From Jim Barribeau:

Re: “Black Death” could return, study warns (March 16, 2013): I am thinking that free trade agreements might be our biggest night-mare waiting to happen. Oranges seem to be a real problem due to imports from Africa, and this is just one of many things. Boa constrictors in Florida are soon becoming a problem and the carp from other countries that are killing our native species of fish, problems with a die-off of honey bees. We need to keep it to home even though we may go without some things in the off season. Wars in over seas countries is also opening some doors to unusual diseases and more.

From Michael Cristina:

Re: Domestic cats seen as major killers of wildlife (Jan. 29, 2013): The amount of birds and small animals killed would be put into better perspective if you estimated the number of “Free-ranging domestic cats” in the US. That is, how many kills per cat per year.

Also, how many killed per year vs total number of birds and small mammals in the US.

From Bandit (ban dit@cr uzio.c om):

Re: Power linked to tendency to punish harshly (Jan. 18, 2013): This can go a long way to explain the war on drug (users). I also remember reading a similar study, but it pointed out that, instead of punishing the powerful people’s peers harshly, the peers are given a “free pass”. This helps explain why there are no bankers in jail, but pot smokers and medpot growers are given multi-decade (or life) sentences.

From Bandit (band it@c ruz io.co m):

Re: Linkage between pot, low IQ “premature,” study says (Jan. 16, 2013): Considering that pot has been the drug of choice for the engineering community, especially the software industry, there is plenty of evidence to show the study is flawed. Of course, the cynical would point out there is a good chance that the results of this study were to continue the failed War on Drugs, which is really (for the US), a police action against folks who smoke pot. Just look at the arrest rate for pot vs other, actually harmful drugs. Now Mexico - they have a *real* drug war. 100, 000 dead and rising.

From Mary Baine Campbell:

Re: “Mr. Mom” is not so much Mr. Bedroom, study suggests (Jan. 30, 2013): “The im­por­tance of gen­der has de­clined over time, but it con­tin­ues to ex­ert a strong in­flu­ence over in­di­vid­ual be­hav­iors, in­clud­ing sex­u­al fre­quen­cy with­in mar­riage,” Ko­rn­rich said.” This is a lunatic statement from a scientist. If you want to know whether gender exerts a strong influence over sexual frequency in marriage you obviously have to include same-sex marriages in the study! Yet the article clearly states that only heterosexual test subjects were used. I can’t imagine why or, consequently, what the PIs understood “gender” to mean. Was this experiment designed by fundamentalists or creationists out to prove an ideological point? Please post a follow-up.

Mary Baine Campbell
Professor of English
Affiliate Faculty: Comparative Literature and
   Women's and Gender Studies
Brandeis University
P. O. Box 549110
Waltham, MA 02454-9110

From Dan Conine:

Re: Genes thought to affect IQ might not: It would be interesting to see correlations between this work and the work of people studying gene relationships to autism. As I understand it, Autism Spectrum Disorder is affected by a more or less accumulated quantity of defects in genes affecting nerves. I suppose that the reverse could be true for intelligence, where a certain accumulation of genetic conditions contributes to intelligence overall by quantity of those conditions in total, rather than specific genes. In other words, autism would be a critical mass of negative mutations while intelligence is a critical mass of the same genes developed or mutated in positive ways. Below some minimum threshold, I suspect that consciousness fails to germinate.

From Mark McMenamin:

Re: Did a sea monster make an artwork… out of bones?: The case continues to improve. See: McMenamin, M. A. S. 2012. Evidence for a Triassic Kraken: Unusual arrangement of bones at Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada. 21st Century Science and Technology, v. 24, n. 4, p. 55-58.

From Chris Florides:

Re: Scrub jays found to react to their dead: I have witnessed the same behavior in Australian ravens. Dozens of ravens gathered in trees  surrounding a fig tree where a dead raven was mounted on a pole on top of the fig tree. This was done to stop the ravens eating all the figs - a technique that was 100% successful. The loud screeching went on for ages as more ravens gathered. Not one raven however dared go on the fig tree, let alone steel figs. Some swooped down but made a sharp ascent, just like a fighter jet swoops down to machine gun, or drop a bomb and then sharply ascents…!!! The ravens finally left, never to return to their dead mate or the figs…!!!!

