remember mad cow disease?

well forget about it because the US is starting to lift the embargo on European meat, starting with Irish beef. Mooooooooooo!

one way boat ticket to chlamydia

you will never believe what happens when this canoe full of tourists paddles past a koala bear.

terror alert

some science folks think this summer will bring new york city a plague of mosquitos. go ahead and read this if you'd like to be terrified to leave your house for 3 months (or maybe ever).

They are coming. There is no doubt that they are coming. What we don’t know is when they will come and how many there will be.

The last outstanding question is: Are we prepared? From a public-health standpoint, that is, and from the standpoint of dealing with seriously annoying things. Because mosquitoes are both a major health hazard and about the most irritating creatures known to man. Even ticks are easier to get along with, which is saying a lot, given that they are bloodsuckers, too.

Biologists call mosquitoes commensals, from the Latin indicating that we share the same table. The table is our lives, in the summer. The meal is our blood.

Most winters thin the mosquito population. When weather is warmer, mosquitoes tend to thrive. This winter, as is well known, there was no winter. (via)

you're going to want to at least read as far as the "sewer skeeter" section. #dontwatchdave #youretoosweettoresist

don't touch an armadillo.

as much as you may want to....don't.

Based on new evidence, scientists think that the armadillo carries and can spread leprosy to human populations. DNA tests have matched the leprosy strains of some U.S. patients with those of armadillos—among the only animals that carry the bacteria—and though the majority of cases in the U.S. are contracted in countries with higher instances of the disease, these tests indicate that some American patients contracted leprosy through armadillo exposure. (via)

or else you will turn into one.

a little tennessee-based news

ATLANTA (AP) — A tuberculosis outbreak among workers at a Tennessee elephant sanctuary is being blamed on the pachyderms.

Elephants can carry TB, and there have been reports of them spreading it to people who touch them. But three of the eight workers infected with TB in 2009 weren't in direct contact with the elephants.

The three worked in a building next to an elephant barn at the refuge in south-central Tennessee.

Investigators believe the TB bacteria spread through the air when the elephants sneezed, or through pressure washing or dust from sweeping the barn.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report Wednesday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. (via)

i didn't even know we had one of those.

dct.

i would love to shoot a city pigeon for fun sport.

Earlier this month, in a letter to Pennsylvania lawmakers, the New York City Bar claims that many pigeons are captured and transported, without food or water, to middlemen in Pennsylvania. From there they are sold to shooting ranges for use in live trap shooting competitions where participants fire shotguns at live pigeons vaulted into the air. (via)

speshly the clurb-footed ones. thx g!

eeewwwwwww!

hulk hogan + his daughter + his girlfriend.

which bitch is which?
(via dlisted)

who do you think you are? : Cesar Penn Boothe

woman gives birth to baby in most disgusting place on earth.

"'I didn't care who was there, who was watching, I just wanted the baby out.'...as the baby was being born, a crowd gathered around, shouting encouragement and taking photos on their cell phones."

Sounds about right.

;(