Things you don't need to know...

According to this webpage from Norwegian TV2 (it's in Norwegian, but there are pictures) there is hope for those of us who wish for an abdominal six-pack without the hassle: Self tanning spray!! The results are (in the side by side comparison the real one is to the left) … interesting.

pibbur who fears that for many (of us) this approach may be futile, given the general curvature of the area. A few horisontal shadows is not enough to fool that part of the public we would want to fool. Spraying on a ventral hernia lookalike might be more useful.
 
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For some reason youtube is filled with parodies of Call me maybe by Carley Rae Jepsen. Not only amateur videos, but also videos involving people like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and the cookie monster. And several others, including Obama and that other guy.

There is a scene in the original video where some guy operates a lawnmower. I'm not involved in that, it just looks like it.

pibbur who now, from one of the vdeos above, knows why the growls and screams of certain subgenres of heavy metal (esp. death metal and black metal) are (humorously) called monster cookie vocals.
 
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You might swim with a mink on the Fiery Gizzard Trail, renowned for its beauty and diversity, in Tennessee. 636 species of vascular plants and a myriad of animals, including the mink who'll gladely accompany if you go for a swim. Said myriad also include rattlesnakes and green snakes which according to Wikipedia "are not a special cause for concern as they are not particularly aggressive". Besides, the green snakes are not venomous and not constrictors either. In fact, they don't kill their prey at all before devouring them.

Just the place for Ozzies methinks.

pibbur who never swam with minks, but who has on several occasions been seen swimming with several species of small slimy jellyfish gathered together.
 
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Green snakes are cute!! :)
 
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Are you Hercules or what ? ;)
 
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Green snakes are cute!! :)

Three things I really want to know:

1. What's your favourite deadly snake?
2. What's your favourite deadly spider?
3. What's your favourite other deadly thing?

pibbur who once had two deadly budgies but never a Norwegian blue.
 
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Three things I really want to know:

1. What's your favourite deadly snake?
2. What's your favourite deadly spider?
3. What's your favourite other deadly thing?

pibbur who once had to deadly budgies but never a Norwegian blue.

(1) pink canyon rattlesnake http://hikearizona.com/dexcoder.php?PID=629 (not even Australian)
(2) Red back
(3) Red wine
 
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Hurls, your list would be quite similar to mine, though I was considering listing CM at number 3!! :)
 
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For something different, try some Argentinian organic Malbec, or Cab/Sav. Danny's carries it at excellent prices. Perhaps we need a thread to discuss good red wines!! :)
 
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In a possible series of favourite bad things, I give you my favourite really bad germs. Loooong rant.

What are the most deadly germs? Depends on what we mean by deadly. Is it those with highest death rate among the infected, or should we consider those who kill(ed) most people globally? The Ebola virus is a very aggressive nastie, killing up to 90% of the patiens. However the number of infected is small (2200 known cases since 1976). Contrast this with influenza which normally kills far below 1% of the infected, but due to the number of infected, 250 000-500 000 die each year globally. Here I consentrate on the aggressive ones.

For bacteria, I give you the Clostridium genus. These are strictly anaerobe bacteriae, can't stand oxygene, but there are quite a lot of places where they survive. From a medical point of view, deep wounds and dead tissues are particularly interesting. And being spore forming bacteria, they can survive under conditions that normally would kill them. Among the perps are:

1. C. botulinum, the maker of the mighty botulinum toxine (aka botox), an extremely powerful neurotoxine. Give me a couple of kilos and a perfect distribution system, and the whole human population is history. Still the most toxic substance known to man.
2. C. tetani, responsible for another potent neurotoxine, the tetanus toxine which causes - surprise, surprise - tetanus. Untreated, mortality is 40-70%. Fortunately efficient treatment and prevention procedures have reduced the number of deaths significantly. Still, this is a germ with potential.
3. C. perfringens. This one can give you gas gangrene, tissue necrosis and gas production. A fast developing. lethal medical emergency.

I should perhaps also mention Yersinia pestis, the plague bacteria which has killed millions upon millions. Untreated mortality rate is in the 50-90% ranged treated 1-10% die (depending on the organs affected). In addition, the number of infected has been drastically reduced, between 1989 and 2003 around 40 000 patients were infected each year, mostly sporadic cases and small epidemics involving up to 1000 patients. There is of course at least one black metal/death metal band called Yersinia Pestis.

Now on to the viruses. There are several nasty ones here, we have smallpox (30-35% death rate), HIV (previously 100% lethal withinn 10 years, now life expectancy approximates the uninfected), those behind the hemorrhagic fevers (several viruses, lethality for many of them is around 30%, for Ebola as said up to 90%)

But one virus which beats them all is rabies virus. Now, if receiving immunotherapy before symptoms arise, nearly 100% of patients are cured. But after onset of symptoms, with veeeery few exceptions, mortality is 100%. 50 000 people die each year from rabies. There are in total less than 10 known survivors in total. Fortunately few become infected.

Now imagine a virus with the lethality of rabies, and the infectivity of influenza, or even worse: measles. Is there anybody out there?!?

I'll finish with one particularly interesting infective agent. The prion. Not a bacteria, not a virus, actually it's not a germ at all. It's a protein molecule. Prion proteins occur normally in our cells and are usually harmless. But in some cases they change into a pathological form, and when that happens they start accumulating in the cells, destroying them, especially in the central nervous system. Further, if transferred to another subject, these misbehaving proteins induce the same changes in the recipient, spreading the disease. This agent is responsible for Creutzefeldt Jacobs disease in humans (rapidly developing dementia and death in 4-5 months), scrapies in sheep and the mad cow disease (BSE for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy).

On a side note, many of the germs have beautiful names: "Yersinia" and the jhemorrhagic fever viruses "Hanta", "Junin", "Sabia" and "Machupo". I quite often use them when naming my roleplaying characters.

pibbur who regrets he didn't specialize in microbiology.
 
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There is of course at least one black metal/death metal band called yersinia perstis.

Like there is a Metal band called Anthrax as well. ;)
Sounds just better than being a Metal band called Milzbrand [in German language]. ;)
 
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Thanks for the heads up - if I ever see a cat choking on a rat, I'll stay well clear.

But if I see a dog choking on a cat who's choking on a rat, I still might attempt a rescue. I quite like dogs.
 
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According to the report, Oregon has had 3 cases of bubonic plague since '95 with no deaths. People sneezing and coughing are far more dangerous. WHAT TO DO ABOUT THAT??

BTW. The source of this information is Crook Country Health Department.

BTW 2, the really dangerous form of plague is when it attacks the lungs. Then contagion becomes airborn(e?), spreading the disease directly from human to human, and not restricted to fleas. The plague pandemics were of that kind.

BTW 3, most coughers and sneezers do not have pulmonary pleague.

pibbur who has a cat but not a bubonic one

EDIT:There's a small typo in the text above. It's Crook County Health Department, not Crook Country. Sorry about that.
 
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One more thing.

Since bubonic plague is so rare in the western world, the prognosis may be worse than necessary, because doctors will first consider more common diseases, and not think about plague in the first case. This patient was initially diagnosed with and treated for cat scratch fever, which given the circumstances was a reasonable diagnosis. Only when his condition got significantly worse was the correct diagnosis found and treated. No doubt the outcome would have been better (not losing his fingers and toes) if his plague had been diagnosed earlier. But you can't blame his doctors for that.

pibbur who
 
Then who can you blame?
 
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