I also am surprised it hasn't sublimated over this length of time (though she does admit that it's smaller). She should wrap it with more airtight material than just a plastic bag.

In either case, it scared the dickens out of me, because when I first speedread the post, I thought it was talking about a "bornagainvirus."

Please ignore my comment #84 above re Lijit. Apparently it is possible to configure the search engine so that it does not retrieve duplicate his from the archive pages.

How would one go about checking the accuracy of a figure that is 2.7 trillion digits long??

I'd also like to echo the several comments above about the inadequacies of the Lijit search engine, which I use here on a daily basis. One problem is that it retrieves the search word/phrase not just from posts, but also from daily archives and from monthly archives, which effectively doubles or triples the number of hits. And the search can't be limited to posts - it also retrieves keywords from comments. Since Neatorama has almost 24K posts, and about 8X that many comments, finding a specific item can be difficult. I use Lijit for my own blog (with the same failings), so I know there are side benefits re providing data on searches performed (and the fact that it's free), but one has to wonder whether there might be other, better engines available

All of the comments so far appear to have been written by regular (daily) Neatorama readers. It's probably worth stopping for a moment to consider the experience of the first-time visitor, who will probably arrive here after someone sends him/her a link to a post.

After they finish reading their landing post, they may wonder what kind of website they are at (is this a humor blog? a news blog? a science blog? a video blog?), and where do I go from here?

To that end, it might be useful to devote a couple column inches in the right sidebar as an "About Neatorama" or "Welcome" greeting, which would explain the aggregator style and in one or two sentences summarize the type of material found here (the "neat" aspect of what we post). Then it would invite the newbie to go next to the Categories or to the Home Page (which frankly isn't that obvious to find - experienced websurfers know they can trim the url in the navigation bar, but the "blog" tab is subtle, and clicking on the logo is not intuitive).

Space for such an addition could reasonably be harvested from Browse by Date, since only one commenter so far has made regular use of the feature.

p.s. - since every Neatorama commenter loves the muted interface, subtle colors, and simple design, perhaps you should change everything to garish fluorescent colors with Gothic script, and announce it as the new format... on April Fool's Day.

Very nice. Thank you, Johnny Cat.

I failed to take note of the date at the original link. Mea culpa. But after searching stem cells/teeth today, I see that more work has been done, and there are now proposals to bank children's stem cells so that their teeth can be regrown as adults, as has been done in the mice noted by Miss Cellania. One doubts that such would be covered by the new health care reform legislation...

Thanks, Justin, for the YouTube link; added to the post.

Jessss and Werzzal, thanks for the information. I've adjusted the title of the post and inserted the links into the text.

We created a mini panic room for one of our cats - a tiny runt who was being intermittently harassed and cuffed by the alpha male of the house. We got one of the large plastic storage bins from Walmart and cut a small hole that only she can fit through. When he gets aggressive, she scoots into the panic room and he can only beat on the outside of the bin in frustration.

Outstanding, Jill. Thank you.

Or else it's a bridge over the Vistula commemorating Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski - "Prince Pepi (so called from the Czech diminutive form of Joseph."

I would bet that #2 is the Vistula, and that the "Pepi" is not the Egyptian pharaoh, but the ?Polish horse of that name - but I can't find any confirmation.

The area around the fovea in the retina is the macula, and the "breeding sow" reference is to "scrofula" - a tuberculous infection of the lymph nodes of the neck.

But now I'm done. Someone else can hit the books or the 'net for the other answers.