Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Books are my comfort food!

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

In my day, never was longer.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / Monday Evening Open Thread: Darwin Could Never Have Imagined…

Monday Evening Open Thread: Darwin Could Never Have Imagined…

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(On the other hand: Another entry in the ‘why twitter will be missed’ file.)


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164Comments

  3. 3.

    Chetan Murthy

    “Petey plays with them until they stop playing back.  Then Petey brings them to me crying either as mementos or wanting me to fix them”.

    Wut?  Lady, don’t you realize that Petey is bringing you half-dead offerings so you can finish them off?  They’re love offerings, ma’am.  He’s not asking you to “fix” them, he’s giving you the oppty to finish them off.

    Sheesh.

  4. 4.

    Yarrow

    If you’re going to do rescue breathing on wild or dead animals at least use a face and mouth guard.

  6. 6.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Alison Rose: After 2020-2021, I think we know the answer to that question.

    ETA: I remember as a kid, if we tried to pick up food that had dropped on the floor for any reason except to throw it down the drain, we got seriously yelled at and maybe spanked.  No “five second rule”, no nuthin’.  And this lady thinks she’s so immune to consequences she can canoodle with a wild animal?  Hell, I get all skeeved-out when my neighbor’s (incredibly sweet) doggo Stevie licks my face.  I wash my hands after touching her.  What’re these people *thinking*.  Oh right, they’re not.

  7. 7.

    Kent

    That last tweet from Jorts and Jean just slayed me!

    But I can confidently say I have never once been tempted to do CPR on a wild animal, nor will I ever be tempted to do so in the future regardless of having read this.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    Io Colony, sub level 43, preAdult instruction room, circa 3045:

    “And so, preAdults, we see from the many electronic “social media” artifacts that we’ve reviewed this week why Earth’s population was greatly reduced, beginning in 2024.”

    “Maestro Instructor, did they all kiss the same bunny?”

    “No no my preAdult…that wasn’t required.  All it took was one of them ‘kissing’ the wrong bunny, and, well…(sigh)…”

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    My grandfather gave his yorkie mouth to mouth when she had a heart attack. She then took digitalis every day and lived to be 19.

  12. 12.

    Yarrow

    So today I found out that a neighbor got bit by a flea while in California, got typhus and spent a week in the hospital. Typhus! I had no idea that was a thing in the US.

  14. 14.

    Andrya

    @Chetan Murthy:  Adding to what you said, this is what wild mother cats do to teach their kittens to hunt.  Petey thinks his person is an incompetent kitten who needs remedial hunting lessons.

    Adding to what Dr. Sam said:  the wonderful older friend who taught me how to backpack required every novice who joined his backpacking trips to attend a 1 hour class (given by him, free) on backpacking safety.  (This was California, about backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains.)  One rule I remember:  never approach the remains of a dead rodent!  California wild country rodents pass around bubonic plague, and if a rodent dies of plague, its fleas will be looking to jump to a new warm blooded host.

  17. 17.

    Alison Rose

    @Chetan Murthy: I love dogs but when I see people letting their dogs lick their mouths, I’m just like…do you understand how disgusting dogs can be? That tongue was probably wrapped around the dog’s junk moments earlier. My cat will occasionally start licking my arm and I let her do it for maybe five seconds and then I’m like OKAY ENOUGH and then I clean it off.

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Alison Rose:

    That tongue was probably wrapped around the dog’s junk moments earlier.

    Hell, my neighbor has informed me that Stevie eats her own poo from time-to-time (and this is apparently not rare in dogs).  Ain’t no way I’m lettin’ Stevie lick my mouth if I can help it.

  21. 21.

    Scout211

    @Alison Rose: But, but, but, she had a sincerely held belief in the healing power of her very own breath.  We must not question a person’s sincerely held beliefs, Alison.  You know this.

    //////////

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    @Chetan Murthy: there was a piece in the Post a week or so ago about allllll the good reasons not to let pets (dogs, mostly) lick you in the mouth.

