Today's Happy Tour Through the News: Elephants

So I read today that the Ringling Brothers circus has gotten fed up with the animal protesters and so accelerated their plan to retire all their elephants to an elephant retirement home in Florida. The last shows involving elephants happened this week and now the critters are on their way to live out their days in America's battlegroundiest of battleground states.

Having visited once, I wouldn't want to live in Florida, but it seems the kind of place -- i.e., hot and humid -- an elephant might like. I hope that's the case.  

No doubt this is good news for one team of elephant lovers, and bad news for another, but it's interesting news for cancer patients. As I noted here previously. there's scientific interest in elephant biology vis-a-vis cancer since elephants don't really get cancer, despite their size and longevity. So, in addition to doing whatever it is retired elephants living in Florida do, the Ringling Brothers elephants will also be providing researchers with the occasional blood sample. 

Which is pretty cool. I would totally sign up for a cancer treatment derived from elephant blood. 

'Course given the way we humans work, we'll figure out how to turn elephant blood into a cure for cancer right about the time we finally drive the species to extinction.* 

And now my happy news doesn't seem so happy. Sorry 'bout that...


* If I recall correctly, there's a Sean Connery movie that follows this basic plot line, though without the elephants.