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Stone Age Herbalist Profile picture
@Paracelsus1092
Mar 5, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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In 2015 a pair of orcas - Port & Starboard - arrived in Cape Town and began hunting local sharks, surgically targeting the liver. The great whites fled, causing a collapse in marine tourism, but it gets stranger. Image
False Bay used to have hundreds of sharks, but by 2020 not a single one was spotted. The orcas dispatched dozens of great whites, broadnose sevengills and copper sharks, each time a precision removal of the liver. Image
In May 2022 the orcas seemed to be teaching other orcas how to hunt in this way. A group were caught on drone footage dispatching a great white in Mossel Bay. The unprecedented incident was written up in a journal.

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ec… ImageImage
The pair's skill and taste for shark liver seems insatiable. On one day alone, the duo killed 17 broadnose sevengill sharks, chowing down only on their livers. Exactly what the long-term consequences of their predation will be is unclear. Image
The orcas are taking advantage of the shark's vulnerability to being rammed from underneath, which induces 'tonic immobility'. They then rip off the pectoral fin and aim for the liver. Image
In this house we enjoy orcas and can't wait to see what the two of them do next. Image

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More from @Paracelsus1092

Stone Age Herbalist Profile picture
Apr 23
*Haiti Update April 2025* - the international Kenyan led forces have failed to dislodge the gangs now running the capital, cholera outbreaks have been noted, gang rape is rife and the homicide rate continues to increase. Image
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Rival gangs are looking to spread outside of Port-au-Prince, targeting prisons, roads and buses for kidnapping operations. There's something surreal about the fact that a gang faction called 'Taliban' has a stronghold in a suburb of Port-au-Prince called Canaan. Image
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Politically Haiti is currently ruled by an unelected council, since it has been unable to commence elections and there are no legitimate politicians left to rule. The hope is that new elections will be run in Nov 2025, but the gangs are seeking to destabilise this situation. Image
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Read 7 tweets
Stone Age Herbalist Profile picture
Apr 19
Around AD 1500 this six month old child was buried under a pile of flat stones and sealskins, in the shadow of a large cliff at Qilakitsoq, Greenland. Centuries later experts determined he was likely buried alive, on the body of his mother 🧵 Image
Qilakitsoq is in eastern Greenland, and was occupied by the Thule Inuit, who arrived circa AD 1250. They pushed out the original Dorset Culture people, and named the site Qilakitsoq, meaning 'that which has little sky', a reference to the high cliffs. Image
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In 1972 a pair of brothers out grouse hunting stumbled upon a burial site in the cliffs. Image
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Read 9 tweets
Stone Age Herbalist Profile picture
Apr 9
Somewhere between 500-800 million people rely on cassava root as their main source of carbohydrate. Incredibly it looks like many of them suffer from chronic cyanide poisoning as a result of improper preparation Image
The quantity of cyanide depends on the cultivar, growing conditions and differences between the root and leaves of the tuber. The amount ranges from 15-1000mg cyanide per kilo of root. Image
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Turning raw cassava root into a safe and edible food requires careful processing to reduce the cyanogenic glycosides. A combination of crushing/fermenting, plus drying seems best - some simple methods like boiling do very little to detoxify the root. Image
Read 8 tweets
Stone Age Herbalist Profile picture
Mar 28
A thread on the Pacific Dwarf mythology that accompanied the Austronesian expansion - the Primordial Little People Type-Tale Image
The dominant hypothesis as to why many Austronesian-Polynesian cultures have a foundational little-people story, is that when the proto-Austronesians arrived in Taiwan they found a short statured Palaeolithic people already living there. Image
This theory was recently strengthened by the discovery of 'negrito-like' human remains in Taiwan, dating back around 6000 years. The skull shows many similarities to other Negrito and African San peoples. Image
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Read 18 tweets
Stone Age Herbalist Profile picture
Mar 7
In 2016 the British Dental Journal identified a new child protection issue - the sub Saharan practice of gouging out the healthy tooth buds of children, euphemistically called 'Infant Oral Mutilation' (IOM) 🧵 Image
IOM is the practice of removing erupting infant teeth in order to prevent ill physical and spiritual health - the buds are believed to be tooth worms or bad spirits which cause diarrhea and fevers. The cure is to remove the primary teeth. Image
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The teeth are extracted in an extremely crude and painful manner, using bike spokes, penknives, hot nails, fingernails, razor blades etc, without anaesthetic and with the high risk of blood loss and subsequent infection, including passing on HIV or hepatitis B. Image
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Read 6 tweets
Stone Age Herbalist Profile picture
Jan 25
Thread of pictures from Australia, taken from the book Peoples Of All Nations (1922) Vol I.

The British authors survey both the European and Aboriginal inhabitants, considering the former to be a "sub-type of the British race... far more assertive, self-confident, ruthless" Image
Link to previous threads:

"The Sturdy Stock They Raise On Australian Farms" - the authors mention the low birth rate in the cities, but praise the outdoor Australian lifestyle, as well as pointing to new technologies replacing older rural livelihoods. Image
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Read 16 tweets

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