TrackerNews and the Human Algorithm, PopTech, PopTracker and a Challenge

At TrackerNews, our approach is a little different from most aggregators. While they focus either on the latest or most popular stories, we focus on context. Stories cycle through the site in groups to deliver  a more faceted experience: breaking news is paired with archived stories, research papers, blog posts, websites, book reviews, e-books – [...]

Underlying Conditions: Swine Flu, Obesity, Pregnancy, Cytokine Storms, Ebola, Factory Farms and “The Frog and Peach”

The swine flu genie, now officially out of the bottle as a WHO-certified global pandemic, has left a trail of mostly non-lethal misery (so far) stretching across 145-and-counting countries.

In the U.K., experts predict there could be as many as a 100,000 cases per day by August – which would also dash hopes for an economic [...]

Rating Pandemics: Tweaking the WHO Scale for Next Time…

Last week, the World Health Organization ratcheted up its pandemic rating for swine flu (aka H1N1) all the way to an unprecedented “pandemic imminent” level 5, with a top-of-the-chart 6 considered inevitable. Was it time to wear masks? Stock up on Tamiflu and canned goods? Update wills? Pull out old high school lit-class copies of [...]

A Virus by Any Other Name: Lessons from an Outbreak (so far…)

A week has passed since the World Health Organization convened its first emergency meeting to deal with menacing new flu virus thought to have sickened thousands and killed dozens of young Mexican men. New cases continue to tally up around the world (15 countries so far) and the virus is  spreading person-to-person. The outbreak has [...]

Follow the Pigs! – Swine Flu, Factory Farms, Mapping and Public Health

“Disease is an outcome.”  Wildlife biologist Milt Friend said that to me years ago when I was working on a story about the emergence of a frightening new virus just beginning to sweep across the country: West Nile. Friend had helped found the National Wildlife Health Center (a sort of CDC for critters), which was [...]