Science Fiction, Fantasy & Human (& other) Beings in Peril

[Silent_Water]

I am sorry but I try to come down again not more laughing - but it is really difficult because I just remembered some other sentences from my friends in those times at the university and there were German sentences which were so incredibly absurd that they need to be repeated.
There were discussions between students interested in science fiction and futurology about cryogenic procedures in order to freeze people for long-time space travels to other star systems and only few thought this might be possible one day if we really understood how bears are making their long-time-sleeps in winter times. Others said that this is impossible for human beings because the cell structures will always be damaged in low temperatures. The cryogenic institutes which were freezing dead persons in order to revive them one day were not regarded by all of us as being serious and one student said in German:
"Why should someone in 100 or more years try to revive someone who died in this crazy 20th century? (... and then this sentence: )

Ich denke, diese armen Versuchspersonen werden sich in der Zukunft noch sehr überrascht umgucken, wenn sie bemerken, dass sie tot geblieben sind!

(=> "I think, these poor test object persons will in the future still be looking around very surprised, when they realize, that they stayed dead!")

This is one of the greatest sentences I have ever heard in German about the scientific future and also worth to be preserved for mankind in eternity!

 

[Silent_Water]

... and there is a brandnew newspaper article in Germany about the Russian "Aventa-M" ventilators.

(By the way: US-"ventilators" seem to be "Beatmungsgeräte" in German, whereas a "Ventilator" in German is not an "artificial respiration device" but a "fan" in the USA and a "fan" in German is a "fanatic star supporter" and ... but the next example is worth another story ... ).

Coronavirus: Putins Beatmungsgeräte fangen Feuer

In Sankt Petersburg und Moskau haben russische Beatmungsgeräte Feuer gefangen, sechs Covid-19-Patienten starben. Das gleiche Modell ließ Präsident Xyulo - wanted by criminal international court in The Hague im April in die USA schicken - als Geste der Solidarität.

www.spiegel.de

Two of these Russian ventilators - one in St. Petersburg, one in Moscow - most probably had short circuits which set the pure oxygen in the devices on fire during the last week, causing the death of 5 patients on hospital stations of intensive care in St. Petersburg and 1 death in Moscow. After that, these new (!) devices are no more allowed to be used in Russia, but malicious as Germans can be, this article and the German reader's comments are partly sometimes reaching new heights in absurd humour and this terrible German "Schadenfreude", which I certainly despise as much as I can - but sometimes it is really difficult to ...

First of all, this article mentions that Russia delivered 15 of this ventilators as Russian propaganda help to the USA on the 1st of April (!!!), obviously not taking into account the different electrical systems of the strength of the current: 220 volts versus 110 volts. Then the author asks the rhetoric question if the 6 deadly burned Russian patients will still appear in the very, very low Russian statistics of Covid-19-deaths and if the Western sanctions will be made responsible by Russia because these machines were produced by a former military combinat which is sanctioned by the West because of other military devices still being produced there for the Russian army.

Comments of some German readers: - "No, these death cases will certainly not appear in the Russian statistics because they died of a very normal 'inflammation of the lungs by a third degree burn'!"
- "Why not using Russian 220 volt machines in the USA? Then the Russian ventilators are simply running two times faster and the US-patients will recover twice as fast, if they only survive the Russian short circuits!"
- "There is a Russian saying: 'We really tried our best ... but then, it went as usual!"
- "Another sad Russian saying: 'The West wants to see us on our knees but we will shock and surprise them by remaining lying on the floor'!"
- "Were two of these ventilators possibly personal presents by Xyulo - wanted by criminal international court in The Hague for President Trump and VP Pence? Then Xyulo - wanted by criminal international court in The Hague would be even more evil than I thought or he changed his mind about his favourite politicians in the USA. Nancy Pelosi, please don't give up your fight! Maybe, you are only two Russian ventilators away from the White House!"

These Germans can really still be so terribly cruel, even today!

