SuburbianNightmare

How about a break-down lane for the RHW and normal highways?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global flu pandemic after holding an emergency meeting. It means the swine flu virus is spreading in at least two regions of the world with rising cases being seen in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile. WHO chief Dr Margaret Chan said the move does not mean the virus is causing more severe illness or more deaths. The swine flu (H1N1) virus first emerged in Mexico in April and has since spread to 74 countries. We have evidence to suggest we are seeing the first pandemic of the 21st century Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general Send us your comments Calm urged in UK Official reports say there have been nearly 30,000 cases globally and 141 deaths with figures rising daily. Hong Kong said it was closing all its nurseries and primary schools for two weeks following 12 school cases. It is the first flu pandemic in 40 years - the last in 1968 killed about one million people. However, the current pandemic seems to be moderate and causing mild illness in most people. Most cases are occurring in young working age adults and a third to a half of complications are presenting in otherwise healthy people. Dr Chan said: "We have evidence to suggest we are seeing the first pandemic of the 21st century. "Moving to pandemic phase six does not imply we will see increased in deaths or serious cases." She added it was important to get the right balance between complacency and vigilance and that pandemic strategies would vary between countries depending on their specific situation. It is global and fulfilling the requirements of a pandemic Professor John Oxford, flu expert And the WHO do do not recommend closure of borders or any restrictions on the movement of people, goods or services. But the picture could change very quickly. "No other pandemic has been detected so early or watched so closely," Dr Chan said. One factor which has prompted the move to a level six pandemic was that in the southern hemisphere, the virus seems to be crowding out normal seasonal influenza. The move was not prompted by the situation in any one country but the reports of several pockets of community spread, officials said. The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Geneva, says that while the number of cases has made the declaration inevitable, the WHO will have to manage the global anxiety the declaration of a pandemic will generate. Experts have warned that poorer nations, especially those in the southern hemisphere now heading into their winter season, face the greatest risk from the flu pandemic. Pandemic planning There have been more than 800 cases in the UK with some areas of Scotland being particularly hard hit. The government has been stockpiling antivirals such as Tamiflu and has ordered vaccine, some doses of which could be available by October. SWINE FLU - THE BASICS Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu - but deaths have been recorded It is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic Current treatments do work, but as yet there is no vaccine Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised What comes next in flu fight Chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson said the WHO declaration of a pandemic would not significantly change the way the UK was dealing with swine flu at the moment. But he added there could be some minor changes to who received antivirals. "The declaration of a pandemic per se doesn't make a big difference to the to the way we are handling the outbreaks we have. "We are going to continue to investigate every case that occurs and treat their contacts with antivirals even though they may not be ill. "The difference is that the Health Protection Agency has learnt a lot about approaching this question of antiviral prophylaxis and they are going to be treating the closer contacts of the cases, rather than the more far-flung contacts, because they feel that that is supported by what they know so far about how the disease is transmitting. He added: "These flu viruses can change their pattern of attack, so when we come into the flu season in the autumn and winter in this country, when we expect a big surge of cases, we need to watch very carefully to see if the character of the virus is changing." There is concern that the virus might mutate in the southern hemisphere over its winter and become more virulent, but there's no sign of that yet Fergus Walsh BBC's medical correspondent Read Fergus's thoughts in full Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said a move to level six means that countries need to be ready to implement pandemic plans immediately but the UK was already operating at a "heightened state of readiness". But it could affect the speed at which the UK gets pandemic vaccine supplies but that had been factored into pandemic planning. Flu expert Professor John Oxford said people should not panic as the outbreak was milder than others seen in the past century. "It is global and fulfilling the requirements of a pandemic but I don't think anyone should worry because nothing drastic has happened between yesterday and today." "The number of swine flu cases in the UK has risen to 797." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8094655.stm And those for you in the UK Alert The UK has four levels of alert for a pandemic with the current situation most closely resembling level three, defined as "outbreaks within the UK". However, what is more important is what experts are calling the shift away from containment. Ever since outbreaks started to be seen in the UK, health protection officials have been following a fairly standard protocol of giving anti-virals, isolating cases and tracing their contacts. UK ALERT LEVELS One - Virus only seen outside the UK Two - Virus isolated in the UK Three - Outbreaks in the UK Four - Widespread activity across the UK This has also led to the closure of several schools. But if the UK problem reaches what is called the mitigation stage - whereby the disease is spreading but there are still no vaccine to protect people - then a different approach is required. This could involve everything from placing restrictions on public gatherings, such as football matches and concerts, to limiting the use of drugs. In practice, this would mean giving drugs only to those who have got the disease rather than as a preventative measure to people they have come into contact with. The flu plans also contain contingencies to stop routine NHS operations to allow hospitals to cope with a flood of flu patients. The government's emergency planning group Cobra has already discussed such steps, but it is by no means a foregone conclusion that they will be enacted in the immediate future. Instead, the government is remaining tight-lipped over future developments. Comments On This Anyone?

