Baiting with your nuts

[Russell]

But you'll have to admit that the giant carps story is based on the truth, and nothing but the truth...

A hard truth. Well, semi-hard, maybe.

The lesbian atheist scientists story was rock hard truth.

Hmm. You saw the video of the carp, so what else do you need?

The so-called lesbian atheist scientist story is published in a place that doesn't instill much confidence, so your conclusion is not supported by facts. For the time being, I would classify the Pacu story as "needs more evidence that it did indeed castrate some fishermen in Papua New Guinea, but it is not impossible".

Now, as for the possibility that underwater creatures in lakes are capable of injuring humans, here is another example.

[Coligny]

Maybe also...
CLOWNSHARKZ...TORNADO...OF THE DEAD !!!!!1!1!!!1

[wagyl]

It was only a matter of time before Scandinavia and the World chimed in. So we have the Times of Malta reporting what was in the Grauniad which sourced from the Melbourne Herald Sun [default Murdoch press feel linking to The Local in Sweden again] and the International Design Times (WTF?, but with wide ranging and comprehensive links back to the various papers). It must be August. (Have I paid my fine for linking medieval literature yet?)

[yanpa]

I wonder how long it will be before the internet generates a self-referential story, where the "sources" form a circular chain and no-one can tell where the story originated.

[Russell]

Seems the story of the Papua New Guinea guys who got their balls bitten off originates in 2011. I have been unable to verify this story, because the news reports on it lack specifics, and there are no independent sources. There is also a story on three boys in Vietnam who were attacked to their dicks by a non-native fish.

What can be verified is the existence of the Pacu, its strong bite, and its omnivorous diet. Here is a story from 2004 about a child bitten by one in an aquarium.

"This is actually a Pacu, which our staff have nicknamed a ‘Banana Piranha’ as they feed it slices of banana," he said.

"It will eat meat, but it prefers to feed on fruit. It is not the same as the carnivorous piranha, which hunts in packs and feeds on meat. The Pacu is a solitary fish and is one of six or seven species of fish we have."

[...]

The Pacu is thought to be less aggressive than a piranha, though some specimens can grow up to 60cm long and have been known to attack other fish.

Deep Sea World zoological manager Matthew Kane looks after both Pacus and their extremely vicious carnivorous cousin, Red Bellied Piranhas.

And he said it was not surprising the fish had gone for the child’s fingers.

"Pacus will eat anything, even children’s wiggling fingers," he said.

"They would have seen a hand above the water and would be expecting food.

"It’s just their natural behaviour. The fish don’t know what they are eating until they take a bite."

The Pacu has a crushing jaw system designed for biting nuts and can easily crush a walnut in its mouth.

The fact that it is omnivorous wouldn't make it surprising if its teeth resemble human teeth.

Here is a video on them...

[wagyl]

What sets my bullshit detector off regarding the PNG fatality claims is that the Coroner and the Police Force would be all over a story like that. They would not let a that story go uninvestigated, and there would be a paper trail as a result. The online trail, as you will have discovered Russell, has been overwhelmed by repostings of the story after Mr X-treme Angler aired his show, and there is an awful lot of chaff to get through to find the wheat. Until I see firmer evidence, I am happy to call it an amusing story, urban legend, but ultimately bullshit, August titillation and no real risk to liberated bathers in Malmö.

[Russell]

What sets my bullshit detector off regarding the PNG fatality claims is that the Coroner and the Police Force would be all over a story like that. They would not let a that story go uninvestigated, and there would be a paper trail as a result. The online trail, as you will have discovered Russell, has been overwhelmed by repostings of the story after Mr X-treme Angler aired his show, and there is an awful lot of chaff to get through to find the wheat. Until I see firmer evidence, I am happy to call it an amusing story, urban legend, but ultimately bullshit, August titillation and no real risk to liberated bathers in Malmö.

The fact that you quoted a so-called lesbian atheist blog does not add to your credibility.

It appears that your only objections are with the Swedish story. Interestingly, their only claim was that a Pacu was caught there, and it was accompanied by a slightly amusing call for Swedish men to be careful. There have been no claims of attacks in Sweden. Now, as for the stories in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam, are you really serious in your claim that the Coroner and the Police Force would be all over it if there would have been attacks? Did you even read the Vietnam story, which specifies names and other details?

At the very least it would be helpful for a fruitful discussion if you specified what you actually consider BS. The existence of Pacu? The diet of Pacu? The occurrence of attacks on humans by Pacu? So which is it?

[wagyl]

What sets my bullshit detector off regarding the PNG fatality claims is that the Coroner and the Police Force would be all over a story like that. They would not let a that story go uninvestigated, and there would be a paper trail as a result. The online trail, as you will have discovered Russell, has been overwhelmed by repostings of the story after Mr X-treme Angler aired his show, and there is an awful lot of chaff to get through to find the wheat. Until I see firmer evidence, I am happy to call it an amusing story, urban legend, but ultimately bullshit, August titillation and no real risk to liberated bathers in Malmö.

At the very least it would be helpful for a fruitful discussion if you specified what you actually consider BS. The existence of Pacu? The diet of Pacu? The occurrence of attacks on humans by Pacu? So which is it?

