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2008-01-16 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

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Posted by lotp 2008-01-16 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 ION, SPACE.com FORUMS > ASTEROID 2007 TU24 IS GETTING CLOSER [to Earth].

D *** NG IT, keep loading dem shotguns, woman, I'm gonna shoot that space rock when it flies close enuff just over the Guam McDonalds in Agana, AND I ALSO NEED A HAIRCUT!

Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-01-16 01:06|| 2008-01-16 01:06|| Front Page Top

#2 The plague is not a threat. We don't live among rats any more, we're not constantly itching flea bites, and antibiotics would take care of it in any case.

Posted by gromky 2008-01-16 02:00|| 2008-01-16 02:00|| Front Page Top

#3 Antibiotics are all right when used in a timely manner. Plague is one of the few infectious diseases which can kill in less than 24 hours.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-01-16 03:26|| 2008-01-16 03:26|| Front Page Top

#4 Pneumonic plague, the most virulent and rarest form of plague, sure. But you still have to find a way to get bitten by fleas which have been feasting on rats. Modern sanitation has taken care of that angle (for places that modern sanitation exists).

Posted by gromky 2008-01-16 04:52|| 2008-01-16 04:52|| Front Page Top

#5 Still trying to picture an airplane circling to make its next flea drop.

Boggle.

Posted by Seafarious 2008-01-16 05:28|| 2008-01-16 05:28|| Front Page Top

#6 Not the only reason to shoot prairie dogs, but the best one.

Posted by no mo uro 2008-01-16 06:10|| 2008-01-16 06:10|| Front Page Top

#7 We don't live among rats any more, we're not constantly itching flea bites,

There are lots of those conditions in places like southcentral LA, Philly, parts of NYC .....

Posted by lotp 2008-01-16 06:35|| 2008-01-16 06:35|| Front Page Top

#8 Pneumonic plague can be transmitted from person to person. Septicemic plague kills about as fast, and bubonic plague can kill the unlucky in the same time frame. People in the southwest get plague now & then from fleas which had fed on wildlife, not including rats. It is a most tricky disease. I knew a pediatric specialist & author of a medical text, years ago, who missed a case of early septicemic plague in a child, who fortunately survived because parents brought the child to the next hospital down the line a few hours later. The other aspect of the article is the use of Y. pestis as a WMD.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-01-16 06:59|| 2008-01-16 06:59|| Front Page Top

#9 Michael Begon is a coauthor of my favorite ecology textbook.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-01-16 07:02|| 2008-01-16 07:02|| Front Page Top

#10 AND I ALSO NEED A HAIRCUT!

Confirmation required JOE!

While I wait LookingGlass is coming out of the hanger.

Posted by Thomas Woof">Thomas Woof 2008-01-16 07:45|| 2008-01-16 07:45|| Front Page Top

#11 Seems to me the para-fleas thing refers to the Japanese dropping fleas from planes over China during WWII.

Seems to me it wasn't so successful. The parachutes were so tiny they had a hard time folding them properly and most of them failed.

Posted by gorb 2008-01-16 07:51|| 2008-01-16 07:51|| Front Page Top

#12 Most cases are found in the US in New Mexico, ergo the unofficial state motto, Home of Flea, Land of the Plague. New Mexicans live with it as an indigenous aspect of the environment. Most cases can be successfully treated if caught early. The local medical personnel are pretty well versed in the disease for early identification and protocols. Unfortunately, the medical personnel in neighboring states wait too long before transferring 'as a last resort' patients into New Mexico which results in the state getting tagged with the usual resultant death. Most local cases usually involve pets along the edge of development or in 'green' spaces among the incorporated cities/towns. Simple, common sense, preventive measures like wearing long pants when outdoors and giving wide berth to dead carcases in the brush and wilderness goes a long way in keeping the threat in place.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-01-16 08:02|| 2008-01-16 08:02|| Front Page Top

#13 We out here are prepared and have a large cache of bat bombs ready to deploy at a moments notice as part of our RAID (rabid and itchy destruction) policy. We estimate a near total creep out and disgust as a result of the fallout.

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-01-16 11:52|| 2008-01-16 11:52|| Front Page Top

#14 #12 - the missed diagnosis I mentioned occurred in New Mexico, at a medical facility & with personnel who were quite familiar in dealing with plague.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-01-16 21:01|| 2008-01-16 21:01|| Front Page Top

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