Chris Florides
Adj Assoc Professor
Managing Director/Saturn Biotech Ltd
Chief Executive Officer/Xytogen Ltd
State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre
Murdoch University
Perth 6150
W. Australia

From Justin Cusack:

Re: Could dinosaurs explain why human vision differs from other mammals’?: In the third sentence of the article: "Could dinosaurs have shaped the way mammals see the world?" it states that there were huge fearsome lizards roaming the planet during the mesozoic era; this is false.  I am assuming that the author is referring to dinosaurs, which are a completely different group of animals, with an entirely different physiology and mode of locomotion.  It is quite an insult to science to make a such a glaring mistake, especially considering the fact that the website is called world science... Just calling that to your attention.

(From the editor: Given the context, we felt it was self-evident that the sentence in question employed poetic license. Our writer was attempting to conjure the feeling of a dangerous world as seen through the eyes of early mammals. We apologize to anyone who was misled.)

From Bruce Bennett:

Re: Are people getting dumber?: It could as well be argued that intelligence linked with formerly debilitating genetic illnesses can now be passed on genetically (i.e. a Steven Hawking - like example) - whereas at the time period that Crabtree supposes maximal intelligence, all the IQ in the world would not help a less-than-robust specimen...  I don't see a clear argument for 'genetically getting dumber' by lack of selection process.

I think current IQ scores reflect the society more than any sudden genetic trend :)

From Mark (drm ark 007@g ma il.com)

Re: Einstein's brain gets a new look-over: Looking at the human history, I am impressed with the high incidence of super-smart people, among the Jews. ( Historically, in my opinion, the Japanese and the Germans come under this label too). My question is: Has there ever been any research or studies, preformed with this point in mind ?? Have the findings in Einstein's brain, been found in brain of others??  Has there been any duplications and comparables???

From Michel Labelle:

Re: Einstein's brain gets a new look-over: Einstein is a plagiarist and a fraud.

Please check :

Christopher Jon Bjerknes (Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist)

Philipp Lenard (Albert Einstein und Philipp Lenard: Antipoden im Spannungsfeld von Physik und Zeitgeschichte)

Edmund Whittaker (A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity. Volume II: The Modern Theories)

Jean-Paul Auffray (Einstein et Poincaré: Sur les traces de la relativité)

 Jean Hladik (Comment le jeune et ambitieux Einstein s'est approprié la théorie de la relativité de Poincaré)
Jules Leveugle (La Relativité, Poincaré et Einstein, Planck, Hilbert – Histoire véridique de la Théorie de la Relativité)

Claude Allègre (Lorentz, Poincaré et Einstein, in l'Express November 8, 2004)

Richard Moody (Albert Einstein: Plagiarist of the Century)

 Friedwardt Winterberg (Belated Decision in the Hilbert-Einstein Priority Dispute in Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 2004)

Christian Marchal (The Theory of Relativity, Einstein or Poincaré 4th Alexander Von Humboldt Colloquium in 1995)

Anatoly Logunov (Henri Poincare and Relativity Theory)

From Angel Chiriboga:

Re:  Stray stars may haunt vastness between galaxies: This information is crucial to understand the mass and light delay between galaxies.

That eerie uneven glow is just the tip of an iceberg.

These stars have been flung out of their orbits for billions and billions of years amongst the hundreds of millions of galaxies since the beginning of time. There should be trillions of dead, dying and brilliantly living stars smeared across the universe, corrupting data based on "empty" space between galaxies.

Light is profusely interactive with any mass.

It's a wonder there are people seeing dark matter, and dark energy everywhere, where there may just be whisks of stellar debris.

From J. Bernard Sunderland:

Re: When can a moon harbor life?: The more popular amateur astronomy becomes, the more the word 'moon' is applied to all planetary satellites. Am I wrong in thinking that it only correctly applies to our own Moon? And if it is now an accepted term for other satellites, does that mean that our Moon has no name in English?

From Maruj (mu ntaha ma rooj@gm ail.com)

i just want to say that i love this site and all the updates about recent discoveries and studies in science are simply awesome.....

