Killing to save, again

Earlier this year, during the pet food contamination crisis, I was distressed to realize that researchers were testing various compounds for pet toxicity by ... feeding them to companion animal breeds to see if the test animals died.

I know that's a standard practice, but it still gives me pause, even when it's "just" bees:

Next up are attempts to infect honeybees with the newfound virus to see if it's indeed a killer.

I've been in a weird frame of mind recently, so another paragraph in the same article sent me into odd thoughts:

Scientists previously have found blasting emptied hives with radiation apparently kills whatever infectious agent that causes the disorder. That has focused their attention on viruses, bacteria and the like, to the exclusion of other noninfectious phenomena, like cell phone interference, also proposed as culprits.

Have they learned nothing -- nothing -- from all those '50s B movies?? When we're all fleeing the fifty-foot radioactive murderous mutant bees with a grudge, those scientists better not come crying to me, that's all I'm saying. (And when my cell phone turns out to be my salvation, my warding talisman against the bee attack, I can't promise I won't then lead the bees in rebellion! Come, my beauties, we can rule the world! Mwahahahaha!!)

Speaking of "weird" ...

Glowing livestock? Glowing livestock?? Just, like, wandering around?

Dude, forget mining the uranium. SciFi could mine just that article for about ten of their bargain-basement movie specials!

Survey panel openings (men)

I'm a member of a few online survey panels. I've been getting out of them generally, since the compensation is usually not really worth the time, but I'm staying with Pinecone Research because they pay $5 cash for most surveys. Pinecone is an invitation-only panel; they generally don't accept applications from folks who don't come in through a specifically placed advertisement.

However, they've sent out email asking for referrals of "male consumers 18 years of age or older".

If you meet those criteria and are interested, drop me a comment here and I'll forward the invitation email. (Rather, I'll forward it to anyone on my Friends list and will consider forwarding it to other respondents.) There is no guarantee that they will take a given applicant, but I will mention that I've never had any privacy concerns about them.