April 29, 2009

Obama's presidency reaches 100th day

Capping off his first 100 days in office, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke on issues of bipartisanship, foreign policy and the current swine flu outbreak during a primetime news conference earlier tonight.

Per CNN, President Obama said he has been "sobered by the fact that change in Washington comes slow” and thanked the American people for their support and patience during the early days of his presidency.

Those in the Twitterverse offered their own Obama scorecard. Some were full of praise:

  1. snickerdootle
    snickerdootle (Ohio) I was in class all day and missed rating my boy Obama. I give him an A+ and 4 gold stars. Why? cuz his 100 days - impressive.
  2. David Brown
    Brown11e (Boise, Idaho) 100 days in, I'd have to say I'm satisfied so far. Bravo, Mr. Obama. Bravo.
  3. Healthy Ind. Family
    HIFS (Bellflower, Calif.) Obama!!!! 100 days, congrats for giving us more hopes, for standing up for hard issues like health care, females' rights, economy..Good LK!
  4. Eliza
    SwaggaBo0 (Undisclosed) Watching OBAMA: THE FIRST 100 DAYS on BET...I love this man 99 Problemz but Bush aint One
  5. Jenwho
    hobbes152 (Knoxville, Tenn.) I give a kudos for President Obama for the past 100 days. As a teacher, sacrifice was made and in the end, it will be good for our country!
  6. Daniel
    shafty023 (Austin, Texas) I think Obama did a good job tonight explaining whats been accomplished in 100 days, and whats to come


Others were more critical:

  1. Tom whitmore
    Thomasjwhitmore (Manassas, Va.) Lotta folks burning thru the good will, praising Obama on first 100 days, wait till the bill comes due! #TCOT #TEAPARTY #POLITICS #SGP #GOP
  2. Ty Austin
    tyaustin (Mississippi) Obama gets a D at best on his first 100 days
  3. Patrick Newman
    pmnewm04 (Louisville, Ky.) The Obama administration has spent years of money that nobody has, and it's only been 100 days. Imagine how much the can spend in 4 years.
  4. Kendra Ussery
    KendraUssery (California) The ONLY reason to give ANY attention to Obama's 100 days is to highlight the damage he's done to this country.

And a few light-hearted thoughts thrown in for fun:

  1. Alex Mizrahi
    WhatHappenedWas (Los Angeles, Calif.) @HowardKurtz You think all the mags that published Obama 100 Days cover stories on Day 95 regret it now, in lieu of the Specter switch?
  2. Kristi
    MissTrueStar (Champaign, Ill.) RT @bclorio: grading Obama after 100 days is artificial and makes no sense. who gets a grade less than a day into the first class?
  3. Dennis O'Kelly
    dennisokelly (San Francisco, Calif.) Obama now has an official White House Flickr stream. Nice photos that capture the first 100 days. http://is.gd/vfOj
  4. kellye smith
    kelbutt (Undisclosed) RT from @Slate: What Obama's first 100 days would look like as a Facebook news feed: http://www.slate.com/id/221...
  5. Brian Zimmel
    brianzimmel (Albany, N.Y.) It's a night of 100's - Lost episode # 100, Obama's speech on first 100 days, and Girardi goes for win # 100 with Yankees.


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Slaughter of pigs underway in Egypt

Per Thaindian News, Egyptian government officials have ordered the slaughter of all pigs within the country to occur within the next few days in hopes of stemming the spread of the swine flu virus. The swine flu has now spread to several countries and the WHO raised the pandemic alert to level 5 today.

Egyptian officials stated that all pigs would be examined to see if they carried the virus before they are killed. Egypt is 90 percent Muslim and the Islamic faith forbids the consumption of pork yet officials stressed that religion didn't influence their decision to cull the pigs.

Twitterers in Cairo had strong opinions about the decision.

  1. Mostafa Hussein
    moftasa (Cairo, Egypt) It is pigs holocaust in Egypt :-( and it is not a necessary action.
  2. Mohammed Maree
    mar3e (Cairo, Egypt) @moftasa there is no any sceintific basic for killing pigs with out apperance of any infection
  3. Andrew Heiss
    andrewheiss (Cairo, Egypt) Where are you going to sell the meat from half a million pigs?
  4. Ms. Four
    msfour (Cairo, Egypt) speculation that #swineflu and mass pig slaughter in egypt will be used as excuse to ban pigs http://tinyurl.com/c28pcx
  5. Mostafa Hussein
    moftasa (Cairo, Egypt) Do you think slaughtering pigs in Egypt will prevent swine flu from entering through the Airport? http://tr.im/k2Oy
  6. Magda Elsehrawi
    Maggiemelba (Cairo, Egypt) Latest about the slaughter of pigs in Cairo- the government will compensate the farmers who's pigs will be slaughtered. otherwise, vaccine.



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Twitter reacts to WHO raising pandemic alert level again

The World Health Organization has increased the pandemic alert level for swine flu from 4 to 5, one short of an a full-blown pandemic, according to its official Web site. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said that "all countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans."