From Lalitha Chelliah:

I have a theory that may not be controversial  but here we go

I believe that like animals who regulate reproduction according to food availability the population of the world is also regulated by the species;

Like how we are unable to exactly define how animals regulate their reproduction we are currently unable to define how the humanoids regulate reproduction and this is despite the scientific discoveries etc in the reproductive field;

I think the population growth over the last couple of centuries has turned on this phenomena of natural regulation ( like in animals)
So one way of regulation is the increase in homosexuality

There may be others but this is definitely a constructive way of natural population regulation (not control)

Love to know what the rest of the scientific community think (I am not a scientist but a person who deals with the population on a daily basis in the medical field)

- Lalitha Chelliah

From David Lourie:

Re: Concept of “cool” has warmed, veered from its origins (June 8, 2012): I have come to understand the meaning of “coolness” in spiritual terms, from a Buddhist perspective.

A person is `cool’ when he or she is free from pressing desires (grasping) which always produce dissonant emotions (uncoolness).

An uncool person squirms with needs, waiting for the next coffee or cigarette or a chance to break into the conversation, and thus is in a state called “senseless agitation.”

On the other hand, a cool person is free of cravings and repulsions, and is thus in an empowered state of equanimity.

Being cool and detached is not being cold and uncaring. I’ve noticed that when I’m feeling cool and requiring nothing from the situation, it seems to clarify my thoughts, and in this state I tend to respond to other people’s agendas more, instead of my head being too full of my own agenda to be responsive to others’ agendas.

To me, coolness means more compassion and less “self-ness” – the opposite of being heated, or hot-headed.

Interestingly, the ultra-cool Buddhist who has realized nirvana is often referred to as “fully blown out,” referring to the flame of desire he has extinguished within himself.

David Lourie

From Wes Alexander:

Re: “Racial purity” DNA test slammed as perversion, but (June 18): Since many scientists are now seeing that we have a mix of pure humans and those humans with Neanderthal genes in them, continuing to show racial purity by color is meaningless. Maybe we can see from the DNA studies how close that Hungarian politician is to his Neanderthal descendants.

From Gerardo Lazos:

Re: Spate of recent big quakes looks like a fluke, scientists say (Aug. 2): I just read your article on the great earthquakea fluke taking place in the last few years. However, I would like to point out that the Haiti quake was mistakenly added to the list, along other seismic events in the likes of Sumatra, Japan and Chile. Haiti’s was merely 7.0 and though it caused a lot of deaths because of the lack of a building code and the stranglinf pocerty of its people, it cannot enter such list. We had a 7.4 a few months ago in the state of Guerrero, which severely rattled the buildings of Mexico City. However very little damage was caused because we have better building codes and that pays off in the end. On the other hand, earthquakea such as the ones that took place in Indonesia in April this year deserve a place in your list, as they surpassed the 8. 5 mark. Really, Haiti has no place there.

From Angel Chiriboga:

Re: Instead of “dark matter,” rogue planets? (May 13): I like the article. It actually attempts to report a possibility that may well be true. Since it explains a possible outcome for the data at hand, I would also like to point out that it isn’t just in our galaxy, but outside of all of them too. They just didn’t get sent out at perfect planes but Randomly. I am glad that dark matter is being attacked. They jumped to a conclusion so fast, they may cause problems when the facts come in. It isn’t just that the dark matter and dark energy creation that is causing us to look away from facts, but the millions invested so far in it’s search may prove hard to resist. It’s like trying to find a Higgins particle for a billion dollars, or try to count the planets outside of stellar orbits for 12, 000 a year... Which would we choose? If Hawking is right, and information IS being destroyed inside a black hole, then it would also account for the lost. 13 billion years of black holes sucking the mass out of the universe would account for much of the loss already. Rogue planets would account for the rest. As for the information, it entered the grandfather paradox. It returned to the first point (the only point) at the beginning and was created to be destroyed again. It would also throw a monkey into the proverbial wrench on the “Expanding Universe”. Light would have to fight gravitational drag, and thus, Shift to red.

From Dov Henis:

Re: Long-sought Higgs particle probab ly found, scientistssay (July 4): Hawking is simply wrong in accepting it. Obviously wrong. Everyone who accepts the story of the Higgs particle is simply wrong. Plain commonsense.

