Pharyngula

Posted by: Brownian | October 1, 2007 11:44 AM

The Competitive Enterprise Institution, also known as SFO (Shills for Oil), put out a commercial touting the benefits of increase CO emissions to photosynthesisers with the jingle, "They call it pollution; we call it life."

Forget the morality of atheists; I want to know what goes on in the brains of serial killers, sociopaths, and libertarians.

Posted by: Brownian | October 1, 2007 11:50 AM

Wait, wouldn't the increasingly deadly organisms moving northward and southward provide selection pressures for us to improve our immune responses? Sorta like the Fremen and Sardukar?

Long live the fighters!

Seriously, I am curious. I was turned onto the work of evolutionary biologist Paul W. Ewald yesterday and am trying to track down some of his articles.

Posted by: Shawn Wilkinson | October 1, 2007 12:00 PM

That article has given me the main reason to stay out of the Gulf of Mexico. I like my brain, and I don't want it to be eaten.

Posted by: Christina S | October 1, 2007 12:06 PM

Increased CO2 levels also make poison ivy grow bigger and produce more urushiol, the stuff that we're allergic to. This is a good time to buy stock in Technu.

Posted by: Fernando Magyar | October 1, 2007 12:11 PM

Shawn, the brain eating amoebas live in fresh water, the flesh eating bacteria live in saltwater so you really shouldn't worry. Me, since I live in Florida I probably have to worry about driving on I95 cuz that's *really* dangerous. ;-)

Posted by: Brownian | October 1, 2007 12:35 PM

Zeno, you've been into the Lovelock again.

Posted by: TheJerrylander | October 1, 2007 12:36 PM

As a good old hypochondriac, I can only say: Thank you, you have just made my day! Whenever I am forgetting something, I will think that it is my brain being eaten away by amoeba. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I already feel a slight itch in my nose...

;)

Posted by: Brownian | October 1, 2007 12:38 PM

I'm saving mine for the second coming. ;)

True Bob, that's funny on more levels than I can count.

Posted by: Mrs Tilton | October 1, 2007 1:01 PM

I am as opposed to brain-devouring amoebas as anybody. But that article made it sound as though more false black widow spiders is a bad thing.

Anyway, I usually think of Steatoda paykulliana rather than S. nobilis as the false widow. The former even has a red flash.

And in any event another supposedly warm-climate spider -- the six-eyed Segestria florentina -- has been recorded in England for decades now, and they'll put a far worse hurting on you than Steatoda. Beautiful animals, though. Bristowe tells you how to catch them with a blade of grass or a tuning-fork.

Wouldn't use my bare hands, though.

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | October 1, 2007 1:05 PM

Oh come on. Who doesn't like a nice brain eating amoeba?

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | October 1, 2007 1:12 PM

Yep. It's summer fun for every kid!

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | October 1, 2007 1:17 PM

I hear Perry Ferrell in my head...

Posted by: Jason Failes | October 1, 2007 1:22 PM

It's ironic we should spend so many years, so well-off, while ignoring almost completely the plight of 3rd worlders with their "tropical diseases", and now at last our karma has come special delivery via global warming.

Posted by: Steve LaBonne | October 1, 2007 1:54 PM

Vibrio vulnificus is the reason why I don't eat raw oysters any more. And the irukandji is the reason why, if I ever visit Australia and go to the beach, I'm staying out of the water. Eventually I may end up like fontor. ;)

Posted by: Hank | October 1, 2007 2:52 PM

Vibrio vulnificus is the reason why I don't eat raw oysters any more.

Posted by: Mrs Tilton | October 1, 2007 2:57 PM

Hank @29,

Do you REALLY need a reason not to eat raw sea creatures?

Yes, and it had better be a damned compelling reason, too.

Mind you, V. vulnificus sounds pretty compelling...

Posted by: Steve LaBonne | October 1, 2007 3:28 PM

Rev- I don't know too much about it, other than that it's a definite threat in oysters from the heavily polluted Gulf of Mexico. (I used to consume oysters on the halfshell by the dozen on trips to N'awlins, years ago when I lived in Jackson, Mississippi for a brief period.) Ever since I saw a TV report on what that bug can do to your liver, I haven't NEEDED to find out more. ;)

Posted by: Quiddam | October 1, 2007 3:57 PM

I find these stories remarkably irritating in their one-sidedness. Perhaps we will also see some more pleasant fauna too.

I am reminded of the IPCC report http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM6avr07.pdf which said:

"Cities that currently experience heat waves are expected to be further challenged by an increased number, intensity and duration of heat waves during the course of the century, with potential for adverse health impacts. The growing number of the elderly population is most at risk."

This could just have easily be rewritten to say:
"Cities that currently experience severe winters are expected to appreciate a decreased number, intensity and duration of cold spells during the course of the century, with potential for improved health impacts. The growing number of the elderly population is most likely to benefit." (e.g. Northern New York in deadly deep freeze, Five deaths blamed on storm, CNN, March 7, 2007)

The effect is such that a person living in Birmingham might start to see the pestilance and disease now experienced by those poor mortals in Paris. How will they cope?

Posted by: Azkyroth | October 1, 2007 4:41 PM

The behavior of sociopaths and serial killers, and the social policy positions of those who identify with the philosophies espoused by the Libertarian party in the US, typically show a similar level of concern for the welfare of others, as evidenced by the prevalence of a rather "frothing at the mouth" resistance to the idea that AGW could even be happening or that government regulation to prevent it would be justified, among those who identify as Libertarians. I'm reasonably certain that this is what Brownian was referring to, and I'm also reasonably certain you knew that.

Posted by: AnthonyH | October 1, 2007 4:50 PM

Forget the morality of atheists; I want to know what goes on in the brains of serial killers, sociopaths, and libertarians.

As noted by Torbjörn Larsson, there are many sorts of libertarians. Yes, some are pro-corporate and anti-green in a big way; others less so.

Interesting that you'd choose to provoke libertarians as a group, since freedom of religion and church-state separation are core libertarian principals. There are a lot of atheist and agnostic libertarians. They may not be a constituency that you like, but is the atheist cause so strong that you can afford to alienate them over issues not directly related to atheism?

If you honestly want to know more about libertarian thought, suggest you investigate reason dot com and cato dot org.

Posted by: AnthonyH | October 1, 2007 6:53 PM

Hey, Brownian: I was just over at one of them evil libertarian websites and saw a blog ad for the great American god-out.

Isn't it ironic, don't ya think?

Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson, OM | October 2, 2007 2:45 AM

Azkyroth:

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "social policy positions" here, considering the different libertarian groups.

But I'm amazed that people draw a similarity between emotionally disturbed individuals and people that seems to mainly promote free market principles. I'm sure the later are as capable of concerns as any other.

And the assumption that libertarians especially are unconcerned by others problems seems unwarranted. Instead they seem to have another opinion on how to fix such problems.

[FWIW on my own economically ignorant ideas, AFAIK nations with reasonably free markets and democracy has historically had the by far best economical and social growth, promoting more people away from poverty than other social models. IIRC Hans Rosling shows much the same in his TED 2007 presentation. In any case it should be checkable with Gapminder.

Consequently I tend to assume that anything that interferes with economical growth has a lot to prove, libertarians ideals aside. (Especially since differences scale exponentially fast.)

On the other hand this is but a correlation. Also, they tell me there is provably a lot of elasticity between variables in national economics. So some degree of directed measures could be useful or even behind the observed correlation of supposedly "free" markets.

In any case they are certainly a relief, if not a fix, and perhaps libertarians dismiss that too easily.]

Posted by: Peter Ashby | October 2, 2007 5:01 AM

Well over on this side of the pond, down south of the border from here the cows and sheep are being hit by bluetongue disease. A virus spread by biting midges. It seems our recent mild winters have allowed midges blown over from the Continent to survive and breed. Fortunately it is not a danger to humans but our pathogens are not far behind. I'm off up Ben Nevis with my deck chair...

Posted by: BadAunt | October 2, 2007 8:41 AM

Regarding the eating of raw (or otherwise) sea creatures (comment 27 and others): my brother is the reason I do not eat crab any more, even though I used to LOVE crab. He is a commercial diver, and one time he did a body recovery job, recovering the body of a fisherman drowned at sea. His diving partner didn't want to do it, having never seen a dead person before, but my brother, who like me grew up in a weird religious cult that was into open coffins (one of the GOOD things about it, IMO) had already seen dozens of dead people by the age of 10 or so, and was unworried. So he did the job while his partner did support up top.

He told me it wasn't too bad. The only part he found a bit stomach-turning was the crabs feasting on the body. Even so, he was fine with the whole thing until he got back up shipboard after he'd finished the job and dinner was served - the exact same type of blue crabs he'd just seen enjoying their own meal, and which the cook said were really fresh, caught locally. THAT was when he started to find the job a little distressing.

My brother is not normally an articulate person, but this story somehow came across VERY VIVIDLY.

And a year or so ago I had a nasty experience with the asari (Manila clam) I added to my spaghetti one day, and haven't had that since, either.

So actually I have been avoiding seafood (aside from fish) rather carefully the last couple of years. I just hope I don't get sick from eating fish anytime soon. Living in Japan and not eating fish could be tricky.

Posted by: AnthonyH | October 2, 2007 11:11 AM

FRAMING!! The disease is spreading!!

No, not deliberately. I poorly understand the concept of framing, and what I do see I don't like.

I find that libertarianism is poorly understood outside of libertarian circles, and was trying to provide clarification.

Posted by: thalarctos | October 2, 2007 12:02 PM

It's like the difference between an antenna and cable or satellite, Kseniya--with amoeba, you get a lot more channels to choose from.