Originally posted by: Abes Originally posted by: SuburbianNightmare "Something doestn't have to be physically wrong with an airliner to cause accidents. I read on Wikipedia a few weeks ago that an engine fault on a newer Boeing 737 doing a flight from London Heathrow to Glasgow led to the plane crashing onto the M1 Motorway during an emergency landing, and although one engine had caught fire (the flight crew were not trained on the newest variant of that airliner) the Captain shut down the WRONG engine, then increased the load on the damaged engine, which promptly exploded, causing the airliner to lose all power and fall out of the sky, crashing onto the southbound cariageway of the M1 Motorway, about 100 metres short of the runway the captain was aiming at." ~~Abes I remember that! I was being driven down the M1 by my Dad. We were near the front of the queue caused by the aircraft crash. Anyway I completetly agree about the plane being structually weak. It's most like a series of events that led up to it. quote> What was the rubber-necking like? In both Australia and China even a person changing a flat tyre creates rubbernecks (ques of them in Australia's truly pathetic motorways). Anyway, I was just trying to point out that pre-existing structural weakness isn't the ONLY reason airliners go down. I read a report from USA Today (I think) on Thursday that said that particular Air France Airbus had a perfect safety and maintenance record, which is why I think it was probably brought down by massive hull failure caused by the weather the plane was flying through at the time. Such as a massive lightning strike causing a spark or short circuit somewhere in the fuel system, leading to an explosion. Of course, since all of this is monitored for the flight crew, and they didn't even get out a distress call (apart from the electronics tracking systems' reporting system crashes and failure), I'm betting it was a combination of several unusually strong weather phenomenon that caused the plane to break up in mid air. It happens..... As I said in a previous post, we still can't make aircraft able to resist absolutely everything the atmoshpere can throw at you, but our modern airliners are so safe and stable usually that we forget that the possibilty is always there for weather induced crashes, especially in cases of extreme weather and turbulence. quote> The Rubber necking was emense. Everyone wanted to know what was going on, I'll try to find some backlogs for pictures.

"Something doestn't have to be physically wrong with an airliner to cause accidents. I read on Wikipedia a few weeks ago that an engine fault on a newer Boeing 737 doing a flight from London Heathrow to Glasgow led to the plane crashing onto the M1 Motorway during an emergency landing, and although one engine had caught fire (the flight crew were not trained on the newest variant of that airliner) the Captain shut down the WRONG engine, then increased the load on the damaged engine, which promptly exploded, causing the airliner to lose all power and fall out of the sky, crashing onto the southbound cariageway of the M1 Motorway, about 100 metres short of the runway the captain was aiming at." ~~Abes I remember that! I was being driven down the M1 by my Dad. We were near the front of the queue caused by the aircraft crash. Anyway I completetly agree about the plane being structually weak. It's most like a series of events that led up to it.

UPDATE ON DEBRIS FOUND the debris was NOT from the missing aircraft, as it said on the news at 21:00 today. (Friday 5th June 2009)

Surely though, if the plane broadcast emergency messages on lose of power and cabin pressure, it may have been an explosive decompression. And seeing as it was at cruising altitude of around 37,000 feet (i'm guessing) the cabin pressure and air pressure would have been at a significant difference. The Explosive decompression would have not only caused the cabin to depresserize very quickly and ripe out all the electrical wiring. This would also explain the plane falling to pieces, the considerable size of the hole which was created in the side of the aircraft would have caused massive structual weakness. [Edit 1] Lighting from the storm may have hit a weak spot on the aircraft causing an explosive decompression. Praying for the families ~~ SuburbianNightmare

Originally posted by: Cockatoo-210893 Oh wow, I didn't know about this until just now. I can still connect to anti-virus sites, so I'm probably in the green, scary thought though, someone out there in control of 9-15million computers. Why someone would take such a risk and do something like that is beyond me. Hopefully they bust this guy (or shut 'em down) before the payload is delivered.quote> Yeah this is true, it infected over 10million computers before 1st April. Microsoft is offering a $250k reward to the guy who created it, because its a criminal offence. rumor has it, the worm infected the house of commons comp. doubt it

Surely it would be easier if the UK changed over to the euro wouldn't it? instead of thinks of Super Currency. :S