Mythusmage Opines

mebeliNorth of Point Conception the current had turned against them. Only by closely skirting the coast had they made any progress, relying on countervailing currents to carry them forward. The land they passed was sere and dry. Barely a cloud hung in the sky, and signs of green were rarer still.

Pedro had expected nothing less, for was this not the Skeleton Coast? Home to demons that sucked out the moisture from a man’s body and left his bones to whiten under the Sun? He knew this coast, he and his men. They had been raiding up and down the shore, seeking slaves to labor in the fields, and prey to feast upon.

But times had grown lean. The people who dwelt here had retreated into the hills, those who were left. It had gotten to the point it was more trouble than it was worth to chase them down. Besides, they were worthless as labor, and nearly inedible.

No, others had turned to raiding south. Into lands more fruitful, more productive. But, it was also a field overburdened with entrepreneurs. Here too pickings were getting slim, and worse yet, the prey was becoming more effective at resistance.

North however, north was unknown territory. And Pedro had heard of a land in the far north. A land of plenty, a land of fat, lazy people. People who could be worked hard. People who would cook up tender because of their fat. He and his men would feast on these people, as those they spared for later worked hard to make them happy and well cared for. Life was looking up.

Still weeks had passed by with no sign of this paradise. They had but a single cow in the pen, and she babbled endlessly in her incomprehensible tongue. She was become scrawny, hardly worth the sex, and just barely more valuable as a meal. The men were becoming restless. Soon they would have to turn back in failure, and that meant the youngest of the crew would not see their families again.

So Pedro stood the helm and queried the crows nest on occasion. Until the lookout pointed to the northeast and called out, “Green I see!” Then to the north and announced, “And an island!”

This news got everyone excited. They knew what the green meant, so with one accorded they determined to make landing there. Most willingly they followed their captain’s directions. As the ship swung about on her new heading the cow was slaughtered, her corpse dumped over the side. They had no more need for her, sex or food. They added more sail, cheering as that filled with wind and their vessel leapt forward in the waves.

Pedro smiled. This was turning out well. Slaves and meat would they bring back home. And news of a land of plenty ripe for the conquest. Weapons were prepared, armor checked for rot and rust. Song broke out, songs of conquest and full bellies. Songs of lazing about on hot days as women catered to their every fantasy, and the womens’ whelps simmered in pot and on grill.

The mouth of the river was clearly in sight when they heard the growling to port. A constant rumbling that reminded them of the great cats of home. But deeper. A growl that shook body and bone. As one they turned to see a boat. A craft smaller than their ship, with but eight men upon it.

Two were dark in hue, two more the color of the raiders. The remaining four were pale, almost white. All were tall, sturdy in build. And each was of a type. For all their differences in color, build, appearance they were of a type. A people. A martial people there to bring death to any who would harm those they defended.

The clothes they wore were baggy, draped over bulky items that may have served them as armor. The weapons they bore, if weapons they were, appeared clumsy, ineffective. The brigands cheered upon noting this, for they knew they bore better than these fools.

Pedro scoffed at the enemy, exhorting his men to slaughter the dogs. All would feast on the foe, those they did not save for entertainment and sexual satiation.

Five of the strange men put their weapons to their shoulders. Two others sat behind an strange assemblage of boxes and tubes. The eighth stood at the helm, up forward where no right thinking man would place a helm. Silently they looked down their weapons. Silently they pressed on levers that hung beneath those weapons. One of the two behind the larger device pulled back on a curved bar within a circle of steel.

With a roar those weapons spat death. With a roar the wood of hull and deck splintered, flying through the air to shred flesh. As did the hornets released by the enemy’s weapons. Limbs were smashed, organs pulped. Brain and blood splattered crew and ship alike, and fire broke out upon and within the vessel that had brought the pirates so far north.

It ended, leaving behind an acrid smoke that hung over the water. Leaving behind too the whimpering, pleading, cursing, and crying of men dying, aboard a ship doomed to burn to the water. The only one untouched was the captain, Pedro. In shock he stood there at the railing, paying no heed to his dead and dying crew. He and he alone saw the boat, the men, and their cursed weapons fade away like a cloud on a hot, dry day, leaving no sign they had ever existed.

Pedro fled over the starboard side. The shore was three miles or so away. That made no difference. he would reach the shore. There he would travel—however hard it was, however long it took—home. There he would raise a fleet, an army. he would return and ravage this land. This damned land and its damned people. His crew would be revenged. With strong, steady strokes he headed for shore. Three miles of swimming at most, no real accomplishment at all. He was as good as home.

The shark was gentle. The shark was quick.

Romesh Ratnesar is advocating the invasion of Burma on humanitarian grounds. This occasioned by Burmese intransigence and obstinancy regarding the recent disaster. Thanks to Burmese leadership the country faces the possibility of losing close to or over one million deaths thanks to starvation and disease. Burma’s ruling junta is refusing to accept aid and aid workers, on the grounds such would constitute an invasion in and of its self.

