this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Some species of snails are infected with a parasitic flatworm called Leucochloridium paradoxum, which has a life cycle that involves manipulating the snail's behavior and appearance to increase its own chances of survival. The parasite causes the snail's eyes to turn into worm-like protrusions, which are actually just the parasite's own larvae.

To birds, these worm-like eyes look like tasty little morsels, and they'll often peck at them to eat them. But in doing so, they're actually ingesting the parasite's larvae, which then complete their life cycle inside the bird's digestive system.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

they are then pooped out onto other snails? How does this life cycle work

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The larvae (possibly not quite the right word) eaten by the birds lodge in the intestinal tract near the cloaca. The eggs they produce are passed out, and snails eat the eggs.

~This comment is best read with Hans Zimmer's "The Circle of Life" playing in the background.~

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago

Yes, but not deliberately - I think it depends on the species, but they'll eat decomposing plant matter, faecal matter, carrion, soil, fungi. They're not too picky. If the bird guano contains tiny flatworm eggs, bad news for the snail.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Read the Wikipedia article on Radon. That should do the trick.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (6 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Eh, FOOF is so unstable that it's very hard to make enough of it to do any real damage. It's also just very hard to make. It's only remotely stable at cryogenic temperatures, and is so reactive that without an inert atmosphere it will rapidly decay into something more stable. Granted, it will do so by oxidizing the molecular oxygen in the air (which is as insane as it sounds) and release a ton of energy in the process but assuming you don't already have a bunch of it, you won't be able to create enough of it fast enough to do any meaningful damage without a specialized laboratory and associated equipment.

Chlorine Triflouride however, can be made in your kitchen, and is just stable enough that, assuming you've taken some precautions, it's possible to accumulate enough of it to immolate yourself in one of the worst possible ways.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Chlorine trifluoride, go on

[–] [email protected] 5 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

It’s rated 4/4 in everything but flammability.

“Very toxic, very corrosive, powerful oxidizer, violent hydrolysis”

Pretty spicy, but we can do better than that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

I’m only just barely smart enough to occasionally realize that when the smart people start quietly losing their shit over something I can’t possibly understand, I should have long since been gone by the time they start losing their shit over whatever magic has now prematurely doomed the universe to its inevitable heat death.

Or I could just drink my face off. That works, too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

Aww but it sounds so fluffy

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You can try taking a look through the different forms of torture or execution humans have used...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

That's not creepy or weird, that's horrifying.

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