I have been having fever since last Thursday. It really sucks ! I can’t concentrate on my studies, can’t online, can’t do what I want. And now the doctor said that I had typhus. If I don’t get better until Wed, I’ll have to go back to the doctor again. Dammit dammit dammit !

Na, ihr wolltet doch sicherlich schon einmal mit euren Krankheitserregern knuddeln, oder? Dann sind die RIESENmikroben genau das Richtige für euch!

Es warten total knuffige Syphillis-, Pest-, Ebola-, Typhus- & Grippe-Erreger auf euch! Einfach fantastisch! Außerdem kann man jede Mikrobe auch in einen ultrastylischen Geschenkdöschen mit 2 weiteren Artgenossen kaufen… verschenke also doch mal Krankheitserreger zum Geburtstag!

Aber was wäre die Welt der Mikroben ohne Algen, Körperzellen und Viren? Genau, langweilig! Deshalb könnt ihr euch HI-Viren, Grün- & Braunalgen sowie auch Gehirnzellen und Spermien bestellen. Total niedlich!

Wer noch auf diverse Pilze, Endoparasiten, Darmbakterien und Insekten steht, kommt bei diesem Angebot auch nicht zu kurz. Außerdem sind manche Erreger auch in Extragroß zu bestellen.

Also: Keine Geburtstagspary ohne die süßen RIESENmikroben mehr.^^

En ces temps où la grippe A H1N1 fait les manchettes, on évoque parfois le souvenir de la grippe espagnole de 1918-1919 . La grippe espagnole aurait fait entre 30 et 100 millions de morts selon les estimations. Jusqu’ici la grippe A H1N1 a fait plus de 4000 morts. On est donc encore loin de l’hécatombe de 1918-1919.

Walter Reed Hospital, Washington v. 1918-1919

Le journal Le Devoir a publié il y a quelques mois un article intitulé Montréal au temps de la grippe espagnole.

Qui était atteint par la maladie? Comment a-t-on géré cette crise? L’article nous en donne un bon aperçu.

On rappelle que la maladie s’est propagée au retour au pays des soldats qui ont participé à la Première Guerre mondiale. Plusieurs mesures fûrent prises à Montréal pour contrôler la propagation de la maladie. Par exemple, les séries de la Coupe Stanley, qui devaient avoir lieu à Montréal, ont été annulées.

On considère qu’au ”Canada, il y a eu à peu près autant de morts de la grippe que du conflit ”. La grippe espagnole a causé le décès de plus de 3500 montréalais.

La grippe espagnole n’est pas la première  maladie à faire des ravages dans la métropole. Montréal a aussi été touchée par des épisodes de  choléra (1832), de typhus (1947)  et de variole (1885), de typhus (1847).

L’ article du Devoir rappelle aussi la contribution des femmes à la lutte contre la maladie. A lire!

En complément:

The Great Pandemic: the United States in 1918-1919

Billets reliés:

• L’épidémie de variole à Montréal en 1885
• Grosse-île: station de quarantaine 1832-1937
• Le commerce des maladies
• Mémoire en péril: voyage à travers l’histoire de Montréal

]]> http://somyself.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/last-news-book-kln-page-typhus-shooting/ Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:44:45 +0000 somyself http://somyself.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/last-news-book-kln-page-typhus-shooting/

Alors, voici les news

Je tiens à vous annoncer que j’ai obtenu mon diplôme de bachelier en Ecriture Multimédia avec distinction ^^ ! Enfin je laisse définitivement cette sale période de scolarité derrière moi .

Côté photographie :

• Création d’une nouvelle page “Book Kln” dans laquelle se trouvent les photos faites avec Stephane Kaelen dans la campagne de Chênée ^^. Vous y trouverez des photos non affichées dans mon dernier article .
• Création d’une nouvelle page “Typhus” dans laquelle se trouvent les photos qui apparaitront (ou pas ^^) dans le catalogue de la marque de vêtements Typhus 2009 ! Il y a de nouvelles photos, mais bon, vous savez ce que j’en pense .
• Nouveau shooting de prévu avec Cedric Englebert le jeudi 1er Octobre 09, photographe avec lequel j’ai déjà eu à travailler il y a longtemps . Cette séance aura pour thème deux de mes passions : les jeux vidéos et les livres, associé à de la lingerie .
• Toujours au planning et à venir (je vous le rappel) : shooting le jeudi 17 Septembre 09 avec Philippe Rikir (lingerie en studio) + shooting le dimanche 27 Septembre 09 avec mon ami Yannick en extérieur (mur de tag).

Voilou, à bientôt avec de nouvelles superbes photographies .

Sophie (k)

Comme vous le savez, je ne suis pas parfaite (ça n’existe pas et c’est ennuyeux), je n’ai pas une vie parfaite (très loin même) et donc il arrive que des séances photos se passent mal c’est d’ailleurs déjà arrivé auparavant (le photographe, une mauvaise communication, un mauvais résultat, …).

Dans ce cas-ci, la journée s’est mal passée SELON MOI. Je n’ai pas apprécié certaines choses, certains choix ! Je ne me suis pas sentie à l’aise, ni considérée, … . J’ai donc écourté le shooting et la soirée …

Je pense que la maquilleuse/coiffeuse s’est fait une “mauvaise opinion personnelle” de moi, et que j’ai eu à en subir les conséquences (maquillage et coiffure notamment). Non, je ne pense pas que le “trash” soit un style qui m’aille particulièrement !

Je ne m’attendais donc pas à un résultat époustouflant … la photo est de qualité mais je ne suis pas particulièrement satisfaite de “mon image”, j’aurais put donner plus, on aurait put faire mieux … . Je vous joins tout de même les photos, vous jugerez par vous même .

Le point positif reste cependant la rencontre de 2 nouvelles personnes : Sandrine et Danny (voir photo de nous 3 ci dessous), avec qui je me suis vraiment amusée lors de cette journée .

Danny, Sophie (moi) et Sandrine - Photo Typhus® 2009 - A.Legrand ©

Greg et Sophie (moi) - Photo Typhus® 2009 - A.Legrand ©

Voici un aperçu du résultat de la séance de ce samedi 22 août, au fort de lantin, avec Gaelle, Samantha et Hélène (des filles hyper sympa et très jolies ). Un shooting différent qui complète les différents styles de photo que j’ai eu l’occasion de faire ^^ !

> http://www.mg-photo.be/book5/Les%20Girls,%201er%20photo/index.html <

Soyez patient, car le reste des photos n’arrivera pas tout de suite !

Gaelle, Hélène, Sophie (moi) et Samantha

Hélène, Samantha, Gaelle et Sophie (moi)

Hélène, Samantha, Gaelle et Sophie (moi)

Hélène, Samantha, Gaelle et Sophie (moi)

Gaelle, Hélène, Sophie (moi) et Samantha

Je profite également de cet article pour vous annoncer que :

j’ai été sélectionnée pour incarner les prochaines campagnes TYPHUS® !

