There’s a very good reason to get mad at people who don’t pick up after their dogs(which is something we at Enterprise feel rather strongly about). Animal feces can transmit disease from animals to humans, and spread life-threatening parasites, the Washington Post says, citing an assistant clinical professor of veterinary medicine. A 2020 study found that 85% of dogs studied in US parks had intestinal parasites.

Keeping public spaces clean isn’t just a matter of common courtesy, it’s a public health issue. Soil-transmitted parasites can infect as many as 1 bn people globally, and include coccidia and whipworms, as well as hookworms and roundworms, which can affect people as well. Don’t look them up on Google Images, trust us. If your dog’s fecal matter is absorbed into the soil, the parasite eggs can continue to infect people for years to come.

These microscopic larvae can enter your body through small scrapes or, even worse, your mouth. This could happen through accidental ingestion by something as simple as licking your lips after being exposed to these bacteria or taking a swig of water from a dirty water bottle.

Once they make their way into your system, hookworm and roundworm larvae can migrate through your bloodstream and into your lungs and your digestive tract. At best, they’ll cause anemia and malnourishment, but more serious cases see the larvae travel to the eyes and cause permanent blindness.

Your pets are in danger too: Fecal matter can contain canine and feline viruses like parvovirus, the leading transmittable cause of canine death, and other life-threatening diseases. Many species of local wildlife are also at risk, meaning that irresponsible pet management may affect the environment.

Why do streaming services like to add plus signs to their names? For services like Apple TV+, Disney+, and OSN+, the addition of a plus sign suggests some kind of value-added, but the symbol is also an attempt to compete with each other and stay relevant, The Atlantic says. The sign is simple, minimalistic, and visually appealing to consumers, and its “ crossroads-like ” appearance evokes “ harmony and balance,” a University of Toronto semiotician tells The Atlantic.

It’s not exactly new, but it also doesn’t work for everyone: The use of the plus stems back from France’s Canal+ in the 1980s, but the symbol has recently been tacked onto the majority of streaming services, making it so that it actually doesn’t really set any of them apart from the competition, the New York Times says. Google, for example, fell victim to the trend with its social network Google+ and got dashed in 2019 due to consumer apathy. While it may be aesthetically pleasing, the overload of pluses has made the symbol lose its potency.

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