Wednesday  the Tenth of December, 2003

And some facetious pop-sci effects of toxoplasma on human personality - researchers claim that the cat-borne parasite makes women easy-going, promiscuous and likely to spend more money on clothes, while turning men into "aggressive, undesirable loners". Only a very, very slight increase in the chance of a human host being eaten by cats, then. Give it another 50,000 years.  ]
Some theories of behaviour-modifying parasitism, boiling down to a cloudy mix of increased parasite fitness (changing host behaviour to make it more vulnerable to predation) and increased host fitness (changing behaviour to slow the growth of, or kill, the parasite).

There's also a wonderful (if rather unproven) theory of evolved host suicide, whereby increased vulnerability to predation stops the host's kin from becoming infected.  ]

Passing Frenzies: Evolva - Driver 2 - BlogNomic


 Tuesday  the Ninth

Punch Nicholas van Hoogstraten. Alternatively, pay two friends to punch him and then get the manslaughter charges dropped because you were really just aiding and abetting, or conspiring to murder, or something. [via spliggo@MciOS]  ]
Doctors are prescribing gutworm eggs to calm human immune systems - brilliantly, the picture of "Dr Alan Brown", three photos down, gives away their true reason for working together. ("My wife's horrified - she's totally convinced that one day I'm going to infect the whole family.")

There also been "recent" research about a common toxoplasma parasite slowing reaction times in the human brain, which I'm sure I've heard before. But I didn't know that it's more than twice as common among the French, makes rats fearless as an evolutionary-useful-behaviour-changing trick (although it's not a patch on dicrocoelium dentriticum) and is impossible to remove.  ]


 Monday  the Eighth

Lost.  ]
Underground London - an alternative Beck's-style map of sewers, forgotten underground rivers and the Post Office Railway. ("But this was not the Post Office's first experiment with underground deliveries. In 1863, they had built a pneumatic railway at Euston, shooting mail compartments fast below the city.")  ]

As 
Above

Brain children. Recent or noteworthy Web offspring.

In the bookpile. Powered by allconsuming.net.

Incidental music. Ohrwurmen or otherwise.

Other weblogs. The ones I make a point of returning to a lot.

Weeks beginning. All having ended.
2003: 08.12 01.12 24.11 17.11 10.11 03.11 27.10 20.10 13.10 06.10 29.09 22.09 15.09 08.09 01.09 25.08 18.08 11.08 28.07 21.07 14.07 07.07 30.06 23.06 16.06 09.06 02.06 26.05 19.05 12.05 05.05 28.04 21.04 14.04 07.04 31.03 24.03 17.03 10.03 03.03 24.02 17.02 10.02 03.02 27.01 20.01 13.01 06.01

2002: 30.12 23.12 16.12 09.12 02.12 25.11 18.11 11.11 04.11 28.10 21.10 14.10 07.10 30.09 23.09 16.09 09.09 02.09 26.08 19.08 12.08 05.08 29.07 22.07 15.07 08.07 01.07 24.06 17.06 10.06 03.06 27.05 20.05 13.05 06.05 29.04 22.04 15.04 08.04 01.04 25.03 18.03 11.03 04.03 25.02 18.02 11.02 04.02 28.01 21.01 14.01 07.01

2001: 31.12 24.12 17.12 10.12 03.12 26.11 19.11 12.11 05.11 29.10 22.10 15.10 08.10 01.10 24.09 17.09 10.09 03.09 27.08 20.08 13.08 06.08 30.07 23.07 16.07 09.07 02.07 25.06 18.06 11.06 04.06 28.05 21.05 14.05 07.05 30.04 23.04 16.04 09.04 02.04 26.03 19.03 12.03 05.03 26.02 19.02 12.02 05.02 29.01 22.01 15.01 08.01 01.01

2000: 25.12 18.12 11.12 04.12 27.11 20.11


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