Pangolins

I'm Going To Talk To You About Pangolins Now

A British Museum worker missed the memo. Also, we can regrow teeth apparently, a pangolin trafficking ring has been toppled, and a real life warlock who probably wasn't actually a warlock.

Endeavorance

18 Aug 2023 — 4 min read

Programming Note

Heyo, quick schedule note. I am provisionally planning to take next week off from producing Stuff Keeps Happening. I'll still be around, but I am starting a new medication which will take a few weeks for me to adjust to, and so I'd rather not be trying to put together these shows while dealing with possibly unexpected side effects.

I will still be livestreaming on my Twitch with my new schedule: Mondays 2pm-5pm, Wednesdays 5pm-9pm and Saturdays 5pm-9pm. All times US Eastern.

Okay, with that out of the way...

It Belongs in a Museum

The British Museum fired an employee after finding that some of their stuff was stolen from storerooms. This is surprising, considering the long history of the British stealing items to bring to their museums. Many were shocked to find that in this case, it was reversed.

According to reports, the items were not the stuff you'd see out in displays, and were instead in storerooms for archival and academic safekeeping. The museum is now going to do a whole bunch of security audits and put together a plan to try and recover the stolen goods.

We're Gonna Regrow Teeth Now

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have successfully proven that they can use stem cells to create cells that can potentially restore tooth enamel.

This is a first step towards a potentially revolutionary new way to help people with tooth decay by directly regrowing teeth.

Now, to be clear, this is a very, very early first step. They were able to take stem cells which are capable of becoming other types of cells, and converted them into a type of cell that grows your teeth, a cell which typically is not present in human adults.

The research was published by grad student Ammar Alghadeer working under Hannele Ruohola-Baker in her biochemistry lab.

Okay but Pangolins Though

I am now going to talk at you about a sting operation that disrupted pangolin traffickers with help from the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, pangolins. They're like a mixture between an anteater and an armadillo. They're cute as hell and they're Good Armored Rolly Bois. Unfortunately, their scales are sought after and make them a target for trafficking. Because of this, most species of pangolin are endangered, ranging from mild to near-extinction.

Anyway turns out that pangolin traffickers used standard shipping containers quite a bit. Not like, getting their own, but they'd shove some pangolin scales into containers and pop 'em onto ships. Well, a little known global pandemic hit which just kinda sorta disrupted the global shipping industry, making it a lot harder to ship and sell pangolin scales.

Cue the Wildlife Justice Commission and some of their workers who seek justice for our lil' fellas. They leveraged the increased desperation of the traffickers to set up meetings for fake purchases, ultimately resulting in the arrest and conviction of three high level operators, with one still on the run with walls closing in.

Notably, the traffickers were given nicknames with the proper level of respect. One of them was nicknamed "Big Mac," reportedly because the person who had to come up with the nickname was hungry at the time. His accomplice was then nicknamed "Fries."

Big Mac and Fries have both been sentenced to jail.

On This day…

On this day in 1634, Urbain Grandier was executed after being convicted of witchcraft (or, specifically, sorcery).

They did the thing they did to witches, which is to say my dude got burnt at the stake.

Apparently, the local Mother Superior was super into him, but he rejected her, resulting in her getting real mad and accusing him of using magic to seduce her. A bunch of other nuns joined in saying he bewitched them and sent the demon Asmodeus to do evil shit with them.

Some of the evidence used against him in his trial were documents signed by both him and some demons. So sounds like some real serious and level-headed investigation went on.