Bien entendu, je ne serais pas seule (d’ailleurs, je vais revoir quelques connaissances que j’avais rencontrées pour la première fois lors du concours Futur Top Model 08 !).

Sophie (k)

Siang ini aku dikejutkan dengen membaca sebuah status facebook dengen memberikan link ke sebuah surat kabar online di tanah air. Berita ini tentang gempa yang terjadi di Yogyakarta pada pagi ini padapukul 09:04:48 ini mempunyai kekuatan 4,2 SR yang terletak 28 km di sebelah tenggara kota Yogyakarta, dengan kedalaman 10 km.

Meskipun saat ini aku yang berada di kota Yogyakarta tidak merasakan, aku jadi teringat sebuah gempa yang terjadi di Yogyakarta tahun 2006 silam, tahun dimana aku masih menjadi seorang mahasiswa di fakultas farmasi UGM. Hari itu hari sabtu pagi, dengan kekhawatiran akan adanya ancaman gunung merapi yang dalam kondisi awas bencana. Gempa dahsyat itu tidak berlangsung lebih dari satu menit, tapi telah membuat sejumlah bangunan di Kab Bantul, Kota Yogyakarta dan Kab Klaten roboh dan hancur, mengubur barang-barang pemilik rumah, ada juga yang mengubur pemilik atau penghuni rumah meninggalkan orang-orang tercinta. Tidak hanya rumah, infrastruktur yang lain juga ikut mengalami kerusakan diantaranya termasuk listrik, supplai bahan bakar, dan komunikasi seluler.

Kegemparan ini tidak hanya terjadi setelah gempa yang kira-kira berlangsung pada pukul 6 WIB itu. Kegemparan ini berlanjut dengan adanya pergerakan massa yang besar dengan adanya isu gempa gunung merapi dan parahnya lagi isu tsunami. Kengerian akan tsunami dan tragedi Aceh membuat sebagian warga bergerak menghindar ke tempat yang lebih tinggi, kemacetan pun terjadi di mana-mana.

Dari pagi sampai siang sirine meraung-raung, entah apa yang terjadi aku sendiri kurang paham, karena jaringan seluler sedang mati aku pun tidak bisa dihubungi hingga sore hari. Parahnya lagi sore itu badanku panas, kepalaku pusing dan muntah-muntah, rupanya aku terkena typhus. Ibuku pun aku telefon untuk menjemputku pulang. Dijalan aku masih menemui mobil ambulance dan polisi dengan sirine yang terus meraung. Rupanya banyak korban gempa yang harus segera diselamatkan.

Untung saja hari ini tidak seperti kejadian tragis 3 tahun silam itu, mungkin ini adalah penyesuaian lempengan tanah setelah kejadian gempa hebat itu.

There are sometimes odd links between two otherwise unrelated diseases. Whether due to parallel evolution or horizontal gene transfer, two bacteria use the same technique as part of their attack on a human being, with correspondingly similar results. Probably the most famous result of this is the CCR5-Δ32 mutation, one copy of which makes people resistant to HIV-1 infection; two makes them almost immune. The peculiarity here is that the gene in question is much more common in people of Northern European descent, with somewhere between ten and fifteen percent of the population having at least one copy while it’s vanishingly rare in, say, sub-Saharan Africans or East Asians. Using a hybrid of math and genetics called coalescent theory, it’s possible to calculate that the mutation must have started to spread in the European population at least 275 years ago, with seven centuries being the likeliest figure. AIDS has been around for a lot less than that.

The theory for how the mutation became so widespread involves finding another disease that uses the same point of attack as HIV-1. The most commonly suggested culprits are smallpox and bubonic plague, both of which have been pestering people for long enough to qualify. In the particular case of plague bacteria, they attack the T-cells of a human’s immune system through the CCR5 receptor on the outside of those cells. HIV-1 does the same. Even though the two diseases act quite differently once inside the cell, they’d be similarly stymied by a change in the CCR5 receptor. The CCR5-Δ32 mutation seems to have become common because Northern Europe was repeatedly struck by epidemics of plague (or chronically infected with smallpox, if you prefer that culprit) for centuries. If you didn’t have the mutation, you died; if you did, you lived to have many children who also had the mutation. The fact that CCR5-Δ32 also confers resistance to HIV-1 is nothing more than coincidence.

The same sort of coincidence ended up saving thousands of lives during World War II.

Start with two bacteria: Rickettsia prowazekii and Proteus vulgaris. The former is better known as typhus, and for centuries it was a scourge on humanity, popping up repeatedly in crowded unsanitary situations like prisons and military camps. Proteus vulgaris, on the other hand, is an entirely boring creature. It can cause urinary tract infections, and it’s dangerous to people who are already badly sick with something else, but that’s about it. It comes into prominence only because of its connection of typhus. One particular strain of the bacteria, Proteus OX19, reacts with the human immune system in the same way as typhus does.

This similarity was discovered during World War I by Arthur Felix and Edward Weil, two Austro-Hungarian doctors following the Eastern Front. Typhus killed millions during that war, and so their discovery quickly led to the Weil-Felix test, which is widely used as a blood test for typhus infection. Formalin-killed Proteus OX19 is mixed with a blood sample taken from a patient, and if the sample clumps, the patient has typhus. Of course, if one were infected with Proteus OX19 one would also test positive, but that kind of infection is rare and considered unlikely in someone suspected of having typhus.

It stayed unlikely until the physician Stanisław Matulewicz of Stalowa Wola, Poland came along. The first vaccines against typhus had been developed in the 1930s, so the disease had been eliminated in Germany but was still around in points east. The German Army was worried about outbreaks to the point of mania, so after the Nazi invasion of Poland, Polish labs were required to report positive tests for typhus for fear that it might infect German soldiers. Catholic Poles who had a positive Weil-Felix test were quarantined, but Jews who tested positive were shot. Many of Matulewicz’s patients were Jewish (there were nearly a dozen Jewish villages surrounding Stalowa Wola) and, desperate to avoid having to use the labs, Matulewicz taught himself how to administer the test. While doing so he incidentally realized that, if he injected a patient with the killed Proteus OX19 that was used for the test, he could provoke a false positive for typhus.

Under normal circumstances there’d be no reason to do so. But by 1942 Poles were being shipped en masse to German slave labour camps, and the Wannsee Conference had kicked off the final phase of the Holocaust among the Jews of Poland and the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe. Under these insane conditions, Dr. Matulewicz and his friend Dr. Eugeniusz Łazowski decided to fake a typhus epidemic to try and save the people of Stalowa Wola.

Dr. Łazowski had been a prisoner-of-war after the collapse of Poland in September of 1939, but had managed to escape by climbing the prison wall and pretending to be the owner of an abandoned horse cart outside the camp until he left the sight of the guards. He settled on the outskirts of Stalowa Wola, backing on to the Jewish shtetl of Rozvedov. There he joined the Polish Resistance and, while it seems the Nazis knew of him, he was left alone on the basis of his usefulness as a doctor and member of the Polish Red Cross.

Both doctors were aware of what the Germans were doing to the people of Poland. Catholic Poles who’d been conscripted for slave labour were sent to them for treatment, and Łazowski’s neighbours in Rozvedov were sent to a concentration camp earlier than most. Rather than see this go on, Dr. Matulewicz told Dr. Łazowski about his way to fool the Weil-Felix test and the two hatched a plan. Whenever one of Łazowski or Matulewicz had a non-Jewish patient—as mentioned earlier, being Jewish and infected with typhus was a capital offense in the Generalgouvernement of Poland—with symptoms resembling the onset of typhus (like many diseases typhus’ initial symptoms are fever, cough, and aches and pains), he would inject him with Proteus OX19 then arrange for a blood test with a Polish lab. When the positive result was obtained, the Germans would be duly informed and when enough people in one area turned up positive, it would be quarantined and deportations would stop. By 1943, Matulewicz and Łazowski had managed to get several thousand people under the protection of a sham quarantine.

The way they had to go ahead with their plan does raise some interesting ethical questions, ones a little too fine for the depths of World War II but still worth pondering. They told no-one what they were doing, including the people they injected; the patients were even led to believe that they had had typhus but somehow recovered from a disease that was often fatal. To throw suspicion off themselves, they would inject some patients and then refer them to other doctors who they thought might ask for a blood test. Rumours of what they were doing eventually leaked out, if only because Germans began to notice that not a lot of people were dying around Stalowa Wola for all that there was supposed to be an epidemic going on.

A good answer to any ethical concerns can be found in how the people of Stalowa Wola’s surrounding towns helped Dr. Łazowski set up an reverse Potemkin village when the Nazis did try to investigate in the winter of 1943-44. By then the villagers knew that the doctors were helping them evade German atrocities, and so when the three investigators arrived they were welcomed with a local feast. Reluctant to step away from the party, the senior doctor dispatched the junior Nazi medicos to do his work; they were then suitably rattled with tales of infection and death en route by Dr. Łazowski. He arranged for several of the people sickest with diseases most resembling typhus to be housed in filthy conditions—and of course injected them with Proteus OX19. After the first few Weil-Felix tests came up positive, the inexperienced investigators wrapped up and reported back to their superiors that, yes, there was an outbreak underway.

By the summer of 1944, Operation Bagration had the Red Army stop with Stalowa Wola just inside their front lines. Łazowski and Matulewicz were among the many Poles marked for death by the Germans should they lose control of Poland, but fortunately the Russians swept forward so quickly that both doctors managed to stay in hiding until their city was under Soviet control.

The need to fake medical results had passed, but Poland still had tragic years under a totalitarian government ahead. Fearful of the new invading army, both the doctors and the citizens of Stalowa Wola stayed quiet about their unusual way of resisting the Nazis. Dr. Matulewicz spent some time practising medicine in Zaire in the late 1950s as part of the Eastern Bloc’s campaign to influence that country’s political development, but he spent most of the rest of his life in Poland. Dr. Łazowski immigrated to the US in 1958. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, both opened up and Łazowski published a memoir entitled Prywatna Wojna, Wspomnienia lekarza-zolnierza 1939-1944 (Private War, the Memories of a Soldier Physician 1939-1944) which, unfortunately, has not been translated into English.

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Comme dans chaque pays touché par une première vague de punk en 1977 / 1978, le mouvement japonais se fragmente en sous-genres très vite. Les interactions entre les scènes new-wave, post-punk, avant-garde, hardcore… existeront bel et bien mais devant le grand nombre de groupes jouant chaque style, des labels ’spécialisés’ apparaissent et les concerts deviennent plus homogènes. Les groupes se partagent les mêmes affiches en fonction de leurs affinités musicales et/ou esthétiques et/ou idéologiques.

Il est donc de mon devoir de passer en revue chaque petite niche née de l’impulsion créatrice engendrée par les Tokyo Rockers et la Kansai No Wave.

Je débute par le domaine où je m’y connais le mieux (le hardcore) donc il y a des chances pour que ça nerdise un peu sur les bords! Mais ceux qui liront attentivement seront finalement récompensés tant les groupes qui arrachent  furent nombreux sur l’archipel.

Aujourd’hui je vais me contenter de passer en revue les quelques disques essentiels pour saisir le court moment où la transition s’est faite entre le “noyau qui devenait mou” au “noyau qui durcit”.

Le hardcore est plus facilement assimilable au punk de base que la new-wave-à-synthé-qui-fait-bleep-bleep ou le batcave romantico-morbide : ça joue vite, c’est mal enregistré, ça gueule, il y a des têtes de mort sur les pochettes des disques… Les groupes hardcore poussent la recette de base à ses extrémités en jouant de manière toujours plus agressive.

Moins conceptuel et arty que la première vague, le hardcore est aussi parfois considéré comme une évolution regrettable du punk. Un petit frère incestueux et donc dégénéré en quelque sorte.

En effet, les possibilités entrevues lors de la première vague sont largement dépouillées, tout ce qui compte étant de livrer la musique la plus primale possible. Alors forcément, les pseudo-intellectuels à la con ont plus de mal à écrire des livres sur le sujet puisque ces groupes sont, par définition, spontanés et irréfléchis.

C’est juste de la musique d’adolescent désaxé sniffeur de colle.

Et c’est ça qui est cool.

TYPHUS

Typhus est généralement considéré comme le premier groupe japonais de punk hardcore. Je vais l’admettre aussi pour plus de simplicité bien que la musique de Typhus n’est finalement pas très éloignée de ce que faisait déjà SS et The Stalin.

Ce groupe est surtout important car il contient les germes de plusieurs autres formations qui deviendront mythiques. Chitose (futur Comes), Tam (futur The Stalin / ADK records), Shin (futur Gauze) et Izumi (futur Aburadako) se sont tous retrouvés impliqués dans un des line-ups de Typhus malgré l’existence très courte du groupe (d’octobre 1980 à juillet 1981).

Si vous n’êtes pas impressionné par cette all-star team, attendez que je parle de ces groupes dans les articles suivants. Vous relirez ce billet et vous serez impressionné rétro-activement. Hé ouais.

Un seul disque sera officiellement enregistré : un flexi éponyme contenant trois chansons (“Honk-Kong Girl”, “Street Hoi Hoi Boy” et “Eien No Heiwa”).  Bien que cette galette soit tout à fait sympathique, le prix exorbitant d’une copie originale ne s’explique pas par la qualité extraordinaire de la musique mais plutôt parce que son acquisition vous permet de tenir entre vos mains tremblantes l’acte de naissance du hardcore nippon.

