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