Algae Fuelled

I saw this article about the Japanese research into another alternative fuel resource.  It's fairly interesting and promising at first sight.  Then you think how this would affect the ecosystem.

If the main resource comes from the sea which makes up a majority of the earth's surface, how would that ultimately affect not just the terrestrial landscape but also the atmosphere?  I can picture the seas drying up, our marine life deteriorating at an alarming rate and even greater stratospheric ozone depletion.

So, the Japanese will look into creating industrialised algae fields.  From the article, we would be talking about serious geographic coverage in order to fuel the world's supply.  So what?  We are going to be one giant algae plantation?  Again, this has serious implications for our ecosystem.

And from the human race's checkered track record, it is highly likely that the natural ocean beds will be ultimately stripped naked to harvest the algae, regardless of the legal and industrialised algae plants.

Maybe high-rise hydroponics algae manufacturing plants?  Something that will not impact our already beleaguered ecosystem?  Surely Mother Nature has had more than her share of nips, tucks and "enhancements" that we should leave her alone before more parts of her falls off like Michael Jackson's nose?

Still, it would be good that we have alternative sources of fuel but when would this end?  We rape and totally destroy one resource after another to fuel our never-ending greed?  Is that what being human is about?

Ah, I think I should go give my brain a rest and have some seaweed soup ...

From The Times

June 14, 2008

Japanese scientists create diesel-producing algae

Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent

Under the gleam of blinding lamps, engulfed by banks of angrily frothing flasks, Makoto Watanabe is plotting a slimy, lurid-green revolution. He has spent his life in search of a species of algae that efficiently “sweats” crude oil, and has finally found it.

Now, exploiting the previously unrecognised power of pondlife, Professor Watanabe dreams of transforming Japan from a voracious energy importer into an oil-exporting nation to rival any member of Opec.

The professor has given himself a decade to effect this seemingly implausible conversion: Japan’s export-led economics have always been shaped by their near 100 per cent dependence on foreign energy. In the present world economic climate, those economics are looking especially fragile.

“I believe I can change Japan within five years,” the Professor told The Times from his laboratory in Tsukuba University. “A couple of years after that, we start changing the world.”

The algae, he believes, will spearhead enormous changes to the way that energy is produced and to the explosive geopolitics that have developed around the global thirst for fossil fuels. They could also overturn the current debate on corn and sugar-based biofuels. It is madness, he says, for humanity to pursue sources of energy that compete with its own stomachs when there is a far purer source that does not sitting in a test tube in his laboratory.

Professor Watanabe’s vision arises from the extraordinary properties of the Botryococcus braunii algae: give the microscopic green strands enough light – and plenty of carbon dioxide – and they excrete oil. The tiny globules of oil that form on the surface of the algae can be easily harvested and then refined using the same “cracking” technologies with which the oil industry now converts crude into everything from jet fuel to plastics.

The Japanese Government has supplied him with hefty grants to work on ways of industrialising the algae cultures. The professor admits that there is much work to be done to bring the financial and environmental costs of creating algae oilfields down to reasonable levels: to meet Japan’s current oil needs would require an algae-filled paddyfield the size of Yorkshire.

But – in laboratory conditions at least – the powers of Botryococcus braunii are astonishing. A field of corn, when converted into biofuel ethanol, may produce about 0.2 tonnes of oil equivalent per hectare. Rapeseed may generate around 1.2 tonnes. Micro algae can theoretically produce between 50 and 140 tonnes using the same plot of land.

The discovery of Botryococcus braunii and its precious excretions has taken years. The oil-producing properties of Botryococcus algae have been known for decades, but the volume and quality varies between species.

There remain, however, substantial obstacles before cars and aircraft are all running on algae. Although field tests have proved that there is little technical difficulty in breeding or harvesting the algae, the sums do not add up. A prospective algae-breeding oil concern would either have to invest billions of dollars in expensive breeder tanks – at a cost of around three times what the oil would sell for on the international market over the lifetime of the tanks – or find an enormous expanse of well-irrigated land in a country where labour can be bought very cheaply. It is for this reason that Professor Watanabe believes the world’s first algae farms will be constructed in countries such as Indonesia or Vietnam.

Man Or Mouse - Sperm Them Not

Boys, you know when your parents told you to stop wanking yourself or you might go blind? Well, now you may be pleased to know that your sperm may cure the world.

On the other hand, you are apparently not much more than a mouse ...

Oh, how many ways can you milk this ... isn't it rather apt that this research comes from animal health? 

Scientists look to sperm to power nanobots
Flagellum could potentially provide locomotion, early research suggests
By Bryn Nelson
ColumnistMSNBC contributor
ET Jan. 2, 2008

A tiny assembly line that powers the whip-like tail of sperm could be harnessed to send future nanobots or other tiny medical devices zooming around the human body, according to a preliminary research report.

