Okay, I'll Admit It
Conrad is making this up as he goes along, having hit a happy coincidence in today's title and after watching a video about that very subject matter without realising what a title it would lead to.
Firstly, I would like to explain that this is not about the British band of that name, who have had a long and sterling career. Art!
 |
| Tempis fugit! |
Unlike many bands whose records I do not possess, Conrad bears no malice towards this pair, which must leave them pale and grateful that we're not working A Little Musical Critique on one of their lyrics.
No, what we're going to be looking at here in today's Intro is one of the things that upsets people the more of it they see, namely blood. By default, blood ought to be inside people, going about it's business, and if it happens to make an appearance in daylight, things have gone badly wrong. All the more so if a person happens to be weeping blood, because this is not how normal physiology works and it makes the bleeding even more unsettling. Art!
Bleeding unsettling
This, lest ye be unaware, is Le Chiffre, the chief villain in "Casino Royale" and yes, that's go-juice issuing from the corner of his eye. I think there was a hokey and unconvincing 'explanation' given, when the entire reason was to make him look sinister and eeeeevil. Or perhaps evillllllll. The script is a little obscure. Admit it, you'd be a tad apprehensive about a bloke who cried blood. Art!
Possibly the poster child for optometrists everywhere, here is Count Dracula exhibiting the opposite of his normal behaviour, which is to intake blood - that of other people - rather than expelling it. One ought to be fearful of the Count even when he's on his best behaviour, as his lust for blood can lead to him making faux pas such as passing port to the right. or wearing red with green. Art!
These are also poster children, of The Infected from "28 Days Later", who take the concept of rage up a quantum level or ten. They suffer from chronic eye-bleeding, which exsanguination you ought to keep well clear of, as it's an infection source. Fear The Walking Bled, you might say.
I pinched these stills from a new Youtube channel from which I've seen exactly one previous video: "Captain Gold", who has a large number of vlogs dealing with various zombie franchises. There is a fascinating Comment about the vlog he did on trying to survive "28 Days/Weeks Later".
I discussed this films etiology with my Microbiology professor and he told me that the speed of infection is so out of this world as so much ATP would be required for the massive scale of cellular division. Also the cellular replication of this disease would generate so much heat due to the ridiculous amount of cellular division going on, the patient/subject would die. The first subject would get the disease and die before "turning".
"ATP" is 'Adenosine Tri-Phosphate" and is one of the agencies within cells that stores energy. Once again, a bit worrying that a medical professional actually gives weight to a zombie infection. The problem with diseases as dangerous and infectious as The Rage Virus is that their victims would die off far too quickly to transmit the disease across any large area, especi
ANYWAY I wanted to round off this Intro with "Tears Of Blood", since we've not had anything Korean so far. This is, of course - obviously! - published in the Hangul alphabet. Art!
Except this is a translation into the Roman alphabet. The subject was a 70-year old Korean , Young-Bok Son, captured and imprisoned by the Norks during their civil unpleasantness, who only returned to the Sorks in 2020. The Norks, you see, being utter dastards, did not release 60,000 Prisoners of War that they held at the armistice (not a ceasefire) in 1953. Art!
Guess what? This is another Korean work of literature, also called 'Tears Of Blood', except this one was written in 1906 by Yi In-Jik. It is set during the First Sino-Japanese Unpleasantness, and concerns a woman separated from her husband and child by the war itself. Koreans regard it as the first 'modern' Korean novel, beginning a literary revolt against the supernatural and feudal ethics and morals. Very, very dated nowadays, but an interesting historical perspective.
Enough of the lachrymagory, to coin another word.
Talking Of Rapid Disease Onset
In 'Wolf Hall' a mysterious affliction called 'Sweating Sickness' occurs twice in the narrative, with the second outbreak becoming a serious pandemic at the time (1517). The disease is notable for being extremely rapid in onset, with the less fortunate victims dying within 24 hours of the symptom's appearance. Art!
Conrad, being of a curious nature, went to teh Interwebz to see what this affliction was, only to find that nobody really knows. The first time it appears is in 1485, the last was 1551, and it never re-appeared after that. Unlike a normal disease pandemic, it occurred in sharp spikes rather than being spread out over time. Having the sweats once did not provide further immunity, as it was quite possible to survive multiple infections.
The best fit as a suggestion is of a 'Hantavirus', whatever one of those is, because none of the other plagues of sixteenth-century Europe had the same symptoms. Most peculiar!
More Of 'What?'
One thing that Your Humble Scribe cordially detests is the shoe-horning of headlines into incomprehensible gibberish by sub-editors more interested in column inches than clarity. Then there are these titles on sidebar items on my news feed. Art!
OMG! Monolith closed! How shocking!
Actually I've not the faintest idea what they're talking about here. The 'PC Gamer' part indicates that yes, this is to do with computer games. But 'Monolith'? Is it a game? A platform? Streaming service? Games company? Mysterious structure found under a crater on the Moon?
"Giant liquorice cake was too evolved for the hominids to appreciate"
You What, Part The Second
As you may be aware, Conrad likes his books, and since Friday is payday - yes they give me a salary for making people cry on the phone - I have been idly perusing both "Turner and Donovan" and "Abebooks" in order to see if there are any more cheap volumes in the Australian Official History of the Great War. Conrad already has Volumes III, V, VI & VII and is always on the lookout for the missing volumes as long as they don't cost an arm or leg. Except - Art!
I was using the search terms "Bean" because he's the official Ocker author, and "1914" as this is in the title. Where this result above hies in from I cannot tell. Is there a British shrub that grows a crop of beans?
Coarse And Effect
Ho ho ho, it would seem that Bitcoin, one of the staple (NOT stable!) high-profile cryptocurrencies out there, has been hit rather hard over the past few days, losing 17% of it's value. Art!
Conrad doesn't follow this fool's gold's value as it can go up and down like a ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Interesting to note it's sudden increases and decreases over recent months, though. Art!
The value shot up when Captain Cholesterol won the 2024 election, as I've helpfully added a date tag on the graph. The 100 day honeymoon period seems to have come to an end, doesn't it? I may come back to this graph in the near future to see what's happened to it by March.
For those of you still awake and aware, we'll be getting back to mocking Muscovy about their miserable currency, the ruble, shortly. Yes yes yes, I know I'm being horrid but I have to keep in practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment