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Time.com — A woman in Cornwall, England, has filed papers to divorce her husband on the grounds of “unreasonable behavior” after she discovered that his character in the online role-playing game Second Life had been having an affair. Amy Taylor, 28, whose online alter ego is named Laura Skye, said that her husband’s virtual infidelity exacted a pain that cut as deep as any extramarital liaison. In Second Life, users create an online persona, known as an avatar, which moves freely through the imagined world, making friends, socializing and buying property with the game’s virtual currency, the Linden dollar (so named for the developers behind the game). At any given moment, 38,000 users are logged on to the site.

Shortly after her marriage, Taylor woke from an afternoon nap to find Pollard watching his Dave Barmy avatar having sex with a computer-generated prostitute. “I went mad — I was so hurt,” Taylor said of the Internet affair. “I just couldn’t believe what he’d done. I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It’s cheating as far as I’m concerned.” Online, Laura Skye works as a club DJ and is 6 feet tall, weighs 112 lb. and has a penchant for skin-tight cowgirl outfits. In reality, Taylor, an unemployed former waitress, is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 224 lb. and prefers T shirts and leggings. More

BIRD flu tests will be carried out today on seven swans found dead in a river near Caernarfon. The carcasses were discovered floating in the Seiont not far from the town’s historic castle. Locals alerted harbour master Richard Jones on Wednesday, and his team recovered three dead swans in the morning, followed by four more in the afternoon. Yesterday the team were back at the riverbank after residents reported another swan appeared to be ill. Mr Jones said he was initially advised by Defra that the government would not test for bird flu in cases involving less than 10 dead wild birds. He was advised to safely bag up the birds in black bin liners and throw them into a waste bin.

The above comments raise additional concerns regarding H5N1 surveillance. The lack of testing and reporting has been a concern for the past several years, and recently has received additional attention due to Indonesia’s comments on reducing reporting frequencies on human H5N1 infections. Although this announcement has received a great deal of attention, the under-reporting of H5N1 in birds and humans is widespread.

England has a surveillance program, but as noted above, the level of testing is a major concern. When H5N1 reports were widespread in western Europe in early 2006, England reported one H5N1 positive swan that washed up on the shores of Scotland. That isolate was closely related to H5N1 detected in Sweden, Denmark, and northern Germany, suggesting that the level of H5N1 in England was significantly higher than the one reported positive. Read More

…the high path H7 is H7N7, the same serotype that caused the massive outbreak in The Netherlands in 2003. 89 cullers and contacts were H7 PCR confirmed and the outbreak resulted in the only bird flu fatality that was not H5N1.

Follow-up testing for H7 antibodies identified over 1000 contacts, most of whom were asymptomatic. The majority of the PCR confirmed cases had conjunctivitis, although a few had influenza-like illness and a few had both conjunctivitis and influenza-like illness.

Recent reports on H7 isolates with increased binding affinity for human receptors or ferret to ferret transmission has increased concerns regarding the human-to-human transmission potential of H7 outbreaks. More
Go here for more info on Avian Bird Flu

The past 24 hours have been a nightmare for the Court family, culminating yesterday with the slaughter of their flock of 25,000 hens. At the same time Defra announced laboratory results from dead chickens confirmed the outbreak of the highly contagious H7 strain of bird flu. He said: “The source of the disease is not yet known and Defra will continue to make further investigations to try to identify this.

All birds on the farm will be culled to try to help contain or eradicate the disease. “We would urge everyone within the Defra surveillance zone to remain vigilant and to maintain suitable bio-security measures on their farms. This has been a devastating 24 hours for us and we would ask that we are now left to come to terms with what has happened and make plans for the future.” A 10km surveillance zone was placed around the farm banning all bird movement to prevent the spread of the disease. More

Recombinomics Commentary 19:59
June 3, 2008

The Chief Veterinary Officer, Nigel Gibbens, has today confirmed Avian Influenza in chickens on premises near Banbury in Oxfordshire after preliminary tests were positive for the H7 strain.

The Health Protection Agency has advised that it is important to remember that H7 avian flu remains largely a disease of birds. The virus does not transmit easily to humans, as evidenced by the small number of confirmed infections worldwide to date. Almost all human H7 infections documented so far have been associated with close contact with dead or dying poultry. The risk to human health posed by H7 avian influenza viruses remains low. Nonetheless, the local Health Protection Unit will be identifying and following up those who may have had contact with the infected poultry and provide guidance and advice, and preventative medication as appropriate.

The above comments from DEFRA describe another H7 outbreak in England. Once again there was no warning provided by the wild bird surveillance program. There was an H7N2 in England almost exactly one year ago, and an H7N3 outbreak almost exactly two years ago.

H7 infections are easily transmitted to humans, and once again the DEFRA words of assurance highlight a lack of confirmed cases, which is largely dependent on an insensitive assay that fails to detect H7 in symptomatic and hospitalized patients.

Last year there were almost as many suspect human cases as avian cases. The suspect cases are almost certainly linked to H7N2 infections, because there is little seasonal flu at this time of the year in England. Last year H7 infections in the owners of the index farm were not confirmed.

The data was presented a year ago in Toronto. At the time most of the suspect cases were not aln confirmed, and although results were promised at the meeting, little new data was released and the number of confirmed H7N2 cases remained at four.

H7 infections are efficiently transmitted to humans, In the 2003 H7N7 outbreak, antibodies were detected in more than 1000 contacts, base on H7 antibodies. Most of the patients had mild or eye disease. Last year the H7N2 cases were more severe and respiratory, but most of the suspect cases were not confirmed.

Media reports are descibing H7N3 antibodies in culled poultry in northwet Arkansas.

The recent results with A/New York./107/2003(H7N2) has increased concerns over human H7 infections, DEFRA press releases notwithstanding.

Photo courtesy of Mr. Kris

The New York Sun reports that “major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice and cooking oil. In some cases, a 25-pound bag is selling for more than $30″. But the paper’s headline reads: “Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World”, so you can’t help but wonder how much of their report is sensationalized.

Then I read in theage.com a similar story with the headline: “Japan’s hunger becomes a dire warning for other nations”.
The article reads:

“Japan’s acute butter shortage, which has confounded bakeries, restaurants and now families across the country, is the latest unforeseen result of the global agricultural commodities crisis. A sharp increase in the cost of imported cattle feed and a decline in milk imports, both of which are typically provided in large part by Australia, have prevented dairy farmers from keeping pace with demand. While soaring food prices have triggered rioting among the starving millions of the third world, in wealthy Japan they have forced a pampered population to contemplate the shocking possibility of a long-term — perhaps permanent — reduction in the quality and quantity of its food.”

To add to all this are the frightening headlines about food riots all over the world in places like Mexico, Indonesia, Yemen, the Philippines, Cambodia, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania, Egypt, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Peru, Bolivia and Haiti.
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