 

[Hugin&Munin]

And you think we as Germans are sometimes a little nevish? "LOL"

 

[Dorothy Brown]

And you think we as Germans are sometimes a little nevish? "LOL"

Give Me To Master Costello Anytime, He Knows What Women Like

 

[Silent_Water]

Hm, maybe, I do not speak English as good as necessary but what does "nevish" exactly mean or is there missing a letter in this word?


Anyway, I just remarked that there is this evening a war movie or a "adventure drama" on German TV (Tele 5) and I once saw the documentary about the real history behind this movie "Rescue Dawn" which is not less incredible, about "a man who was not able to die in a war".
It is and was the story of "Dieter Dengler" who was one German boy who wanted to fly so much since WW II that he emigrated to the USA, became pilot in the US-Air Force, was shot down over Vietnam and one of the few who ever survived fleeing through the deepest Asian jungle.
And I think, the whole documentary "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" by the famous German director "Werner Herzog" can still be seen here in English:

This is one of the most impressive life stories I have ever heard and moreover, there is also this kind of mysticism I sometimes like to hear and see, because Dieter Dengler told in the German version which I had seen some years ago, that he was not sure if he was hallucinating so much or his dead father was really there as a ghost at the river where he was finally rescued. He had the impression that his father showed him where to put his SOS-sign and the US-pilot who saw him first from an almost impossible angle, says that this was the only and perfect point where he could have seen him because the river made there a bend and the pilot in his low-flying jet flew a curve through this bend and for less than a second, he looked exactly at this "SOS"-sign.
An incredible story with a real "WOW"-effect!

 

[Hugin&Munin]

Hm, maybe, I do not speak English as good as necessary but what does "nevish" exactly mean or is there missing a letter in this word?

I think I typed faster than I could translate.
And you think we as Germans are sometimes a little annoying? "LOL"

 

[Silent_Water]

By the way "annoying", my personal news about this very "annoying" coronavirus:

If you are planning to make an unusal holiday trip to Germany in the coming months, it will be really difficult to know what is permitted and what is prohibited at which place.

Usually the most German people are content and acting very responsible up to now. There are no very big differences in legislation about the coronavirus between the German federal states up to now and the newspapers are informing about the differences like here, although they complain a bit that even the chancellor does not know any more, if, where and when you will be able to go again to a cinema, theatre or swimming-pool:

Coronavirus: Neue Regeln im Überblick

Fast täglich beschließen ein oder mehrere Bundesländer, bestimmte Einschränkungen wegen des Covid-19-Virus zu lockern. Ein Überblick.

www.sueddeutsche.de

But as everywhere in the world, there are still crazy persons who believe that all this talking about a pandemia is a trial by "dark powers" to erect a new dictatorship by some even darker forces and the conspiracy theories are ranging from "Merkel is a member of the Illuminati" up to aliens, alien reptiles etc. There are lo limits for "Fantasy".
Usually, these persons will have some problems with the German police.

I had my first "coronavirus-situation'-haircut yesterday and it was somehow really funny, because I was the only customer in this small German studio with the owner herself, only one female hairdresser from Odessa (Ukraine), who was extremely careful and even read just before the haircut once again the latest German legislation for hairdressers just in order to make everything as according to German laws as possible.
We both had our protection masks on, I had to leave my address and phone number, and she was so friendly to apologize every time when she took my mask on one side down to cut the hairs around the ears. It was again this feeling for me like on another planet, but we were both aliens in this situation.
I hope there will be comedies next year about our times and how our lives have changed this year.

The number of infections is now so low in Germany that the most federal states are opening carefully again, but protection masks are a duty in all shops, buses, trains, planes etc.
There are also now fines, if persons do not wear protection masks there, ranging from 10 Euros up to 50 Euros, depending on the federal state, regions and even cities.
Unfortunately, there are already in some regions the infection numbers slightly rising and up to five local regions will probably soon go back to more restrictions. When there are in one region in one week more than 50 new infections per 100.000 inhabitants, the restrictions will be imposed again. In two "Landkreisen" (= smaller administrative districts around relatively bigger cities) in Thüringen, the government has already demanded partly new restrictions.

 

[montycrusto]

Keep pantyhose on. You’re gonna love this..

