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Remember When Elephants Had Tusks?

Boing Boing links to an interesting story today. If an antibiotic kills 95% of a germ species, but 5% bear a gene for resistance, indiscriminate use of it will result in a surviving line of entirely resistant germs. But on a slightly larger scale, genetically tusk-free elephants are gaining ground relative to their tusked brethren, says one study, thanks to a nasty antibiotic called poaching. If elephants don't have the decency to go extinct, maybe they'll just hang around to tusklessly remind our grandchildren where billiard balls originally came from, and to invite us to ponder what the last poacher was thinking as he shot the last tusked elephant.

7 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. It is part of a trend. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    It is part of trend. Tens of thousands of years ago, elephants had 6 tusks instead of just 2.

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    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  2. I welcome it. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny

    I welcome it, just like seedless watermelons. The dang tusks keep getting caught in my cheek, and you never can find a good place to spit them out without seeming like a total slob.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:I welcome it. by arodland · · Score: 2, Funny

      so one time i was reading slashdot and there was this guy who was writing some crap about bananas or something and he grafted his sentences onto each other without using any kind of punctuation or anything and i think that he must have cloned his sentences or something and i got really bored reading it but then i thought wouldn't it be cool if i wrote a reply so i started typing

      so one time i was reading slashdot...

  3. Poacher of the last tusk by duffbeer703 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn, I'm going to be rich.

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    Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
  4. Tuskless elephant jokes by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny
    Q: How do you shoot a blue tuskless elephant?
    A: With a blue tuskless elephant gun, of course.

    Q: How do you shoot a yellow tuskless elephant?
    A: Have you ever seen a yellow tuskless elephant?

    Q: What did Tarzan say when he saw the tuskless elephants coming over the hill?
    A: "Here come the tuskless elephants over the hill!"

    Q: How do you tell if there have been tuskless elephants in your refrigerator?
    A: Footprints in the peanut butter, and no rips in the saran wrap.

    Q: What did Charles de Gaulle say when he saw three tuskless elephants in sunglasses coming down the path?
    A: Ribbit.

    Q: What did Jane say when she saw the tuskless elephants over the hill?
    A: "Here come a bunch of grapes over the hill". She was colorblind.

    Q: How do you get down off an tuskless elephant?
    A: You don't. You get down off a duck.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Tuskless elephant jokes by RobertB-DC · · Score: 2, Funny

      This seems to be the appropriate thread for this:

      One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.

      Then we tried to remove the tusks. The tusks. That's not so easy to say. Tusks. You try it some time.

      As I say, we tried to remove the tusks. But they were embedded so firmly we couldn't budge them. Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely ir-elephant to what I was talking about.

      Groucho Marx, Animal Crackers

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      Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  5. Re:According to creationists... by cashman73 · · Score: 2, Funny
    But,... But,... But,... the two elephants brought aboard Noah's Ark had tusks! I remember that from all those pictures of the Noah's Ark story from bible study school!!!! :-)