Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates terribilis)

© AMNH/T. Grant

A new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History explores the weird and wonderful world of poisons. Curated by evolutionary biologist Mark Siddall, “The Power of Poison” recreates a Columbian forest filled with deadly natural toxins, delves into the history of criminal ;poisonings, and brings to life famous fictional characters to investigate the science behind mythical poisons. The exhibit, which opened Saturday and runs through August 20, 2014, ends by examining how otherwise-deadly toxins can be used in medicine.

Here are nine little-known facts about poison you can impress your relatives with over Thanksgiving dinner. Or not.

Borrelia burgdorferi Bacteria

Electron scanning micrograph. Color added digitally.

Photo credit: Janice Haney Carr. Content Provider: CDC/Claudia Molins.

Can things evolve to evolve? Okay, so that sounds like a cheesy line from a self-help book, but what I'm talking about here is actual biological evolution. Depending on the situation, evolution is obviously able to drive the development of traits like rapid cooling, camouflaging color, or fecundity. But one team of U.S. biologists got to wondering whether quick evolution itself was a trait selected for by evolution.

At least in microbes, flexibility and "evolvability" really are selected for, the team found in a study. The study, the team says, offers the first direct evidence of this happening.

The idea of evolution driving evolvability is "highly controversial," the team, including biologists from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Kentucky, wrote in their paper, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens. Although many quickly evolving creatures are successful, it seems strange that evolution should build that into organisms. After all, evolution should be as blind to the future as your local psychic (Sorrynotsorry). Natural selection selects for traits that are useful right now. Sometimes those traits happen to be useful to later generations in unexpected ways, but there's no mechanism in evolution to actively prepare for the future, which is what evolvability does.

Nevertheless, to look for some real-world evidence of selection acting on evolvability, the Pennsylvania and Kentucky biologists examined Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria species that gives people Lyme disease.

Like all infectious microbes, B. burgdorferi make proteins that appear on their surfaces. To fight off infection, the immune system learns to recognize these proteins, latch onto them, and kill off B. burgdorferi cells. In a counter-move, B. burgdorferi sometimes changes its surface proteins, a feat that requires it to change its very DNA. Luckily, B. burgdorferi bacteria often carry a bunch of unused DNA, called cassettes, that are able to quickly become working DNA, offering instructions for making different surface proteins that are unrecognizable to the infectee's immune system. Sneaky!

By analyzing 12 different strains of B. burgdorferi, the team found evidence there's strong selective pressure for the bacteria to develop a diverse collection of unused cassettes that would give them more varied surface proteins. Evolution doesn't need to be able to see the future to do this, the team writes. Selection for such a trait could happen during active infections, when host immune systems kill off less evolvable B. burgdorferi, or through reproduction, if more evolvable B. burgdorferi are more likely to produce offspring with a variety of cassettes.

This likely doesn't happen in organisms such as animals, plants and fungi, however, the team writes. The way those cells work, latent evolvability isn't so directly linked to traits important to their survival. So for humans, at least, the idea of evolving to evolve will have to stay in the self-help books.

Bush-Meat Market Data Collector

Sure, everyone loves monkeys. But few test that love like Jake Owens. An environmental science Ph.D. candidate at Drexel University, Owens studies the ecology and behavior of drill monkeys. Typically, that involves trips to places like Bioko, an island off Africa’s western coast, where he crawls through snake-infested vegetation to collect monkey dung. In 2010, Owens had to survey an illegal bush-meat market in Equatorial Guinea, where merchants sell meat from endangered primates. Amid the stench of rotting flesh, he took hundreds of hair and tissue samples from the monkeys for isotope analysis. Using this data, Owens aims to locate poaching hot zones. “Most people at the market hated me or the effort to stop poaching that I represent, and they didn’t hide it well,” Owens says. The merchants regularly swatted him with brooms, spat at his feet, and waved blowtorches and machetes to keep him away. The reward for Owens’s perseverance? A mysterious monthlong illness that caused his hair to fall out.

Chris Philpot

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NASA Ames engineers are building PhoneSats, demonstrating how "off the shelf" consumer devices can lead to new space exploration capabilities.