    I sent it to my brother, who’s just gross this way.

    He claims he doesn’t let his dog do this…anymore…

  25. 25.

    Ken

    @Chetan Murthy: They carry the plague, right? The Black Death one.

    Alan E. Nourse, physician and science-fiction writer, had a very good novel, The Fourth Horseman, where a new, pneumonic strain of that shows up. The first case was a woman hiking in the Rockies, who saw a poor sick little squirrel and picked it up. Though at least she didn’t give it mouth-to-mouth.

  26. 26.

    Suzanne

    Our spotted lanternfly population seems to have absolutely exploded in the past week. It’s super-gross. I don’t believe they transmit any disease (that we know of), but they went from occasional to every-damn-where and the sidewalk looks like a crime scene.

  28. 28.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ken: a-yup, so I hear.   Here in SF we got tons of ’em.  I hear you can blind ’emm with laser pointers, and I muse about getting one and trying to learn how to aim well.  A bunch took up residence in my apartment’s attic a few years ago: the landlord eventually redid the roof, and since then they seem to have gone, but now I hear rodent-like sawing sounds from the basement, so maybe they’re down in there, sigh.

  30. 30.

    Scout211

    @Yarrow: This really is a full service blog. I learned a thing or three today reading balloon-juice. California Dept of Public Health

    Flea-borne typhus is a disease caused by Rickettsia typhi bacteria that are spread by fleas. Human cases of flea-borne typhus are reported worldwide, but mainly in tropical and coastal areas. In the United States, most cases occur in Texas, California and Hawaii, with an average of about 300 cases every year. In California, flea-borne typhus is considered endemic (always present) in areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties, but sometimes cases are also reported from other parts of California. A person can get typhus by coming in contact with fleas that are infected with the bacteria that cause typhus. Fleas become infected when they bite small animals like rats, opossums and stray cats. Fleas can then spread the bacteria that cause typhus to other animals and humans.

  34. 34.

    eclare

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Cats give you their kills as a sign of affection.  And they do not “play” with their prey, they torture/tease them letting them think they are getting away.

    I have owned kitties since I was eight and love them.  Those are just the facts.

  36. 36.

    HumboldtBlue

    Has anyone seen Roy Kent and his niece Phoebe? Last I heard, she wanted to a veterinarian for wild animals, and I hope she didn’t do this and catch the plague or something.

  38. 38.

    Yarrow

    @Spanky:  I knew about the malaria in Florida and Texas but hadn’t heard about Maryland. Ugh. Malaria is not fun.

    @Scout211:  Pretty sure he said he was in L.A. so that tracks.

  40. 40.

    LAO

    @Alison Rose: you definitely do not want to meet my dog: she is both disgusting (killed 3 ground hogs) and is a licker. I tell her on the daily, it’s a good thing she’s so cute.

  44. 44.

    Argiope

    I learned not to try to heal anything in class Rodentia when I was 7 and tried to pick up a “sick” chipmunk I found on the sidewalk. I had great intentions. It ended up having its head sent to Columbus to the state veterinary lab to rule out rabies. Looking back, that wasn’t a great day for my dad. All I got was a bite on the finger and a life lesson, but I had no idea what rabies was, and he did. This wannabe Bunny EMT is way older than 7.​

  45. 45.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: i just want them to not undermine my house.  I mean, they were all over the attic. From one end to the other.  During the 2 years until I convinced my landlord that maybe they ought to redo the roof, every time it rained I worried that maybe the dam squirrels had dug through The shingles and Left a channel so the rain could flood my entire apartment.

    This isn’t exactly the countryside: the houses here are cheek by jowl.

  46. 46.

    RevRick

    @Spanky: I recall reading in a biography of Henry Ward Beecher that when he moved to a church in a recently settled area of Indiana, he had to contend with malaria in the region.

    One of the effects of climate change will be the spread of tropical diseases, especially into the Gulf Coast region of the United States.

  47. 47.

