Weekly digest #4

More bird flu! Possible pandemic : A new strain of bird flu, the H7N9 virus, is spreading in China. It has killed 3 people so far. Luckily, it currently transmits only from bird to bird or bird to human, so human to human transmission is not a concern yet. However, the mutations that have already been observed indicate that this could change, thus leading to a pandemic of the disease, so the situation needs to be closely monitored. The World Health Organisation is apparently pleased with China's response to the situation, so I think we should handle possible outbreaks pretty well. Here's to hoping that doesn't happen though. I found it really interesting that this disease has been analysed using DNA sequencing: science, medicine and technology is amazing! Another fun fact that could be handy to remember to bring up in conversation in the future: the H and the N in the names of these flu viruses refer to proteins on their surfaces, namely hemagglutinin and neuraminidase.

Plagiarism issues at Fort Hare University : Postgraduate students at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape have been accused of plagiarism by copying and pasting in their Political Sciences assignments. The students claimed that they had been told that they were allowed to do this. Plagiarism is something that has been growing in importance in my life, not because I do it, but because everyone is so worried that I, along with my fellow students, will commit this serious offence some time in our University careers. They even started drumming this into us at a school level. We know: don't copy and paste or claim an idea as your own if it is not! And something I told a friend today: at University level, nothing is your own idea, and nothing is common knowledge - it all comes from somewhere and everything has to be referenced! Until late in post-grad at least, like when you have your phD. These people were dumb, and the outcome of this situation is actually ridiculous and should definitely be investigated further. Follow the link for the full (though somewhat difficult to follow) story.

Grahamstown Spur gets itself robbed (accidentally) : A man fell asleep in the local steak house chain Spur, and the restaurant closed for the night and locked up. When he woke up, he thought it would be a good idea to rob the till. He was apprehended when he was trying to leave the building. I was lucky enough to come across this story filed under both Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth (not even remotely true in location) - an occurrence in this little town that should have been bigger news amongst my peers. I also don't understand how Spur managed to lock someone up in their restaurant...