C’est drôle quand on sait que le disque a été commercialisé au prix de 200 yens par le label Political Records lors de sa sortie en 1981.

Dois-je préciser que Political Records était le label de Michiro Endo, leader de The Stalin?

Deux K7 live existent également. Je n’ai jamais pu mettre la main sur celle avec des penis sur la pochette et qui contient 14 chansons. La plus courante ne contient que 5 chansons :

La qualité sonore n’a rien à envier au flexi (pourtant enregistré en studio) et pour tout avouer, je préfère cette petite K7 (trouvable assez facilement sur le net) car on peut y entendre la voix stridente de Chitose par intermittence (premier line-up?). Et le jeu du batteur est une parfaite défintion du mot “rudimentaire”.

GAUZE circa “City Rockers”

Après Typhus, Shin le bassiste forme un groupe qui deviendra légendaire : GAUZE!

Gauze est une véritable aberration de par sa longévité (le groupe existe encore aujourd’hui presque trente ans plus tard!), le temps qu’il leur faut pour sortir un album (10 ans d’attente entre “Kao Wo Aratte Denaoshite Koi!” et “Bimbo Yusuri Rizumu Ni Notte”!), la marée humaine qui se déchaîne à chacun de leur concert, le nombre d’os qui se brisent à ces mêmes concerts et, last but not least, la grande qualité de leur musique.

Sur leur premier enregistrement (février 1982), le groupe est encore loin du hardcore chirurgical qui leur vaut la dévotion d’un public restreint mais fidèle autour du monde.

En effet, sur la compilation “City Rockers”, leurs dix chansons sont très classiques dans leurs structures et leurs riffs. Ils sont encore clairement influencés par le punk du Royaume-Uni, Discharge en tête. Ils ont tout de même des chansons plus courtes et plus pêchues que le moyenne de ce qui se faisait dans l’archipel à ce moment..

Gauze mettra plusieurs années à peaufiner leur son avant d’en faire leur style à eux, parfaitement inimitable (et il ne vaut mieux pas tenter de les copier).

On retrouve Gauze sur une autre compilation sortie sur City Rockers Records à la fin de l’année 1982 :

THE OUTSIDER

Si le flexi de Typhus marque le moment où Maman Punk a commencé à perdre les eaux et “City Rockers” le début d’un pénible accouchement dans le caniveau alors “The Outsider” correspond à la coupure du cordon ombilical.

Sur la première face de cet LP, 4 des groupes fondateurs du “noyau dur” sont réunis : GISM, GAUZE, COMES et LAUGHIN’ NOSE (ces derniers tourneront punk mainstream par la suite mais bon…).

C’est d’ailleurs un peu dommage que le label se soit senti obligé d’adoucir le ton sur la face B. La présence de Masturbation sauve un peu l’affaire mais il faut bien avouer que Full X, Route 66 et Madame Edwarda ne proposent rien de mémorable.

Le disque parfait aurait contenu des titres de The Execute et d’Aburadako à la place de ces groupes dont personne n’a rien à foutre. Enfin Madame Edwarda intéresse peut-être quelques vrais fans de musique goth japonaise. Presque personne donc.

Deuxième point noir concernant The Outsider : toutes les chansons sont enregistrées en live (sauf celles de Laughin’ Nose). Le son est plutôt crade et globalement trop étouffé pour laisser transparaitre la pleine puissance de la musique. On ressent bien le bordel que le concert a du être par contre.

C’est GISM qui s’en tire le mieux avec son mélange malsain de punk et de metal (qui prendra toute sa mesure sur leur LP “Detestation” en 1984). Etant donné que Comes joue un hardcore plus rapide, le résultat est un peu plus brouillon. Là encore, il vaut mieux commencer par écouter leur LP studio “No Side”. Gauze est moins convaincant malgré le titre de chanson le plus cool de la semaine : “Children Fuck Off”.

THE EXECUTE – S/T flexi

Pour d’obscures raisons que je ne parviens pas à expliquer, The Execute est souvent oublié quand on parle de hardcore japonais. Ce groupe a pourtant été fondé au tout début du mouvement et il n’y a pas grand chose à jeter dans leur discographie. Omettre leur premier flexi serait une faute de goût que Drink Cold ne peut pas se permettre.

Enregistré en 1982, ce disque a une histoire un peu compliquée. Il ne porte pas de nom mais est souvent désigné comme le “A-Z flexi”. Et pour ne rien arranger, il existe au moins dix pochettes différentes! Le seul scan correct que j’ai pu trouver est celui de la pochette “Go To Hell EP” (mais il s’agit bien du même flexi éponyme). On ne connait pas non plus le nombre exact de copies pressées à l’époque.

Les influences de The Execute oscille entre le punk UK bien rageux et le metal imbibé de Jack Daniel’s de Motorhead (le surnom du guitariste est Lemmy!).

Fait plus improbable : la “production” est plus que potable! On se prend un bon gros mur du son dans la gueule du début à la fin. On a droit à la voix “je vais vomir mes cordes vocales juste après l’enregistrement” et même à quelques effusions guitaristiques du meilleur effet.

La musique de The Execute est un peu plus subtil que ce qu’un disque “enregistré à l’arrache en 1982″ offre d’habitude grâce au guitariste qui parvient à placer quelques breaks ici et là et presque un solo par chanson. Et certains n’ont pas à rougir face au heavy-metal-branlotteur-de-manche de l’époque!

On ne s’attend pas forcément à être impressionné par la technique d’un groupe lâchant des chansons intitulées “Go To Hell”, “Aaaarrrgghhh”  ou “Blood Rain”.

Le plaisir n’en est que plus grand.

********************************

Voilà pour cette première exploraiton de la scène hardcore japonaise. Il sera question de ces groupes dans le détail lors des prochains articles.

Et pour les plus mélomanes d’entre vous, des articles sur les groupes new-wave et avant-pop sont également en préparation.

D’ici là je vous laisse avec mes talentueux collègues pour des billets classieux et toujours plus absurdes.

]]> http://coratcoretnyaella.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/sick/ Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:49:04 +0000 Gabriella Febriana http://coratcoretnyaella.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/sick/ http://hushhushfr.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/unicefs-non-profit-guerilla-marketing/ Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:49:29 +0000 Thibaut http://hushhushfr.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/unicefs-non-profit-guerilla-marketing/

Après BBDP & Fils qui avait créé un film viral pour la France pour faire connaître la première cause de mortalité dans le monde, je trouve que l’UNICEF a réalisé une superbe opération de guérilla marketing dans les rues de New-York.

Cette opération avait une double utilité : faire connaître ces problématiques, mais également réaliser une campagne de fund raising de manière très insolite.

En effet, le distributeur d’eau proposait pour un dollar des boissons à base de malaria, fièvre jaune, choléra, typhus, salmonellose, hépatite,  dengue ou dysenterie.

Sur le distributeur, on pouvait lire :

“Vous avez soif ? Tout comme des millions de gens dans le monde qui n’ont pas accès à de l’eau potable propre. 4 200 enfants meurt de maladies présentes dans leur eau chaque jour. Aidez au développement d’eau potable et saine dans les pays en voie de développement. Donnez de l’argent aujourd’hui. Vous ne buveriez pas de l’eau sale. Personne ne le devrait”

Chaque dollar inséré dans cette machine permettait de donner de l’eau à un enfant pendant 40 jours.

(From Chapter 3, “Mein Krampf” by S.I. Fishgal, http://stores.lulu.com/fishgal)

Roma’s dowdy haircut, a la prisoner at best or as he just passed through a birth canal at worst, ruins his prospects. That Borneo-monkey hairdo called “zero” reduced his womanizing chances to such. The higher males’ age and intellect, the more head hair. Shorn-off preschoolers had Julius Caesar’s fashionable forelock – a small fetching mane above the forehead. Higher life forms – pupils, prisoners and first-year soldiers – were skinheads (then the term and such men were not conceived yet). A hairy crown of the seventh-graders and low class youth was called box – saints knew why. Shrewder men had hair on the head back too – semi-box. The elite trimmed the full head of hair – polka (no relation to the dance and a Polish female). Surely, no booby had Herr Einstein’s lewd hair architecture.
Of course, boys considered haircutting as a severe punishment for the sins they did not have and saw barbers only when the teachers ordered.
That fashionable haircut came to Kiev’s schools not from the Red Army, forced-labor camps, prisons or the like board-and-shelter institutions. During and right after the World Bloodbath II, the tiny, mighty lice made that Soviet fashion statement. A school nurse inspected the pupils weekly in her office decorated with lavishly illustrated, doleful, but macho, slogan “A louse is your mortal enemy!”
“Napoleon was a great hero too,” she sent the enemies’ carriers for the sanitary treatment. “He invaded Russia with a half million men, but escaped from to Lithuania with twenty-five thousand and then to France with only three-thousand. Louse-born typhus and trench fever finished his army off.”
Actually, it was not the first lousy fashion statement. During the World Bloodshed I, British Fog-Breathers sent leather jackets to their Russian ally. Later those jackets became the Soviet commissars’ uniform. They survived typhus for lice discriminate against leather. Then the Gestapo, bikers, and other right people had leather jackets too. Were afraid to be lousy or what?

History has shown that there has always been a resurgence of homeopathy every time an epidemic has struck the population. From the time of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, to the present day, homeopathy has always scored over conventional allopathic medication in the treatment of epidemics. In 1813, the retreating army of Napoleon brought with it the epidemic of typhus to Leipzig. Homeopathic treatment of 180 cases of typhus by Dr. Hahnemann saw only two cases succumbing to the illness while 30% of patients under allopathic treatment died. When cholera struck Europe, the mortality rate with allopathy was 66% and the homeopathic mortality was 33%. On account of this extraordinary result, the law interdicting the practice of Homeopathy in Austria was repealed! In Britain, the statistics were suppressed because it was found that the mortality rate with allopathy was 59.2% while under homeopathic care the mortality rate was 9%
Perhaps the most recent use of homeopathy in a major epidemic was during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918.  It was reported that 24,000 cases of flu treated allopathically had a mortality rate of 28.2% while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of 1.05%.  One physician in a Pittsburgh hospital asked a nurse if she knew anything better than what he was doing, because he was losing many cases.  “Yes, Doctor, stop aspirin and go down to a homeopathic pharmacy, and get homeopathic remedies.” The Doctor replied: “But that is homeopathy.” “I know it, but the homeopathic doctors for whom I have nursed have not lost a single case.”
Why is homeopathy so effective? Irrespective of the name of the disease, homeopathy works at the immunity of the patient and strengthens it so that the body is able to protect itself from diseases. If a person has already been affected, it helps to stimulate the body’s self-healing powers the body so that the disease is controlled naturally by the body’s own defense mechanism.

For more information about homeopathy and homeopathic treatment of your disease, please visit our web site www.drvaishnav.com

Saplings from the tree Anne Frank used to measure the seasons while hiding from the Nazis could be planted in 10 cities around the United States.

The Anne Frank Center USA wants to plant the trees in 10 U.S. cities to symbolize the growth of tolerance.

The one-metre saplings would come from an ailing horse chestnut tree in Amsterdam.

Possible locations for the trees include the planned Sept. 11 memorial, the White House and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

The centre plans to issue a request for proposals for other sites.

Frank was among Jewish occupants of an Amsterdam building rounded up by the Gestapo. She died of typhus at age 15 in a concentration camp.

Read more: ‘Anne Frank tree’ saplings may be planted in U.S.

Photo: Flickr user Jon Shoemaker

Nein, Wasser ist kostbarer, viel kostbarer. Denn ohne Wasser gibt es kein Leben! Und was macht der Mensch? Er verseucht, verschmutzt, verschwendet das Wasser, macht es von einer Ressource, auf die jeder Mensch ein Menschenrecht hat, zu einer Ware, die meistbietend verkauft wird. Die Wasserwirtschaft in den Industrieländern wurde bereits zu weiten Teilen privatisiert und damit den Gewinninteressen der Konzerne geopfert. Wasserleitungsnetze und Kanalisation verfallen und werden immer undichter, ungeheure Mengen besten Trinkwassers gehen verloren und die Preise steigen immer weiter.

“Der UNESCO-Bericht 2009 – Trinkwasser wird knapp” (Artikel auf n-tv am 12.3.2009) legt nahe, dass sauberes Wasser durch die Dummheit der Menschen, durch ihre Ignoranz, die Profitgier der Konzerne und nicht zuletzt durch die Klimaerwärmung immer knapper, immer kostbarer. Millionen von Menschen haben überhaupt keinen Zugang zu sauberem Trinkwasser. Überall, wo Wasser knapp ist, wird ein Geschäft daraus gemacht, dass so lukrativ ist, dass sogar die Mafia einsteigt. Wer nicht zahlen kann, muss eben aus den allerorts vorhandenen Kloaken saufen und wenn er dann an der Cholera, Typhus oder irgendeiner anderen Durchfallerkrankung verreckt, hat er eben Pech gehabt. Besonders leiden unter diesen Bedingungen Kinder und Kleinkinder, die jährlich zu Hunderttausenden, ja Millionen, Opfer der unsäglichen hygienischen Bedingungen und des Mangels an sauberem Trinkwasser werden!

