“Chicago's Plague of Carcosa make dense, cosmic-horror doom - Chicago Reader” plus 4 more

Chicago's Plague of Carcosa make dense, cosmic-horror doom - Chicago Reader
Can a pandemic turn the tide of war? - We Are The Mighty
Plague Inc. Sales Rise After Coronavirus Outbreak, But The Creator Has A Warning - GameSpot
The weird World of Warcraft pandemic of 2005 - ZME Science
Coronavirus Tag? The Pandemic Has Become Part Of Kids' Playtime - HuffPost

Chicago's Plague of Carcosa make dense, cosmic-horror doom - Chicago Reader

Posted: 06 Mar 2020 12:00 AM PST

Carcosa is a mysterious fictional city first named by author Ambrose Bierce in 1886 and later alluded to in Robert W. Chambers's influential and evocative King in Yellow stories. As the ancient and possibly cursed capital of an alien place that's impossible to pinpoint on earthly maps, it's been incorporated into the works of H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, and other writers of weird fiction—the name even appeared in season one of True Detective. This cosmic-horror tradition is a rich vein to mine, and Chicago band Plague of Carcosa cling to it loyally. Currently an instrumental duo of drummer Alexander Adams and guitarist and bassist Eric Zann (a pseudonym from a Lovecraft story), the band debuted in 2016 with The Color Out of Space, two long tracks of harrowingly dense drone-doom plus (because why not?) a gnarly "bonus track" that disembowels "The Rains of Castamere" from Game of Thrones. They followed it up later that year with Ritual I, consisting of one live-recorded track nearly an hour long, and then with two singles, 2017's "Hastur" and 2018's "Rats in the Walls." Plague of Carcosa's latest release, Ocean Is More Ancient Than the Mountains (Sludgelord), is divided into two long cuts, "The Crawling Chaos" and "Madness at Sea," that recall the overboiling heaviness of Sunn O))), Khanate, and Chicago's Bongripper (whose guitarist Dennis Pleckham mastered the two latest Plague outings). It has to be acknowledged that Lovecraft's racism was a horror in its own right, but thankfully Plague of Carcosa don't share his views on that front. In October the band were added to an up-and-coming website of "Hatred-Free Music Lists" called FashFree—and they posted to Facebook that they're pleased to be included. v

Can a pandemic turn the tide of war? - We Are The Mighty

Posted: 12 Mar 2020 12:47 PM PDT

As the Coronavirus continues to dominate media coverage and outbreaks keep all of us on edge, I'm reminded of the effects pandemics have had on history --specifically how they shaped history.

For some, this epidemic probably brings to mind the 2009 H1N1 outbreak. Others who read books such as the Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John Barry are reminded of an even more devastating contagion from the last century.

But we can go back even further to learn how pandemics have shaped society and the outcomes of conflict.

So, let's go back over 2400 years ago….

Pericles had the perfect plan! The Athenians moved behind the walls of the city, letting the Spartans attack across land. They would wait them out in a Fabian Strategy. Food would not be an issue because Athens could rely on its maritime imports to keep them fed. Money wasn't a problem, because they had plenty in the bank. Meanwhile, their fleet projected combat power into Spartan territory, raiding coastal cities and shaming the Spartans. Not only would Pericles avoid fighting the Spartans on their terms, he would also sew doubt of Spartan superiority among the Peloponnesian League by attacking the "home front." As Athens and Sparta finished the campaigning season in the first year of the war, Athens believed their strategy was working as evidenced by Pericles' Funeral Oration.

As the second year of the war began, disease struck in Athens. The plague caught everyone by surprise, and as Thucydides points out, "there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head…" The plague swept through Athens killing men, women, and children, and with it came devastating effects on society. Thucydides wrote that lawlessness broke out as men watched others die and private property came up for grabs. The unforeseen disease affected Athenian will; they questioned the value of Pericles' strategy and the war itself, ultimately sending envoys to Sparta to seek peace.

The Athenian experience with the plague should remind us of the power of the unseen. Disease can reshape society. It can influence the outcome of war. And although we have not experienced the devastating effects of contagion on a mass scale in modern times, we may only be standing in the proverbial eye of the storm.

One can argue that microscopic parasites could be placed on equal footing with geography, war, and migration in shaping the world that we know today. In Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill, the author traces the history of mankind, pointing out how disease proved a major factor in the trajectory of our species. First, he points out that disease served to break down communities of people, enabling them to be absorbed by larger groups. He writes that,

"Such human material could then be incorporated into the tissues of the enlarged civilization itself, either as individuals or families and small village groupings… The way in which digestion regularly breaks down the larger chemical structures of our food in order to permit molecules and atoms to enter into our own bodily structures seems closely parallel to this historical process."

He observes that the plague led to changes in European society in the 14 and 15 centuries. In England, the Black Death of 1348-1350 led to changes in the social fabric of society, increasing wages and quality of life for serfs. McNeil even suggests that diseases in Europe created enough social upheaval that it successfully set the conditions for Martin Luther's Reformation.

He further argues that disease set the conditions for European expansion into the New World. For example, Hernando Cortez, who had less than 600 soldiers, was able to conquer an Aztec empire of millions in the early 1500s with the help of contagion. Within fifty years of his landing, the population of central Mexico shrank to a tenth of its size. This catastrophic drop in population levels had significant impacts on religion, defense, and their society in general, paving the way for European growth in the region.

McNeill is not alone in his argument. In Bacteria and Bayonets: The Impact of Disease in the American Military History, David R. Petriello argues that contagion played a major factor in the successful colonization of North America and the American experience with war. Smallpox and other illnesses depopulated the regions surrounding the colonies, giving the settlers the space to grow.

upload.wikimedia.org

Most Americans have heard the story of how an Indian named Squanto helped save the Plymouth settlers by teaching them planting techniques and guiding them through the peace process with surrounding tribes. However, it was disease more so than goodwill that saved the Pilgrims. The author writes, "When Squanto wandered into the Pilgrim's' world he did so as an exile. Had it not been for the epidemic visited his tribe…Squanto himself would not have been seeking out kindred human company."

While the U.S. military responds to the threat of the Coronavirus, this isn't the first time it's battled contagions. Long ago, before we stood in lines to get way too many shots before deployments, commanders dealt with smallpox, influenza, dysentery, and venereal disease, as it affected 30% of armies up through World War I. These outbreaks, more than likely, had an impact on the outcome of key campaigns.

In the Revolutionary and Civil War, disease took important leaders out of important battles the eve of engagements. And it caused commanders to hold off on taking advantage of fleeting opportunities in both conflicts, as they had to wait for replacements to arrive. It has only been in recent history, that we have brought disease's impact on war under control.

Vaccinations didn't become common practice until World War II. As Petriello observes, "Whereas there were 102,000 cases of measles in World War I with 2,370 deaths, there were only 60,809 cases in World War II with only 33 deaths reported."

Thanks to technological advances in medicine, it has been almost a hundred years since disease sat in the front row of a national security conversation. However, things are changing. We've seen how the Coronavirus is affecting markets, diplomacy and even troops serving abroad. Maybe it's time we reexamined our preparedness for these outbreaks.

In the end, Pericles succumbed to the plague, and Athens lost an important leader. Those who came after him chose a different strategic path for the city, which ultimately proved costly for the Delian League. This incident during the Peloponnesian War is worth making us pause and think about the role of contagions in human history and conflict. It has wiped out cultures and set the conditions for the successful expansion of others. It has served as a significant factor in wars of the past. Finally, it may yet play a major role in world affairs again.

While the Coronavirus may pass without any long-lasting effects, it's worth asking military leaders an important question, "Are we really prepared?"

From Your Site Articles

Corrupted blood

Hakkar the Soulflayer was introduced as a raid boss in World of Warcraft (WoW) in September 13, 2005. Hakkar was a Blood God, a sort of uber-vampire.

As any self-respecting raid boss, Hakkar was also hard to defeat. Max-level characters would party up, go through the gauntlet, and then challenge him. Without careful planning and powerful spells and items, they would almost certainly fail. But, as it always happens, strong parties would outpower him. As Hakkar would feel that he is starting to lose, he would use his last trump card: a strong lifesteal spell.

To combat this last-resort attack, players would intentionally poison themselves — then, as Hakkar would siphon their blood, he would essentially poison himself. Job done, the boss was defeated, parties took their loot and life carried on as normal on the WoW servers.

