This Epidemic Is Cyberpunk Options

[Shadowfox]

I don't know if anyone else has gotten this vibe, but I find how suddenly all these people are buying gas masks, and now some people are DECORATING them or buying cool looking ones just seems so...cyberpunk to me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthpi...-in-Mexico.html

[blindfox]

heh, i was just remarking at chow today that if i was stateside during this 'epidemic' id be driving around town with my GI gas mask, just to see people's reactions.
when i was a kid i had one and used to mow the lawn wearing it to combat my hay fever, resulting in weird looks from the neighbors (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[toturi]

heh, i was just remarking at chow today that if i was stateside during this 'epidemic' id be driving around town with my GI gas mask, just to see people's reactions.
when i was a kid i had one and used to mow the lawn wearing it to combat my hay fever, resulting in weird looks from the neighbors (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Somehow that brings to my mind -

"Luke, I am your father."

[BlueMax]

I don't know if anyone else has gotten this vibe, but I find how suddenly all these people are buying gas masks, and now some people are DECORATING them or buying cool looking ones just seems so...cyberpunk to me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthpi...-in-Mexico.html

Its not Cyberpunk... its Shadowrun, VITAS I. They just haven't figured out the right name yet.

[Backgammon]

Zomg no. It's just fucking hype, like SARS was. OMG, a couple of old people died from a special flu strain. Like tens of thousands die every year from regular flu. Wake me when something actually happens. At least SARS was cool cause Hong Kong is cyberpunk.

[overcannon]

Well, the weird thing is that it is killing people in the 25-40 age range primarily.

[Ed_209a]

This will become a big baddie in the industrialized nations only if they sit there and do nothing.

The first world is a very hard target for epidemic now.

Largely because hospitals can communicate so quickly and completely now. The first hospital that gets a rush of a new pathogen can let EVERYONE know in a few hours.

[PirateChef]

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 7 deaths from this flu... 7... the others are actually misreported. http://www.smh.com.au/world/only-7-swine-f...90429-aml1.html

If you go to the WHO website, they've upgraded the number of deaths to 8
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_29/en/index.html

And here's the site that lists the updates
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

[Dhaise]

Isn't that how hysteria works though? Kids have a greater chance of dying from cancer then they do being abducted by a stranger in the USA, but every parent freaks out at the thought of some guy tossing around free candy. Our media likes everything 'BIG'.

[BlueMax]

Guys, this is the Shadowrun section. Can we Shadowrun it up a little?

VITAS, look where it started.

[hobgoblin]

i could have sworn i have seen images of japanese girls wearing artisitc face masks as part of their outfit...

[Earlydawn]

The big concern about this one, from the epidemological perspective, is the recombination process. The replication process is sloppy business, essentially just demolishing the virus' genetic information and rebuilding it again - along with any genetic material in the area. There's at least one regular influenza strain going around right now that is almost entirely pharma-resistant. Combine that with the lack of background immunity to H1N1, and you've got the potential for a major outbreak.

I also have no idea what the hell the State Department is doing. The common line I hear when the border question comes up is "Well, it's already here!", which is a load of (hehe) hogwash, since there's still no reason to allow illegal traffic to bring it over regardless. Between swine flu and the (now literal) drug war, Mexico may be ready for Feral Cities 2.0 well in advance of the book.

Also.. picture 14 of the OP gallery. Wiskey tango foxtrox, do you copy?

[Heath Robinson]

Don't Aztlaners buy specially decorated respirators? Shadowrun and real life, they're closer than you think!

[GreyBrother]

"Luke, I am your father... now go mow the lawn!"

Fix'd for more funny (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Well, Earlydawn, he doesn't like the Black Sheriffs (Schwarzen Sheriffs in German), i think there is the shadowrun connection (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)
My Gamemaster once brought us to Munich and i saw a Drone flying around with two S written on it. I never heard of the Black Sheriffs since then and went like "OMG, Nazis in southern AGL!"

[imperialus]

meh... I'll start worrying when they begin burning bodies in the streets...

The chances of that happening with the Flu given the stockpiles of Tamiflu and other anti-virals that most countries have stockpiled is pretty minuscule.

I'm more concerned about bacteria than virus anyhow, If we ended up with a nasty strain of drug resistant TB making the rounds we'd see a lot more dead people.

Really though, worrying about some epidemic disease killing us all is like worrying about when an asteroid is going to hit the planet and kill us all. The chances of it happening are pretty damn slim and if it does there's nothing we're going to be able to do about it anyhow so *shrug*.

[Draco18s]

Holy shit, there are only 40 confirmed cases world wide! BREAK OUT THE HAZMAT SUITS, BATMAN!

