More cat news:
Cory Doctorow: A parasite that causes rats to sacrifice themselves to cats may also change human behavior, making women more outgoing and warmhearted, and men more jealous and suspicious. The Toxoplasma bacteria is shed in cat feces, which are eaten by rats; infected rats become fearless in the presence of cats, which makes them easier to catch, which, in turn spreads the disease to new cats.
Carl Zimmer is the author of Parasite Rex, a sharp science book dealing with the amazing ways that parasites attack us, change us, farm us, use us and kill us. He reports on new research on the effect of Toxoplasma bacteria on humans.
Toxoplasma was previously believed to be largely harmless to humans (though it can compromise our immune systems). But new research suggests that humans, like rats, go through behavioral changes when infected with the parasite, though the effects are opposite in women and men.
Regular BB readers will remember my review of Scott Westerfeld's Peeps, a young-adult vampire novel largely inspired by Parasite Rex, in which all of the behaviors attributed to vampires are explained in parasitological terms.
Some scientists believe that Toxoplasma changes the personality of its human hosts, bringing different shifts to men and women. Parasitologist Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague administered psychological questionnaires to people infected with Toxoplasma and controls. Those infected, he found, show a small, but statistically significant, tendency to be more self-reproaching and insecure. Paradoxically, infected women, on average, tend to be more outgoing and warmhearted than controls, while infected men tend to be more jealous and suspicious.
[link]
So there is a kitty/vampire connection....
Salmon bennedict: Turn the bones of your beloved, dead pet into freaky-ass sculpture: [link]
I was informed the other day of a college guy's hierarchy of communications intimacy. He rated e-mail as less intimate than text messaging, and phone calls more than both. I know it's folly to quantify these things, but he presented it as common university knowledge. It surprised me, because I figure e-mail is more intimate than texting.
I agree with him. email sits until received. most people keep their phones on, so a text beeps them right then.
texting trades detail for urgency, so I htink it's more often done among intimates. If that makes sense.
insent, msbelle.
I'd never thought of it that way. I still haven't gotten the hang of reliably hearing my phone at home, and have no reception at work. I'm more accessible by e-mail than any other means. Plus there's the whole detail and preservability of it. I don't often say anything that important by text message--one brief concept at a time, at best.
From a piece of very enthusiastic spam I got this morning:
I feel like you are sorely in need of a refresher and I know just the thing to aid you with that. It's this adorable watch shopping site that employs really economical prices and I think you'd be obsessed with it! You're an attractive girl and you deserve to don luxurious items.
You honestly deserve one of these collections because you don't ever spoil yourself! Their dispatchment is a breeze, and they also use online tracking! You're going to look and feel fabulous, and that makes me jubilant.
I deserve to don luxurious items. Don't we all?
It makes me jubilant when you spoil yourself and don luxurious items Robin. Um, don't click the link, that would not make me jubilant.