NASA Ames Research Center/Dominic Hart

Orbital Sciences' Minotaur 1 rocket is carrying some historic cargo to space today. Alongside NASA's latest smartphone-enabled PhoneSat 2.4 is another tiny satellite, called TJ³Sat, built by students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. This CubeSat is the first satellite built by high school students and is set to launch from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 7:30 p.m. EST.

This will be the Minotaur 1's 25th mission, and the rocket will be carrying a record of 28 CubeSats—4-inch-cube satellites based around smartphone technology. An out-of-the-box smartphone is housed within the CubeSat structure, making for a relatively inexpensive spacecraft. Three of NASA's PhoneSats have successfully spent about a week in orbit. PhoneSat 2.4 will go into a higher orbit than any other PhoneSat has before.

As a part of NASA's Educational Launch of NanoSatellites (ELaNa) program, the Thomas Jefferson High School students' 2-pound satellite is the culmination of seven years of work by more than 50 students. ELaNa aims to attract students to study STEM disciplines, which matches up well with TJ³Sat's mission. Once in orbit, the CubeSat will send and receive data from students and other amateur radio users on Earth. Submissions can be made via their website, and approved strings of text will be sent to the satellite in space. In return, Earthling users will receive a voice interpretation of the text via radio frequency.

“It used to be that kids growing up wanted to be an astronaut. I think we might be seeing kids saying, what they want to do is build a spacecraft. The idea here is that they really can do that,” Andrew Petro, program executive for small spacecraft technology at NASA, said in a statement. “They can get together with a few other people to build and fly a spacecraft. Some students coming out of college as new hires have already built and flown a satellite . . . that’s a whole new notion, one that was not possible even 10 years ago."

Blade Runner, director Ridley Scott's 1982 masterpiece, is the greatest science-fiction movie ever made.

But what about Star Wars, dummy?

No. It is Blade Runner. 

If you haven't seen it--then my Lord, what are you doing, go watch the director's cut version by any means possible--the movie follows Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who's tasked with hunting down a gang of rogue androids. There is action. There is philosophy. And the whole dystopian cityscape looks like a brooding Impressionist painting. Which makes this tribute by artist Anders Ramsell, a 30-plus-minute "paraphrase" of the film done in more than 12,000 aquarelle paintings, especially moving. It's the washed-out, surreal feeling the movie already cultivates, but reinterpreted. Like tears in rain.

[Digg]

Elizabeth Bisland and Nellie Bly

Bisland (left) and Bly (right) in their travel gear, in photos taken to publicize their race

Both photos are from the New York Public Library Archives

Sixteen years after Jules Verne first published Around the World in 80 Days, two American journalists raced to do just that. The Public Domain Review has the story, which is just about as charming as the Verne novel. The two women set off 124 years ago this month.

Nellie Bly, investigative journalist for the newspaper New York World, was the first to come up with the idea. She pitched it to her editors, then had to fight to go—her superiors originally wanted to send a man. After she'd set off, the editor of the monthly magazine The Cosmopolitan decided Cosmo* could get a lot of "pageviews" by sending a rival, preferably a young woman, to race Bly. So Cosmo recruited book reviews writer Elizabeth Bisland to go, starting in the opposite direction as Bly. The Public Domain Review tells the story mostly from the point of view of Bisland, who would eventually lose the race, circumnavigating the globe in 76 days to Bly's 75. I know, who wants to read about a loser? But this is cool because Bisland has never had as much written about her as Bly has. I'm a fan of circumnavigation efforts, and I never knew Bly had a rival. The author of The Public Domain Review article has also written a book about the two.

The Public Domain Review highlights works that are in the public domain, meaning their copyright no longer applies and people may view them and use them for free. Its Bly-Bisland article links to books and essays Bisland wrote throughout her life, including her descriptions of her trip. There are also contemporary photographs of ports she visited, as well as some weird anecdotes about how men at the time thought she was super hot. One writer called her "a sort of goddess," while another said she was "a beautiful dangerous leopard." A leopard? We just think she and Bly were really impressive. It can't have been comfortable to circumnavigate in the Victorian era.

It's always exciting to see real life echo science fiction… and here's a moment when that happened, more than a century ago.

*Yes, this is the magazine that would eventually become the fount of please-your-man-tips you know today.

