[Eric_WVGG]

> The Southwest Animal Health Research Foundation (SWAHRF), an organization formed by a small group of Texas livestock producers… broke the logjam by raising millions of dollars in voluntary donations from Texas ranchers for screwworm eradication.

That can’t be right. The Texas Department of Agriculture published a piece titled “Dollars Don’t Kill Screwworms” just two years ago.

https://texasagriculture.gov/News-Events/Article/10239/OPINI...

> Listen, dollars don’t kill screwworms. Sterile flies do. Detection systems do. We already have the tools to manage this issue because we’ve been doing it successfully for decades.

See? We don't need big government programs to get this under control, we just need farmers to… I dunno… raise and breed their own own sterile flies, or buy them from Walmart.

[Eric_WVGG]

> Fortunately, an even better location for a barrier existed: the Darien Gap, on the border of Colombia and Panama. At this narrow stretch of land, the barrier would need to be just 60 miles wide.

btw this is that terrifying jungle zone of Panama from the TV show Pluribus. Yes, it is real, and so are those trees.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darién_Gap - https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2904

[dwroberts]

That Pigafetta palm is also pretty nasty, damn

> they not only have very long, very sharp spines arming their leaves (see fallen leaf base on right), but they grow quickly to sixty feet tall or more, and then drop these deadly, spiny leaves, impaling whoever happens to be unlucky enough to be below at the time. These leaves can weigh over thirty pounds, too.