By The Spitting Devil's Cabbage!

Actually, That Might Merit TWO Exclamation Marks
I know that's bordering on Continental levels of hysteria, and we here at BOOJUM! value our British sang froid, but it's not everyday that you come across a vegetable doing it's best to kill you.*
     I should also confess that I cannot produce an example of this monstrous mutant Brassica, unless Google - ah no.
     It was brought to mind by virtue of yesterday's post, which went on, rather, about Ruffian Cabbage Soup - 'Shchi' - and a small detour last night into extremely dangerous rocket fuels.
     Hang on - what's this?

I don't understand a word of it.  You?

     This, I believe, is a computer virus that some other weirdo/criminal/alien has created and dubbed SDC.  Small world!
     Anyway, the SDC is mentioned only once that I recall in that splendid sci-fi novel "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky Brothers; only once, yet it stuck with me.  The central conceit of the novel is that aliens landed and spent some time at a place called 'The Zone' in Canada, leaving behind various artefacts.  Earth's best scientists come to the conclusion that the aliens were doing no more than having a break in their journey from one star to another, and all their remains are nothing more than alien junk - the detritus left from their roadside picnic.  Art?

Conrad not sure of the artist, but a really good cover picture nonetheless

     Amongst other things there is the 'mosquito mange', a term invented by the Stalkers who penetrate into the extremely dangerous Zone to loot alien kit.  Scientists call them "graviconcentrates".  Then there is the 'Death Lamp' which emits radiation inimical to all forms of life, not to mention the 'Empties' -
     You get the picture, one hopes.  The film "Stalker" is a very Ruffian take on the source novel; there is ample room for a version closer to the novel itself.

A Cabbage; non-satanic in nature
(tho' possibly still devilish)

     There's the Cabbage part of today's theme.  If they were to spit, one would expect it to be a sputum that was toxic, probably corrosive.  If they really were the Devil's Cabbage, then it might be exploding spit, to boot.  Which brings us to -

DEVIL'S VENOM!!
I am going to use Two Exclamation Marks there, because this stuff really is out of a nightmare.  It is one of those hideously dangerous rocket fuels cooked up by Sinister scientists during the Cold War, composed of fuming nitric acid - which is the less dangerous component! and <takes a breath> Unsymmetrical Di-Methyl Hydrazine, which ticks all the dangerous boxes:  toxic, corrosive AND explosive.
     What's not to like!

Almost put in with an eye-dropper

These horrid things were used because the acid acted as an oxidiser to the fuel and  because of Ips, or specific impulse, which means this cocktail resulted in an extremely exothermic hypergolic reaction.
     Put simply, these things exploded the instant they came into contact with each other, no ignition source required.  Rocketry specialists like this because it means less complexity in the system, and also because both compounds could be stored liquid at room temperature.  Whether that balances out the toxic terror of Devil's Venom is perhaps a matter of perspective.  It is frankly not stuff to take lightly - the Nedelin Disaster was due to Sinister scientists not treating it with the terrified respect it requires.

TItan II launching en route to give someone the worst Bad Hair Day evah.

"Crepuscular"
Once again I can only apologise for what pops to the scummy, turbid surface waters of my mind - it's as puzzling to me as it must be to you.
     Well then, here's a word to conjure with.  "Crepuscular" sounds as if it's some kind of ghastly blood disorder, doesn't it?  "Russell Brand was stricken with a crepuscular haematological disorder, where the blood boiled in his veins and cooked him to death from the inside out -"**

Crepusculated!

     Sadly for Conrad and fortunately for Brand, it is nothing of the sort.  It actually refers to  twilight, from the Latin "Crepusculum" which means - you're probably ahead of me here - 'Twilight'.  DON'T MENTION THOSE EXECRABLE FILMS!  So a crepuscular animal beetles around, so to speak, between dawn and dusk.***
Which Leads To -
"From Dawn to Dusk III: The Hangman's Daughter", one of what seems to have become a franchise, and which features Michael Parks as - AMBROSE BIERCE! Art?

Lookit him, being all crabby and curmudgeonly

     You see?  You see how everything is connected to everything else?  Shall we have a Bierce quote - yes we shall, for they are amusingly bitter and citric as that Devil's Venom swill -

The man has a point ...

Finally -
Don't think I've forgotten the Curse Of Our Times, that swimming psycho, the toothy terror, the elver of evil -

 

KILLER EELS!  KILLER EELS!

     - and now it's gotten much much worse as they learn to hijack cars.  Art?

After they decamped

     I think you see the gravity of the situation.

 

KILLER EELS!  KILLER EELS!  NOW THEYRE DEADLIER BECAUSE THEY HAVE WHEELS!

Watch yourself.



*  Chips don't count, I don't care what doctors say about cholesterol and fat
**  A man can dream, can't he?
*** Real life: dull, dull, dull.