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delichon 16 hours ago [-]
> The injured fisherman in today’s attack, a 19-year-old male, appeared to have sustained a bite to the ankle and transported himself
A disease that propagates itself by making animals want to bite other animals. I suppose rabies is the base phenomenon behind the zombie meme. It's also a good description of a large fraction of social media posts.
keeda 12 hours ago [-]
Not quite zombies, but there is a credible theory that rabies was the inspiration for vampires -- and maybe even werewolves -- since a lot of the symptoms are similar, e.g. transmission through biting (often from dogs and bats, which coincidentally are also animals that vampires can transform into), heightened aggression that includes biting, aversion to bright lights and strong smells like garlic:
The issue there is that the modern Zombie myth of an undead creature that spreads by biting only dates back to 1968.
delichon 12 hours ago [-]
Turns out George Romero took the infectious aspect from the novel I Am Legend (made into Omega Man in 1971), which is a vampire story. He mashed up the European vampire with the Haitian "zonbi".
Some scholars think that the 18th century rabies epidemics shaped the vampire legend.
Why does it being from 1968 mean it wasn’t inspired by rabies?
atomicnumber3 13 hours ago [-]
previous iterations were clearly not cool enough of a fantasy to be propagated
mwcz 13 hours ago [-]
I think you just invented epimemetics.
jachee 12 hours ago [-]
There is no Epimemetic Division.
Razengan 16 hours ago [-]
It's amazing how microorganisms, including that Cordyceps fungus, can "control" macro nervous systems so specifically..
sva_ 14 hours ago [-]
With rabies I'm not sure it is really control in the sense that it makes the host find victims, but rather that your neurons get damaged in a way that causes immense agitation and the biting is almost a reflex to "defend" yourself as you're incapable of processing what is happening.
Part of it is that after it does its thing in the brain, it then travels to the salivary glands where it can then spread through a bite.
ButlerianJihad 11 hours ago [-]
Zombies who eat brains are the mentally ill.
Bram Stoker’s vampire characters and stories are gay, as are their heirs (Anne Rice).
Sparkling Twilight vampires are Latter-Day Saints.
Zombies and vampires existed long before these novels and films got made, but pop culture has a way of wiping out and superseding local folk culture in the modern minds of new generations.
mohamedkoubaa 12 hours ago [-]
Actually the American shopping mall, specifically the Monroeville mall near Pittsburgh PA in the 1960 inspired zombie lore
senordevnyc 16 hours ago [-]
It's also a good description of a large fraction of social media posts.
Case in point.
bogzz 16 hours ago [-]
This must be payback for us harvesting their delicious anal glands all those years ago.
I wonder how was it first discovered how beaver anal glands taste like.
margalabargala 11 hours ago [-]
Reading the article in the comment you just replied to, the delicious scent is apparent from simply sniffing near the beaver's rear end. I imagine it wasn't hard to find.
testaccount121 14 hours ago [-]
Is it merely coincidence that a beaver is slang for female genetalia?
Can’t have the Euros knowing how dangerous American beaver can be
adzm 17 hours ago [-]
Confirmed rabies positive by the way.
lenerdenator 15 hours ago [-]
Good thing he went to the doctor. Potential rabies is one of those "you gotta do it" deals.
ChrisMarshallNY 13 hours ago [-]
I had the rabies vaccinations, when I was a kid. A schoolmate brought infected guinea pigs to school. Dozens of us had to get the shots.
17 shots: 15 shots, and 2 boosters.
MattPalmer1086 6 hours ago [-]
And as I recall, injection into the stomach area. My dad and sister had to have them when i was a kid.
We went camping in France and then on to Italy. A rabid cat entered our tent in France, but we didn't know it was rabid. The authorities finally managed to track us down to an Italian camp site, no idea how they did that, but glad they did.
If any of us had a single scratch or cut we could not 100% account for, we had to have the injections.
ChrisMarshallNY 5 hours ago [-]
Yeah, the 15 were in the stomach. The boosters were in the arm.
> If any of us had a single scratch or cut we could not 100% account for, we had to have the injections.
Shades of The Last of Us…
We got them, even if we just touched the little critters.