    Betty

    @Suzanne: I have seen articles warning about them, but I think the damage is to crops, not people. Doing a little research, I found that they can actually help honeybees be more resistant to mites. Nature can be strange.

  48. 48.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @eclare:

    Our Stewie brings me a stick or twig every day for some praise and a reward (treats). He used to bring me hummingbirds until I removed the hummingbird dispenser (large flowering plant) in the back yard. Now I reward him with treats so he brings me sticks and such instead of poor birbs.

    It works. :)

  50. 50.

    Carlo Graziani

    As far as life lessons about wildlife are concerned, I learned second-hand in Anchorage AK that when hungry moose descend to the valleys and towns in the winter, it’s a truly terrible idea to try to feed them, even if the majestic and apparently docile 7-foot specimen at your front porch reminds you of “Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose”. They can get angry and stompy, and they cannot be outrun, especially in snow.

  52. 52.

    persistentillusion

    @eclare: I had a Blue Heeler dog who loved me and would bring me tribute.  After the dead bird on my pillow, we had a talk….

  55. 55.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Oddly enough, that’s the advice that I received in Anchorage, although it was on the basis that “you can get around a tree a lot faster than a moose can.”

  56. 56.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: to kill involves deadly force, and that might injure humans inadvertently.  But since the squirrels like roofs and railings, I can sit on my elevated back porch And be certain That a laser pointer would affect no humans.

  60. 60.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Gawd. Although, I’m sure she meant well. I had a co-worker who caught tuleremia but didn’t know why until they did a deep dive search in their yard and found a rabbit carcus doggo ate.

    She clearly has a good heart but…I agree with the MD.

    It was a wild bunny….at least use your hands to create a funnle with zone of no contact maybe? Or just let it pass?

    Sad either way.

  62. 62.

    evodevo

    @RevRick: Yep…Yellow fever killed ~5000 in Philly in the late 1700’s.  Between the spread of mosquitoes and anti-vaxxers, I can imagine what the future will hold…

  64. 64.

    CaseyL

    My grandmother brought a baby caiman back from Florida for me when I was about 8. It arrived dead, and I desperately hoped to revive it.

    My parents put it in a shallow dish of warm water and I did, in fact, give it mouth-to-mouth. The only reason I didn’t try CPR is that CPR didn’t exist yet (this would have been the early 60s).

    The poor thing was well and truly dead, though, and at some point in the night my parents got rid of it.

    (I would give mouth to mouth and CPR and anything else I can think of to one of my animals if they suddenly up and keeled over. But I hope I’d have enough sense not to try that with an animal I didn’t know at all.)​

  65. 65.

    Andrya

    @Chetan Murthy:   At a minimum, ask the SF Humane Society for a method of killing squirrels that is no risk to humans and less cruel than what you are doing.

    The most severe pain I have ever experienced was an infection in the inside of one eye.  I had had no idea that level of pain was even possible- it was orders of magnitude worse than a severe burn.   Please don’t do that to squirrels if there is any alternative.

  69. 69.

    satby

    @RevRick: Chicago, being swampy originally, not only had malaria but yellow fever too.

    @Scout211: Typhus and bubonic plague, both still endemic in the southwest. And I distinctly remember several SW jackals arguing with me that they didn’t need to use flea preventative (toxic chemicals!!!) on their animals because that only happened on the remote reservation areas. Sure, because pathogen carrying fleas are great respectors of suburban boundaries.

  70. 70.

    kalakal

    We have an armadillo living in the backyard. If it suffers a cardiac arrest it’s on its own. Leprosy is not on my bucket list

  73. 73.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: they are rodents, there are millions of them, they spread diseases, and I wouldn’t care except that they dug into my house.  I mean are you going to next tell me that I should care about pigeons?   They’re flying rats.

    ETA: different answer: they’ll be easy pickings for the many many outdoor cats in my neighborhood.

  75. 75.

    satby

    @Omnes Omnibus: agree. Plus, talk about red flags.

    For chrissakes, they’re squirrels, not T-rexes, and Chetan was renting. That’s what rental insurance is for.

