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Blow Your Mind: In the Lair of the Rat King
by Robert Lamb | February 7, 2012
The furniture is chewed and the cupboard raided of every last crumb. Feces litters the house and very walls seem alive with the clawed scurry of diseased rodents. You’ve evacuated the the children, grandmama and the family dog.
Even now they seek refuge at the church, as you drive your axe into the floor and pull back splintered boards. As you cast your flickering lantern light down on the horror that squirms beneath your home: a dozen worm-like tails knotted in blood and excrement, gleaming mad eyes and the hideous shriek of the Rattenkönig.
The Black Death is now (Likely) Extinct (Perhaps)
by Josh Clark | August 31, 2011
You may now breathe a small sigh of relief; if you are the type to believe what you read in studies from the University of Tübingen, at least: The bacteria thought to be behind the Black Death plague that killed 50 million people in Europe and Asia in about five years in the middle of the 14th century is thought to now be extinct. Oh, there are related versions of the bacteria, Yersinia pestis, alive and well today. As many as 2,000 people die from it around the world each year. But the particularly virulent form that swept across the East like a black death, that one is probably no longer around.
During the Conscious after Decapitation episode on SYSK, we all closed our eyes and counted off four seconds, since that’s about how long it’s been determined a person can stay conscious after being decapitated. We thought about all of the sights and sounds and sensations that can be experienced in four seconds and we were all thrilled with the horror and dread of it all.
A few weeks ago, a measly few inches of snow brought Atlanta and the surrounding areas to their knees. One of the snowstorm’s wintry “gifts” didn’t melt away though — the rat that had moved into my cute little hybrid in the week or so that my car hadn’t been moved. I’d like to call it a chipmunk or a mouse, but let’s call it what it is: a rat.
As you might expect, our relationship is an uneasy one.
I know, it’s TechStuff, so I should be telling you to pick up the electronics, right? According to a study at the University of California, San Francisco quoted by Matt Richtel of The New York Times, rats engaged with new experiences go through periods of intense brain activity. But the rats don’t actually process what they’ve experienced and learn from that experience until they stop and have the chance to think about it. Richtel said the researchers believe the same may be true for people as well.
I can think of things I’d rather do than drink after a rat.
And yet at Rajasthan’s Karni Mata Temple, which is populated by about 20,000 rats, barefooted visitors lap up water from rats’ bowls and eat crumbs the creatures have driveled on the floor. In most parts of the world, rats are regarded as filthy and diseased. The same is true for most of India, where the vermin aren’t exactly revered. But inside the walls of Karni Mata near Binaker, the rat is a holy animal. And to eat or drink after the rodent is considered a blessing.
From hordes of caterpillars in Liberia to the Australian mice plagues, infestations can occur in almost any part of the world. Join Robert and Allison as they explore some of the world’s largest — and strangest — infestations.
Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection that favors cats, but it can also be found in humans. Discover the disturbing details of how toxoplasma gondii finds a host — and how it affects human beings — in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
Here at HowStuffWorks.com we’re putting together a bunch of articles on happiness, which makes me all yellow smiley face. It looks like I’m jaundiced here I’m so happy. I’m writing a some of the articles in the happiness suite and there’s this weird thing that keeps popping up, laughing rats. Not just in congruous articles either — laughing rats were coming at me from all angles! Run for your life, yellow boy! Run!
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