The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure

Who knew?!

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

Read more from The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure

Oui, on peut

Now, there's a party for ya. Them folks in Louisiana know how to have a good time.

For the rest of us:

是，我們能。
Ja, vi kanne.
ναι, εμείs μπορώ.
Igen, mi tud.
Já, við geta.
・, 朕 宜しい.
Sí, nosotros lata.
oo, tayo maaari.
Tak, my puszka metalowa.
Da, noi a putea.
그렇습니다, 우리는 할 수 있다.
Да, мы мочь.
Jest, nama moći.
o, mi moči.
はい、私達はできる。
Ja, vi kanna.
Do, allwn.
evet, biz -ebilmek.
Etiam, nos can.
是，我们能。

Si, se peude.
Ja, wir könnt.
SØ, noi inscatolare.
Sim, pode.
Sim, nós podemos.
Да, ние мога.
Da, mi može.
Ano, my pocínovat.
Ja, vi kunne.
Jawoord, wij annuleerteken.
Jaa-ääni, me kanisteri.
Oui, nous can.
Sí, cancelamos.

No matter how you say it ... Yes, we can!

Piglet Squid is a Cutie

Scientists at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium found a cute deep-water squid that looks like a fat little cartoon piggie:

Piglet Squid, Helicocranchia pfefferi: This funny looking squid is about the size of a small avocado and can be found most commonly in the deepwater (greater than 100 m or 320 ft) of virtually all oceans. Its habit of filling up with water and the funny location of its siphone with a wild-looking 'tuft' of eight arms and two tentacles had prompted scientists to name it the piglet squid.

Piglet Squid

Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

Fried is exceptionally thoughtful and principled; his vote for Obama is especially noteworthy.

Read the rest here.

Creationists declare war over the brain

From the "Give me a break!" Department:

The New Scientist has the 411 on the latest salvo in the war on Darwin: a resurrection of Cartesian dualism, with the idea that the brain is a physical object, but the mind that inhabits it is made from some kind of ghostly jesusite-235 that conclusively proves the existence of the Invisible Sky Daddy in a white robe and beard:

Schwartz and Beauregard are part of a growing "non-material neuroscience" movement. They are attempting to resurrect Cartesian dualism - the idea that brain and mind are two fundamentally different kinds of things, material and immaterial - in the hope that it will make room in science both for supernatural forces and for a soul. The two have signed the "Scientific dissent from Darwinism" petition, spearheaded by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, headquarters of the intelligent design movement. ID argues that biological life is too complex to have arisen through evolution.

In August, the Discovery Institute ran its 2008 Insider's Briefing on Intelligent Design, at which Schwartz and Michael Egnor, a neurosurgeon at Stony Brook University in New York, were invited to speak. When two of the five main speakers at an ID meeting are neuroscientists, something is up. Could the next battleground in the ID movement's war on science be the brain?

Well, the movement certainly seems to hope that the study of consciousness will turn out to be "Darwinism's grave", as Denyse O'Leary, co-author with Beauregard of The Spiritual Brain, put it. According to proponents of ID, the "hard problem" of consciousness - how our subjective experiences arise from the objective world of neurons - is the Achilles heel not just of Darwinism but of scientific materialism. This fits with the Discovery Institute's mission as outlined in its "wedge document", which seeks "nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies", to replace the scientific world view with a Christian one.

Creationists declare war over the brain

The real tragedy here is that these idiots are still allowed to breed. These types are ever proving Albert Einstein correct when he observed ... "There only two things that are infinite: The universe and human stupidity and I am not sure about the former."

Current electoral vote projections

Current electoral vote projections: Obama 375 - McCain 157

The only way McCain can win is through theft.

Obama's Lead Keeps Growing