What is Digg?51 Comments
- ekso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32Toxoplasma gondii are actually remote control from the alien cat race that trully dominate this planet. We serve our masters cat, after all. Who is the servant that works 8 hours a day, 5 days for a week to bring food to the masters that only sleeps and plays with fur balls?
- exsst, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24"Humans eat toxoplasma too, in such things as unwashed vegetables; the worst affected are pregnant women, whose embryos can suffer from birth defects"
Read the article next time? - migla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22@ekso I'm pretty sure it's the mice that control the world and conduct experiments on humans. Read it somewhere...
- tvc15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Raw meat or undercooked meat is suspect as well. France supposedly has a huge percentage of infected people (like 80%) because of eating raw meat.
http://www.expasy.org/prolune/pdf/prolune017_en.pdf
(sorry, don't have time to find a better reference)
And you know those people with cats who let them sit with their little butts on the kitchen counter? The same counters where they prepare food? Ug.
Perhaps this is why some crazy people are found with hundreds of cats but you never see anyone with hundreds of dogs. - kevin.gc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16I'd like to see a map of infection rates.
- dirtyfratboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16It's not *that* hard... is it? I think it was just the "Toxoplasma gondii" that threw you off the most.
- parkinggod, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16CiXeL, you're thinking Dangerous Thoughts. Here, eat this raw meat...
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15you have to wonder if things like this arent somewhat responsible for creativity.
i always like to say that our present technological civilization isnt the NORM. the standard for human society is small groups of individuals eaking out a living and conformity.
Alot of times i wonder how much pollutants in our environment or things like this parasite are messing with our heads allowing us to think of things our natural brain chemistry would not allow on its own.
The process of creativity is mixing two or more ideas that normally wouldnt go together so its a mental error of sorts. I wonder though as our environments get filled with greater and greater levels of toxins if we will see the 'good effects' of the toxins trail off and the bad effects (such as skyrocketing levels of autism and cancer?) start to take hold. - gadgetuk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I won't accept ant other name for these than "Medicloreans". Just ask Qui-Gonn.
- affiliate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12There is a BBC documentary called "Body Snatchers" it has a section on this and also on other parasites. Very interesting. It actually shows the reactions of an infected Rat, and one that is not infected, and their reaction to surfaces in their pen which has been sprayed with cat urine. The infected rats don't care, but the not infected ones avoid it.
- defectDS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10This is the most amazing article I've read in a while. What if our entire life was controlled by this lil' bugger? AHH!
- KenMo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I blame Bush
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9@ barsanuphe
yeah but if a mere tab of acid can make someone incredibly creative to the point of insane what else could be causing us to be creative/influencing us on far more subtle levels? - CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7It makes you wonder what other bacteria are out there than can have similiar effects that we haven't discovered yet.
- Angostura, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yes, you've never touched soil in your life, have you?
- barsanuphe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondi , France has an infection rate of 88%.
Now ill have to worry about parasites next time i feel adventurous. great.
And you thought it was free will. Nah, just parasites. - daeyeth, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9That summary makes me feel really stupid
- ketsugi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5May I be the first to welcome our toxoplasmic overlords?
- Altesse, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8> "France supposedly has a huge percentage of infected people
> (like 80%) because of eating raw meat."
> So, THAT explains French politics. ;)
I'm French. I contracted toxoplasma when I was a kid.
Go ***** yourself.
I feel better now. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I'm assuming that one of the symptoms of toxoplasma is loss of sense of humor. *sheesh*
- barsanuphe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3No need; there's a good chance you already are a host.
- 0crabby0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Good idea, maybe e-mail the CDC?
- Lanser84, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is pretty interesting. I think it is even plausible that it could have some of the cultural influence the article claims. More adventurous risk-takers in your history may mean that you hear more (heroic) stories of them. I doubt it is decisive though...as people acting truly idiotically may just as well have tales of their foolishness told.
But let's remember what we're talking about. We're talking about an effect lower on the order of influence than alchohol. Both can change some aspects of your behavior (recklessness, adventurousness, disinhibition), but neither changes the ideas you hold.
So, very interesting, but not the big deal some would make of it out of context. - zatrix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3so that's where the funding money is going to? you might as well fund "are we living in a matrix" research
- 0crabby0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Tis the will of Landru...
- airship, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I insist that I am not Goa'uld. I am merely Jaffa.
- dogshaft, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Miticlorians?
- barsanuphe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5@cixel
the human brain is so complex that we cant understand it yet. So dont be too hasty blaming external influences for everything that comes out of it. - Abram730, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1Yes and why people said cats were magic... not the cats the miticlorians.
- yukevster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I sense a great science fiction novel in the making here. Parasite Takes Control of Humanity (without them ever knowing it). Causing America to act irrationally, invading a Middle East nation and having illusions of massive weapons that aren't actually there.
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2you have to wonder the sorts of things anthony bourdain http://www.anthonybourdain.com/ must be infected with.
- Abram730, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1don't worship the creations warship the creator.. as in the microbe makes people like cats ;) The microbe made cats... Toxo comes from the dirt.
Is man a monkey or were we made from dirt? by dirt I'm talking about gene splicing mind controling microbes. Concider what happened to rome after christians were fed to lions(see T. Gondii life cycle)...
Horizontal gene trasnfer was how you suvived the black plauge ;) those who lived as God's...err Toxo's lamb... shh those who were of mouse and man lived.
what was it Jesus said?
This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world....I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life(or 9 lives), and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
In my Father's house are many mansions(filled with cells)..... I am in the Father, and the Father in me.... speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works...Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you...
Yes Toxoplasma Gondii, that obscure cat ***** paricite that explains Europe. - Abram730, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1California is the hot spot in America and I think France is quite high in it's rates.
- cantoral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Prof. Daniel C. Dennett recently published the book "Breaking the Spell". He tries to understand Why humans spend the energy they do for religion? He does mention the Toxoplasma gondii at least in five places. The last mention is: "Ideas that encourage people to act together in groups (the way Toxoplasma gondii encourages rats to approach cats fearlessly) will spread more effectively as a result of this groupishness than ideas that do a less effective job of uniting their hosts into armies".
I know that this a novel use of the insight these parasites give us, but there it is, food for thought. In this instance this is meme not a gene. - Abram730, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1the explination at the end about covers my point..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-246860372 ...
christian priests
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-246860372 ...
Take 12 oocyst and submit to Allah in the morning...
but hey What did Jesus say?
--->The Lamb of God - iamagrenade, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If this *is* affecting our behavior, we seem to have dealt with it relatively well (we're all still here, and we're not murdering one another in the name of clay-covered-cat-poop).
So that means whatever diversity it created (read: very small) was absorbed into our collective culture- ideas were distributed, social standards shifted in their seats... and we plowed on.
I've never been a Trekkie, but my father was, and subsequently, I've seen the movies, so forgive me for paraphrasing the Borg when i say,
Plasmosises of the World:
"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Your uniqueness will become Our own." - themacx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1...."experimental anti-cancer drug"..... ***** med. industry bastards!
- hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Sounds like what happens to folks who keep dozens and dozens of cats!
They lose their common sense. - zip000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I read about this a long time ago, but it is still interesting.
Apparently, there are several different kinds of parasites that affect the behavior of hosts to encourage the hosts to be eaten in order to continue the live cycle of the parasite. Toxoplasmosis is the only one that I have heard of that can affect humans though (but I'm not a doctor or anything), which makes it pretty cool. The quoted article ends with this...
"This is not to say that the cultural dimensions associated with T. gondii are necessarily undesirable," noted Lafferty. "After all, they add to our cultural diversity."
...which I find a little creepy. It seems like the more we discover (or in this case possibly discover (since it is just speculated)) about our behavior, the less control we have over it.
I live with two cats and a dog that really enjoys that oh, so sweet flavor (I'm only guessing) of cat poop, so I'm almost certainly a carrier. - dromni, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Actually the infestation in the US is quite low. I would expect Muslim countries to have higher infestation rates, for there is at least one dish of Arab cuisine that is made of raw meat. Also, Muslims are fond of cats for according to Islam dogs are "unclean". (Of course *they* - the Toxoplasm Overlords - made Mohamed write that. ;-) Unfortunately I couldn't find infestation numbers in Muslim countries.
Adding to the conspiracy theories: I am Brazilian (infestation rate in the country is 70 to 80%, depending on the estimation), I have eleven cats in my home and I eat tons of meat. (Brazilians in general eat tons of meat, as one who has ever been to a Fogo de Chao restaurant can tell.) Do you think that I may be an archetypal infestation case? ;-) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4"France supposedly has a huge percentage of infected people (like 80%) because of eating raw meat."
So, THAT explains French politics. ;) - buadach, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I, for one, welcome our Toxoplasmic overlords.
- ScottZed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Now calm down, you don't really mean that - that's the parasite talking.
- 0crabby0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Oh man, just about every convict that has a pending trial that reads this:
So I was infected?
So I can get out of jail?
I need to speak with Counsel!
lol - GiggleStick, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1So it seems like being infected makes you lazy, want to eat stinky cheese, and afraid to fight. Just kidding, but I couldn't resist. Vive la France.
- TrevorBramble, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Okay, seriously, what happened to the "Old News" tag?
I'm starting to think people are just wading through pre-Digg stories on Slashdot to fuel their posting here. - dbug, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I think Cixel has been watching Futurama a bit too much...
"Ever wonder what makes special sauce so special?" - estacado, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2The scientologists were correct all along.
- robotexplorer, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3except...I've never eaten cat feces.
- leckert, on 10/12/2007, -14/+3Tosoplasma has been on here before but this was different so digg
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