I learned how to finger type on one too - though not in school, from my stepmother's old one. I wasn't allowed to mess about with our mac computer as a child! I particularly liked when you jammed the keys together and could cause a tangle. Glad that never happens anymore!

The amount of infections you pick up does not rely on tonsils - granted I was overexaggerating when I said they'd be chest infections instead, but I'd still get chest infections and sore throats with the same frequency, just not tonsillitis.

Hmm, no I don't. My mum has chronic severe asthma so I have often wondered if there's some heriditary weakness of the respiratory tract, but I've no idea what the mechanism for that would be (asthma being chronic inflammation which I don't have). Just something I wonder about occasionally.

I know that - I am a doctor of evolutionary biology. However my microfauna is certainly more resistant to antibiotics because of the antibiotics I have taken.

Yes there are many similar viruses to the epstein-barr (or so I've been told by the GPs) and I've had a few of them. I don't get antibiotics for those. I get very typical tonsilitis spots and plaques (which is just CHARMING)

I'm not sure what mono is - I think we call it the mumps or glandular fever? I've had similar viruses a few times although not epstein-barr. I'm just incredibly unlucky when it comes to throat infections I think! (and I blame the antibiotics for that)

The doctors don't recommend it - I'd still get infections, they'd just be chest infections or respiratory infections instead. And NHS guidelines suggest that it should be 5-10 times a year over a period of years before its worth removing them.

I'm definitely near that limit. Was given a lot of antibiotics as a child and I get tonsillitis every few years. I was just on a large dose of penicillin for 10 days and not more than two days after the dose finished I have swollen tonsils again, although as of yet no characteristic yellow spots. If they present…

I have a lovely ergonomic keyboard at work that, while not mechanical, does give me a satisfying clickity clack. My fiction I write on my laptop on the couch, in the bed, on the train, etc. Still like the idea of a mechanical keyboard though!

It's a pity they can't edit this to show the beautiful water-line on the bow now it's been lifted.

I'd hate to be forced to write anything on one, mind. Word processors are so useful. But there is something terribly romantic about sitting down to a type writer. The feedback of the keys, the whoomph of a returned line. If I was a rich writer type I'd definitely have one for days I wanted to mope about having…

I saw this on a friend's facebook feed the other day and thought it was a joke! I had no idea this guy was serious.

Brains absolutely terrify me. (And I'm currently writing a grant with neurology bits, yay). Their plasticity - the way physical changes affect the way we think. Crrrreeeepyyyy

Seconding the Jericho love - great little show, especially the first series.

Yes - I'd be interested in some calculations as to the strength of this possible effect. I've always wondered about it

I can't remember the whole set up but the dude is hunting in the forest and hopes that he will one day find a wife because he thinks he's the shit because he's so good at hunting. Then an old witch tells him he can can have a wife if he promises never to something-something (it's either follow her into the forest/look…

Loved that short - so very beautiful.

There's certainly an old Scottish folktale about a man who cuts the paw off a wolf and comes home to find his wife frantically bandaging the stump - so he kills her and their children. One of my favourites.

GUYS! I DON'T THINK I HAVE A CARUNCULA.

I am 100% up for this - and I didn't even like the movies. Then I want the Quidditch one.