Comments Avidities has made

  • Teaching the Cat to Flush Could Be a Bad Idea

    Scientists and researchers discovered a correlation between Toxoplasma gondii and the decrease in the sea otter population off the California Coast. Since cats are the only creatures that shed the T. gondii parasite, through their feces, there seems to be a direct link.

    T. gondii is a parasite with a two-phase life cycle: intestinal and extraintestinal. In cats, the intestinal phase goes through a process which eventually produces oocysts, which are "shed" in the feces.

    How Did T. Gondii Get into the Ocean? Although no one knows for certain, it is thought that there could be several causes, including ferel cats, storm drain runoff, and sewage treatment plants.

    Treatment plants traditionally treat sewage to kill harmful bacteria. Unfortunately present means of sewage treatment do not kill the T. Gondii parasite.

    Cat owners using flushable litters, may be unwittingly contributing to the ultimate deaths of sea otters.On Umbra on kitty litter posted 4 years, 2 months ago 25 Responses

  • Its been a while since I've read Putnam, but...

    In defense of Putnam, the explanations he offered as possible reasons for social capital declines were meant as starting off points into empirical research. Putnam's book was groundbreaking in that it was a thorough examination into the scope of declining civic participation - from bowling leagues to voting rates. But as Eric de Place points out - many people have improperly cited these theories as proven causes.

    Since Putnam's groundbreaking work, researchers have continued to document the scope and depth of the disengagement trend, they have been cautious to offer any explanations. The explanations that have been offered mainly rely on the observation (rather than empirical assessment) of other trends and patterns that have occurred concurrently with the civic disengagement trend. Busyness and time pressures; economic hard times; the movement of women into the workforce and two career families; suburbanization, sprawl and increased residential mobility; changes to the structure and scale of the American economy; disruptions to the family unit from divorce and single parent homes; growth in the welfare state; social movements like the civil rights revolution; and incidents like the Vietnam War, Watergate and the cultural revolution against authority have all been offered as possible reasons to declining social capital.

    While Putnam himself offers some possible explanation into this phenomenon to be empirically examined, in no way did he offer them as conclusions. (as a side note, its important to point out that Putnam's primary theory in both his book and his 1995 article in PS: Political Science & Politics, is that television is the greatest cause for declining social networking.)

    Michael, www.care2.com

    On Sprawl is often thought to erode social capital, but the evidence is mixed posted 4 years, 3 months ago 3 Responses