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Is it me, or is this Internet's version of crack cocaine? I just got on it for the first time, and now it's five hours later and I can't stop. 

You know who I blame?  My pusher friends.  You know who you are.

I may be 60 years late on this, but...

Don't the rules of Hay's "Production Code" (i.e., why Hollywood movies from the 1940s to the 1960s were all G-rated) violate Shakespeare and the Bible? 

From Wikipedia:

The Production Code enumerated three "General Principles":

1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

Specific restrictions were spelled out as "Particular Applications" of these principles:

• Nudity and suggestive dances were prohibited.
• The ridicule of religion was forbidden, and ministers of religion were not to be represented as comic characters or villains.
• The depiction of illegal drug use was forbidden, as well as the use of liquor, "when not required by the plot or for proper characterization."
• Methods of crime (e.g. safe-cracking, arson, smuggling) were not to be explicitly presented.
• References to alleged "sex perversion" (such as homosexuality) and venereal disease were forbidden, as were depictions of childbirth.
• The language section banned various words and phrases that were considered to be offensive.
• Murder scenes had to be filmed in a way that would discourage imitations in real life, and brutal killings could not be shown in detail.
• "Revenge in modern times" was not to be justified.
• The sanctity of marriage and the home had to be upheld.
• "Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing."
• Adultery and illicit sex, although recognized as sometimes necessary to the plot, could not be explicit or justified and were not supposed to be presented as an attractive option.
• Portrayals of miscegenation were forbidden.
• "Scenes of Passion" were not to be introduced when not essential to the plot.
• "Excessive and lustful kissing" was to be avoided, along with any other treatment that might "stimulate the lower and baser element."
• The flag of the United States was to be treated respectfully, and the people and history of other nations were to be presented "fairly."
• "Vulgarity," defined as "low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects" must be treated within the "subject to the dictates of good taste."
• Capital punishment, "third-degree methods," cruelty to children and animals, prostitution and surgical operations were to be handled with similar sensitivity.

More tea is more good

BBC is carrying another study that says tea is good for you (reversing the conventional wisdom from a week ago)...so good, in fact, it's better than water.  Here are the benefits:

• It doesn't really dehydrate you (even a strong cup of coffee gives you a net gain of water, even if it's slight).
• It has flavenoids, which are supposedly some magic healing substance we're supposed to be gobbling up.
• The researchers "found clear evidence that drinking three to four cups of tea a day can cut the chances of having a heart attack" and possibly cancer (you still, can't, apparently, have milk in it and still get these benefits).
• It gives "protection against tooth plaque and potentially tooth decay, plus bone strengthening" because it has fluoride.  (The article doesn't mention that tea can stain your teeth, though--or rather, the plaque on your teeth, which it apparently doesn't get rid of fast enough.  And presumably it doesn't even begin to be good for teeth if you put sugar in it.)
• It can block iron at mealtimes, which is bad for anemics...but wait, really really good for me and the millions of other people who have HHC.
• Also, the researchers recommend 6-8 cups (not glasses) of fluid per day, which, they emphasize, can include tea.  As a person who weighs about as much as a bread box, I find this a much more rational recommendation that the usual one we get in the US, which is that a 300lb man and I should have the same fluid intake.

So, to sum up: tea without milk and sugar is probably good for you, or at least it doesn't hurt.  Thanks to BBC for keeping us informed on this highly important topic.  If I were a CNN-reader, I'd still be trying to choke down half a gallon of water every day.

PS. BBC also has valuable coverage of the debate on how the make the perfect cup of tea between the Royal Society of Chemistry and George Orwell.  Quick summary: chemists like their sugar, but Orwell states tea should be strong, bitter, and never, ever, from China.

Devil's Breath

This is a really disturbing story: a native Columbian drug that can make you do anything you're told, without any memory of it later. (A half-hour documentary on VBS.tv.)