It's all just a little too convenient. According to every source on Japanese cuisine I've ever consulted, the single most unpalatable food to non-natives is Natto. As it happens, a recent Japanese study reported by Reuters has uncovered a new vitamin - pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) - which is found at high concentrations in, you guessed it, Natto. It sounds like a government sponsored ad campaign to me, if only because "PQQ" looks a little too much like an emoticon to not be geared toward the Hamtaro crowd.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German company said on Thursday it wants to market a new condom to improve men's sexual performance by numbing the penis to prevent premature ejaculation.

The condom, which would carry thin film of anaesthetic on its inner lining, has yet to win regulatory approval.

"Men tend to get turned on more quickly than women," a spokesman for Cologne-based firm Condomi told Reuters. "Our condom will even up the odds by numbing the man's sensitive regions -- but not the whole body like when you're drunk." (Dude)

Experimental use of Jarvis products on human subjects reopens study into human sexuality.

Did I mention: budgies.

Big News: Anti-Mass is Real. Bang goes my job!
Yeah very funny, but Weekly Universe has a better collection of links than the Big Dance List.

And now: budgies.

Ned Gulley, aka Paracelsus has moved his blog, Paracelsus Rambles, over to Moveable Type, which allows readers to comment on his posts. Now that I've added some of my own input, I think it was Shaw who said, "[Blog Comments] are like a dose of the Clap: at first there is pleasure, and then a pain in the dong." Or was that Wilde?

As long as I'm blogging about blogging someone else's blog, here a link to the wonderful world of Ganguro: otherwise attractive, Japanese women dressing up as otherwise unattractive, crossdressing Western men dressed up as otherwise attractive, 70's Go-Go-Dancing women. Kind of Art imitates Art imitates Art...

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OK, so that got old fast. Before clearing out my bookmarks and e-mails, some news: I started a new post-doctoral fellowship in January working with Dr. J. William Harbour on uveal melanoma - a cancer of the eye. Unfortunately, the lab's website is more than a little outdated; although, the lab will be physically moving to a new space in July, and we're all hoping to revise everything then. For some light reading on the research I have inherited, check out the lab's most recent publication: "Distinct mechanisms for regulating the tumor suppressor and anti-apoptotic functions of Rb" available in preprint version from the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Alleluia, the blog is risen indeed!

After 3 months of FTP errors, Industry!® is back online. Now I just have to calm down long enough to add some real content.