+ NEWS: PIG PART II +

Couple SF updates:

Swine Flu Name Change?

Do You Have Swine Flu?

Listening: Stromkern, "Nightriders"

+ NEWS: AHOGOLYPSE +

"World Takes Drastic Steps ..."

So this drunkenly escalating swine flu epi/pandemic has apparently become big enough for me to not only click on a yahoo news link, but in fact want to post something (an unfortunately rare event) ...

Two Things

1) All this killing of pigs around the world when the only link to the hog is in the name - and like the article notes, THEY are contemplating changing the name to avoid all this madness. I only note it for the apparent surprise that people would take a name to actually denote some connection to reality (avian flu in fact being connected to avians), rather than as some arbitrary signifier. Go fig.

2) I've been doing increasingly more work with the idea of quarantine in (science fiction) film of late, so it's spooky to see all these biological security measures being put into place - particularly when the usefulness of so many are unknown, like those bio-scanners (covering The Host in my class this week, and yep, US bio-scanners in there too ... for a totally fictional virus to boot).

"'You can't protect yourself — not in the way that people are traveling nowadays,' said Karin Henriksson, 56, of Stockholm. 'Then you would have to put the entire population in quarantine. And you can't do that, can you?'"

Can you? I've got a paper on Doomsday underway, and they certainly do there, with horrific results.

Listening: Noisuf-X, The Beauty of Destruction

+ DREAM: A TINY TASTE +

My friend Erebus had invited me to some new place of his ... which when I got there turned out to be an enormous enclosed waterpark. We joked it up (conversation now completely forgotten), and he mentioned I should check things out topside. I stomped up many stairs and reached the surface ... of the ocean! The building was nearly submerged in the middle of the sea, surrounded on all sides by water that sloshed over the lip and ran down the sloped roof into a huge funnel that directed it into the interior of the park.

I was quite stunned, then made my way to check out the sunbathers at the lip of the funnel, more or less keeping dry and taking in the strong ocean sun. I sat down near two girls - one blonde, one brunette - and they scooted over to talk to me. Whatever was said doesn't matter, as the girls were both gorgeous, especially the blonde - dirty blonde hair (tied up), pale skin with a little color, yellow tanktop and bikini bottom. Blondie and I shared a word or two but were so close that I was magnetically drawn in for a kiss. Just the tiniest of kisses, and all the more wonderful for that. We parted and looked in each others' eyes ...

Then I noticed her hard nipples poking through her top, and her friend declared how nice Blondie's breasts were, then pushed her shirt up. I had to agree, they were small, perky and totally perfect. Blondie gave me A Look, and was suddenly even more striking with the sun framing her in a golden glow. Then I was hit again: I had no idea what to do next.

+ ALARM +

Listening: Combichrist, What the F*ck is Wrong With You People?