Don’t know about you, but this reminds me of Iraq. Remember all the Iraqis suffering under Saddam Hussein’s rule. All the children dying because of the lack of adequate medical care? All the people put to death by the Iraqi government in order to suppress dissent? Iraq gives us a precedent for invading Burma, because we’ve done it before. We have, that is, invaded a sovereign nation in order to effectively address the effects of a catastrophe.

Of course there are differences. Burma presents no threat to us. Iraq attacked her neighbors, contracted out a hit on a former U. S. President, and was in egregious and blatant violation of an agreement with the United States. None of that applies to Burma. But, what is now occurring in Burma threatens the stability of the region, and raises the spectre of war on a wider scale. The current situation continues expect the spread of disease throughout the area, carried by waves of refugees seeking assistance and asylum. We face the prospect of a follow on disaster that will, at the least, strain resources or, at the worst, overwhelm local authorities and produce a wave of deaths that could change that part of the world for generations to come.

Another difference is that Iraq’s neighbors were in no position to resist the invasion. The only nation capable of countering the American action was Turkey, and they had reason to support it. Iran and Syria stayed out of the way overtly, while Jordan went so far as to join our side. Burma has two neighbors who would support an American invasion, Thailand and India, and one neighbor who might actively oppose it, China. China has made noises about supporting Burmese sovereignty, and may intervene in opposition to American action.

A Chinese intervention depends on a few things. How confident is China that she can bluff the U. S.? How willing is the U.S. to call China’s bluff. Finally, how important is Burma to China? Is China willing to go to war for a misapplied principle? What are they willing to do?

The least would be to send ‘volunteers’ into Burma to support the Burmese government. The most? Military action against Vietnam, Thailand, and India to distract those countries from the situation in Burma. While their North Korean and Russian allies take action to distract the U. S. A cyclone could be the ignition point for World War IV.

So far the Chinese government has proved a pragmatic bunch. They may stand aside as we intervene, with the assurance that our actions are not aimed at China, or they may go so far as to join in, in order to show solidarity with humanitarian efforts and  maintain influence with the Burmese people. But, ideology and emotions have a way of overcoming good sense. Consider how feelings about the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election and President George W. Bush have warped and poisoned the perceptions of many where U. S. policy and actions are concerned. China may see America as overextended and ripe for a humiliation.

Now consider China’s emotionally unstable allies, Russia and North Korea. Especially North Korea. Just as Saddam Hussein gleefully misinterpreted American signals regarding Kuwait, Kim Jong-il is quite capable of mistaking Chinese messages and ordering an attack on South Korea and Japan.

The result of such events? That we’ll look at in part two of this series.

Technorati Tags: Burma, China, Humanitarian Assistance, World War IV

New shrink, new medication, still can’t bring myself to prepare anything to eat. Eating aint the problem (not to that extent), the problem is rousing the motivation to actually prepare something to eat. Got tons of food, just can’t get myself to so much as pour milk over cereal. That’s what Clinical Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder can do to you.

To top it all off, I have an apartment to clean while at the same time needing to seriously be in a crisis house. While I sound calm, collected, and rational in my writing, I am most certainly far from any of those things in person. Being ill sucks. Being chronically ill sucks chronically. So I’m sending out this request. If you live close to 333 G St in San Diego, don’t mind paying downtown parking fees (carpooling is a good idea), and can handle excavating a bachelor’s apartment, come and join me in getting this place straightened out. Restaurants, coffee shops, cinemas, and a book store for post cleaning recuperation nearby. And I have books that need a good home. It comes down to this, the sooner I get my apartment cleaned up the sooner I can go in for treatment. The sooner I get treatment the sooner I’ll once again be a productive societal parasite. So volunteer early and often.

This essay posted because I have readers who deserve something from me on a (haphazardly) regular basis, and because I can use your help.

Technorati Tags: assistance requested

According to this story China has seen some 25,000 cases of different strains of a disease known as Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease—a viral disorder, with 34 deaths so far this year. Carrying this out for the rest of the year, expect something like 60,000 cases and 80 deaths. The cases so far have been limited to children.

Now 60,000 cases sounds like a lot, and it is in absolute numbers. But, when compared to total population it aint that big a deal. With about 20% of a population children, that gives us 300 million Chinese kids. Of which about 60,000 could come down with HFM. That’s one out of five thousand (¹/_5,000) with about 80 deaths, or one out of every 750 (¹/₇₅₀). Or about one out of three hundred, seventy-five thousand children (¹/_375,000) dying of the disease every year. This is a problem?

I’ll bet you China loses more kids to the flu than to Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease per annum. But we fuss more over the latter than we do the former, because HFM is NEW. Such a sense of proportion we possess.

