Saturday, August 21, 2021

Anthrax - poor man’s nuclear bomb

 You can study accounting, says Daniel Mendelsohn. But when your father dies, your accounting degree won't help you process that experience   Grief 

In 2019, pre-Covid, National Geographic produced the dramatic Hot Zone television miniseries about a 1989 semi-accurate Ebola scare in the US (based on Richard Preston's 1994 novel of the same name). Its release came in the days when the bio-thriller genre was on par with horror — an adrenaline rush that, practically speaking, was almost as fantastical as a zombie tale (which, technically, is both horror and bio-thriller). 

Now, post-Covid, National Geo is teasing us with their second season, Hot Zone: Anthrax, which premieres in November. The dramatic 6-episode series is about the 2001 anthrax attacks that infected 22 people, killing five. But I wonder, is a pandemic-fatigued audience that's still in the thick of Covid ready for another Hot Zone? Knowing me, I'll watch it (Is there a bio-thriller I haven't seen?). This is, after all, about a terrorist attack rather than a contagious virus. But still, the usual pep that comes with the knowledge of an upcoming bio-thriller just isn't there.


Wealthy people calling for a tougher lockdown got what they wanted, at no cost to them






UNWANTED MEMORIES OF MY SISTER AGA'S GRAVE


Cold War River - Library Copy


Message from Vaclav Havel



After great pain, a formal feeling comes – (372)

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –