"Both American and Chinese officials have raised questions about whether the virus was a manmade bioweapon, whilst Trump has dubbed it the 'China virus.'"

"'By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes,' said Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research and corresponding author on the paper.... The team analysed the molecular structure of the virus.... They suggested that it cannot be an artificial creation because its structure 'differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.'"

From "Coronavirus is not a bioweapon created in a lab, scientists say" (The Herald).

Contemplate how much worse you would feel about all this if you found out that human beings had manufactured it as a weapon.

By the way, I don't like seeing coronavirus called the "China virus," but I think Trump is using that term to hit back after Chinese officials made accusations against the United States. I'd like to see both stop, and I'd like to see an end to naming diseases after particular places. Use scientific names, not place names or ethnicity names.

"But restaurants at Kings Romans [casino complex in Laos] still offered expensive plates of bear paw, pangolin... and sautéed tiger meat..."

"... which can be paired with tiger wine, a grain-based concoction in which the cats’ penises, bones or entire skeletons are soaked for months. When a group of foreigners showed up at the God of Wealth, Kings Romans’ fanciest restaurant, the suspicious proprietor told their translator, 'You can eat here, but do not ask for the special jungle menu' — the menu offering wildlife options. Nevertheless, the staff offered tiger wine for $20 a shot glass, and served a bear’s paw to patrons at a nearby table. In May, a photographer for The New York Times who visited the restaurant was offered plates of tiger meat for $45...."

From "Asia’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Makes Tigers a Farm-to-Table Meal" (in the NYT).

Worth going to the link if only to see the moronic man in the photograph with the caption "Tourists pose with tigers in an enclosure at Tiger World in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in May." (Yes, I know the tiger is heavily sedated. I'm not calling the man moronic for trusting the tiger not to maul him. He's moronic for indulging in that sort of travel, thinking well of himself as he poses, and dressing like that when the tiger is always arrayed in gorgeous fur.)

"What is the difference between hair and fur?"

Answer: "Hair and fur are the same thing."

SA: Why is it then that, for example, my dog's fur is three inches long and it never seems to grow longer, while my own hair keeps growing and growing?

NS: Actually, a lot of types of human hair won't keep growing and growing. The normal length of the hair is an individual and species specific trait. So across the breadth of mammals, there are many norms for hair length, or fur length....

SA: Is a whisker a special kind of hair?

NS: Yes, it is. There are many different kinds of modified hairs to which we give different names. A porcupines quills are greatly enlarged hairs. Whiskers are hairs that work as sensory receptors. There's a strange animal from the Old World called a pangolin, which has these scaly plates that cover most of its body those are modified hairs.

By Valerius Tygart - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The pangolin comes to town.

In Dhaka. The BBC reports:

The anteater is renowned for its razor-sharp scales, and has scent glands similar to those of the skunk which it uses to spray enemies.

Sounds awful, but click the link for a picture. It's really cool looking!