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Here’s an interesting theory: could SARS have come to us from outer space?

Chandra Wickramasinghe, a professor at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology at Cardiff University in Wales, and his colleagues suggest in a letter to the scientific journal The Lancet that the SARS virus may have arrived with the 2,200 pounds of bacterial material that falls to the planet every day. That’s 20,000 bacteria per square meter of the Earth’s surface.

Some of this material is “highly evolved, with an evolutionary history closely related to life that exists on Earth,” Wickramasinghe wrote in the letter.

This, he wrote, “raises the possibility that pathogenic bacteria and viruses might also be introduced.”

So, here’s a fun little idea my sci-fi fed, conspiracy-theory enjoying little brain cooked up…

There were reports a few years back that cosmonauts aboard the Russian Mir space station had found a “mutant space bug” that was damaging the space station:

Engineers later learned that the fungi also damaged electronic equipment on Mir, including a control block for a communications device used on the outpost from 1997 to 1998 during the 24th main mission to Mir.

The microorganisms crept under the steel cover of the block and sat on electrical contacts and polyurethane pieces. As a result, parts of copper cables located nearby also were oxidized.

Subsistence for the microorganisms was certainly not the metal, glass and plastic of those devices, said Natalia Novikova, a deputy chief of the Department at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow.

“They consume organic stuff which consists of skin epithelia, lipids and other products of human activity,” Novikova said. “These products get into the station atmosphere from human breath, sweat etc.—and stick to the station?s surfaces.”

“Bacteria and fungi eat this stuff and generate products of metabolism, particularly organic acids which can corrode steel, glass and plastic.”

Not long after those reports came out, Mir came tumbling out of the sky, with over 27 tons of debris falling into the Pacific Ocean.

So…what if this mutant space bug that consumes organic matter was carried along on some of the debris on its way down to earth, was released into the ocean, and between prevailing currents and being ingested by or infecting fish, eventually made its way to China? One of the theories as to the source of the virus is that it came from the civet cat, “a fishing cat eaten by some Chinese people.”

So…

Space virus —> Mir —> ocean —> fish —> civet cat —> people —> SARS

Possible?

Looks like I’m aiming for Level 7 of Hell, according to the Dante’s Inferno Test!

Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood, is the Seventh Level of Hell. The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering. This level is also home to the wood of the suicides- stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit. At the time of final judgement, their bodies will hang from their branches. In those branches the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with human faces, make their nests. Beaond the wood is scorching sand where those who committed violence against God and nature are showered with flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies. Blasphemers and sodomites writhe in pain, their tongues more loosed to lamentation, and out of their eyes gushes forth their woe. Usurers, who followed neither nature nor art, also share company in the Seventh Level.

Bummer…I was kind of aiming for Level 2 (for the Lustful)! ;)

The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 – The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 – Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante’s Inferno Test

(via D and Jim)

Prepare to get lost for hours in all sorts of linky goodness! Start with Kjell Sandved’s butterfly alphabet, then spend some time in his of natural images, including all sorts of funny faces, and even penguins!

: http://www.butterflyalphabet.com/NatureImage/index.htm “Butterfly Alphabet Gallery”
From there, it’s well worth spending some time at iconomy’s weblog, filled with all sorts of interesting linky bits, from a gorgeous vintage mermaid gallery to the critters that live on our face, tiny chocolate handbags, and — one that I think Kirsten might really like — Jimmy McGrath’s photo portfolio, where mousing over the images switches between the photos and artistic renderings of the photos.

Have fun!

(via MeFi)

The World History of Male Love is a fascinating look at male homosexuality through the ages and all over the world, looking at artwork, literature, regional history, and much more. Fascinating stuff.

(via MeFi)