Hier in Europa hat sich der weltgrößte Lebensmittelkonzern Nestlé eine ganze Reihe von Mineralwasserquellen unter den Nagel gerissen (darunter sind wie Nestlé Waters, Perrier, Vittel, Aquarel, San Pellegrino, Contrex, Aqua Panna, Neuselters, Frische Brise, Kloster Quelle, Fürst Bismarck Quelle, Nestlé Aquarel, Nestlé Wellness, Henniez). Wer glaubt, er tue dies nur aus sozialer Verantwortung heraus und um die Versorgung der Menschen in Europa mit sauberem Trinkwasser sicher zu stellen, der irrt, der irrt ganz gewaltig. Nestlé versucht ein Monopol zu schaffen, dass es ihm ermöglicht, die Preise zu diktieren. Die Folgen liegen für jeden klar sichtbar auf dem Tisch – Kontrolle der Ressource bedeutet: Kontrolle der Preise bedeutet: Kontrolle der Menschen!

Damit nicht genug. Private Anbieter steigen in ganz großem Massstab in das Geschäft mit der Wasserversorgung ein, überall auf der Welt. Und überall wo das geschieht, steigen zuerst einmal die Preise. Das sei auch gut so, sagt die Politik, denn Wasser müsse einen angemessenen Preis haben und den habe es zur Zeit noch nicht! Steigt der Preis, würde man anfangen Wasser zu sparen und nicht mehr vergeuden. Soweit hört sich das auch ganz logisch an. Aber an dem Punkt, wo ich feststelle, dass die Mehrkosten sich nicht und in keinster Weise in der Modernisierung der Rohrleitungsnetze niederschlagen, oder in modernen technischen Anlagen zur Wasseraufbereitung, sondern einzig und allein in den Taschen der Konzerne landen (und zwar als Gewinne), beginne ich die Privatisierung öffentlicher Aufgaben zu bekämpfen, weil ich sie nicht für richtig und schon garnicht für gerechtfertigt halte. Ein Staat, der alle seine hoheitlichen Aufgaben privatisiert (und in den USA ist man ja schon soweit, sogar den Krieg zu privatisieren) verliert erstens sein Existenzrecht und zweitens das Recht, Steuern zu kassieren! Denkt mal darüber nach!

Große Konzerne wie ABB, Bilfinger & Berger und MVV Energie steigen mit dem Gemeinschaftsunternehmen Aquamundo weltweit in die kommunale Wasserversorgung und Abwasserentsorgung ein, genauso wie die französischen Unternehmen Vivendi oder Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. Glaubt wirklich jemand das Geschwätz, dies geschehe nur aus dem einzigen Grund, die Wasserversorgung zu sichern? Welche Kommune verkauft ihr Wasser- und Abwassernetz, weil und damit es in Privathand besser und billiger (im Unterhalt, dem Neubau und der Wartung, nicht im Wasserpreis) wird? Wasser ist ein riesen Geschäft und die Kommunen verkaufen die Wasserverteilnetze, die wir mit unseren Steuern bereits einmal finanziert und auch unterhalten haben, an private Unternehmen. Die Gewinne teilen sie jedoch nicht mit uns, den Bürgern, sie schaufeln sie in ihre eigenen Taschen. Und dann müssen wir diese bereits bezahlten Netze von den Unternehmen wieder zurück leasen, oder den Unterhalt auch weiterhin mit unserem Geld bezahlen, allerdings in Form höherer Preise. Aber – wer hätte das gedacht – die Gelder sind plötzlich Gewinne und werden keineswegs in den Unterhalt der Netze gesteckt, sondern wiederum in die eigenen Taschen, diesmal der Konzerne. Ist es nicht fantastisch, dass die Menschen in diesem Land und auch in allen anderen Ländern bei solchen Geschäften immer die Dummen sind?

Konzerne sind nur und ausschließlich da, wo es Geld zu verdienen gibt und zwar viel Geld. Konzerne dienen niemals den Menschen. Sie dienen nur sich selbst ud ihr einziger Zweck ist es, Geld zu machen! Alles Geschwafel von Nachhaltigkeit und Verantwortung, von sozialem Engagement ist nichts weiter als hohles und leeres Geschwätz. Aber die Politiker glauben es gern, nimmt ihnen die Industrie doch das ab, was der Politik zu teuer, zu lästig und vielleicht auch unangenehm ist, die Verantwortung für die Bürger. Die stören sowieso nur beim Regieren und sind so dämlich, dass sie nicht mal merken, “was für eine hervorragende Arbeit in der Politik geleistet wird”. Das glaube ich gern!

weiterführende Links:

• “Der Wasserkrieg von Cochabamba” (So sehen die Pläne der Konzerne wirklich aus. Das was in den bunten Unternehmens-Homepages steht, ist nur Augenwischerei. In Cochabamba/Bolivien, fand die Generalprobe zur totalen Kontrolle über die Wasserressourcen und damit über die Menschen statt)
• “Wasserknappheit ist Wachstumsrisiko” (WWF Deutschland am 19.3.2009)
• “Welt-Wasser-Forum – Der erschöpfte Planet” (sueddeutsche.de am 16.3.2009)

I’m leaving for a medical mission trip to Haiti for 2 weeks in a matter of days.  Naturally, my life – aside from residency – has been largely focused on this big deal.

This is the season of Lent – a time of giving up and doing without, in Christian circles.  Well, let’s be specific: Lent is commonly practiced in more traditional branches of Christianity where guilt historically ran its totalitarian regime on the human soul.  Back then, the guilt-vibe generated extreme and wonderfully creative (in a Nazian sort of way) acts of suffering and penitence.  Think dull iron hooks and exposed collar bones.  Anyway, these days, many Lenten observers give up something rather level-headed, like T.V., to remind them of the suffering of Christ.

My family – slouching ever closer toward the Episcopal church, thanks largely to this wishy, squishy, lukewarm, doubtful Christian in the loosest sense of the word (as charged by my hyper-conservative heritage) – is observing Lent this year.

Wife is giving up chocolate.  Eldest daughter is giving up goldfish (the crackers, not the creatures).  Next daughter threw out the same.  Things get hazy in the lower echelons.  I’m trying to give up desert, but…lukewarm, you see.  We’re all giving up restaurants.

But what we’re really giving up is 2 weeks when I’m in Haiti, doing work I had once hoped to do full-time.  Truth is, I sold my soul to medicine in a mist of Christian charity back when I was debt-free, young, rather dumb and convinced I could do anything.  Something about, “if God is for us, who can be against us?”

Then I ended up $300,000 in debt and unlikely to be free of it until after retirement.  Couple that with the recent incident where guys uttering something similar to the above scripture – but in Arabic – blew up the World Trade Center and Pentagon in firey madness.  Suddenly, relativism and reality colluded to hamper as many elements of my personal life force as existentially possible.

So, I’m soon off to do for 2 weeks – jaded, hopeless about the lofty ideals I once had for my career – what I once had hoped to do with my professional life.  Not the last 5 years of it, but the first 40.  And to do these 2 weeks, my kids will give up their Dad.  For some of the younger and more empirical kids, there will be a lingering question about whether or not Dad is gone forever.  The older ones will have to deal with a MUCH quieter and decidedly feminine-heavy abode, with all the accompanying sorrows drama and virtues.

