things that'll kill you and a little gloating

Rock 'n Roll Marathons'll kill you! Actually what I read was an article about how roller coasters'll give you a heart attack, but only if you had an underlying heart condition to start with, and amusement parks all have signs posted to that effect. But in the last line, a doctor reported that he'd never seen a heart attack from a roller coaster, but he'd seen three during the last Rock 'n Roll Marathon. So, QED.

Also, dust will kill your children, but only if they react to the flame retardants in it like cats do, and honestly, it's not clear to me why they wouldn't. [Update: this LA Times article about PBDEs contains more actual information than the link above.]

In other news:

1. People use vinyl baby bibs. I know babies can get pretty goopy when they eat, but I can't imagine tying a vinyl-fume source around somebody's neck and then expecting them to do anything, much less eat.
2. Wandering around in the desert in shorts and a tank top makes you hotter than if you were to wear your own personal shade. There was a study and everything, so I'm going to have to gloat about the glories of my sunscreen outfit (as seen here). I mean, something good has to come of getting too sick to wear sunscreen.
3. California ground squirrels can beat up rattlesnakes.