|
Welcome to the International Skeptics Forum, where we discuss skepticism, critical thinking, the paranormal and science in a friendly but lively way. You are currently viewing the forum as a guest, which means you are missing out on discussing matters that are of interest to you. Please consider registering so you can gain full use of the forum features and interact with other Members. Registration is simple, fast and free! Click here to register today. |
28th February 2012, 10:19 AM | #1 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: US of A
Posts: 16,613
|
Are cat parasites eating your brain?
According to this Atlantic magazine article, an evolutionary biologist is gaining support for his long-held theory that housecats are transmitting toxoplasmosis parasites to human brains, and that the parasites are having broader and more serious effects than has been generally recognized, including schizophrenia and suicide. Any thoughts?
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...ngle_page=true |
28th February 2012, 10:19 AM | #2 |
Alumbrado
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 10,600
|
I'll second the motion.
|
28th February 2012, 10:35 AM | #3 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Mazes of Menace
Posts: 9,432
|
If true, it's still better than being infected with the T-virus.
|
__________________
He bade me take any rug in the house. |
|
28th February 2012, 10:37 AM | #4 |
No longer the 1
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 30,145
|
Probably not. And I'll be reporting your to my feline overlord when he's awoken from his late afternoon/pre-first dinner nap.
Previous thread. |
28th February 2012, 10:38 AM | #5 |
Ardent Formulist
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 15,334
|
So the question is, do the crazy cat ladies get lots of cats because they're crazy, or are they crazy because of all the cats?
|
__________________
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion. Woo's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by aliens. |
|
28th February 2012, 10:39 AM | #6 |
Ardent Formulist
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 15,334
|
OK, this quote set off every alarm my brain has to offer:
Quote:
|
__________________
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion. Woo's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by aliens. |
|
28th February 2012, 10:48 AM | #7 |
Ardent Formulist
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 15,334
|
|
__________________
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion. Woo's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by aliens. |
|
28th February 2012, 10:58 AM | #8 |
Critical Thinker
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: PEI, Canada
Posts: 464
|
Beware the cats!!!
|
__________________
Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking. --Ferdinand Foch-- |
|
28th February 2012, 11:16 AM | #9 |
Unsaviory
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 6,629
|
It's true. I had a cat for many years. Then I went crazy and killed myself.
|
28th February 2012, 12:39 PM | #10 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 14,519
|
|
__________________
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our abilities and skills, because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win." |
|
29th February 2012, 12:46 AM | #11 |
Implicitly explicit
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Here. Or very nearly getting there, at least.
Posts: 2,129
|
I have congenital toxoplasmosis, and I am boringly sane and normal. I've never killed myself, not even once, and I have never owned any designer clothing, nor will I ever. And in all my years of driving, I have never even come close to causing any accidents.
But just in case, I always take my best friend Spiny Norman the hedgehog (dressed in this really cute Armani hedgehog suit I bought him) with me when I am driving, and let him take the wheel if I am beginning to feel inattentive. |
29th February 2012, 03:55 AM | #12 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 16,039
|
It's worth pointing out that the idea that t. gondii has behavioral affects in humans is different from the specific claim that it's linked to schizophrenia.
The former is supported by evidence (see here, for instance: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/9/72), the latter, I'm not clear upon and have only heard that claim from the article linked in the OP, so thus far I don't really have an opinion one way or the other. (From that linked paper):
Quote:
|
__________________
"... when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together." Isaac Asimov |
|
29th February 2012, 09:10 AM | #13 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 6,260
|
|
__________________
Gamemaster: "A horde of rotting zombies is shambling toward you. The sign over the door says 'Accounting'" |
|
2nd March 2012, 09:10 AM | #14 |
Safely Ignored
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 16,392
|
|
2nd March 2012, 09:59 AM | #15 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 9,242
|
Who cares? Cats are well worth the price.
|
2nd March 2012, 12:10 PM | #16 |
Ardent Formulist
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 15,334
|
|
__________________
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion. Woo's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by aliens. |
|
2nd March 2012, 12:11 PM | #17 |
Ardent Formulist
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 15,334
|
|
__________________
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion. Woo's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by aliens. |
|
2nd March 2012, 01:05 PM | #18 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 186
|
Is there other illnesses besides schizophrenia and
|
__________________
He who destroys a good book kills reason itself. |
|
2nd March 2012, 01:07 PM | #19 |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Patriot Nation
Posts: 22,131
|
|
2nd March 2012, 01:40 PM | #20 |
Scholar
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 120
|
|
2nd March 2012, 02:06 PM | #21 |
No longer the 1
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 30,145
|
|
2nd March 2012, 02:38 PM | #22 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 3,257
|
Wait, you have toxoplasmosis, and you're a Swede,* and you haven't committed suicide?! Not ever?! I'm skeptical. Please provide evidence for your continued existence. Anecdotes and arguments from authority don't count.
*We've learned elsewhere on these fora that God punishes Swedes for their atheism/secularism by causing the vast majority of them to commit suicide. Indeed, if you believe that you have met a Swede, you are probably suffering from toxoplasmosis-induced hallucinations. |
2nd March 2012, 03:34 PM | #23 |
Neo-Post-Retro-Revivalist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Emerald City
Posts: 16,202
|
Dunno about traffic accidents and schizophrenia; but it would certainly explain the LOLcat phenomenon.
|
__________________
When you say that fascists should only be defeated through debate, what you're really saying is that the marginalized and vulnerable should have to endlessly argue for their right to exist; and at no point should they ever be fully accepted, and the debate considered won. |
|
2nd March 2012, 04:23 PM | #24 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Cardiff, South Wales
Posts: 25,102
|
|
__________________
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so - William of Conches, c1150 |
|
2nd March 2012, 05:34 PM | #25 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 3,504
|
Cats are only cute when they're still in their larval form. Once they mature and become free-roaming flying cat heads, watch out! Nobody is safe!
|
4th March 2012, 01:58 AM | #26 |
Implicitly explicit
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Here. Or very nearly getting there, at least.
Posts: 2,129
|
How silly of me to think I could fool you! I should have expected you to call my bluff - Swedish, atheist, and congenital toxoplasmosis; of course I commit suicide on a regular basis. And since I am feeling a little negative today, I am not sure I could provide any evidence that I have ever existed at all, we all know how hard it is to prove a negative.
|
Thread Tools | |
|
|