Fortunately not in real life, but a simulation at the Legal Preparedness for Pandemic Flu conference in San Francisco:

“A hypothetical focusing on a potential avian flu outbreak on a college campus located in a densely populated urban environment will be presented. The story will unfold over a simulated two-week period. Panelists will respond to the medical facts as they emerge and comment on the legal authority of public health agencies to take action, the legal obligations of the healthcare sector and private employers to work with government agencies, and ethical perspectives on how decisions will be made in the face of medical and legal uncertainties. “

I guess it all makes sense, yet a bit shocking that we don’t even know how (if) we will survive the epidemic, but the lawyers are already preparing, as usual…

On a lighter note, lawyers in London are losing billable hours big time: 

“The chat in the legal community is that not one billable hour has been done today,” lawyer Mark Stephens said Thursday….”Life in London has ground to a halt because everyone — barristers, solicitors, partners, managing partners, legal secretaries — is working on deciphering it.”  
He is talking about the secret code the judge who presided over the failed Da Vinci Code plagiarism case at London’s High Court hid in his written judgment.

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Tags: pandemic flu, outbreak, bird flu, epidemic, legal preparedness, lawyers, secret code, Da Vinci Code

No, this is not some Stephen King story – the bizarre accident really happened, a man died and is stuck in 20–feet deep, 30–feet wide hole under what used to be his home.  

“At about 9:30 p.m Friday, the 32-year-old man was in a basement apartment in a section of the house that had recently been converted when the foundation suddenly snapped and opened up. He fell into the hole and was covered by debris. Emergency crews reached him but found no sign of life. It appears the sinkhole is getting bigger, and emergency crews said the house was too unstable to let a recovery team in.
“According to geologists in the area, they have determined that there is still movement occurring in the hole,” said Jeff Brand of the California Department of Forestry. “The hole was initially eight to 10 feet deep, 10 feet in diameter and with remote cameras, we have determined the hole [is now] 30 feet in diameter and well over 20 feet deep.” Officials have not yet determined what caused the sinkhole. They are looking into a range of possibilities including whether the recent rains softened the ground under the home or that the house is built over an unknown, abandoned mine shaft.”   (via The Sacramento Bee and The San Francisco Chronicle)

Watch the News10 video here. 

Tags: sinkhole, bizarre, accident, geology

Millionaires24: the “World’s Upper Class eMail Account” – yes, upper-class, my *ss.  (pardon my French, I’m obviously not Upper Class )

Seriously though, people who are willing to cough up $399 a month (will ANYbody sign up?) just to show off their status are definitely NOT the real millionaires, just the desparate wannabies. 
(Discovered by TechCrunch.)

Tags: millionaires, millionaires24, upper class, snob