It’s amazing what you discover when you type “blood” and “recipe” into Google. I did it with regard to the “Eat Right for Your Blood Type” theory, thinking my semi-annual diet thoughts.

I got all kinds of stuff I wasn’t expecting.

www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/blood/blood.html and www.halloween-website.com/fake_blood.htm   Will actually provide recipes for fake blood if you’re filming your own horror flick.  Useful to know when those nice people with pamphlets ring the doorbell and you want to answer a la Carrie, perhaps with the optional butcher knife in hand.

http://www.shades-of-night.com/painneck/blood.html offers a variety of recipes for consumption, including mint blood and chocolate blood. Sounds even better than snacking on the gals at the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory.

http://www.angelfire.com/home/darkrealms/recipes.html has a few recipes I recognize from historical cookery that contain actual blood, like blood pudding. After all, when you were butchering your own animals, you didn’t waste a single thing. That seems more respectful than the current factory processes. This site also has some mixed drink recipes (suitably red) that look worth exploring.

And, of course, there was what I was actually looking for: www.dadamo.com/typebase4/recipes.htm  FWIW, a lot of people scoff at the Blood Type diets, but I find following mine actually works pretty well.

This is just too cool.

The Australian child protection organization Bravehearts is collecting local ghost stories as part of a fundraising effort. Kids and fireside tales belong together.  I can’t think of a better way of putting the resident spooks to work. It’s kind of neat to think that maybe there IS a way to help out from beyond the grave.

Got to   http://www.bravehearts.org.au/media_releases.ews and click on the June 23 press release for the official word.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367642,00.html

Last month, Fox news reported that the gurus in Silicon Valley are working on a number of projects around what they call renewable petroleum.  The basis of this new industry is using genetically-altered bacteria to consume agriculture waste and transform it into crude oil.  This seemed so much like a hoax, I hunted around for more sources and, sure enough, there are other reports about this sort of thing. It’s not a joke.

The good news is that this would turn a finite into a renewable resource, thus relieving considerable economic pressure.  The bad news is that this doesn’t motivate the Powers That Be to get busy with non-carbon-producing forms of energy. Still, you have to hand it to these folks for coming up with an innovative idea. Oil-producing bacteria wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind when pondering the energy crisis.

Of course, these are tech guys. They don’t live in the real world. Anyone familiar with school children knows that germs are not containable.  Ever.  

These bugs eat organic material. The world is one big organic cookie jar. Well-fed bacteria reproduce. I hope these tech guys are familiar with your basic horror film, because the results of this equation look very black and slimy.  I do not want to become part of an oil patch before my time.

Given the option, I would prefer a more showy apocalypse. Something drier, with gargoyles.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25423465/

This one is interesting.

In a 2002 trial in Texas, a woman sued her church for physical injuries and psychological damage sustained when she was subjected to an exorcism at the age of 17.

A week ago, the Texas Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, threw out the jury award.  The details of this decision are in the article.

If I understand this situation correctly, exorcists may rest assured that they can carry out their work unfettered by any consideration of human rights legislation, at least in Texas.

An interesting article on the healing properties of moonlight:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/features/the-lunatic-fringe-is-moonlight-the-miracle-cure-854991.html

The author describes a gizmo called the Interstellar Light Collector located in the Sonoran desert outside of Tucson. Essentially, it uses mirrors to concentrate and direct moonlight. The machine has been used to offer alternative medical therapies, among other things, with positive anecdotal results.

Yes, my instinctive distrust of snake-oil salespersons kicked in when I read this, but on the other hand, why couldn’t there be something to it?  After all, we know all about Seasonal Affective Disorder and how lack of full-spectrum light causes depression. Moonlight isn’t necessarily going to cure a patient—and yet it might do something.

So, in high enough concentrations, would moonlight act differently than sunlight, candlelight, or the average light bulb?  As I recall from grade five science class, moonlight is actually reflected sunlight and, poetry aside, would probably act just like its larger cousin. Except …

That would leave the whacky effects of the full moon solely caused by its gravitational pull.  Gravity may cause the tides, but can it wholly account for the increased traffic in emergency rooms, police stations, and psychiatric wards during a few nights of the month?  Who knows. I’ve never seen a satisfactory explanation for what is a very real phenomenon, but I’ve seen the spike in nuttiness first-hand. It’s there. It’s not urban legend.

And then there’s that whole moon/fertility thing. I have long believed there is a deep connection between PMS and the legends of the loup-garoux.

Anyway, that’s all very informative, but now for the really important question:  Does super-concentrated moonlight leave tanning lines?

The Demon Lord of Kitty Badness has discovered how to open cupboard doors. Which close with a bonk as soon as he lets them go. Repeatedly. At four a.m.  

So I stumble into the kitchen to wring his fuzzy neck and discover he’s bowling with muffins.  Glad to know my baking is so entertaining.

It was the perfect ending to day in which a) my iPod dumped all my music b) I spent six hours at the computer trying to convince a demon and a vampire to kiss (what, like they have a right to be fussy?) and c) the reference book I wanted turned out to be $358 used.

On the upside, it is only a 2.5 day work week. I could get used to that, if I could keep the whole paycheque ….