    Ok, full disclosure: as an animal rescuer, not only have I saved dogs, cats, and the occasional rabbit, but also squirrels, raccoons, and various birds including several pigeons. We share their space.

  76. 76.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Chetan Murthy:  For what it’s worth: ultrasound noisemaker pest repellent devices are very effective at making rodents and other pests anxious to be elsewhere. They are like inaudible (to humans) car alarms that never stop. Easily purchaseable online, and work on squirrels, raccoons, mice, etc.

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @kalakal: My only personal encounter with a moose came when I was seven.  My dad and I were backpacking on Isle Royale in Lake Superior.  We set up our tent along side a trail one evening and woke in the morning to find a cow moose sticking her head in our tent to see who and what the fuck we were.  Obviously, she decided we were mostly harmless.  She and her calf took a detour around us and swan off across a nearby small lake.  Her head was a very large and moose-like thing to wake up to.

  81. 81.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Omnes Omnibus:  That sounds like a lucky break to me. Cow Moose + Calves + humans = stomping in a lot of cases.

    I was once on the balcony of an in-law’s house in Palmer, AK, when we noticed that a cow and two calves were cooling themselves in a shallow creek-fed pond on the property. We watched, and then all hell broke loose when the house dog started barking (also from the balcony) at the intruder. First the cow chased the calves into the woods. Then she turned back and, neck hair erect and chuffing like a locomotive, challenged the house to single combat, running up to the wall beneath the balcony, then backing off, and running up again. It was a very impressive, and frankly somewhat intimidating display.

    (And, this far into the moose thread-diversion, I cannot resist “A moose bit my sister once…”)

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    @Carlo Graziani:  I can tell you from personal experience that while humans may not be able to hear them they can feel them at some level. Created stress and panic at a level I cannot describe. Quit the minute the device was turned off. Just a warning in case someone tries one. Also, if you have pets they can cause issues for them.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Alison Rose: ​
    I had an uncle who offered me five dollars if I pet one of the geese on his friend’s farm. I entered the goose enclosure. I did not get the money. I did develop a desire to eat goose rather than turkey on Thanksgiving (more flavor, less dry, and fuck those vicious bastards).

  88. 88.

    Lethe

    @Carlo Graziani: Oh yes. Was about 14, came XC-skiing round a turn on the Hillside Ski trail, and we both got surprised. Learned you can climb really skinny birches with your skis on.

  89. 89.

    kalakal

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Mrs kalakal had a similar experience as a kid. She was fetching some water from a spring at a tiny, remote campsite north of the St. Lawrence see way when she this slurping noise. She turned and about 3 feet away was a moose. Luckily it ignored her, put it’s head down and began drinking. As she says “It’s head was bigger than I was!”

    I’ve never seen one but Leeds museum has a skeleton of an Irish Elk which were about the same size, it’s 7 ft high

    with unfeasibly sized antlers 12 ft across

    Irish Elk

  92. 92.

    Carlo Graziani

    @kalakal:  Their rendered fat is abundant, and makes for heavenly roasted potatoes, though.

    My son will eat fowl, but not mammals, from some inscrutable moral choice. He thought he was separated forever from Yorkshire pudding, a considerable sacrifice, until I realized that duck is close enough to beef and duck lard makes excellent Yorkshire pudding. I scored high Dad points that day.

  96. 96.

    kalakal

    @Omnes Omnibus: You’re not kidding.

    They are nasty creatures.

    I once had a run in with a swan, I was walking through some reeds by a canal, came across a cleared area with a big pile of twigs, while I was wondering what it was a swan stuck it’s head out and then came at me screeching, wings out. It was huge.

  99. 99.

    tobie

    My gallows humor reached its limit today. There’s a COVID outbreak in my mother’s senior home in Florida. She moved there after my father died so she wouldn’t be alone. Now she’s alone in her apartment. The new booster cannot become available fast enough!

  100. 100.

    sab

    @RevRick: My dad did work with Ohio bloodbanks in the 1960s. They were very concerned about Vietnam vets bringimg malaria back into the midwest and border states. It had been endemic in the 19th century.

