Govt To Bomb Guam With Frozen Mice To Kill Snakes 229
rhettb writes "In a spectacularly creative effort to rid Guam of the brown tree snake, an invasive species which has ravaged local wildlife and angered local residents, the US Department of Agriculture is planning to 'bomb' the island's rainforests with dead frozen mice laced with acetaminophen. While it might not seem difficult to purge an island of snakes, the snake's habit of dwelling high in the rainforest canopy has so far thwarted efforts to rid the island of the pest. Eradicating the snake is a priority because it triggers more than 100 power outages a year at a cost of $1-4 million and has driven at least 6 local bird species to extinction."
Re:This Failed in NYC (Score:5, Interesting)
It got worse in australia.
Some settler wanted to hunt rabbits because he wanted sports, so he imported and released a few. Sure enough they quickly bred like, well, rabbits. Having no enemies, their numbers overwhelmed the unaccustomed australian outback.
So they imported foxes to eat them. But the foxes quickly discovered native species were slower and easier prey, so now the flora AND fauna was threatened.
So they developed a rabbit cancer called Myxomatosis and unleashed it on australian rabbits. Which made its wayt back to europe, ravaging rabbit populations THERE.
All because some australian dude was bored for some sport.
Re:Acetaminophen (Score:5, Interesting)
Who is most people? I've been off and on a heavy pot user for 15 years now, and have never experienced any withdrawal effects at all. My usual m.o. is to get a big bag, smoke it over a period of a month or so, and when it's gone, *shrug*, I'm bored with it by then and I'll probably get another in a few months. Literally every one of my friends who smokes is the same way, in fact the usual impetus for getting more is someone going, "hey, when's the last time we smoked some weed?"
And no, I'm not failing to notice the symptoms. I've had physical dependencies on nicotine, caffeine, cocaine, and vicodin, and I know all too well what a physical dependency feels like. Vicodin? Got a too-long prescription from my doctor, and that was the most physically painful withdrawal I've ever had. Don't recommend it. Coke? Much like cigarettes in that there's little physical pain but a lot of brain twisting that makes you convince yourself to go get more. Caffeine? Easy to slowly ramp down, but if you don't holy shit that's a headache. Nicotine? Still trying to quit that. Such a subtle little rat in your head that whispers to go get more until you think it's your own thought, and if you reject it, it'll scratch and claw in death throes at the inside of your skull as you get hit with a craving where you feel the rest of your life go by without a fix. Now that's an addiction.
But pot? No, I can empirically say that pot is not addictive. If you have an issue quitting pot you have other psychological problems that would have manifested in other ways and if nothing else was available the kind of person who gets "addicted" to pot would get just as addicted to hitting themselves in the head with a rock.
Re:Acetaminophen (Score:3, Interesting)
Such a subtle little rat in your head that whispers to go get more until you think it's your own thought, and if you reject it, it'll scratch and claw in death throes at the inside of your skull as you get hit with a craving where you feel the rest of your life go by without a fix.
Try attaching the craving thought (or feeling or whatever) to a negative thought through a chain, like first imagine what will happen if you do smoke another one: the good feeling, the clear mind, the relaxed impulse. Then imagine finishing the cig, and the chemical effects are starting to wear off, and there is a slight stinky smell remaining, but you still feel ok. Then think of people you know who may have died from cigarettes, then think of ugly pictures you've seen of cancer victims without their throat or whatever. Try to end with some image or situation that has a negative emotional feeling for you, the stronger the better.
Try to imagine each step vividly, the good to bad. At first it might not work really well, because you have to force yourself to connect the steps along the way, but pretty soon the connections from one imagination to the next will grow stronger, until it happens automatically. If it's a really strong urge (rare) this will only weaken it, so after you've completed the process, you can do it again with a different negative ending.
(I may have gotten the details wrong about how nicotine feels when it's good, but that's how I've dealt with other addictions).
Re:This Failed in NYC (Score:3, Interesting)
A woman I worked with who would have been of my parents generation (born in the 1940s or so) told me that in the 1950s she drove from Melbourne to Adelaide and back with her family. Both ways they had to stop every 50 miles so her dad could prise the dead rabbits out of the wheel bays.
From the same time, my dad told me he used to roam the countryside around his aunt's place in Violet Town for days, living on rabbit. They weren't hard to catch. Just chuck a good pocket knife and have your camp fire ready.