One of Microkhan’s most faithful correspondents wrote in yesterday regarding our recent Taiwanese landmines post. Our piece quoted from a report on Mozambique’s mine removal program, which suggested that dogs were doing much of the detection. But our reader, who obviously knows Mozambique better than the Average Joe, points out that giant pouched rats are […]
Entries Tagged as 'Black Death'
Man’s True Best Friend?
June 4th, 2009 · 3 Comments
Tags:animals·Black Death·coal mining·landmines·Mozambique·rodents·weapons
Black Death Rethink
April 21st, 2009 · 3 Comments
Have plague-infected rats (as well as their attendant fleas) gotten a bad rap in the history books? A pair of Georgia-based geographers think so. Their rather unconventional theory is that an unknown viral condition, rather than bubonic plauge, was responsible for Europe’s Black Death: “The Black Death went so fast, but we knew bubonic plague […]
Tags:Black Death·bubonic plague·Hong Kong·medicine·Medieval history