From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Start with Cheney - keep all shotguns away from him temporarily at least :-)

Ideology aside - that half the worlds population is affected by Toxoplasma
parasites  is interesting. I wonder if there are any studies by geographic
location?


"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
news:43f0ac7e{at}w3.nls.net...
> Bush is a dog person.  The common thread in all of this is the host
> engages
> in behavior calculated to lead to its death.  In other words the hosts are
> trying to commit suicide.  This would explain not neocon behavior, but
> liberal neo surrender monkey behavior.  They are trying to do everything
> they can to interfere with their defense in the face on an intractable and
> deadly enemy (i.e., they are trying to commit suicide).  Maybe we should
> start testing Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Cindy Sheehan, everyone at Daily
> KOS, Monte, etc for these parasites.
>
> Gary
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:43efa227{at}w3.nls.net...
>> Maybe the neocons have a valid excuse. The Toxoplasma didn't like Saddam?
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060211/sc_space/mindcontrolbyparasites
>>
>> Mind Control by Parasites
>>
>> Half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma,
> parasites
>> in the body-and the brain. Remember that.
>> Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite found in the guts of cats; it
>> sheds
>> eggs that are picked up by rats and other animals that are eaten by cats.
>> Toxoplasma forms cysts in the bodies of the intermediate rat hosts,
>> including in the brain.
>>
>> Since cats don't want to eat dead, decaying prey, Toxoplasma takes the
>> evolutionarily sound course of being a "good" parasite,
leaving the rats
>> perfectly healthy. Or are they?
>>
>> Oxford scientists discovered that the minds of the infected rats have
>> been
>> subtly altered. In a series of experiments, they demonstrated that
>> healthy
>> rats will prudently avoid areas that have been doused with cat urine. In
>> fact, when scientists test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff
>> of
>> cat urine to induce neurochemical panic.
>>
>> However, it turns out that Toxoplasma-ridden rats show no such reaction.
> In
>> fact, some of the infected rats actually seek out the cat urine-marked
> areas
>> again and again. The parasite alters the mind (and thus the behavior) of
> the
>> rat for its own benefit.
>>
>> If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on
>> humans?
>>
>> Dr. E. Fuller Torrey (Associate Director for Laboratory Research at the
>> Stanley Medical Research Institute) noticed links between Toxoplasma and
>> schizophrenia in human beings, approximately three billion of whom are
>> infected with T. gondii:
>>
>>   a.. Toxoplasma infection is associated with damage to astrocytes, glial
>> cells which surround and support neurons. Schizophrenia is also
>> associated
>> with damage to astrocytes.
>>   b.. Pregnant women with high levels of antibodies to Toxoplasma are
>> more
>> likely to give birth to children who will develop schizophrenia.
>>   c.. Human cells raised in petri dishes, and infected with Toxoplasma,
> will
>> respond to drugs like haloperidol; the growth of the parasite stops.
>> Haloperidol is an antipsychotic, used to treat schizophrenia.
>> Dr. Torrey got together with the Oxford scientists, to see if anything
> could
>> be done about those parasite-controlled rats that were driven to hang
> around
>> cat urine-soaked corners (waiting for cats). According to a recent press
>> release, haloperidol restores the rat's healthy fear of cat urine. In
> fact,
>> antipsychotic drugs were as effective as pyrimethamine, a drug that
>> specifically eliminates Toxoplasma.
>>
>> Are parasites like Toxoplasma subtly altering human behavior? As it turns
>> out, science fiction writers have been thinking about whether or not
>> parasites could alter a human being's behavior, or even take control of a
>> person. In his 1951 novel The Puppet Masters, Robert Heinlein wrote about
>> alien parasites the size of dinner plates that took control of the minds
> of
>> their hosts, flooding their brains with neurochemicals. In this excerpt,
>> a
>> volunteer strapped to a chair allows a parasite to be introduced; the
>> parasite rides him, taking over his mind. Under these conditions, it is
>> possible to interview the parasite; however, it refuses to answer until
>> zapped with a cattle prod.
>>
>>   He reached past my shoulders with a rod. I felt a shocking, unbearable
>> pain. The room blacked out as if a switch had been thrown.. I was split
>> apart by it; for the moment I was masterless.
>>
>>   The pain left, leaving only its searing memory behind. Before I could
>> speak, or even think coherently for myself, the splitting away had ended
> and
>> I was again safe in the arms of my master...
>>
>>   The panic that possessed me washed away; I was again filled with an
>> unworried sense of well being...
>>
>>   "What are you?" "We are the people... We have
studied you and we know
> your
>> ways... We come," I went on, "to bring you peace.. and
contentment-and
>> the
>> joy of-of surrender." I hesitated again;
"surrender" was not the right
> word.
>> I struggled with it the way one struggles with a poorly grasped foreign
>> language. "The joy," I repeated, "-the joy of . .
.nirvana." That was it;
>> the word fitted. I felt like a dog being patted for fetching a stick; I
>> wriggled with pleasure.
>>
>>
>> Still not sure that parasites can manipulate the behavior of host
> organisms?
>> Consider these other cases:
>>
>>   a.. The lancet fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum forces its ant host to
>> attach to the tips of grass blades, the easier to be eaten. The fluke
> needs
>> to get into the gut of a grazing animal to complete its life cycle.
>>   b.. The fluke Euhaplorchis californiensis causes fish to shimmy and
>> jump
>> so wading birds will grab them and eat them, for the same reason.
>>   c.. Hairworms, which live inside grasshoppers, sabotage the
> grasshopper's
>> central nervous system, forcing them to jump into pools of water,
>> drowning
>> themselves. Hairworms then swim away from their hapless hosts to continue
>> their life cycle.
>>
>> Not all science-fictional parasites are harmful; read about the Crosswell
>> tapeworm from Brian Aldiss' 1969 story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long
> (the
>> basis for the Kubrick/Spielberg film AI), which keeps people who overeat
>> from becoming obese. Not to mention robots based on parasites. Read press
>> release on evidence for link between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia,
> Suicidal
>> grasshoppers. Story via blogger Carl Zimmer and his readers.
>>
>>
>
>

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