Prince is dead

[Jackalope]

The influenza epicemic of 1918-1919, killed between 50-100 million people more than died during the just ended first world war.

There's a cemetery I've been to, and just walking around, you notice there are just so many stones there with 1919 carved on them, it must have been a horror to go through that.

Well, had I lived in the pre-antibiotic era, the complications would certainly have killed me. I was pretty delerious and incoherent when I was finally admitted to the hospital, but I can imagine how horrifying it would be to be a witness to that kind of illness, especially when people are dying wholesale.

[abaris]

Well, had I lived in the pre-antibiotic era, the complications would certainly have killed me.  I was pretty delerious and incoherent when I was finally admitted to the hospital, but I can imagine how horrifying it would be to be a witness to that kind of illness, especially when people are dying wholesale.

Not that antibiotics would help with the flu anyway, since it's viral and not bacterial. But we're quickly moving there again with MRSA.

[brewer]

Actually antibiotics will help with some complications.

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/flu-gu...ications#3

I've been chatting with other medico's about the potential for undiagnosed/untreated heart complications secondary to the flu.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3555652/

[Athene]

[Rhondazvous]

Yeah, it's been confirmed now on multiple news sites.  He had the flu this past week.  57 years old.

Bit older than me but still my generation. Man, people my age start dying. Not only celebrities but aquaintances too.

You're not old until you bend down to tie your shoelaces and you say, "Now let me see, what else can I do while I'm down here."

But that's Earth's dirty little secret. Except for a handful of astronauts, nobody but nobody gets off this planet alive.

[Rhondazvous]

I feel bad for creasing at this, but it is funny

Seriously though, sad news. Quite shocked actually, he wasn't old. Said he died of flu-like symptoms or something, pneumonia maybe?

I had serious complications from flu three years ago and without getting into gory details I can easily see how flu kills even people who aren't necessarily high risk.

Pneumonia would make sense.  That would be a horrible way to die.

I'm surprised that in Europe they're saying it was the flu. Here, my radio dj friend told me it may have been a bad reaction to a flu vaccine. It may also have been the painkillers he was taking.

[Crossless2.0]

I had no idea he was such a machine when it came to writing music.

I didn't either. Especially since he was off the general radar not having any new songs in the charts for quite a number of years.

Yeah, Prince was remarkably prolific. It kind of irritates me that the radio stations are 'honoring' his work by each playing one of four fucking songs the guy ever wrote. I shudder to think how they'll honor Bob Dylan when he dies.

I remember when Prince first broke big with 1999, followed by Purple Rain. I was in high school at the time and, though I liked him well enough, I wasn't really blown away and didn't consider myself a big fan of his (I was really into '80s indie guitar rock at the time and a lot of R&B and funk was rather lost on me). The album that finally turned me around and got me into his stuff was Sign O' the Times, which still stands up well -- a terrific album. What I came to appreciate about Prince was his willingness to take risks without worrying whether this or that album would be a commercial success. This led to a number of years during which his output was frustratingly uneven, to say the least, but virtually every album had something of interest and often featured great ass-shaking jams that few people know because they weren't played on the radio. A shame, really.

[Jackalope]

Well, had I lived in the pre-antibiotic era, the complications would certainly have killed me.  I was pretty delerious and incoherent when I was finally admitted to the hospital, but I can imagine how horrifying it would be to be a witness to that kind of illness, especially when people are dying wholesale.

Not that antibiotics would help with the flu anyway, since it's viral and not bacterial. But we're quickly moving there again with MRSA.

The complications were bacterial pneumonia. If the antibiotics were useless my insurance company spent $17,000 on antibiotics for nothing.

[Jackalope]

*I should say antibiotics and other drugs.

[Athene]