The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

“Now that we know hydrogen sulfide’s role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension,” said Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., a co-author of the study detailed in the Oct. 24th issue of the journal Science.

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Good News For Fans of Soy Products

HONG KONG (Reuters Life) – Scientists in Singapore may have found a way to reduce certain carbohydrates in soybeans that have long been blamed for flatulence.

At issue are two sugars in soy — raffinose and stachyose — that produce intestinal gas because they are indigestible.

For this reason, many consumers stay away from soy-based products despite their health benefits over dairy-based ones.

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Real-life priests become pop stars

You could call them New Clergymen on the Block: three Roman Catholic priests from Northern Ireland who on occasion swap their rosary beads for microphones and their parishes for studio time.

Fathers Eugene O’Hagan and Martin O’Hagan, who are brothers, and David Delargy have been in the priesthood for some 20 years. But they’ve been singing together since their early teens.

In February they recorded a demo in Belfast which they sent off — as Eugene O’Hagan puts it — to “the powers that be.” Sony BMG responded almost instantly with a very nice offering indeed, a record deal reportedly to the tune of somewhere north of $2 million.

The Priests’ debut album will be released on November 18 and was produced by Mike Hedges, known for his work with U2 and — ironically — Manic Street Preachers (who, of course, are not clergy but punky Welshmen). Some recording took place in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and the priests maintain they’d like some of the profits from their music endeavors donated to a charity of their choice.

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Missouri Man Shocked at Being Labeled N-Word on Store Receipt

A black couple from Missouri seek amends from clothing store Journeys after their son was given a receipt that said “dumb N-word” in capital letters.

Linda Slater said she’s both saddened and angry that it happened and “to know that racism is still alive.”

On Friday, her son Keith Slater, 22, bought a pair of loafer-style shoes from the Journeys at the Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kan., about a 30-minute drive from their home in Kansas City, Mo.

When he found a less expensive pair of similar shoes at a different store a short while later, however, he returned the first pair to Journeys the next day.

The clerk, whom Linda Slater described as a 20-something white woman, asked why he was returning the shoes and Keith Slater told her about the less expensive shoes he had bought.

It wasn’t until the family got home that he glanced at his receipt and saw the insult printed next to the line marked “Cust” for customer.

“Then I was like, ‘Nah, no way. It can’t say that,” Keith Slater, a junior at Missouri State University in Springfield, told ABCNews.com today. “I was shocked, ’cause I didn’t do anything for that to happen.”

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