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Eddie writes "Just when you thought it was safe to go back into that snakehead fishpond behind the shopping center in Crofton, Md., now comes word of a new threat slithering into our environment - "nuclear worms" from Vietnam carrying cholera and other deadly diseases." There are a bunch of blurbs here and there about these worms - apparently this Washington Post story was the origin of most of them.
I am reminded of this comic....
Aw, fuck it. Let's go bowling. - The Big Lebowski
From the WP article...
:)
> Early imports were packed in material found to
> contain the pathogen that causes cholera,
> though no cases resulted.
It was the packaging, not the worms, that were the problem. I just thought I'd clear that up for anyone who didn't read the full WP article.
If we are going to go ballistic over non-native species, then we should start by wiping out all the pigeons in North and South America, please.
-- Terry
That sounds like exactly what I was saying when the first Starbucks arrived in Scotland. Everyone thought that it was pretty cool that a coffee could come in so many different ways - and that biscuits had italian sounding names!
But pretty soon they had ousted most of the indiginous coffee places, and even quite a few other minority species like good record shops, and cheap wineries.
Now all you see for miles around is shops with silver chairs and tables out the front and streets littered with empty 4 gallon coffee cups.
I drive over the cups whenever I see them, which I take to be their eggs or young. And I refuse to give them the money they need to survive. Some day I am sure they will suffocate us. There are no food shops within a mile of my home now, but there are 4 starbucks. My how things change...
When I first saw this I thought "yeah, ok", but after some googling it appears that they are actually real and not some washington post made up crap. This link
Maryland Marine Notes which discusses concerns for Chesapeake bay mentions how the Department of Natural Resources classifies the "nuclear worm" on their list of no known problems but potentially dangerous creatures.This one is by the US Wildlife field service:
more info I've been trying to find a photo but everyone has the same info... basically wildlife angencies are trying to figure out what the hell it is and how dangerous it is... fisherman use it as bait, and the press hypes up the "nuclear" part of it by saying it was created by agent orange and napalm. The actual name nuclear worm was made up by a bait salesman on chesapeake bay because it sounded good. *rolls eyes*
can't sleep slashdot will eat me