Comments on: Llamas: Nature's Cute & Fluffy Crusaders Against Bioterrorism

By: GregLondon

GregLondon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t think the gas mask fits with the air tank. The mask looks like one of those carbon-filter types, doesn’t use an air tank.

Also, NBC gear and a fur coat? That Llama is cooking under that outfit. Poor little llama.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I can’t believe people haven’t spotted the essential nature of the illustration – this will cure a major cause of global warming at a stroke. The tank on the animal’s back isn’t for oxygen, it’s for methane.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The illustration, engaging as it is, is obviously a rip-off MY top secret designs. The suit pictured is NOT biological or chemical protective gear. It is actually for the collection and conversion of greenhouse gasses to alternative fuels. The tank on the llama’s back is not an O2 tank, but a methane collector/concentrator. Someday soon I’ll rule the world and it will be a world run on llama methane!

By: weas

weas — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

best guest-blogger ever!!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice try Queen Overlord of the Hairless.

Crafty, throwing us off your evil scheme with a token posting of Llama glama, (note the DOMESTIC llama), this is merely a horrific glimpse into how she envisions the future for those with hair – domesticated and bred to serve as guard animals around the Skin Palace of the Ruling Class, or as a source of *shudder* meat to keep the hairless alive. God, stop this horror.

I see she is right back to her glorification of the hair free in her next cockroach post. The smooth, shiny, hairless cockroach of course.

I am not lulled into submission by this trickery. Nay, I shall remain ever vigilant.

By: GuidoDavid

GuidoDavid — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

For Spanish speakers:

A bit more of Llama enhanced fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkUsQ7KOG38&feature=related

For non Spanish speakers:
Flames=Llamas

I guess that’s the reason I use the English “flame-war” for an Internet discussion, even in Spanish. The alternative is too funny.

By: TroofSeeker

TroofSeeker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That is a great illustration, but I’m really surprised you guys are fooled by it, especially you, Greg.
Unless I’m mistaken, llamas don’t have FEET. Cloven hooves, I believe. That’s two soldiers in a llama suit. A llama wouldn’t need the gas mask.
Did I pass, Maggie?

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Troofseeker,

You fail. The llama is actually wearing clown shoes.

By: TroofSeeker

TroofSeeker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dang!

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Also, let this be proof that I am tolerant of the hairy masses.

By: overgrown

overgrown — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The magnitude of dorkiness in your posts makes me want to squeal with delight.

About the illustration: while they evoke the humor of two guys pretending to be a llama in a tyvek suit during a chemical/biological weapons attack, the feet are sort of wrong – unless the llama also happens to be wearing combat boots. Wait, that must be what’s going on.

By: niro5

niro5 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hello, what is the source of that image, I want it in t-shirt form.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Niro5, Michael Rogalski at http://www.eyewashweb.com is the illustrator for this, and all the pictures in my book, Be Amazing.

I would suggest either:
A) Contacting him directly
B) Pleading with the good folks at http://www.mentalfloss.com to turn this illustration into one of their many awesome, dorky T-shirts
C) Some combination thereof

By: Takuan

Takuan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Rogalski is a genius

By: Hamish MacDonald

Hamish MacDonald — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Loving your posts! I was yours at “Enter the llama.”

By: tuckels

tuckels — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

#1. Loving llamas does not prove you are tolerant of hair. It’s actually physically impossible to not adore the llama, regardless of its hairiness.

By: qtip1835

qtip1835 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That image is great! I love the air tank on it’s back. It looks ready to take on the taliban.

By: TroofSeeker

TroofSeeker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

[Now I feel less embarassed about squealing in delight.]

By: Kevin Kenny

Kevin Kenny — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It’s not just llamas. All the creatures in the camel family have unusual antibodies that lack the “light chain” or “VL region”. There are many projects around that are investigating camelid antibodies because of their odd structure.
http://www.chemie.uni-hamburg.de/bc/lehre/Review_II_Holliger_2005.pdf is a good starting point for what’s going on in the field.

The other creatures with odd immune systems that might be exploited are the rays and sharks. Shark antibodies are also being studied extensively.

By: insomma

insomma — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Add me to the list of those who are absolutely loving the Michael Rogalski illustrations.

By: The Unusual Suspect

The Unusual Suspect — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wonderful idea, but it seems to me that what we really need is creatures bred to be highly susceptible to likely-to-be-weaponized diseases, and thus able to alert us to the presence of these diseases by, um, dropping dead.

(I vote we use ferrets for this because they really creep me out, what with their beady black eyes that keep looking at you, and you never really know what they’re thinking do you? Yes, definitely ferrets.)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

All together now singing: “Llamas are larger than frogs!!!”

By: clockbound

clockbound — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Re: Guard Llamas

It’s true! Llamas are used to guard the sheep flock at Hampshire College. They’re quite effective at keeping the sheep out of the hands of the stoned student populace. They’re also more intelligent than the sheep. When my girlfriend worked on the farm there the sheep wouldn’t know when it was time for food but the llamas would, so they’d chase her and the buckets of chow around the enclosure.

By: GuidoDavid

GuidoDavid — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Not only that, but these antibodies are actually way smaller than ours, which makes them fitter for some diagnostic applications.

Also, llamas are useful for credits and jokes, as Monty Python taught us.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

All hail the grass mud horse!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That llama is totally smooth under the CBC suit.