My wife will give up my daily witty commentary on  politics and my clothes flung to every corner of the house (actually, her Lent may get under way not long after I return).  She will also take care of everyone by herself for 2 weeks.  I flatter myself to suggest that this is much different that usual…but I suppose I have put a diaper on someone in the past month or so.

Me?  I can’t say I’m giving up much at all.  My passion for travel and curiosity about the rest of the world trumps the negatives of dusty, sweaty days in a medical clinic.

Long ago, I figured I needed to just be honest and admit that the reason I wanted to be a missionary had much more to do with the love of knowledge and travel that it did the lost souls of Ximbiaha.  Sure, Jesus loved me enough to die for my purity and for our relationship – yeah, I really do actually believe that, lukewarmness notwithstanding – and if you push me you’ll find that I do have a reasonable amount of energy for passing some semblance of that kind of altruism on to someone else.  So, Haiti won’t be much of a sacrifice for me.  There are lots of upsides in my world.  It’s a brier patch sort of thing.

Except that malaria is endemic there.  So’s dengue and typhus.  I gotta say, if I end up crapping my innards out for 3 weeks…consider my debt to Lent paid in FULL!

Plashitaba telah memperoleh sertifikat Halal dari Majelis Ulama Indonesia No. 00140049161208

Plashitaba adalah Herbal yang mempunyai kandungan utama ekstrak Lumbricus Rubellus. Ekstrak ini berkhasiat untuk mengobati Typhus dan demam. Plashitaba juga berkhasiat untuk mengobati penyakit-penyakit lain.

Aturan Pakai :

Usia 5-12 tahun : 2-3 x 1 kapsul/hari

Usia di atas 12 tahun : 3 x 2 kapsul/hari

Komposisi Plashitaba

• Ashitaba
• Curcuma Longa
• Curcuma Zedoria (Temu Putih)
• Gotu Cola (Pegagan)
• Trametes Versicolor
• Ganoderma Lucidum
• Ekstrak Lumbricus Rubellus

(From Chapter 3, “Kosher Hooks” by S.I. Fishgal, http://stores.lulu.com/fishgal)

That fashionable haircut (of the thinking apparatus trimmed like an English lawn) came to Kiev’s schools not from unknown-yet skinheads, the Red Army, forced-labor camps, prisons or the like free board-and-shelter institutions. During and right after the World Bloodbath II the tiny, mighty lice made that Soviet fashion statement. A nurse inspected the schoolboys weekly. A lavishly illustrated, doleful, yet macho, slogan decorated her office: A Louse Is Your Mortal Enemy!
“Napoleon was a great hero too,” she said and sent the enemies’ carriers for the sanitary treatment. “Louse-born typhus and trench fever finished off his half million invaders. His twenty-five thousand men escaped from Russia to Lithuania, but only three-thousand got to France.”
The authorities discriminated against girls though. They had no hair limitation.
Actually, it was not the first lousy fashion statement. During the World Bloodshed I, British Fog-Breathers sent leather jackets to their Russian ally. Then those jackets became the Soviet commissars’ uniform. They survived typhus because lice discriminate against leather. The Gestapo, bikers, and other right people had leather jackets too. Afraid to be lousy or what?

Hola,

das ich so schnell nach Cochabamba zurueckkehre hatte ich nicht gedacht, aber jetzt bin ich tatsaechlich wieder hier. Das ich 4 Wochen krank war und immer wieder hohes Fieber bekam und mir niemand sagen konnte, was ich habe, musste ich ins Krankenhaus um mich ordentlich durchchecken zu lassen.

Die ersten Tests sind alle negativ verlaufen, kein Dengue-Fieber, kein Malaria – also nichts was man so allgemein in den Tropen vermutet. Allerdings sind die Ergebnisse von den Blutkulturen noch nicht fertig. Ich war vier Tage im Krankenhaus und bin jetzt wieder entlassen worden. Mir gehts schon wieder besser, aber es kann gut sein, das das Fieber wiederkommt und deswegen werde ich vorerst noch eine Weile hier in Cochabamba bleiben.

Mein Zivikollege hat vor knapp 2 Wochen gleichzeitig Dengue-Fieber und Typhus bekommen. War wirklich ganz arm dran. Man kann aber sagen, das er Glueck im Unglueck hatte, da man direkt alle Erreger imBlut lokalisieren und bestimmen konnte. Bei mir weiss bisher niemand wieso ich das Fieber bekomme.

Liebe Gruesse

Thomas

Worm Caps :

• Ramuan khusus untuk penyembuhan Typhus dan Maag
• Komposisi : serbuk cacing mallacus kapsul
• Isi : 63

• Harga : Rp. 100.000,-

Found it!  [See previous post.]

I had done a search for Zinsser’s book, Rats, Lice and History, many weeks ago, and come up dry (how many weeks?).

But a more careful search in Google Books turned up a copy of most of the text, from Read Books — and in that edition, appearing to have been published in London*, there is a page 285!

On that page 285, there is the quote cited, claiming that the bathtub did not come to America until about 1840.

The quote is found in chapter XVI, in the first section, a couple of paragraphs prior to the second section — page 217 in the editions of the book I have.

So, the Hoax Museum is right in saying Zinsser was hoaxed, too.  Zinsser’s book appeared first in 1935, with plenty of time for Mencken’s 1917 hoax to have spread into sources Zinsser trusted.

Even the best can be taken in by a hoax crafted well enough, or on a subject obscure enough.

_____________

* RATS, LICE, AND HISTORY, Being a Study in Biography, which, after Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals with the Life History of TYPHUS FEVER.   Also known, at various stages of its Adventurous Career, as Morbus pulicaris (Cardanus, 1545); Tabardiglio y puntos (DeToro, 1574); Pin fas Febris pur purea epidemica (Coyttarus, 1578); Febris quam lenticulas vel puncticulas vocant (Fracastorius, 1546); Morbus hungaricus; La Pourpre; Pipercorn; Febris petechialis vera; Febris maligna pestilens; Febris putrida et maligna; Typhus carcerorum; Jayl Fever; Fiévre des hôspitaux; Pestis bellica; Morbus castrensis; Famine Fever; Irish Ague; Typhus exanthematicus; Faulfieber Hauptkrankheit; Pcstartigc Bräune; Exanthematisches Nervenfieber, and so forth, and so forth. By HANS ZINSSER; LONDON, GEORGE ROUTLEDGE, BROADWAY HOUSE, 68-74 CARTER

[If you're interested in the hoax aspect, see this update post.]

Is this just an error, or a new hoax on the way to debunking an old one?  This is a story of an insider’s hoax, or an interesting error.

It’s from the Museum of Hoaxes.  Surely they would be careful about such matters, no?

