Would you go on a cruise that traced the route of the ill-fated “Titanic” on the 100th anniversary of its sinking?
Well, if you A) Are free in April 2012, B) Have $3,900 or more lying around and C) Are not superstitious, then Miles Morgan Travel has a deal for you.
According to CNN, the trip on the “Balmoral” will depart from Southampton, England, on April 8, 2012, exactly 100 years after “Titanic” did, arrive at the spot in the North Atlantic where “Titanic” sank on April 15—the 100th anniversary of the disaster—and end up in New York, where “Titanic” was headed, after a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, so memorial cruise passengers can visit cemeteries where some of the Titanic victims are buried.
Appropriately memorial or exploitatively morbid—what do you think?
As an update to yesterday’s post about the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, we have this story from the Associated Press:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that a massive school closing wouldn’t stop the spread of the swine flu virus, saying vaccinations must be the defense against a menace that one report said could infect up to half of the population.
“What we know is that we have the virus right now traveling around the United States,“ Sebelius said in a nationally broadcast interview. “And having children in a learning situation is beneficial ... What we learned last spring is that shutting a school down sort of pre-emptively doesn’t stop the virus from spreading ...“
Asked in the interview what people should do while awaiting the arrival of a vaccine, with first supplies likely by October but most not until the Thanksgiving season, Sebelius said: “I think it’s important that people begin to anticipate that we will have a vaccine. We think it’s likely that we’re going to need two shots for the vaccine.“
She said people should plan ahead for this, particularly those with pre-existing medical conditions, pregnant women and health care industry workers. Sebelius said federal health authorities also are recommending that people should immediately get their regular “seasonal” flu vaccine to bolster their health for the scenario yet to play out later this year regarding the swine flu virus.
Here’s a link to the CDC’s “H1N1 U.S. Situation Update” map—in other words, a visual representation of where the infections have spread. One surprising fact: The virus is most widespread in Alaska and Maine—not exactly the two states I would expect to be at the top of the infection list. Other information useful for tracking H1N1 is available here, too—including the graph showing hospitalizations and deaths caused by the virus. Note that through Aug. 20, H1N1 had a fatality rate of more than 6.5 percent.
If you haven’t yet voted in my polls on this issue, please do. You’ll find the general poll in the sidebar; the poll about your intentions regarding the vaccine is in the earlier post.
I’ve kept up with all the news about the virus, though mostly by default; I don’t consider myself an alarmist, but because of the massive coverage it’s getting, it’s hard to miss it on cable news and on the web.
I’ve talked to various people about it at varying points along the way. The general consensus in my circle seemed to be that while H1N1 would probably cause a slightly more intense or lengthy bout of flu as compared with the regular seasonal flu, it wasn’t anything to worry about—at least not in the apoplectic way some people are doing.
And then I read this article from CNN, which says in part:
The H1N1 flu virus could cause up to 90,000 U.S. deaths, mainly among children and young adults, if it resurges this fall as expected, according to a report released Monday by a presidential advisory panel.
The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu virus, could infect between 30 percent and 50 percent of the American population during the fall and winter and lead to as many as 1.8 million U.S. hospital admissions, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported.
The report says 30,000 to 90,000 deaths are projected as part of a “plausible scenario” involving large outbreaks at schools, inadequate antiviral supplies and the virus peaking before vaccinations have time to be effective ...
An H1N1 resurgence may happen as early as September, at the beginning of the school year, and infections may peak in mid-October, according to the report. However, the H1N1 vaccine isn’t expected to be available until mid-October, and even then it will take several weeks for vaccinated individuals to develop immunity, the report says.
(For comparison, the seasonal flu is responsible for up to 40,000 U.S. deaths annually, according to CNN.)
So, the government wants you to get the vaccine (which is actually two shots) ... but it isn’t available yet, and by the time you get it, it may be too late for it to work.
Yikes.
What do you think about all this? Are you in an at-risk group? Are you concerned about H1N1? Are you going to get the vaccine? Let me know in the polls below and in the sidebar.
Here’s the AU band performing its famous pregame set, courtesy of the tech wizards at the Opelika-Auburn News. They managed to get all the performances from last week’s Band-O-Rama on the web for your viewing pleasure! (Auburn’s halftime show and post-game set are also among the clips, which you can see here.)
The sound of those horns is undeniable ... Football season is less than two weeks away!
War Eagle!!
P.S. I also highly recommend the clip of the Prattville High School marching band. It is fifth on the list. Don’t miss the last part of that show!
Sarah Palin’s ex-son-in-law-to-be (how’s that for a sideswipe with fame?) is such a disgusting, conscious-less individual, it makes me physically angry to think that anyone pays him any attention at all.
Can you imagine the horror his now-infant son will someday feel as he learns of how his father aired his family’s dirty laundry, even to the point of his sexual history with his mother, in the name of money and fame?
But last night, in his latest desperate attempt to snatch some fleeting moments of fame from the underbelly of the discarded-remnants gutter, Johnston showed up with self-described D-lister Kathy Griffin—who is disgusting in her own right—at the Teen Choice Awards.
... as her date.
Eww.
I don’t know for whom this is more embarrassing: Johnston, who clearly thinks of himself as some sort of manly “stud,“ or the washed-up Griffin, who was toting around a dude young enough to be her son. I know they say that the only bad publicity is no publicity, but I’m pretty sure those rules don’t apply when you have a child—which Johnston, obviously, does.
And then I realized it: Johnston and Griffin are both obnoxious blemishes on the complexion of humanity.
Even more than being perfect for each other, they deserve each other.
I wish them long lives of happiness ... in complete obscurity.
Twitter updates from Jennifer at 
