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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
A vicious species of tick originating from Eastern Asia has invaded the US and is rapidly sweeping the Eastern Seaboard, state and federal officials warn.
The tick, the Asian longhorned tick (or Haemaphysalis longicornis), has the potential to transmit an assortment of nasty diseases to humans, including an emerging virus that kills up to 30 percent of victims. So far, the tick hasn't been found carrying any diseases in the US. It currently poses the largest threat to livestock, pets, and wild animals; the ticks can attack en masse and drain young animals of blood so quickly that they die—an execution method called exsanguination.
Key to the tick's explosive spread and bloody blitzes is that its invasive populations tend to reproduce asexually, that is, without mating. Females drop up to 2,000 eggs over the course of two or three weeks, quickly giving rise to a ravenous army of clones. In one US population studied so far, experts encountered a massive swarm of the ticks in a single paddock, totaling well into the thousands. They speculated that the population might have a ratio of about one male to 400 females.
Yesterday, August 7, Maryland became the eighth state to report the presence of the tick. It followed a similar announcement last Friday, August 3, from Pennsylvania. Other affected states include New York, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 09 2018, @03:45PM (17 children)
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:31PM (2 children)
You joke, but I'm way more worried about lyme disease and rocky mountain spotted fever than I am about not noticing a tick before I literally exsanguinate.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday August 10 2018, @01:16AM
This tick spreads encephalitis. We shall hope to never find out how it feels.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday August 10 2018, @08:55AM
It's not one tick, it's thousands attacking at the same time. And yes, you'd almost certainly notice them. But I'm not sure that makes it any better.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday August 09 2018, @04:31PM (13 children)
What's with the SSN?
Can you post your Zip code and address too? I could use a new credit card.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:26PM (10 children)
While I now live in Vancouver and work in Portland, I still use my California ID card.
Just now while looking up my old Zip code I found that the Postal Service quite helpfully announced it was no longer delivering mail to houses that have burnt down.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:52PM (1 child)
Are you using LifeLock? It's showing as stars.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 10 2018, @01:44AM
It's hunter2, everyone knows that.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:11PM (7 children)
What are you trying to prove?
That life lock guy who posted his SSN everywhere had his identity stolen like 4 times.
(Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:40PM (1 child)
I think he's succesfully proving that soylent posters are layabouts.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:55PM
LAYABOUTS!?!?!
Harumph, harumph! I say, old chap me son, I'm gonna go out and steal his identity right now-- oooh, "Some mother's do 'ave 'em" is on. I'll do it later.
"Fraaaank!?!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 09 2018, @07:46PM (4 children)
... a laptop computer?
_After_ it was stolen from a parked car, Community Services Northwest started using encryption.
But that doesn't answer the question as to why they had my SSN on a _laptop_.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:11PM (1 child)
Why haven't you sued them for violating HIPAA by failing to use encryption?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday August 10 2018, @03:43AM
Community Services Northwest has done me a lot of good to the extent they weren't letting their laptops get stolen.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snow on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:23PM (1 child)
Is your solution to a sinking ship to drill more holes in the hull?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:56PM
I think he's going for the insurance money, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:59PM (1 child)
> I could use a new credit card.
Given MDC's credit score, I predict the maximum credit line on your new card will be about ten cents (USD $0.10).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @06:09PM
You'll have to pay off the old debts before you dream about a 10 cent credit line.