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u/NoFlyingMonkeys

▲ 780 r/DivorcedBirds+1 crossposts

Bro was FLABBERGASTED

"A pair of Peregrine Falcons dive-bombed researchers at San Jose City Hall as they worked to tag their chicks as part of a decades-long monitoring program. They say the peregrines are experiencing a population collapse due to the Avian Flu, which they get from their prey. In 2020, researchers reported 47 peregrine nests in the Bay Area; now, only 11 remain, with healthy adult falcons breeding." [source]

u/NoFlyingMonkeys — 8 days ago
▲ 643 r/Ornithology

Sources are suggesting that the Hanta Virus cruise ship outbreak was contracted and brought onto the ship by birders! The couple that got sick first had gone on a guided bird tour, that stopped at a a landfill overrun with vermin.

I know that this may be bending Ornithology rules to discuss, but I think this is important to those who study birds too, especially in remote sites that might include landfills with a lot of vermin.

I would think that if this landfill was so overrun with HV disease to be this infectious, the ppl that work there, or the bird tour guide, or other birders, would have gotten Hanta Virus long before this.

forbes.com
u/NoFlyingMonkeys — 15 days ago
▲ 1.1k r/DivorcedBirds+1 crossposts

One of my budgies had to get a CT, and my god did he look goofy getting it. Shoutout to his vet team for getting these. They’re amazing!

u/NoFlyingMonkeys — 18 days ago
▲ 84 r/medicine

Unlocked NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/us/ai-chatbots-biological-weapons.html?unlocked_article_code=1.elA.s3HV.GLgwxydUFsUt&smid=url-share

Scientists at Stanford, MIT, and elsewhere discuss. Scenarios included:

  • how to modify known pathogens to resist treatments
  • new toxins modified from known cancer drugs
  • how to make a virus that once caused a pandemic
  • how to disperse bioweapon to entire cities via large transit systems or weather balloons
  • how to damage cattle, pork, or other agricultural industries
  • high accuracy with laboratory protocols
  • dangerous genetic variants that current screening software could not detect
  • one scientist said the results were so frightening and accurate that he would not disclose them to NYT.

My take: Although scientists conceded and AI execs argued that some expertise was needed, never underestimate the magnitude of biohacking that is currently happening at large world-wide. There is a glut of technically adept people out there now, unemployed S/P the end of the pandemic and US federal RIFs. Biohackers and startup wannabes are setting up home and/or informal “WeWork”-type group labs to share lab equipment everywhere. Many more small, under-the-radar companies are selling the starter materials than every before. And of course, now AI is there to help design it all.

So, as a PhD, it is not inconceivable to me that bioweapon terrorism could now much more easily be accomplished by even a single bad actor. And as an MD, the thought of a new bespoke bioweapon that we have no knowledge of and thus no ability to treat mass casualties is terrifying.

Thoughts? Discuss amongst yourselves!

u/NoFlyingMonkeys — 22 days ago