Annual Spring Cautionary Post

[Peter Wieck]

All:

Even with COViD-19, this applies, only more-so.

http://www.nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/Global-Warming/Reports/They-Came-From-Climate-Change-WEB.ashx

https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef631

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/surveillance/

http://bugguide.net/node/view/475348

https://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/direct.html

https://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dvbd/

https://ee_ce_img.s3.amazonaws.com/cache/ce_img/media/remote/ce_img/https_ee_channel_images.s3.amazonaws.com/article-figures/12582/article-g02_400_301.jpg

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/61646.php
images.radiopaedia.org/images/1827647/6b765cac7f64a5107b54df2e031e12.jpg

It is time for the annual post on stalking the wild radio (or other collectible) - and what accidental passengers that may come along with it:

1. Insects and other arthropods:

Anything from spiders to wasps to fleas and more. Any radio that has spent substantial time in a barn, basement, shed, garage or any other damp or exposed area may well be inhabited by or infested with various small and potentially painful critters. Especially those found in the southern states, home to the Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders. Wasps, centipedes (quite
poisonous as it happens) and other vermin are no fun as well. And, if you do find some critter of this nature, KILL IT. Being soft-hearted and releasing it into _your_ environment may make you feel all warm
and fuzzy, but that creature may then cause considerable harm being somewhere it does not belong and where it perhaps has no natural predators. EDIT: Global Warming (whether you believe in it or not) has pushed the Recluse range into southern Maryland – mostly by human transport and not as successful breeding colonies but more and more common, with some few transported by human agency as far as Michigan and Pennsylvania. This is one NASTY spider with a very nasty bite.

2. Evidence of Rodent Inhabitation: Handle with GREAT care.

Hanta-Virus (a relative of Ebola) is endemic throughout the entire United States, Mexico and parts of Canada. It is a disease without effective treatment and an over 50% mortality rate worldwide (36% in the US). It is carried in the feces and fresh urine of many rodents...and there is limited recent evidence that reconstituted waste (dried but inhaled) will also spread the disease especially if inhaled, a possibility not accepted in the recent past.

Lyme Disease: Carried by deer ticks that winter over in the white-footed deer mouse (an omnivore, BTW) that will winter over anywhere it can find shelter. The ticks that mice carry will leave the mouse to lay eggs... perhaps in that radio that served as their temporary winter dorm and latrine. Various other tick-borne diseases include Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and a whole bunch more *very* nasty diseases not worth risking, are all endemic in the US.

Note that per the CDC, there are now four types of ticks carrying multiple diseases dangerous to humans and pets. All this flying back and forth with pet animals has made the problem massively worse.

3. Bird Dung & Old Nests: Per a recent paper, there have been over sixty (60) diseases that may be carried in wild bird poop including Avian Flu, Fowl Typhoid, Infectious Coryza, Paratyphoid, Salmonellosis, Schistosomiasis, strep and on-and-on. ((Those of you servicing your Bluebird and other bird houses about now need also keep this in mind.)) Most wild birds are carriers of these diseases and show no visible symptoms. We bleach our birdhouses - THEN we clean them out. Amazing the number of dead insects and other vermin we get out of them every spring.

Asbestos: Dangerous only when friable - small particles able to become airborne easily. If you are a smoker, even more dangerous. A single (one (1)) fiber can cause a fatal reaction over time – although that actuality is extremely rare and will (usually) take many years. For all that, it is fairly easily made safe with a little bit of care and caution. But even if you do not believe it is dangerous, you do not have the right to expose others, or transport it in conveyances where residual material may come in contact with others - that is, do not transport it openly in the family minivan.

Bottom line: A proverbial ounce of caution beats the hell out of a pound of care. Common sense, rubber gloves, a breathing mask, Lysol, Bleach, Moth-balls, Insecticides (which often do not work on Spiders or Ticks, so read the label), and other elementary precautions conscientiously and carefully applied will "safen" even the nastiest of wild radios.


Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[Lord Valve]

On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 9:23:21 AM UTC-6, Peter Wieck puked a stinking greenweenie hairball upon the RAT carpet, steaming and quivering in the naked light of day:

<snip>

My God, what a crock of utter leftist shit. You *deserve*
the Green New Deal and the destruction it would wreak
upon this nation. I'll wager you spend a considerable
portion of each day pounding your pathetic pud in front
of Alexandria Occasional Cortex's picture.

You stupid shit.


Lord Valve, ThD
American/Patriot (fuck you!)

T R U M P 2 0 2 4 - M A G A - 1 7 7 6 / 1 8 6 1

Q - W W G 1 W G A

[Peter Wieck]

LV: Thank you for demonstrating so clearly and concisely that you are entirely unencumbered by the thought process!

[Lord Valve]

Oh, I think my thought processes are fairly acute.
I think - hell, I *know* - that you were gullible
enough to join the Global Warming Cult and pay
tribute to its pope, Algore. You've bought into
the most magnificent long con ever mounted in the
history of Mankind, a hustle so good that the marks
not only don't expect to see the payoff until after
they CROAK, but go around fervently recruiting new
marks to fund the con. It's fucking brilliant, I
gotta hand it to you. The marks jump at the chance
to pay for "green" energy and products...which work
half as well and cost three times as much as the
real ones. And you have a new Virgin Madonna, Saint
Greta Cuntberp, who will doubtless be awarded the
Nobel Piece Prize for cutting herself in on a piece
of the action at such a tender age, walking in the
footsteps of Barack Hussein O'Butthole, who was awarded
the same prize based on the melanin content of his
epidermis, although I seem to be harboring an alternate
memory of his having found it at the bottom of a box of
Cracker-Jacks, or maybe it was a bucket of KFC. No matter...

Boy Howdy, Pete, that's a killer hustle y'all got, and if my
IQ were only 50 points lower (better make that 100, come
to think of it) I'd gleefully hop on the bandwagon, waving the
same same glorious red banners as the rest of you, shouting
"Orange Man Bad," wearing a Che T-shirt, singing the Mickey
Maoist Club theme song ("Who's the leader of the gang that
hates the USA? B - A - R, A - C - K, O - B - A - M - A!")
and farting egregiously from having eaten all that fucking
kale.

Look downward, Pete...see that withered round thing you're
holding? That's you ASS, Junior, and I'm going to hand it
to you every time you try to pull any of that Extreme Climate
Change horse-shit around here.

Lord Valve, ThD
Climate Debunker

[Peter Wieck]

So, once more, clearly, but not so concise this time.

a) Unencumbered by the thought process.
b) Absolute proof that one cannot fix stupid.
c) And, as your final achievement, invincible ignorance.

LV, you have hit the Trifecta!

[Big Bad Bob]

On 2020-04-01 08:23, Peter Wieck wrote:
> All this flying back and forth with pet animals has made the problem massively worse.

yes, but someone out there NEEDS that "comfort peacock" - better let him
on the plane with his peacock (or something is WRONG with YOU)!

as for critters living in old gear, as long as it's not cockroaches
[which seem to like electronics] then a bit of compressed air should fix
it. Really old wire chewed by mice, though... that would be a bit of
work to fix!

Now, if the insides are coated with TOBACCO SMOKE residue, _THAT_ is
difficult to clean up [and pretty damn gross]. Had to do that with a
reverb unit, though it was a solid state one (Fender). Used LOTS and
LOTS of isopropyl alcohol.