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Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by openasocket on Thursday March 28, 2019 @04:36PM (#19516333)
How on Earth does someone discover that? What possible series of events or hypotheses would lead someone to perform such an experiment?
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by busyant on Thursday March 28, 2019 @08:50PM (#19518151)
I don't know why, but this conversation reminds me of a guy I used to work with.

The guy had studied animal husbandry and he told my co-workers and me that if you inserted a foreign object (about the size of a quarter) up into the reproductive area of a hen at _just the right time_, the hen would often lay an egg with the foreign object trapped inside.[1]

Our business plan:

* get a bunch of hens

* have guys mail $500 + engagement rings to us.

* insert engagement ring into hen

* ship back ring-encased egg to the dudes.

* dudes ask girlfriends to cook an omelette...

I still wonder how anyone figured that out.

[1] There might have been surgery involved. Can't remember.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by Laforet on Friday March 29, 2019 @03:45AM (#19519852)
Eggs are formed by secretions of the oviduct as the ovum or yolk is passed through the oviduct. Hens are also known to occasionally lays eggs with two yolks or no yolk at all, with the latter often containing a blood clot or random tissue where the yolk is expected to be.

So it was clear that a foreign object planted at the right place and right time could induce the animal to form an egg around it. I'm just not sure if this is reliable enough to create a business around the idea.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by cm2187 on Thursday March 28, 2019 @09:00PM (#19518226)
Is that how they manufacture kinder eggs?
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by bdamm on Thursday March 28, 2019 @11:56PM (#19519053)
Proper kinder eggs are illegal in the USA so there's a sizable portion of this readership that won't get that joke.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by lugg on Friday March 29, 2019 @12:47AM (#19519218)
I like how the USA is willing to ban something so silly to protect children but gun control is offlimits. Like what.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by gotocake on Friday March 29, 2019 @01:00AM (#19519263)
Putting aside the bait, the whole story with a Kinder Eggs has become a tale told to illustrate a point, but the story itself is nonsense. The US didn’t specifically ban them, they simply fall under a (sensible) pre-existing law and no one gives enough of a crap to change it. Simply put it’s banned to sell candy with something inedible inside of it. This law goes back to the 1930’s and frankly, makes a lot of sense in the general case.

Besides, slightly modified kinder eggs are sold in the US.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by coldtea on Friday March 29, 2019 @05:22AM (#19520170)
>Putting aside the bait

Also known as: "quite logical and sensible comparison everywhere else in the world".

>but the story itself is nonsense. The US didn’t specifically ban them, they simply fall under a (sensible) pre-existing law and no one gives enough of a crap to change it.

Which doesn't change the essence of the story, which is not that the Kinder eggs where purposefully banned themselves, but simply that Kinder eggs are banned (and in general, that they'd ban something like Kinder eggs and co).

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by acqq on Friday March 29, 2019 @03:23AM (#19519776)
Non-US version: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise

US version: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Joy

"Kinder Surprise eggs are legal in Canada and Mexico, but are illegal to import into the US. In January 2011, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) threatened a Manitoba resident with a $300 (Canadian dollars) fine for carrying one egg across the US border into Minnesota.[43] In June 2012, CBP held two Seattle men for two and a half hours after discovering six Kinder Surprise eggs in their car upon returning to the US from a trip to Vancouver. According to one of the men detained, a border guard quoted the potential fine as US $2,500 per egg.[44]"

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by donatj on Friday March 29, 2019 @04:19AM (#19519964)
Like sure, ban the sale, but why the ownership or importation without intention to sell? That seems to overstep the actual usefulness of the law. Like I can put toys in candy in my home and presumably if I don’t try to sell it, it’s legal.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by randall on Friday March 29, 2019 @09:46AM (#19521610)
Holy shit. When I came back from germany 2 years ago I brought like a whole box of them for my kids. That would have been like a $75,000 box.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by lugg on Friday March 29, 2019 @11:09AM (#19522338)
So all you've really said is that this hypocrisy has been around since the 1930s.

Not putting inedible stuff in candy does make sense to me in the general case.

But frankly, so does basic gun control so what the fuck do I know.

