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26-01-2003, 06:20 PM

In article ,
(Frogleg) wrote:

On 25 Jan 2003 14:22:30 GMT, (IntarsiaCo) wrote:

Sometime in October 2002 Paghat claimed:
"If the West Nile encephalitis continues to eradicate crows, which are
particularly vulnerable to the virus & have already vanished entirely from
some infected east coast cities, a great many people who once complained
of these wonderful intelligent birds will be awfully sorry, remembering
their bold antics fondly."

The 103rd Christmas Bird Count clearly refutes your claim, in
particular, there
are plenty of American Crows in DC. One must not believe EVERYTHING one
reads,
a bit of COMMON SENSE is required to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Perhaps this dispute can be traced to the term "eradicate" which means
both to eliminate entirely AND to kill in large numbers. With brief
Googling, I see no alerts that crows have been entirely eliminated,
but several showing they are unusually susceptible to WNV and many
have died from it

The tone of the "dispute" was set by InterasiaCo's trollish desire for my
attention, or it wouldn't've been necessary to start a thread with my name
in it. Last year I noted the threat to crows (questioned by no one with a
measurable IQ) is slowly spreading westward, & cited the worst case yet
reported in the east as a harbinger of worse to come, namely the
eradication of crows in Brookland, Washington, DC, ascribed to West Nile
Virus. Our trolly weirdo thought that crow sitings anywhere in the USA
"debunked" not the Washington Post & NPR piece I quoted a few months back,
but that it debunked me personally, when of course it debunked nothing at
all, not even by misrepresenting what I'd reported -- though even the
out-of-context quote begins with the word "If" & the troll wasn't very
clever at such misrepresentation. Any ACTUAL report on the complete safety
of crows would have been cited specifically as good news, not alluded to
vaguely as a magical debunking principle.

At first it seemed InterasiaCo was actually just insane, brooding in
misery ever since I corrected his complete misunderstanding on the subject
months back, until he "broke" & flew off the handle months later. But it
slowly dawned on me that trolling really was the point, & since the goal
was to troll me personally by starting a thread under my name, & since I
responded, it can be counted a success trolling.

We would otherwise be asked to believe InterasiaCo is such a loony that it
really IS possible to believe such crazy-ass things as 1) Paghat is one &
the same with all news-services & health organizations; 2) a siting of any
crow anywhere in the USA proves that West Nile Virus never eradicated
crows anywhere, therefore 3) the WNV threat to crows & raptors is a hoax
perpetuated by hundreds of health organizations, wildlife organizations,
scientists, all orchestrated by Paghat, because 4) West Nile Virus does
not kill crows; & no doubt that 5) the earth is flat & battery acid makes
for a sparkling refreshing drink.

Realizing trolling really was the one & only purpose, it becomes less
surprising that the only "evidence" the troll provided as evidence for an
alternate viewpoint on WVN even existing -- is a link to a much-despised
& pointless "crow shooting contest" the goal of which was to disrupt a
famous crow roost then just discard the thousands of dead birds
(illegally) in the nearest dumpster. Well, I guess it is more creative &
less unhealthy for InterasiaCo to behave as a crazy-ass troll rather than
to just be crazy, as those would seem to be the only two possibilities.

Also a happy note that while any new virus may
claim many victims, immunity begins to build and the high mortality
numbers drop off.

This is certainly the hope for the crow population long-term, that any
crows & raptors surviving the pending or in-progress bird holocaust will
be the seed of a future population not susceptible to the disease. There
are presently only indicators & hypotheses. Worst case scenario,
extinction; best-case, adaptive immunity. In Africa the virus does not
kill many birds, & that's the hopeful indicator of what is possible.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/