2000+ infected and close to 150 already dead in Madagascar.
Health officials have warned this is the “worst outbreak in 50 years”.
And disease experts have said that if virus mutates, the epidemic will get much worse.
Speaking to Daily Star Online, disease outbreak expert Professor Paul Hunter said that the disease could be contained if it arrived in Europe but the worry would be if the plague became resistant to antibiotics.
I know the tabloids love to stoke fear around a story like this, but wouldn’t it be a kind of poetic justice if it did spread to Europe and become resistant to treatment?
Call me very cynical, but with 7 billion+ human rats destroying the planet, isn’t it about time for a new plague to bring things back into balance?
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
BoSoxGal wrote:
I know the tabloids love to stoke fear around a story like this, but wouldn’t it be a kind of poetic justice if it did spread to Europe and become resistant to treatment?
Seems to me that if one wants to advocate for mass death of billions of people as a "solution" to the world's problems, it's hypocritical unless you're willing to volunteer to be in the first group to go...
I can't see this spreading far in a G-20 country with so many control methods avail: Kill the rats, kill the fleas, treat the infection. Plague is endemic in the US but human infection is rare. Periodically one county or another in Calif discovers it and warns everyone to stay away from rodents. I don't know if they've done it for rats carrying plague-infested fleas but they used it to control Lyme disease: Put out nesting material soaked with pesticides so that the mice use it in their nests and it kills off the deer ticks. The ticks need mice as hosts for two parts of their life cycle:
I am approaching this from a purely ecological perspective, the misanthropy is only like icing on top.
During the course of my pre-med Zoology studies, I took a terrific course covering ecosystems and read a wonderful book called Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare; it’s just a fact that nature seeks a balance within ecosystems, to prevent exceeding carrying capacity. Humans are overrunning and ruining the planet, that is also a fact. Whether it’s climate change effects that kills off millions, or antibiotic-resistant diseases (our own fault, we’ve abused the miracle of antibiotics), or catastrophic nuclear war - I do believe that nature will find a way to restore balance by vastly reducing the human population. It’s the only way the planet can survive our presence.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
rubato wrote:And it is a bacterium not a virus. Anyway, Ebola is MUCH scarier and kudos to Obama for immediately responding and sending aid to W. Africa.
yrs,
rubato
Who said anything about it being a virus? Nobody.
Mr. Smarty-Pants
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
Lord Jim wrote:Seems to me that if one wants to advocate for mass death of billions of people as a "solution" to the world's problems, it's hypocritical unless you're willing to volunteer to be in the first group to go...
We are all going to die. Nature will decide which way it happens, for me and you and everybody else.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
BoSoxGal wrote:I am approaching this from a purely ecological perspective, the misanthropy is only like icing on top.
.
All this eco shit isn't worth spit if you're one of the poor European sods who has to sacrifice themselves to uphold your virtuous stance.
Mind you the US doesn't need a plague, not with your unrelenting tendency to shoot each other...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Your virtuous stance is that millions should die to achieve your "eco" aims...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
They’re not ‘my’ eco aims. Perhaps you should educate yourself a bit about ecosystems, carrying capacity, etc. before making ludicrous personal attacks that make no sense whatsoever. If I assert that climate change is making weather systems more intense and thus hurricanes and typhoons will be taking more human lives does that mean I’m advocating for weather-related deaths? Don’t be absurd.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
I recognize the science behind nature’s constant efforts toward reaching equilibrium.
I also recognize that it would be poetic justice for a plague to again decimate the human population that is decimating all other lifeform populations on this the planet.
That doesn’t in any way equate to me wishing for it to happen, I’m simply recognizing the reality that science strongly suggests that some event or series of events will occur to address human overpopulation.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
Maybe it's time to rethink the disease component of Thomas Malthus' philosophical nugget of wisdom.
"... Malthus, an ordained minister, believed that hunger and disease were aspects of life implemented by God to stop populations from exploding. Lacking these 'positive checks' the world would quickly be overcrowded. He saw the competitive nature of life as a divine means to inspire men to work. Malthus disagreed with many of the more optimistic philosophers of the day who felt that any problem of humankind could be solved through social engineering..."
Thank you, Jesus.
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.”
BoSoxGal wrote:Are you being intentionally obtuse?
I'll leave that to you.
BoSoxGal wrote:They’re not ‘my’ eco aims. Perhaps you should educate yourself a bit about ecosystems, carrying capacity, etc. before making ludicrous personal attacks that make no sense whatsoever. If I assert that climate change is making weather systems more intense and thus hurricanes and typhoons will be taking more human lives does that mean I’m advocating for weather-related deaths? Don’t be absurd.
If you say;
BoSoxGal wrote:I know the tabloids love to stoke fear around a story like this, but wouldn’t it be a kind of poetic justice if it did spread to Europe and become resistant to treatment?
Call me very cynical, but with 7 billion+ human rats destroying the planet, isn’t it about time for a new plague to bring things back into balance?
It certainly sounds like you are advocating/wishing for even, a plague to strike to "bring things into balance." After all, you're only wishing it on European human rats, so who gives a fuck about them?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake has rattled the northern border region between Iran and Iraq, killing at least 135 people and injuring hundreds more.
At least 129 people died in western Iran's Kermanshah province, officials told state media.
Six more were reported dead in Iraq. The death toll is likely to rise.
Hooray!! More human rats being wiped out, poetic justice, thank fuck they are foreign ones
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