Until someone (Patient Zero) de-summoned his pet while the poison effect was still active. Without suspecting a thing, Patient Zero went about his business in the WoW world. But later on, when they re-summoned their pet, it was still infected with Hakkar's plague — and it started spreading like wildfire.

"Every time you'd summon that pet you'd reinfect yourself and all the players around you and it wouldn't check if you were in a raid so you'd do it while you were in town and the entire town would get corrupted," says Shane Dabiri, Blizzard's then chief of staff.

"It was all unintentional, it was just a bug," Dabiri says.

Weaker characters were killed, resurrected, and then killed again after a few seconds. Entire cities were contaminated, and only strong characters could survive — and most abandoned towns entirely, leaving behind piles and piles of infected character corpses.

The World of Warcraft pandemic left corpses everywhere.

The corrupted blood effect was only meant to be active in Hakkar's realm, but due to a coding bug, it was able to spread, making the World of Warcraft servers unexpectedly mirrored a real-life epidemic.

Containment measures

Players panicked. They weren't sure if the disease was intentional or not, and many couldn't do anything in the game. Their characters were doomed.

Blizzard staff weren't entirely sure what to do either. They knew it wasn't intentional, but how do you contain the problem? The company attempted to institute a voluntary quarantine to stem the disease, but this failed spectacularly. Not only did players not respect the quarantine, but some actually used the pandemonium to wreak havoc, intentionally spreading it.

It was surprisingly similar to a real outbreak. It originated in a remote region, and both characters and animals were spreading it (just like some types of flu). It was spread by close contact, it affected urban areas the most, and some individuals were asymptomatic and virtually immune (the strongest characters). It bore all the hallmarks of a true epidemic, with one scary feature: it couldn't be stopped.

After more than a week of desperately trying to contain the disease, Blizzard gave up. It seemed impossible, so they just pulled the plug — they purged the server with a hard reset from before the disease was spread, fixed the bug, and that was that.

But in real life, we don't have a hard reset option.

Real-life lessons

Aside from terrorizing WoW players and making for a really cool anecdote, this story also has important lessons. At the Games For Health conference in Baltimore, in 2008, epidemiologist Nina H. Fefferman, Ph.D of Tufts University and Rutgers University spoke on the difficulties in modeling disease origins and control. Individual behavior, she explained, is rarely incorporated into disease models.

Massive Multiplayer Online games (such as WoW) could solve some of these problems inherent with more traditional models, joking that she was going to use gamers as 'guinea pigs.' Subsequently, she co-authored a paper in Lancet Infectious Disease discussing the epidemiological and disease modeling implications of the outbreak, mentioning that this is an exciting new step and a potentially new arena of studying outbreaks in the virtual world.

"By using these games as an untapped experimental framework, we may be able to gain deeper insight into the incredible complexity of infectious disease epidemiology in social groups," the paper read.

She wasn't the only one with this idea. Ran D. Balicer, an epidemiologist physician at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel, published an article in the journal Epidemiology. He described the similarities between the WoW pandemic and real-life outbreaks such as avian influenza and SARS — which was also caused by a coronavirus, like the current Covid-19 outbreak. The event, he argues, is unique — and very useful in understanding the complex dynamics of a pandemic.

"The pandemic plague that resulted is unique. Unlike previous "virtual plagues" that had been officially planned, this was a local effect that went out of control—a naturally occurring virtual outbreak," the study read.

Fefferman and Balicer both suggested collaborations between game companies and researchers to study such events.

"Expert modelers of infectious diseases might consider collaborating with the game's administrators," Balicer wrote. "Such collaborations could harness the immense computational power invested in these economically-driven, large-scale virtual environments, while allowing simulations more wide-ranging than any options currently available."

But Blizzard, the company behind WoW, was reticent. When the CDC contacted Blizzard and requested statistics on this event for research on epidemics, it was told that this was all a glitch and no useful data was available. Even when Blizzard designed an intentional pandemic in 2008, medical researchers were not included, and a valuable research opportunity was lost.

But several important lessons can be drawn nonetheless.

WoW vs Covid-19

What made the World of Warcraft pandemic truly devastating was that there was no way to build immunity to it. Characters suffered and could then be reinfected immediately after convalescence.

