Spongiform Encephalitus and Meat Eating.

[Philip Dei]

Read a few post here, start of with my standard disclaimer
that although I don't eat meat I certainly would if I could.

However, there certainly appears to be a problem with the
logic of KURU. I think as Dave pointed out if your a sixty
year old male in a prehistoric society you can pretty much eat
anything you want to and you probably would not be able to
distinquish its causual affect in your death from the other 59
things that killed you. Sure that feeding human brains to
infants and women was more or less a rarity.

However, one of the things that goes with being human,
expansionist, global trekker, culture epitome and all that
stuff is that different groups take different risks,
approaches, whatever, and in the generally zero sum game of
life sometime you get the bear, and the bear gets you.

But we really need to consider once again the issue of life
expectancy, if a sort of successful individual in the
pliestocene is going to live between 25 and 30 years of age
cranking out as many offspring as resources will afford,
there are several things they never worried about.

1. Alzheimer like disease, senility, late onset
encephaliticises. Even if you look at the occurance of CJD
in europe in the current crisis, over its 10 year history
it Doesn't even come close to what West Nile has done in
the SE united states in 2 months.

2. When you are a hunter gatherer than lives out in a
temperate climate in which say the winter low temperatures
get into -20'C range and where food supplies are
non-existent for at least a month, you really are not going
to be too critical where your source of calories come from.
Vis-a-vis if the rat population living in your long house
get to popular, I suspect rat on a spit is as good a source
of calories as a steak in a pinch.

3. We have to really consider where this disease becomes
apparent. IOW under what circumstances would CJD become
statistically meaningful. From what I've read here, I
might have missed something, but the critical point in the
process is the positive feedback that is created. To
understand this we have to remember that a prion is a
proteinaceous pathological element, more specifically a
damaged protein that has the ability to transform other
similar proteins into disease state. The process at best
is slow. During our lives some of our proteins
proto'prion' proteins our damaged, and they manage to
either be elimnated or contained or we go senile at 80 or
we die before anyone notices. Even if you ate the brains
of a very old person you probably are not going to get
disease. What was happening in the case of Kuru is that
over many generations they were eating the brains of
people who ate other peoples brains. It would be
comparable in terms of positive feed back of what might
happen in a person's brain who was say 500 years old. In
addition this tribe itself may have also been eating the
uncooked brains of other primates, feeding even more
exposures into the population. When we compare this with
what was going on in england, they were feeding bascially
raw ground bonemeal to cows over many cycles possibly also
containing sheep bone meal along the way that had scrapie.
with each cycle the amount of this 'damaged' protein
increasing until finally we begin to see cows get sick
before the end of their natural (or unnatural) lifespan.
This will go away rather quickly when the chain of
amplification is broken, even if the Brits begin feeding
un'sterilized' bonemeal again in a few years, you would
probably not see another outbreak for a decade or more.
Thus meat is not a culprit, the culprit in this second
case is more or less human greed and laziness. If people
had been more diligent about the animal husbandry this
would have never happened. I dont recommend that a person
who wants to live to the age of 90 eat the brains of any
animal, although I don't thing it is likely to make you
senile (mexicans and NA have eaten brains for generations,
Sesos, and I don't see an increased incidence of late
onset senility), BUT you might be an individual who
ancestors never ate brain and there may be a
susceptibility that others don't have. But since this is a
PA newsgroup, cut off the fluff and fat, if you think you
are going to be cashing all your chips in at age 40, you
can pretty much eat whatever you damn well please
(whatever part of the animal you like) and not have to
worry except for things like
A. Fatty liver diabetes
B. Coronary artery disease
C. Structural problems associated with obesity. And if, in
that rather generous 40 years you also manage to have to
chase or hunt down everything you eat, fight off
comepetitors, share everything you catch with all your
screaming progeny, (and wives), then these are not going
to be much of a problem either.

So basically I think you folks have got your priorities way
wrong here, long before KURU is likely even to affect the
looniest person in this otherwise loon-packed newsgroup, you
are going to see a number of individuals here kick the old
bucket with Diabetic comas, Heart attacks, Strokes, Morbibund
afflictions associated with overweightness, etc. Most of these
will be associated with the overconsumption of

the MUSCLE of your favorite source of meat (name your poison,
grainfeed it, give it hormones to put on the fat, then send it
to the slaughter house so we can cram our faces with it).

