Among the things I learned at the National Association of Science Writers conference in Baltimore last weekend: Some wasps hate cockroaches and like to lay eggs inside of their zombie bodies, some Republicans pretty much hate science (it was a blue state conference), you can make unlimited free phone calls on your computer and there's a cool place to listen to quirky 60-second science podcasts.

The author of the book on politics and science is writing a new book about hurricanes. The zombie cockroach guy says he's writing a new book about e Coli. I think that one will be fascinating. Really. Maybe it will be like Mark Kurlansky's book Cod or like his other book Salt. Incidentally, I'm thinking about writing a book or probably just an article about Pine Tar.

Speaking of pine tar and e Coli, St. Louis just beat the crap out of Detroit again. Turns out St. Louis is the No. 1 city in America for crime as well as baseball. Detroit, of course, is only the second most violent city in the nation.