This is a not story. From all indications the illness is not all that contagious, and not very fatal. Most people either don’t get it, or if they do get a very mild case that doesn’t even get noticed. The great majority of those who do get it recover from it with no problems. You get right down to it, this is the SARS of 2008.

Remember SARS? Supposed to sweep through humanity leaving corpses in windrift piles across the landscape? Civilization brought low with a few dozen ragged survivors huddled beneath mysterious ruins they can’t comprehend. Whatever happened to SARS?

Or Avian Flu for that matter? When’s the last time you saw anybody getting all anxious over Avian Flu. Sure, we could see a strain of SARS or Avian Flu that wipes out humanity, but we haven’t seen it yet.

(BTW, we have West Nile Virus out here in California. Every year somebody comes down with West Nile. Somebody. Some poor mensch who was particularly susceptible to the disease. The rest of us? Odds are most of us got it, and never even knew it. Probably thought it was another case of the flu.)

Once again a Boy Who Cried Pathogen Caused Extinction Event story is out. Once again we’ll hear about how deadly HFM is, and how it kills almost a hundred Chinese kids a year. Tragic for the parents, but a small matter in the greater scheme of things.

Technorati Tags: disease, exaggeration

Got to thinking, figured stuff out, and did up a list of themes in that themepack I told you about before. But, it’s a long list, so you’ll have to click on the “read more” link to see it, You’ll note that most are 2 column themes, with 3 column themes falling somewhat behind. The two “other” themes are either a case of I can’t figure it out (Greenday), or the screenshot shows a splash page instead of the front page (Visteredlittle). Finally, the Vertigo 3colunm screenshot shows the original 2 column Vertigo front page.

Still it should give you an idea of what the themes look like and help you decide on which ones you’ll be uploading to your server. Hope this helps.

Read the rest

Technorati Tags: themes, wordpress

For those of you looking for WordPress blog themes, here’s 100 of theme. You’ve likely seen a number of them before, but according to the page they’ve all been updated, widgitized, and debugged.

However, there are problems. For one, they’re not organized according to number of columns. For another, the preview page shows the previews at 10% of actual size, and even that is a bit small to get the necessary information. These are matters that can be corrected, and should be.

That said, you’ll likely find some themes to use with your WordPress blog. So with the preceding caveats in mind, I recommend downloading the pack.

Technorati Tags: blogging, themes

That’s right, you can help me set a record for raising funds via PayPal donations. I can get one hundred million people to contribute $10.00 each, I will raise close to 1 billion dollars (minus PayPal fees of course). By clicking on the graphic below and donating $10.00 you can help me realize my goal, and be one of the 100 million who joined in the challenge. How close can I come? How close will I come? Is this the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever done on this blog?

I hope you will find it in your heart (and wallet) to help me realize my dream, to raise 1 billion dollars through donations via PayPal. And if 100 million people donate 10 thousand dollars each, that would mean a total of close to 1 trillion dollars (minus, again, PayPal fees). One trillion dollars donated to one person; think of the size of the Federal income tax check. Be a part of history, participate in a massive parody of email scams, send your $10.00 (or $10,000.00) to..

Technorati Tags: fund raising, sarcasm, scam parody

Jim Butcher, White Night

“Evil’s Afoot.”

Technorati Tags: meme, quotation

Around 10 in the morning I woke up. I’m supposed to (I hope) see a shrink around 1:15 in the afternoon. My first step every day is to take my medication; Effexor (300mg), Atenolol (50mg), and aspirin (325mg). At around 10:15am the meds take affect. I fall asleep. Wake up again at 3:30pm. Yes, I missed the appointment.

This doesn’t happen everyday. Most days I can stay awake, but today was different. The difference being that I got stressed out yesterday. Going out and meeting people has that affect on me. The day after the combination of stress and Effexor zonks me out like nobody’s business. I once slept through a 5.4 earthquake on such a day. I have to wonder, does stress and Effexor have such an affect on others?

No real reason for posting this, just thought you’d find it amusing.

Technorati Tags: medication, sedation as side effect

The rainy season of 2019-2020 was unusually wet. Thanks to a confluence of events a series of massive storms hit the County of San Diego. First from Hawaii and Arizona respectively during the summer—including Hurricane Rebecca which reached the Eastern Pacific in tropical storm strength, and a seemingly endless string of Winter storms from the Gulf of Alaska. Precipitation totals ranged from 25″ at the old Lindbergh Field meteorological station, to as high as 100″ at the Mt. Palomar Observatory. For the county as a whole the estimate was around 40″.

The storms ceased mid-March and the old weather pattern was re-established. By September of 2020 a large high pressure system was established over the Colorado Plateau, and off shore winds were bringing high temperatures and low relative humidity. The new growth caused by the heavy rains soon dried up and died off, producing much of the fuel that would later feed the fires to come.

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Technorati Tags: Future History, natural disaster