GeorgiaBeforePeople

Historically, famines occurred across France, perhaps explaining why the French hold such reverence for good cooking. People subject to starvation may have a greater appreciation for food preparation and gastronomic enjoyment. During the French Revolution for example there was a shortage of bread and people rioted. The hungry populace was reduced to dietary desperation and turned to frogs and snails. The former tastes pretty good, frog meat is clean and white, but snails are completely neutral in flavor. Nevertheless, they are a good source of protein, though they have to be carefully prepared because they often carry parasites. Some species of snails may consume toxic vegetation as well. I have eaten snails–they don’t taste bad; they simply have no flavor. The appeal of the famous French dish of escargot is dunking good bread in the garlic butter sauce the snails are cooked in.

Escargot. Just about any protein tastes good in parsley, garlic, and butter. Snails are very lean meat and need the fat from the butter.

In a recent study scientists estimated there are between 215-282 species of land snails native to the state of Georgia, far more than the known 67 species of aquatic snails that live in the state. There are 214 species of land snails from 28 different families with representative specimens in museums, but the authors of the below referenced study estimate there are 68 more. The list of species in this 2019 study was the first snail species list published since 1964. Snails are understudied (like I have mentioned about spiders previously) because the number of species far outnumbers the scientists interested in studying them. Snails are abundant wherever soils are rich in calcium, an element necessary for them to develop shells. Snails are valuable components of the ecosystem. Their droppings fertilize soil, they reprocess organic material, making nutrients more available for plant roots, and they disperse seeds.

A few interesting species of snails found in Georgia include the bearded mystery snail (Viviparus georgianus), Goniabasis catenaria, and the eastern whitelip (Neohelion albolabris). The bearded mystery snail lives in ponds, lakes, and slow-moving streams. These snails live in shallow water during summer but move to deeper water during winter. They are unusual because they give birth to live young–most snails lay eggs. They feed upon detritus, diatoms, algae, and fish eggs. Although they are currently considered 1 species, scientists suspect populations from 3 different river systems are 3 different species.

Bearded mystery snail.

Goniobasis catenaria. This species doesn’t have a common name.

This species of land snail is abundant in Georgia.

Goniobasis has no common name. It lives on rocky shoals in the piedmont and is accordingly endangered. Many shoals in the piedmont have been inundated by reservoirs or silt from erosion. Eastern whitelips on the other hand are common. They are the largest widespread snails in Georgia. (Apple snails, a larger species, are restricted to 1 county in southwestern Georgia.) They reach 40 mm in size. They are common from Georgia west to Mississippi. During wet weather I often see them in my yard, especially on my compost pile where they feed upon fruit and vegetable refuse. I also seem them foraging on rock, cement, and brick; somehow getting calcium from these sources. I used to grow napa cabbage and bok choy in my garden, and they loved these calcium rich vegetables. I don’t use pesticide on green leafy vegetables, and I was also plagued with tiny black snails that seemed to do just as much damage to the vegetables as the larger snails.

Reference:

Felix, Z; M. Dubue, and H. Rona

“A Tentative List of Land Snails in Georgia”

Georgia Journal of Science 77 (27) 2019

A cat parasite (Toxoplasma gondii) infects about 30% of the worldwide human population. There is no cure. The human body has no way of ridding itself of these parasites, and there is no medicine that can be used to treat them. Billions of people on earth have cysts on their brains caused by the cat parasites in their bodies. Fortunately, most people suffer no symptoms from hosting cat parasites. A small number of people may experience flu-like symptoms, but most people are unaware they host cat parasites. Cat parasites can cause an increased risk of miscarriages for pregnant women, and they can cause problems for people with weakened immune systems, but they are harmless for the vast majority of human hosts.