Let's talk about reality here:

Malaria. Yellow fever. Typhoid. Various and sundry Monkey
viruses (latest being AIDS) Rotaviruses. Cholera. Botulism.
Tetanis. Parasite diseases (such as Amoebic disenterary,
Lieshmaniasis) Helmenthine diseases (such as schistosomiasis)
About 20 kinds of STDs 5 different Kinds of Hepatitus.

In the northern hemisphere (where many people often sleep
together in single bed) Influenza Tuberculousis.

Amoungst these Kuru wouldn't even be a microscopic ripple on
the surface of the sea during a catagory 5 hurricane.

Think about it, before a person lives to be of an age whereby
eating their brains you would get wisdom, that individual has
to pass through a gauntlet of debiliating and lethal diseases,
many people of 'old age' have a number of chronic and
recurrant diseases associated with parasite they have acquired
in their lives. If kuru begins to really be a problem , there
would be no wise brains around to eat. Email account is
blocked on return mail only persons who register with
DNApaleoAnth @ att dot net will be given access. DNApaleoAnth
is for registration only.

[Pete]

Philip Deitiker wrote:

> Even if you look at the occurance of CJD in europe in the
> current crisis, over its 10 year history it Doesn't even
> come close to what West Nile has done in the SE united
> states in 2 months.

West Nile virus: 7 deaths

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/wncount.htm

CJD: 24 deaths in UK in 2002 alone, includes 11 cases if vCJD
Hundreds of UK deaths over the past 10 years.

http://www.doh.gov.uk/cjd/stats/aug02.htm

> In addition this tribe itself may have also been eating the
> uncooked brains of other primates, feeding even more
> exposures into the population.

Cooked or uncooked, doesn't matter.

--
pete

[Philip Dei]

On Mon, 12 Aug 2002 11:02:37 -0400, pete
<pfiland@mindspring.com> wrote:

>Philip Deitiker wrote:
>
>> Even if you look at the occurance of CJD in europe in the
>> current crisis, over its 10 year history it Doesn't even
>> come close to what West Nile has done in the SE united
>> states in 2 months.
>
>West Nile virus: 7 deaths
>
>http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/wncount.htm

The list is not, for some reason, current. There are 2
suspected deaths in Hou Metro Area probably several more
unconfirmed in Louisiana. That list may require absolute
confirmation.

>CJD: 24 deaths in UK in 2002 alone, includes 11 cases if vCJD
>Hundreds of UK deaths over the past 10 years.

>http://www.doh.gov.uk/cjd/stats/aug02.htm

115 vCJD for the entire 10 years. In 2002 only 11 so far, this
compares with the Cases of West Nile in the SouthEast, deaths
from largely the last 30 day period. lest see thats 115/15 or
7.7 cases per year confirmed versus 7 case roughly in one
month. See a difference. Secondarily CJD rates seemed to have
peaked and are on the decline. West Nile rates are on the
astronomical part of the growth curve. There are close to a
billion people in europe exposed to CJD and less than 1/2 of
the U.S. population is exposed to west Nile (150 million)
therefore the affliction rate per capita per time is at least
a couple of magnitudes higher than CJD. While most people who
get CJD die, many people who get west nile do not. Some
fraction of the surviving elderly people will experience some
permanent debilitation couple with a protracted recover.

135 cases, largely in 2 months, in three states (population
40 million people). Compare that with 100s of cases in
europe over largely over 10 years in a population of several
hundred million.

>> In addition this tribe itself may have also been eating the
>> uncooked brains of other primates, feeding even more
>> exposures into the population.

>Cooked or uncooked, doesn't matter.

Thats what they say.

Philip [pdeitik at bcm.tmc.edu]
http://home.att.net/~DNAPaleoAnthro

[David Timp]

"Philip Deitiker" <pdeitik@bcm.tmc.edu> wrote in message
news:o6nflu8m6oc4lh0jomgflchj1v5lfh3fmo@4ax.com...

