I searched for a couple of variations on marshmallow in Bitches, just in case. I think it's an easily flubbed word.

I was trying to think of any other threads it could have been in (I searched Bitches, too) and decided to just search for Easter candy. Bingo.

In other miracle news, my DH just went to CompUsa (the nearest store is closing and having a big clearance sale) and Fry's (to compare prices) and didn't buy anything. It's either a miracle or a sign of the Apocalypse, I'm not sure which, yet.

This is weird. Also, I am skeptical.

Five years ago, Oxford University zoologists showed that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii alters the brain chemistry of rats so that they are more likely to seek out cats. Infection thus makes a rat more likely to be killed and the parasite more likely to end up in a cat—the only host in which it can complete the reproductive step of its life cycle. The parasite also lives in the brain cells of thousands of species, including about 60 million supposedly symptom-free Americans. Studies over the past few years have suggested that toxoplasmosis infections in humans, too, may cause behavioral changes—from subtle shifts to outright schizophrenia. Two studies this year add even weirder twists.

U.S. Geological Survey biologist Kevin Lafferty has linked high rates of toxoplasmosis infection in 39 countries with elevated incidences of neuroticism, suggesting the mind-altering organism may be affecting the cultures of nations.

Stranger still, parasitologist Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague thinks T. gondii could also be skewing our sex ratios. When he looked at the clinical records of more than 1,800 babies born from 1996 to 2004, he noted a distinct trend: The normal sex ratio is 104 boys born for every 100 girls, but in women with high levels of antibodies against the parasite, the ratio was 260 boys for every 100 girls. Exactly how the parasite might be tipping the odds in favor of males isn't understood, but Flegr points out that it is known to suppress the immune system of its hosts, and because the maternal immune system sometimes attacks male fetuses in very early pregnancy, the parasite's ability to inhibit the immune response might protect future boys as well as itself.

"Our present study was rejected by eight journals, usually without any formal review," says Flegr, who had the same problem publishing an earlier one showing that infection more than doubles the odds of a person having a traffic accident. "People don't like the possibility that their behavior and life are manipulated by a parasite," he says.

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A ratio of 2.6 boys per one girl is a huge deviation from the norm. It seems to me that this would have shown up before. Maybe the reason this study was rejected by so many journals is because of some methodological problem. It would be bizarre if the study results were true....

I just got an error message while Buff Diving, and it took me several read-throughs to figure out that a) there is no Buffista called ERROR and b) it wasn't funny.

Probably a sign I should stop already, huh?

Wanna see some neat art? I decided I couldn't spend $800 getting them framed, so I went ahead and just hung one of the paintings sans frame.

Please to ignore the piles o'crap on the couch.

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TAR: Damnit! And I can't believe we're stuck with Charla and fucking Mirna for at least one more ep. But seriously, letting Rob take the lead on two challenges that involved careful reading was not good planning. Rob's intelligence is not of the book-learning kind.

Wanna see some neat art?

Abstract art nearly always makes me go "I'm missing something, aren't I," but that is very nice. I think it's the colors.

One of my favorite current artists (Mark Ryden) just sold a painting for $800,000. I guess he's not quite "underground" anymore.

[link] He's one of those "pop surrealists."

That's very cool, Brenda!

I'm all stuttery!