Toxoplasm gondii has an interesting life cycle. This parasite can only reproduce inside a cat’s digestive system because they depend upon the high level of linoleic acid in a cat’s gut. For some unexplained reason mice with toxoplasm in their brains become sexually interested in cat feces. This causes them to behave recklessly, and they are more likely to be eaten by a cat, thus propagating more parasites. Cats are clean animals, and people do not get toxoplasm by petting cats. Instead, people get infected when they eat raw meats, fruits, or vegetables that have toxoplasm on them. Cat feces with toxoplasm in it is common throughout the environment, and the parasite just gets on everything and is consumed by animals that people eat.

Cats are clean, but they defecate in the environment and their parasites can contaminate meat and plants.

Toxoplasm gondii lifecycle.

Toxoplasm gondii.

Toxoplasm also causes infected humans to act recklessly. A study of hundreds of people in Turkey found humans who were infected with toxoplasm were more likely to be involved in car accidents. Other studies suggest infected people are more prone to rage. However, another study indicates reckless behavior can have positive benefits. A study of hundreds of businessmen found those infected made on average $6000 more per year than uninfected businessmen.

Toxoplasm influences wolf behavior as well. Infected wolves are more likely to be pack leaders. Infected chimpanzees lose their aversion to leopard urine. And infected hyena cubs wander closer to lions. How weird that a micro-organism actually influences the behavior of much more advanced animals. In the words of the fictional Cosmo Kramer, “nature is a mad scientist.”

References:

Genova, B. ; S. Wilson, J. Dubey, L. Knoll

“Intestinal Delta-6 desaturase activist Determines Host Range for Toxoplasm Reproduction”

PLOS Biology 2019

Lerner , D.; L. Akaersu. S. Johnson

“Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Parasite Infection is Associated with Entrepreneurial Initiation, Engagement, and Performance”

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 45 (1) 2020

Meyer, C.; et. al.

“Parasite Infection Increases Risk-taking in a Social Intermediate Host Carnivore”

Communication Biology 2022

Yerelis, K; I. Balciogles, A. Ozlilgia

“Is Toxoplasm gondii a Potential Risk for Traffic Accidents in Turkey?”

Forensic Science International 2006

This is probably the last new article I publish on WordPress. I’m going to send a letter to Automattic Corporation and ask them to share the ad revenue they get from my website, but I do not expect a positive response. Everybody understands the term–corporate greed. If they are running advertisements between paragraphs, they must be raking in considerable revenue, and they can afford to share money with content creators. I will reblog reruns for a while (with a brief commentary), so think of this blog as a television series airing repeats during summer, but the fate of this series is still undecided. I will still write weekly blog articles…I’m just not going to publish them on wordpress, unless they start paying me. Maybe in a year I will publish an e-book entitled Georgia Before People: A New Collection of Eclectic Essays and sell it for $5. If I do, I’ll post a link here. I’ve also contemplated writing my memoirs, but that seems like too much drudgery. My life has not been particularly interesting.

I’m not the first content creator to experience being screwed in the ass by a corporation. Carl Burgos created the Human Torch for Timely Comics (the predecessor to Marvel Comics) in 1939. The original Human Torch, as conceived by Burgos, was an android built by a mad scientist. This superhero was popular for about 10 years. Marvel Comics brought him back in 1961 as a member of the Fantastic Four, but his origin was different–he was a human exposed to gamma rays. Carl Burgos attempted legal action against Marvel Comics to get re-imbursed for his creation, but his lawyers were not as skilled as those hired by the corporation. Judges ruled the corporation owned the rights to the character, not the person who actually created it. To add insult to injury, the original copyright agreement expired in 1966, and Marvel Comics published a story that year with a battle between the original Human Torch vs the new Human Torch. The original Human Torch was killed. Carl Burgos was so upset; he threw all his comic books in the trash. These were likely contributor’s copies he owned that were worth a lot of money, and his daughter tried to retrieve them, but he wouldn’t let her. I’m not as embittered as Carl Burgos. I’m not going to go back and delete all my old articles. But I’m not going to continue participating in an operation with such an unfair business model.

