DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: Pangolin

  • Squintin Quarantino: Mink Differently

    Pontoon…that’s twenty twenty one
    Put yer’ mask on, big task ahead son
    SQ Raps, with zoonotic curses
    A pox on capitalists, flock of bats in these verses
    Swoop down with sonor into your town
    James Brown on the speakers (get up, get down)
    The message I got and medium hold it
    Warped my mind, cosmos enfolded (tongue molded)
    My joint hold it
    That weed, sold it, green like Kermit,
    supreme vermin, sermon turnin’
    R-number determine the respect that you earnin’ (Zero?)
    …I’m showing concernin’
    Shut the fucking zoos and the schools, get learnin’

    I look in mirror, and tap the sink
    Double tap my head, think mcfly think
    These rhymes on pages, unpublished gauges
    For Le’ Mink I beg forgiveness from gods and sages
    Animal trade brings a shit parade
    Unless, in a lab, you think the virus made 
    They farmed fur and fucked with the wrong mink
    They picked the wrong Pangolin, wrong day, wrong drink
    Now humanity caged, we all enraged (klink klink)
    Klink klink
    You put Mink and Pangolin and Bats in cages
    Farm anything that walks, now the virus engages
    Pelts and coats and eyebrows and soup
    These mistakes not so man-kind, the guilty group (shot the coup)
    You eat Bat Pangolin soup you die
    You farm mink in squalour, boxed in you pay
    Their natural habitat is 7 miles wide
    They nurse their young on milk, down their burrow, inside
    Netherlands, Denmark and US breed em’
    Kill them, skin them, sell them and bleed them
    Gone done it now, since pig sheep and cow
    Back to bite you in the ass, better fast write a vow
    The wrong Pangolin and bat-mink farms
    The wrong politician and brats test our calms
    When the wrong human spread the wrong virus
    Cull in Denmark, our fault (I’d fire us)
    Like a bat out of hell you’ll be mourning till’ the morning comes
    I’m not surprised, got a gravestone on my drums
    Pull your mind out the slums (hums)
    Rise up with empathy, let it go, plums
    Covid dumbos suck like a thousand jumbos
    Wishful thinking, booze, god, where the mind goes
    Rhymes runnin’ like yer’ nose in a snot green garden
    Overflow hose with this prose keg yer’ pardon

    Practically shut the Zoo, we haven’t any clue
    How far up David Icke’s Rabbit hole do you have to goo
    Until you smell the bull poo, I ask you?
    Study mammals, the variants, tell parents
    Mammalian pathology and Mink/Pangolin physiology
    Check my methodology, questions, juss’ holla G.
    You believe a bio-flu made in a lab just for you
    Why shut a zoo when it’s Bill Gates crew in Wu
    Antivaxx anti-lockdown virus madness crew, fuck you
    I spit compassion for Mink, you just share sick stink
    Common sense and decency on the brink
    National health crisis, you’re brainwashed like Isis
    Killing just as many, your poor mum dad or granny
    Boris Johnson is a pure fanny
    These dead-pan notes are not funny
    Far right thugs and Facebook groups
    Conmen and victims, all fodder for troops
    Caught in the cross-fire, a zoonotic virus
    I put my hands in the air, but nobody would hire us, they fire us!
    Check the papyrus
    2020 vision I got it
    Published in March, I got a fly in my bonnet
    This is no sonnet but if you sun it you get it
    Vitamin DJ, TJ hooka’ beat smell it
    Don’t forget stay fit, still dance and move your feet
    Be discreet with your raps don’t write all caps
    I’m like a Pangolin army walkin’ through cat-flaps
    Flapping chops, cutting drops, wearing a bat bra singing four-tops
    Turvey, squirrely surely shirley, upside down inside from scurvy
    These liars unnerve me, chumocracy dirty
    I’ve been saying this since I was twenty or thirty
    Always wash your hands before eating at the canteeno’
    The virus invisible, I’m Squintin Quarantino

    They put animals and people in cages
    Profited from misery throughout ages
    Confuse health message as illness rages
    The tabloid right wing news-reaper pages
    Have I got news for you
    This shit started in a make-shift wet zoo in Wu
    The chinese contained it, but some tourists plained it
    And some tourists plained it, and some tourists plained it
    Skiers and first-world upper-class dummies
    Picked up corona for a ride to their cities
    Those living in crown cuckoo land, can’t understand what’s new
    A new virus, previously unknown and that much is true
    Faith salespeople and cheats pounce like vultures
    I make word sculptures, music and cultures
    You turn natural disaster into a man-made catastrophe
    By not taking the scientific consensus seriously
    Toilet papers hordes and 5G nutspiracy, embarrass me, callous me?
    Qanon, wake up son, they’re lying about who’s lying
    I’m flowing here trying to keep from sighing
    Singing not crying, walking not flying 
    There’s no denying, right wing leaders cause more dying
    Look at New Zealand and Wuhan, which communist buying?
    First world white capitalist faith-based disaster
    Exceptionalism, conceit makes the virus spread faster
    All the Trump Bolsonaro Bozo incompetence
    Is reflected in numbers, the death and mere pitence
    Largest military and best health care facilities
    Can’t be used to help the people because their for-profit utilities
    Public funds into private purses
    What are you stupid or something, can’t understand these verses
    You’ve been robbed, raped, thraiped and tortured
    They stole the land, the trees, the air from our orchard
    And although its awkward we must walk forward
    For word brings hope and a rant helps my veggies steam
    Environment a melting ice-cream, it doth seem, ripped at the seam
    Tripped over the dream back to the future nightmare
    But I’m awake, ready for the fight, who’s up and out there?
    I’m here training in my yellow submarino’
    Staring at Faceblock, Squintin Quarantino

    –Squintin Quarantino

    See 2020: Squintin Quarantino

  • Pangolin Didn’t Kill Itself: For World Pangolin Day 2020

    Pangolin Didn’t Kill Itself.

