"April 26, 2009"
http://www.spaceweather.com/
"Daily Sun: 26 Apr 09 The sun is blank--no sunspot. Sunspot number: 0"
"Far side of the Sun: This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far
side of the sun."

The face of the Sun is without blemish:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...tavvb6h4 5pq2

Please visit:
http://blog.nj.com/southjersey_impac...SolarCycle.jpg

The right panel shows the face of the Sun as it looked on a good day during
the late Modern Warm Period. Sunspots are the apparent size of craters on
the moon. The left panel shows a Sun as it appears today. Please write to Al
Gore so that Al knows that the Sun is not living up to his religious
expectations. Al Gore is a divinity school dropout. George Carlin had a
better grasp of the true nature of God's creation, than does Al Gore.

Please visit:
http://www.co-intelligence.org/newsl...es/sun-etc.jpg
which shows the relative sizes of the Sun and planets. Compared to the Sun,
Jupiter is the size of a pea, earth is the size of a grain of sand.

Global flu fears as 68 die and virus spreads
• BA cabin steward in isolation ward
• Mexico invokes special measures

Tracy McVeigh and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
The Observer, Sunday 26 April 2009


A British Airways cabin steward is being treated in an isolation unit at a
London hospital after falling ill on a flight from Mexico, where a killer
virus is believed to have caused at least 68 deaths and sparked widespread
panic. Health experts say it has the potential to become a global pandemic.

The BA steward was undergoing tests in a London hospital for the swine flu
virus after arriving on a flight from Mexico City. It is the first suspected
case of the new flu strain to be reported in Europe, prompting fears it may
have spread across the Atlantic from Mexico.

The World Health Organisation says the swine flu strain - a unique mix of
human, pig and bird viruses - constituted a public health emergency of
international concern. Twenty people are known to have died in Mexico so far
out of a total of 1,004 reported cases, and 48 more deaths are thought to be
attributable to the outbreak.

At least nine swine flu cases have been reported in California and Texas.
The most recently reported California case, the seventh there, was a
35-year-old woman who was treated in hospital but recovered. The woman,
whose illness began in early April, had no known contact with the other
cases.

At least two more cases have been confirmed in Kansas, bringing the US total
to 11. State health officials said yesterday they had confirmed swine flu in
a married couple living in the central part of the state after the husband
visited Mexico. They have not been hospitalised, and the state described
their illnesses as mild. Dr Jason Eberhart-Phillips, Kansas's state health
officer, said: "Fortunately, the man and woman understand the gravity of the
situation and are very willing to isolate themselves."

Additionally, at least eight students at a New York high school were last
night also believed to have a form of human swine flu, but authorities are
not yet certain if it is the same strain that has killed people in Mexico.

The 38-year-old BA steward is being kept in Northwick Park hospital in
north-west London, which has a specialist ward for patients with suspected
tropical and infectious diseases, while doctors carry out swabs and blood
tests. A Health Protection Agency spokeswoman said: "We are aware of a
patient admitted to a London hospital with reported travel history to
Mexico. As a precautionary measure the patient is being tested for a range
of respiratory and other illnesses ... At present there have been no
confirmed cases of human swine flu in the UK or anywhere in Europe."

The crew member, who flew out to Mexico on 20 April, is understood to have
shown symptoms of fever before embarking yesterday for the return leg to
Heathrow. He had been suffering from high temperature, aches and dizziness
the night before the return flight but was allowed through health controls
at Mexico City airport to report for duty.

He collapsed around two hours into the flight, and was isolated from the
other passengers. None of the other crew members or passengers reported
similar symptoms. A BA spokeswoman said: "We can confirm one of our cabin
crew felt unwell during the flight from Mexico and was taken to hospital on
arrival at Heathrow. The Port Health Authority met the flight at Heathrow
and no other passengers or crew were detained."

The Mexican government yesterday issued a decree authorising President
Felipe Calderón to invoke powers allowing the country's health department to
isolate patients and inspect homes, travellers and baggage. Mexico's health
secretary, José Angel Córdova, said: "We are very, very concerned."

Yesterday, people in Mexico City were being ordered not to kiss or shake
hands. Football matches went ahead without spectators, theatres, shops and
museums were closed, staff were inside locked schools scrubbing classrooms
with disinfectant, and health workers patrolled buses, ordering sickly
looking people home.

The WHO stopped short of issuing a worldwide alert over the swine flu
strain, but its director general, Dr Margaret Chan, said that option
remained "on the table".

Scientists have long feared that a new flu virus could launch a worldwide
pandemic. Evolving when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a
bird, mingling their genetic material, a hybrid could spread quickly because
humans would have no natural defences.

"We are seeing a range of severity of the disease, from mild to severe, and
of course death," said Chan. "The eight cases in the US have been mild in
terms of severity and it is too premature to calculate the mortality rate of
this disease."

Any doubts over the extent of the emergency were dispelled last night by the
sight of soldiers handing out blue surgical masks to pedestrians and
motorists along Mexico City's central boulevard, Paseo de la Reforma. With
TV and radio calling on the population to seek medical advice for any
flu-like symptoms, queues grew at clinics and hospitals across the city.

Calderón said his government learned only on Thursday night what kind of
virus Mexico was facing after tests by specialist laboratories in Canada
confirmed the outbreak as a type - labelled A/H1N1 - not previously seen in
pigs or humans. Few of the cases appear to have had any contact with live
pigs.

The WHO said the virus appeared to be able to spread from human to human and
contained human virus, avian virus and pig viruses from North America,
Europe and Asia.

Given how quickly flu can spread, there might be cases incubating around the
world already, said Dr Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota:
"Hundreds and thousands of travellers come in and out [of Mexico] every
day."

It was unclear how much protection current vaccines might offer. A "seed
stock" genetically matched to the new virus has already been created by the
US Centres for Disease Control. If the US government decides vaccine
production is necessary, it would be used by manufacturers to get started.

At Mexico City's international airport, passengers were questioned to try to
prevent anyone with flu symptoms from boarding aircraft and spreading the
disease. The Foreign Office issued a warning to UK travellers about the
outbreak, but stopped short of recommending people did not visit Mexico. US
health officials took a similar line, urging visitors to wash their hands
frequently.