🚀 go-pugleaf

mrtribe@chat.carleton.ca (michelle r. tribe) writes:

>Steve Barnard (steve@megafauna.com) wrote:

>> These prions are disease organisms that can hardly be said to be alive.  
>> They aren't even as advanced as viruses, not by a long shot.  They also 
>> cause "scabies" in sheep and are known to cause a brain disease in 
          ^^^^^^^
That's "scrapie".

>> cannabilistic human societies.  

>Science has  has never, ever proven a cannabilistic human society to have
>existed.  There are theories and sketchy evidence, but nothing to prove it
>"beyond a shadow of a doubt."
I believe that Mr Barnard is referring to kuru, which is a prion disease
once found among some tribes from the New Guinea highlands, who practiced
ritual cannibalism (you know, eating a bit of grandpa to show respect).

You are, as far as I know, right that cannibalism as a way of collecting
your calories in the medium to long term is pretty much a myth.

While both scrapie and BSE are prion diseases (as are kuru and CJD), and
it was widely supposed that it had "crossed over" from sheep to cows,
it's worth noting that investigators have so far isolated some dozen or
so strains of scrapie, none of which match the prion causing BSE as far
as they can tell.  

>---
>Michelle R. Tribe
>http://chat.carleton.ca/~mrtribe


John P.

 "Once more, *all* phenomena are basically without existence, though you
 cannot now say that they are *non-existent*." - Hsi Yun before P'ei Hsu
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john@huiac.apana.org.au |=--------=| Oblique Strategies by Eno & Schmidt
------------- Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities --------------

-- 
 "Once more, *all* phenomena are basically without existence, though you
 cannot now say that they are *non-existent*." - Hsi Yun before P'ei Hsu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
john@huiac.apana.org.au |=--------=| Oblique Strategies by Eno & Schmidt