Hawk Bait 5

     Greetings, All -- Is a Blogger supposed to be cool, in control, ready for anything, come what may?  If so, we are so far out of our league that we should find other work, as they say.  We received a little note from an agency of the Government that must be sorted out.   The hot breath of income tax preparation time, if not on our neck, is fogging the windows.  We are very pleased with the completed renovation work in our bedroom, but every time we check a block, two or three more seem to wriggle onto the desk.  Well, to heck with it.  Let's have some fun with a little reading that we have enjoyed recently.

     It's probably a sure bet that a large portion of our loyal readers keep cats as members of the family.  The March issue of The Atlantic has a thought-provoking or hate piece about your lurking house cat.  Author Kathleen McAuliffe has taken an interesting stroll through research on a certain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, found in the feces of infected cats.  For nigh onto a century, physicians warn pregnant women "to avoid cat litter boxes" because T. gondii can infect them and the fetus they are carrying.  The disease, toxoplasmosis, is serious.

     That may not be news, but a lifetime of research by Czech scientist, Jaroslav Flegr, was certainly news to us!  He has found that rodents infected with T. gondii are changed in a variety of ways.  Many of these new traits tend to render the rodents easier for cats to capture.  McAuliffe raises the ante when she delves into the possibility that "car crashes, suicides and mental disorder such as schizophrenia" may be caused by this microbe.  This is a must read article, Folks.  Make your own decision, but read "How Your Cat is Making You Crazy" first.

     Holding to the thread of microorganisms, a very interesting and graphic article appeared in the February issue of Physics Today, published by the American Institute of Physics.  The thrust of the article is that irradiation of food is not only safe, but FDA has can be shown that absent such sterilization, it can be exceedingly difficult to remove such microbes as E. coli.  An electron micrograph of a lettuce leaf on a micrometer scale (an average human hair is in the range of 100 micrometers) resolves several E. coli snugly embedded in a crevice much too small to accomodate a human hair.  With food-borne diseases increasingly frequent, the nation should ignore hysterical rejection of science-based safety measures.

     If you have not yet read the articles presented here, we hope that you will take the time to look them over.  We would enjoy the opportunity to read and respond to your comments on any or all of them.

     Best wishes on Leap Day, Billy Hawkfinder