The "Passion of Cruise" and the Devil’s Work?

Best quote of the day, from “Miers Finds Support from Evangelical Churches” on NPR‘s All Things Considered:

“I think that she [Miers] is a wonderful person, and I just think that when opposition comes, it’s a lot of times, it’s just the work of the devil.” -Audrey McKee

On the subject of religion (or “religion”), a satirical Web site has come under fire from the Church of Scientology, even though the Web site indicates that it’s a satire and its main target is Tom Cruise. Now the site’s creator, who lives in New Zealand, says he’s being harassed by phone, e-mail and visits to his home. His site, ScienTOMogy.info, is worth a visit.

ScienTOMogy.info refers to another Web site, which I vaguely remember for its involvement in another conflict with the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology either pressured or sued Google into removing the site, which is critical of Scientology, from its listings. I’ve only browsed the site, Operation Clambake-The Inner Secrets of Scientology, on a superficial level, but it’s pretty interesting.

I Never Knew …

that a compost bin could have such personality (from the NYC WasteLe$$ Web site on recycling).

This little guy (a pile of mulch), also from the NYC WasteLe$$ site, looks slightly terrifying. At least the city’s trying.

These images remind me of this article, titled “Graphic Artist Carefully Assigns Ethnicities to Anthropomorphic Recyclables,” from The Onion.

The News Today

I’m baffled by this article on IMDB, titled “Grace Horrified by Holloway Robbery.” Here’s an excerpt:

Josh Holloway’s Lost co-star Maggie Grace is horrified to learn of the actor getting robbed in his home, because she knows he only just completed work on the dream property. … And Grace, who learned of the incident during her current visit to New York City, knows just how much the home and vehicle mean to Holloway.

There’s a brief description of the robbery and an even longer quote from Grace about her reaction to the incident.

Either the article should have been about the robbery and about how Holloway feels, or the article should have mentioned that Holloway could not be reached for comment. Instead, the article ends up sounding like it’s trying too hard to make something (a robbery) out of nothing (comment from a person who did not witness the event and was not in the area at the time).

Maybe this was just an excuse to put up a portrait of Grace, who’s in a movie that came out the same day this article was posted?

On a lighter note, I saw a commercial for an upcoming episode of NOVAscienceNOW that will feature a segment on fish surgery (!). Incidentally, I just read about fish surgery in Herd on the Street: Animal Stories from The Wall Street Journal, which I picked out from the library today.

According to this 2002 Wall Street Journal article reprinted in the book, there are only 20 or so vets in the entire country who operate on pet fish. The number of such vets might have grown since then, as the reporter noted that demand for such services is rising as increasing numbers of people install backyard ponds with fish.

This Would Be for Me

I found John Williams’s article “Are Sudoku Support Groups on the Horizon?” quite entertaining and relevant. (You can get a password from Bugmenot.)

The Efficacy of Natural Remedies

I saw a report on the BBC about how honey is being used to treat “hospital infection ‘superbugs’ which are resistant to strong antibiotics.” I can’t access the original broadcast online because I’m not in the UK, but apparently the BBC first reported on this in a 2002 article. Here’s an excerpt:

They discovered the high sugar content slowed bacterial growth, while the honey’s texture acted as a seal against outside infection of wounds.

In its undiluted form, honey had the effect of killing off bacteria, which researchers believe could be linked to enzymes in the bees themselves or present in pollen.

I found this item interesting because I’ve been using honey lately for my severely chapped lips. Chapstick itself wasn’t working; it wasn’t until after I started smearing honey on my lips at night — a remedy that I read about online — that my lips began to heal. Another time, I had a case of poison ivy that refused to go away. It wasn’t until after I took a bath with baking soda that I started feeling better. Benadryl, calamine lotion, nothing had worked prior to that.

It makes me wonder what other natural remedies work perfectly well for our physical maladies — except our usual impulse is to purchase our relief in the form of a pill, cream or syrup. I’m sure there are manufactured products that are more effective and more convenient than the natural remedies.

At the same time, I wonder if the variety of products out there exists just so we as consumers come to believe all our problems can be solved by buying something. (And that goes as well for companies that specifically market “natural” remedies when a generic product would work just as well.)