Slashdot Mirror
Let's Rename Swine Flu As "Colbert Flu"
Bruce Perens writes "The World Health Organization will no longer refer to Virus A(H1N1) as 'Swine Flu,' citing ethnic reactions to 'swine,' for example among middle-eastern cultures who feel that swine are unclean. Or, is it because meat packers are concerned that people might stop eating pork in fear of the virus? WHO suggests that the public select a new name for the virus. I suggest that we all start calling it The Colbert Flu, after the comedian and fake pundit who asked his audience to stuff a NASA poll so that a Space Station module would be named after him. What can we do to make the name stick?"
"Bacon Lung"
Much better name.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Characteristics of a flu...
given all these, the choice is obvious...
I hereby dub this latest flu the CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN FLU
You know, science doesn't take too kindly to being anthropomorphized.
There is a real problem in Egypt, which is persecuting its Coptic Christians by slaughtering their pigs. A minority in Egypt are Christian, the word "Copt" refers to their Egyptian ethnicity.
Some of the Copts farm pork, which the majority of Egyptian Islamic citizens (and their powerful clerics) feel are unclean. The Copts feed the pigs by recycling garbage, compounding their unclean nature in the eyes of Islamics. So, the Egyptians are slaughtering the pigs in the fear that they are influenza vectors.
We don't actually know that the pig is a vector for the virus at all. Thus, the Egyptian slaughters are unwarranted. We do know that human-to-human contact is a problem this time. The pigs are where influenza genes are often mixed, because they are susceptible to avian, human, and swine viruses. There probably was one pig-to-human transmission at the beginning of this epidemic, but there isn't evidence of continuing transmission after that.
The Copts are persecuted like most religious minorities in religious states. You don't see many of them in government (and none in high positions) or education. They don't often get government permission to build churches, and in 2007 there were Islamic riots because the people around the Copts thought they wanted to build a church. They need government permission to perform religious services.
The bottom line here is that the Egyptians, by slaughtering the pigs, remove the livelyhood of the Copts. They aren't promising to restore that livelyhood.
Bruce Perens.
How about the kdawson flu?
=Smidge=
I second that motion.
How about we stop giving stupid suggestions their own Slashdot articles?
I came here for a good argument
Flus are annoying, they show up wether you want them to or not, right in the middle of something else you were doing.
Mother-in-law flu?
Colbert is an example of cultural humor. The Colbert character is a parody of American right-wing demagogues.
Unless you are familiar with those demagogues, you'll not understand the comedy.
It's like slashdot humor. Unless you're familiar with the memes, the subject matter, and the jokes that have come before, 3/4 of the jokes just won't be funny to you.
That's the problem with humor... little of it is universal (not even poop jokes are universal, as some cultures don't have the same hang-ups about doody that we do). Slapstick is probably the only truly universal humor.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Try to exercise a bit of sensitivity... they're concerned that a disease is named after something that is unclean.
Perhaps they would like the Purity Flu?
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Well, I felt that with Colbert's desire to have multiple things named after him, the list of things is here, there would be a sort of "symmetry" to naming something that he would not want after him.
Obviously a simple influenza virus is insufficient to name after me. I'd want to have named after me an itch that you can't reach and slowly drives you crazy.
Bruce Perens.
It's like slashdot humor. Unless you're familiar with the memes, the subject matter, and the jokes that have come before, 3/4 of the jokes just won't be funny to you.
I am familiar with the memes, the subject matter, and the jokes that have come before, and 4/4 of them still aren't funny.
I don't get why anyone would object to "swine flu".
Let me see if I understand the logic here: You think pigs are unclean, and therefore you object to naming a deadly virus that thrives in unclean environments after them. Wha?
I could understand objecting to it if it were called "Puppy and Kitty Cat Flu", or if we were trying to name a new translation of the Koran the "Swine Koran", but this is just ridiculous.
I'm sorry but "Colbert" and "Comedian" only belong in the sentence if the words between them are "is not a ". Maybe I'm English and I just don't get him....
That's OK, mate. We don't get the whole cross-dressing thing here.
Cheers.
I prefer the name Pandemic Influenza Germ...although people will undoubtedly shorten that to an acronym of some sort.
I don't get why anyone would object to "swine flu".
(1) There are some people whose living depends on selling swine-related products.
(2) People are, in general, dumb.
Consequently, people may jump to the conclusion that eating swine may result in them getting the flu.
This is why I'm backing "Mexican flu." If nothing else, it'll cut down on people eating Mexicans.
The difference is that Colbert is actively mocking his stage persona.... Rush Limbaugh, by contrast was always just a pig.
Hey! Maybe we could call it the Limbaugh Flu....
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Why not call it Kung Flu...after all, it does kick your ass pretty well.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
This flu is actually two parts swine flu, one part bird flu and one part human flu.
If this is true then we have no choice but to name it accordingly...
...ManBirdPig Flu!!
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.