Are they? My dog was a stray, and now he is my service dog. He was on the streets for a year and a half and he's one of the nicest dogs I've ever met.

There was an NPR story (I think) about how the definition of invasive species keeps changing. That is, there are species that once were invasive but are now part of the ecosystem. It's really difficult for humans to evaluate how ecosystems function (partially because we see ourselves as the center of the universe) and…

Birth control may be an option.

You know, I've felt the same way about people for years. I mean, people even invented the fedora, which many assholes wear. Plus, people don't have spiral penises. Granted, that means that sex for female people is way nicer than sex for female ducks, but still...

I'm not comparing anyone to Hitler - I'm saying that your statement that we should be able to completely separate art from artist is ridiculous, using the example of (one of) the most hated artists in history. Art and artist are separable physically, but not completely morally once you add money into the mix. By…

I have never bought anything from Michael Jackson, seen any of his movies, bought any Beatles albums, listened to any Beatles songs that weren't on records (made before Michael Jackson bought any of the rights), seen any of Woody Allen's movies, or seen any of Roman Polanski's movies once I knew what he did. I try my…

You can distinguish the art from the artist, but by buying the art, you are supporting the artist. By supporting the artist, you are tacitly offering approval of his character as worthy, especially because the character of the artist is essential to creating individual art.

When my cousin was born (over 30 years ago), the hospital had a board where they wrote all the milk supplies by various moms in the ward. They would weight your baby before feeding and after feeding, and then if you didn't produce enough milk, they wouldn't let you visit with your baby. It was not super effective.

Besides the fact that a wet nurse may not have "good" milk (i.e. disease, bad nutrients, etc.). Plus, the most important milk, the colostrum, would not be in the wet nurse's milk.

Have you met many innocent versus guilty people, or are you just assuming based on your own suspicions? Amanda Knox has said in the past that she did not do it - how many times must she say it?

Sorry it took me so long to reply - I clicked on the notification without answering and then the notification alert went away and I just forgot to answer.

I am not sure about retraining genes (I don't know that anyone knows or has a way to find out), but I wouldn't say that any individual is doomed to obesity. It may be harder for certain individuals to stay a "healthy" weight and it may mean that there are certain health risks that they are more likely to develop than…

It's about epigenetics, as well. Genes get turned on and off due to the environment. Genes related to food preferences and metabolism may be edited very early on, meaning that intervening early could change the regulation of those genes.

The missing link is epigenetics. If you're interested, you can look up the studies done on the children of women pregnant during the Dutch famine. That isn't to say that a woman who eats unhealthily during pregnancy probably also eats unhealthily when she isn't pregnant and feeds that unhealthy food to her kids, but…

Something interesting here that is missing is epigenetics. Genes are turned on and off based on the environment, and the early, prenatal environment is very important. The first study done on this was on the children of women who were pregnant during the Dutch famine in WWII. They found that the starvation state of…

I think if we focus on teaching kids about safe sex (both males and females), odds that any one male not using birth control meeting up with any one female not using birth control decreases significantly. If we educate only women or focus our "finite resources" on telling women not to "allow" themselves to become…

Except it was the Italian police that suggested that the other guy could have done it and coerced her into saying it, so it wasn't really her idea and it wasn't the first thing she did (it was only after hours of interrogation with no rest).

That's not true. Stories change all the time - that is why police want witness statements very early in the investigation, before memory gets fuzzy and stories change. Look up the work of Elizabeth Loftus, who has done work with how memory is very fluid (more than we like to think).

I played Cards Against Humanity recently and put down "erectile dysfunction" for the "a woman's best friend" card. My lesbian sister thought it was great, my brother looked a bit crestfallen.

I would recommend you not do either of those things because they are both not healthy. I took prescription amphetamines under a doctor's supervision and it messed me up for a while. The doctor was intelligent enough to notice the problems and stop the meds as soon as possible, but if you take drugs like that without a…