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...

Weekly Digest #2

North Korea have abandoned their peace pact with South Korea, and have threatened the US with a pre-emptive nuclear strike : nuclear war seems to be a threat, as of late. There have been assertions that the US are at no risk of such a strike, but there are warnings that South Korea still remains vulnerable, and apparently Japan should be careful as well. From a reader's perspective, I almost look forward to the day that bio-warfare becomes a thing. Then I stop and realise that that would really suck. Perhaps I'm just in my own world where I think that I'd probably be one of those evolved super-humans who is immune to whatever disease becomes air-borne, and that my body holds the cure. Poor human race: I don't do well with needles, so it's just going to be me and the rest of the superior folk to remain on this earth. 

Fine, Ted Dekker is a really great author. And that's all I can say. Even though this has now become rather impalpable.

Homeless man’s scrap metal turns out tobe a live mortar bomb : reporting a "suspicious man" lead to  the discovery of a live mortar bomb, possibly from WWII, in the Durban-area last week. There was shady handling of the situation: Desmond Daniels, from UTI Electronics, who discovered the man and his trolley, suspected that the found bomb was live, and moved it to an open field in case it went off. When a police van drove past and Daniels reported the incident, they advised what to do, and drove off. Also, the suspect has subsequently disappeared. I find this story very bizzarre. Where could it have come from, why was he carrying it around, and what a random situation! Perhaps the reporting of the case is a little bit lacking, and this is why the circumstances are not clear: there are so many issues with this story, what could you decide to focus on?

Patients had clean their ward after thehospital cleaners didn’t show up for work : mothers in the maternity ward at Frere Hospital were told that if they did not clean up after themselves, their babies would get lung infections. When cleaning staff did not arrive to work, the inhabitants of the Kangaroo ward were told to clean the ward, and had to remove rubbish, change sheets, and mop the floors. Great healthcare we provide in this province of the Eastern Cape (note the sarcasm). 

Weekly Digest 1

Federal investigation into Colorado students' version of the Harlem Shake, performed on an airplane : Members of the Colorado College ultimate frisbee team are being investigated by the FAA for performing and filming their rendition of the viral video The Harlem Shake. They did this during flight time (not during take off or landing). I thought it was a pretty good version of the video, much better than the Rhodes University one, which I felt could have at least been done from different angles, or performed with fewer people just doing boring and generic fist-pumping (though, granted, Rhodie was very cool, and there were very original and unusual costumes that people donned for the occasion). I think that because of the masses (of course EVERYONE has to be involved...) a lot of good aspects of it were lost...

Four-year-old hospitalised after being given the wrong medicine - Eastern cape : while the events leading up to the situation are unclear, a four-year-old girl has nevertheless had a bad reaction to the medication that she received after she went into hospital allegedly for vomiting and diarrhoea. Her reaction to the medicine that she received (after what the girl's mother describes as dismissive treatment by the nurse) resulted in her being further hospitalised. While the circumstances are not entirely clear, it is suspected that she was given medicine that is usually prescribed to adults for the same symptoms she was experiencing. 

Mass spaying of Grahamstown dog population : Last weekend there was a drive to spay 57 dogs. With the support of the SPCA, 53 of these dogs were "fixed", with the others not being operated on. This effort works towards reducing the number of breeding dogs in a town where unwanted litters could pose a serious problem, for both the people and for the animals, who might otherwise be left homeless.