Hops, one of the three basic ingredients of beer along with water and barley, contains a chemical compound called humulone, which can help the human body fight the virus that causes the common cold in adults, according to a report by the news agency Agence-France Presse. The same virus also can cause bronchitis and pneumonia in children. With vaccination for these illnesses has yet to be found, the study by Japanese beverage giant Sapporo says that beer could prove a unique way of curbing infection.

One of the coolest things about Japan is being able to buy beer and whiskey from vending machines in train stations.

Nikon D90

The Obamadon

xkcd mentions the mirror writing puzzle in the hover text for today's comic. That this is a puzzle has always puzzled me.

The text in a mirror is backwards because you've rotated the book 180 degrees in order to present the text to the mirror. It's backwards because you've turned it backwards.

And, there's no mirror needed to demonstrate what's going on. Take a single piece of paper, write "HI" in big black letters and hold it up to a light so that the text is facing the light (as if the light was a mirror). In other words, show the text to the light. Given a bright enough light and thin enough paper, you'll see through the paper and you'll see that the "Hi" is reversed.

It's not vertically flipped because you didn't flip the paper vertically when you held it to the light.

Cornering the donkey cheese market

Talking heads
Stop making sense

Best band
Best concert Movie
Best movie

One
Both
All

That's the cover of the Special Edition soundtrack CD.

2000 Nudes Per Second (SFW)

Died today. He was 91.

The Chatham Co NC WTC Memorial has a piece of I-beam from the WTC. Apparently.

So that was odd.

Unicorns exist and look no further than an ancient burial site in North Korea for proof, according to the latest bit of fantastic news to emerge from the secretive dictatorship.