In the case of influenza, for instance, after you get a strain, your body builds at least some immunity to it. You may get a different strain, or you may get the same strain after a while, but you have at least some degree of natural protection. If there would be no immunity to it at all, we'd just pass it between ourselves again and again, and it would be incredibly difficult to contain.

In the case of Covid-19, it's not exactly clear how likely reinfection is. Some startling reports in China suggest a reinfection rate of over 10%, but it's still too early to tell. For any disease, however, the reinfection rate is extremely important.

Secondly, like in WoW, urban areas tend to pose a very high risk for pandemics. Unfortunately, Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan — a large metropolis with over 11 million inhabitants. This meant that the initial containment was impossible, and the disease spread rapidly. Continuous cycles of infection (between pets and humans or purely human groups) are, thankfully, not reported with the current outbreak.

Aside from the initial outbreak, the disease has reached dozens of countries already. But the outbreak will truly surge if the disease starts to spread to urban areas.

Lastly, teleportation was a major problem (in WoW). Characters would spread the disease far and wide, making the outbreak hard to track and contain. We don't have teleportation in the real world (yet), but we have something very similar: flying. Researchers modeling the coronavirus outbreak have highlighted that flight patterns are one of the most important parameters for understanding where the disease might strike next.

Unfortunately, we don't have an all-powerful spell to go back and erase the virus. We have to rough our way through it.

Coronavirus Tag? The Pandemic Has Become Part Of Kids' Playtime - HuffPost

Posted: 12 Mar 2020 03:52 PM PDT

Although research suggests the coronavirus may not affect children as severely as adults, the COVID-19 pandemic is still impacting the lives of American kids. In addition to school closures, strict hand-washing rules, disruption of routine and a general sense of fear and uncertainty, it seems the news of the coronavirus has made its way into playtime.

Over the past few weeks, teachers and parents on Twitter have shared stories of "coronavirus tag" and other games kids are playing along that theme. We asked members of the HuffPost Parents Facebook community if they'd observed their children incorporating COVID-19 into playtime and received a number of responses.

"When I tucked my 8-year-old daughter into bed the other night, she put one of her stuffed animals in a shoebox. When I asked her why, she said it was under quarantine due to the coronavirus," mom Christy Fitzwater commented.

"Our kids were playing doctor last week and everyone was diagnosed with coronavirus," Alli Chase wrote. Jess Alya Chaudhry, a mother under quarantine with her family in China, noted that her 4-year-old has also played doctor and treated stuffed animals for the virus.

Christie Pham shared a photo of her daughter's COVID-19 game. "My daughter and I were playing school with her Shopkins yesterday," she wrote. "There was a big line at the sink to wash hands because of 'Cantaloupe virus.'"

Christie Pham shared a photo of her daughter's Shopkins lined up to wash their hands at the sink due to the "Cantaloupe virus."

Several parents said their children were playing "coronavirus tag" ― with one version requiring the tagged kids to tag someone else in 20 seconds or they would be "dead."

COVID-19 is also offering some musical inspiration. Katie Newman commented, "My kids are singing to the tune of the Moana song 'Corona! Make way! Make way! Corona, it's time you knew!'"

Why Coronavirus Play Is Normal And Healthy

It's only natural that kids would pick up on the fact of the coronavirus pandemic from observing the adults in their lives, seeing news clips and even talking to each other. Child psychologists have recommended that parents talk to their children about the illness in age-appropriate ways to clear up any misconceptions or fears and offer a source of reliable information and support.

As for those coronavirus games, experts believe that's a natural response as well.

"During this heightened panic around the coronavirus, it is completely normal and expected that kids, especially young children, will incorporate themes of the virus into their play," said Natasha Daniels, a child therapist and creator of AnxiousToddlers.com. "As adults, we often 'talk things out' to process our emotions and explore our feelings. Children often 'play things out' to work through their feelings."

Playtime is a common outlet for kids working through fears and processing difficult emotions and situations. This is why play therapy is a popular tool for helping children deal with trauma.

"As disturbing as it may sound, I have seen kids act out and incorporate themes around school shootings in their play," said Daniels, noting that it's a healthy and productive way to deal with a tough topic, especially for kids who don't have the language skills to adequately verbalize what they're feeling.

