Dimensional Door - Freeople Thread 14

[lodwick]

Hey Lynn -

I wish I knew how to wake up more folks...take a shepherd's crook and bop'em on the head?

Stay warm up there, toots.

Cheers.

[nicmarlo]

You have a neat profile page! think I'll "borrow" some of your graphis there! Right nic?

Oooooh, yeah! like this one:

[Darksheare]

WHY oh WHY does that remind me of a pokemon...

[Darksheare]

Uh oh.
Sis just read this.
And she's smirking.

[Darksheare]

It's not all THAT bad.
Remember the conversations in the older threads about torture racks for fun and profit, and the fact that he human eye homes in on movement, right?

And while I will admit to once in awhile writing some poetry, I will say that it's not as good as Conspiracy Guy's stuff, or some of the other poets scattered far and wide across FR.

Besides, most of it is dark, foreboding, and depressing at times.

[Conservababe]

I went to my grandson's fourth birthday bowling party this afternoon. This was his first birthday party to invite his friends instead of just having family over. He was so cute, alternating between being a baby and a young man. He saw the men of the family shaking hands, so he greeted one of his buds arriving at the party by sticking out his hand, too. The other little boy did not respond in kind, so Jeremiah just hugged him. LOL But, then he threw a real coniption fit because he did not want anyone to cut his Spiderman cake. Lawd.

The bowling alley has it set up really nice for children parties. They give them two lanes with those bumper thingies that keep them from throwing a gutter ball. Did I say throw? No, three and four year olds do not throw a bowling ball. They carry it up and lay it down and give it a little push. Do yall know how long it takes for a ball pushed by a four year old to finally arrive at the pins? Let me give you a hint. Sometimes they would just sit down and wait. LOL

[restornu]

MASH

Chinese quarantine inspectors remove frozen civet cats found during a raid at a warehouse in Guangzhou, the capital of China's southern province of Guangdong, January 9, 2004. The inspectors confiscated a total of three tons of frozen civet cats prized as a delicacy and destroyed them later. Doctors of the World Health Organization (news - web sites) on Saturday searched a restaurant in southern China that employed a waitress suspected of having SARS (news - web sites), to find out if she could have caught the virus from civet cats dished up there. (China Photo/Reuters ">

WHO Hunts SARS Links from China Waitress to Civets

[restornu]

When a "Cat" is NOT a Cat
Researchers in the southern part of China have detected coronaviruses closely related to the SARS virus in three wild animal species, including the civet "cat," which are sold in markets there for food consumption. The coronaviruses were found in the masked palm civet, a tree-dwelling animal with a raccoon or weasel-like face and a catlike body; and the racoon dog. The third species, a Chinese ferret badger, was found to produce antibodies to the SARS virus.

These wild animals are considered great delicacies in China, and are bred there for human consumption. Kept in squalid surroundings, stacked cage upon cage, they can be found in markets throughout southern China. While it has been thought that the virus could have been transmitted by food handlers, this latest discovery leaves several questions unanswered, according to the World Health Organization.

Did these wild animals infect the food handlers, or vice versa?
Can the virus be spread animal-to-animal, by eating infected prey?
How widespread is the SARS infection in food animals? (The tests involved only the wild animals from one market.)
Can the virus be transmitted to humans from the eating of an infected animal?
According to an article on the WHO web site, "much more research is needed before any firm conclusions can be reached. At present, no evidence exists to suggest that these wild animal species play a significant role in the epidemiology of SARS outbreaks. However, it cannot be ruled out that these animals might have been a source of human infection." Of particular interest is the fact that the first outbreaks in Guandong province came shortly after the Chinese began importing civets for food from Vietnam. Hong Kong already outlaws the use of these animals as a food source, and it is possible that Chinese officials will also ban their sale for food. In the meantime, to mitigate the possiblility that the virus actually is transmitted by palm civets and the other wild animals tested, The World Health Organization recommends proper sanitation safeguards in handling animals used for food, along with fully cooking the meat before consumption, as the virus cannot withstand the heat used in thorough cooking.

