Google to predict flu outbreaks by spying on users As much as I love the incredible advancements of technology, I have to admit that there are some emerging trends of the Internet age that are giving me the creeps. Here's one of them: Google's philanthropic division, Google.org, believes that the company can now help to forecast the outbreaks of flu epidemics. If a given area has a spike in the number of people searching for "flu symptoms," Google believes that they can predict a regional flu outbreak up to 10 days prior to a CDC announcement of the outbreak. In other words, they know exactly who is searching for what-and where they're located. Maybe it's me, but this has an Orwellian ring to it. I don't like the idea that Google is tracking my search information. Remember, they're doing this to "protect the public" (always a warning sign, as I've told you before). Anyone else feel their privacy threatened? What's also bothersome about this ability is that Google's evidence is based merely on numbers of inquiries, whereas the CDC's information is based on evidence compiled from emergency rooms (and the CDC is run by qualified doctors… let's not forget that). Google's way of tracking this information is a bit too open to interpretation. After all, just because you enter "flu symptoms" into a search engine, it doesn't mean you have the flu, does it? Personally, I wish Google would limit itself to helping me find out the names of those actors who I saw in a movie six years ago, and leave the flu epidemic predictions to the doctors. I keep telling you that universal health care is bad news. Try as they might, U.S. states that have put it into practice keep coming up short… literally. California is just the latest example. California's Healthy Families Program provides health insurance for the children of the working poor - specifically, kids whose parents make less than $3,667 a month for a family of three and $4,417 a month for a family of four. There's just one problem - there's not enough money to go around. With over 900,000 kids already enrolled in the program - and 27,000 new children being added each month - the program will be more than $17.2 million in debt if they don't so something soon. So the state officials are seriously considering putting a cap on enrollment. You read that right: the state-run healthcare program is going to limit the number of people they care for, because if they don't, the system will be completely overwhelmed. "If the board does not cap enrollment, it would have to take other, more drastic actions later," said Lesley Cummings, the executive director of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board. "Capping enrollment rather than eliminating coverage that a child currently has seems the preferable path." If California can't afford state-sponsored health care for just the children of low-income families - how in the world does Uncle Sam think he can afford to cover the rest of us? | 
