Comments on: Science is macho stuff

By: Buzz Parsec

Buzz Parsec — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:08:57 +0000

On the subject of coyotes in populated area, I once saw one in Cambridge Mass. Actually, only the back half of it was in Cambridge, since it was crossing the road in front of me from Cambridge (on the left into Belmont on the right. (The John Birch Society headquarters used to be in Belmont. Also Mitt Romney lives here. Oh well, the rest of the residents are fairly rational.) Blanchard Rd between the Tip O’Neil golf course and the farm, if you want to look it up on Google Earth. There are supposedly lots of coyotes in the area, though that’s the only one I’ve ever seen. White tail deer, too, but that was about 2 miles west.

By: Moose

Moose — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:22:23 +0000

MandyDax, that’s exactly what I was thinking. That, and really hoping the “guide” would bring up “drop bears”.

By: (Hearts)

(Hearts) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:37:10 +0000

@Mena: Don’t forget about the Machos, the massive compact halo objects!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_compact_halo_object

By: Escuerd

Escuerd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:31:00 +0000

Michael Lonerganon:
“I agree with Michelle, here on the West Coast, we have no poisonous snakes. I think we do have brown recluse spiders. I know they have them in Oregon and Washington.”

There are no populations of brown recluse spiders on the west coast, contrary to popular belief.

They’re everywhere in the South, and they’re famous enough to get blamed for things that happen even in places where they don’t live.

The West coast does have “Hobo” or “Cigar box spiders” which have a necrotic venom too, but it’s not as powerful.

An arachnologist at the University of California, Riverside wrote a nice article expressing frustration at the popularity of the brown recluse as a scapegoat.

One of my sisters was once diagnosed with a brown recluse bite (at least it was in a state they exist in). It was actually a staphylococcus infection (not surprising, those are a hell of a lot more common). It seemed to take one or two more lesions appearing before the doctor decided to give her some antibiotics.

By: Escuerd

Escuerd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:58:25 +0000

Haha, this is funny since I did an internship at the other LIGO lab in Hanford, Washington where I remember a few of my fellow students being shocked that I picked up a snake I found (a harmless one; I’m not actually macho at all). I didn’t eat it, though, as I’d already had lunch.

Someone from the Livingston “observatory” told me that he and some others had gone fishing off of one of the beam tubes (there’s supposedly a water-filled ditch alongside it from excavation filled with fish, alligators and various other wildlife).

JPL (another place I’ve interned, but don’t actually work at) has wildlife (mostly deer) running wild all over their campus, and it’s not unheard of that there’ll be a cautionary lab-wide warning that a mountain lion has been spotted on the premises.

By: Impium Orexis

Impium Orexis — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:11:23 +0000

Nine times out of ten, I’d reccomend applying the tourniquet to the neck. If done properly, it has a 100% success rate of stopping the bleeding… forever.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:49:48 +0000

Oh but if you come to visit us down-under…

WATCH THE SKIES!!!

…for the deadly dropbear of course - thanks for the reminder Peter B