Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Overheard on gchat...

I wouldn't know, obviously, but I would imagine that this is what two bored, immature, nerdy people might sound like on gchat:

M: In other biology news, I was considering adding to my Facebook interest list "behavior-modifying parasites." But then I realized that was just too nerdy.

N: Like rabies? I find it fascinating that rabies makes you hate water. How can a disease make you fear WATER? How can a disease make you fear anything specific? It's so weird.

M: Like, there's this fungus that infects insects and makes them climb to a really high place and then sortof latch on. Then the fungus makes their head explode and the altitude makes the spores are spread more effectively. (http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/brainwashed-by-a-parasite/ )
Also, there's this parasite that spreads via cat shit. And apparently what it does is when a rat gets it, it makes the rat less risk averse and more likely to run into open spaces. So it's more likely to get eaten by a cat. (notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/brain-parasite-drives-human-culture/). Once you get started, they're riveting: there are others with grasshoppers and ants.

N: Huh. I guess those all make sense, evolutionarily.

M: My friend Jason apparently carries the cat/rat parasite. He claims it hasn't made him more risky. But I didn't know him before.

N: Wait, people can get these? Shit, now I have to worry about climbing to high places and exploding.

M: Apparently Tori Spelling once said that she didn't like jicima because it tastes like water. Maybe she has rabies.


N: That would make her the 7th rabies survivor.

M: Huh. That would still be low on her list of accomplishments, in my book.

N: "There are only six known cases of a person surviving symptomatic rabies, and only one known case of survival in which the patient received no rabies-specific treatment either before or after illness onset." (Wikipedia)

M: You know, compared to that episode of 90210 where Tori met Color Me Badd,
and her hit series So No-tori-us. Um, Wow, with the rabies info interjected, that last exchange is almost Dadaist in its randomness.

N: Your mom met Color Me Badd.

M: Your @sshole is So Notorious.

N: Your c**t is almost Dadaist in its randomness.

M: DAMMIT, I was gonna go there, except with "your face." (I went there with your mom's face.)

N: I think you know how I went there. But just in case, and for the sake of clarity: I went there with your mom's @sshole.

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