 

[cynthia the inocent]

But it lacks the aesthetics of crucifixion.

is it quick. I often wonder how long the brain lives after being chopped off. I do understand the fascination with the guillotine though.

 

[Silent_Water]

I think we will always be surprised about every brain activity and we can already now say: "It depends on various situations, 'miracles' and if a deadly situation can be reversed (=> very, very difficult with a separated head!)."
The official "record" for missing signs of life but nevertheless recovering is this one as far as I know:

Velma Thomas, 59, of West Virginia, USA holds the record time for recovering from clinical death. In May 2008, Thomas went into cardiac arrest at her home. Medics were able to establish a faint pulse after eight minutes of CPR. Her heart stopped twice after arriving at the hospital and she was placed on life support. Doctors attempted to lower her body temperature to prevent additional brain injury. She was declared clinically dead for 17 hours after doctors failed to detect brain activity. Her son, Tim Thomas, stated that "her skin had already started hardening, her hands and toes were curling up, they were already drawn". She was taken off life support and funeral arrangements were in progress. However, ten minutes after being taken off life support, she revived and recovered.

Clinical death - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Really cold temperatures are also useful if you want to have bigger chances to survive injuries or a clinical death and there are reports of much more survivors with severe injuries after historic battles in the winter times than after battles in the summer, so it was "nice" that the Swedes were the first Europeans to start warfare during winter times in the "Thirty Years' War" which was regarded by most of their enemies as "inhuman behaviour" in those times. But the Scandinavians are also having many incredible stories of surviving accidents in winter times like this one:

Anna Bågenholm - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Dorothy Brown]

Sorry to be a pest again but please one more question.
the French guillotine blade relied on the length of drop
to be going fast enough to decapitate the victim, but
the german`s used an indoor guillotine with a much
shorter drop, was the blade spring loaded with enough
power to behead if not how did it work.
Please answer this then i will be a good girl and go away
Thank You

 

[Silent_Water]

Don't worry! I like girls with unusual questions. If you know enough about anatomy as a good executioner should do, you will know where you can avoid hitting bones and when you are sure, that you can cut only through flesh, it is incredibly easy to separate limbs or also heads.
I have once seen on TV a ritual sacrifice of a big bull in Tibet, which was tied by the horns. The priest used a very sharp sword and he did not even take the sword really over his head - it was not even in a right angle of 90 degrees. He knew exactly where the bones were, avoided them and the head of the bull suddenly swung in the ropes which tied the bull before. It went so fast that the Europeans who saw that could not believe it because the bull's head looked so big.
Moreover, when a sword or blade is really sharp, you can do incredible and terrible things with it. In the Middle Ages, there was a battle at the island of Gotland which was annected by Denmark after the battle.

Battle of Visby - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The inhabitants of the island usually had only metal protection for their bodies and forgot to care for their legs.
There were skeletons found by archaelogists in the mass graves during the last 20 years with cut lower legs - both of them! The professional Danish soldiers had long swords and mowed the Gotlandians down like farmers were using sickles. It must have been really terrible on battlefields in the Middle Ages.

 

[Silent_Water]

But to make some more funny remarks again: I remember again discussions in Germany with funny comparisons about life and death, justice and injustice etc.
For example, there are almost every year again German discussions about German history and the different German states etc.
I think even one of the chancellors in the 1970's, Helmut Schmidt, said both German states after 1949 must be regarded as a historical success, compared to the dictatorship of Hitler before, but certainly the communist-socialist DDR (= GDR) was not a "Rechtsstaat" (a state of justice).
Politicians from the former GDR (for example: Gregor Gysi) later said: "OK, it was not a "Rechtsstaat", but that does not mean that it was an "Unrechtsstaat" (a state of injustice)!"
The German newspaper FAZ ("Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung") then wrote: "This is an opinion of this kind: To be no more alive does not necessarily mean that you are really dead!"

