Tuesday, March 07, 2006

1949 Modern Mechanix to make laughing gas Mark Frauenfelder: Article from the good old days on how to make the delightful recreational drug, nitrous oxide. Link(Thanks, Charlie!) (Via Boing Boing.) 8:12:56 PM    comment []

Maher on Scarborough Country Bill Maher was on the MSNBC show Scarborough Country yesterday. Here's an excerpt I especially liked: SCARBOROUGH: And this goes back to what we—this goes back to what we talked about a time earlier when you were on this show. You think that‘s being disrespectful to people‘s faith, to their value system? The thing that is most important to them, for you to say that the Bible doesn‘t have relevance or isn‘t important? MAHER: Well, I‘m sorry, Joe. You know, I‘m sorry if I offended anybody. But somebody has to say these kinds of things. Somebody has to stop... SCARBOROUGH: Why? MAHER: What? Why? SCARBOROUGH: Yes. MAHER: Because religion does so much more harm than good. And as long as we constantly give it a free pass, as long as nobody questions it because, when you say those words, “That‘s my faith,” everybody backs off. I‘m sorry, but faith means the suspension of rational thinking. And the Bible is an anthology. It‘s an anthology of many works written a long time ago. Some of it is wise. There are some good things in the Bible. But I like to look at the Ten Commandments as sort of a microcosm of the Bible. Are there some good things in the Ten Commandments? Yes, two of them are actual laws: Don‘t kill—OK, that‘s a good one; I think that‘s good to teach people that—and don‘t steal, also good. The rest of the eight of them? I don‘t know. Don‘t work on Sunday? Doesn‘t have a lot of relevance, really, does it, Joe? Don‘t swear? Is that really as important as don‘t kill and don‘t steal? Don‘t make statues of other gods and pray to them? You see what I‘m saying? Some of it is good; some of it is, you know, an old book of Jewish folk tales. Exactly right. (Via Evolutionblog.) 8:47:18 AM    comment []

EXCELLENT News! Beer fights heart disease: official , More good news for those of you who like a swift pint or two: beer doesn't just fight cancer and make you clever but also blocks "interferon-gamma-induced chemical processes". This is a good thing, trust us, because what the Innsbruck Medical University team behind this revelation has shown - in layman's terms - is that beer offers a resultant anti-inflammatory effect which may have a "beneficial impact on coronary heart diseases". (Via Seeing the Forest.) 8:28:18 AM    comment []

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