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Rats reprieved as giant gerbils are blamed for the Black Death
The Times of London ^ | February 24, 2015 | Valentine Low

Posted on 02/24/2015 3:05:16 PM PST by SteveH

Gerbils are cute and furry creatures. They may also, according to scientists, have been responsible for killing millions of people across Europe by spreading the plague.

Researchers now believe that gerbils from Asia, rather than native black rats, were behind the repeated outbreaks of the bubonic plague in Europe.

(Excerpt) Read more at thetimes.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: blackdeath; blackplague; gerbils; globalwarminghoax; godsgravesglyphs; plague; ratreservoir; rats; silkroad; silkroute; yersiniapestis
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

My family used to have gerbils as pets and loved them. Such a shame to know that our family was harboring agents of mass murder and genocide. Them’s the breaks I guess.


21 posted on 02/24/2015 3:40:49 PM PST by youngphys01
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To: SteveH
They're called "tarabagan" out in the eastern steppes, and are generally believed to be the original source of the Y. Pestis pathogen. The fleas which actually spread the disease lived on a variety of (usually) rodent hosts.

In the American Southwest, bubonic plague is spread by fleas carried by native small rodents.

22 posted on 02/24/2015 3:47:14 PM PST by Tax-chick (Wash, rinse, dry, put away.)
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To: SteveH

Simply more BS from the PhD (pile it higher and deeper) crowd.


23 posted on 02/24/2015 3:52:28 PM PST by CdMGuy
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To: SteveH
Giant gerbils? How interesting.

So..... Where could one be obtained? I'm..uh...just asking for a friend.

24 posted on 02/24/2015 3:52:48 PM PST by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: youngphys01

“My family used to have gerbils as pets..”

We did as well. My first one (which I received as a prize for winning a spelling bee at school) I named Gigi. I loved the movie. My parents weren’t thrilled with my prize since I brought her home in a shoe box with air holes. But... I did win her.. what could they do?


25 posted on 02/24/2015 3:54:54 PM PST by momtothree
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To: Tax-chick

Yep, mostly prairie dogs.


26 posted on 02/24/2015 3:55:37 PM PST by IronJack
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To: IronJack

And various species of little mice.


27 posted on 02/24/2015 3:56:46 PM PST by Tax-chick (Wash, rinse, dry, put away.)
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To: Covenantor

lol


28 posted on 02/24/2015 3:58:06 PM PST by SteveH
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To: Ken H

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Ru944Gq9o

National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie (NSFW)


29 posted on 02/24/2015 4:01:32 PM PST by Second Amendment First (A)
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To: SteveH

I knew someone would have beat me to it by now!


30 posted on 02/24/2015 4:05:30 PM PST by JaguarXKE (1973: Reporters investigate All the President's Men. 2013: Reporters ARE all the President's men d)
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To: SteveH

It was neither. It was Bush’s fault. Obama said so!


31 posted on 02/24/2015 4:17:58 PM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: SteveH

Getting an early start on the April Fools pranks are we?


32 posted on 02/24/2015 6:05:21 PM PST by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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To: Billthedrill; Lazamataz

Does Laz agree?


33 posted on 02/24/2015 7:35:58 PM PST by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticide, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: UCANSEE2

34 posted on 02/24/2015 9:35:41 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: SteveH

Armageddon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrOb8zyrZk


35 posted on 02/24/2015 9:37:23 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: youngphys01

It’s too hard to understand their little shrieks of “Allah Akbar” when they are spreading the plague.


36 posted on 02/25/2015 5:37:51 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: SteveH; SunkenCiv; blam; All

The disease may have started with gerbils, but it spread to rats, and the rats aboard ships almost certainly carried the infected fleas west to Europe. Another problem is that the vector in Europe was most likely the black rat which lives in the upper part of houses and buildings. The gray Norway rat is a cellar and sewer dweller and probably not as big a danger to people should it be infected by fleas.


37 posted on 02/25/2015 10:52:46 AM PST by gleeaikin
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To: SteveH

Surprised it took four posts, we’re slipping.


38 posted on 02/25/2015 10:53:56 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: henkster

LOL, you noticed, too.


39 posted on 02/25/2015 10:54:25 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: gleeaikin

The rat difference isn’t the where they live so much as their lifestyle — one is nocturnal, the other one (the one seen walking along the sidewalks in large NE cities in the US) isn’t. :’)


40 posted on 02/25/2015 10:58:07 AM PST by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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