Category Harriet Hall

Lice!

Pediculosis humanus var capitis is a bloodsucking parasitic insect specific to humans.

How to Build a Bridge

Confrontation seldom works: it just makes people angry. It is counterproductive: it only serves to make them invent more rationalizations to defend their beliefs.

Rope Worms: C’est la Merde

Unlike other parasites, rope worms do not have muscles, nervous systems, or reproductive organs. They are often mistaken for decaying remains of other parasites, feces, or intestinal lining. (Or vice versa, perhaps?)

Gary Taubes and the Cause of Obesity

There is no getting around the physics. If you expend more calories than you ingest, you will lose weight. No diet has ever been shown to produce weight loss without a reduction in calories. The problem is that reducing calorie intake is fiendishly hard to accomplish for many reasons, both physiological and psychological.