This was in 1969, in Morocco.
edaemon 13 hours ago [-]
That sounds awful. Thankfully the regimen now is only one shot of HRIG and four doses of the vaccine over two weeks.
lithocarpus 17 hours ago [-]
"Beaver attacks on people are rare and are thought to primarily involve rabid animals" - the article
tomcam 17 hours ago [-]
"Beaver Attack" was not on my 2026 Hacker News headline bingo card
The National Rabies Management Program was established in recognition of the changing scope of rabies. The goal of the program is to prevent the further spread of wildlife rabies and eventually eliminate terrestrial rabies in the United States through an integrated program that involves the use of oral rabies vaccination targeting wild animals.
Since 1995, Wildlife Services (WS) has been working cooperatively with local, State, and Federal governments, universities and other partners to address this public health problem by distributing oral rabies vaccination (ORV) baits in targeted areas. This cooperative program targets the raccoon variant, canine variant in coyotes and a unique variant of gray fox rabies.
zabzonk 15 hours ago [-]
My little brother was attacked once in France by a coypu. Needed medical attention. Beavers (we already have coypu) are being re-introduced into the UK, so maybe this sort of thing will increase here.
throw-the-towel 14 hours ago [-]
Never heard the word "coypu" before, turns out it's the same as "nutria".
knodi123 15 hours ago [-]
A møøse once bit my sister.
WalterBright 13 hours ago [-]
Mind you, møøse bites Kan be pretti nasti…
sva_ 14 hours ago [-]
It was because the beaver was rabid.
zabzonk 14 hours ago [-]
> beaver was rabid
We don't have rabies in the UK, thankfully, and I don't think my bro got a rabies jab for his French coypu bite. Just naturally grumpy rodents, I guess.
17 hours ago [-]
jambalaya8 13 hours ago [-]
I know this is a serious thing, and beavers can seriously maul someone, but this post title/headline still made me laugh. Am I going to hell (well, for that)?
mh- 12 hours ago [-]
I turned my laptop around to show my wife the headline before I even started reading the article, as I immediately laughed as well.
A disease that propagates itself by making animals want to bite other animals. I suppose rabies is the base phenomenon behind the zombie meme. It's also a good description of a large fraction of social media posts.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321780
Some scholars think that the 18th century rabies epidemics shaped the vampire legend.
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1999/04/20/rabies-seen-as-b...
Part of it is that after it does its thing in the brain, it then travels to the salivary glands where it can then spread through a bite.
Bram Stoker’s vampire characters and stories are gay, as are their heirs (Anne Rice).
Sparkling Twilight vampires are Latter-Day Saints.
Zombies and vampires existed long before these novels and films got made, but pop culture has a way of wiping out and superseding local folk culture in the modern minds of new generations.
Case in point.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/26/293406191/do...
> Beaver food flavoring doesn't actually come from the animal's anal gland but from another organ next to it, called the castor sac.
I still wouldn't try it, myself.
You're eating beaver back sac.
17 shots: 15 shots, and 2 boosters.
We went camping in France and then on to Italy. A rabid cat entered our tent in France, but we didn't know it was rabid. The authorities finally managed to track us down to an Italian camp site, no idea how they did that, but glad they did.
If any of us had a single scratch or cut we could not 100% account for, we had to have the injections.
> If any of us had a single scratch or cut we could not 100% account for, we had to have the injections.
Shades of The Last of Us…
We got them, even if we just touched the little critters.
This was in 1969, in Morocco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4JqNwDcJ7o
QUOTE:
The National Rabies Management Program was established in recognition of the changing scope of rabies. The goal of the program is to prevent the further spread of wildlife rabies and eventually eliminate terrestrial rabies in the United States through an integrated program that involves the use of oral rabies vaccination targeting wild animals.
Since 1995, Wildlife Services (WS) has been working cooperatively with local, State, and Federal governments, universities and other partners to address this public health problem by distributing oral rabies vaccination (ORV) baits in targeted areas. This cooperative program targets the raccoon variant, canine variant in coyotes and a unique variant of gray fox rabies.
We don't have rabies in the UK, thankfully, and I don't think my bro got a rabies jab for his French coypu bite. Just naturally grumpy rodents, I guess.