Comments on: Kids book about parasites: WHAT'S EATING YOU?

By: pretentious platypus

pretentious platypus — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Radiolab podcast did an episode on parasites, a really fun and fascinating way to spend an hour :)

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/09/25

By: Jonathan Badger

Jonathan Badger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There are plenty of mind-control parasites in nature -- there's another one (Cordyceps) that is a fungus that controls ants to climb up to a high place at which point the fungus grows out the ant head and showers spores down below to infect other ants. The natural world is a great inspiration for horror writers/filmmakers. Remember the xenomorphs from the Alien series? They are basically Ichneumonoidea, which lay their eggs in other insects and when they hatch, the larvae eat their way out.

By: Daemon

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

Never would have occurred to me to write a kid’s answer to Parasite Rex…

By: Anonymous

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

Parasites control minds hosts masters chemical warfare camouflage cloak host molecules
Majority species parasites
Sophisticated organism
Change DNA to rewire brain
Host living dead
Fundamental survival tactics
Bizarre entities coping w/ self image never really capture
It takes devices like mirrors, camera, video footage
Internalized self image/ defense
Sophisticated psychological strategies
Namely what we remember facial familiarization impressionist
Plastic transparent human model JC Penney
Parasite different organism contributing nothing to the survival of the host
Habitually exploits takes advantage generosity
Parasitology such as physical mental cognitive emotional behavioral artificial Narrow AI parasitic bots arranged if one mechanism (viral) corrupts series of non-organic framework artificial surrogate subject to surrogate utility affection decommission series of batteries test subject mimic simulate (simulation) computer models, robotics, synthetic bio-chemistry
Hardware to hardwired/software to wetware.

By: Anonymous

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

Daemon, that’s because you are not a children’s book writer. We’re all at it! I did one in 2006 and have another coming out next year… (parasites are only part of these, Nicola’s triumph is selling a whole book on the subject). All the best yuck is in kids’ books :-)

By: efergus3

efergus3 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

But did they include lawyers and politicians?

By: Anonymous

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

This is awesome, i would love to have a copy of this (:

By: Anonymous

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

For adults and older kids, there’s Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer, and Riddled with Life by Marlene Zuk.

Always remember (especially as you fall asleep): not counting bacteria, one in four species is not a parasite.

By: Hawley

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

unfortunately kids these days were raised up by people who spent time in their own childhood examining insects with magnifying glasses and they found the experience so harrowing that they banned their own children from ever playing with something as sinister as a magnifying glass.

By: Ocker3

Ocker3 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

wait wait wait “the best being the Sacculina sea-crab parasite, which “grows tentacles into every single part of the crab’s body, even its brain, to control everything it does…It doesn’t breed, but rears Sacculina’s babies instead…even male crabs.”"

so there is a parasite which infects it’s host, ends up Physically controlling it, and we weren’t told? Bring on Global Warming, if only to eradicate this horrible little thing before it starts jumping species!