by Dave Foy on August 8, 2009
It’s hard to keep track at the moment whether swine flu incidence is dramatically rising or significantly falling.
I don’t worry too much either way about these things. I mostly look on media reporting of disease epidemics the same way I do reporting on anything else: spread the panic, keep up the fear.
What is interesting to me though (which I admit I didn’t know until recently) is that apparently all human disease originates from our domestication of animals, from approximately 10,000 years ago onwards.
The reasons for why humans took this path, and the consequences for us of doing so, are detailed in the wonderful What On Earth Happened by Christopher Lloyd. I’d urge anyone to read this book – a highly readable narrative on the history of pretty much everything (a fuller review is for another time).
Further from Wikipedia:
One side effect of domestication has been zoonotic diseases. For example, cattle have given humanity various viral poxes, measles, and tuberculosis; pigs and ducks have given influenza; and horses have given the rhinoviruses. Humans share over sixty diseases with dogs. Many parasites also have their origins in domestic animals. The advent of domestication resulted in denser human populations which provided ripe conditions for pathogens to reproduce, mutate, spread, and eventually find a new host in humans.
Lloyd’s book does a brilliant job of clearly highlighting the cause and effect of human behaviour throughout history. It’s far from sensationalist, but it has made me realise that media reporting on epidemics, global warming and the like are just the tip of the iceberg.
That scares me more than any daily reporting of the swine flu pop charts.
by Dave Foy on August 7, 2009
It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectations of copyright owners, the media and internet users. So, we have changed our policy to move in more line with the industry standard approach.
It’s nice to see our local ISP, Karoo, has changed their policy on cutting off alleged file sharers without warning, in keeping with industry norms.
Particularly nice as it happened to me recently, accused of sharing a Harry Potter movie when a) I don’t possess any Harry Potter movies, and b) I haven’t shared any movies.
Obviously, they wouldn’t have done this at all hadn’t the story been highlighted in a national newspaper. Still, mustn’t grumble, seeing as we’re stuck with them.
by Dave Foy on August 7, 2009
by Dave Foy on July 24, 2009
A friend of mine, Brandon, was telling me the other day how struck he was on learning of Michael Jackson’s death, just how many events in his life (important or trivial) featured Michael in some way. He’s set up a new website – Michael Jackson Memories – to document these memories, as well as hopefully encourage others to submit their memories too.
He’s keen to point out it’s not a ‘memorial’ site, not supposed to be a shrine or anything, just an experiment in those little human interest stories that we all share (like it or not), seeing as the man dominated pop culture for so long.
Just to give him a shout out and maybe drum up some memories of your own – visit Michael Jackson Memories.
by Dave Foy on March 14, 2009
I’ve had almost no time to blog properly recently (mostly due to Twitter handling the need to vent very well!) so I thought it’d be nice to have a bit of a dump of stuff I’ve meant to blog about but… well… haven’t. In no particular order: read more »
by Dave Foy on March 14, 2009
I’ve just written and posted 2 new articles over at Definition today (the small Hull-based web design agency I run):
How much for a website?
We’re often asked how much we charge for a website, and it’s frustrating not to be able to always give a straight answer. The article gives some reasons why.
Recession busting tips
Having your website budget slashed due to the recession is not the time to get despondent; it’s time to get creative! Here are our top 5 recession-busting tips.
Enjoy!
by Dave Foy on February 1, 2009
I’ve written a fuller piece over at the Definition website on this so I won’t repeat myself too much here…
Founded by the irrepressible Jon Moss, Hull Digital is a new website that aims to be the hub of the digital community in the city of Hull. If you live in or around Hull and work on the web or otherwise with digital technologies, we’d love you to get involved. Whether you’re a web developer, digital marketer, or are involved in any way with digital technologies for business or pleasure, you’re most welcome.
What’s the point?
Following the principle of ‘together we stand’, Hull Digital aims to be a means of sharing ideas, networking, and even getting us off our backsides from behind a monitor screen and meeting the people with who we share a contribution to the local digital economy.
Particularly, the group intends to make lots of noise about the monopoly enjoyed by our local ISP, and campaigning for ways to bring alternative broadband providers into the city, including fibre optics.
The first Hull Digital meet-up happens today and will be the first of many. Get involved, spread the word, see you there!
by Dave Foy on January 17, 2009
I have to admit to being completely bowled over by VirtualHostX. VirtualHostX is a utility I found quite by accident, whilst looking around for a way to easily create virtual hosts in OSX. read more »
by Dave Foy on January 9, 2009
by Dave Foy on December 23, 2008
