How can autism be prevented? No vaccinations, more vitamin D, enzymes, enemas, infrared saunas, glutathione drips, chelation therapy...all are suggested, pushed, hyped at a conference of people looking for answers to a hard, hard problem: how can their children be protected from a condition no one knows the cause of?

BoingBoing looks Amy Wallace's article in Wired and at the growing harms of the anti-vaccine movement (the one spearheaded by an actress and a physician who admitted to lying about his research).

Yes, I went to a school that had a football team. Yes, it was a Division I school. We played in the Mid-American Conference, which was designed for large-ish universities with football teams most people don't want to see on television.

In the time that I've been on this earth, my alma mater made it to three bowl games (out of the 115 years of its existence). They lost all three. We went to football games for the band. The year after I left, the band started to play post-game shows, in the sneaky attempt to keep more people staying 'til the end of the game.

So I really hope my various friends and relatives will excuse me when I say I just don't care about your alma mater's (or current university's) football prowess.

My alma mater, on the other hand, (when last I looked) leads the NCAA in illegal downloading of music. :-) Now, *that* is real-world skillz training.

Dear Person Who Is Writing Me and Wanting Special Favors for a Friend,

It's your problem, not mine. No, I'm not going to waver. And this attempted guilt thing is really annoying the hell out of me.

I'm about one more message from telling you to get stuffed.

No love,

Me

I was looking at information about the hotel I'll be staying at in Austin next month, and they had this business bullet point about their meeting rooms:

18-hour leather ergonomic chairs

What is an "informal pole"? Tea length?