How Swine Flue Outbreak Emerged? (Mexico, Auckland, New Zealand)

Flu viruses mutate over time causing small changes to proteins on their surface called antigens. If the immune system has met a particular strain of the virus before, it is likely to have some immunity; but if the antigens are new to the immune system, it will be weakened.

The influenza A virus can mutate in two different ways; antigenic drift, in which existing antigens are subtly altered, and antigenic shift, in which two or more strains combine. Antigenic drift causes slight flu mutations year on year, from which humans have partial, but not complete, immunity. By contrast, the new strain of H1N1 appears to have originated via antigenic shift in Mexican pigs

The name "swine flu" is a slight misnomer as it is believed pigs acted as a mixing pot for several flu strains, containing genetic material from pigs, birds and humans. Most humans have never been exposed to some of the antigens involved in the new strain of flu, giving it the potential to cause a pandemic.

The new virus has made the jump from pigs to humans and has demonstrated it can also pass from human to human. This is why it is demanding so much attention from health authorities. The virus passes from human to human like other types of flu, either through coughing, sneezing, or by touching infected surfaces, although little is known about how the virus acts on humans.

Download The 25 Best Free iPhone 3G Application (David Lim, Auckland, New Zealand) s, y,

Apple has launched its app store and there's a bunch of great iPhone apps to download for your iPhone. But not everybody wants to spend their hard earned cash on applications so I've put together a list of twenty five of my favorite free iPhone applications.

Yup, that's right...free! You don't have to pay a dime to get these awesome applications. And all of them will work with the iPhone 3G or the original iPhone (which I call the iPhone Classic).

Here's my favorite 25 free iPhone apps—plus a special bonus application.

Happy downloading!

#25 Save Benjis
Looking for the best price for that special gift? Save Benjis lets you find the best internet prices on all your favorite goods. You can compare prices for over 15 million products from more than 1000 different stores. You can also read reviews and purchase products right from your iPhone. This is one of many great iPhone apps.

#24 Baseball
Baseball nuts rejoice! Now you can have baseball player statistics from 1871 to 2007 right on your iPhone! You can get career stats, find a player by team or year and search for player or team name.

#23 VoiceNotes
Ever wanted to remember something but don't feel like typing into into the iPhone? Use VoiceNotes instead and record a short audio message for later reference. Why type when you can speak with this useful iPhone app?

#22 Truveo Video Search
Trying to find cool videos to watch on your iPhone? Truveo Video Search lets you find videos from a variety of sites. You can play highest ranked or most popular videos and you can customize the interface with your favorite categories. You can also share videos via email.

#21 Weight Tracker
Keeping track of your weight is a great way to protect your health. Weight Tracker lets you set goals and you have the option to synchronize your entries at such sites as the PHRnetwork.com, TulsaMillionMiles.com and ThisCityIsGoingOnADiet.com. Your family can also track their weight loss goals by using a separate profile for each person.

Cell Phone Review: BlackBerry Storm 9500 review: Berry-go-round

It's not everyday that you see a BlackBerry review on our homepage but it's not like RIM routinely churn out devices like the Storm either. Messaging is still the legendary name but… well… touchscreen is the game. Keeping the business appeal of its siblings, the 9500 Storm sure stands out in the Berry crowd. But it also tries to set itself apart from the other touchscreens by promising a whole new touch experience. The Canadian manufacturer RIM is walking an unbeaten path by adding unique clickability to the fluid precision of the capacitive touchscreen technology.

The award-winning SurePress screen may not be everyone's cup of coffee but we're not talking teacup either, just yet. Key features: * 3.25" 65K-color capacitive touchscreen of 360 x 480 pixel resolution * A new touchscreen experience thanks to SurePress screen * Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 2100 MHz 3G with HSDPA support * 3.15 MP autofocus camera, LED flash * BlackBerry OS 4.7 * 624 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM * Built-in GPS and BlackBerry maps preloaded * 1 GB internal storage * Hot-swappable microSD card slot, ships with an 8GB card * Landscape virtual QWERTY keyboard goes as close to hardware keys as we have seen * Great build quality * Solid looks * 3.5mm standard audio jack * Bluetooth and USB v2.0 * Really nice web browser * Document editor * Excellent audio quality Main disadvantages: * No Wi-fi * No email support without BlackBerry Internet Service account * Interface not as quick as competitors *

Chubbier than most touchscreen phones * Mediocre camera * No FM radio * No Flash support * Fingerprint-prone front panel * No video-call camera Now, this isn't one of those all-about-email BlackBerry reviews where the 9500 Storm gets only compared to its own kind, for the lack of meaningful competition. We are more than confident that the Storm does its BlackBerry thing just fine, so instead of focusing on it we'll try to give a different view of the device.

Our objective is to see how it fares against all those other "regular" touchscreens that have the crowd's attention: Apples, Renoirs, Omnias, Diamonds and the likes. Well, our approach may seem like comparing apples to oranges but only at first sight.

The first thing about the Storm 9500 is the attempt to reach beyond the core group of diehard BlackBerry users. We're talking stealing some market here, so if Blackberry are playing to win, they should well be ready to take some hard beating too. First-rate email is nice and all, but the Storm will only be as good as its user interface and multimedia. For the rest (which means WLAN too) there's Curve and Bold.

Swine Flue the Baics (Auckland, New Zealand, Mexico) Facts

Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu - but deaths recorded in Mexico

It is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic

Too early to say whether it will lead to a pandemic

Current treatments do work, but there is no vaccine

Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised

FLU PANDEMICS

1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times. Caused by a form of the H1N1 strain of flu, it is estimated that up to 40% of the world's population were infected, and more than 50 million people died, with young adults particularly badly affected

1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The impact of the pandemic was minimised by rapid action by health authorities, who identified the virus, and made vaccine available speedily. The elderly were particularly vulnerable