Many people point to "Ring Around the Rosie" as proof that children have incorporated pandemics into their play in the past (though the widespread claim that the folk song is about the Black Plague appears to be false). Plus, the lyrics to many old children's songs and lullabies are quite dark. Classic fairytales also tend to involve a fair amount of death and danger. This can actually be a good thing.

"What you observe can provide you with a blueprint of where to focus when explaining what is going on with the coronavirus."

- Natasha Daniels, a child therapist

By playing a game with dark themes and consuming age-appropriate stories with wicked villains, kids learn coping skills to deal with their fears and master their emotions in a safe environment. Sometimes kids will even take on the role of the "bad guys" to feel empowered and gain a sense of control over the things that scare them.

What Parents Should Pay Attention To

Although it may be upsetting these days for parents to observe their kids playing games with themes like illness and death, it can also offer insight into their children's perceptions of the coronavirus and shed light on how they're coping.

Daniels advises parents to not take a child's play literally or read too much into it. Rather, they should pay attention and ask themselves a few questions: What are the common themes the kids are working through? What fears are showing up in these themes? Is their play doom and gloom or is there a happy ending?

"What you observe can provide you with a blueprint of where to focus when explaining what is going on with the coronavirus," said Daniels.

If a frequent theme is them getting sick, focus your conversations on the data suggesting that children are less likely to catch the virus and more likely to recover quickly. If it's the idea of you getting sick, then focus your talks on the steps you're taking to stay healthy and the limited likelihood that the virus would cause you to become deathly ill.

"If their play is all doom and gloom and repetitive for a period of time, you can gently incorporate yourself into their play," said Daniels. "I wouldn't suggest this immediately, but it would be a good idea if you are seeing 'stuck' play for a period of time. When you join their play, you gently shift the play to a productive and happy ending."

Parents should try not to directly discuss their children's play with them, as it could make the kids feel self-conscious to know they're being watched. They may shut down and stop playing out their feelings altogether, which would remove a healthy outlet from their lives.

When It Becomes Worrisome

There are situations where coronavirus-related play may enter harmful territory like bullying.

Multiple readers responded to the HuffPost Parents callout by noting that their kids have witnessed or been victims of bullying based around COVID-19.

"My son (10) has talked about kids in school using 'so-and-so has the coronavirus' as a way of excluding and shaming others," wrote Catherine Charan. "He said he's trying to stop it by telling these kids it's a real thing, not a joke, in hopes it will stop them from having an audience laughing with them. (Super proud of that) The flip side is he has a cold and cried yesterday when I said he needed to stay home from school tomorrow. He said when he goes back to school the kids will make fun of him saying he has it now."

Clinical psychologist John Mayer was not surprised by that kind of response from children.

"Using it as a bullying technique is not surprising because we use anything that is perceived as 'different' or sets us apart from the norms of our social group as a tool for bullying," he said.

Coronavirus-themed play can become worrisome when it's used to exclude or bully other children or interferes with safety measures like hand-washing.

Emily Edlynn, a child psychologist who runs the Art and Science of Mom blog, told HuffPost these are situations when adults should step in.

"Although the play itself is normal, adults need to intervene if children are using play to exclude or target other children," she said, noting that prejudice against Asian Americans due to the origin of the outbreak has reached children. "To prevent children from using stereotypes to unfairly target peers, we need to talk to our children about how there is no one group to blame for the illness."

Adults should also intervene if coronavirus play is getting in the way of important safety measures for preventing infection like hand-washing.

"Using it in playful ways as with tag, which is about what they are learning (re: people can get it from touching), can be helpful to make it less scary," said Robin Goodman, a clinical psychologist and art therapist who works with children on stress-related issues. "But you need to be careful about minimizing the serious message about needing to be careful."

Ultimately, parents play a big role in shaping their children's response to COVID-19.

"This global pandemic provides us with an opportunity to teach our children to learn and practice kindness and recognize that we have more in common than that which separates us. In uncertain times, these situations can bring up much fear but they can also bring out the best in us as humans, including our natural altruistic qualities," said Genevieve von Lob, a psychologist and author of "Happy Parent, Happy Child."

"So focus on the good," she said. "Acknowledge that bad things do happen but help your child to think about the brave helpers such as the doctors and nurses, the acts of kindness and the way people come together in challenging times."

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“Chicago's Plague of Carcosa make dense, cosmic-horror doom - Chicago Reader” plus 4 more