Blogger can't let me upload pics today!!!! ARGH I had a few pics to show you people... so sian... lazy to use photobucket... so means I'll only upload them tomorrow!!!!

Oh btw.. I got a bit sick of the intro at the side panel... so I changed it! Wahaha.. I grew sick of that intro.. I'd been using that since, like, J2? That was 2 years ago. I used it for friendster, and now for this blog. Gonna transport this intro to my friendster soon. When I'm free. Heehee.

K today no pictures.. but I learned some interesting new stuff today! I was reading up on malaria.. for my exams of cos. Then I came across this page in my textbook of microbiology...

Do you know... the first recorded biological warfare attack took place in 1346 A.D.???
It resulted in the Black Death, that killed 1/3 of Europe's population. How did the Black Death, which originated somewhere around Mongolia, reach Europe?

It is believed that during that time the Mongol army was a strong and fierce army, bent on conquering many countries. They were fighting a war at Crimea (somewhere near the Ukraine of today) when the plaque broke in the army. Disposal of the victims' bodies became a problem, because so many of them were dying and the army was always on the move. Someone came up with an idea. This idea, cost the lives of 1/3 of Europe's population at that time. What was his idea?

He decided to let the Mongol army hurl the plague-infected bodies into the besieged Crimean city they were attacking at that time. In the terrible conditions of war, many of the city's inhabitants got the disease. As these carriers fled from the Mongol army to Europe, they brought the disease with them.

It was a terrible disease. Victims were killed in a matter of 2 or 3 days.

"How many valiant men, how many fair ladies, breakfast with their kinfolk and the same night supped with their ancestors in the next world! The condition of the people was pitiable to behold. They sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without help. Many died in the open street, others dying in their houses, made it known by the stench of their rotting bodies. Consecrated churchyards did not suffice for the burial of the vast multitude of bodies, which were heaped by the hundreds in vast trenches, like goods in a ships hold and covered with a little earth."

-Giovanni Boccaccio

Ok I know.. no more textbook stuff. I'm boring you people to death. No more no more! NO MORE! OK? No la.. juz letting you people know.. how scary it could get in the event of a flu pandemic. And guess what?! If calculated by the cycles in which flu pandemics occur, WE ARE LONG OVERDUE. Which means, the bird flu, if it manages to mutate to achieve human-to-human transmission, is gonna be a real horrifying thing. If you dunno what I mean, go google "Black Death" or "Spanish Flu", the 2 most terrifying flu pandemics on record.

Ok time to go back to malaria. TATAz!