Secondarily CJD rates
| seemed to have peaked and are on the decline. West Nile
| rates are on the astronomical part of the growth curve.

At least temporiarily. The pattern of this disease since it
showed up in 99 is that the first year it hits area is the
worst, then the birds develop immunity and it becomes rare. NY
hasn't had another big outbreak. Of course that immunity will
wear off and many birds don't live very long, so maybe another
wave will hit in a year or two.

The outliers are reaching Southern Wisconsin this year (and a
couple of West Central counties), so next year will possibly
be the big one around here.

Meanwhile vCJD is one of those "ain't over 'till it's over"
situations, since nobody really knows yet what its incubation
period is. There could be a million Brits about to come down
with it next year, but probably not. We'll know for sure when
the rate falls back to the background level of "classic" CJD,
with no "variant" cases at all.

--
Dave Timpe

dtimpe at new dot rr dot com

[Philip Dei]

On Tue, 13 Aug 2002 21:45:36 GMT, "David Timpe"
<DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com> wrote:

You don't know mosquitos until you've been to east Texas and
Western Louisiana. The reason why most of interstate 10 is
elevated is that otherwise your windsheild would be so
blackened with mosquitos at night you would not be able to see
to drive. [joking]

The coming of el nino ussually means rain, usually daily for
southern U.S. This wet period will last for about 12 months
more. Toward the end mosquitovoric insects will climb to
nuisance levels and mosquitos will decline, provide that all
birds have been infected by that time, I suspect we will see
a decline.

>Meanwhile vCJD is one of those "ain't over 'till it's over"
>situations, since nobody really knows yet what its incubation
>period is. There could be a million Brits about to come down
>with it next year, but probably not. We'll know for sure when
>the rate falls back to the background level of "classic" CJD,
>with no "variant" cases at all.

Looking at the curve, its plateaued. 11 this year and were in
the eight month 11x12/7 = 16.5, the year before was 22 and
before that 20. before that astronomical growth. Conclusion,
plateaud and on the back side.

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[David Timp]

"David Timpe" <DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com> wrote in message
news:46f69.3574$aU3.633960@typhoon.kc.rr.com...

Updating myself on West Nile Virus ...

| The outliers are reaching Southern Wisconsin this year (and
| a couple of
West
| Central counties), so next year will possibly be the big one
| around here.

OOPS! That was yesterday. It's now been found in Brown County,
WI (Green Bay area) and in Ontonagon County, Upper Michigan,
so for all intents and purposes it's here (MI DNR presumes
it's in all counties in the UP, they just haven't been handed
a bird to test in all of them yet). Bird-born disease gets
around. My neighborhood could use a few less seagulls. I hope
they're susceptible.

Fortunately, our mosquito peak is in May and June, and in a
couple of months you won't find any.

--
Dave Timpe

dtimpe at new dot rr dot com

[Philip Dei]

On Thu, 15 Aug 2002 03:09:56 GMT, "David Timpe"
<DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com> wrote:

>"David Timpe" <DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com> wrote in message
>news:46f69.3574$aU3.633960@typhoon.kc.rr.com...
>
>Updating myself on West Nile Virus ...
>
>| The outliers are reaching Southern Wisconsin this year (and
>| a couple of
>West
>| Central counties), so next year will possibly be the big
>| one around here.
>
>OOPS! That was yesterday. It's now been found in Brown
>County, WI (Green Bay area) and in Ontonagon County, Upper
>Michigan, so for all intents and purposes it's here (MI DNR
>presumes it's in all counties in the UP, they just haven't
>been handed a bird to test in all of them yet). Bird-born
>disease gets around. My neighborhood could use a few less
>seagulls. I hope they're susceptible.
>
>Fortunately, our mosquito peak is in May and June, and in a
>couple of months you won't find any.

I'll ship you a few. Preloaded. lol.

Email account is blocked on return mail only persons who
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DNApaleoAnth is for registration only.

[Ejudy]

pdeitik wrote:
>"David Timpe" wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>Updating myself on West Nile Virus ...
>>
>>| The outliers are reaching Southern Wisconsin this year
>>| (and a
couple of
>>West
>>| Central counties), so next year will possibly be the
>>| big one
around here.
>>
>>OOPS! That was yesterday. It's now been found in Brown
>>County, WI
(Green
>>Bay area) and in Ontonagon County, Upper Michigan, so for
>>all
intents and
>>purposes it's here (MI DNR presumes it's in all counties
>>in the UP,
they
>>just haven't been handed a bird to test in all of them yet).
Bird-born
>>disease gets around. My neighborhood could use a few less
>>seagulls.
I hope
>>they're susceptible.
>>
>>Fortunately, our mosquito peak is in May and June, and in
>>a couple
of months
>>you won't find any.
>
>I'll ship you a few. Preloaded. lol.
>
>

You guys want a first hand account of how it feels to go thru
it? I got it in Egypt. Snippets of rash here and there over
body like little burns. Extreme fever, weakness diahrhea
etc... Stage one. Stage two for me was sleeping 20 hours a day
for over three weeks with high fever and sweat and chills for
at least the first week and a half. I lost 25+ pounds (1/5th
of body weight!) in month. And forth week little bits of rice
brought me back to life slowly. And i suppose i had the
meningitus but i was too tired to go to hospital so i dunno.
Overall most of the illness i just slept thru so it wasn't
really remembered.

OK. Maybe nobody likes personal accounts? Thanks for updated
areas Dave cuz we are close neighbors. I think i feel sorriest
for Phil's area cuz its known for horrendous mosquito swarms.
It must make everyone full of a wish that they could up and
move out till the mosquitos go away. Probably makes you live
in constant stress.

I wonder why you couldn't vaccinate folks to that disease. I
would fear denge the most i think. What we need is a mosquito
disease which kills the bloody blood suckers and nobody else.
We could feed it to them and they could drop dead before they
go in search of fine dining.

ejudy

[Philip Dei]

On 15 Aug 2002 02:27:57 -0700, ejudy@my-deja.com (ejudy)
wrote:

>which kills the bloody blood suckers and nobody else. We
>could feed it to them and they could drop dead before they go
>in search of fine dining.

At 600 species of mosquitos in Louisiana with the list of
those which can carry west nile growing daily, seems like this
would be alot of work.

Philip [pdeitik at bcm.tmc.edu]
http://home.att.net/~DNAPaleoAnthro

[Ejudy]

Philip Deitiker <pdeitik@bcm.tmc.edu> wrote:
>
>(ejudy) wrote:
>
>
>>which kills the bloody blood suckers and nobody else. We
>>could feed it to them and they could drop dead before they
>>go in search of fine dining.
>
>At 600 species of mosquitos in Louisiana with the list of
>those which can carry west nile growing daily, seems like
>this would be alot of work.
>

Mosquito mangler perfume? Or trick em into traps. Or breed
fifty billion more bats or, or, or,.....little bodily held
vacuum airfilter mosquito sucking devices. BUt i like the
poison perfume idea the most don't u?

ej;-)

[David Timp]

"Philip Deitiker" <pdeitik@bcm.tmc.edu> wrote in message
news:n2knlugfag8o4ursd0kr9u8motrlv191bt@4ax.com...
| On 15 Aug 2002 02:27:57 -0700, ejudy@my-deja.com
| (ejudy) wrote:
|
|
| >which kills the bloody blood suckers and nobody else. We
| >could feed it to them and they could drop dead before they
| >go in search of fine dining.
|
| At 600 species of mosquitos in Louisiana with the list of
| those which can carry west nile growing daily, seems like
| this would be alot of work.

Easier to immunize the birds, I suspect, and at least they'll
develop immunity on their own in due course. Since it probably
doesn't even make the mosquitoes sick, they most likely don't
even react to it with whatever immune systems they have.

A horse came down in Southern WI, and since they haven't
been spotted flying since Mobil Oil's neon signs came down,
that would seem to indicate the mosquitoes are indeed
carrying it there.

Given the close proximity of Africa (and all the migratory
birds wintering down there), has this virus ever shown up
in Eurasia? You'd think it would be old news throughout the
old world.

--
Dave Timpe

dtimpe at new dot rr dot com

[Bob Keeter]

in article gDa79.3815$aU3.764203@typhoon.kc.rr.com, David
Timpe at DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com wrote on 8/16/02 12:28 PM:

>
> "Philip Deitiker" <pdeitik@bcm.tmc.edu> wrote in message
> news:n2knlugfag8o4ursd0kr9u8motrlv191bt@4ax.com...
> | On 15 Aug 2002 02:27:57 -0700, ejudy@my-deja.com (ejudy)
> | wrote:
> |
> |
> | >which kills the bloody blood suckers and nobody else. We
> | >could feed it to them and they could drop dead before
> | >they go in search of fine dining.
> |
> | At 600 species of mosquitos in Louisiana with the list of
> | those which can carry west nile growing daily, seems like
> | this would be alot of work.
>
> Easier to immunize the birds, I suspect, and at least
> they'll develop immunity on their own in due course. Since
> it probably doesn't even make the mosquitoes sick, they most
> likely don't even react to it with whatever immune systems
> they have.

Here in New England, we have some of the West Nile show up
last year, but we have had Lyme disease for quite a while.
IIRC , the last couple of years they have been working on and
close to releasing a really novel "Lyme Disease" vaccination.
Once immunized your blood becomes poision for the Lyme
bacteria but also carries this immunity backwards with your
blood! An infected tick might bite a vaccinated person and by
virtue of the belly full of blood, the tick would become
immune as well as all of that particular ticks offspring, etc,
etc, etc. Doesnt get the bloodsuckers but does clean out the
Lyme disease!

Regards bk

[Faux_pseud]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

- --<-(pete logete toutous autou logoi emiv apo
sci.anthropology.paleo)->--
> Philip Deitiker wrote:
>
>> Even if you look at the occurance of CJD in europe in the
>> current crisis, over its 10 year history it Doesn't even
>> come close to what West Nile has done in the SE united
>> states in 2 months.
>
> West Nile virus: 7 deaths
>
> http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/wncount.htm
>
> CJD: 24 deaths in UK in 2002 alone, includes 11 cases if
> vCJD Hundreds of UK deaths over the past 10 years.
>
> http://www.doh.gov.uk/cjd/stats/aug02.htm
>

Perspective: http://www.nsc.org/library/rept2000.htm

==)-> Kataleipw, Faux_Pseudo

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--
.-')) _ UIN= 66618055 _ (('-. | It's a damn poor mind that '
..- .:" ) ( ":. -.. ' | can only think of one way to
((,,_;'.;' ';. ';_,,)) | spell a word.
((_.;'*Faux_Pseudo*':._)) | - Andrew Jackson

[David Timp]

"Killer gulls"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/2197887.stm

--
Dave Timpe

dtimpe at new dot rr dot com

[David Timp]

"Bob Keeter" <rkeeter@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:B982BEBD.18103%rkeeter@earthlink.net...
| in article gDa79.3815$aU3.764203@typhoon.kc.rr.com, David
| Timpe at DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com wrote on 8/16/02 12:28 PM:
|
| >
| > "Philip Deitiker" <pdeitik@bcm.tmc.edu> wrote in message
| > news:n2knlugfag8o4ursd0kr9u8motrlv191bt@4ax.com...
| > | On 15 Aug 2002 02:27:57 -0700, ejudy@my-deja.com (ejudy)
| > | wrote:
| > |
| > |
| > | >which kills the bloody blood suckers and nobody else.
| > | >We could feed it to them and they could drop dead
| > | >before they go in search of fine dining.
| > |
| > | At 600 species of mosquitos in Louisiana with the list
| > | of those which can carry west nile growing daily, seems
| > | like this would be alot of work.
| >
| > Easier to immunize the birds, I suspect, and at least
| > they'll develop immunity on their own in due course. Since
| > it probably doesn't even
make
| > the mosquitoes sick, they most likely don't even react to
| > it with
whatever
| > immune systems they have.
|
| Here in New England, we have some of the West Nile show up
| last year, but
we
| have had Lyme disease for quite a while. IIRC , the last
| couple of years they have been working on and close to
| releasing a really novel "Lyme Disease" vaccination. Once
| immunized your blood becomes poision for the Lyme bacteria
| but also carries this immunity backwards with your blood!
An
| infected tick might bite a vaccinated person and by virtue
| of the belly
full
| of blood, the tick would become immune as well as all of
| that particular ticks offspring, etc, etc, etc. Doesnt get
| the bloodsuckers but does
clean
| out the Lyme disease!

Hey, a tick's gotta live (unfortunately). I don't know if this
tactic will work as well with a virus, but it's an ingenious
idea. Lyme disease is a problem around here, too. CWD might
wipe out the deer, but ticks bite anything with blood.

--
Dave Timpe

dtimpe at new dot rr dot com

[Bob Keeter]

in article qkh79.3825$aU3.803745@typhoon.kc.rr.com, David
Timpe at DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com wrote on 8/16/02 8:06 PM:

> "Killer gulls"
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/2197887.stm

Not sure there Dave, but I think Mr. Hitchcock beat you to
this one! 8-)

Regards bk

[Philip Dei]

On Sat, 17 Aug 2002 00:37:27 GMT, Faux_Pseudo
<Faux_Pseudo@yahoo.comERCIAL> wrote:

>> CJD: 24 deaths in UK in 2002 alone, includes 11 cases if
>> vCJD Hundreds of UK deaths over the past 10 years.
>>
>> http://www.doh.gov.uk/cjd/stats/aug02.htm
>>
>
>Perspective: http://www.nsc.org/library/rept2000.htm

Yep.

Email account is blocked on return mail only persons who
register with DNApaleoAnth @ att dot net will be given access.
DNApaleoAnth is for registration only.

[Philip Dei]

On Sat, 17 Aug 2002 01:06:30 GMT, "David Timpe"
<DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com> wrote:

>"Killer gulls"
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/2197887.stm
>

The gulls down here in Texas are much more sophisticated and
better trianed.

We have a story that now has mythological proportions in our
family. It begins as such, me and my father were out fishing
the spoilbanks of the intercoastal canal down around
brownsville/port isabel, and I saw a school of fish move
into a pool of sea grass along one of these banks. So I
gently grabbed on of the auxilliary paddles and move the
boat in on the lee side of the pool, along the spoil bank.

A little background on spoil banks, what they do is raise the
edge of the bank up and then the pump spoil water into the
'bowl' such that the 'bowl' captures the sediment and allows
the filtered water back into the bay. When the bowl is filled
they move to the next spoil bank. Its still very messy stuff.
Inside this spoil bank was a colony of seagulls, and they got
PISSED. They came, I dunno 25 or 50 of them just as noisy as
seagulls can be, but they did not swoop down and peck at us.
Instead they turned #2 into a bomb dropping contest, my father
got hit about 10 times, and I suppose they knew who to target
because it took him about 10 or 15 seconds to get the outboard
down to 'shallow' running and get it pulled on and in reverse.
They continued this activity until we were back into the
intercoastal.

Where do seagulls train to aim their shit, this is what I
wondered. When we got back most of the droppings were
either direct hits or within inches of where the hit
individual was sitting.

We can never have a discussion of seagulls or spoilbanks
without my father reminescing about this story. Email
account is blocked on return mail only persons who register
with DNApaleoAnth @ att dot net will be given access.
DNApaleoAnth is for registration only.

[Pete]

Philip Deitiker wrote:

> Where do seagulls train to aim their shit, this is what I
> wondered.

In parking lots, on cars.

--
pete

[Philip Dei]

On Sun, 18 Aug 2002 01:15:56 -0400, pete
<pfiland@mindspring.com> wrote:

>Philip Deitiker wrote:
>
>> Where do seagulls train to aim their shit, this is what I
>> wondered.
>
>In parking lots, on cars.

Maybe, the numbers on a police car.

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[David Timp]

"Philip Deitiker" <pdeitik@worldnet.att.org> wrote in message
news:3d5f5026.817467@netnews.worldnet.att.net...
| On Sat, 17 Aug 2002 00:37:27 GMT, Faux_Pseudo
| <Faux_Pseudo@yahoo.comERCIAL> wrote:
|
| >> CJD: 24 deaths in UK in 2002 alone, includes 11 cases if
| >> vCJD Hundreds of UK deaths over the past 10 years.
| >>
| >> http://www.doh.gov.uk/cjd/stats/aug02.htm
| >>
| >
| >Perspective: http://www.nsc.org/library/rept2000.htm
|
| Yep.

If it's a disease new to us, one a terrorist might spread
(anthrax, death toll in the US something less than 10),
"deadly nerve gas" (Sarin attack on Tokyo subways killed a
few, but mostly fizzled) or the "heebie-jeebies" some people
get about all the potential things that might go wrong by
inserting a new gene into a food crop (notwithstanding the
fact that nature introduces new genes into all life forms,
including food crops, every day), we get all excited. Somebody
wrapping themselves around a tree is old hat (although there
are people out there trying to idiot-proof the world by
cutting down every tree within sight of a highway so these
accidents won't happen anymore).

Not to mention the real possibility (one in a pretty big
number, but very real) an asteroid or comet the size of the
one that created the Chuxculub (sp?) crater could strike the
Earth any day.

Life is a terminal disease after all, and we all have it.

--
Dave Timpe

dtimpe at new dot rr dot com

[Bob Keeter]

in article Kad89.4281$aU3.919568@typhoon.kc.rr.com, David
Timpe at DTimpe@NOSPAMnew.rr.com wrote on 8/19/02 4:12 PM:

Snippage. . . . .

> If it's a disease new to us, one a terrorist might spread
> (anthrax, death toll in the US something less than 10),
> "deadly nerve gas" (Sarin attack on Tokyo subways killed a
> few, but mostly fizzled) or the "heebie-jeebies" some people
> get about all the potential things that might go wrong by
> inserting a new gene into a food crop (notwithstanding the
> fact that nature introduces new genes into all life forms,
> including food crops, every day), we get all excited.
> Somebody wrapping themselves around a tree is old hat
> (although there are people out there trying to idiot-proof
> the world by cutting down every tree within sight of a
> highway so these accidents won't happen anymore).
>

And if you could take away all the ways to kill oneself,
we would just find another! 8-) As a species we are very
good at that.

> Not to mention the real possibility (one in a pretty big
> number, but very real) an asteroid or comet the size of the
> one that created the Chuxculub (sp?) crater could strike the
> Earth any day.
>

Matter of fact, over the weekend we had a "near miss". Not
quite as close as the one back in June(?) where they saw it
two days after closest point of approach. The one over the
weekend though was a bit different. It was close enough (and
big enough) that a good set of binocs would have allowed you
to see it go screaming by! 8-)

> Life is a terminal disease after all, and we all have it.
>

And lets hope that a cure is never found! 8-)) No matter how
hard we try!

Regards bk

[David Timp]

"pete" <pfiland@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3D5F2D8C.4E1D@mindspring.com...
| Philip Deitiker wrote:
|
| > Where do seagulls train to aim their shit, this is what
| > I wondered.
|
| In parking lots, on cars.

They get mine with regularity, especially on Mondays (trash
pickup day in my neighborhood of Menekaunee, the "old Indian
trading post" in Marinette). I suspect they also read
calendars (or at least they can count to seven), since they're
sitting there waiting before anyone puts out any trash. It
doesn't help that I'm about a half mile from a sand spit quite
appropriately called Seagull Bar (even closer to a bunch of
other bars, but that's Wisconsin for you).

Those researchers messing around with crows might want to take
a look at the herring gull while they're at it. I wonder what
their version of FOXP2 looks like (not to mention the crows,
parrots, etc). Gulls don't talk, but they're smart birdies.
Come to think of it, they do make a pretty great range of
noises. Maybe they are saying more than we think (it turns out
chimps can tell from each other's hoots what kind of treat is
being provided unseen cohorts, even though humans can't hear
the difference). Maybe they're asking each other what day of
the week it is. "If it's Monday, it's Menekaunee".

--
Dave Timpe

dtimpe at new dot rr dot com