TB scare: typical balanced media response

With my internet connection temporarily down, I had the distinct, um, pleasure, of getting my morning news fix from cable.

Apparently the nation is about to be hit by a devastating outbreak of untreatable tuberculosis, causing, judging from the wall to wall coverage, deaths in the millions.

Or not.

Amid all the breathless coverage bewailing how someone so infected could slip through the security dragnet that envelops the US (or, at least it seems, should), one quote seems to be missing:

"We believe that his degree of infectiousness is quite low," Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, told a news conference.

Whew, I feel better already. Be a shame if the country got distracted all worked up about a non-threat, wouldn't it?

I'll be calling ewe-oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-ooooo!

[x-posted at Daily Kos]

In his 2006 State of the Union address, President Bush made a rather mystyfying reference, when he called for legislation to prohibit "human-animal hybrids".

At the time the comment left me and quite a few others curious as to why someone had slipped such an odd reference into the SOTU.

But with all due apologies, it turns out the president's worst nightmares have become reality. Run for your lives it's human-sheep hybrids!

Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Despite the jokes to come (from myself included), the process is actually very important for those in need of an organ transplant because the human cells used for the chimera would be from the recipient, reducing chances of rejection.

But enough of that, now for the joke:

How do you like my new sweater, it’s 80% Merino, 5% cotton and 15% Kevin.

[H/t to Joe Gandelman]