Singularity and the Big Bang MUST have happened with the smallest base universe particles, the gravitons, that MUST be both energy and mass, even if they are inert mass just one smallest fraction of a second at singularity. All mass formats evolve from gravitons that convert into energy i. e. extricate from their gravitons clusters into mass formats in motion, energy. And they all end up again as mass in a repeat singularity.

Universe expansion and re contraction proceed simultaneously. .

From Dov Henis:

Re: Long-sought Higgs particle probab ly found, scientistssay (July 4): Hawking is simply wrong in accepting it. Obviously wrong. Everyone who accepts the story of the Higgs particle is simply wrong. Plain commonsense.

Singularity and the Big Bang MUST have happened with the smallest base universe particles, the gravitons, that MUST be both energy and mass, even if they are inert mass just one smallest fraction of a second at singularity. All mass formats evolve from gravitons that convert into energy i. e. extricate from their gravitons clusters into mass formats in motion, energy. And they all end up again as mass in a repeat singularity.

Universe expansion and re contraction proceed simultaneously. .

From Wes Mahan:

Re: Gospel of Matthew linked to bloody trail of self-mutilations (June 13): I have first-hand experience. When I was a student at Multnomah Bible College, my next-door neighbor in the men’ dorm was taken to hospital in an ambulance because he cut off his penis, as a direct result of an inability to stop masturbating, and of taking literally Matthew 5:29-30 and Matthew 18:8.

If we had all been honest with each other (which is nearly impossible in a Bible School environment where “victory over sin” is almost an object of worship), we would have realized that 95% of us guys were masturbating, and very very few were able to stop for any length of time. He might then not have tortured himself quite so much. And of course your minister won’t tell you that those males who masturbate or have sex regularly, seem to have a lower incidence of prostate cancer, as indicted by medical research studies (even while the minister himself masturbates!).

I realize that in the early 70’s the evangelical community regarded masturbation as sexual sin, without equivocation. But even now with more “enlightened” or “progressive” evangelical attitudes, there is still a negative connotation attached to masturbation, even without it being the mortal sin that it used to be. And of course, as a recent ex-christian myself, I regard masturbation as a purely biological function, irrelevant to morality.

From Kate Gladstone:

Re: Gospel of Matthew linked to bloody trail of self-mutilations (June 13): “Matthew 19:12 syndrome” (self castration because of a Bible verse) is nothing new — see http://www.transchristians.org/archive/the-practice-of-self-castration-in-early-christianity.

The reason that all the self-castrators quote Matthew (instead of the similar material in Mark) is probably quite simple — Matthew comes before Mark in the New Testament, and these are people who probably set out to read the New Testament in order and do everything it says. Therefore, they apply the knife before they even get to Mark.

From Edward N. Haas:

Re: Gospel of Matthew linked to bloody trail of self-mutilations (June 13): The most famous case by far of self mutilation in response to Scripture goes back to around 185 to 254 AD. Those years mark the approximate life span of one of history’s most famous literary defenders of Christian teaching. His name was Origen Adamantius. He castrated himself in an attempt to avoid sexual sin, but then later denounced his action as morally wrong. Private interpretation of sacred writings is always a risky business.

From Yuri J. Koszarycz:

Re: Gospel of Matthew linked to bloody trail of self-mutilations (June 13): There are other passages within the Christian scriptures that also are linked to self-harm.

Mark 16:18 has that celebrated passage that believers “will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them”. Even last month there was a report of the death of a Pentecostal preacher from West Virginia after he was bitten by a venomous timber rattlesnake.

Unfortunately, many of these fundamentalist sects take such a literal approach in their biblical hermeneutics. They interpret each passage in the Scriptures as literal truth and do not see these scriptural instructions or admonitions in any metaphorical or symbolic sense. Consequently, the aberrations and mutilations your article describes are manifestations of misguided analysis and dangerous interpretations.

Indoctrinated members unquestioningly accept the rigid, inflexible and strict adherence to specific theological teachings and practices of fundamentalist religions who are usually led by strong “charismatic” leadership personalities. Historically, one only has to think of the mass suicides in Jonestown, Guyana, or the tragedy of the Waco siege, to see how mental instability can become contagious and manifest itself in violent destruction. There is a demonstrable continuum between coercive mind control exercised in religious groups, leading to the loss of individual identity, often to the psychological detriment of the persons being manipulated. Self-mutilation in such damaged individuals, particularly of a sexual nature, frequently focuses on religious obsession.