I would also like to add I am of the personal view gun control is very much so unconstitutional. But I also don't think that wanting some basic gun control is a wrong thing. All that contradiction means is that we need to have a very careful discussion before drafting a very careful amendment.

It's pretty easy to permit the right to bare arms while still preventing the sale to anybody off the street. It won't fix everything, but it gets us a hell of the way there.

Being worried about a slippery slope is a concern, that is why I said careful amendment.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by Houshalter on Friday March 29, 2019 @01:01AM (#19519267)
Many would argue the kinder egg ban is uunconstitutional. And stuff like is supposed to be left up to the states. But who's willing to fight for the kinder eggs?
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by YayamiOmate on Friday March 29, 2019 @04:35AM (#19520010)
Ferrero would be the candidate. I'd say there are big bucks at stake. Marketing value is enormous, the effective ban is such a known thing, it would sell better than water initially.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by ThinkBad on Friday March 29, 2019 @12:13PM (#19522914)
I like your attempt to hijack the thread. It's very amusing.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by lugg on Friday March 29, 2019 @02:10PM (#19524096)
My attempt? We're like three or four levels deep already bud.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by simonebrunozzi on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @07:09AM (#19562383)
Yep. There's a few interesting stories about why it's illegal, and a couple of Canadian guys that got in trouble for passing the border with "European" Kinder eggs, a while ago.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by surge on Friday March 29, 2019 @12:21AM (#19519137)
But the YT videos of people opening proper kinder eggs are all the rage amongst toddlers in the US, so at least many parents will.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by rihegher on Friday March 29, 2019 @01:09AM (#19519300)
What is the name of your service?
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by shoes_for_thee on Thursday March 28, 2019 @04:44PM (#19516410)
perhaps it was known that hCG is present in the urine of pregnant women.

and also that hCG induces ovulation in frogs.

If injecting frogs with urine is cheaper than other methods of detecting signaling horomones.. well, there ya go.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by golergka on Thursday March 28, 2019 @06:30PM (#19517301)
The more I understand about science actually works, the more I can't see any reason for someone from 18th century or before not to believe in magic. Especially if he actually did experiments that would confirm this kind of connection - alchemist theories just look like the most logical explanation of such phenomena. (If you don't believe me, just ask Newton).
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by lkrubner on Thursday March 28, 2019 @06:48PM (#19517421)
Why is that everyone in the village died of smallpox, except for the milkmaids, who never got sick? Is this some kind of milkmaid magic? Or is there something in the biographies of each milkmaid that causes them to become... ah, what is the right word? It's almost as if they are, ah, "immune" to smallpox? Is that possible? It's almost as if they get cine (aid) from the cows (vacca). One wonders if we could deliberately give this vacca-cine to people?
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by TheSpiceIsLife on Thursday March 28, 2019 @09:44PM (#19518449)
Do you have a source on the etymology? I've searched but couldn't find anything. Genuinely curious.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by mrighele on Friday March 29, 2019 @03:09AM (#19519733)
Vaccine comes from the latin "vaccinus", a derivative of "vacca" (cow) and means "related to cow" or in this case more like "of cow origin". For example in italian "latte vaccino" means cow milk. So there is no -cine part, only a "-inus" suffix that simply means "related to" or "coming from". You can see that in a lot of words of latin origin. In fact the term "latin" itself comes from "latinus" which means "related to Latium" or "inhabitant of Latium" (a region in central Italy)

Unrelated, but as for the origin of the latin term "vacca", it may come from vedic, with the meaning of "the animal that moos"

Edit: made my answer more to the point

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by firmgently on Friday March 29, 2019 @12:19PM (#19522979)
I often search for the etymology of words. I used to overthink it when trying to find the right search terms but eventually realised that "[word] etymology" gives pretty much perfect results every time ('vaccine etymology' gave the answer on Google and DuckDuckGo without even needing to click any links).

