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A note from Cecil Adams about the Straight Dope:

This week's Straight Dope marks the last appearance of the column as the Teeming Millions have known it for the past 45 years.

Why the change, and why now? With the planned sale of the Chicago Reader, the folks at Sun-Times Media, which will continue to own the Straight Dope, are rethinking the once-a-week deep dive (sorta) on a single topic (usually) in question-and-answer format. It's possible a successor to the Straight Dope will emerge, possibly with daily online content. But no decision has been made, and my role, if any, has not been determined. In the meantime, I'm thinking about publishing another Straight Dope book—it's been nigh on 20 years since the last one.

However that works out, the Straight Dope legacy will remain intact. The Straight Dope archive—some 3,400 columns, most written by me, the balance by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, my online auxiliary—will remain accessible at straightdope.com. A large number of those columns are also archived at chicagoreader.com. The Straight Dope home page will continue to be updated with recycled classics. The Straight Dope Message Board (SDMB), the online community that has grown up around the column, will remain open for business.

Read the rest at straightdope.com.

The last column: Do brain supplements do anything?

Q: Is Prevagen cognitive supplement as effective as its TV ad states?

—Rob Sutterfield

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Cecil replies:

Probably not, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask the Federal Trade Commission, which together with the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit last year over those claims you’re wondering about, Rob, calling them “false and unsubstantiated.”

A little catch-up for those TV-shunning readers who consequently have never heard of this stuff: Prevagen is a dietary supplement whose key ingredient is a protein extracted from jellyfish, called apoaequorin.

Read the rest at straightdope.com.