Please comment on the global energy-conservation insanity surrounding the incandescent light bulb, i.e., initiatives around the world to ban it. (Some call the instigators of these measures "eco-fascists.") How good are energy-saving fluorescent or halogen light bulbs really? -Ivona, Chicago

I've been reading about the coelacanth, the fish thought to have gone extinct 65 million years ago that turned up in an Indonesian fish market. Do you know any good coelacanth recipes? Seems like this would be a nice change from a Filet-o-Fish. -- Jim, Pawhuska, Oklahoma

In your recent column on conspiracy theories about the government injecting chemicals into the atmosphere, you disparaged the idea of geoengineering, or at least using sulfur dioxide to counter global warming. But you don't defend your position. Is it a good or bad idea, and why? - Rob

I grew up in Alaska and I've heard this story forever, including when I worked on a salmon fishing boat for two summers. It's the claim of a sometimes lethal danger to fishermen posed by a large halibut landed on deck but not yet dead. According to the story, a flopping halibut broke a commercial fisherman's leg in two places, causing him to bleed to death because he was alone and couldn't crawl to the ...

Zombies have so many disturbing traits, but my question involves only two: the stench of decomposition and their tendency to congregate in large numbers. A single dead body gives off a foul odor that is overpowering, certainly enough to make a normal person vomit. Now, say you're one of those zombie apocalypse survivors, barricading yourself inside a shopping mall, faced with hundreds of undead shoppers. Putting aside the brain-eating and all that, how dangerous is ...

I'm a fairly intelligent, well-educated person with a facebook. I get SO ANNOYED when people are constantly picking out my typos and making it seem like I'm an idiot. Is there actually a correlation between intelligence and how prone one is to make careless mistakes will typing? There are external factors like . . . my D key sometimes sticks, etc. But it's facebook, not my doctoral thesis, so the editing standards are low. And ...

About 20 years ago when I lived in Vancouver, I watched a TV local news segment about how the University of British Columbia's forestry department had created a system for injecting hormones into growing trees to produce a "square tree." Much was made of the advantages for the lumber industry, but I've never heard any more about it. - Greg Kerr

I'm taking a physics course, and we discussed how objects with hollow cores revolve slower. So I was wondering: exactly how much dirt would I have to dig out of the ground and move to the surface before I'd notice the days getting longer? -Mark D. Baragary, Ames, Iowa

Your recent column about the safety of nuclear power also mentioned contaminated milk. But nobody explains why contamination is a big issue with milk but not with potatoes, chicken, or water. I always thought radiation was an equal-opportunity contaminant. So what's the deal with milk? -Danielle

Does the average American use more energy than a blue whale? The New York Times says it's true. Is it? -petew83, via the Straight Dope Message Board

I live in San Francisco, and since the mid-90s California has mandated minimal class sizes, based on a 20-plus-year-old study from Tennessee. I don't know if this is the best way to either improve children's education or save money, since there seems to be a lot of infighting on both sides of the argument. So what's the deal-is a class size of 22 first-graders better than a class size of 26? How about 20, or 16? -Rory H.

Are we, as a nation, using significantly less paper than, say, 20 years ago? The obvious answer, to me, is yes, but then I think of all the reams of paper around offices and I wonder. -Thom Riley

There's an old comedy cliché about firemen holding a big net and asking people to jump. Is this a fictional invention, or was there really a time when this was how we rescued people from burning buildings? If there was, what was the highest someone could leap from and be saved? -Nate Solloway

Is it really possible to purchase a lord, laird, or lady title online? As I understand it, some websites allow anyone to buy a square foot of land in Scotland for a relatively small amount. As the purchaser now technically owns land in Scotland, they now can use "Lord," "Laird," or "Lady" in front of their name, even if they have never set foot in the UK. How official and/or legal is this? Does this ...

Years ago I made the mistake of reading a book called The Journeyer by Gary Jennings, about the life and adventures of Marco Polo. If you're not familiar with Jennings's work, the synopsis is simple: SEX, VIOLENCE, history, SEX, VIOLENCE. Jennings writes of a torture practiced in the Orient of Polo's time called "death by a thousand cuts." Supposedly the grand poobah torturer would fill a container with a thousand pieces of paper on which ...