BBC is unbiased. Kind of cute, actually.

I'm interested to know what affiliation the BBC has.


Actually, I already know the answer to that, but I'm interested to hear what a non-Briton has to say.

[Yorkshire pud]

I'm interested to know what affiliation the BBC has.


Actually, I already know the answer to that, but I'm interested to hear what a non-Briton has to say.

One week the Tory faithful accuse the BBC of being biased to Labour, and the next Labour accuse the BBC of being the government mouthpiece. They're lately falling into tabloid esque trivia when 'celeb' blows his or her nose, and calling it news. There's a weekly prog called 'Newswatch' where viewers call in/ email to complain about the news coverage. Can be quite entertaining when a journo/editor/ producer is dragged in to explain themselves before being dragged back out to be executed in the car park.

[pate]

Just found this linkey at ol' Steve Quayle's website:

http://www.decodedscience.com/bird-flu-ebola-viruses-crossing-species-barrier-ignored/50849

We're doooooomed!

[Yorkshire pud]

Just found this linkey at ol' Steve Quayle's website:

http://www.decodedscience.com/bird-flu-ebola-viruses-crossing-species-barrier-ignored/50849

We're doooooomed!

his week, scientists identified the strain of bird flu causing the North of England (Yorkshire), Nederlands and Germany outbreak as H5N8, which is related to the H5N1 bird flu virus and requires immediate action.

The H5N1, 2003 bird flu virus, is lethal, killing 60% of humans infected.

Indeed, but he conveniently overlooks that H5N8 doesn't kill humans. Maybe he didn't have room? Guess what, they've culled a duck farm and there's a quarantine area,, time on the news? About ten minutes.

[Kelt]

One week the Tory faithful accuse the BBC of being biased to Labour, and the next Labour accuse the BBC of being the government mouthpiece. They're lately falling into tabloid esque trivia when 'celeb' blows his or her nose, and calling it news. There's a weekly prog called 'Newswatch' where viewers call in/ email to complain about the news coverage. Can be quite entertaining when a journo/editor/ producer is dragged in to explain themselves before being dragged back out to be executed in the car park.

As far as political, Conservative - Labour, affiliations are concerned, speaking as someone who supports neither party, the BBC is about as impartial as you're going to get. Whereas the closest an American 'news' network is going to get to impartial is somewhere in the realm of loaded commentary, the BBC can generally be relied upon to treat both sides of the middle ground (Conservative and Labour) with cold disdain.


The problem with American perception of... well, everything... is that (in general) Americans like things presented to them in terms of Black and White.  There has to be a Good Guy, there has to be a Bad Guy, and they need to know that they're on the side of the Good Guy, and that "All of 'Murka's problems are down to the Bad Guy'. So when Americans (in general) see something that doesn't take their side then it must be biased in favour of the other side...


Unfortunately the British are starting to suffer from exactly this form of 'Give it to me in terms a moron can understand' news reporting.


Britain is also beginning to adopt the appalling 'Worship of the Military' that goes on in the United States.  But that's a digression.


Anyway, the BBC has its biases, just not the kind of biases people seem to think.

[Yorkshire pud]

As far as political, Conservative - Labour, affiliations are concerned, speaking as someone who supports neither party, the BBC is about as impartial as you're going to get. Whereas the closest an American 'news' network is going to get to impartial is somewhere in the realm of loaded commentary, the BBC can generally be relied upon to treat both sides of the middle ground (Conservative and Labour) with cold disdain.


The problem with American perception of... well, everything... is that (in general) Americans like things presented to them in terms of Black and White.  There has to be a Good Guy, there has to be a Bad Guy, and they need to know that they're on the side of the Good Guy, and that "All of 'Murka's problems are down to the Bad Guy'. So when Americans (in general) see something that doesn't take their side then it must be biased in favour of the other side...


Unfortunately the British are starting to suffer from exactly this form of 'Give it to me in terms a moron can understand' news reporting.


Britain is also beginning to adopt the appalling 'Worship of the Military' that goes on in the United States.  But that's a digression.