This is not a new phenomenon. Origen of Alexandria, a distinguished theologian of the Early Church, castrated himself based on a literal reading of Matthew 19:12 - “There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”

After the development of monasticism, excessive penances were often self-imposed by those who wished to gain spiritual growth. These were approved by the Church, where “bodily mortification” was seen as a sign of “other-worldliness” and a devotion to one’s salvation goal.

Self-mutilation, starvation, the wearing of heavy irons and chains, and bodily scarring were an expression of personal faith and was practiced by flagellant Christian cults from the eleventh century up to the 1960’s where Passionist novice monks were given a “flagellum” (a whip) as part of their habit and dress. Today, this extremist practice of religious self-harm can still be witnessed in several religious ceremonies in India, the Philippines, and some parts of Spain and South America.

Yuri J. Koszarycz
Retired Senior Lecturer in Theological Ethics
Australian Catholic University

From Fred Gill:

Re: Causes of mammoth extinction resonate in modern realities, scientists say (June 13): “But new re­search sug­gests the last of the shag­gy beasts suc­cumbed to a com­bina­t­ion of cli­mate warm­ing, en­croach­ing hu­mans and hab­i­tat change—the same threats fac­ing many spe­cies to­day.”

Sounds like Mcdonald is a spokesperson for the UN Agenda 21! What a farce! Its the Sun stupid!

From Manny Rodriguez:

Re: Causes of mammoth extinction resonate in modern realities, scientists say (June 13): I do not agree that humans hunting the mammoths could have caused their extinction, if humans relied so heavy on these mammoths for survival why wouldn’t they have domesticated them or farmed them as has been done with elephants? An animal like the Wooly Mammoth would have been to important and valuable an animal for humans just to kill them off. I believe climate or perhaps another natural predator could be the culprit.

From Richard Engel:

Re: Causes of mammoth extinction resonate in modern realities, scientists say (June 13): Your article makes me wonder about the global change fanatics. If the world temperature changed thousands of years ago all by itself, why now is global change so bad and is it necessary that we completely change our way of life? Man has evolved through changing environments for 100’s of thousands of years. Grandma was the one that taught me that you can’t fight mother nature No one speaks about the sun and its changes but out current weather pattern tracks closely with temperatures on the surface of Mars; coincidence we have the same Sun – perhaps this wonderful furnace that sheds light on us and heats us has hot spots and cold spots that cause it to burn at different rates over the millennia???

Great story – I enjoyed it and sounds like reasonable hypothesis.

Richard Engel
Grand Blanc, Mi

From E. Kiernan Quinn:

Re: American head shapes have been changing, but why? (May 14): Interesting issue. Does that mean people have more brain power. Swiss scientists attribute black and mulato race ignorance to brain weight. Oddly, all their data links back to weight of head. I was surprised to learn this issue. They actually show in MRI data why this is the case proving that the black and mulato race are inferior. No joke. They are noted for advanced medicine in all fields, so perhaps the issue is worth covering. Since the USnprovides so much free funding to the issue, it may be a need. Then there is the monkey. USAF labs perceive the macau monkey superior to humans and inbreed by artificial insemination them with humans and bring them into society as blacks and mulatos and sponsor them to power. There lab is under LAX in CA. Which harbours the largest brain frequency radar sysytem in the US. Beth Israel runs the radar scope. Its inauguration test was the Waits Riots: Broadcast Test. Only U Texas has a similar Brain Lab and data pool built to study stupidity developing in Oil Ranchers over time.

France documents skull swelling due to Bee invasions of cranium and development of hive in scull.

The Chicago club of Brain Scientists that hunt and kill monkeys for food and study corroborate Air Force findings of superior thought process in Macau Monkeys, but worse predator prey skills. This is the Cajal Club. That club was the first group to identify all nerve to action positions in the brain and place it into computer code for marketing and control of species. The USAF has same code in Fortran for humans. Code is taught to ROTC students. Holy Cross where I went to college used to train people in this. Williams College transfered the code to LISP and trains all grads in it and made a working clone pool for grads with it. MIT uses c and smarttalk via internet and its own equivalent sysytem called T4.

