title: Problems with dict+zip of a list - losing first two values of the list in the conversion?
body: <p>How is testList being handled differently that myShortList?! Notice the output of testList is MISSING 2 values of the 'testList' when placed into the dict! Please HELP!</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; testList
  ['1', 'targets', '0', 'alive', '1', 'unreachable']
  &gt;&gt;&gt; myShortList
  ['254', 'targets', '12', 'alive', '242', 'unreachable']
  &gt;&gt;&gt; dict(zip(myShortList[::2], myShortList[1::2]))
  {'254': 'targets', '12': 'alive', '242': 'unreachable'}
  &gt;&gt;&gt; dict(zip(testList[::2], testList[1::2]))
  {'1': 'unreachable', '0': 'alive'}
  </code></pre>