The Exchange

Zombies are all the rage these days, what with the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; the pending release of Zombieland;and news that Max Brook's sci-fi classic, World War Z, is bound for the silver screen. But maybe it's time to call a halt to this never-ending battle with the Undead. Can't humans and zombies learn to get along and co-exist in harmony? According to a new paper by a group of Canadian epidemiologists -- no way, no how.

Comics is a tough business. Even now, with seemingly nine out of ten movies in the theaters tied somehow to graphic novels or comics, it's still a surprisingly tough business, marred by an uneven playing field dominated by multi-billion dollar corporations, a single distributor system, and an outdated sales force. As an independent comic creator, until very recently the challenges of competing with Messrs. Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and Wolverine seemed insurmountable. Thank god for technology.

Fans of the old TV series Flipper might not know about Ric O'Barry, a one-time dolphin trainer who trained the two female bottlenose dolphins featured on that show. But that could change with the release this weekend of The Cove, a hard-hitting documentary O'Barry made with former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyas about the "dolphinarium" market -- the worldwide trade in captive dolphins.

With G-Force entering the market this week, an underdog to supplant the mighty Harry Potter, we at The Exchange immediately thought, "There's no science here." Then, we realized that in the scientific community guinea pigs have a special history, a centuries-old relationship. It's a little known tale of love, loss, and even triumph. So here it is: the true guinea pig, selfless helper of humanity.

Neither a pig nor from Guinea, these strange rodents evolved to maximum cuteness in the Andes. They immediately became popular as household pets upon their introduction to Europeans in the 16th century due to their relative low maintenance, good looks, and easy temperament - in other words: their high threshold for being abused by children without seeking revenge.