Carl Burgos created the Human Torch for Timely Comics in 1939. Marvel Comics ripped off his creation and would not adequately compensate him. He became so frustrated he threw away all his comic books, despite their value. I’m not going to delete my posts, but I refuse to produce new material for my blog until Automattic Corporation starts sharing advertising revenue with me.

I wonder how long my existing articles will last through history. How long is the internet going to last? My blog might be on the worldwide web available to most of the world for a very long time, perhaps past my death. (Incidentally, no one living in Russia, China, Turkey, or Iran has ever read my blog. It is restricted to the free world.) Maybe scientists looking for some really obscure source or scientific reference will look through my blog a hundred years from now. But the internet won’t last forever. Someday humans will become extinct. A comet impact or a massive nuclear war will wipe Homo sapiens off the earth, but ants and cockroaches will survive. Both have survived previous comet impacts, and ants can survive 150 times more nuclear radiation than humans, while cockroaches can survive 700 times more nuclear radiation than us. Though they can’t survive direct impacts, both can live for years on organic detritus in the surrounding radioactive environment. Humans are not even close to being as resilient as ants and cockroaches.

Cockroaches along with ants may inherit the earth, but in the short time I have left, I will kill any I find in my house. Nailed this one on the back of the toilet while I was drunk and stoned.

Ants and cockroaches will be battling each other long after humans are extinct.

There are over 12,000 species of ants in the world, and they first evolved about 160 million years ago. There are about 4600 species of cockroaches in the world, though just 30 species of them are pests. Cockroaches are even older than ants, having first evolved about 320 million years ago. Formerly, they were thought to have no close relatives, but recently scientists determined they should belong to the superorder Dictyoptera which includes termites and mantids. The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is a frequent year-round pest in my house. They occur more often in the warmer months. They are nicknamed “palmetto bugs” and they are large–honestly, I used a sledgehammer to kill one once. Curiously, they are not native to America but came over on ships carrying African slaves. Another species of cockroach (Evrycotis floridana) is also nicknamed “palmetto bug,” but this species is rarely found indoors. I have seen this species outside but not often in the house. It is also a large cockroach. The cockroaches that survive human extinction will likely not be the ones considered pests because they are so dependent upon us for food and shelter.

Reference:

Howe, Sean

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

Harper Perennial 2012

Temperatures finally dropped here in Augusta, Georgia, making my frequent jogging much easier. A rainy August followed by a dry September must have created good conditions for butterflies because I’ve been seeing a multitude of them during my jogs. At least 3 species flutter about the roadsides in my neighborhood. I already wrote about gulf fritillaries (Agraulis vanilae) a few years ago. (See: https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2018/08/21/gulf-fritillary-and-passion-flower-vine/ ) Giant sulphurs (Phoebis sennae) are big yellow butterflies easy to identify. In their larval caterpillar stage they feed upon legumes such as partridge pea and vetch, both of which are fairly common in my neighborhood.

The 3rd species I’ve been seeing is either the dark phase of the tiger swallowtail (Pteraurus glaucus) or the eastern black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). They won’t stay still long enough, while I’m jogging to identify them, though I’ve positively identified both in my backyard in the past. I suppose I could chase the ones I’ve been seeing during my jogs and catch them with a butterfly net to identify which species is fluttering about, but that is too much trouble. I think they are probably tiger swallowtails which are normally yellow with black stripes and easy to identify, but they do come in a dark phase similar in appearance to black swallowtails. The larval caterpillar stage of the eastern black swallowtail feeds upon plants in the carrot and citrus families. Tiger swallowtail caterpillars feed upon a wide range of plants including foliage of cherry, tulip, and magnolia. Wild black cherry trees are a common component of the local woods. Scientists believe the dark phase of tiger swallowtails mimics the appearance of pipevine swallowtails, a species of butterfly that tastes bad to birds. This mimicry reduces predation. Adult butterflies don’t eat solid food, but get their nutrients from flower nectar, feces, and minerals dissolved in mud puddles.