• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Zombie Deer Disease

How unfortunate that this disease exists.:(

Thankfully, I don't eat deer meat so whether, or not, it can infect humans, who consume deer meat, I think I'm safe.
 
I don't know who came up with the clickbaity 'zombie' name, but CWD has been in Wisconsin at least since 2001. The county I live in has no known cases, but we are on the watch list for the spread of the disease.

I don't know the current details of the management plan, but DNR has experienced funding cuts and nearly wholesale removal of science and research positions during Walker's governorship (well, he trashed this state pretty badly in general, so it is no surprise that DNR got slashed). Opinion among hunters here tend to be pretty critical of the lack of state interest in controlling CWD. We even have landowners who manage their properties so as to get lots of big bucks (old bucks carry and transmit CWD much more than other deer), so it isn't only the state that isn't thinking strictly short term on this.

That's an intersting article that Vox linked to, written by Scottish and Canadian scientists. Luckily some countries still fund research...:(
 
Reading about these infections prions is a real trip. A very scary trip too.

  1. They are not alive, so they cannot be killed.
  2. It is extremely difficult to destroy them. Cooking meat does nothing to them.
  3. Once you get them, tough luck on you, because there is no cure for them.
  4. They are tough to detect, with some blood tests only being developed VERY recently. But see #3 and think about what it means if you are diagnosed as being infected.
  5. They are usually spread in meat products that are eaten. See #4 and think about what the chances are that ALL meat you eat has been tested.

Sleep well tonight.
 
WebSlave said:
Reading about these infections prions is a real trip. A very scary trip too.

  1. They are not alive, so they cannot be killed.
  2. It is extremely difficult to destroy them. Cooking meat does nothing to them.
  3. Once you get them, tough luck on you, because there is no cure for them.
  4. They are tough to detect, with some blood tests only being developed VERY recently. But see #3 and think about what it means if you are diagnosed as being infected.
  5. They are usually spread in meat products that are eaten. See #4 and think about what the chances are that ALL meat you eat has been tested.

Sleep well tonight.
Click to expand...


Agreed... This particular prion disease is pretty scary. Especially since the vector seems to be a something that can't be readily controlled like it was with "mad cow" or "scrapie" (the consumption of specific organs and tissue from infected animals). Instead it seems to be spreading through fecal material and bodily fluids and can also be found in muscle tissue. It is correct that it's not new (I believe it was discovered in 1960's), but the more recent spread of it makes me think something in it's whole dynamic might have changed.

Based on some of the things I've read on it and some other fairly recent discoveries about other diseases, I'm really curious if there's an undiscovered viral component to this. Not that it would be easy to treat, but at least we have limited means to fight viruses. These prions seem like you could just about use them for insulating tiles on a space shuttle without hurting them!

I'm not a biologist or virologist or any other "ologist" so I could easily be (and probably am) wrong on any of these points, but these are my thoughts after looking into things...
 
Scrapie is an interesting case. Not only is it understood that there is no transmission risk to humans (in the 250 years we've known that scrapie existed), there are sheep with genetic resistance to it. Certain individual sheep have genetic markers that make them resistant, and so a person can buy these genetically tested animals to breed resistance into their flocks. Certain breeds are also more or less susceptible; I keep Katahdin hair sheep, and that breed has no record of ever having an infected animal.
 
Socratic Monologue said:
Scrapie is an interesting case. Not only is it understood that there is no transmission risk to humans (in the 250 years we've known that scrapie existed), there are sheep with genetic resistance to it. Certain individual sheep have genetic markers that make them resistant, and so a person can buy these genetically tested animals to breed resistance into their flocks. Certain breeds are also more or less susceptible; I keep Katahdin hair sheep, and that breed has no record of ever having an infected animal.
Click to expand...

One can only hope our knowledge with this example of a spongiform encephalopathy will help us in the future. My biggest worry is if and more likely where/when it will jump the species barrier since it's literally in our back yards and could easily jump to any number of species we interact more directly with (like dogs or cats).
 
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