-------------------- Just sharing my experiences, opinions, and what I've read and learned. Not medical advice. Posts: 1431 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2015
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- I wondered what word someone might use if they posted this. It's just double down bonkers. The idea of his new big cats & wolves roaming alongside people - and his estimation of the effect of lyme.
Actually, cougars are not all that large compared to a llama, I guess he's say.
He manages to both say how terrible lyme can be and- at the same time that it's no big deal by the time we see that he thinks the "number of days" ill / missed work is bad -- but were he to actually compare it with the real truth -- it just dwarfs in comparison.
I can't explain just right, though I hope it's clear after reading the article.
This idea misses the mark on so many levels. Are we going to kill off all the birds, too?
He thinks only a small group of critters can host ticks. He is sorely missing the scope here. He'd have to get rid of pet dogs and cats, too, just for starters. Could he actually not have even considered the full range of animals that are affected by ticks? Apparently.
Ticks like cougars and wolves, too. If it's got a pulse, ticks will either hitch a ride or lunch on it.
Arghgh. But this is the New York Times. And you will never see the full real truth about lyme there, ever - even with guest writers.
Or, might this have been one big joke on those who have been asking the New York Times for years to take this seriously and learn the real truth not just about lyme but also the many other tick-borne-infections?
Is the NYT's way of creative dismissal by supporting bringing cougars and wolves to our doors.
complete with a headline dig at those who have moved to "natural" methods when they can find no doctor who knows enough and is able to treat - or if they do, one they can afford since insurance companies won't touch the cost?
A real LOL in that there is no reader comment feature with this essay. That was surely on purpose. -
[ 08-21-2016, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
Thanks for sharing this article, me!
Thinking outside the box like this does is generally good.
However, not sure this plan is much different than just killing the deer outright as others have proposed<< which is NOT a successful plan.
Plan B- Instead of releasing hungry wolves and cougars in the northeast as a "natural cure for Lyme disease", you could just take them to the big building located at 1300 Wilson Blvd # 300, Arlington, VA 22209 and set them loose.
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Every time a gas powered leaf blower is used, how many ticks are then basically "invited" to come to dinner? If we stopped using gas powered leaf blowers, we could have some impact, along with other life style and societal changes. It's rather more complex yet, some things to consider for a start:
Researchers blame climate change for predators' increase
By Tina Lam & Chris Christoff - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Sept. 03, 2007
Excerpt:
. . . "The changes are dramatic," Vucetich said. "Humans have made temperatures increasingly hot, which exacerbates the number of ticks." And there's nothing scientists can realistically do to curb the ticks. . . .
I saw this the other day and was astounded that 2/3 of the arctic ice cap is gone, just gone. Detail:
Artic Sea Ice News & Analysis - Read scientific analysis on Arctic sea ice conditions. We provide an update during the first week of each month, or more frequently as conditions warrant.
As of August 14, Arctic sea ice extent is tracking third lowest in the satellite record. The southern route through the Northwest Passage appears to be largely free of ice. . . . [see map] . . . -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Want fewer ticks on the planet? Ditch gas powered leaf blowers [yet electric ones can contribute in other ways, too, depending upon where one taps their power source].
It could make a good start if all got on board with this. Think back to just when leaf blowers seemed to suddenly take over even on large patches of concrete year-round, even with no leaves or discernible rubble to sweep?
About the same time as ticks started to take over, too?
by Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor - 12/05/2011
Excerpt:
. . . Distilling the above results, the four-stroke Ryobi leaf blower kicked out 6.8 times more NOx, 13.5 times more CO and more than 36 times more NMHC than the Raptor.
The two-stroke leaf blower was worse still, generating 23 times the CO and nearly 300 times more NMHC than the crew cab pickup. Let's put that in perspective.
To equal the hydrocarbon emissions of about a half-hour of yard work with this two-stroke leaf blower, you'd have to drive a Raptor for 3,887 miles, or the distance from Northern Texas to Anchorage, Alaska. . . . -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
"How many days spent ill with Lyme Disease might cougars prevent?"
I have never pondered this question before.
I suppose if a cougar attacks someone who's sick, the answer would be all days from then on.
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Robin, what an interesting summation of the author's proposal you have.
