Take Pictures With Radiation
I needed a respite from the RSS Feeds today which all seemed to point -- in varying ways -- towards the simple and terrifying fact that the US Government is bent on building a police state. I went to my favorite teriyaki place (Nasai Teriyaki) on the Ave (University Avenue just outside the University of Washington campus) with a book. The book: The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases. It isn't a pocket book, but rather an exceptionally delightful anthology dreamed up by Jeff Vandermeer and Mark Roberts. On his blog, Jeff points towards an article where he discusses the genesis of the book and the infectious manner in which it assaulted all those involved.
Over lunch, I read Dr. Jeffrey Thomas' entry on the strange phenomenon of "Internalized Tattooing Disease." The cause, which may explain the greater malaise which holds me today, stems from "a profound desire in the subconscious of the patient to express something through artistic means, with said impulse sublimated by the conscious mind." [p. 97] Would such markings show up on an X-ray? I wonder what I've been drawing on the inner lining of my lungs over the last few days.