I begin today with a bit about swine flu in New Zealand, since it’s been in the news internationally. Then it’s on to a normal topic, one suggested by a listener: How I was able to adapt to New Zealand’s more British-based spelling and word usage. A phone message and written comments finish this episode.
Special note: After I recorded this, three of the Auckland flu cases I mentioned were confirmed as swine flu. There are now fourteen cases of Influenza A in Auckland, one of which is a person on the same flight as the previous 12 cases. There are a further 31 possible cases of Influenza A in New Zealand. Authorities currently have 179 people around the country in quarantine. These numbers will change.
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Episode 4 continues our regular schedule of podcasting every other week (the next episode will be the week of April 20). After special news, we talk about President Obama’s trip to Europe. That leads to a wide-ranging discussion of international relations before we move on to talk about the auto industry. That leads to a concrete example of why it’s so important to the world that the US fixes its economy and gets credit flowing again. Comments on a variety of topics round out this episode. Back in 2 weeks!
I was a blogger before I was a podcaster, and before that I was a listener and blog reader. I met today’s guest, Peter (aka epilonious) of the They Don’t Know podcast through blog/podcast comments and have gotten to know him since then. Our interactions have sometimes been, um, intense, but for him it’s been even more so with others. So I asked him why he does it, given those reactions. This leads to a wider discussion of blogs/forums and commenting generally, and how things can go wrong. Turns out, we do share some fundamental attitudes, which is probably one of the reasons we’re friends. That, and he’s wacky and fun.
