About those giant rabbits...

[bill]

North Korean Officials to Kim Jong Il: "We bought you some giant rabbits for breeding..."

"but we eated them." 

Alright, it's "Allegedly", and it's in the Register, so take with several barrels of salt. Still damn funny, though.

[xHaZxMaTx]

I was due to go and inspect the animals and look at the facility. They kept delaying the trip. I would have liked to go.

It's North Korea, what'd he expect?

[bill]

Visiting North Korea isn't totally out of the question, though it's very difficult for an American.

[Brunhidden]

i have the feeling they are dead, but chances are the cause of death was rampant stupidity instead of butchery.

i can see it now, the pitifull underling trying to explain to his supperior as to why the bunnies have all died. such as

"we thought they LIKED eating dirt"
"nobody told us they needed water"
"its a goddamned jungle! where the hell do you think we can find grass and  leaves for them! its not like theres a grocer down the corner!"
"apperantly they dont make very good consript soldiers, the survivors have been courtmarshaled"

I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

[Zedd]

Why not eating themselfs..It will help the population over there alot better ^^

[Brunhidden]

they already did that. in the early to mid 90s the famine was so bad that some koreans resorted to eating children. this was chosen before anyone even thought of questioning their government, which shows you how much control they have.

sadly human meat, while nutritious, is very unhealthy. you eat beef raw or rare because theres very few parasites and diseases that both cows and humans can catch, you eat pork very well done because many of the parasites can be carried by humans. eating humans means that you will become sickly and die quickly due to acquiring every single parasite and disease your meal carries, which even thorough cooking may often miss.

most cannibal cultures only ate humans in ceremonies, infrequently, and usually with great care. and they STILL were rife with all kinds of funky diseases, one in particular had a ceremony which involved poking the brains of the dead, and pretty much everyone died from something weird you can only catch from brain tissue.

Yummy yummy yummy I've got love in my tummy and I feel like loving you.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... eg, BSE... (just to name one)

[EvilIguana966]

... eg, BSE... (just to name one)

Offhand, without resorting to wikipedia, I think the disease he is inferring is Kuru.  It's very closely related to BSE (mad cow disease) but obviously exists in human nerve tissue rather than bovine. 

[Alondro]

BSE, Kuru, KVJ, scrapie... all are names for the same disease.  They're caused by a malformed version of the prion precursor protein, which is the first prion discovered and proven to be a contagious agent (others, mostly plant forms, have been found now).  It isn't a lifeform, and it doesn't even 'replicate' to spread.  Instead, it acts enzymatically on succeptible polymorphisms of the prion precursor and twists its form into the same pathogenic shape.

Prions are incredible resistant to heat, denaturing agents, proteplytic enzymes, radiation, and oxidation.  They've been found to endure in the ground for decades.  Essentially, they're the ultimate neurotoxin.  Even a single copy that finds its way into the brain will eventually be fatal as it transforms the normal protein.

Have a nice day everybody!   

[Nimrods Son]

so it's just a molecule or what? is it anorganic?

[superluser]

so it's just a molecule or what? is it anorganic?

It's a peptide.  I don't know if you can call it a protein, due to it being misfolded, but peptides are organic macromolecules.

So there you go.

[Zorro]

Prions are not super poisons.  You really have to have the right genes to make you susceptible to a particular prion.  Prions are also involved with long term memory in the brain, non-disease causing prions.

[Alondro]

Prions are not super poisons.  You really have to have the right genes to make you susceptible to a particular prion.  Prions are also involved with long term memory in the brain, non-disease causing prions.

Not certain genes, certain polymorphisms of the same gene, the prion precursor.  The risky allele is carried by a large percentage of the population.  And yes, memory is one of the primary functions of the normal-shaped protein.  The prion is the same amino acid sequence, just in a different tertiary structure, which causes it to have different functional activity.

They are super-poisons if you consider dosage to those vulnerable.  One molecule has the potential to be fatal.  Looked at that way, they are the most lethal toxins.  What other chemical compound (not including viruses, which teeter on the border between living and non-living, plus have genetic material which prions do not have as they are only a single peptide) can do that?