[The Public Domain Review]

Straight Lines Mark Off Land Parcels in a Mixed-Use Forest

NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Landsat 8 data from the USGS Earth Explorer

Here at Popular Science, we love satellite images. They offer cool views of Earthly phenomena such as plankton blooms and erupting volcanoes. They give important perspective on the impact of natural disasters such as floods and fires. Seeing stuff from space can be a bit disorienting, however. But fear not. The Earth Observatory, NASA's public site for its Earth sciences, has listed some cool patterns to look for while interpreting satellite images. Some highlights:

• A line of clouds can indicate there are mountains below, as the mountains push warmer air upwards to higher elevations, where it cools and forms clouds. A line of vortices in the ocean, on the other hand, can indicate there are peaks below the surface of the water, perturbing the water's flow.
• There's an optical illusion called relief inversion that can happen with satellite images. Mountains appear to be canyons, or vice versa. The Earth Observatory explains:

  It happens because most of us expect an image to be lit from the top left corner. When the sunlight comes from another angle (especially from the lower edge), the shadows fall in ways we don’t expect and our brains turn valleys into mountains to compensate. The problem is usually resolved by rotating the image so the light appears to come from the top of the image.

• Farmed plants often look brighter green than natural vegetation.
• Smoke often looks smoother than clouds. Haze is featureless and may be opaque if it's dense, or translucent if it's thinner. It's not always possible to tell, just from visual inspection, the difference between white haze and natural fog.

Happy Earth-watching.

[NASA Earth Observatory]

GIFs, those short, silent, looping animations found all over the internet, are wonderful. But what if some apocalyptic event wipes out the internet? How will you view your favorite GIF? The Giphoscope, by Italian designers Marco Calabrese and Alessandro Scali, is the solution: an analog GIF player, cranked by hand in a weird throwback to the early days of film.

Select a GIF or short video clip, and the designers turn it into 24 frames that fit in the Giphoscope, which measures about 4 inches by 5 inches. Each Giphoscope is custom built and costs 300 euros, or about $400. The full price includes not just the Giphoscope, but also photo updates on Google+ show your Giphoscope's assembly as it progresses.

Check out more completed Giphoscopes, like this one of motion picture pioneer Edward Muybridge's horse:

The Gettysburg Address

Cornell University Library/Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln uttered the 10 sentences that would come to be known as the Gettysburg Address. His two-minute speech was part of the Gettysburg Cemetery’s lengthy dedication ceremony, which included a two-hour oration, prayers, and performances. Though Lincoln suggests that “the world will take little note, nor long remember what we say here,” 150 years later the speech is not only remembered, but considered one of the greatest in American history.

Lincoln penned five known copies of his Gettysburg speech. In fact, it’s likely that the copy accepted by historians as the standard (and final written in Lincoln’s hand) differs from what he delivered at the dedication. Researchers still study the variations in these documents’ histories, content, and physical properties. But what’s the best way to preserve these frail papers? Cultural conservators at the Library of Congress, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM), Cornell University and the White House, where the documents are housed, investigate the risks the documents face. Using an interdisciplinary approach, they determine and employ the best preservation procedures to stabilize the documents for future study and display.

The Five Manuscripts

All of the versions are on machine-produced rag paper, made from a combination of linen and cotton fibers. They’re all written in iron gall ink, one of the most ubiquitous inks of the time, except for the first version, which is in both iron gall ink and pencil. To keep the ink from absorbing into the paper and thus bleeding, most of documents are coated in a thin layer of gelatin. The first known document was written prior to the address, while the second was written either shortly before or (more likely) shortly after the address, Michelle Krowl, Civil War and Reconstruction specialist at the Library of Congress' Manuscript Division, tells Popular Science. The last three versions were written by Lincoln in 1864 as charitable donations.

The Exposure Problem

Light and pollutant exposure, temperature and humidity fluctuations, mishandling, manmade and natural disaster, and inherent material flaws are the leading causes of deterioration in most artifacts, says Debra Norris, chair of the art conservation department at the University of Delaware. Exposure to light, temperature and humidity accelerates the natural breakdown of the cellulose in paper fibers.

Acid in papers and inks degrade the cellulose fibers of paper, as do acidic pollutants, such as nitrates and sulfates (the same chemicals responsible for acid rain). According to Michele Hamill, paper and photography conservator at Cornell University, the Gettysburg documents' naturally neutral and high-quality rag paper and well formulated, low-acid iron gall ink is part of the reason the manuscripts are in such good shape today. In addition, the gelatin coating provides a barrier between the acidic ink and the rag fibers.

