They have adorable polka dot stuff! I love polka dots.

ME TOO! Sadly, I think this polka dot raincoat is too big for me.

[link]

Holy CRAP! I love that coat, lisa. I saw a super cute one at Target, in maternity. I really would love to buy it, but I'm on a clothing freeze.

I was on a clothing freeze. Not sure what happened. There are too many great pieces of clothing out there, and some of them even fit.

I love that coat, lisa.

Me too! It's navy, not black like it might look in the photo. I need to try it again and see if it really is as boxy on as I thought it was last year. Maybe there's some kind of easy tailoring that could fix it up right for me.

Biologists link locust comas with human migraine

The way locusts react to stress may provide an important clue to understanding what causes human migraines – and how to reduce their painful effects, says Queen’s Biology professor Mel Robertson.

With PhD student Corinne Rodgers, Dr. Robertson is using insect models to examine how the nervous system controls breathing when stress is induced through high temperatures and oxygen deprivation. They have discovered that the locust’s reaction to extreme heat is very similar to a disturbance in mammals that has been associated with human migraines and stroke.

As a way of temporarily shutting down and conserving energy when conditions are dangerous, the locust’s coma has many of the same characteristics seen in people at the onset of a migraine. “We feel there may be an evolutionary link between the two,” Dr. Robertson suggests.

...

...there may be an evolutionary link to what happens during migraines in people. “It’s possible, for example, that the brain architecture necessary for increased sensitivity also predisposes areas of some people’s brains to become over-excited, and that migraines provide a means of temporarily ‘shutting things down,’” he suggests.

More at the link.

Is Steph around? And has she commented in Carolyn Hax's chat today? There was a response that just sounds like her.

the locust’s coma has many of the same characteristics seen in people at the onset of a migraine.

It feels nauseous? Sees auras? Can't quite take a normally light level in the room? Has the faint but utterly distinctive beginnings of a throb at the back of one eyeball that the locust knows from past experience is going to turn into STABBITYSTAB if the cycle doesn't stopstopstopOMGSTOPTHISTHINGSOON?

Huh.

Apparently they are finally going to move us out of the sub-sub-sub-basement before the end of the month.

they are finally going to move us out of the sub-sub-sub-basement before the end of the month

But to where???

Have you seen digging machines in the parking lot?