The recent outbreak of the deadly swine flu spreads from Mexico to Europe to the United States and beyond, which leads to concern and health warnings. However, this isn’t a new flu to us… According to Wired, The Trentonian, and the New York Times this happened back in 1976 when Gerald Ford was president. Back then President Gerald Ford orders a nationwide vaccination program to prevent a swine flu epidemic.

At the time President Ford was acting on the advice of medical experts, who believed they were dealing with a virus potentially as deadly as the one that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic.

The deadly virus surfaced in February at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis told his drill instructor that he felt tired and weak, although not sick enough to skip a training hike. Lewis was dead within 24 hours.

The autopsy revealed that Lewis had been killed by “swine flu,” an influenza virus originating in pigs. By then several other soldiers had been hospitalized with symptoms. Government doctors became alarmed when they discovered that at least 500 soldiers on the base were infected without becoming ill.

According to this MSNBC article it states that “the World Health Organization (WHO) said total bans on travel to Mexico — such as one imposed by Argentina, which hasn’t had any confirmed cases — were questionable because the virus is already fairly widespread.” The virus seems to becoming more intense each day as the Pandemic Phase increases. As of today we are currently at a level 5 Pandemic Alert.

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Apparently Microsoft is extending their warranty plans for the Xbox 360 due to the E74 errors. This error occurs when the Xbox 360 console experiences a general hardware failure. So if you’ve paid for repairs then Microsoft may refund you the money… Here is a snippet of what they have to say.

Microsoft will refund to customers the amount paid for an out of warranty repair due to a general hardware failure associated with the e74 error message. Those customers should automatically receive the refund within 4-12 weeks, and no additional action by customers should be necessary. Those customers should automatically receive the refund within 4-12 weeks, and no additional action by customers should be necessary. However, if a customer has not received a refund by July 1, 2009, the customer should visit www.xbox.com/support before November 1, 2009 for information on how to place a claim. All refund claims must be received on or before November 1, 2009.’

Is your Xbox 360 console displaying the error message E74? Then you can submit a console-repair request online. However, before you submit your request, first try the following steps to verify the problem:

1. Turn the console off and on. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Turn off the console.
   2. Disconnect all the cables.
   3. Reconnect all the cables.
   4. Turn the console back on.
2. Turn the console off and on without accessories. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Turn off the console.
   2. Disconnect any accessories that are connected. For example, disconnect all Xbox 360 controllers, all Xbox 360 Memory Units, and the Xbox 360 Hard Drive.
   3. When the accessories are disconnected, restart the console to determine whether the console or an accessory is experiencing the problem.

For more information on Xbox 360 console errors ( E68, E66 or E69 ) check out the Xbox 360 Support Service. Why wait though get a free Xbox 360 now and have two of them just in case one of them breaks down… why not its free!

View the Swine Flu Map in a larger format.

The Swine Flu seems like a scene from a Horror Movie (ex: Outbreak, 28 Days Later, etc.) but the scary thing is it’s real… The map provided shows locations of the Swine Flu outbreaks in and around your area. Now the list shown is small and hopefully it stays that way but, keep an eye on it just in case something starts up in your area.

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When it comes to racing games I like the Need for Speed Series. I also like the exploits that the games offer as well… below is a list of cheat codes that allow you to access some secret cars as well as obtain money to advance in the game. To unlock the cheat codes got into the options menu of the game then choose the “Secret Codes” selection and you’ll then be able to enter the following codes. Note that each code will only be able to work once per created profile in the game.