NRR: Parasites, flies and worms that repel / intrigue...

[Ian Townsend]

Read an article in Decembers BBC Science magazine on Toxoplasmosis Gondii and was fascinated. It's basically a parasite that lodges into the brain and affects behaviour patterns to aid it's own life cycle.

When it gets into the brain of a rat it messes up signals there so the rat 'reads' the smell of cat / cat urine as slightly sexually exciting rather than frightening. Net result is the rat runs towards the cat, cat eats the rat, parasite gets 'home' to cat intestines to breed some more.

There are other equally fascinating 'zombie parasites' too. This video is not a zombie parasite at all but I stumbled upon it in the course of research. Absolutely fascinating / vile to watch I think, depending on your stomach for stuff like this.

Human Bot Fly removal:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqV1MCDLcMM&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsear ch_query%3Dhuman%2Bblow%2Bfly%26oq%3Dhuman%2Bblow% 2Bfly%26aq%3Df%26aqi%3D%26aql%3D%26gs_sm%3D12%26gs _upl%3D1084016l1087672l0l1089281l14l13l0l4l4l0l313 l1797l0.5.3.1l9l0&has_verified=1

[Old School Tramp]

I find every smell to be slightly sexually exciting including open drains, rotten cat corpses in the hight of summer & 65 day old navel sweat.

[Gingham Kitchen]

& that's why you wrote that post from a secure unit.

I remember reading that one of the best ways to get rid of some tape worms is to starve yourself for three days then sit in front of a bowl of hot milk with your mouth open and wait for the tape worm to crawl up your gullet in search of food. Sounds like rubbish, so it must be true.

[Ian Townsend]

I find every smell to be slightly sexually exciting including open drains, rotten cat corpses in the hight of summer & 65 day old navel sweat.
Jeez, thought for a mini-second you said 65 year old navel sweat.

Hellfire we need some better smilies here, there's not even a shocked face one. :(

[Ian Townsend]

& that's why you wrote that post from a secure unit.

I remember reading that one of the best ways to get rid of some tape worms is to starve yourself for three days then sit in front of a bowl of hot milk with your mouth open and wait for the tape worm to crawl up your gullet in search of food. Sounds like rubbish, so it must be true.
Got an absolutely vile YouTube video to post laterzzz of a tapeworm type thing being removed and it doesn't involve milk or open mouths. One of my students drew my attention to it. ;)

God bless vile teenagers. :)

[Peter Sundae]

Got an absolutely vile YouTube video to post laterzzz of a tapeworm type thing being removed and it doesn't involve milk or open mouths. One of my students drew my attention to it. ;)

God bless vile teenagers. :)



"starve yourself for three days then sit in front of a bowl of hot progressive rock with your mouth open and wait for the tape worm to crawl up "

[Ian Townsend]

....unless you have a strong stomach.

As a lot of the outraged comments note, this isn't a Guinea Worm at all and it could easily have been killed and removed from the patients intestines using drugs and no surgery. The students in my class were variously fascinated / enthralled / horrified.

Followed it up with the two damnedest cute kitten videos (that the whole world has seen), just to send them out to lunch happy. :rolleyes:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE-CUx4gOv8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr0

[auxillary_output]

I wasn't sure if I should post this in the Underwater Love thread or here. Bob Marley has just been 'honoured' by having a blood-sucking parasite from the Caribbean named after him (http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-marley-parasite-20120711,0,5467109.story?track=rss).

I'm racking my brain right now to come up with Bob Marley song titles involving parasites. :D

And the last paragraph names a few more.

Other celebrities have been similarly honored, although perhaps with slightly less offensive species. President George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Beatles all had beetles named after them; President Obama has a California lichen named in his honor; comedian Stephen Colbert has two insects named after him; and singer Beyoncé is the namesake of a horsefly with a golden rear end.

:)

[ironheadrat]

The students in my class were variously fascinated / enthralled / horrified.


Was this the last class of the year 'let's have a bit of fun' lesson?
My German teacher Mr N¡elson brought his guitar in and made us all sing along to folk songs. Fascinated - sort of; enthralled - no; horrified- very definitely.

[Ian Townsend]

Was this the last class of the year 'let's have a bit of fun' lesson?
My German teacher Mr N¡elson brought his guitar in and made us all sing along to folk songs. Fascinated - sort of; enthralled - no; horrified- very definitely.
Lawdy no! 'Let's have a bit of fun' lessons are always a recipe for disaster as despite 15 year olds often appealing to have a free or fun lesson within ten minutes they're bored sh*tless and chasing each other about.:D

If a lesson can't have a 'Wow' factor then a 'yuk' factor runs a close second, hence I ALWAYS show the 12 year olds doing sexual reproduction an appalling late 70s video showing a real birth that climaxes with blood and afterbirth etc etc. They may not like it, but they never forget it, and there's always a few young lads who look distinctly green
about the gills after watching it.

When teaching parasites, always get them onto tapeworms, guineas worms etc..they love 'em and YouTube brings them to life. And I've added Toxo Plasmosis Gondii in the mix now. My impression of a rat getting strangely excited by the smell of a cat and then running towards it is shaping up nicely replete with props and Parkour-like leaping across lab benches. Probably elicits a similar response to Mr Nielson but 'memorable' however painful, is good.

[eruditio]

Was this the last class of the year 'let's have a bit of fun' lesson?
My German teacher Mr N¡elson brought his guitar in and made us all sing along to folk songs. Fascinated - sort of; enthralled - no; horrified- very definitely.

One for you here ironheadrat, though it really should be in the Private Press Youtube thread. :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IV-E68rh18