Vitamin D. This is anecdotal, yet it is MY anecdote.

I have remitting/recurring MS. I was suffering through increasingly serious and more frequent attacks each year from the age of 25 through 37. That last year I was hit with five attacks with some tough repercussions. That's when my neurologist suggested checking my vitamin D levels, and found them deficient.

50,000 units per week (overdose is considered 70,000/wk, so I'm good) and I haven't had a single symptom since. That's four years, symptom-free.

I am positive it is not the cure for everyone, but please tell those with similar issues to have their levels checked!

It was my first month as a science teacher. The towers fell as I began the first period of the day. A 9th grader asked me, "Who would do this?" Boy, that was hard...

Of course, I rank This American Life at the top as well. Ira Glass has such a great voice.

I'd also like to throw in my vote for 365daysofastronomy.org. Ran by folks associated with the American Astronomical Society, it celebrates the International Year of Astronomy by letting groups submit podcasts to be aired once per day for the whole year. BTW, mine is titled "I know why the sky is dark at night. Do you?" which was produced in the spirit of Car Talk and will air Sat., Oct. 10.

:o)

So I punched in Professor Farnsworth and got a real kick out of watching the 'legal' and 'illegal' categories duke it out. It took forever going through links, though.

I am befuddled over how big the 'sports' block is -- regardless of what name is entered.

It's a boot scraper. For getting crap off the bottom of your boots.

Wonderful article, Alex. Plus, the links were most informative. For anyone commenting who didn't follow the links to the very reputable sources, I would question their ability to verify anything for themselves.

I teach physics and chemistry and like to point out to my students that if they wish to get a Nobel Prize they should study water. There have been five given for research in the properties of water -- more than any other specific topic. What I will be adding to that talk this year will be the various phases of water that I knew nothing about. Thank you for posting about them. Now I'm going to do a little snooping and try to find out more details from that incredibly detailed page you linked to at the end. :o)