  104. 104.

    kalakal

    @Carlo Graziani: nice one!

    Somewhere I’ve got an Edwardian children’s annual, “Chums” or something like that, it’s full of wonderful ripping yarns and photos of the wonders of science & technology c1908. It has an article “Our Christmas Dinner!” with these little girls happily feeding a goose while telling the reader how much they’re looking forward to eating it. Not much for sentiment, our ancestors.

  109. 109.

    wjca

    @Spanky: Maryland is seeing malaria.

    And for more variety, it appears Florida is seeing a bunch of cases of leprosy.  Which is entirely curable these days.  Unless DeSantis (or other cultists) decide that, like vaccines, antibiotics should be anathema.

  110. 110.

    tobie

    @eclare: On the positive side, I now have good reason to get my mother to bone up on her Zoom skills. I’m going to be abroad starting in February and Zoom will be the best way to keep in touch with her.

  112. 112.

    Jackie

    Off topic, but funnier than hell!:

    ”Axios: “Fox restricted campaign credentials for the post-debate ‘spin room‘ — where aides tout their candidates and rip their foes — to candidates who are participating in the debate.”

    “Trump’s aides and surrogates had indicated they would be in the spin room despite their candidate’s absence — but now they’ll only be able to enter if they are guests of media organizations.”

    Bahahaahaaaa!  I do believe MTG, Gaetz, TIFG Jr, Kari Lakes, Byron Donald and others planned to be there as TIFG’s surrogates.

  113. 113.

    HumboldtBlue

    All this talk of geese. One of the Soviet generals commented after WW2 when there was talk about how effective dogs were as sentries, and he scoffed. He said the geese were far superior in raising a ruckus when they sensed something was off or an intruder was in the area, and dogs couldn’t hold a candle to their effectiveness.

  115. 115.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    While I can’t knock people for empathy and kindness, any walk down a nature trail the first thing in the morning and having to step over last night’s slaughter should really dispel any romantic notions about animals.

  116. 116.

    tobie

    @kalakal: I sometimes wonder whether Lapado believes the crap he says or if he just relishes being a rightwing provocateur. DItto for Vivek Ramaswamy. Both are so committed to ‘owning the libs,’ that they convince themselves of the most preposterous positions. The fact that they have a big mic and in Lapado’s position power makes them dangerous. Otherwise they’d just be the asshole who yells at the neighbors’ kids.

  120. 120.

    kalakal

    @tobie: Don’t know about Ramaswamy but I think Ladopo is  both. He’s a genuine crank about the benefits of a healthy diet “eat more fruit, cures all ills” and a full bore anti-vaxxer. He also just loves being in a position to impose his fruitcake ideas on others. We’re going to get a lot of preventable disease down here, he and DeStupid are talking about banning mRNA vaccines. Good luck with that, the Villages will descend en masse on Tallahassee in a convoy of a 1,000 golf carts, armed with sharpened Zimmer frames. Sadly I’m dreading a big measles outbreak, and people learning the tragic way that it is a very dangerous disease for children

  122. 122.

    tobie

    @kalakal: I didn’t realize you were in Florida. My mother is in Sarasota, home of America’s malaria outbreak. There is a vaccine against malaria, but you’re right: Lapado and DeSantis would ban it. I pity immunocompromised folks in Florida. They’re really at risk in a state where the leadership doesn’t believe in public health

    ETA: every senior with an ounce of sense will leave the state if DeSantis bans the mRNA vaccines. Heck, I’ll be on the road from Maryland to Florida to collect my mom.

  123. 123.

    eclare

    @tobie:

    Absolutely, go get your mother if FL bans the vaccine.  But Puddin Boots has already picked a fight with Disney and lost the state 1B of investment and either one or two thousand jobs.  And he picked a fight with cruise lines who dock in the state over their wanting to have some covid restrictions.

    So I’m guessing he feels like he can do whatever he damn well pleases, regardless of protests.  He cannot be forced out of govt due to term limits soon enough.

