Nice. Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of that.

I will still use volcanic rock debris for our walkway, seeing as salt indeed has a detrimental effect on the environment (including our frant yard with its cranberries and ginko). But it's nice to see we have come a long way in the last couple of decades.

I have to side with point 2. Growing up in Mexico, the USA and Europe, then studying in the USA, working in the UK and Ireland, going back to the USA and then back to Europe has given me a nice accent, but one that is definitely odd. I always get asked "Where are you from?" regardless of where I am, USA, UK or Ireland.

Ummm, is it normal nowadays for schoolkids and students to wake up at 5 AM? Or how come the >00:00
+ 5h = 5 AM just doesn't work out for me? I mean, hello? When does school start? At 6 AM? O.o

This might be statistically accurate, but mathematically it's nonsense...

An axeguard?

@Skipweasel: that reminds me of a poster that used to hang at my dentist's office. It read "If you do everything for me, how am I supposed to learn to do anything on my own?".

Our 10-months-old baby's favorite toys are the lids from her veggie flasks and my guitars (actually, she ignores pretty much all the fancy, noise-making, light-flashing toys family and friends have given her). Her favourite passtime is tearing apart dried leaves (or even fresh ones) - well, except now she has discovered she can stand up if she holds on to the table. And yes, she has fallen, and yes, she has hit her head.

But I would never change that, seeing the glee in her eyes every time she discovers something new, every time she notices the world is changing around her, how much there is for her to learn and discover: on her own.

If, aged 1, I hand't climbed out of my bed and fallen, would I have climbed 4 mountains above the 4000 meter line at my age? If I hadn't scraped my knee every day on my bicycle as a child, would I now even dare go on my mountain biking tours? If I hadn't camped out alone at 7, would I have been able to spend a year as a pseudo-hermit with 24? Probably not. And I probably wouldn't have graduated with honors from a rather prestigious university.

Albert Einstein, as a child, was told he was an idiot in mathematics. Go figure.

I think you did the man a great honor, Alex. Thanks for the info, didn't know quite a bit of it...

So what exactly happens if the expecting couple speak different languages? Or does only the language spoken by the prospective mother matter?

And it goes how fast?

Huh, what? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This article reminds me of Churchill. Trust no statistic that you didn't fake yourself. Anyway, what are the statistic principles? City / State / Country? Number or testers? Tester Background? Socio-economic background (for 3 generations)?

How come we ignore the supposed "psychologically approven" approaches when doing this blabla tests?

To prove the contrary: our "Winter" baby has a very intelligent mother (as well as father, both well educated at renown universities), is already beyond her actual age (8 months) and has more curiosity about her surroundings than many an elder peer. The exception that proves the case? No - statistics are pure bull shit. Thx for telling people they are dumb for having kids in Winter. If you can't differentiate between objective information an statistical manipulation, perchance you should consider a political job... Or maybe a banker: they make good money trying to tell people "things are a certain way because statistics prove it - although I have no clue about the study in case"...

Since when did Neatorama go yellow?

What a fantastic site! Had to read the first couple of pages right away. Brought back such nice *cough cough* memories from me buskin' years...

Someone in the background is going "But hey, it's actually not a bad idea, is it?"

@Him: the article you refer to mentions Tanaka's studies with the axolotl, but not the results, seeing as these were only provided recently. At that time the studies were still underway at the Max-Planck institute, until they were further funded by the CRT. The studies themselves were first mentioned in the European press (Spiegel) on the 03.08.2004 (08.03.2004 for all using the US date format).

@JMM: seeing as the studies took place at the DFG-Forschungszentrum für Regenerative Therapien (resp. Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden, http://www.crt-dresden.de/) in Dresden, Germany, I have no idea what this would have to do with Obama...

Like letting the dog off the leash would help. Look at how he cowers!

Cat 1, Dog 0.

And yes, someone do kick the guy at 00:12.