RadioFreePirate

Reuters had an interesting article yesterday about a guy who fuels his house (with hot tub) and car with solar power and fuel cells: Solar power eliminates utility bills in U.S. home. Apparently it’s currently about $4000 a year to do something like this, which is still more than it costs for oil dependency. But as oil prices rise and alternative energy source prices drop, the article says this should be economically viable in the next five or ten years.

And Damn Interesting had a, well, damn interesting article about a tree that stayed alive for hundreds of years, the only living thing in the middle of the Sahara Desert, only to be hit by a truck. That even a drunk driver managed to accidentally run into the only tree in a 400 kilometer radius is amazing.

If it’s coming near you, or even if you have to travel, you must check out Burlesque-a-pades, now on tour.  We were titilated, amazed, stupefied, and hurting from laughter. Favorites included Accordion Rock God Corn Mo and the deliciously talented Miss Saturn, but the whole line up was fabulous and the show became a big old perfect love-fest of talent by the end.    

Conan vs. Bear vs. Coulter vs. Hitler vs. George Washington vs. British Children

Discuss.

It’s not easy being a Biblical literalist. The meaning of words is painfully strained in only the first few paragraphs of Genesis. By the time you get to the end with the dragons and rivers of blood, you look like a complete wingnut for claiming these words are literally true. But the benefits of Biblical literalism far outweigh these minor drawbacks.

Biblical literalism has served as the rallying cry for such righteous crusades as, well, the crusades, slavery, fish-eats-Darwin automobile ornaments, and — most recently — constitutional amendments outlawing hot man-on-man health insurance. But God’s tough love doesn’t stop there. The Sex in Christ website explains how Biblical literalism also promotes bondage, threesomes, and fisting.

So the next time you’re lying in bed with your loved one(s) and thinking “What would Jesus do?” just remember Psalms 145:16: You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Jesus would do fisting. Thus sayeth the word of God.

So I’ve got a lot of tasks I should be completing on my day off.  I managed to water the tomatoes.  I also separated several things into piles during my (unsuccessful) search for my check book.  I walked half a block in scorching sunshine to get a coffee and freak someone out.  She freaked me out too.  I was politely looking at the cafe art, after handing my mug to the guy and asking him to put americano in it.  I am wearing a green t-shirt, an above-the knee khaki/cream skirt, little red and black socks and red shoes.  This girl walks in.  She is wearing a green t-shirt, an above-the knee khaki/cream skirt, red and black argyle socks, and red motherfucking shoes.  She is blonde, though, and has a scarf on wrapped like a headband.  This is a relief to me, although I agonized about head covering before I left the house, my brown locks were bare.  I said to her, “We could be in uniform.” She says, “I was just noticing that.” Weird pause.  “Even the red shoes.”  I said, “And red and black socks.”  I couldn’t decide whether to introduce myself.  The man gave me my coffee and I tipped and complimented him.  I put honey and cinnamon in the drink and walked back into the sunshine.

Nobody said a thing about the wooden leg.

(Mostly British) Ways to express your crapulence

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1883481.stm

From the land of “Things-That-Everyone-Would-Be-Glad-To-Know-Yet-Oddly-Aren’t-Common-Knowledge”: It turns out that not only do they make you cough, cigarettes also deposit a radioactive isotope in your airways.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commision lists cigarettes as a man-made source of radiation. They contain the radioactive isotope Polonium-210, which is in the calcium phosphate fertilizers used on tobacco crops and many food crops as well.

Here is an adorable diagram of radon from fertilized soil decaying and sticking to a lovingly rendered tobacco plant.

Anyway, the most conservative estimate is that a pack-and-a-half a day smoker receives the equivalent of 300 chest x-rays per year, or 0.01 chest x-rays per cigarette. The least conservative estimate is 20,000 chest x-rays, or about 2 x-rays per smoke.

Here’s a fun article that makes the rounds of the Cannabis liberation websites, full of primary source references to some of the relevant research.

Aren’t you glad to know that? Oddly, it’s not common knowledge!