The World Is Scary

Interesting stuff. I never knew about the centipede that eats bats. Pretty cool. =]

god is a sick fuck.

Actually, Bel, our mutual friend Erin showed those both to me. She is doing some of the most Goddamned fascinating fucking research over at the University of Oregon, going for her PhD in molecular biology. I don't know if you've ever had the chance to study anything like that, but it is the most amazing shit evar.

Check out Morgellan's Disease:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons
Super creepy. Invasion of the body snatchers type shit.

firebug wrote:Check out Morgellan's Disease:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons
Super creepy. Invasion of the body snatchers type shit.

Keep looking into it, and check out some youtube videos. There's far too many of these people (strangely, they all seem to be in the same areas as well) for it to be just garden variety hysteria. Check out some of the vids of doctors removing some of these 'fibers'. That's not hysteria, my friend.

When I first read about Morgellan's Disease I thought that it was a "crazy disease" ie. imaginary. Yet, as I continued to read more about it the symptoms and peoples descriptions are too consistent for it to be hysteria.

The problem I have is that many of the symptoms, filaments aside, are consistent with diseases like depression. Obviously, the filaments are a separate matter, but sometimes, fibers from clothing can get under the skin and cause the appearance of similar filaments. I'll admit, I don't know if all of the filaments can be explained away in such a manner, but certainly some of them can. Overall, I remain skeptical until more is known about the make-up of those filaments. In other words, I'll take it more seriously if tests reveal that they don't have a "natural" origin.

Like I said, rock, keep checking into it. They have done some experiments trying to determine what these 'fibers' are. You can even get some good pictures of them under a microscope. They are most definitely not fibers from clothing. These fibers haven't been 'inserted', they are growing. Some scientists have even been able to culture it, although they're still not entirely sure of what it actually is.

OH
MY
GOSH
WHAT
THE
FLYING
****!
(wow, twice in one day?)

0_o That is some scary shit right there!!

@ cordyceps: ...noooow I think I understand why eating one in The World Ends With You is supposed to give you +50 bravery...that is pretty freaking scary!

@ the mammal eater: ...dude....that's insane. just....WOW.

@ Morgellan's Disease: ....hmm....maybe it's like the "Zombie Virus" Idea I had. It shows physical symptoms, and it boosts the brain's paranoia level until the victim goes crazy, thinking they're beign taken over!

(that would make an interesting zombie movie idea, no? Guy gets a crazy skin rash and paranoia from the virus, and then the villain spreads propaganda that it's a zombie infection. Instant "zombies", or at least people who have deluded themselves into thinking they are.)

More like the world is awesome.

Theres a species of tarantula called the "Goliath Bird-eater", because when naturalists first identified it in an expedition to Brazil, they saw it catch and eat a humming bird.

Nobody's metioned Giant Asian Hornets yet? They're a bit of a problem in Japanese mountains, I hear.

The size of the giant hornets is quite underwhelming. When I hear the name I expect to see a wasp the size of a house cat. Or at least the size of a giant beetle, if that's more reasonable. Although I would expect giant beetles to be much bigger too. =[

Size is not what makes Giant Asian Hornets so scary though. Their sting is incredibly toxic and can actually melt human flesh. If it isn't treated immediately, there is a high chance of death (and people do get killed by these often enough.) Also, if one stings you, the others sense it and come after you too. They're also considerably dangerous to bees: One of these hornets can infiltrate a hive and kill every damned bee in it, guillotine style.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=JDSf3Kshq1M heres a link showing the hornets overtaking a hive of honey bees.

Its from a documentary I saw on them, pretty incredible. They walked up to the hornets nest in I think they what was some kind of bio-suit and the hornets were spraying venom at the guy and crashing into him and he said he was very frightened as they had quite a bit of ramming force. I'll see if i can find a video of that part.

I've seen the fungi before which is pretty incredible as well as http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw these parasites which take over the snails mind so that it will get eaten by birds by making their eyes look like larvae.

Edit: here it is, called hornets from hell: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=t038T1qmHL0