[Dhaise]

meh... I'll start worrying when they begin burning bodies in the streets...

The chances of that happening with the Flu given the stockpiles of Tamiflu and other anti-virals that most countries have stockpiled is pretty minuscule.

I'm more concerned about bacteria than virus anyhow, If we ended up with a nasty strain of drug resistant TB making the rounds we'd see a lot more dead people.

Really though, worrying about some epidemic disease killing us all is like worrying about when an asteroid is going to hit the planet and kill us all. The chances of it happening are pretty damn slim and if it does there's nothing we're going to be able to do about it anyhow so *shrug*.

If option #2 occurs, some goverment J is going to hire Bruce Willis oil drigging crew for a run.

[Muspellsheimr]

'Standard' Influenza kills an estimated 250,000 - 500,000 worldwide annually, with up to an estimated 36,000 in America.

While swine flu has the potential to become a serious pandemic, for some reason I doubt that will happen.

[Nath]

It seems the outbreak started in Veracruz, not right into Mayan territory, but not that far from it ! The Mayan calendar predicts the end of the Fifth World for December, 2012 (I know Shadowrun says 2011, but, come on, as usual, SR line will be late on schedule, and the two calendars will finally match). The actual place of the outbreak, is La Gloria, near the Cofre de Perote volcano, that the Aztec called Naucampatepetl, which means "four times lord" in Nahuatl. And we're in the Fifth World, there were exactly four times the world was destroyed !

We're all doomed !!!

[Daishi]

Two SR thoughts:

1) Aztechnology loses control of a prototype from their secret biowarfare labs...
2) It becomes culturally okay to wear masks in a bank during an epidemic...

[TBRMInsanity]

2) It becomes culturally okay to wear masks in a bank during an epidemic...

That isn't good.

[Semerkhet]

heh, i was just remarking at chow today that if i was stateside during this 'epidemic' id be driving around town with my GI gas mask, just to see people's reactions.
when i was a kid i had one and used to mow the lawn wearing it to combat my hay fever, resulting in weird looks from the neighbors (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Okay, this is a bit off-topic but I'm running with it anyway because it has to do with technological change. When I was in the Army in '92-'96 in Germany, I felt a whole lot more cut-off from current events in the U.S. than it seems like today's soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are. I think this is a good thing, but it's striking to me how quickly things change. When I was on field exercises in the forests of Germany, we didn't have any idea what was going on in the "real world." It took two days for the "news" that Kurt Cobain had killed himself to filter out to us by word of mouth. No, I don't remember why that was a big deal. Actually, I do, but it seems a bit laughable now. Anyway, my point is that I'm amazed at how able modern soldiers are to take the trappings of the uber-connected iPhone age and transport it with them to the war zones. Anyone have any more profound thoughts on this observation?

[Warlordtheft]

I think in general it helps with the soldiers morale. Knowing that at home, everything or everyone is ok, is one less thing to worry about.

[Chrysalis]

Okay, this is a bit off-topic but I'm running with it anyway because it has to do with technological change. When I was in the Army in '92-'96 in Germany, I felt a whole lot more cut-off from current events in the U.S. than it seems like today's soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are. I think this is a good thing, but it's striking to me how quickly things change. When I was on field exercises in the forests of Germany, we didn't have any idea what was going on in the "real world." It took two days for the "news" that Kurt Cobain had killed himself to filter out to us by word of mouth. No, I don't remember why that was a big deal. Actually, I do, but it seems a bit laughable now. Anyway, my point is that I'm amazed at how able modern soldiers are to take the trappings of the uber-connected iPhone age and transport it with them to the war zones. Anyone have any more profound thoughts on this observation?

Military applications of iPhone and iPod by newsleak: http://www.newsweek.com/id/194623

However, what is important is hardware hacking. That means taking a device and using it for something its issuers did not perceive at the time. It means that taking trophy photos and sending them on the internet is a button away. It also means that intelligence from the battlefield to the wider civilian people no longer flows through black rooms and government censors. It also means that there is a greater likelihood of utilising mobile phones during operations for communication than before.

Civilian phone connections will become increasingly important not only from a strategic point of view but a tactical one.

To summarize, I think the most important development really is that the military and government cannot filter information from the states and back. Not easily anyways.

[Wounded Ronin]

I don't know if anyone else has gotten this vibe, but I find how suddenly all these people are buying gas masks, and now some people are DECORATING them or buying cool looking ones just seems so...cyberpunk to me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthpi...-in-Mexico.html

1.) That is retarded. You're not supposed to get your N95 wet.

2.) Gas mask =/= surgical mask. Gas mask =/= N95.

3.) People running around wearing surgical masks have no idea what they're doing.