Quickies
Skepchick Quickies, 11.3
- Mythbuster and geek mom Kari Byron on how to get kids interested in science.
- “Drongos in the Kalahari mimic the alarm calls of other species in order to steal food, scientists have found.”Bird-mimics steal meerkats’ food. (From cerebus40.)
- In Berkeley, three Orthodox Jews run a medical-marijuana collective selling a religiously inspired cannabis cream. (From Rosaire.)
- A charming song about quarks.
Orthodox Jews, who, like the late kabbalistic rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, believe that cannabis was one of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil described in the Torah.
Not that it would matter to them, but hasn’t this been refuted? Something about a translation error? I just did a quick search and couldn’t come up with it so now I’m curious.
*sigh*
@ZenMonkey: From later in the article, Yitzchok Adlerstein, a professor of Jewish law and ethics at Loyola University who is Orthodox:
He also wisely says that he would like to see the lotion’s efficacy backed up by Western medical research. Smart Rabbi is smart.
@Garbledina: Problem with backing it up with research, at least in the US: MJ is still a schedule 1, meaning that you aren’t even supposed to experiment with it.
“Up down strange charm top bottom…” now it’s stuck in my head. Quick, someone sing ‘Come Sail Away’ by Styx.
Best quark song ever!
@Garbledina: Yeah, I do know there’s at least a debate or controversy over it. For some reason I thought there had been a definitive “no” but maybe I was high on lotion at the time.