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LOS ANGELES - A disease that can cause neurological illness and meningitis in people, rat lungworm, has been found in wild opposums, rats and a zoo animal in San Diego County, indicating its establishment in California for the first time. Researchers reported their findings in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials have confirmed 12 cases of rat lungworm disease in the continental United States since January 2011 — including six patients who had not traveled abroad but still contracted the illness caused by a parasite endemic to tropical regions in Asia and Hawaii. [...snip...] The disease is also known as angiostrongyliasis, after the parasitic roundworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis whose larvae hatch in the lungs of rats and then are expelled in the rodents’ excrement. At that point, the larvae can be picked up by snails and slugs, and then passed along to humans if the snails and slugs are eaten...

An assistant principal was removed from his position at the Rodriguez Middle School in Denton, Texas after it was discovered he wrote a children’s book starring the controversial internet meme character Pepe the Frog. In Eric Hauser’s 54-page illustrated story, titled The Adventures of Pepe and Pede, the anthropomorphic frog protagonist Pepe and his centipede friend Pede work together to rid their local swamp of the antagonist Alkah, a bearded alligator who has brought chaos to the entire Wishington Farm. To vanquish their deceitful foe, Pepe and Pede throw magical buds from their farm’s Honesty Tree, apparently red-pilling the alligator...

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has confessed to modifying the posts of some users on the most visible Donald Trump-supporting "subreddit" community after they repeatedly slung verbal abuse in his direction.  The story begins earlier this week, when The New York Times published a report on Comet Ping Pong, a Washington DC pizza place that a false news item on social media had pegged as the center of a child-abuse ring run by Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee chair John Podesta, despite a lack of any evidence.Following that report, Reddit took steps to shut down the "r/Pizzagate" subreddit community, which...

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water—look out for giant, swimming centipedes! Scientists have recently described the world’s first known amphibious centipede. It belongs to a group of giant centipedes called Scolopendra and grows up to 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) long.

In a bizarre style of settling scores with his neighbour, a man allegedly put some "dangerous weapons" — centipedes on his neighbour's bed. A local court charged 21-year-old R Prabhakaran for allegedly placing centipedes on his neighbour K Rajama’s bed. Prabakaran is accused of putting four centipedes and bugs on the bed of his neighbour last Friday. He is said to have had a misunderstanding with Rajama. Prabhakaran has been charged under the offence of the Penal Code for attempting to cause hurt with a "dangerous weapon" and carries a jail term of up to three years or a fine...