Chago- you're right, it's extremely preliminary, but we all know how lay people tend to exaggerate the tentative conclusions of even the most qualified of studies. More likely this is just more evidence for the way we're wired as human beings to learn language. Even as embryos, our half developed brains are picking up on linguistic cues.

I doubt this proves language is completely learned before birth.

I don't know that you can say one's dialect is determined at birth. A friend of mine was born in Japan to Japanese parents and came to the U.S. at four years of age (becoming a citizen just a couple of years ago). It was hard for me to believe she was fluent in Japanese, until I heard her speak it over the phone with her father, because her English is completely unaccented.

This is just one story, but I remember learning about the apprehension of language in my linguistics classes, and I just think the way you've boiled it down here is a little too simplistic. For instance, the real test of whether a dialect is "fixed" by birth would be to take an infant born in another country (China, for instance) with entirely different syntax from the one in which they were raised and see how easily they learned their mother tongue at the high school level compared to their (U.S. born) peers.

Few things get my blood boiling faster as a gamer and a woman. Why do MEN need to get away from the family? Women still do the majority of housework and child care, so it sounds like men are already spending too much time away.

I want a freaking cave with a giant TV and awesome gaming setup with easy access to booze and super comfy furniture. Too bad shows about Man Caves have a big fat "No Girls Allowed" sign on all of them.

(this is why I don't watch television...)

Also his unpredictability, I guess.

I should have added that I have little to say about the other guys. I think Indy was miscategorised but I don't really know where I'd place him.

I don't think you people understand Rorschach. Neutral implies that the character is in it for their own benefit, and is relatively indifferent to the benefit or cost to others as a result of their actions. Lawful neutral, for instance, is someone who plays by a set of rules, but doesn't have a huge investment in the outcome. Rorschach is a vigilante. His motivations are directly related to the well being of other people (children, the innocent, the people he cares for) but he operates outside of the rules of his society to achieve those ends, which is what makes him chaotic.

His concern is justice/punishing the unjust. He wants to cleanse the city of perverts and murderers, but not just to please himself (which would make him neutral).

Maybe you are all forgetting the girl's underpants in the stove?

This has accomplished its goal. I am now aware of this problem.

I swear this guy was born with a sharper image catalogue in his crib.

*sigh*

Dude, it's not their responsibility to explain everything to you.

Science isn't about knowing everything, it's about a ton of hard work and often finding out all your previous assumptions were crap every time new data presents itself. NASA, not being staffed by wizards and psychics, is not the end all be all of astronomical science. Why do people freak out when scientists admit they don't know everything? Scientists never pretend they do. Is this some kind of lingering resentment over the discovery of germs? Do people just hate bathing?

Although I'm sure you just thought you were being clever in casting your aspersions. Don't let me spoil your fun with my reason and logic.

Hector, that joke would make more sense if my mind didn't immediately reject the fact that Anne Frank would get anything for christmas.

Do recall, however, that they did exchange channukah gifts while in hiding. Jokes are better when they don't create such immediate dissonance, unless it's absurdist humour, which this isn't.

I always thought of goldfish as being pretty unrewarding pets. At best, they're just a nice decoration that require a ton of maintenance that can cause a mess, consumes time, and is rather difficult.

Still, I get attached to inanimate objects, such as iPods and computers. I still couldn't imagine eating pet fish. No, it's not at all the same as eating a cat or a dog: is eating a cow the same as eating a dog or a cat? Even if it has a name? No. And I say that as a vegetarian -- certain animals make better meals for a variety of reasons. Livestock, as you may notice, primarily eat grains and grass. Eating carnivores and omnivores isn't as good for us, nor is it as tasty (I had bear once, many years ago, and it was awful), although ease of capture and domestication were surely a factor.

That said, it's still unsettling. It's indicative of some degree of mental imbalance, and if I were her common law husband, I'd take the message to heart and put as much distance between us as possible. The torture and murder of pets is a common tool of intimidation in abusive relationships and it shouldn't be taken lightly.

As another commenter mentioned at the page, one of the squirrels bottom teeth probably grew in at an angle, so that it wasn't worn down like the other teeth (the front teeth of rodents continue to grow throughout their lives and are kept short by gnawing).

Which, you know, whatever, it's cool. As long as the squirrel gets along, and she seems to.

-H

Umm... Thai people get HIV, too. They would benefit as much as anyone from such a study, so long as their government permitted it to be marketed there once testing was completed.

If there were any ethical violations here, don't you think that would be the headline instead?

Dooflotchie, you clearly don't know any cat fanciers. Most of these cats are bred for love of the breed. New hybrids are created by diehard afficionados. Cats are not so lucrative as you might think, given all the homeless cats you've mentioned.

As a means of full disclosure, I have two breautiful, lovesome cats that were thrown away by people who didn't appreciate them and I wouldn't trade them for anything, but you're no more likely to get a cat that will love you at the pound than by paying thousands of dollars for them. I know breeders, both of cats and dogs, and none of them do it for money. Only the puppy mills turn a profit, and only because they don't bother getting their animals treated or cared for before dumping them on unsuspecting people. The people who show their animals usually just break even, are usually involved in rescue groups that cater to specific breeds, and cat/dog shows are used as vehicles to encourage the adoption of pound cats/puppies. Go to a cat show sometime!

There are people out there doing awful things to animals (like breeding poogles en masse, as you mentioned, or collecting them and letting them starve out of misplaced love) but the majority of people devoted to breeding cats and dogs are doing it because they love the temperament, colour, and performance of the breed, not for money.

I was once so taken with Japanese Bobtails, for instance, that for a long time I planned to breed and show them. I had a name set aside and everything. Everything I read said not to expect a profit, and I didn't. The only thing that eventually stopped me was thinking about all the other things in my life I wouldn't get to do if I devoted so much time to breeding. So it's really not fair to breeders to lump them all together like that.

As per all the homeless cats out there, it's a good argument for considering adoption, but it's also like telling a kid to finish everything on their plate even if their not hungry because kids are starving in Africa. Like starvation, finishing your dinner isn't going to solve the problem. The problem is that people think cats are disposable and that they "take care of themselves."

Of course, I also think domestic cats belong indoors, insured, and chipped, which is apparently at odds with the prevailing opinion too, except among songbird lovers like Creesto. So what do I know?

Cordydan, they probably scavenged whenever they could, as lions do, but that doesn't mean they couldn't, or didn't, hunt whenever they needed to.