Today in MEL: Lactivists, roaches and bears, oh my!

Today our MEL celebrates nature’s wonders and their place in our evolving modern world. First off, the outraged nursing Moms of America are making headlines (and clearly being forwarded like the bejeezus) thanks to today’s “nurse-in” outside ABC studios to protest Barbara Walter’s on-air comment that she was icked out by a breastfeeding mother on a plane. Aw, babies are so cute. I love their little toes.

Not as cute: cockroaches, which clock in at #17 on today’s list thanks to some scientist who thought it would be smart to hook them up to a robotic contraption to harness their instinctive natural reflexes. Brainiac scientist dude didn’t use just any cockroach, but rather the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach which can grow AS BIG AS A MOUSE. Gross! Is it just me, or does the thought of a scary imported monster cockroach sitting in a lab just waiting to be irradiated Mansquito-style seem like a horror movie waiting to happen? Man, this scientist doesn’t sound so bright. Oh, wait a sec, he’s from Canada. Wow, what an amazing and cool experiment from an obviously brilliant mind!

Also from Canada: bears, though not the cuddly one that was featured on the NYT homepage earlier today (see above – is it me or does it look less like a bear than a guy in a bear suit? And is it wrong to find that somehow exciting?). Animal lovers amongst the NYT readership have catapulted marauding garbage-eating bears to MEL #15, though I must point out that people in Canada discovered that bears liked to eat garbage quite some time ago. Oh, that questing, searching Canadian mind.

Rounding out science class is MEL 7 with sexy fruit flies, the potential stalker hardwired into each of our brains, and monkeys getting their Freakonomics on in the debut column from Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Aw, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are so cute. I love their little toes.

UPDATE: Now I can’t get that song “The Other Day I Met a Bear” out of my head, so here are the lyrics. But, just so you know, bears can climb trees so I think the ending is a bit unrealistic.

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