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• Commented on Cute figurines with heads shaped like organs
  Looks like you can't choose which organ you get if you buy from the website... a shame, as I have lots of neuroscientist friends who'd love the brain one, but be less interested in a lung or kidney....
• Commented on Unicornfish chaser
  Note that this is the second-largest aquarium of its kind. The largest can be found in Atlanta, GA -- home of the only captive whale sharks outside of Asia. They live in a 6.3 million gallon tank....
• Commented on Americans watch about 5 hours of TV every day.
  Almost all of my TV watching is either streaming content online (Netflix, Hulu, network websites) or older shows that are out on DVD. I do watch one or two football games a week at this time of year (with a...
• Commented on Replacing $100K diagnostic chip fab with Shrinky-Dinks and a laser-printer
  Good to see that people were talking about Khine's physical appearance as early as comment #2 on a post about her technical innovation... *rolling eyes*...
• Commented on Scutigera Coleoptrata: In Your Bathroom, On Your T-Shirt
  I always called them East Bugs, after a particularly infested dormitory at my college. We don't have them in Florida, where I'm from (and where there are some pretty heinous types of other creepy crawlies), and I was horrified when...
• Commented on Mind control with sound and light
  This is no more "mind control" or "brainwashing" than the use of stimulating electrodes to treat Parkinson's disease. I know the headline is tongue-in-cheek, but there are enough folks out there already who are afraid of science. Don't give them...
• Commented on Tumors Can Grow Faster Than You Think
  Unfortunately, condom use does always not prevent the spread of HPV (the virus causing most cervical cancers). It can be spread by skin to skin contact with areas not covered by a condom....
• Commented on Report: Woman paralyzed by E. coli-tainted hamburger
  @Xeni #45, I don't know where jimkirk is, but here in the Atlanta area I'm part of a great CSA that offers organic local produce, eggs, some dairy products, and meats. Because of the warmer climate, this CSA is year...
• Commented on Teacher asks YA author if virtual visit can take place "with us being able to see you, but you not being able to see us"
  I ran into a similar issue when I visited a middle school this year. I'm a science grad student and the classroom visit was part of my university's science outreach program. The program director suggested that we take some pictures...
• Commented on Julia Nunes: "God Only Knows" on the Uke
  Her cover of "Flagpole Sitta" is my favorite....
• Commented on Bob Dylan mistaken for hobo, 40 years after Woodstock
  @ #23PANTOGRAPH "if mr. Dylan had carried a valid national ID, the problem would have been cleared up in seconds" What if his ID said "Robert Zimmerman"?...
• Commented on "Snow Day," by Emma: 8-year-old girl rocks out massively.
  This totally made my day. These kids rock!...
• Commented on Autism as an academic advantage
  I think if high-functioning autistic/Asperger's individuals are thriving, then it's fair to say that their condition is not a "plague," but rather a different way of thinking and living. However, as a neuroscientist, I wanted to point out that many,...
• Commented on LA's vegan restaurants are full of egg
  As someone who is allergic to shellfish, I find this disturbing. I usually consider vegetarian/vegan dishes to be "safe" because I assume that a certain amount of care will be taken to make sure that no animal products (including the...
• Commented on Roald Dahl on vaccinating your kids
  @Ottocrat #117: I'm sorry, but LOTS of people say "don't vaccinate your kids." People in this very comment thread have said as much, and there are widespread anti-vaccination campaigns that say as much. I'm glad that you have a more...
• Commented on Roald Dahl on vaccinating your kids
  @Anonymous #91: Can I get vaccines without Thimerosal? Yes. Most vaccines in the US are no longer made with thimerosal. From the CDC: "Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza (flu) vaccines, thimerosal is not used as a preservative...
• Commented on Roald Dahl on vaccinating your kids
  A couple of links on vaccine safety, vaccine refusal, and the vaccine/autism controversy, for people interested in reading more from the experts: Recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine about vaccine refusal and its role in elevating the...
• Commented on Roald Dahl on vaccinating your kids
  @ Uland #49: I know two couples that believe vaccinations had a role to play in the radical change they witnessed in their children, both boys, directly after rounds of massive vaccinations. Shortly after both boys were diagnosed with autism....
• Commented on Roald Dahl on vaccinating your kids
  @30 Seanboing -- The dose makes the poison. The levels of thimerosal previously used in vaccines were not significant enough to cause harmful effects. People can eat mercury-contaminated tuna or inject botulinum toxin into their wrinkles without dying. Sure, it...
• Commented on Roald Dahl on vaccinating your kids
  "How, exactly, does the infection of one child raise the potential for infection in your child if your child has been vaccinated? Do the vaccinations not work?" Sometimes the vaccinations don't work. And some people cannot be vaccinated, either because...
• Commented on Roald Dahl on vaccinating your kids
  Sigh. Oh, thimerosal. People made a stink about it (even though it was never linked to any sort of serious vaccine side effects), and because it's only a preservative, vaccine manufacturers decided to phase it out rather than fight the...
• Commented on Damien Walter's 2009 <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">parkour</span> free running showreel
  I think I prefer David Belle's style as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98jCBnWO8w...
• Commented on Woman accuses cop neighbor of forging "Come get all my stuff for free" ad on Craigslist
  Clearly the neighbor is in the wrong for this, not only because he set this woman up for theft of her property, but because he exposed her to some of the crazies who haunt the "free" section of Craigslist. We're...
• Commented on Mormon Crickets Dislike Led Zeppelin
  "etymologists aren't sure why this works" And why would they be? They study word origins. *Entomologists* study insects. :-)...
• Commented on Ted Chiang's Hugo nominated story Exhalation free download
  Thanks for sharing this. I love Ted Chiang's stories....
• Commented on Terrific special effects reel by 12-year-old
  This kid is funny. WYLKYN's daughter's "Harold the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich" is tooth-achingly cute. Makes me want to have kids of my own just to see the creative things they come up with!...
• Commented on Crayons as pixels
  Very cool! If I squint my eyes a little bit, the effect becomes even better....
• Commented on Scientific publishers get a law introduced to end free publication of govt-funded research
  Microbrain, I'm not sure how you think science works, but scientists do not make their money from publishing companies. They get their money from organizations like the NIH and NSF, usually based on the success of their previous work (which...
• Commented on Bumpits: Big Happie Hair
  I blame Sarah Palin....
• Commented on Top 500 worst passwords
  I like to use foreign phrases re-spelled into nonsense English. For example, "s'il vous plait" becomes "SeaVooPlay," or "SillVousePlate," or something like that. Add a few numbers if required. (S33VooPlay...) and, at least according to Google's password strength checker, they...