    Since news of the novel coronavirus spread late last year, I was struck by claims that the virus originated in snakes and/or bats. In my minds eye I quickly saw the image of a brew in a cauldron, “The eye of a newt and the toe of a frog etc..” This gut reaction led me to consider chemistry and microbiology based upon some folkloric themes.

    Snakes and bats have a wide and long history in folklore, and associated in popular culture with poison. Recent studies rebuked claims that Coronavirus was transferred to humans by snakes and/or bats, and instead proposed the missing link is a creature called the Pangolin, in Greek it roughly translates to Horny Scale, in Malay, “something that rolls up”. 

    Until this latest theory for the critter responsible for spreading the novel coronavirus to humans, I knew nothing of the Pangolin, and so discovered all manner research papers and physiological attributes that I would like to share (SEE BELOW) I’ve been disappointed with how news channels and organizations cover the outbreak and hope to share at least one fact that will inspire your own research, perhaps write of what you discovered. 

    My goal is to get to imagine you have a team of researchers in a laboratory. I don’t think it’s too far off the mark to look at the Pangolin and it’s place in genomic studies and its use in studying the immune system of mammals.  Plus it’s mention in folkloric traditions. Consider that Pangolin scales are in high demand around the world for their flesh and scales, for both eating and for medicine.

    The Pangolin is the ONLY scaled mammal in the animal Kingdom, it is noteworthy that it’s scales evolved due to high susceptibility to infection. The armour is a layer of protection when under attack or sleeping. The scales are made of keratin, which human nails and hair are also made, some have said that you can get health benefits by eating toe-nails. The religious-like, toxic belief that certain exotic animal parts will bring good luck, virility and other narcissistic benefits, is a big problem. Pangolin meat is very expensive, and not for the poor working cass.  

    Pangolin were not registered as being sold at the Wuhan market, yet witnesses have said that they were bought and sold there, and kept in unhygienic conditions, they are susceptible to infection.
    Do a quick search Pangolin + Scholar and browsethe articles. The Pangolin is the number ONE most trafficked critter in the global trade of illegal critters. A quick news search will turn up multiple stories of Pangolin busts on par with drug busts, in their estimated value. Who knew that the critter suspected of being the missing link between spreading the virus between animals and humans was also one of the most sought after critters on the black “exotic pet” market?

    To add insult to injury for the innocent anteater, their natural habitat is being destroyed, resulting in species of Pangolin classified critically endangered. This threat of extinction makes the black market thrive.
    In Zimbabwe, folk legend says that anybody who kills Pangolin will have bad luck, if only we would have enforced the laws protecting these critters from poaching earlier and kept in step with tribal wisdom.

    Although the breakout is sourced to Wuhan, and a specific market place, the bigger picture reveals a global network of players, traffickers, customers and middle-men who make up the supply and demand for Pangolin and other exotic animals. This paper reveals that Germany plays a large role in Pangolin smuggling operations. It seems the Germans have a taste for exotic pets and animals, and a worldwide customer base.

    This trafficking must stop immediately for the sake of all critter-kind and for the endangered species. Like trafficking in arms, drugs and sex, the traffick of Pangolin are responsible for a large part of the trouble around the planet today. The greedy don’t care if it’s guns, heroin, teenage-girls or lizards, deregulation helps them thrive.

    Studies show the mistreatment of the Pangolin leads to a higher probability of infection, which brings us back to black markets, illegal trafficking and inhumane treatment. The mucous of the Pangolin, and it’s very long tongue, and unique mouth muscles are worthy of study. Their insectivore diet of ants, termites and small worms are processed by the Pangolin, which lead to a deeper understanding of chemical symbiosis.

    I sincerely hope a cheap and easy to manufacture vaccine is discovered soon. If indeed, the Pangolin is the culprit, may they be treated with respect and may consideration be given to the link between pandemics and animal trafficking for profit.

    THE ROLE OF GERMANY IN THE ILLEGAL GLOBAL PANGOLIN TRADE
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989419303233

    DID PANGOLINS SPREAD THE CHINESE CORONAVIRUS TO PEOPLE?
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00364-2

    PANGOLIN GENOMES AND THE EVOLUTION OF MAMMALIAN SCALES AND IMMUNITY.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5052048/

    “As an evolutionary consequence of being covered by scales, it is plausible that the pangolin immune system evolved differently than in other mammals. For example, genes such as IFNE, a unique interferon exclusively expressed in skin epithelial cells and inner mucosa-protected tisssues (e.g., lung, intestines, and reproductive tissues), establish a first line of defense against pathogens in other placental mammals (Day et al. 2008; Ponten et al. 2008; Xi et al. 2012; Fung et al. 2013; Demers et al. 2014; Uhlen et al. 2015). Interferons (IFNs) are a cluster of highly conserved gene families that encode for cytokines expressed by host cells for communication between cells, leading to the activation of the immune system in the presence of pathogens (De Andrea et al. 2002; Fensterl and Sen 2009). Strikingly, the single copy intronless IFNE gene is pseudogenized in both pangolin species (confirmed by Sanger sequencing; sample size = 8) but is intact in 71 other mammalian species”

    TRADITIONAL-MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION OF PANGOLINS (MANIS SPS) AMONG THE AWORI PEOPLE, SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3179697/

    Here’s a useful guide on how to help, by way of deep learning.

    –Steve Fly