Concupiscent Curds

Time to blog?

2009-07-18T10:35:06-05:00

Stay tuned.

Coke tax?

2009-05-20T12:45:19-05:00

What's next? A Twinkie toll? It may happen.

New Orleans ministers and the Hi-Five

2008-08-28T14:18:21-05:00

Here's not something you see everyday: minister and HIV in the same sentence. Several New Orleans ministers were tested to help raise awareness that most of us--if not all of us--should be tested for HIV.

Kudos to these ministers. Now, if we'd simply get Da Mayor to stop being an idiot spouting off stuff about Chocolate City and vaginas, we might continue to get some positive news....

Oh, wait, Gustav is coming.

Nevermind.

More Olympic, uh, Games

2008-08-13T13:41:02-05:00

The Summer Olympics have 100,000 condoms for the 10,000 Olympians. Wow! Either some of these athletes are getting busy or somebody's hoarding an awful lot of rubbers.

Who is worse?

2008-08-11T14:23:00-05:00

Is it the skeezer or is it the skeezer-pleaser John Edwards?

I'd say it's dead-even.

Kentucky bourbon

2008-08-09T08:37:14-05:00

"German scientists revealed 13 previously undiscovered aroma compounds in Kentucky bourbon as well as old favourites such as whiskylactone." Nature 31 July 2008.

Check out the Kentucky Bourbon Festival this September. Sadly, I'll have to imbibe in absentia.

I've had more than a few dreams begin this way

2008-08-08T10:13:38-05:00

It was no jest. Police were called to Jester Hall at the University of Texas to help 26 cheerleaders get out of an elevator that they'd packed themselves into like sardines.

Of course, like my real life, the cops who freed the gals didn't get a single phone number.

Another scientific shocker

2008-08-07T10:52:05-05:00

Experts warn that HIV prevention measures will be offset by folks continuing risky sex behaviors.

Sometimes science simply amazes me.

Two epitaphs

2008-08-02T08:24:35-05:00

Here lie two poor Lovers, who had the mishap,
Though very chaste people, to die of a clap.

~ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744)
an unkind couplet being an Epitaph on the Stanton-Harcourt Lovers who were killed by lightning.

from The Doctor's Quotation Book, A Medical Miscellany edited by Robert Wilkins

I wonder if the epitaph in the pic is intended for the one six feet under or for the rest of us.

Medicine & love

2008-07-31T13:07:50-05:00

Going into medicine is a lot like falling in love. You never know if it's the right thing or not until it's too late.

~Curds Writer

You say tomatoes, I say diarrhea, cha cha cha!

2008-07-18T10:44:02-05:00

The FDA says it's safe to go back in the water--er--it's okay to eat tomatoes again.

He can't bend the spoon with his mind, but neither could Uri.

2008-07-17T10:40:55-05:00

Uri Geller, move over. There's a new monkey in town.

From Scientific American August 2008

Neuroprosthetics took another step forward when University of Pittsburgh researchers got two rhesus macaques to feed themselves using mentally controlled robotic arms. The scientists connected a grid of 100 electrodes to neurons in the monkeys’ primary motor cortex. The grid picked up the neural activity and relayed it to a computer that controlled a nearby prosthetic arm. The monkeys succeeded in grabbing and eating fruit dangled in front of them 61 percent of the time, which, though lower than hoped, compares favorably to similar efforts in which monkeys (and humans) have moved objects in virtual environments [see “Controlling Robots with the Mind”; SciAm, October 2002]. Many challenges remain, however, before people can ever be fitted with mind-controlled limbs—the electrodes, for instance, must be made more durable and the gripping force of the prosthetics more variable. Grab onto these results in the May 29 Nature.
—Nikhil Swaminathan

Life

2008-07-16T10:21:03-05:00

Failure teaches us that life is just a [first] draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play.

~From the 2001 French film "Amelie"

Don't be a dumbass

2008-07-14T08:38:21-05:00

Measles has hit an eleven-year high. Why? Not all kids are getting their vaccines.

Be wise. Immunize. Your child's risk of measles, polio, rubella, mumps, pertussis, etc. is far greater than any risks associated with immunizations. Decades of data backs up this statement.

Tartelette

2008-07-12T10:12:10-05:00

Check this out: blueberry swirl vanilla ice cream recipe

....The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

Amelie

2008-07-11T09:00:48-05:00

I give the 2001 movie "Amelie" 4.5 out of 5 stars. Here's why:

Released in 2001, this French film stars Audrey Tautou--whose eyes, I must say, are rivaled only by my C-'s--and it received an unwarranted "R" rating in the U.S. for an innocuous scene where Amelie is wondering how many couples are having orgasms in Paris at that very second. (Answer? According to Roger Ebert who apparently counted them: fifteen). But don't let this fool you. Amelie is a superb movie and is not filled with sex and gratuitous violence--you know, the usual mainstay of American blockbuster films.

I take away one-half star from this beautifully-filmed movie--which makes me long for Paris more than I already do--because Amelie could have used at least fifteen minutes of trimming. However, if you find yourself alone this weekend, rent "Amelie." This lonely waif finds happiness in helping others. And you'll find a little bit of happiness yourself just by watching.

The Literate Gourmet

2008-07-09T12:59:08-05:00

The Literate Gourmet Collection is "a trove of coveted recipes from some of history's greatest icons." For example, there's Miles Davis's chili: "'Shut up, look, and learn.' That's how Miles taught me to cook, says Frances Davis, the first of trumpet legend Miles Davis's three wives."

There's also Andy Warhol's--what else?!--soup and Thomas Jefferson's ice cream recipe.

Cool stuff.

Source: Best Life Magazine online.

Now I know why I like watermelon so much

2008-07-09T10:12:56-05:00

Eating watermelon may cause Viagra-like effects in men. Just like looking at Marissa Miller.

Say, huh?!

2008-07-07T13:35:22-05:00

The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends screening your two year-old for high cholesterol. Yes, I typed that correctly, T-W-O! It should be done no later than age 10 and should be done in children as young as two if there's a significant family history of hyperlipidemia or cardiovascular disease.

Safety Fourth

2008-07-03T10:04:48-05:00

Have a happy Independence Day! Drive safely. Think safety at the pool. (Didja know pools kill far, far more children in the U.S. than handguns?! True dat.)