Toxoplasma Mind Control

Thanks to slashdot and Yahoo! News, I just finished reading Mind Control by Parasites, Technovelgy.com. The premise here is that 50% of the world’s population is infected by Toxoplasma gondii (a parasite that lives in a cat’s gut).

Toxo (as it is lovingly called at the Merrimac River Feline Rescue Society) starts off in rats. Now rats won’t venture into areas where cat’s are prevalent. How do rats know where the cats are? They smell cat urine and they scarper. However, when a rats become hosts to our little friend, Toxo, they seemingly change their mind and start hanging out in areas that cats frequent.

We can all agree that’s not terrible sensible behaviour for the rat. It’s great for Toxo, because the rat gets eaten and Toxo moves on to a new home in the belly of a cat.

All this is perfectly reasonable. The Technovelgy.com author then adds the following one sentence paragraph, which no doubt is meant to make our hair stand on end:

If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on humans?

Toxo is really bad for expecting mothers. If you become a host during your pregnancy, I think Anna said your babies head falls off or her legs swell up and explode or something like that.

But what effect does it have on the rest of us? I suspect it just makes us want to sit in our cat’s litter boxes. After all, where else are we going to find a strong smell of cat urine?

Augustus, don’t look at me so hungrily!

Terrible Two (Month Old)

Okay, so perhaps I exaggerate a wee bit. But as of this writing, the Molly of today is much like the Molly of last month. One moment, she is quiet, curious, with the sparkle of intelligence in her dark eyes.

The next moment, often without warning, she deafens us with her crying and shrieking. Not even earplugs help defend us.

But this month, Molly has added something new to the mix- smiles:

Little smiles, big smiles, and lopsided grins. She smiled at her mommy first, and then after much anxiety on his part, smiled at her daddy as well. Her chubby, chubby cheeks are adorable!

In other news, Molly’s visit to the pediatrician went well. She has gone from being a 7lb 9.5oz weakling to a 12lb 1oz butterball (75th-90th percentile)! She has also grown 3 inches in length to 23 inches (75th percentile).

She was a brave little girl when she got her shots- very little crying. Now, if only we could discover what causes her outbursts at home…

Hell Has Frozen Over

Beelzebub himself called to give me the news. In other news GM chief agrees to halve salary, BBC:

The chief executive of General Motors (GM) is to take a 50% pay cut to help the struggling carmaker save money.

Rick Wagoner and other executives have agreed to reduce their pay and forgo bonuses as part of radical measures aimed at improving GM’s finances.

If I hadn’t read it on the Beeb, I probably wouldn’t believe it. Of course, lots of other people (you know, the workers) payed a high price first:

Burdened with massive healthcare and pensions costs, GM has already announced 30,000 job losses and nine factory closures in North America.

So now in a last ditch effort to stay alive, Wagoner and the rest of the fat, overpayed executive “team” will cut their salaries and bonuses. The following just sounds so noble:

No executive directors will receive bonuses for the 2005 financial year

Maybe that would be because they did a terrible job? Nah. Couldn’t be.