Beer ingredient may fight prostate cancer.  I guess I should drink more beer.  Darn.

“Drinking coffee may shield the liver from the worst ravages of alcohol, a study of more than 125,000 people suggests.  The risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver dropped with each cup of coffee they drank per day.”  I guess I should drink more coffee.  Double darn!

Philosophers’ Carnival #31 is available.  While many find philosophy both daunting and unnecessarily complex, this carnival always provides the best of human insight from the blogging community.

Grand Rounds Vol 2 No 38 is now available.  There’s quite a bit of excellent information from the medical blogosphere, from news to views to experiences.

A creature thought to have gone extinct 11 million years ago, the Laotian rock rat, has been seen, photographed, and caught on video in Central Laos.  What a remarkable find!

The NSA now intends to begin mining data from social networking sites like MySpace.com.  I mean, at this point, why not?  They’re mining everything else (phone calls, e-mails, IMs, faxes, general internet traffic, etc.).

What is only 10 inches (25 centimeters) wide, can crater a hole 46 feet (14 meters) wide and 10 feet (3 meters) deep, produces a flash lasting only 4/10ths of a second, and releases the explosive energy of 4 tons of TNT (17 billion joules of kinetic energy)?  It’s a meteoroid striking the moon on May 2, 2006.  They even have video of the event.

Did you know bacteria communicate and alter their behavior based on responses?  Awesome, dude!  That’s very cool.  [via Modulator]

Could you name the rarest phenomenon of them all?  Well, don’t feel bad; I didn’t know it either.  It’s called a circumhorizon arc, but rainbow of fire seems more appropriate.  Go look and you’ll see a piece of nature that is strikingly exquisite.

Carnival of the Vanities #195 contains the best of the blogosphere irrespective of topic.  It’s a great place to find compelling and creative works.