“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Doctors are reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients hospitalized with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need intensive care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.

"During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, several countries have viewed the need for intensive care as the greatest burden on health services," it said…”   Yahoo News

  Well that information sucks…  Let us hope we do not get with that form of the Swine flu this year. 

“…News readers gorge on media messages that fit their pre-existing views, rather than graze on a wider range of perspectives. In other words, they consume what they agree with, researchers say.

The finding comes out of a recent study which tracked how college students spent their time reading media articles on hot-button issuessuch as abortion or gun ownership.

Unsurprisingly, students gravitated toward articles that supported their views.

"The idea has been around for a very long time, but it has just never been proven," said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, a communications researcher at Ohio State University. "It's just considered textbook knowledge or lay common sense."

That preference for similar views may also influence hardcore political junkies who prefer to read blogs with strong political views, according to separate research…”  Yahoo News

  This is something that worries me a great deal.  It is not news.  I been commenting on ShowMeBlog for years.  My fear is that we are going to be a nation that is broken up groups.  People that do not listen or even get to hear the other point of view.  People that do not want to hear the other point of view. 
  I am not sure how you fix the problem.  You are not going to get NRA pro-gun people to even listen to people that seek some gun control laws.  And the other way around.  No one wants to hear the other point of view.
  One area that I have noticed it was during the last election.  I would say something that was a firm news fact to a friend and he would sort of yell and say that is NOT TRUE where did hear that on CNN? 
  I think it is a danger for our system of government.  When you have people not willing to listen to both side and not willing to work with the other side that is a problem for our form of government.
  I do not know what the answer is but I think we need to look to the education system.  We need, and I am not sure how you do it, to teach children to have the ability to read and see and hear things and weight and sort out what is fact. 
  I can do that…I have that ability for some reason.. I am not bragging because God and you know hell I am not that smart…but I can read or hear something and tell when someone is giving truthful fact and when they are just speaking double speak.  Now I do not know if I was born with the ability or if I learned it in school.  I hope I learned it in school because that would mean that others could learn that ability.
  But I fear I did not learn it in school because I know in high school I took a test and they said I was in the top 2% of the nation in my ability to read and understand what I read.  Again I am not bragging because on the other areas I was just middle range except for math and I was in the bottom 10% of the nation.
It is sad that now that we have the ability to find large amounts of data and information … we only want to find information that we agree with… We are not willing to check out the other point of view.