Just mentioning this for other people who like looking up words. And yes it's obvious... unless you're one of those people who sometimes overthinks search terms.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by typothrowaway on Thursday March 28, 2019 @10:08PM (#19518555)
At least wikipedia seems to partially agree (on the cow part), with citations I couldn't verify:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinia#History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowpox

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by TheSpiceIsLife on Thursday March 28, 2019 @10:17PM (#19518582)
I meant on the etymology of cine / aid. Must have valued out when I wrote my previous comment.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by 1123581321 on Friday March 29, 2019 @10:26AM (#19521945)
ine/inus is a Latin possessive suffix that appears in many words. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/-inus
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by TheSpiceIsLife on Saturday March 30, 2019 @03:21PM (#19531236)
Thank you, that's what I was after.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by fao_ on Thursday March 28, 2019 @10:19PM (#19518591)
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by swombat on Thursday March 28, 2019 @07:26PM (#19517663)
Thank you for this. Didn’t know this was the etymology of vaccine!
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by bonzini on Friday March 29, 2019 @02:59AM (#19519684)
It's not (the cow part is though; vaccine simply means "from cow").
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by currymj on Thursday March 28, 2019 @07:56PM (#19517849)
excellent exploration of this idea in the wonderful history book “The Secrets of Alchemy”.

the author actually followed some alchemical recipes which were thought to be nonsense. yet under the right conditions (using iron implements, bad control of temperatures, impure materials) they produced results that must have seemed miraculous at the time — fluorescent materials, elaborate crystalline structures, and so on.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by jforman on Thursday March 28, 2019 @11:07PM (#19518820)
If I remember correctly frogs were an early model organism for studying fertilization because their eggs are large. Seems reasonable that would extend to early hormone secretion post-fertilization.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by Simple_Guy on Friday March 29, 2019 @12:29AM (#19519158)
Wouldn't chickens be better, then?
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by sowbug on Friday March 29, 2019 @01:25AM (#19519373)
Chickens are big, messy, and smelly. They're also painful when they're mad.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by giarc on Thursday March 28, 2019 @05:09PM (#19516636)
I feel like chromatography for hCG would predate all these things.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by thfuran on Thursday March 28, 2019 @05:21PM (#19516760)
As a cheap clinical test?
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by detaro on Thursday March 28, 2019 @04:51PM (#19516478)
There already was some understanding of hormones, and one of the hormones used in the body to regulate pregnancies is also present in urine. Similar mechanisms had been found in other animals, and it turned out they were similar enough to allow the human variant to trigger processes in animal bodies. Mice and rabbits had been used before, so there was logic to testing if it transferred to the frogs too.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by ftcHn on Thursday March 28, 2019 @05:08PM (#19516625)
My grandfather used cane toads for pregnancy tests in Australia. https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/dr-karl-need-t...
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by ct520 on Thursday March 28, 2019 @04:41PM (#19516373)
Makes you wonder what other type of screwed up failed tests people did that never were shared.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by Buttons840 on Thursday March 28, 2019 @06:55PM (#19517476)
Ugh, don't wonder that too hard. In this case, reality is probably worse than what you can come up with in your own imagination.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by randall on Thursday March 28, 2019 @04:44PM (#19516413)
This needs to be an episode of radiolab.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by tclancy on Thursday March 28, 2019 @08:54PM (#19518184)
Don’t look at me, I’m still trying to figure out how the frog makes a person pregnant at a distance.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by rangibaby on Friday March 29, 2019 @12:36AM (#19519188)
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by giardini on Thursday March 28, 2019 @05:11PM (#19516671)
OP said> "...It's thought by some that ..."

openasocket says>"How on Earth does someone discover that? What possible series of events or hypotheses would lead someone to perform such an experiment?

Whoa! No one said that anyone "discovered that", or that "such an experiment" was performed. The article merely said that someone speculated that possibility. To further speculate on hearsay of mere speculation is not wise.

Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by Cpoll on Thursday March 28, 2019 @06:11PM (#19517145)
The "it is thought by some that" part is in regards to the circulation spreading pathogens. The OP asserted in definite terms that frogs were injected.
Re:An amphibian fungus has become “the most deadly pathogen ... by jacobush on Thursday March 28, 2019 @05:13PM (#19516689)
I think it was the urine part which caused consternation.