I think, in a way, we are all one thousand chickens.

Science wasn’t actually certain how fungi like cordyceps “hijacked” their host’s behavior, and we always kind of assumed it was causing some relatively simplistic damage to the brain, but now it seems the truth is much more like all the dramatized versions of it in sci-fi horror.

These fungi integrate themselves on the cellular level with the host’s tissues all throughout their body, actually seem to send signals to the host’s muscles and even alter the host’s genes with their own.

And all the while, it turns out THE BRAIN ISN’T TAKEN OVER AT ALL.

they’re often based on everyday recognizable things to appeal to the dog-owners who buy them, but they still need to be practical for use by an actual dog, so we end up with such bizarre wonderful designs

for example

i call this one ducktangle