Coffee lowers the seizure threshold. A pretty good reason for epileptics such as I to avoid it, if you ask me, since I'm spending enough on Lamictal and Topamax to want to get my money's worth!!

And, oh yeah. The WORST and LOUDEST talkers, in my experience, are middle-aged white couples and groups! Never teenagers. Also, if teenagers DO make noise, they're APOLOGETIC about it. I have no idea why this is true, and I agree that it seems like the opposite of what you'd expect, but I've seen it a zillion times around here. Maybe it's something about this area???

Well, I've never carried a gun into a movie theater. But I've come very, VERY!!! close several times to just flat-out attacking loudly talking people in movie theaters before my doctor started me on a combination of Lamictal and Topamax, two drugs that work to control my temporal lobe epilepsy (and nothing worked until we found these two, I might add). Uncontrollable rages are very common with TLE, pretty much the trademark in fact, and that *might* be exactly what this guy's problem was. TLE is not that uncommon-- mine was caused by a traumatic brain injury in a car accident, which is how a lot of people get it. So don't assume that this person was just a complete jerk. People need to be aware of what TLE sufferers are going through-- there is virtually NO public awareness, and most of us go MANY years without the right treatment.

Also, maybe the rude jerks who think movie theaters are their private living rooms and they can talk as loud as they want will LEARN from incidents like this--hey, the Topamax is pretty amazing stuff for controlling the insane rages, but I still reserve the right to hold strong opinions about the whole issue. ;)

An update after actually visiting the site: Only one person looked better afterwards than before, and it was only because her double chin was slimmed down. This could be accomplished just by losing weight. Every other person looked quite a bit better before.

Whoever this woman is, she looked much better before the weird digital makeover.

I tip because I care that another human being needs me to tip them. But I'm a social worker, so I'm funny that way. ;)

You know, I'm at the point now where if people can actually fool themselves into believing that global warming isn't happening, if they REALLY think that they are so much smarter than every legitimate scientist on the face of the earth, if they are truly capable of ignoring every fact, if they are honestly going to think as completely illogically as that... I"m not going to try to convince them anymore. If people really want to be that shockingly dumb, then be my guest. I'm all through trying to argue people out of insane beliefs. All done! No more, ever again.

Huh. I still don't understand how this works. I followed the seemingly ascending pitch with my voice (and yes, I am a classically trained singer), and the pitch did indeed go up on the musical scale as far as my vocal mimicking was concerned. I have a three and a half octave range, but eventually I couldn't follow it anymore! So that, to me, is the really interesting question. If it's not actually ascending, then why is it that a reproduction of that scale, and one which at least SEEMS to be accurate to the ear, definitely and unmistakably DOES ascend in pitch?

I read her book ("My Stroke of Insight"), and while it was fascinating and inspirational, it had one comment that was really uncalled for, I think. Because she was given Dilantin after the stroke and didn't like its effects, she said that she now understood why patients diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illnesses would and should refuse medication.That one made me want to pull out my hair, because she's a scientist and she KNOWS better than to make such an irresponsible comment. I work ALL DAY LONG with people who have SPMI's and just flat-out won't take desperately, desperately needed psych meds. The whole world of psychiatric drgus has changed so drastically since old-school anticonvulsants like Dilantin (or old typical antipsychotics like Thorazine, for that matter), that older drugs absolutely cannot be compared to newer ones that comparatively have so few side effects and work 1000% better. If people with SPMI's don't take meds, they won't get better. If anyone fools themselves into thinking differently, they have clearly never worked for a mental health provider (or taken the meds, either.)I am sick and tired of the ridiculous nonsense so prevalent these days that says severe and persistent mental illnesses can be treated without psychiatric medication. THEY CAN'T-- meds aren't the whole solution by any means, but they're the foundation, and they are just plain necessary, not optional. I hate to see this kind of thing in a book that is otherwise so well written and so useful.

Well, anyway, that was my rant for the day. :) It's good to get these things off our chests.

Well, it either used to be legal to bury family members in your backyard in Tennessee, or it wasn't but people used to do it in Nashville anyway. I know more than ONE person who moved into an old house and actually DID find an actual grave, complete with marker and casket, in their yard.

That was simply more cuteness than the human mind was ever meant to absorb.

Everyone so ardently defending Walmart in this case and accusing this woman and her husband of "insurance fraud" should seriously think about the damage they are doing to their own humanity and decency. One day we will all have to answer for the evil we've done and the evil we've approved of.

Thank GOD better meds are available today than when ANY of these people were alive (yes, including the one who died in 1999!) Just imagine, if Virginia Woolf had access to Seroquel and Lamictal...

Oh, come on now. Is there REALLY anything so difficult about raising one eyebrow?? I have been able to raise each eyebrow separately as long as I can remember. I can also make this weird bird face... impossible to describe, but unforgettable to see...

Well, even if everything Lovelock says is true, I don't see any point in getting all upset. Let's all spend the next twenty years caring about each other and living life! :)