BIRD FLU pandemic, GIANT RATS and DINOSAURS and DASTARDLY DISNEY BONES PREZ BUSH up the BACK-SIDE

I heard on the tv news that a Melbourne outfit is gearing up to produce anti
viral agents to treat the BIRD FLU, oh good that sounds hopeful I hear you
say.

Yep they reckon they'll have stuff available in quote "just a few months"

Wow that really fills me with confidence..... NOT !

I'm glad that we DON'T currently have Aussies, especially, West Aussies,
(from the Indonesian adjacent NorthWest Broome etc region, all the way down
through to Perth) dropping like flies, but you gotta wonder how bad it
*might* be before this new source of treatment drugs DOES comes on-line. And
that's assuming the new drugs will actually *DO* anything. The tv news last
night, said that the 2 main categories of 'flu drugs were not very effective
at all, for certain strains of the BirdFlu. (The fictional tv show
"Survivors" teaches us that when the Fertiliser-hits-the-Fan, we can't
believe whatever the Govt tells us on tv and radio news anyway !)

Now sooner or later a "E.L.E." (Extinction Level
Event...like-what-killed-the dinosaurs) asteroid will hit the Earth and
effectively kill of all human life. Now maybe that'll be next year, or maybe
in 2012, or maybe not for another 65 Million Years, but assuming we have
even several hundred if not thousands of years until the next "big one" then
that allows improvements in technology to have established sustainable human
settlements on the Moon, Mars or elsewhere. either by using improved
"Spacecraft" technology, or possibly totally new and different
"Stargate-like" technologies that we *might* develop at some future date

However it should be a real worry to all us Humans currently living on
Earth, that a version of Influenza isn't going to kill us all first

Now maybe it won't be this current version of the Bird Flu, but with the
Asian culture of keeping live pigs and live poultry in the same place,
allowing bird and pig/human/mammal flu virii to interbreed...............I
have very serious concerns for the human race's long term survival on this
one point alone. Making International laws to ensure pig and poultry
husbandry takes place at different locations would be a good first step.
But what are the politicians busy doing ? Well a few years ago, a big bunch
of DISNEY stuff was about to become Out-of-copyright protection, approaching
the 50 year limit since creation. So the multibillion dollar Disney
corporation told the US Govt, that it wanted copyright protection ramped up
to 75 years. and you know, when a big coporation Like Disney or
Halliburton-KBR says "Jump" the US Prez replies simply "Yes Sir, How High
?" Under the gutted and useless "F**ked Trade Agreement" that Australia
recently signed, we can be forced to bring our laws "into line" with US
laws, if our laws are different, and Disney's rooting for our copyright laws
to be first in line. Copyright laws were enacted some hundred plus years
ago and were intended to protect an author during his lifetime and provide
for his widow and young children until they became of age, in the event of
his untimely death. Far from Ratchetting up the copyright laws from 50 to
75 years, they should be hacked down to buggery, to something like 20 years
maximum. We're told that "Intellectual Property" laws protect investments
in research, however this totally untried and untested THEORY flies in the
face of several thousand years of scientific research and developments,
which up until only a hundred years ago or so, had no "intellectual
property" protection at all. Slowly more and more cases are now starting
to come to light about how scientific research and academic debate are
becoming stifled, stopped dead in their tracks by IP and copyright laws.

OK back to the Bird Flu spiel........let alone certain other factors. Like
how humans, a comparitively "sterile" species (perhaps beaten only by the
Chinese Giant Panda in that respect) and along with RATS (who ARE prolific
breeders) have managed to so thoroughly "infest" this world. Yep we could
pretty much be described as "weeds" forcing out local endemic species and gr
owing, to the exclusion of others, even if such growth is UNsustainable and
likely to cause degradation of the environment in which we live, in the
longer term. So another cause for concern there.

Maybe we'll all become so concerned we'll become worry-worts (sp?) and all
die of "worry" even before the Asteroid, 'Flu, plagues of giant rats, or
running out of resources gets us !

Oh well them's a few of my thoughts, of late.



..."For more 'an a year, I ain't had nuthin' 'twixt m' nethers
that ain't powered by battery" Kaylee ex SERENITY movie (quoted from
memory and slightly paraphrased)

Check out my 'blog
http://kiwicatherinejemma.blogspot.com email xenaATagnDOTnetDOTau

Patsy..... "So, is killing *Not* wrong anymore ?"
Trudy..... "We don't have to worry about Right and Wrong anymore, ZOOT
decides for us"
.....THE TRIBE ep 2:49