Daily Roundup: April 27, 2009

Small World, Fast Flu: Swine flu has become an epidemic so quickly thanks in large part to the effects of globalization and the density of human populations Dot Earth (NYT)

Last Hurrah: Check out this video of what may be the last ride down a section of China's Yangtze River before dams stop it up. National Geographic

Job Change: Google.org’s Larry Brilliant is leaving his current gig for the Urgent Threats Fund, which is headed by founding president of eBay Jeffrey Skoll and targets climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, and Middle East conflicts. Nature

In The Bag: Plastic-bag makers are aiming to increase the recycled content of their products to 40 percent by 2015. Greenbiz.com

Buyers’ Market: While prices are down, conservationists are moving to buy open-space lands for the purpose of preserving them. Los Angeles Times

--Avital Binshtock