chronology is fundamentally real

[the_new_lemon]

So it's approximately half an hour into the last year of the first decade of the second millennium after the birth of Christ. To mark the occasion, the people in the neighborhood are setting off amateur fireworks. I'm the only one in the house who is awake, with the exception of a half-empty bottle of scotch and some misbehaving cats

Comments

[my_wits_end]

What? It's the first year of the second decade.

[the_new_lemon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero#Third_millennium.

[my_wits_end]

Oh sure, and next you're going to tell me that bacteria can survive in the stomach. :P

[the_new_lemon]

Oh, I would never tell you that, but you would probably try to trick me into saying it.

[my_wits_end]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori

[the_new_lemon]

Does that have anything to do with bacteria that aid in the digestion of food?

[my_wits_end]

Well, as far as I know H. pylori does not aid in digestion of food, but in humans maybe you are thinking of E. coli which produce vitamin K in the lower digestive tract? Or maybe you are thinking of the bacteria that break down cellulose in ruminants?

[the_new_lemon]

I am thinking of probiotic bacteria such as those who make their home in delicious yogurt.

[my_wits_end]

I know what you mean.

"Protection against Ulcers

Helicobater pylori the bacterium responsible for most ulcers, can be shut down by yogurt, suggests a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In this study, for six weeks, 48 adult volunteers infected with H. pylori ate yogurt containing the probiotic bacteria Lactobaciullus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis twice daily after a meal, while 11 others received a milk placebo. After eight weeks, subjects were given the C-urea breath test, which measures the amount of urease, an enzyme used by H.pylori to allow it to penetrate and infect the stomach lining. In those receiving the yogurt containing probiotics, H.pylori activity was effectively suppressed." http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=124

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15321816

[the_new_lemon]

Identical twins born a decade apart.

[my_wits_end]

The comments are hilarious.

This decade does not end until December 31, 2010. How dumb are our journalists? For the decade to have ended now, is like being one year old the day of your birth. Do the math and don't start at January 1, 2000 because that is not the beginning of this decade. Go back to day 1, January 1, 0000. The first decade ended December 1, 0010. It's easy.

Huh? Haha.