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"IF AN alien bug invaded the brains of half the population, hijacked their neurochemistry, altered the way they acted and drove some of them crazy, then you might expect a few excitable headlines to appear in the press. Yet something disturbingly like this may actually be happening without the world noticing." I'll give it away and tell you that they're talking about toxoplasmosis, but you should read the whole thing: not only is it very interesting, it confirms my belief that people who own cats are totally crazy.
Don't wissen to the bad bad man with his hands in his pants, pookie pookums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NFXj56JqcM
sprechen sie DER WÄHNSINN!!!?
I feel the Deutsch lends a certain EXTRA MENACE to the scene. Also, guess Paramount won't let the English version on the YooToob.
Radiolab had this story a while back, and prefaced it with this awesome bit:
"Could parasites be the shadowy hands that pull the strings of life?"
This makes me think this story should have been illustrated with that little alien dude from Men in Black, the one who piloted what looked like a human.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/09/25
Odds are no one saw Meet Dave, right?
After reading "Parasite Rex" and getting all itchy and squicked-out for a day or two, I'm going to avoid that article, thanks. Also, that "Monsters Inside Me" TV show. Eeeee.
WAIT. Somebody I was talking to at a party or something one time was trying to tell me about this and I totally didn't believe them and we looked it up online and we couldn't find out anything and now you're telling me IT'S TRUE!?
It's also a great thing to blame other peoples' "nesting instinct" on. "Well, I feel like going out tonight, but that's only because I'm not experiencing the lack of novelty-seeking behavior symptomatic of acute toxoplasmosis. Yes, it's your cat's fault."
Only-just-recently-post-adolescent boys are making each other drink crappy beverages for fun (AND PROFIT!) and you're worrying your pretty little head with my cat Eleanor's parasite issues?
FOCUS!
Wait! Maybe icing is NOT a marketing ploy by Smirinoff and instead a Toxoplasmosis marketing ploy?
I myself have been accused of being a personality-altering parasite on more than one occasion.
This might explain why I didn't strangle the cat after she peed on me in my sleep.
I knew I wasn't wearing a respirator and surgical gloves every time I scoop the litterbox, simply out of paranoia.
A different parasite is responsible for that, yes.
I told you! Cat people are weird.
Yep. That's why I'm getting a puppy.
You are allowed to like both!
@Bittersweet Be sure that puppy is not infected with T. gondii. Nearly all wildlife can contract it from cat-feces.
Oh yes.
The parasite in my brain makes me want to go shoot Andy Warhol right now.
I refuse to put much stock in any disorder that has neurosis listed as a major symptom. I'd rather not deal with that feedback loop. Shall we come back to this when more evidence about its connection to schizophrenia comes to light? Yes, let's.
You know in horror movies who ends up watching while everyone goes crazy. Uh-huh.
A little more info to help the rest of you understand the gravity of this cat-infestation problem that we now all face.
Why TNR and Cat Advocates Even Exist …
Toxoplasmosis: Behavioral changes
It has been found that Toxoplasma gondii parasite is capable of changing the brains of whatever organism it infests. In mice, they lose the fear of cats and are even attracted to cat-urine. Making the asexual portion of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite's life-cycle faster to complete in order to replicate more quickly into its sexual reproduction phase in all host cats. This loss of fear and apprehension manifesting itself in humans in a similar manner, even when common-sense tells them they should depend on that sense of fear or doubt for their own survival.
Here are other ways that this parasite have been known to alter the thinking patterns of humans: http://wildlifeprofessional.org/blog/?p=3929
I strongly suspect that it might even be responsible for all cat-lovers' wholly contradictory behavior of putting cats, all other animals, and even all humans in harm's-way through their adamant insistence of promoting TNR programs, just to ensure the survival and spread of more Toxoplasma gondii parasites throughout the food-chain and in more humans. They are, in effect, being controlled against all reason and common-sense by the very parasite that is reproducing in their cats.
Get tested for T. gondii if you are defending these invasive-species cats' lives. You're actually obeying parasites in your brain. You no longer think and reason like a human, ignoring all common-sense.
The stuff that sci-fi used to be made of comes to reality. Real-life "pod-people". They can't think nor reason beyond the need of ensuring the survival and proliferation of Toxoplasma gondii. It won't let them destroy itself.
Here's another Fun-Fact that trap-advocates fail to realize, in their infinite ignorance of how animal-behavior and evolution works.
Those cats that have learned to avoid and evade all trapping methods are the next generation to survive. Ever hear the old adage, "If you invent a better mousetrap nature will just invent a better mouse."?
So now, thanks to the supreme stupidity and ignorance of trap-advocates, we have a race of freely roaming cats in all countrysides of every continent which are passing on their "how to survive" behavior to all their offspring, both genetically and behaviorally. Now the next phase of millions of feral-cats won't even be able to be trapped. This is just how amazingly stupid trap-advocates are. You thought 150,000,000 feral cats was bad? In colloquial terms, "You ain't seen nuthin' yet!"
There's a reason the phrase "hunted to extinction" is so well-known in all cultures across all lands. It is the ONLY method that is faster than a species can breed and adapt to.
Stick that in your TNR-pipe of deceptive and deceitful ignorance and smoke it. You might as well, because you all have obviously been smoking something.
Moral of the Story:
I wasted 15 YEARS of my life arguing with demented cat-lovers. During which THEIR CATS DESTROYED ALL WILDLIFE ON MY LAND.
It wasn't until I STOPPED arguing and did what needed to be done — SHOOT ALL CATS — that my land, all the wildlife on my land, and my life itself started to return to normal. I no longer have to go out twice a day on cat-patrol to shoot more cats nor waste more time and energy burying them to protect wildlife from the diseases they carry.
I hope the rest of you learn from this lesson. You can argue with the Toxoplasmosis parasites in the cat-lovers' brains until you are blue in the face and your whole planet is destroyed by their cats, but it'll never get rid of the cats that have destroyed your life and all wildlife.
JUST DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE — DESTROY THEM.
Only later, AFTER your land and life are 100% free of cats, can you have fun educating the ineducable. Use the time you got back from their cats taking over your life to share the best ways to destroy all cats. (Without harming any other wildlife nor humans.) Then if you want, make YOUR life THEIR problem. Just as they made THEIR cats YOUR problem for all these many years. It's only fair! Because that's what it's really all about, it's not about cats at all. THEY ONLY WANT TO CONTROL YOUR LIFE WITH THEIR CATS. You can put a stop to that immediately BY DESTROYING THEIR CATS. And there's not ONE THING they can do about it if you do it right. They'll no longer have any part of your life.
On the upside, they won't make you nuts if they kill you first.
http://outbreaknews.com/2011/07/29/colorado-stray-cat-tests-positive-plague/
http://www.pagosasun.com/archives/2011/07July/072811/webplague.html
So much for that oft spewed urban myth that cats would have saved everyone from The Plague. If the cats infect the rodents with Toxoplasma gondii, then your cats even attract The Plague right to your door since the toxo-infected rodents are now attracted to cat-urine. Cats would have only made The Plague even more intensive and an even larger disaster.