Put it in bold for you. I call bullshit on the claims that two guys died in PNG after having a traumatic orchiectomy at the hand/teeth of a pacu.

And I haven't read the Viet Nam story yet.


Editted to add and now I have.

At the very least, it suffers from sloppy writing. One boy lost most of his penis, the other lost half, they are still hunting down the mystery fish, but somehow they managed to get the severed members back to reattach them? So, where did they get the body parts back from? Seriously, these things only get in the papers because they allow journalists to write about naughty bits, get a wince from half of their audience, but the stories so often do not survive close examination. I see the Viet Nam story is also dated August. Silly Season.

[Russell]

What sets my bullshit detector off regarding the PNG fatality claims is that the Coroner and the Police Force would be all over a story like that. They would not let a that story go uninvestigated, and there would be a paper trail as a result. The online trail, as you will have discovered Russell, has been overwhelmed by repostings of the story after Mr X-treme Angler aired his show, and there is an awful lot of chaff to get through to find the wheat. Until I see firmer evidence, I am happy to call it an amusing story, urban legend, but ultimately bullshit, August titillation and no real risk to liberated bathers in Malmö.

At the very least it would be helpful for a fruitful discussion if you specified what you actually consider BS. The existence of Pacu? The diet of Pacu? The occurrence of attacks on humans by Pacu? So which is it?

Put it in bold for you. I call bullshit on the claims that two guys died in PNG after having a traumatic orchiectomy at the hand/teeth of a pacu.

And I haven't read the Viet Nam story yet.


Editted to add and now I have.

At the very least, it suffers from sloppy writing. One boy lost most of his penis, the other lost half, they are still hunting down the mystery fish, but somehow they managed to get the severed members back to reattach them? So, where did they get the body parts back from? Seriously, these things only get in the papers because they allow journalists to write about naughty bits, get a wince from half of their audience, but the stories so often do not survive close examination. I see the Viet Nam story is also dated August. Silly Season.

I will not speculate on the members of the boys, other than that the fish in question may have been as surprised by the boys reaction as the boys were by the fish, causing it to release its jaws. Nothing special here.

Story posted in August is a non-argument. What's next? Disregarding stories from July?...

Finally, in your first posts you even expressed doubts about the existence of Pacu. May I assume that you changed minds on this?

Edit: O heck, I am not going to spend the rest of my precious free Saturday on arguing whether a tropical fish likes to feast on the reproductive organs of Swedish men. I leave that (the feasting) to Swedish women.

[wagyl]

Yes, I agree this is not worth spending too much time. Yes, I was skeptical about a freshwater tropical fish thriving in the briny straits where the Baltic Sea starts its path towards the North Sea. This whole story got me examining a fish I had never heard of before (so I am grateful that you introduced it to me, Russell) and I see that it is fairly common as an aquarium exotic, but one that continues to grow no matter how small its aquarium. It is entirely possible that someone released their captive pet and it had not died yet when caught in Danish waters (but only Swedish swimmers are warned???).

Personally, I think Swedish men are more at risk of fatality from interactions with bees and horses than with a pacu, but that doesn't make sexy headlines.

I can imagine that Dutch Newspapers go a little crazy in the quiet news month of August too.

More unsexy headlines.


Russell, I really hope that you do not assess your self-worth based on whether someone accepts without criticism the contents of an article you linked to a forum. If I say "that story is bullshit" it is not a reflection on you. It only starts to become a reflection on your when you bend over backwards to defend the contents of the article LOL

And if you believe everything you read without critical thought, here is a site which will keep you busy for a day or two, and blow your mind!

[Russell]

Yes, I agree this is not worth spending too much time. Yes, I was skeptical about a freshwater tropical fish thriving in the briny straits where the Baltic Sea starts its path towards the North Sea. This whole story got me examining a fish I had never heard of before (so I am grateful that you introduced it to me, Russell) and I see that it is fairly common as an aquarium exotic, but one that continues to grow no matter how small its aquarium. It is entirely possible that someone released their captive pet and it had not died yet when caught in Danish waters (but only Swedish swimmers are warned???).

Personally, I think Swedish men are more at risk of fatality from interactions with bees and horses than with a pacu, but that doesn't make sexy headlines.

I can imagine that Dutch Newspapers go a little crazy in the quiet news month of August too.

More unsexy headlines.


Russell, I really hope that you do not assess your self-worth based on whether someone accepts without criticism the contents of an article you linked to a forum. If I say "that story is bullshit" it is not a reflection on you. It only starts to become a reflection on your when you bend over backwards to defend the contents of the article LOL

Nope, but when someone comes with even more BS links that appear to deny the existence of such fish, I think it is common courtesy to point that out, especially since I started this thread. This has nothing to do with self-worth, at least not from my point of view. But it appears that you think in those terms when discussing...

[wagyl]

OMG, the real truth about this fish!!!

OK, public announcement. When I say "OMG" and especially when I use three exclamation marks, I am being ironic.

As, indeed, is Christwire, but I agree that can often be difficult to distinguish.

I am relieved that your self-worth has no links to FG.