tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13734864.post115177988914352917..comments2024-01-04T08:02:29.500-05:00Comments on Attempts: Aliens Invade India!Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16524368948187746248noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13734864.post-1156812140420908222006-08-28T20:42:00.000-04:002006-08-28T20:42:00.000-04:00A rather more plausible explanation for the red ra...A rather more plausible explanation for the red rain than alien spores is incomplete incineration of chemical waste in the Eloor industrial zone.<BR/><BR/>The pattern of fallout matches with the prevailing winds. The reported chemical composition is consistent with a mixture of partly burnt organics plus fly-ash or clay. The morphpology is explained if microparticles of clay coalesced around an aerosol of organics as the incinerator plume cooled. And the 'reproduction' is s simple process of cellular replication that occurs with organics in the prescence of clay; see, for example, the work of Jack Szostak.<BR/><BR/>Given the scale of the pollution, 50 tons or so, one could be forgiven for wondering that Hanz Blix had been sent to the wrong country.<BR/><BR/>One could also be forgiven for wondering what will come of the conference in Cardiff next month where Godfrey Louis, Chandra Wickramasinghe and Milton Wainwright are speakers. In 2003 in a letter to the Lancet it was suggested that SARS was caused by spores from space.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13734864.post-1151808199070424102006-07-01T22:43:00.000-04:002006-07-01T22:43:00.000-04:00Hey, Leila, thank for stopping by!(For any other r...Hey, Leila, thank for stopping by!<BR/><BR/>(For any other readers, Leila's own blog, <A HREF="http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye/" REL="nofollow">Dove's Eye View</A> (which I just discovered the other day), is worth a visit, and will be added to the blogroll when I next update it.)<BR/><BR/>I do indeed know <A HREF="http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artBio.php?artist=a3dff7dd55575b" REL="nofollow">Joe Sacco</A>'s <A HREF="http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/sacco/sacco.html" REL="nofollow">Palestine</A>, and would recommend it highly. For those who don't know, Joe Sacco is a reporter who works in the comics medium -- a very fine cartoonist and reporter both. <I>Palestine</I> was his first major work, and while it shows the situation as of some time ago -- fifteen or so years, if memory serves -- it is well worth reading. (Sacco's <I>Safe Area Gorazde</I> is also very good.) If I'd had a general nonfiction section in my <A HREF="http://stephenfrug.blogspot.com/2006/05/where-to-start-with-graphic-novels.html" REL="nofollow">intro to graphic novels</A> post -- which perhaps I should have -- Sacco would definitely have gotten a plug.<BR/><BR/>So, Noble Readers, check out Sacco's work -- and Leila's, too.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16524368948187746248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13734864.post-1151780614252312662006-07-01T15:03:00.000-04:002006-07-01T15:03:00.000-04:00Hey Steven, love the blog. Thanks for stopping by ...Hey Steven, love the blog. Thanks for stopping by Dove's Eye View. I'll be checking "Attempts" regularly - I am particularly struck by the essay on "for want of a nail..."<BR/><BR/>BTW have you ever read Joe Sacco's "Palestine" comic?Leila Abu-Sabahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14161833022292457787noreply@blogger.com