  124. 124.

    tobie

    @eclare: DeSantis is truly awful and Florida is slowly discovering it. I don’t have a good read of the state I hope one day someone can explain how the state swung so far right. Yes, there are the usual suspects–midwestern retirees settled there en masse, Latinos in the state bought the line that Dems are socialists hook, line, and sinker, the state Dem party was/is a disaster, etc but I’m not sure that captures such a dramatic shift in political sentiment.

  125. 125.

    kalakal

    @tobie: Yes, I’m about an hours drive north of your mother in Clearwater

    He almost certainly won’t. He really, really needs the votes of the MAGA retirees and they are very keen on enjoying a long retirement. It’s no coincidence that he prioritised vaccine roll outs in both The Villages and Sarasota. The uptake of vaccines amongst the over 65s was really, really high. Piss them off and he won’t even win Florida in a Presidential election

    If he does, and the State Senate doesn’t override him get your mother out. Mrs kalakal and I will be vaccine tourists to NJ where my stepdaughter lives.

  126. 126.

    eclare

    @tobie:

    Don’t forget gerrymandering that allows the most extreme R’s to get in the legislature with no hope of voting them out.  They allow him to do what he wants.

    Extreme gerrymandering happened in my state, TN.  No way to get some of these fuckers out.

  127. 127.

    kalakal

    @eclare:

    I think his shelf life is pretty limited thanks to his crappy presidential campaign

    I am so looking forward to the Fl GQP pols treatment of Ron DePlorable after he crashes and burns. They’re a bunch of stupid, vicious weasels who have spent the last few years rolling over for him out of a mix of ambition and fear. In a few months he’ll be the lamest of ducks, term limited and covered in loser stink. And they hate him

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    @Carlo Graziani:

    I will say once again I was in the housing area of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon walking to the store on the south side of that housing area. There was a group of 9-10 yr olds play with a ball and they looked at me, all of them shut up and they slowly walked away. It seemed the were looking past me so I slowly turned around and about 3-4 feet, now in front of me was an elk. I’m close to 6 ft tall and his back was 1 1/2 to 2 feet over my head. His antlers were about 6 feet tall and just a guess, he likely weighted about 1500 lbs. He looked down at me and I walked very slowly away, like those kids. If they knew not to run, I figured that was a smart move. Elk walked on like he owned the place, which he very much did. Those kids may have saved my life, in a situation I was never expecting.

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    Ummmmm…….

    Ummmmmm……..

    Ummmmm………….

     

    Cubs win!  Cubs win!  Tigers’ fans are not their crowd!

  135. 135.

    eclare

    @HumboldtBlue:

    That is awesome.  I rewatched that movie a few months ago, it holds up.  I remember going to see it in the theater with my parents when it came out.

  139. 139.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Alison Rose: And cat shit is considered a delicacy by many dogs.  Since cats have such a high protein requirement for their food (they are obligate carnivores), even their shit has a lot of protein in it.

  140. 140.

    Christopher Mathews

    People often don’t think about the consequences of touching wild animals.

    I once petted a very friendly, very feral tomcat without wondering where he’d been.  As this was in the town of Pripyat, in the middle of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, it was a very dumb thing to do.

  142. 142.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Carlo Graziani: ​
     

    My son will eat fowl, but not mammals, from some inscrutable moral choice.

    I don’t know the reasons for his choice, but global warming is one reason I’ve drastically reduced my beef consumption: methane from cow burps and farts produces ~14% of greenhouse gas production. Whether pigs or sheep are less problematic than cows, or whether cows are the problem because we have a ton of burger chains in the U.S. but no comparable mass vending of pork or lamb fast food, I have no idea. But fowl clearly aren’t nearly so much of a climate problem, so we’re eating a lot more chicken these days.

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    @HumboldtBlue: When the Gauls were besieging Rome around 470 BCE (I think) they tried to sneak up the Capitoline Hill one night.  The watchdogs did not bark but some geese alerted Roman defenders who then repelled the attack. So for centuries after the Romans kept a flock of Sacred Geese on the hill.

