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Parasite Correlated With World Cup Success

Posted by kdawson on from the yeah-yeah-not-causation dept.

mahiskali writes "A parasite commonly found in cats, Toxoplasma gondii, has an unnerving relation to World Cup victories by country. (This parasite was discussed here twice in 2006.) Toxo can be found in almost every type of mammal, from rats to humans. The overall goal of the parasite is to end up in a feline stomach, which is the only place it can reproduce. In other mammals, humans for example, the parasite heads for the brain. It is estimated that nearly 1/3 of the human population has a latent Toxo infection, with individual countries having infection rates varying from 6% (Korea) to 92% (Ghana). Countries with greater incidence of this parasitic infection in their populations tend to win more World Cups than those without. The article, written by a Stanford University neuroscientist, goes on to try out various rationales for such a correlation, ranging from increased testosterone to increased dissent of authority — all symptoms of a Toxo infection. Now we just need to find a parasite that causes an inability to referee properly, and we'll have this whole World Cup business all sorted out."

12 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. Good News is... by ChrisK87 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fortunately here in the States we don't have to worry about such dangerous things as world cup victories.

    1. Re:Good News is... by DragonWriter · · Score: 5, Informative

      Except the point is that the much-ballyhooed-by-TEH-WORLD(tm) "World Cup" is just as inaccurate as the evil, evil, evil, rude, evil, evil, backwards, evil, not-at-all-like-Europe, evil, evil, hated, evil, evil, GAAAARGH WHY DO THEY NOT JUST DIE LIKE I HATE THEM TO, evil, evil, and just not nice United States's "World Series" (which is from the evil United States, meaning it is evil).

      Except that its not.

      The FIFA World Cup process includes teams from pretty much the whole world (there are few nations that don't aren't FIFA members, but not many.) Sure, most teams don't last past the
      the qualifiers, but that doesn't mean they aren't part of the process.

      OTOH, the MLB "World" Series, even including the MLB regular season as a "qualifying" process, includes teams from two countries.

      So, no, the two aren't even approximately equal.

    2. Re:Good News is... by unix1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not really a World Cup, it's a European-South American Cup with a couple countries from other continents invited.

      "Invited?" Every World Cup tournament is preceded by World Cup qualifying matches in which every country meeting FIFA criteria (which is pretty much every country) participates. That's why it's called the World Cup.

    3. Re:Good News is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Almost %50 of the population... Therefore most of the world does play football, even though you are wrong with your claim. Football has a massive following in China, being one of the most popular sports, in India only being ranked second to cricket (which is kind of a given). In the US it is the most popular recreational sport for both male & female competitors.

      Your claims fall flat on their face when tested to any degree.

      The World Cup is an international event, and starts again pretty much as soon as the cup is won. Just because you only follow the World Cup when your team is in the group stages doesn't mean it isn't going on for 4 years.

      You need to check your facts before you make huge claims on slashdot, if not, we will.

    4. Re:Good News is... by moranar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... And you'd be skewing the results another way. Part of the thing is watching good teams play. When thinking about an exciting world cup match, "North Korea vs Uzbekistan" does not come to mind. Good teams mostly come from Europe, or South America. Granted, the level of play in the last few world cups has been really shoddy, but still, using the 'let's assign slots using only population metrics' is completely absurd.

      --
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    5. Re:Good News is... by zill · · Score: 5, Informative

      Football is the #1 sport in China and FIFA is the most watched sports event in China.

    6. Re:Good News is... by Capsaicin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not saying we need to get into a pissing match or anything, but I think it's always best to take "World" or "Universe" or whatever with more than a grain of salt whenever it's used.

      FIFA has more national members than the UN. More than 200 teams from all around the world competed for this years world cup. Apart from the Olympics, it is difficult to imagine any sporting event more appropriately tagged as "World" than this. There is certainly no single sport which attracts anywhere near the level of support football does, even if you count out the dark areas of Earth (USA/Can, India/Pakistan, Australia/NZ).

      Why do you hate reality?

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
  2. Re:Brain parasite... by nalidog · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, but they can make you play the holophonor like a pro.

  3. Interesting fact by Itninja · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A bit OT, but I thought it was a fact worth mentioning:

    The most common carrier of Toxoplasma gondii are cats. When a cat with Toxo injures a rat (but does not kill it) it usually passes the infection to the rat. The effect of the parasite on rats makes them slower and far easier for predators (like cats) to catch/kill them. Which, in turn, passes the parasite on to the cat. The cat then takes a swipe at a rat...and so on ad infinitum.

    The parasite uses the natural predator/prey relationship to keep itself alive.

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    1. Re:Interesting fact by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 5, Informative

      More than that, the parasite doesn't just slow the rats, it actually modifies their behavior, sometimes making them attracted to cats and cat urine. It does do some strange things in humans too, e.g. it is possibly correlated to schizophrenia. I personally have always wondered if Toxoplasmosis is what causes people to keep dozens of cats in a confined space like an apartment. Having been in places like that, I can't think of a logical reason why one would otherwise want so many cats around.

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  4. Re:Poor Tommy... by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just pointing out, this comment is not actually off topic, it's a reference to Trainspotting. In the film one of the characters dies of Toxoplasmosis complicated by AIDS. The guy was also a huge soccer fan.

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    Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
  5. Re:K-dawg, here is a feature for you! by Nethead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn you Dawson!

    I had the 48" pen plotter selected as my default printer.

    I'll be sending you a wall poster of the article with my bill.

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