A German comedian then took these quotations and the successful case of medical revivals like that of Anna Bagenholm from Sweden (in the posting above) and said:

"Maybe both opinions are correct, because even if you don't show any signs of life, you may not necessarily be really dead. By the way, I am not so sure, if I would now really like to have a doctor from Norway or Sweden after such cases became famous. Imagine that you lay so long under icy water, you have your personal NDE already behind you and you are now happily meeting your dead grandparents and your other ancestors for the great post-life-reunion-party with your dead family. And then comes such a young ambitious emergeny doctor from Norway or Sweden to your body and says: 'OK, this man was 18 hours under cold water, no respiration, no heartbeat, no brain activity - but hey, I am here to annoy death and maybe, we break the current revival record of clinically dead persons and get into the Guinness Book of Records! Let's start our Scandinavian revival procedures!'
Would you really like to have such a doctor during the reunion party with your dead ancestors? This could really be a party fright person!"

 

[Silent_Water]

And some really nice "science fiction ideas" in order to keep 1,50 meters distance between the guests in restaurants:
Panda teddy bears in Thailand ...


... and strawhats combined with swimming pool noodles in Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Western-Pomerania, Germany:


It is really difficult to stay always 1,5 m away from other persons ...

 

[Naraku]

Sorry to be a pest again but please one more question.
the French guillotine blade relied on the length of drop
to be going fast enough to decapitate the victim, but
the german`s used an indoor guillotine with a much
shorter drop, was the blade spring loaded with enough
power to behead if not how did it work.
Please answer this then i will be a good girl and go away
Thank You

The guillotine cuts cleanly through the neck due to the shape of the blade. The original design had a crescent blade, but someone suggested that an angled blade would slice more cleanly. The idea may have come from Tobias Schmidt, who built the first one (and was a German, Silent Water). Charles-Henri Sanson, the official State Executioner before, during and after the Reign of Terror, claimed in his memoirs that King Louis XVI, an amateur locksmith and watch maker, came up with the idea.

The German guillotine uses a heavier blade to make up for the shorter drop, but it is still the oblique edge that makes for a clean cut.

 

[Silent_Water]

I just found one of the best popular-scientific articles I have ever read up to now about the coronavirus in "Nature" and its possible historical development - and it really has some few similarities with the virus from the science-fiction-movie below, I think.

Profile of a killer: the complex biology powering the coronavirus pandemic

Scientists are piecing together how SARS-CoV-2 operates, where it came from and what it might do next — but pressing questions remain about the source of COVID-19.

www.nature.com

The Andromeda Strain (film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Hugin&Munin]

By the way "annoying", my personal news about this very "annoying" coronavirus:

If you are planning to make an unusal holiday trip to Germany in the coming months, it will be really difficult to know what is permitted and what is prohibited at which place.

Usually the most German people are content and acting very responsible up to now. There are no very big differences in legislation about the coronavirus between the German federal states up to now and the newspapers are informing about the differences like here, although they complain a bit that even the chancellor does not know any more, if, where and when you will be able to go again to a cinema, theatre or swimming-pool:

Coronavirus: Neue Regeln im Überblick

Fast täglich beschließen ein oder mehrere Bundesländer, bestimmte Einschränkungen wegen des Covid-19-Virus zu lockern. Ein Überblick.

www.sueddeutsche.de

But as everywhere in the world, there are still crazy persons who believe that all this talking about a pandemia is a trial by "dark powers" to erect a new dictatorship by some even darker forces and the conspiracy theories are ranging from "Merkel is a member of the Illuminati" up to aliens, alien reptiles etc. There are lo limits for "Fantasy".
Usually, these persons will have some problems with the German police.

I had my first "coronavirus-situation'-haircut yesterday and it was somehow really funny, because I was the only customer in this small German studio with the owner herself, only one female hairdresser from Odessa (Ukraine), who was extremely careful and even read just before the haircut once again the latest German legislation for hairdressers just in order to make everything as according to German laws as possible.
We both had our protection masks on, I had to leave my address and phone number, and she was so friendly to apologize every time when she took my mask on one side down to cut the hairs around the ears. It was again this feeling for me like on another planet, but we were both aliens in this situation.
I hope there will be comedies next year about our times and how our lives have changed this year.

The number of infections is now so low in Germany that the most federal states are opening carefully again, but protection masks are a duty in all shops, buses, trains, planes etc.
There are also now fines, if persons do not wear protection masks there, ranging from 10 Euros up to 50 Euros, depending on the federal state, regions and even cities.
Unfortunately, there are already in some regions the infection numbers slightly rising and up to five local regions will probably soon go back to more restrictions. When there are in one region in one week more than 50 new infections per 100.000 inhabitants, the restrictions will be imposed again. In two "Landkreisen" (= smaller administrative districts around relatively bigger cities) in Thüringen, the government has already demanded partly new restrictions.

That could be a problem. Each federal state in Germany has issued its own regulations and even some cities have imposed additional restrictions. I could not even tell you if I would go to a neighboring country (Saxony, Bavaria) what regulations apply there.

 

[Loxuru]

That could be a problem. Each federal state in Germany has issued its own regulations and even some cities have imposed additional restrictions. I could not even tell you if I would go to a neighboring country (Saxony, Bavaria) what regulations apply there.

So, Europe must have been like during feudal times, when traveling accross the country, from one duchy to another county. A patchwork of local laws and regulations. Even the sanctions differed, and for the same infringement you got a fine in one, while a whipping in the other one. You had to be very careful of what you did!

There is a market place in Belgium where the border between two fiefs ran straight across the market place. On one side, you had to pay more tax on beer, and the measures of a pint were smaller. So, all the taverns were located on the side of the market place with the lower tax and the larger pints. More than 200 years after the abolishment of the fiefs, and taxes and measures got unified, the modern taverns still are exclusively located on that same side! Are the tavern keepers afraid, the old rules may come back one day?

Trouble with the corona crisis is, that public health is one of the last issues, the European Union has no jurisdiction about. And what do we see : one tiny virus has plunged us back to the Dark Ages in only two weeks!

 

[Silent_Water]

But on the other hand, "... always look on the bright side of life!" Mankind has made so much progress. You are no more whipped when you are not really up to date to the new regulations and when you find a friendly German policeman who believes you that you are a foreigner who cannot know the latest law, he will tell you this and you may only have to turn around your car. Isn't that nice and friendly, compared to the Middle Ages?

On the next other hand (am I now already taking my third hand? I really seem to be an alien here), the maps of the center of Europe were never again so colorful as during the times of the Thirty Year's War and being a child, I angered one of my older sisters by coloring even more states into her history book, which had only pale colors before. These times must have been really beautiful for European map makers and color pencil producers:


And finally, you are having a wonderful time right now, when you can use your imagination to convince people of useful measures.
(I think, in the Star Trek serial of "Deep Space Nine", the character of "Garak" once said: "What human beings think of truth in history is only a lack of imagination and fantasy!" There are so many politicians right now in the whole world who must have seen this episode ... )

But anyway, there was such a funny civil servant at one German train, who yesterday used his imagination to convince the passengers on board to use protection masks and he told the passengers via loudspeaker:
"Dear passengers and dear believers in conspiracy theories! Please remember that our government is using the collected DNA from your speaking, saliva etc. from your mouth in order to make clones of you who then can take your place at work or at home while you are disappearing! So, please make this impossible by wearing your protection masks! Thank you very much for your understanding!"

In my opinion, this man from the "Deutsche Bundesbahn" is almost a genius by inventing a new conspiracy theory in order to protect the passengers from other conspiracy theories.
Really GREAT!

His story and the text via loudspeaker here:

„Denken Sie bitte daran, dass die Bundesregierung heimlich Speichelproben sammelt!“

Auf einer Zugfahrt nimmt eine Bundestagsabgeordnete die Durchsage eines Schaffners auf, die sich an Maskenverweigerer richtet. Die Mitreisenden sind amüsiert.

www.tagesspiegel.de

 

[Loxuru]

Dear passengers and dear believers in conspiracy theories! Please remember that our government is using the collected DNA from your speaking, saliva etc. from your mouth in order to make clones of you who then can take your place at work or at home while you are disappearing! So, please make this impossible by wearing your protection masks! Thank you very much for your understanding!"

The tought of making a clone of me? Some bad idea! Don't they have already enough trouble with the Original?