  145. 145.

    Baud

    @lowtechcyclist:

    methane from cow burps and farts produces ~14% of greenhouse gas production.

     
    I think it was Newt Gingrich that mocked government funding for cow fart research in the 90s as an example of government waste.

  146. 146.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @satby:

    Sure, because pathogen carrying fleas are great respectors of suburban boundaries.

    Ground squirrels are.  They’re the reservoirs for plague, not urban rodents like rats.  Typhus I dunno.  Not afraid of plague, since the infection rate is ludicrously low and the US death rate nonexistent.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    All the duck-type waterfowl are vicious, violent, and spitefully mean, at least as a species average.  Ducks treat each other evilly.  They know humans are way too big to hurt, is the thing.  The bigger, the nicer, but also the less intimidated.  A swan who’s feeling pissy feels no need to hold back.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I still think wolves are pretty cool though.

    They are.  They really are.  Alas, DO NOT TOUCH.  They have parasites that are harmless to themselves but grotesquely fatal to humans.  Ugh.  Parasitology class taught me things the mind of Man should not know.

  147. 147.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Baud: ​
     They always appeal to the worst in people

    Blasting what he called excessive spending, Jindal mocked the Democrats’ stimulus bill for including “$140 million for something called volcano monitoring.” Jindal paused for effect. “Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.”

  148. 148.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    I think it was Newt Gingrich that mocked government funding for cow fart research in the 90s as an example of government waste.

    Because of course he would.

    This has been an interesting thread. We’ve discussed The Plague, the hazards of the majestic møøse, and even a passing mention of pigeons as flying rats. So I’ve had Firesign Theatre, Monty Python, and Tom Lehrer all going through my brain at once.

  151. 151.

    LiminalOwl

    @Ken: Ooh, thank you.  I read Nourse’s The Universe Between when I was 12 (probably my first non-fantasy SFF) and loved it. Will look this one up.

  152. 152.

    Mel

    @Alison Rose: Fellow goose bite survivor here!

    Sixteen year old me was at a party, standing near the pond and trying to look cool while talking to very cute boy.

    My goose nemesis snuck up behind me, and bit me, HARD, on the butt cheek, and hung on with a vengeance for several minutes while I hollered and did cartoon-worthy panic flailing of arms and legs.

    Bruises on butt lasted for several weeks; bruises to teenage dignity still make me cringe a little bit even decades later!

  154. 154.

    Mel

    @Frankensteinbeck: CDC reports US plague deaths as follows: 1 in 2005, 2 in 2005, 2 in 2007, 2 in 2009, 1 in 2013, 4 in 2015,  2 in 2020.

    There are several close calls every few years, as well, like the married hikers in upstate New York a few years back who contracted plague but were misdiagnosed several times. One of the couple ended up septic and developed gangrenous legs. Plasmapheresis, surgery, and massive amounts of IV abx saved the day eventually, but plague is still serious stuff, esp. since it is not on most ER or primary docs’ radar and can thus go mis-or undiagnosed until serious complications set in.

    My Dr. friend who ran a public health clinic used to say, “Sure, the chances of  [ insert hideous side effect or disease here] are small on paper at 1 in 1,000, etc., but it’s not so small seeming if you ARE that 1 in 1,000…”

  155. 155.

    SFAW

    With all this talk about attempting/not attempting to save feral animals, here’s a question for your Ethics class, libtards:

    If you encounter a stricken TFG, do you give him/it CPR or equivalent?

    ETA: No, it’s not actually a serious question, nor am I looking for an answer/debate.

  161. 161.

    Jess

    @lowtechcyclist: I’ve heard that commercial pig farming is disastrous to the watershed. Plus, they’re as smart and sensitive as dogs, so that’s another reason not to factory farm them.

  163. 163.

    Sloegin

    This dead bird thread is a good reminder to me that I don’t hate all people.  Just some of them… quite a bit.  Thanks!

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