Here's how some Twitterers around the globe responded, although a good part of the world in Asia and elsewhere was sound asleep when the story broke:

  1. Gord Cadabra
    Gord_Cadabra (Toronto, Canada) The news just told me that all of humanity is at risk thanks to the swine flu. I think Al Gore has an idea for his next movie.
  2. Maxim Barrault
    maximbarrault (Paris, France) WHO threat level raised from four to five after evidence of illness spreading within separate geographic zones. Stay away from me.
  3. Hannah Taylor
    hanzipan (London, U.K.) The WHO are moving the pandemic warning up to level 5.. this is getting a bit worrying! (Still sewing the guineapig by the way)
  4. Ulises Muñiz
    Ulises (Monterrey, Mexico) soy el único que piensa que la WHO se tarda mucho en actuar? o será que yo soy muy rápido y escandaloso (I am the only one who thinks that the WHO will take long to act? or is it that I am very fast and scandalous)
  5. Joe Dyer
    joeplanet (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) #BringItUnplugged Awesome! WHO just moved swine flu pandemic alert to level 5 and I am in a large room packed to standing room only.
  6. Aaron Butler
    aaronbutler (Berlin, Germany) Swine flu perspective time! Seasonal flu has killed 13,000 since January: http://tinyurl.com/cd3tgz
  7. Aldy Masna
    aldy (Melbourne, Australia) the news and the WHO is blowing this whole swine flu out off proportion really.
  8. Reuben Goldberg
    RubyGold (Johannesburg, South Africa) RT @johnmarshall705: Stop tweeting about Swine flu!!!! until it kills more people then the regular flu 36000 last year who cares!!!!!!!!
  9. Umair Ali
    UmEEE (Lahore, Pakistan) global influenza pandemic threat level raised by WHO to level 5 on a scale of 6!!!

Several Twitterers noted that the WHO Web site had crashed momentarily, apparently overloaded. It appears to be working again, though running slowly.

  1. The Square Live @ 7
    TheSquare (Portland, Ore.) @Native_Momma Looks like the WHO site just crashed. So much for pandemic preparedness.
  2. Anna Goodman Hoover
    AnyaFanya (Undisclosed) Response to raised alert must have just crashed WHO's site. It's no longer loading.
  3. Taylor Jackson
    teodoro1188 (Atlanta, Ga.) WHO website is jammed. Can't get the latest info ... grrr. Look like this thing's getting serious.
  4. Carys Cochern
    CarysIsAwesome (Undisclosed) i keep getting a broken link to WHO's website. does this alarm anyone else?
  5. Michael K. Hill
    mkhill (St. Louis, Mo.) WHO website is down. Anyone surprised? To you teens, 20- and 3-somethings: Now is the time to pick back up the hygiene habits!


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Featured Twitpic: Rainbow from hillside in Kenya


"RAinbow in Nguruman" (Posted by @tchenya, April 29, 2009)

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Pakistan takes on Taliban in Buner

Per Al Jazeera, the Pakistani army has launched an air-and-land offensive against the Taliban in the town of Buner, Pakistan. The operation began Tuesday and is expected to take a week, according to Pakistani military spokesman Athar Abbas.

Twitterers in Pakistan are buzzing about this latest encounter with the Taliban, offering unique insight into the conflict:

  1. Sarmad Tariq
    sarmadtariq (Islamabad, Pakistan) Pakistani media threatened by Taliban to stop being anti them OR???????????????????????
  2. Umair Ali
    UmEEE (Lahore, Pakistan) a friend who lives in swat says that the government and army can throw these militants from the valleys very easily but they dont do it!!!
  3. Umair Ali
    UmEEE (Lahore, Pakistan) its a shame and unbelievable that we in pakistan have to deal with the taliban havnt we learnt anything from what happened in afghanistan!!!
  4. Imran Anwar
    imrananwar (Lahore, Pakistan) @LauraNo No swine flu in Pakistan where I'm visiting, but murderous swine Taliban. ;-)
  5. Scott Heidler
    ScottHeidler (Islamabad, Pakistan) The Taliban movement near Islamabad is concerning, but its not reported that there is at lease one mountain range between here and there.
  6. Scott Heidler
    ScottHeidler (Islamabad, Pakistan) In other words, the Taliban are close and need to be dealt with. But they are not pounding on the gates of the city.
  7. Daud Ahmad
    daudahmad (Lahore, Pakistan) Why were we stupid enough to believe that Taliban would lay down their weapons for a 'peace agreement'? #swat #blaggers #pk


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Mapping the spread of swine flu

Per M.I.T. Technology Review, Google Maps provides a practical way to track the geographic scope of H1N1 swine flu. This map in particular has been viewed more than 150,000 times and has made the rounds on Twitter.

The article states that the World Health Organization now says it is too late to contain the swine flu. However, it also says that the current tracking and communication of social sites, blogs and other internet tools are vital to distributing information and slowing outbreaks.

The Google Map swine flu tracker has been both praised and criticized by the Twitterverse:

  1. SagaciousT
    SagaciousT (Puget Sound, Wash.) @ShaunaCausey also not that the swine-flu google map has many repeats and is utterly useless
  2. Scarlett Taylor
    SKARLIT (Sarasota, Fla.) Google swine flu map includes "get directions" when you click on these places. Convenient! I need a better sleep schedula ASAP.
  3. Christopher Page
    chrismpage (Iowa City, Iowa) is amazed by the swine flu google map tool.
  4. Bill Adair
    acaiedge (Undisclosed) the google swine flu map is many hours out of date
  5. K. Dick
    Worrals (Hamilton, Ontario) Just in case you aren't panicked enough about Swine flu, here's a handy Google map: http://tinyurl.com/swinemap09
  6. Charyl
    charyl (Colorado) @zaibatsu Are you in Ouray County? I ask bcuz that's where the google swine flu map is showing the suspected case.
  7. Cammie Muni
    thewalkingipod (California) @kimbyann12 Well that's good to know cuz I've been watching the swine flu map on Google...


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