Point being, cranial increase results from vessel swelling or more ussage or malignant conditions. Personally, after many accidents and Olympic athletic and training I discovered cranial increase in size and noticed new vessels develloping to handle heated blood flow. Finally, RF traffic, electric fields, carbon monoxide and changes in atmosphere pressure and chemistry cause swelling. Gore called it Global warming. Its the effect of control on humans. More interesting to study would be puncture wounds to skull and placement and frequency. Cajal club established sequence code with nails through skull. In Spain, same research occured by Delgado 150 years earlier. In Italy both monkey and human studies in this method of control are documented for farm hands: slavery as you know it.

The US refuses to document data since the military utilizes it for data recovery and sales of behavior code to emerging nations. UT National Lab runs the nuclear plant code that runs the national behavior code spun into the atmosphere by the NuKes field. A movie in 1998 showed a NAVY code writer flying into the main reactor between Tenessee and Virginia: opaqued map position.

So, swelling is more then health issue.

From Jason Kenneth Axford:

Re: Scientists: birds are just baby dinosaurs, in a way (May 31): I was surprised that neoteny wasn’t mentioned as this is one theory explaining the evolution of humans from apes.

From Doris Wright:

Re: Scientists: birds are just baby dinosaurs, in a way (May 31): Don’t they use dna to figure this out?

From ale x1j@infoacce ssun limi ted. com:

Re: A human bias against creativity is hindering science, research claims (Dec. 12): This research is an excellent proof that bias exist even among scientists, who are considered by many as the bastions of objectivity.

Seems to prove the anthropologists claim that human behavior remains essentially the same during history.

The frustrating aspect is that post-modernism did not seem reduce the bias aspect either.

From Elizabeth (E AMAG NUSSO NRN@aol.com )

Re: “Robotic cat” illness mystifies vets (April 12): Surely someone’s thought of this by now: ?Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy -- “Mad Cat Disease”, perhaps a variant of Mad Cow Disease?

From Peter Brouwer:

Re: American head shapes have been changing, but why? (May 14): This sounds like a natural evolution to me -- brains are in... brawn is out. related article:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20663-are-widefaced-men-rascals.html

Seems to me democracy, “open markets”, and traditional American family values all prefer honesty and brains -- even if a wided headed person maybe be smarter or more honest -- the science (and probably our own intuition) is against them in every matter not requiring brawn -- including in opportunities to extend the reach of their genetic legacy.

From Andries van den Berg:

Re: Instead of “dark matter,” rogue planets? (May 13): I really hope the idea turns out to be true. Furthermore, I hope that the idea of a big bang will be shown to be misleading. Although most astronomers will probably laugh at the following idea, it needs rethinking: Redshift is a reasonable indicater for distance from earth, however it is not a reliable indicater of speed relative to the earth. Redshift does have a speed component, but the larger component is probably correlated with the number of times that an electro-magnetic wave passed billions of material objects on its path towards earth. Lightwaves of which the path has been bent by gravity many many times, probably also had its frequency reduced (very very sligtly and probably not presently detectable by us) many many times. The idea of an infinite universe with regard to time and space seems to be more parsimonious than a big bang theory.

Andries van den Berg
Pretoria

From Dave Kisor:

Re: “Robotic cat” illness mystifies vets (April 12): I would suspect the cats have been eating wildlife that had eaten vegetation that has been sprayed or even genetically modified. Other than being rural, there must be a common factor. Test the rain water for contaminants.

From Mike Shefler:

Re: “Robotic cat” illness mystifies vets (April 12): Regarding this story - might it be mad cow disease in cats from eating contaminated meat. I doubt cat food manufacturers are as concerned for food safety in cats as in humans.

From Marielle Jansen:

Re: “Robotic cat” illness mystifies vets (April 12): Thank you for the article on the ‘Robotcat’. I wonder if these cats have been chipped, so that perhaps they must ‘answer’ to electromagnetic currents.

From Mike Shefler:

Re: "Robotic cat" illness mystifies vets (April 12): it be mad cow disease in cats from eating contaminated meat. I doubt cat food manufacturers are as concerned for food safety in cats as in humans.