Morning Ed: Wildlife {2018.08.15.W}

20 thoughts on “Morning Ed: Wildlife {2018.08.15.W}”

1. W16: Pythons in the toilet are not newsworthy events. They’re not exactly normal but it happens.Report

   1. Right up there with rattlesnakes in the pool.Report

      1. Some years ago, the domestic helper at our house found a python in the toilet. When I was in the army we once saw a python (don’t know if it was the same one*) lying in one of the drains in my camp (seletar camp).

         When I was in kindergarten, we used to rent one of the old british military quarters at seletar camp. Checking the bed for snakes and centipedes was a nightly or one every two-three nights thing.

         *My place in Singapore is a five minute drive from my active unit (at seletar camp) back when I was in the army. So in all probability in might have been the same snake or at least a close relative.Report

         1. Apparently, here in AZ, rattlesnakes can swim, and they enjoy a nice clean pool on a hot day.Report

2. W13 – for reasons no one knows, infection with toxoplasmosis also makes women more likely to have sons. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17028886Report

3. Wl3 – I maintain the hantavirus and the lack of fear aren’t cause and effect – they’re both independently caused by living with cats.

   Wl8 – no kidding he’s lucky to have been arrested! The bison at the national park near is have killed at least one tourist who didn’t respect their danger.Report

   1. (Wl3 – sorry, toxoplasmosis, not hantavirus)Report

4. [Wl1] “Should Trees Have Standing?” was an early 1970s law review article that got some fame from being cited in the footnote of a SCOTUS dissent. Ever since it has provided a perennial source of college theme papers, and I wrote one in Political Philosophy using Plato’s conception of the guardian as the basis. How to select and educate the guardians? May they breed? What music must they listen to?Report

5. Toxoplasm Man sounds like a hero or villain that gets people sick by spitting on them. He could be in a relationship with Vermin Lady, whose power is to control vermin obviously. She will have a hot body and face covered in boils. I’m seeing R or X rated gritty versions of Captain Planet villains.Report

   1. @leeesq

      If there’s to be a superhero who can control vermin, they need to be called “the Rat King”, clearly.Report

      1. There are vermin beyond rats. Vermin Lady also gets dominion over bedbugs and company.Report

         1. No, no, no. Toxoplasm Man will never again know love. His wife had a latent immunodeficiency disorder, and he, a brilliant scientist, sought a cure. Years of research led to what he thought would be her cure, but she died within minutes of leaving her isolation bubble. In his fury, he wrecked his laboratory, unleashing the mix of toxins that would become his power, his curse…Report

            1. There’s an SF story By Frederik Pohl called Shaffery Among the Immortals. Shaffery is a mediocre scientist who longs to be famous, but none of his “breakthroughs” ever pan out. Until his plan to preserve food via irradiation creates a mutated virus that kills him and then half of humanity, and he’s known forever as the creator of “Shaffery’s Plague”.Report

            2. Your imagining a tragic BTAS villain, I’m seeing an R or X-Rated Captain Planet villain, so nothing so noble for my interpretation.Report

      2. they need to be called “the Rat King”

         Not Ratman?Report

         1. Ratman’s Notebooks

            Later made into a movie called Willard.Report

         2. To me, the Rat Man will always be a character in The Stand.

            I just found the whole thing on YouTube recently, and re-watched it. There’s something about Stephen King movies or mini-series, that they don’t work right unless everyone’s over-acting. I don’t know. I re-watched It recently (the original) and it’s a real mess, but Tim Curry is the definitive Pennywise the Clown. Remaking It without Curry would be like remaking The Stand without Matt Frewer.Report

            1. And The Stand brings us back around to man-made plagues.Report

   2. Would Toxoplasm Man be related to the Amoeba boys?

      http://powerpuffgirls.wikia.com/wiki/File:Bandicam_2016-06-14_17-04-35-555.jpgReport

      1. If why can work out some sort of licensing agreement, I don’t see why not.Report

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