May 1: What's Jen Clicking on Between Newscasts?

I'm on Swine Flu overload.  Oh, sorry, H1N1 overload.  I'm on board with the name change that was suggested by the World Health Organization, in support of our porcine friends -- the cloven-hoofed innocents who are, in some cases (like in Egypt) being slaughtered ("culled," they say, to make it sound more politically correct) due to swine flu -- er -- H1N1 fears. 

Save a pig -- say H1N1.  And check out the slideshow I put up here about Swine Flu SWAG ... there are a couple of Swine Flu online video games that are (forgive me) going viral (one where you get to be the doctor with the shot, and one where you try to sneeze on people,) and tee shirts ("Aporkalypse now" is my favorite) as capitalism thrives beneath the cloud of an impending global pandemic.

Also, if you really want to keep track of where this thing is going, there is a Google map that's being updated as new cases (and suspected cases) come in.  You can check that out here.

Anyway, I want to share a couple of entertaining Swine Flu videos today and then I'm going to move on to a story that was overshadowed by all this Swi -- er, H1N1 hysteria.

This Jeanne Moos story I found on YouTube is so entertaining, I had to put it up here.  Just watch it.

It touches on the hype around this flu threat, and why no one is going to call it H1N1.  SWINE FLU sounds so much more ... sinister.

And what news organization wants to ditch all those graphics packages now?

And for all the media overload on Swine Flu, DARNIT! H1N1 (which, as Janet Napolitano says in the Moos piece, "rolls off the tongue") there sure is still a lot of misinformation and just plain stupidity about how it's spread (or not spread.)

The Colbert Report piece here the other night is so stupid funny, especially the Q and A which goes something like this:

"I'm in a state that doesn't have any Swine Flu cases and I feel fine.  Do you think I could have the Swine Flu?"

"YES!! you DEFINITLY have Swine Flu!!!!"

ugh.

So last night, flipping from channel to channel, it was flu flu flu everywhere, but there were a lot of news stories that were pretty significant that I read about but didn't get to see any reportage on.

My favorite story yesterday was the one about a serial killer/rapist who terrorized LA's West side in the 1970s.  Apparently, the suspect is a man who has been imprisoned for rape before, but had been living his life for the last few decades as a model citizen.

Police say 72-year old John Thomas Jr. may be responsible for the murders of 30 women.  DNA links him to several already, and it's what led police to him in the first place. 

Since Thomas is a registered sex offender, he was required to give a DNA sample to police in 2008, even though his last stint in prison ended 26 years ago.

So, last October, he gave his sample at LAPD's Southwest station.  It was only a matter of time before it was run against LAPD's cold cases.

One investigator interviewed in Conan Nolan's report yesterday, which includes a clip from a 1979 KNBC news story, said the unsolved West Side rapist case was the only "open wound" in his career.

The long arm of the law reached through time to grab this suspect, who had worked for the State Worker's Compensation fund in Glendale for the last 20 years.

The H1N1 virus has killed one person in the US -- but science says Thomas has killed at least five, maybe 30.  And we can look to scientists in the lab for solving both.

See what else Jen is clicking on...