Category: Uncategorized

Faith-based biology in Florida

Via the Huffington Post, from the Orlando Sentinel

‘Celestial Drops’ no cure for canker

Florida researched the use of water, possibly mystically blessed, to cure the disease.
By Jim Stratton
Sentinel Staff Writer

July 5, 2005

Four years ago, as the state labored to eradicate citrus canker by destroying trees, officials rejected other disease-fighting techniques, saying unproven methods would waste precious time and resources.

But for more than six months, the state, at the behest of then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris, did pursue one alternative method — a very alternative method.

Researchers worked with a rabbi and a cardiologist to test “Celestial Drops,” promoted as a canker inhibitor because of its “improved fractal design,” “infinite levels of order” and “high energy and low entropy.”

But the cure proved useless against canker. That’s because it was water — possibly, mystically blessed water.

What the HEY

THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050626-5041.html

The elderly Japanese people of the future will be so desperately lonely for companionship that they’ll purchase slightly creepy android replicas of the drug-addled but brilliant sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick. Why the Japanese, and why Phillip K. Dick? It’s a long story, and I’m not sure I fully understood it all when the android’s makers explained it to me. I think I probably read the wrong books growing up as a kid, or maybe I now watch the wrong TV shows.

Via Blog of a Bookslut.

Plus, I still have that Bee Gees song in my head.

After a pleasant meal of spaghetti & turkey meatballs and a green salad with gordonzola [sic] cheese and tomatoes, I’m relaxing as I listen to the neighborhood freakin’ explode. It gets louder every year. The mortars have moved east of the Boulevard finally and I also heard gunfire, which is not cool.

Either that or someone has designed a set of firecrackers that sounds exactly like a .30 caliber semiautomatic rifle emptying a five round magazine. It certainly got my attention.

I missed the City of Irvine’s Summer Series beginning with a bang! The advertisement promised that “Fireworks, music by the Kingston Trio, and a Pat Sajak narration of ‘Casey at the Bat’ headline the event.” Pat Sajak reading “Casey at the Bat”? PAT SAJAK? When Harry Shearer did his version of Kato Kaelin and John Tesh performing “Peter and the Wolf” it was supposed to be a joke, not a model for future entertainment. Yow. Ideally the Kingston Trio and Mr. Sajak would be attached to a gigantic rocket and forced to perform “Oh Susanna” while being fired into Modjeska Canyon at tremendous speed, but Irvine never really had that kind of spark.

Last night I dreamed about the cobbler Bethya made yesterday.

craigslist fun of the day

From the soon-to-be-deleted http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/w4m/82395173.html. What’s the Mexicanian for “Bad Idea Jeans”?

This is a sincere ad for men that want a nice relationship with a Mexican women. Parties every month for Single guys looking to meet a nice Mexican lady. Men If you have been looking for a girlfriend but don’t have the time or patience for online dating or going to clubs look no further!!!

tell me, how does this work??

Our here now medical system in these united states

Since I had a visit to the E.R. brought by paramedic ambulance last week, I’m experiencing the classic aftereffect symptom: financial panic. I’m tensed for the blow when the bill arrives, prepared for my insurer to deny everything, ready to fight collection agencies and complain to commissioners and end up paying the whole thing outright on my credit card at 14% interest.

The old joke about bleeding heart liberals is that the difference between a liberal and a conservative is a police report. Good point; no one likes getting their ass kicked, and it doesn’t do much for your progressive values to have the pain and fight-or-flight chemicals running.

I’d add another rule, though. The difference between a conservative and a liberal is a hospital admission. Prosperous middle-class Americans who’ve never been seriously ill and have confidence in their medical plans are fooling themselves. They’re all only one illness away from total financial ruin. The insurer will deny claims, the hospital will press them, a collection agency will buy them, and no one will forgive anything. Welcome to Ayn Rand Memorial Medical Center, folks!

My pharmacist is now required by law to counsel me if the prescription is new. This is a fine idea in theory, since physicians don’t know everything about a drug and don’t take the time to discuss it. In practice, it’s a joke. I go to a 24-hour pharmacy in a drugstore chain and it’s understaffed. With my latest, I waited ten minutes before a rumpled and worried Indian man rushed out and said “It is diuretic. Do you have questions?” and then ran off. This is his usual practice.

When I got home I looked at the bottle and there was a sticker on it saying that I should stay out of direct natural or artificial sunlight. Sure enough, looking up the stuff revealed that it increases sensitivity to the sun and that special attention to sunscreen and protective clothing is strongly advised. What if the clerk hadn’t put the sticker on the thing, or I hadn’t looked? People around here have the hobby of lying in the sun.

Requiring professionals to do something vital and then giving them no time to do it doesn’t work. The invisible hand just punched me in the nuts again.