no alarms and no surprises, please

(the swine flu is coming to get you)
90,000 people could die from the Swine Flu this year! 2 million could be hospitalized!1!1!1 omg. run for the hills. take cover. this winter there's gonna be widespread panic (at the disco, perhaps, even.)
this is gonna be huge. massive chaos, i tell you. (or it could be "much milder" says CDC director.)

so H1N1 (a.k.a. Swine Flu - which, by the way, would be a sweet name for a hip hop star) could be the biggest pandemic since full blown AIDS hit the scene when Magic Johnson got it in '91 or it could be just another typical flu season (20,000-40,000 people typically die from the flu each year... 63,000 died from the influenza in '01) so basically, if Magic Johnson gets Swine Flu this year, they'll probably call a press conference to announce 'the end is near'.

it's good to panic, though. because it makes hindsight all the more zany, in the long run.
i suppose that in 9 or 10 months we'll all look at the Swine Flu outbreak and with whimsical opines we stand around the water cooler joking at how this 'pandemic' only killed 45,000 people instead of 90,000! ha. i can hear the waves of laughter carry through the halls now.

meanwhile, in the time it took you to read this, 20 people died of hunger. 15 million children will die of hunger this year. in the United States of America, one out of every six children is at risk of hunger. [stats]

but nobody 'panics' about that.

We Are None of Us Alone

a few weeks back i was watching an episode of the new NBC series Life. at the end - there was this powerful montage in which the following was narrated. [WATCH THIS CLIP FROM Life ON YouTube]


[best if read while listening to the opening 32 seconds of All I Need by Radiohead] [YouTube video of All I Need]


We are none of us alone
even as we exhale it is inhaled by others
the light that shines upon me shines upon my neighbor as well
in this way everything is connected
everything is connected to everything else
In this way I am connected to my friend even as I am connected to my enemy
In this way there is no difference between me and my friend
In this way there is no difference between me and my enemy
We are none of us alone


i'm pretty sure it's a Zen-like quote... forgive me for that... but it is/was cool. i've found more discussion on it HERE. and google searches for said quote spiked immediately after it's original Nov. 14th air date.









Radiohead
ALL I NEED LYRICS:
I’m the next act
Waiting in the wings
I’m an animal
Trapped in your hot car
I am all the days that you choose to ignore

You are all I need
You’re all I need
I’m in the middle of your picture
Lying in the reeds

I am a moth
Who justs wants to share your light
I’m just an insect
Trying to get out of the dark
I wanna stick with you, because there are no others

You are all I need
You’re all I need
I’m in the middle of your picture
Lying in the reeds

It’s all wrong
It’s all right
It’s all wrong
It’s all right
It’s all wrong
It’s all right
It’s all wrong
It’s all right
It’s all wrong
It’s all right