What does depress the hell out of me is the news that more and more middle class Americans are hiring photographers to document their vacations. Many hotels now offer two- and three-hour photo sessions as part of their room fees. One honeymooning couple had photos taken of themselves on bicycles, lounging in a hammock and on a dock at sunset. (What, no bedroom shots?) The groom, Chad Bradford from Arlington, Virginia, explained that they "appreciated having one less thing to worry about on our vacation." Today photos are a big part of socializing, with many being posted on personal Facebook pages and sent to friends and family via iPhone and email. Some professionals will shoot YouTube videos of you and your kids enjoying Disneyland or running around New York City, at a cost of $100 to $800 an hour. Clients may opt to have some photo retouching done--heck, it's cheaper than plastic surgery and far safer. One pregnant vacationer recently told a busy Caribbean photographer who works in Nevis, "I don't want my thighs to be that big."
Now that's depressing.
From Wikipedia: "T. gondii infections have the ability to change the behavior of rats and mice, making them drawn to, rather than fearful of, the scent of cats".
ReplyDeleteIt's quite possible that so-called "cat ladies" are drawn to cats, entirely due to infection! Toxoplasmosis is far more prevalent than previously thought, and one need not be a pet owner to acquire T. Gondii infection. You can simply be a gardener, with neighborhood cats that like your soft well-tilled soil (much as we prefer Cottonelle!)
It makes me wonder if the health nuts who perform biannual "parasite cleanses" are on the money, after all.
Tedinski
Musn't forget about the young moms-to-be that make sure they're all gussied up for real time Facebook and Twitter photo updates.
ReplyDeleteSo is it the human, the cat, or the T. gondii infection that truly benefits from the domestication of cats?
People who have had toxoplasmosis also have a slightly higher likelihood of being killed in car accidents. There is a theory, unsubstantiated so far, that the parasites attempt to do in people brains what they do in rat brains obviously doesn't work (we don't see people seeking out cat urine, ever!) but could POSSIBLY result in even a very minor increase in risk tolerance. That could lead to driving faster, following closer, cutting in with a little less room, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to know is what else might be going on. Like Anonymous pointed out about "cat ladies", we know that there are cat people, dog people, cat and dog people, and neither cat nor dog people among us. And studies of differences between cat people and dog people show radical differences, not just subtle ones. Could it be that parasites are responsible for all of this?