Poor handling of the documents also caused damage to the addresses. The most severe example of mishandling is seen on the first page of Cornell’s manuscript. One of its previous owners covered it with cellophane to protect the document. However, some early versions of the plastic had a layer of nitrocellulose, a water repellant and low-grade explosive that Hamill suspects caused the damage. Thought it was only exposed to the cellophane for 15 years, the discoloration and damage was irreversible. Additionally, at least one copy has a fingerprint on it. The residue left by a fingerprint isn’t immediately visible, but the oils attract pollutants which speeds deterioration.

Photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken two weeks before his Gettysburg Address

Alexander Gardner

The Conservators’ Solution

Conservators receive rigorous formal training that is often compared to medical school, says Norris. The University of Delaware’s master’s program in art conservation is one of only four such programs in the U.S. Students learn the best storage conditions, how to trace an object's history, to evaluate its condition, to diagnose problems, and plan a course of treatment, if necessary. Cultural preservationists abide by the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) code of ethics. Like the Hippocratic oath of the physicians they’re compared to, a central tenet of the AIC is to do no harm.

The most critical preventive measure is to maintain a stable and low temperature and relative humidity, and to eliminate as much light as possible. The Gettysburg manuscripts are kept between 50 degrees and 65 degrees F and between 40% and 48% relative humidity. While not on display, the documents are kept in almost complete darkness. Some versions of the address are kept in cases with no oxygen, which drastically reduces any oxidation caused by light. The papers are secured to acid-free mounts behind light-filtering plexiglass and stored in acid-free containers, to prevent acid transfer and harmful light damage.

When on display, the documents are carefully monitored for changes in condition, and light exposure is minimized with very low exhibition lighting, according to Bonnie Parr of the ALPLM. She measures the museum’s version of the address to see how its dimensions change in various conditions. Additionally, high-quality replicas are on hand to replace the originals, so as not to risk overexposure.

These preventive measures minimize the need for restoration, but in some cases, additional interventions are required to stabilize documents. These interventions should ideally be reversible, in the case better technology becomes available. When they aren’t, it’s important to weigh the possible gains and losses. Because the iron gall ink was causing acid build-up on the ALPLM’s document, conservators decided in 1995 to deacidify the back of the document. Several of the versions have also had minor tears fixed with neutral strips of paper and starch-based paste.

Why It Matters

With the quality of digital scanning and immense amount of research on these documents, why should we waste time on the originals? Aside from the historical significance of the text itself, there’s still plenty to be learned from the objects. Hamill describes the history of the documents and their recent discoveries in a series blog posts for Cornell's library. Using digital imaging and comparing notes with Krowl at the Library of Congress, they were able to trace an embossment on the address to a stationery store near the capitol. Understanding this supply chain could help historians trace the path of paper during the Civil War, at which time it was incredibly rare.

But beyond these research opportunities, Norris says cultural preservation is essential to cultural identity. “It’s about connecting communities. It’s about reconciliation. It’s about building literacy,” she says. “A lot of these really fundamental world challenges can be addressed in some way through the preservation of cultural heritage.”

See one of the original versions of the address through Sunday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.; through Saturday at the Cornell University Library in Ithaca, NY; and through January 4 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Xbox One

Microsoft

Ryse: Son of Rome

Crytek

Now I can simply run my Roku through the Xbox instead of going directly through the TV.

Locked Out

Photo by 12th St David on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

KeyMe, the company that brought robot locksmiths and photo-copy-able keys to New York, is launching a new service. This time, there's not much new technology involved. You'll just be able to get your robot-made key copy delivered to you, by a person, via the KeyMe app. "Our goal is to be 24 hours and to be able to help you out whenever you need a key," KeyMe CEO Greg Marsh tells Popular Science.

Using KeyMe still requires some foresight. Before you accidentally lock yourself out anywhere, you need to have scanned your key, either at a kiosk or using your iPhone. KeyMe saves a digital file of your key's shape, which you're then able to easily access any time you want a key. Besides getting the key delivered, you can go to one of KeyMe's robotic kiosks to get a key cut for you, or you can mail-order copies of your keys through the app. 

One-hour personal delivery costs $59. Three-hour delivery costs $20. For now, delivery is only available from 10 am to 9 pm, Monday through Saturday, anywhere in Manhattan south of 125th Street. Marsh says the company plans to extend hours in the future and to provide service to the outer boroughs. It also plans eventually to offer deliveries in Boston. The company partners with local locksmiths to cut the keys and make the deliveries.

Shelving in the KeyMe Office

KeyMe

Meanwhile, since the KeyMe robot kiosks launched in June, the KeyMe algorithms have undergone updates, Marsh says. The algorithms are the coolest technology the company has: they are able to infer a key's three-dimensional shape from a photograph of it. As more people have signed up for KeyMe and allowed the company to scan their keys, company engineers have used that pool of digital data to teach their algorithms how to better recognize key shapes.

Nevertheless, the algorithms can fail, with strange results. A friend of mine tried to copy his key at a kiosk, but got a non-working key in return. Afterward, KeyMe sent him a $5 Amazon gift certificate, although he had not complained to the company. "They knew somehow," he says (You can see much of our conversation on Twitter). "I guess they could tell the scan was wonky."

Impressed, he tried again, but then the kiosk gave him an entirely uncut key.

"These are related errors, so your friend's key was giving our kiosk trouble for some reason," Marsh says. "Although errors are not common, they can be caused by unusual geometrical features on the key or a hardware malfunction in the kiosk." Let KeyMe know if their algorithms fail you, Marsh says. The company will provide a refund, a free set of keys and an Amazon gift card.

Doorknob

Jim Simonson

In Vancouver, the humble doorknob is being phased out. Kind of. Effective in March, new housing will be required to install levers on doors and faucets, instead of the good-ol' round knobs of our forefathers. 

Cue: libertarian cries of government overreach and nanny-state-ism and evil G-men in suits entering homes and stealing all of our doorknobs despite our constitutional right to them. Fine. But anyone against the idea might feel differently when they're pushing 80. 

The idea behind Vancouver's decision is that, despite being of a more vintage grade than levers, doorknobs kind of suck. Ergonomics studies investigating different types of water-dispersing mechanisms have shown that lever-style faucets are far preferable to their knob counterparts. (Yes, there are studies for everything.) Knobs, you see, involve pronating and supinating your wrist, (stretching it, basically) which is less fun for everyone, but probably won't make you run out and immediately and switch to levers. Maybe you like your nice art deco knobs. 

Unless, that is, you're elderly. You get older, maybe you get arthritis, and this doorknob-to-lever issue stops being academic. Other studies have shown that the type of handle a door has is important to the elderly, and that lever-style knobs function better. One of the most in-depth studies I could dig up, a look at homes for the elderly in Malaysia, went so far as to study the actual measurements of people in homes for the elderly, and apply that to ergonomic door design. A snippet of the team's findings: 

The minimum door height should comply with the stature anthropometry of the 95th percentile male (72.60 cm). The door width should be the elbow span of the 95th percentile male (97.4 cm). A lever-type doorknob should be positioned at the elbow height of the 5th percentile female (81.60 cm).

And with Americans (and Canadians!) living longer, this will only become a bigger issue. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 67 million adult Americans will have arthritis by 2030. For them to have a more productive life, they'll need doors that are easier to open. You can't throw a fit about the law unless you're also against mandatory wheelchair ramps for businesses. 

Plus, the Vancouver law isn't retroactive anyway. If your building has doorknobs, they get grandfathered in. 

But for new buildings? Good riddance. We have been pronating and supinating like fools for too long.

The Long-Suffering Lab Mouse

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Given the choice, a mouse wouldn't keep his house at what's considered "room temperature" for people. Mice are smaller. They lose heat faster. They generally like hanging out in places that are about 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), but international guidelines for lab mice say they should be kept at human room temperature, 20 to 26 degrees Celsius.

Now, a new study says such guidelines could have a profound effect on studies done in lab mice. Mice kept in the recommended temperature range formed and grew tumors more quickly than mice living in their own preferred temperature, the study found. The chilly mice also didn't mount as much of an immune system response against tumors as comfy mice.