The Museum of Hoaxes’ History of the Bathtub is largely a history of H. L. Mencken’s famous 1917 hoax history of the bathtub, in which he claimed Millard Fillmore had bravely led America to indoor bathing by installing a bathtub in the White House in 1853.

Readers of this blog well know this story.  Fillmore wasn’t the first to put a bathtub in the White House.  He wasn’t the first to put plumbing in the White House.  He wasn’t the first to put a plumbed bathtub in the White House, nor the first to run hot water to it. Anything in Mencken’s column that squares with history did so accidentally.  Mencken was making a big joke.

And one of the little delights of reading history is finding people who should know better, who have been suckered in by Mencken’s hoax.

So of course I read the piece at the Hoax Museum.

What ho!  Here is a section that discusses how the hoax refuses to die:

Curtis MacDougall, writing in 1958, reported finding fifty-five different instances since 1926 of Mencken’s bathtub history being presented to audiences as fact. Some of the examples that MacDougall collected follow:

October, 1926: Scribner’s included an article, “Bathtubs, Early Americans,“ by Fairfax Downey, based almost entirely on Mencken’s story.

March 16, 1929: In “Baltimore Day by Day,“ by Carroll Dulaney, in Mencken’s own newspaper, the Baltimore Evening Sun, the story is told under the heading, “Painting the Lily.“

September 26, 1929: The Paris, France, edition of the New York Herald rewrites an article by Ruth Wakeman in the New York Sun entitled, “Americans Once Frowned on Bathtubs, Condemning Them for Fancied Hazards.“

December 1, 1931: The Tucson, Arizona, Daily Star interviews C.R. King, manager of the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company branch in Tucson, on the imminent birthday of the bathtub. Mr. King, who according to the Star “had apparently studied the matter considerably,“ hands out the same old facts, which are printed under a two-column head, “Bathtub Will Have Birthday in America During December.“

April 27, 1933: A United Features Syndicate feature, “How It Began,“ by Russ Murphy and Ray Nenuskay includes an illustration of Adam Thompson in his first bathtub.

1935: Dr. Hans Zinsser, professor in the Medical School of Harvard University, says on page 285 of his best-selling Rats, Lice and History: “The first bathtub didn’t reach America, we believe, until about 1840.”

November 15, 1935: R.J. Scott’s “Scott’s Scrapbook,“ syndicated by the Central Press Asociation, includes a sketch of a policeman chasing a bather away from his bath, together with the caption: As late as 1842 some American cities prohibited the use of bathtubs.”

May 27, 1936: Dr. Shirley W. Wynne, former commissioner of health for New York City, uses the “facts” in a radio address, “What Is Public Health?“ over WEAF.

February, 1937: The United Press Red Letter includes a story from Cambridge, Massachusetts, that Dr. Cecil K. Drinker, dean and professor of physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, has discovered that his great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Drinker of Philadelphia, had a bathtub in her home as early as 1803, thus disputing Cincinnati’s claim to fame for having the first American bathtub. (The Chicago Daily News used the story March 27, 1937.)

September 28, 1938: Hearst’s American Weekly includes an article, “There’s a Lot of History Behind Your Bathtub,“ by Virginia S. Eiffert, research expert and contributor to Natural History, official magazine of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, and other publications. Miss Eiffert’s research has uncovered the old stand-by.

Sept. 20, 1942: Julia Spiegelman retold the entire Adam Thompson tale as fact in an article, “Bathtub’s United States Centennial” in the Baltimore Sun, Mencken’s own newspaper.

April 28, 1951: In this day’s issue of The New Yorker John Hersey revealed, in a profile on Harry S. Truman, that “the president seemed reluctant to let go of his belief” in the fact that Millard Fillmore introduced the first bathtub into the White House in 1850. President Truman was known to include the spurious facts in the “lecture” he gave visitors to the renovated executive mansion.

Sept. 16, 1952: In a speech in Philadelphia, President Truman told the story to illustrate what great progress has occurred in public health.

I noted the Tucson Daily Star mention — I spent a year in Tucson at the University of Arizona, and on a couple of projects spent hours poring through old copies of the Star and it’s competitor, The Tucson Daily Citizen, but never getting close to any story on Fillmore, bathtubs, or Mencken.  Interesting.

And did you see?  There’s a reference to Zinsser’s great book, Rats, Lice and History.   One of my favorite books of all time. Other suggested it should be included in the small, essential library of any historian or teacher of history, when I was working on assembling a list of necessary books (a project I really should get back to one day).

Zinsser was the guy who isolated the pathogen that causes typhus, and developed a vaccine against the disease.  More importantly, he was a bit of a rake and an excellent, and funny, writer.  The book is a breezy read,  packed with enlightening discussions of history, wars, economic booms and busts, sieges of great cities, and how disease stalks the pages of history much more than merely during the outbreaks of the plague in the middle of the second millennium.

I read the book the year I graduated from high school, though now I don’t remember whether it was during the school year or after.  It was recommended to me by a college English professor, Kirk Rasmussen (the Utah guy), whose wife was my last high school debate coach.  Kirk laughed all the way through the book.  I borrowed his paperback copy and finished it off in a week or two.

You can learn a lot about ecology studying how a disease is spread.  A disease like typhus, which involves insect, louse, rodent and human carriers, exposes the links that, however improbable or preposterous, are necessary to keep a pathogen going.  Zinsser gives a great rundown of the history of rats, the history of fleas, the history of lice (which are not insects, if you wish to be carefully accurate, which you do, of course).

So his book is useful in literature classes.  It’s a good source of history.  Plus, it’s a good meta source for biologists and medical researchers.

In fact I have a copy here on this desk — I was trying to find a short excerpt that I could use in my world history classes, something to intrigue students and give them fodder for an exercise or project.

So, I looked at that listing, and thought I should check it out:

1935: Dr. Hans Zinsser, professor in the Medical School of Harvard University, says on page 285 of his best-selling Rats, Lice and History: “The first bathtub didn’t reach America, we believe, until about 1840.”

You can see this one coming, can’t you?

Rats, Lice and History has only 228 pages, in all three editions I have here at the house.

So of course I checked pages 185, 85, and 28.  Nothing.

Then I looked at the table of contents (there is no index), to see in what chapter such a comment might find a home.  Zinsser wrote in the U.S., was born in the U.S., so it wouldn’t be wholly out of his character to note some little item of public health at the White House.  But I’ll be doggoned if I can figure out where such a comment would fit in the book.

Is this just a miscitation by Museum of Hoaxes?  Or is it a new hoax altogether?  Is it a hoax the Museum of Hoaxes has fallen victim to, or is it of their invention?

Now I wonder about all the other mentions there.  Are they accurate?  Are they whole cloth fiction, voodoo history?  Did the Tucson Daily Star even exist in 1931?

We never solve one mystery that we don’t open up a dozen more.

Readers, can you shed light?

I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation.