Interesting article about Toxoplasma gondii, a nasty little parasite that causes rats to act against their own best interest, and may have some effects on humans as well:

hen I got to know Toxoplasma gondii. This single-celled parasite lives in the guts of cats, sheddding eggs that can be picked up by rats and other animals that can just so happen be eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts throughout its intermediate host's body, including the brain. And yet a Toxoplasma-ridden rat is perfectly healthy. That makes good sense for the parasite, since a cat would not be particularly interested in eating a dead rat. But scientists at Oxford discovered that the parasite changes the rats in one subtle but vital way.

The scientists studied the rats in a six-foot by six-foot outdoor enclosure. They used bricks to turn it into a maze of paths and cells. In each corner of the enclosure they put a nest box along with a bowl of food and water. On each the nests they added a few drops of a particular odor. On one they added the scent of fresh straw bedding, on another the bedding from a rat's nests, on another the scent of rabbit urine, on another, the urine of a cat. When they set healthy rats loose in the enclosure, the animals rooted around curiously and investigated the nests. But when they came across the cat odor, they shied away and never returned to that corner. This was no surprise: the odor of a cat triggers a sudden shift in the chemistry of rat brains that brings on intense anxiety. (When researchers test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff of cat urine to make them panic.) The anxiety attack made the healthy rats shy away from the odor and in general makes them leery of investigating new things. Better to lie low and stay alive.

Then the researchers put Toxoplasma-carrying rats in the enclosure. Rats carrying the parasite are for the most part indistinguishable from healthy ones. They can compete for mates just as well and have no trouble feeding themselves. The only difference, the researchers found, is that they are more likely to get themselves killed. The scent of a cat in the enclosure didn't make them anxious, and they went about their business as if nothing was bothering them. They would explore around the odor at least as often as they did anywhere else in the enclosure. In some cases, they even took a special interest in the spot and came back to it over and over again.

The scientists speculated that Toxoplasma was secreted some substance that was altering the patterns of brain activity in the rats. This manipulation likely evolved through natural selection, since parasites that were more likely to end up in cats would leave more offpsring.

It affects humans, too, in unknown ways. Presumably it's not just causing humans to lay down and offer cats their throats.

I think I may have a Toxoplasma infection that shows itself when I'm in a casino.

Thanks to Craig.

Posted by: Ace at 10:33 AM | Comments (12)
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...it's rampant.

The controls were so lax that auditors were able to secure their own $2,000 relief check by using "falsified identifies, bogus addresses and fabricated disaster stories," and then simply waiting for the money to arrive in the mail, says the report for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

Read the whole thing...especially the bulleted list at the end of the article.
The Federal Government. Is there anything they can't eff up?

Can anyone seriously argue that we should be giving these clowns more money and greater responsibilities?

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:25 AM | Comments (14)
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With a blizzard making its way North, this can't be a good night for Ace to fly.
He's probably in an airport somewhere, miserable.
And unable to respond to flames.

Posted by: LauraW. at 04:42 PM | Comments (121)
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The New York Times actually reports on an investigation regarding its own reporters:

Federal agents have interviewed officials at several of the country's law enforcement and national security agencies in a rapidly expanding criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding a New York Times article published in December that disclosed the existence of a highly classified domestic eavesdropping program, according to government officials.

The investigation, which appears to cover the case from 2004, when the newspaper began reporting the story, is being closely coordinated with criminal prosecutors at the Justice Department, the officials said. People who have been interviewed and others in the government who have been briefed on the interviews said the investigation seems to lay the groundwork for a grand jury inquiry that could lead to criminal charges.

The inquiry is progressing as a debate about the eavesdropping rages in Congress and elsewhere. President Bush has condemned the leak as a "shameful act." Others, like Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director, have expressed the hope that reporters would be summoned before a grand jury and asked to reveal the identities of those who provided them classified information.

Mr. Goss, speaking at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Feb. 2, said, "It is my aim, and it is my hope that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information. I believe the safety of this nation and the people this country deserve nothing less."

Posted by: Ace at 09:15 AM | Comments (262)
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Pretty amusing.

I don't like the liberal-ish attempt to change the name of "red-heads" to "Ginger Kids." I prefer the old, clear, accurate descriptor: Vicious arsonists and psychopaths who must be quarrantined from the normal population from the moment their disgusting red hair sprouts on their mishapen ogrish heads.

Thanks to yls.

Posted by: Ace at 08:47 AM | Comments (49)
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We really can't worry much about what may upset them unduly. What doesn't upset them?

Nearly two dozen black-veiled Muslim women stormed gift and stationery shops Friday in Kashmir, India, burning Valentine's Day cards and posters to protest a holiday they say imposes Western values on Muslim youth.

No one was hurt in the half-dozen or so incidents, and police cordoned off the area to prevent the women from marching through Srinagar's main shopping district to continue their ransacking.

Hey, look, Western men aren't too happy about this sham holiday either, but we don't burn stuff in protest.

Posted by: Ace at 08:43 AM | Comments (15)
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And not the benevolent Syd and Marty Krofft sort:

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rounded on the West on Saturday, accusing European countries of being Israeli puppets for publishing newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Satirical cartoons of the Prophet carried in the European press have sparked anger across the Islamic world, firing several violent protests. Many Muslims believe any depiction of the Prophet is sacrilegious.

"They say that their countries are free but they are lying. They are held hostage by Zionists and the Americans and Europeans should pay for that," Ahmadinejad told a crowd on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Europeans have defended the publication of the cartoons by insisting on the right to freedom of speech.

"How come insults are free in your country but any research on the Holocaust is a crime?" he added.

"Research on the Holocaust." Indeed.

I seem to remember a messianic figure from about 60 years ago who thought Europe was controlled by Jews. He caused some problems, if I'm remembering correctly.

But he didn't put a lot of resources into getting a nuke. His toltalitarian descendant won't be making the same mistakes as his father.

Posted by: Ace at 08:40 AM | Comments (11)
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Scrupulous regard for civil liberties for thee, but not for me:

[A]t Mrs. King's high-profile funeral, Mr. Carter evoked a comparison to the Bush policy when referring to the "secret government wiretapping" of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

But in 1977, Mr. Carter and his attorney general, Griffin B. Bell, authorized warrantless electronic surveillance used in the conviction of two men for spying on behalf of Vietnam.

The men, Truong Dinh Hung and Ronald Louis Humphrey, challenged their espionage convictions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which unanimously ruled that the warrantless searches did not violate the men's rights.

In its opinion, the court said the executive branch has the "inherent authority" to wiretap enemies such as terror plotters and is excused from obtaining warrants when surveillance is "conducted 'primarily' for foreign intelligence reasons."

That description, some Republicans say, perfectly fits the Bush administration's program to monitor calls from terror-linked people to the U.S.

The Truong case, however, involved surveillance that began in 1977, before the enactment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which established a secret court for granting foreign intelligence warrants.

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress say FISA guidelines, approved in 1978 when Mr. Carter was president, are the only way the president may conduct surveillance on U.S. soil.

But if the President has such "inherent authority" granted him by the Constitution -- recognized by federal courts -- how can Congress presume to limit it?

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (89)
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The place is virtually abandoned now. Half the bloggers aren't here, and most vendors have gone home. The radio crews are gone, but still there's this one Japanese TV show crew filming bloggers and trying to arrange interviews.

Maybe I'll talk to them. They seem eager.

I've pushed my flight ahead from 7:40 to 3:40 to (hopefully) beat the impending blizzard that will soon blanket the northeast. So I'm out of here myself soon.

Posted by: Ace at 08:20 AM | Comments (4)
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That sounds about right:

Cocky rap star KANYE WEST is calling for a revised edition of THE BIBLE, because he thinks he should be a character in it.

The JESUS WALKS hitmaker, who picked up three Grammy Awards last night (08FEB06), feels sure he'd be "a griot" (West African storyteller) in a modern Bible.

...

"I changed the sound of music more than one time... For all those reasons, I'd be a part of the Bible. I'm definitely in the history books already."

Tipster RCL cracks, "And here I was mistaking the wafer and wine for the Body of Christ during the Euchrist when I could have just walked down to the 7-11 and picked up a forty and chips."

Indeed.

Top Ten Changes In Kanye West Revised Bible

10. Jesus astounds crowds by turning water into gin n' juice

9. "Get behind me, Satan" now "I'll bust a nine in yo' ass, Satizzle"

8. Jesus begins Old School/New School gangsta feud by rapping that he's going to punk out the Pharisees and "sell their asses for sheckles" in the bazaar; sadly, "Biggie Simon" shot to death at an intersection with no witnesses

7. Sermon on the Mount revised to say "The meek, plus Kanye West, shall inherit the earth, but everyone will know who's in charge, because they're the meek, and he's Kanye West, fool"

6. Out: "I am the Way and the Light"
In: "I gots more ho's than Santa on chronic"

5. Jesus spared crucifixion because Kanye defeats Satan in a "rap off" with the "dopest, holiest rhymes"

4. Book of Matthew replaced by "guest rap" by Doctor Dre with special appearance by Li'l Kim

3. Joseph killed and his coat of many colors stolen and sold for meth

2. Apostles tour Middle East under stage name "MC Peter and the New Covenant Posse"

...and the Number One Change In the Kanye West Revised Bible...

1. Jesus turns loaves into fishes, but Kanye turns middling talent into half billion dollars; scholars throughout history debate which is the more improbable miracle

Posted by: Ace at 07:59 AM | Comments (36)
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