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To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and, so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows.... An American does not know how to converse, but he discusses; he does not discourse, but he holds forth. -ADT
8 comments:
No, Brant. What makes the mosquito especially dangerous is not the mosquito itself, but the protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium it carries. It is entirely possible to be bitten by a mosquito without contracting malaria, just as it is possible to mitigate the effects of malaria through flimsy nets and modern medicine. Mosquitos still kill people because their governments are bad, not through any inherent quality of the mosquito. If a hippo wants you dead, though, you're gone.
Anecdotal evidence: when I was in Africa, nobody ever warned me about mosquitos: but every five seconds all I heard was hippos, hippos, hippos.
No, Brant. What makes the mosquito especially dangerous is not the mosquito itself, but the protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium it carries. It is entirely possible to be bitten by a mosquito without contracting malaria, just as it is possible to mitigate the effects of malaria through flimsy nets and modern medicine. Mosquitos still kill people because their governments are bad, not through any inherent quality of the mosquito. If a hippo wants you dead, though, you're gone.
Anecdotal evidence: when I was in Africa, nobody ever warned me about mosquitos: but every five seconds all I heard was hippos, hippos, hippos.
Clearly, the most argumentative species in North America is law students.
Uh oh.
Hippos still kill people because governments are bad. I mean, I understand the difficulty of eliminating mosquitos; their tiny and there are probably trillions of them in any given country. But hippos? I mean, how tough can it be to eradicate hippos? They're a pretty big target, aren't they? They don't move fast. They're not good at laying low for very long (although they can stay hidden for some period of time). As far as their merits go, they're not particularly attractive; they don't add much to civil society; pretty much all they do is eat, sleep, and occasionally viciously attack some other of God's creatures. Additionally, they know very little about patent law.
All of the above also applies to argumentative law students, like me. The only difference being that very few hippos have a patent exam tomorrow at 9:00 AM.
Also, like hippos, argumentative law students can't be bothered with the niceties of choosing the proper their, they're, or there.
Shoot, sorry.
Again, the danger is not the mosquito but what the mosquito carries. Bill Gates wants to make mosquitos carry Vitamin A, whereas if you monkey with the DNA of a hippo it can still crush you. Plus, mosquito vs. hippo: who do you think would win?
I have to come down on Brant's side here, Josh, despite his acknowledged their/they're/there issue. Does malaria spread through any vector besides mosquitoes? If not, it'd be misleading at this time, before Bill Gates changes what mosquitoes carry, to disassociate them from the harm that they, directly, cause.
In addition, to argue that mosquitoes are less dangerous because they're potentially controllable ignores the reality of the situation--they're not controlled. The fact that they could be makes them no less dangerous at this time.
And, finally, I submit that the lack of warning about the danger of mosquitoes renders them if anything more dangerous. If you're constantly on the lookout for a hippopotamus, you're more likely to overlook the crafty mosquito that's carrying the malaria that'll hurt you.
Maybe I am ready for this law school of which you speak.
Okay, yes, if by most dangerous you mean "responsible for most number of deaths in absolute terms" then yes, Brant is correct. If, however, you mean "most dangerous to me" then I still think I'm right. If you were to choose between being dropped into a pit with a mosquito or dropped into a pit with a hippopotamus, I think we all know which one we'd choose, deep down inside, where the truth lives.
First of all, you only have a 50% chance that the mosquito will bite you at all, because male mosquitos don't bite. Next, if you've taken antimalarial medication, you'll survive the bite. But if a hippo tramples you, you're dead.
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