Anyway, the BBC has its biases, just not the kind of biases people seem to think.

Yeah, I'd go along with most of that. The military worship thing though isn't as cut and dried as that. We (generally) support our military personnel, but have disdain for the politicians who give them a job to do; i.e. invade a country no-one knows about. Our remembrance commemorations are usually well supported, and much is made of anyone who disrespects them. We also tend to have not much regard for soldiers who bring their profession into disrepute. I have a friend who helped bring to court martial several soldiers who had murdered an Iraqi boy, (He was RMP).

[Kelt]

Indeed, but he conveniently overlooks that H5N8 doesn't kill humans. Maybe he didn't have room? Guess what, they've culled a duck farm and there's a quarantine area,, time on the news? About ten minutes.

[FOX] But what if H5N8 mutates to infect humans AND learns how to set explosives?  Could this be a bigger threat to American lives than ISIS and AIDS? Some people are accusing President Obama of ducking these questions. [/FOX]

[Yorkshire pud]

[FOX] But what if H5N8 mutates to infect humans AND learns how to set explosives?  Could this be a bigger threat to American lives than ISIS and AIDS? Some people are accusing President Obama of ducking these questions. [/FOX]

...I'm laughing because you're frighteningly near the truth!

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

[FOX] But what if H5N8 mutates to infect humans AND learns how to set explosives?  Could this be a bigger threat to American lives than ISIS and AIDS? Some people are accusing President Obama of ducking these questions. [/FOX]

Don't be silly.  H5N8 could never learn to set explosives.  At best it could learn to self-detonate in a cascading thermonuclear reaction, but only when exposed to the rich nitrogen content of chicken feces.  Although that could mutate and cross the species divide according to undisclosed sources, said people familiar with the issue.

[Lt.Uhura]

The problem with American perception of... well, everything... is that (in general) Americans like things presented to them in terms of Black and White.  There has to be a Good Guy, there has to be a Bad Guy, and they need to know that they're on the side of the Good Guy, and that "All of 'Murka's problems are down to the Bad Guy'. So when Americans (in general) see something that doesn't take their side then it must be biased in favour of the other side...

Yes, this is quite accurate.  Also since much of the dumbed-down American public has completely lost their critical thinking skills, they need their news prepared and digested ahead, then spoon-fed the results.  No need to pause for reflection or further examination.  Their truth is served up to them in processed, bite-sized nuggets, along with cleverly designed commercials instructing them to continue shopping, despite the various reports of creeping pandemics and impending doom.

This coming Friday is of course the High Holy day of consumer-ism in America. There will be injuries and even deaths nationwide as sheeple trample one another in their quest to save a few dollars--just hours after giving thanks for all they have. 

Highlights at 11pm!


Top 10 Most Violent Holiday Shopping Fights | GadgetsAndGear.com

[b_dubb]

Fuck Christmas.  It isn't even Jesus' actual birthday.

[albrecht]

Fuck Christmas.

I like Christmas, but it was a good song.

Fear - Fuck Christmas

[WOTR]

Yes, this is quite accurate.  Also since much of the dumbed-down American public has completely lost their critical thinking skills, they need their news prepared and digested ahead, then spoon-fed the results.  No need to pause for reflection or further examination. 

But was this ever any different?  I look at the 1800's and even early 1900's when people were mostly illiterate and you have to know that people were getting their information somewhere.  Presently, I am reading the history of the ballot and found that people had to remember and write the candidate in at first.  Later, the parties started printing "tickets" in the papers so that people could "vote the straight party ticket" by bringing it in to the polls.


I know this is about news and not voting- but you have to figure that if people were taking these in because they could not write and could not remember candidates and were probably illiterate that they were not thinking critically about the news.


Perhaps the mid 1900's to the late 1900's people were great thinkers- but I see no evidence of that.  I am stuck concluding that throughout history there is only a small portion of "thinkers" and the rest got their news in small, predigested portions.  I do think that for a few decades it may have been a little less split politically- there may have been some (small) effort to be (somewhat) unbiased... but looking at old newspapers, I would be hard pressed to call even them unbiased.


