Well, I think “This is very serious” was intended as a contrast to carnivorousplant’s remark: “Cool.”
I tend to agree with ivylass here. Being killed by an amoeba is one of the all-time least cool ways to die I can think of. Who wants that on their death certificate? They never stop mocking you in the Afterlife if you let yourself get snuffed by a one-celled animal-- it’s like an eternity of being Charlie Brown on Halloween.
“How’d I die? Oh, I was struck by lightning. How about you fellows?”
“I had my throat torn out by a mad dog. What about you, Tim?”
And what about all the people who were killed by viruses- they were killed by something that isn’t even, technically, alive. Poor smallpox and Spanish Flu victims…
And what about people who were killed by something that, technically, has no brain, like San Mateo Bridge idiots?
I knew those raccoons were up to no good. First they eat all the fish in our backyard goldfish pond, and now this…
Certainly not! As the name implies, Bubonic plague is caused by an infection of owls. They creep in through the sinuses and nest in the brain and lymph nodes. Just as you always suspected.
I’m afraid not. While it does apparently attack children more often than adults and boys more often than girls, it’s not due to brain development. In all people, the amoeba reaches the brain through the olfactory nerve - basically a bulb extension of the brain at the far back of your nose.
It appears that infection requires direct contact between amoeba-infected water and the olfactory nerve. Most adults when they go swimming don’t get water up their noses. Most girls don’t play as rough as boys.
It’s just a general life guideline not to put bad things up your nose, since they will be in direct contact with that specific outcropping of the brain.
Naegleria fowleri is the same amoeba that is found in a few of the hot springs along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
It is claimed to be safe in the water, example the hot springs, that contains Naegleria fowleri, but you should take care not to get the water into your nose or sinuses- so cannonballing into the water is not advised.
Many years ago one of the doctors I work for lost an eye due to an amoeba on a contact lens. He now wears a glass eye. On the one hand it’s tragic and disquieting. On the other hand it’s entertaining to watch him suture.
Spending time on my Uncle’s Florida ranch, I always longed to go for a swim in the lake, until he told me. " Can’t. There a small bug* in the water that can crawl up your nose and eat your brain. Plus, we have gators**."
That took the romance outta swimmin’ in the pond on a sweltering day reallllllll quick.
Where I live, I use to longingly look at all the ponds we have around here and wistfully sigh. A friend of mine specifically built a house on a beautiful pond so that their future children could go swimming in it in the summer and they wouldn’t need a pool. Well, this what they have in their pond and all the ponds around here have them. They are like crabby old men yelling at kids to get off their lawns.
My friends built a swimming pool last year.
*he could have said “ameoba” but I don’t know if such a word existed 25 years ago in common vernacular.
** or crocodiles. I can’t keep those creatures straight. Hey, I’m from The North, we don’t need to know about these kinda things.
I never heard of anyone getting bit by those that wasn’t messing with it some way or another. Anyway, you could help things by pointing out that snappers can be VERY good eating. Killing them is the problem. I have a very disturbing story about that.
And there’s been three in this area just over the past few months. I’m not going to go all atwitter, like the media treated the shark attacks a few years ago, but I don’t think children dying is ever “cool.”
I love amoebas with all of my heart and soul. I do a stellar amoeba impression, myself (large blanket required.) I for one welcome our new amoeba overlords.
Jumpin’ Jesus on a pogo stick! Everyone knows that burrow owls live in a hole in the ground! Why the hell you think they call them a burrow owl, anyway?
