This is cool: Big Cats and Pumpkins

If you recall the kitten eating a melon video, you won’t be surprised at how much the really big cats at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida enjoy pumpkins and other gourds, both for playing with and for eating.

Scary flu news--someone at my office has been confirmed with H1N1! They've been quarantined and haven't been at the office since before they got it, so we should be fine here.

They've been quarantined and haven't been at the office since before they got it, so we should be fine here.

Good to hear that you are not all doomed.

someone at my office has been confirmed with H1N1!

::hums "It's a Small World" in a dirge-like manner::

A water company is selling spray bottles of de-ionized water that they claim will fight the swine flu, which I think is ridiculous. Apparently it has magic properties, because one would think soap and a scrub would be more important in the keeping hands clean thing.

Five confirmed H1N1 cases on my campus.

I wonder about unconfirmed cases.

I've been sick as hell. I ran a temperature (when not tylenoled) for four days. I returned to work after one day out but I "should" have stayed out two more and easily could have not left my bed all week. It sure seems like a flu and I've had the shot (which rules out a number of swine-free varieties). I have no health insurance. I'm not spending money to hear "rest & fluids" and cure nothing but my curiosity.

Obviously if I became dangerously ill I'd have gone to the doctor and eaten the cost or gotten indigent care or the like.

So how many people get plenty sick with H1N1, go back to work as soon as they can, and never end up in the stats? How many non-critical cases go unreported because the uninsured person is untreated and what does this do to the statistics of critical cases?

I sure hope you start feeling better.

So how many people get plenty sick with H1N1, go back to work as soon as they can, and never end up in the stats? How many non-critical cases go unreported because the uninsured person is untreated and what does this do to the statistics of critical cases?

I know that these were key questions in the progressive blogosphere when the swine flu story broke. The lack of public health care in the US could make swine flu, or an equally virulent bug, spread much worse than in a country like Canada or France, where people can go to the doctor and not have to pay out of pocket.

And I have a department co-worker who is home right now with non-swine flu, so I'm sitting here, wondering if my sniffles is something more than allergies, or my slight neck ache is from something more than my sleeping on the couch last night.

I hate it when I get paranoid about my health!