Smoke and mirrors, this has to be to have us pondering such scenarios, eh? Will every neighborhood or nature hike now have its cougar mascot to gobble up critters smaller than it?
Where is the Saturday Night Live "Really?!?" crew when you need them?
I still think this cannot be serious. Detracting from the real issues both regarding disease / treatment and how we might otherwise make wise choices in landscaping, behavior or energy use to help the planet not be so hospitable to ticks.
Sometimes, I will find myself puzzled by an article in The New Yorker before realizing I'm in their "Humor" section. I don't think the NYT has a humor section, though. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
me
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 45475
posted
Very good discussion. TIncup, you crack me up.
-------------------- Just sharing my experiences, opinions, and what I've read and learned. Not medical advice. Posts: 1431 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2015
| IP: Logged |
me
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 45475
posted
Tincup, I don't even need to google the address bc I presume it's one of two places.
-------------------- Just sharing my experiences, opinions, and what I've read and learned. Not medical advice. Posts: 1431 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2015
| IP: Logged |
me
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 45475
posted
Okay, I googled the address. I feel brilliant.
-------------------- Just sharing my experiences, opinions, and what I've read and learned. Not medical advice. Posts: 1431 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2015
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Why didn't the author suggest some of the things they are doing here to help reduce conditions favorable for ticks? [He probably got grant money to come up with the cougar and wolves theory. Really, who paid his salary for that folly?]
What we can also do in our own neighborhoods, and share with others all over:
English Village Becomes Climate Leader by Quietly Cleaning Up Its Own Patch
By Tatiana Schlossberg - The New York Times - Aug. 21, 2016
From Aston Hayes, England
[Garry Charnock near some of the many solar panels in Ashton Hayes, England. Mr. Charnock, a former journalist, started the town’s emissions-reduction effort about 10 years ago.]
This small village of about 1,000 people looks like any other nestled in the countryside. But Ashton Hayes is different in an important way when it comes to one of the world’s most pressing issues:
climate change. Hundreds of residents have banded together to cut greenhouse emissions — they use clotheslines instead of dryers, take fewer flights, install solar panels and glaze windows to better insulate their homes.
The effort, reaching its 10th anniversary this year, has led to a 24 percent cut in emissions, according to surveys by a professor of environmental sustainability who lives here.
But what makes Ashton Hayes unusual is its approach — the residents have done it themselves, without prodding from government.
About 200 towns, cities and counties around the world — including Notteroy, Norway; Upper Saddle River, N.J.; and Changhua County, Taiwan — have reached out to learn how the villagers here did it. . . .
[Full article at link above.] -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
me
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 45475
posted
Not yet, Tinny. Working on it. It just means maybe there aren't as many landscaping rocks in my mind as we originally thought! Or, maybe it could be it was so obvious. Or maybe I really AM brilliant! These little graemlins are fun!
-------------------- Just sharing my experiences, opinions, and what I've read and learned. Not medical advice. Posts: 1431 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2015
| IP: Logged |
lpkayak
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5230
posted
Idk. The ticks are killing moose up north. Hundreds of thousands of them on one moose. So sad. Something needs to be done. i have too many mice and chipmunks but i dont want a cougar to help me we ith that
I think this drought is helping slow down the tick population. Around here it seems to be killing all kibds of thibgs from rodents to bees
-------------------- Lyme? Its complicated. Educate yourself. Posts: 13712 | From new england | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
Keebler- love your concern over the environment. Thanks for that! Hugs, hugs, hugs.
Got to wonder- they tear out the trees, lay cement, then pollute the environment more by using power tools on it for decades.
bluelyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 47170
posted
How many infected deer could a cougar eat if a cougar could eat infected deer ...? Sounds better with woodchucks .. also as a kid ,the local cougar and wild dogs weren't keen on collering ..but probably would like a trip to petsmart
-------------------- Blue Posts: 1539 | From southwest | Registered: Dec 2015
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Here we go, this interesting guy would add some diversity to any neighborhood that would also host cougars. The Serval / Giraffe Cat
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[lol]](graemlins/lol.gif)
![[bonk]](graemlins/bonk.gif)
Or, maybe it could be it was so obvious. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[loco]](graemlins/loco.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic