Cry "Havoc"!

It's a long weekend here in Vancouver, and as tends to be the case when there's an extra day off, many of the people in my social circle have made plans: trips to Whistler, barbecues, watching the fireworks - and then there's my co-worker Christi.  What is Christi doing with her long weekend, you ask?

Christi is going to war.

Christi is a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism, a group dedicated to "researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe."  The SCA dates back to 1966 - the first SCA event was hosted by fantasy writer Diana L. Paxson, who became one of the founding directors of the organization.  Not too surprisingly, the membership has often included science fiction and fantasy authors, including luminaries such as Poul Anderson, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert Asprin, Jerry Pournelle and Katherine Kurtz.

In order to fulfill their mandate, the SCA hosts a variety of historically oriented activities: crafts fairs, costumed events, classes in heraldry, and of course, the official pasttime of medieval Europe, warfare.  Christi, or Her Ladyship Anika Styfe, Order of the Grey Goose Shaft*, as she is known to her fellow SCA members, is participating in a three-day Tournament of Armies being held in Aldergrove, a suburb of Vancouver.

Even as I type this, the armies of the Barony of Lion’s Gate are massing for battle, which is a carefully monitored process so as to avoid injury to the participants.  A certain number of bumps and bruises are inevitable, but the SCA makes every effort to ensure that there isn't any sort of serious damage by setting strict standards for weapons, armour, and the actual combat itself.  Weapons are either padded or made from lightweight materials such as rattan, and armour must meet the rigorous requirements for protection as set out in the Marshal's Handbook**, which also lists the rules for safe combat.

As it turns out, Her Ladyship's warband is currently not affiliated with a particular warlord, so they will very likely be available as mercenaries, eager to fight for the highest bidder.  So, if you have good red gold and honest silver in your purse, and are looking for a doughty band of skilled archers, just let me know and I’ll be happy to put you in touch with Lady Anika.  Does it need to be said that some kind of commission will be in order…?

- Sid

* A biographical note from Her Ladyship:  "I add the last bit of my title as when building an army for a Tournament of Armies. A Goose is worth two archers, but an outsider won’t know what a Goose is. A Goose in archery is similar to a Knight for Heavy fighters and a Don or Dona for Rapier Fighters."

**  Did I say "rigorous"?  An example from the Marshal's Handbook:

Helms shall be constructed from steel which has a thickness of no less than .0625 (that is, 1/16) inch (1.6 mm), or of equivalent material. Alternative materials, such as stainless steel, brass, bronze, or like materials, are permissible as long as the material is structurally equivalent to 0.0625-inch-thick steel. The mass of the helm is an important part of the protection. As such, no titanium, fiberglass, aluminum, or other ultra-light materials may be used unless they meet the equivalent mass, strength, and weight of steel which has a thickness of no less than .0625 (that is, 1/16) inch (1.6mm). Proof of construction technique, materials, and equivalency must be provided to the kingdom earl marshal (KEM) for an approval for in-kingdom use. If a spun-metal top is to be used in the construction of the helm, it shall be a minimum of 0.075 inch (14-gauge or 1.905 mm) steel. The process of spinning the top thins the metal, thereby requiring a heavier gauge.

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Channel 46:  Fritz Lang's classic 1927 German science fiction film Metropolis -  a silent masterpiece in black and white, the first feature length science fiction film, a groundbreaking expressionistic social metaphor which has influenced generations of filmmakers.

Channel 45:  Mega Shark Versus Mecha Shark....

- Sid

Going viral.

Generally I don't worry a lot about the end of the world.  We're well past 2012, as far as I know we're not in immediate danger of being hit by a giant meteor, and I just can't bring myself to view the zombie apocalypse as something that I need to actively concern myself with.

However, there is one end-of-the-world scenario which has an awful plausibility for me:  the global pandemic.  As such, I've been watching the events surrounding the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa with a certain degree of trepidation.

In an article on CBC.ca about the African outbreak, Ebola is described as "a hemorrhagic fever that can cause its victims to bleed from the ears and nose", which, strictly speaking, is correct.  However, it's a bit like describing leprosy as "a minor skin condition".  Ebola Zaire, the most virulent strain of the disease, has a 90 percent fatality rate. That means that out of the approximately 529 million people in North America, 476 million would die. To give you a better idea of what that would mean, it would be the equivalent of killing everyone in North America except the populations of New York State and Canada.*

This is a bit deceptive in that, although the fatality rate is 90 percent, the infection rate is much lower. Ebola is passed along through the transfer of infected bodily fluids.  In order to increase the possibility of infection, Ebola basically liquifies the body:  in the final stages of the disease, victims "crash and bleed out", vomiting extreme amounts of infected blood mixed with stomach tissue, and bleeding from all of the other orifices.

In some odd way, Ebola is too efficient a disease: the debilitating nature of the symptoms means that infectious victims quickly lose the capability to move around and transmit the virus to others.  (Sadly, the most likely to be infected are doctors and nurses who are attempting to treat the victims.) We're also fortunate in that there isn't an airborne version of Ebola, which could easily give it the same rate of infection as the common cold, thereby allowing one victim to infect an entire planeload of passengers, one planeload of passengers an entire airport, and so on, and so on.

So far we've been lucky in that the outbreak has been restricted to a rural environment.  In saying that, I mean no disrespect to the victims in Africa who have died during the outbreak: the sole positive aspect of the recent epidemic has been that the relatively low population density involved has limited the number of fatalities - there just aren't enough vectors for a full-fledged pandemic burn. The death toll would be staggering if Ebola got a really good foothold in a major urban centre like New York or Beijing.

If you'd like an opportunity to be really frightened by a non-fictional account of Ebola, I strongly recommend Richard Preston's The Hot Zone.  It paints a terrifying picture of the realities of Ebola, and graphically describes the effects of the disease - really graphically, this is not a book that you want to be reading over dinner, or perhaps at all if you have a weak stomach.

One of the symptoms that Preston talks about is the point in the disease when the higher brain functions begin to vanish  - when "the who has already died while the what continues to live."  As clots begin to cut off the flow of blood and portions of the brain begin to liquify, the brain is reduced to the basic functions of the brain stem, the primitive "lizard brain".

All it would take is a small mutation in the virus so that rather than passively suffering, these mindless late-stage victims would become manic and angry, assaulting the people around them, perhaps even infecting them by biting. Almost like, well, zombies...

- Sid

* I don't mean to suggest that Canada would dodge the bullet at the expense of almost all of the United States, it just made the math simple.