Since the first outbreaks of SARS in Guandong province of China, scientists from WHO have suspected some sort of animal-human link of the coronavirus. The mutation of a virus strain from animals, allowing it to jump to humans, is a common cause of new illnesses in humans. The test food animals were taken from markets in Shenzhen, Guandong, and included 25 animals, representing eight species. All six civet cats were found to have the SARS virus. Animals found to test negative included the Chinese hare, Chinese muntjack (a type of deer), beaver, and domestic cats.

Next > If the civet is not a cat, what exactly is it?






What Exactly is the Civet Cat?

The civet is a mostly nocturnal animal, from the Viverridae family, found in Africa, , and the East Indies. It is approximately 17-28 inches in length, excluding its long tail, and weighs about 3 to 10 pounds. Although classified within the Carnivera order, the palm civet of Southern Asia (named because it can be found in palms), is a fruit-eating mammal. Although the Viverridae family is distantly related to the Felidae family of which the common domestic cat is a member, the civet "cat" is not a cat. Indeed, it is more related to the mongoose than to any cat.

The civet is a cunning-looking little animal, with a catlike body, long legs, a long tail, and a masked face resembling a raccoon or weasel. In some areas of the world, it has become an endangered species, hunted for its fur or as a food source. The civet's taste for fruit has been its downfall in at least one area of southeast Asia; as early as the 18th century, the durian fruit was also called "civet fruit," because it was used as bait for catching civets.

The civet not only is fond of fruit, but has had a love-hate relationship with growers of a particular coffee bean in Viet Nam. Civets love this bean, and search out the tastiest examples with their long, foxlike nose. The hardiest beans survive the digestive process of the civet, and are prized in caphe cut chon, or fox-dung coffee (Vietnamese call the civet "fox.")

Unfortunately for the civets, their habitat has been razed for new coffee orchards, and their decline has furthered because of the Vietnamese appetite for barbequed civet meat. A restraunteur admitted that he was not troubled by the scarcity of Caphe cut chon, saying that he'd rather "eat the fox." Actually, the new scarcity of fox-dung coffee beans has been a boon for entrepreneurs who market fake caphe cut chon as the real thing. However, that doesn't help the fate of the civet cats who are killed for food.

Last, the civet has been the source of a highly-valued musk, used as a stablizing agent in perfumes. Although civets were at one time killed for their musk, they more recently have been "recycled" for this purpose. Also called "civet," excretions are scraped from the civet's perianeal glands, a painful process. Both male and female cats produce these strong-smelling excretions. At least one civet cat farmer in Ethiopia raises civets for their musk, although this practice is dying out as perfumers move toward using synthetic fixatives.

Maligned, abused, and beleageured, the civet cat has an unknown future on many fronts.

But it is not a cat.

[Darksheare]

LOL!
Gotta love it!
Got to see a 5 year old 'bowling' once.
He got a good bounce going between the bumpers.
It was pretty impressive for one so young.
Even if he didn't knock too many pins down.

[Darksheare]

Wow..

[Servant of the 9]

It's not all THAT bad.
Remember the conversations in the older threads about torture racks for fun and profit, and the fact that he human eye homes in on movement, right?

Speaking of which, I found a dandy portable unit on sale.

Finest Kind

So9

[Darksheare]

Sis!
Swerve found a NEW torture rack!

Thanks!
I owe you, and the minions owe you!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Tootie Green is how that joke was told in 1648.

ROTFLOL

CG

[Conspiracy Guy]

Do you want be to beam it to you?

CG

[Conspiracy Guy]

Yes i knew you were a Bush Babe, I was explaining it to lurkers.

CGBD

[Darksheare]

Sure.
I'm toying with the idea of having it create tremors wherever Hillary is walking.

[sweetliberty]

Hi nic...seems you find your way to every thread I post on ...not that that's a bad thing..

[sweetliberty]

You are a very twisted man.

[Servant of the 9]

You are a very twisted man.

Why thank you cutie pie.

So9

[sweetliberty]

Somehow I knew you would consider that a compliment. A double blue margarita sounds delightful right about now.