I think that we often have some great longing for a past that never existed.   Yes, it is getting worse and more polarized.  Yes, I blame the CBC (and others) from going away from investigative reporting- but I do not know that there was a "golden age" of unbiased, unfiltered news that people could sit down to.

[VtaGeezer]

...much of the dumbed-down American public has completely lost their critical thinking skills..

Very true; I blame the utter collapse of American education and parenting.

[pate]

Today (Dec 2, 2014) apparently:

"Possible Ebola Case Under Evaluation in Boston:"
http://abc7chicago.com/news/possible-ebola-case-under-evaluation-in-boston/419363/

[Eddie Coyle]

Today (Dec 2, 2014) apparently:

"Possible Ebola Case Under Evaluation in Boston:"
http://abc7chicago.com/news/possible-ebola-case-under-evaluation-in-boston/419363/

     Patient at Mass General, top story on the local news...usual suspect, somebody who just returned from an Ebola zone.

    But, remember, "America has no cases of Ebola*"

      *That you're allowed to know about.

[WOTR]

I am kind of happy to find the Canadian government encouraging people to go and help. 


"Today, I'm issuing a call to action to Canadian health-care workers to travel to West Africa to care for Ebola patients in Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea," Health Minister Rona Ambrose said...


They are going to maintain full pay for federal workers who go and also have set up medivac unit in case people actually get sick to get them back to Canada.  And they are including a 3 week period at the end (presumably for quarantine.)

I hope they can actually attract people for this.  It sounds like it is not just health care workers, but people to help in other areas as well. 

[Eddie Coyle]

    The MGH patient may have...malaria. Tests for Ebola, supposedly negative according to reports.

[RealCool Daddio]

Run, Yorkie, run!  Ebola is only a couple hundred KM from you!  If Fox News has taught us anything, NHS is woefully unprepared to help. 


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/12/29/health_worker_in_scotland_tests_positive_for_ebola.html


Fricken Obama.

[Gd5150]

What the hell happened to ebola? Wheres my ebola shot dammit!

[Yorkshire pud]

Run, Yorkie, run!  Ebola is only a couple hundred KM from you!  If Fox News has taught us anything, NHS is woefully unprepared to help. 


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/12/29/health_worker_in_scotland_tests_positive_for_ebola.html


Fricken Obama.

I've got it covered. I'm drafting my why oh why letter to anyone I can thi k of. I'm also trying to muster a posse of those who can adopt an entirely irrational mindset who live more than ten miles from the hospital the patient is in. Hopefully tbey'll subscribe to forums and blame Obama, leftists, Marxists, all of Africa ( even the white  bits) and anyone who isn't them. Then-to use the expressition- we're good to go.

[MV/Liberace!]

My wife and daughter are flying to Morocco in a couple weeks. We are in immediate Ebola danger. Pray for us.

[RealCool Daddio]

I've got it covered. I'm drafting my why oh why letter to anyone I can thi k of. I'm also trying to muster a posse of those who can adopt an entirely irrational mindset who live more than ten miles from the hospital the patient is in. Hopefully tbey'll subscribe to forums and blame Obama, leftists, Marxists, all of Africa ( even the white  bits) and anyone who isn't them. Then-to use the expressition- we're good to go.

Don't forget to enlist some folks from the National Front.  You can reach out to PaperBoy for Ian Edward's contact info.

[RealCool Daddio]

My wife and daughter are flying to Morocco in a couple weeks. We are in immediate Ebola danger. Pray for us.

I will slaughter a goatse and pray to Jebus for your family, to protect them from being Obama'd in a country near Kenya.

[Yorkshire pud]

Don't forget to enlist some folks from the National Front.  You can reach out to PaperBoy for Ian Edward's contact info.

I've seen the story on the BBC; I'm clearly at risk. Won't anyone think of the ways Ebola can be transmitted via TV?