Bird Flu for the Birds

Perhaps I’d feel differently if Bird Flu was the only Big Bad the Big Media has thrown at us in the past 6 years. But it’s not.

Flood. Iraq. Terrorist Attack. Neighbors. Asteriods. First Graders. Blogs. (Maybe I’ll finish finding links later, maybe not.)

Call me cynical, but bird flu feels FUDdy. Especially when something like this comes through.

Jen read Flu. She says we’re due.

That may be. At minimum, the wrong people (everyone) are being told to prepare for something full of ‘ifs’, ‘whens’, and ‘maybes’.

“The H5N1 avian flu virus that has infected flocks on at least three continents and killed 91 people could be the virus that experts fear will mutate.”

(emphasis mine)

91 people have died on record from bird-to-human transmission. No human-to-human cases have been found.

The CDC conservatively estimates 20,000 people die each year from regular flu (the kind we have shots for).

More than 33,000 people have died due to military intervention in Iraq. The official death toll of the Sept. 11 disaster is 2,986.

I still remember the constant threat of MAD thrown at us growing up. I recognize that there were moments in the cold war where it came very close to occurring.

But. It. Didn’t. I think we’ve lost perspective.

Podcasts Can’t Help, Radio Can, But Often Doesn’t.

This weekend the Upper Midwest got dumped on. My hometown received 19″ of snow in a single day. Jen and I were driving home in it. It was awful. Bad.

During the drive, we had no idea if conditions were getting better or worse.

Just as Mark Ramsey restates, radio has the power to provide this type of service – persistently. Not on the infrequent occasion that it must.

They have a specific geographic reach. Like Steve Mays’ example for 3 hours this weekend, I was concerned with the weather conditions within that geographic region. Unfortunately, every station acted like the storm didn’t exist.

Podcasts can’t provide real-time, critical weather information. Broadcast radio can. Satellite radio might.

Amazing Race Season 9 – Episode 3

The hippies (BJ & Tyler) are playing better than anyone yet – in any season. They’re playfulness at the beginning of this episode – greeting everyone at the zip line by jumping on their cars – is what this is race is all about.

“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to go to Russia.” – Lake

Seriously? We were just talking about how St. Petersburg is on our list of places to go.
Lake, I fear the worst of you is yet to come.

Roadblock – Who wants to take the plunge
Jen’s doing this one. Sure, she’ll mock me the entire way, but we gotta split these up. She sealed her fate with this commentary:

“It’s only 10 meters, I would dive. I wouldn’t do anything fancy, but I’d dive.”

Detour – Scrub or Scour
Scrub for us. On first glance, it sounds like we’d be more in control of our progress. I’m not a big fan of the random-box challenges. No skill, only patience required. Patience in the Amazing Race is on a short fuse.

Blah. Ending the episode without a pitstop. Feels so, empty.

First Crack 75. Jen and Garrick Talk About Being New Parents

On a drive this past weekend, Jen thought it was time we talked about being new parents.

Everything you’d expect is in here; guilt, funny clothes, guilt, awkwardness, diapers, mommy-and-me classes, dad-and-son catch, and thoughts on starting solid foods.

Yes, we’re still armchair parents at heart.

Listen to Jen and Garrick Talk About Being New Parents [35 min]

Startbucks

Based on Greg Olsen’s Going Bedouin article, “Startbucks” defines a small team of entrepreneurs, 3-5 people, working on the next great business from geographically disparate coffee houses, collaborating via internet access.

In the Experience Economy, this is free office space for the price of coffee (in contrast to free coffee for the price of office space).

Based on this history of this blog, I get one made-up-word a year. That’s cool. Like the others, I submitted this one to pseudodictionary.com. I’ll update this post if/when it’s accepted.

Update 1 Apr 2006: Startbucks is now in the pseudodictionary

First Crack 74. Uplifting the AmigoFish with Dave Slusher

As part of the Dave Slusher 2006 Over-Exposure Tour, Dave and I talked about his AmigoFish and the Uplifter.org projects.

Upfront I talk about:

Dave and I talk about:

I throw in a song from Jeremy Messersmith and then we talk Uplifter.

Listen to Uplifting the AmigoFish with Dave Slusher [45 min]