This doesn't mean you can justify turning up the heat in the winter as cancer prevention. (That is an issue you just need to talk out with your roommates, okay?) Instead, it suggests that first-line health studies done in mice—of which there are an enormous number—may all have this flaw. Immune system-based therapies are under intense research right now, but lab mice's living conditions may make the treatments seem less effective than they truly are, the researchers wrote in their paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

One interesting finding from the study that underscores the importance of temperature: Given a choice of five chambers kept at different temperatures, mice with tumors preferred the warmest one, at 38 degrees Celsius, although healthy mice usually prefer the 30-degree room. This suggests tumor-stricken mice feel colder than their healthy peers. Ars Technica points out human breast cancer patients have complained of feeling cold, too.

The Scientist talked to several researchers not involved in the study about how this will impact cancer science.  One cancer therapy researcher told the magazine, "Everybody thought that mice would be fine at room temperature, but nobody ever thought to look," while another called the study "a game-changer."

[Ars Technica, The Scientist, Nature News]

Rendering of the ISS

Popular Science May 1998

Fifteen years ago today, the Russian Space Agency launched the first component of the International Space Station into orbit. The piece was a pressurized module called Zarya, which means sunrise. Two weeks later, the U.S. shipped their own ISS component, Unity, on the shuttle Endeavour. Piece by piece, the station was assembled with parts from various countries. Humans didn't arrive until October 31, 2000, when one NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts traveled to their new orbiting home. There have been 37 expeditions since then, and ISS inhabitants have logged nearly 1,100 hours in spacewalks. 

In May 1998, Popular Science dedicated an issue to the International Space Station in advance of the historic Russian mission. The issue (complete with pullout space station poster!) speculated on how astronauts would live in space for prolonged periods of time, the research that would be conducted onboard the ISS, the eventual decommission plan, and more. You can read these stories over in our archive.

A lot has been accomplished aboard the ISS, and it's hard to remember a time when we didn't have an orbiting extension of humanity. So, wave hello with special gusto if you spot the Space Station overhead tonight.

May 1998 issue of Popular Science

Rapper GZA, of Wu-Tang Clan fame, is releasing a space-themed album called Dark Matter. He's even been chatting with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about the project. Here, as part of a talk at the University of Toronto, he previewed an a cappella version of one track. It's about the Big Bang. And it is tremendous. 

[Mashable]

Lever Handle

Delaney Turner

In a post this morning, I wrote that Vancouver's plan to ban doorknobs from being implemented in new buildings in favor of lever-style handles was a great idea. Doorknobs are less ergonomic, and an aging population might appreciate the switch.

Many readers on social media disagreed. Fervently. 

Here's a sampling of some comments from Facebook and Twitter, organized by some of the most common criticisms:

WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN:

Commenters pointed out that it's easier for dogs/cats/children to work a handle than a doorknob:

Door knobs aren't bad. They're the only thing keeping my pets from opening doors on their own!--Rayna Montez, via Facebook

God forbid people decide what sort of door hardware they prefer in their houses. Sometimes knobs are preferred when kids and clever animals are around.--Chris Ferguson, via Facebook

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE ARGUMENT: 

What's next? A perfectly ergonomic world? But at what cost?

The libertarian complaints are well warranted, why should states infer like this. What happens if a new study finds that the color red improve moods... should all new houses be forced to paint only in red? Preventing people from making their own choices in the name of such cute utility arguments is a really nasty downward slope.--Thomas Egebak, via Facebook

While we're at it, let's ban stairs. From now on, ONLY ramps are allowed /snark/--Dan Ader, via Facebook

Levers make sense ergonomically but as a dwindling member of a once free society I object to statists mandating how I live.--Philip Wilson, via Facebook

THE MOST CONVINCING ARGUMENT:

I stand by my original points. But there was one counter-argument that truly made me pause.

If Jurassic Park is any warning, levers cannot stop Velociraptors!--Chris Ferguson, via Facebook

Paving the way for Velociraptors to eat all of us....--Bud Atherton, via Facebook

Its clear I am not the only one deeply concerned about the risk this poses to velociraptor infested areas. These fools will get us all killed!!!!--Ethan Surbaugh, via Facebook

@PopSci@AthertonKD welp, we now know where the raptors will head first…once we clone them and fail to contain them on a tropical island.

— Mr. Invisibo Ninjo (@invisiboninjo) November 20, 2013

To these last points I can only say: there is definitely NOT a raptor at my desk right now who forced me into this line of argument. DO NOT SEND HELP IMMEDIATELY.

You can add more opinions to the comments section here.