Borrowing a page from reproductive biology, the proof-of-principle study offers a peek at how nanotechnology might overcome the problem of supplying energy to the envisioned menagerie of nanobots, implants and “smart” probes aimed at releasing disease-fighting drugs, monitoring enzymes and performing other medical roles within a patient’s body.

To be biologically compatible, these hypothetical devices would need to be formed not from tiny springs and nuts and bolts but from biomedical components. “At that scale, biology provides the best functional motors,” said Alexander Travis, an assistant professor of reproductive biology at Cornell University’s Baker Institute for animal Health. “But how do you power these kinds of structures?”

One potential answer has come from the tail, or flagellum, that propels human sperm at a rate of about 7 inches per hour. (In comparison, if a 6-foot man swam the equivalent number of body lengths in an hour, his tally of 3.7 miles would smash the American long-distance swimming record.)

To supply the energy for its locomotion, a sperm cell’s tail is essentially studded with tiny assembly lines that produce a high-energy compound called ATP. Officially known as adenosine triphosphate, ATP has been called the universal energy “currency” of living cells because of its ability to store, transfer and release energy. When a power source is needed to run processes within a cell — say, bending and flexing a sperm’s flagellum — ATP releases its reserves through a process that results in its decay to a simpler chemical form.

The most efficient producers of ATP are mitochondria, the cell’s miniature power plants. Sperm tails contain a spiraling helix of these mitochondria within the area closest to the sperm’s head. On the remaining three-quarters of its tail, however, the cell uses an approach based on a pathway called glycolysis, in which sugar is broken down into several components, including high-energy ATP molecules.

Proteins normally require the freedom to twist, bend or change shape to be functional. Research by Travis and Cornell colleague Chinatsu Mukai, together with other scientists, suggests that in sperm, the 10 proteins involved in glycolysis have been tweaked so they stick to a solid scaffold-like support running the length of the tail while still maintaining their activity. Travis and Mukai borrowed that approach to re-jigger the proteins so they stuck instead to the surface of a tiny gold chip covered with nickel ions. For their research, the scientists used mouse sperm proteins as templates for the synthesized versions. (Human and mouse sperm proteins are closely related.){NOW, DON'T YOU WISH YOU'D KNOWN I WAS GOING TO HIGHLIGHT THIS SO YOU DID NOT HAVE TO READ THE ABOVE?}

After tethering the first two proteins in the pathway to the chip, the researchers found that both did well in breaking down glucose and handing the end-product to the next protein. Compared to versions lacking a surface-targeting domain and “just randomly glommed” onto a structural support, the engineered proteins performed especially well. Most of the remaining assembly line has yet to be similarly tweaked, but Travis and Mukai’s work suggests it should be possible. “We believe it is one of the first, if not the first, example of building a biological pathway on a manmade surface,” Travis said. The collaborators have a provisional patent for the ATP-making strategy, though no commercial partners as of yet.

Like a vehicle running on gasoline, the sperm’s power production emits waste. Fortunately, its tail harbors a transport protein that acts like a tailpipe to kick out waste and keep the production cycle going. Future nanodevices, Travis said, could include this transporter to similarly maintain their energy production. Maximizing the pathway’s efficiency could prove important for future strategies, such as filling tiny delivery capsules known as liposomes with cancer-fighting drugs and studding their outsides with antibodies that would direct the medical packets to attack specific tumor cells. Under that scenario, a steady supply of ATP could power the pumps charged with dispensing the medication at a certain rate.

Other scientists are likewise mining the emerging field of nanotechnology and its largely unrealized potential for delivering high-impact devices in ultra-small dimensions. Recent studies, for example, have harnessed nanotubes, nanodiamonds and magnetic nanoparticles for drug delivery (but not yet within humans). One group has created a tiny nickel-based rod that spins almost like a tiny propeller as it uses ATP. Another team, led by Carlo Montemagno at the University of Cincinnati, is working on a technique that makes ATP from light photons.

As a veterinarian, Travis said his interest in wildlife conservation got him into reproductive biology and research aimed at fighting infertility and exploring birth control methods. Through efforts by his lab and others, he discovered that one of the most abundant proteins in mammalian sperm, hexokinase, is also the first enzyme in the glycolysis assembly line on its tail. That observation led to questions about the protein’s role, location and, eventually, about whether it and its assembly line partners might be useful for other applications. 

Cornell University’s emphasis on nanotechnology “just kind of clicked” with his reproductive biology research, Travis said. He and Mukai presented the initial results from that scientific pairing in early December at the American Society for Cell Biology’s annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C., and are now preparing the study for publication.

Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti, a nanotechnology researcher and distinguished professor with the La Jolla, Calif.-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research, said he was intrigued by the approach and considered it a valid first step. “It sounds good to me — that’s the kind of thing that the field needs,” he said. “Having some sort of way of being able to power nanodevices is the number one bottleneck in constructing really clever devices.”

The safety of nanotechnology devices has yet to be fully resolved. Ruoslahti cautioned that sperm-inspired ATP generators would need to overcome the likelihood that the altered proteins would be recognized as foreign by the body’s immune system, provoking a strong immune response. Even so, he pointed out that some nanoparticles potentially serving as the basis for savvy devices of the future are already in use, including magnetic iron oxide particles used for advanced body imaging. “These are not pie-in-the-sky technologies,” Ruoslahti said. “They’re already with us.”


You don't say?

A reader sent a comment about Michael Jackson in a white lab jacket trying to er ... work out some samples from mice, singing Ben ... so that led me to re-work the lyrics, with a mental image of MJ with white lab jacket and one white glove giving a hand (ahem) to Ben .

Ben, the two of us can see no more
We've both wanked what they were looking for
With a bot to call my own
I'll never be alone
And you, my friend, can't see
You've wanked it all from me
(you've wanked it all from me)

Ben, you're always wanking here and there
You feel yourself up just everywhere
If you ever look behind
And don't like what you find (oh, I am so not even going there)

There, flagellum, you should know
You've got a place to go
(you've got a place to go)

I used to say "eye" and "pee"
Now it's "grasp", now it's "whee!"
I used to say "eye" and "pee"
Now it's "grasp", now it's "whee!"
Ben, most people would spurm you away

I ain't fisting to a word they say
They don't whip-tail as you do
I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd wank again
If they had a friend like Ben
(a friend) Like Ben
(like Ben) Like Ben

Alright, no need to call the RSPCA or the white with the white jacket.  No, not MJ!  I'll be good now, I promise!

Karma, Karma, Karma Itsutra

Some really cool visuals from Jialat.com today.  I found the IT Karma Sutra totally hilarious.  Oh, the memories it brings back.

Especially the one of the office sys admin guys who were so useless, we would only call them in at the last resort when we wanted them to cart away old hardware.  

However, the entire organisation went through a supposed hardware upgrade so out came the sys admins guys.  We all vacated our stations so they could do the damage and went for coffee and smokes, knowing that the end was neigh for our poor systems.

When I returned to my desk, I saw a couple of screws lying around and the chassis of my desktop was alarmingly askew.  So I called up sys admins and told them, "Oy, I know you guys are a few screws loose but seriously, there are about 8 screws for the chassis and now there are 3 left on my desk.  Ya think you missed something, mates?"

They were right embarrassed but I rethought things and told them not to come and started reassembling my system myself.  It was safer that way.

Sumo Washing

This totally, totally cracked me up.  Love the ad and would much prefer to watch this than suffer through a Jessica Simpson massacre video.

Besides, I always like watching sumo wrestling.

Tag Clouds Are Falling On My Brand

Have you ever wondered if you are the only one who thinks Time Inc is boring or if Taco Bells is dirty dog food?

Well, you can check if your opinion is validated by others just by checking with Brand Tags.

This website collates the opinion of visitors and provides a tag cloud of keywords that supposedly defines the brand.  Of course, this is assuming you do not get a load of crazies who go in there just to give ludicrous one-word misinformation.

Still, it is an extremely interesting tool to gauge public opinion.  

Here's one example of what you would see for Time Inc.

And for the Beijing Olympics 2008, it currently shows as 

These are just some snap shots of the tag clouds, which should grow exponentially as the site gains more awareness.  However, it would be more interesting if statistical figures were attached to the tag clouds.  But then, that would not be free as that kind of media study typically is a real money churner.

Ah well ...

If You Were my Husband

I love this hilarious, but later disproved, exchange between Winston Churchill and Lady Astor.The words may not be exact but the riposte certainly hits the mark.

Lady Astor to the famous misogynist. "If you were my husband, I would put arsenic in your tea."  To which the man replied, "If I were your husband, madam, I would drink it."

Classic.

While surfing along, I came across a series of photographs on creative ways on how to kill your husband.  I thought that was rather serendipitous as just that afternoon, I was talking to a girlfriend who was terribly furious at her husband.

Her back had given out on her during a weekend holiday and apparently the hubby was at a complete loss during the hours of her incapacity and could not and did not take care of her.  To compound the "sin", he was just as helpless when they returned home. 

Her back and hip were hurting quite badly and she found herself unable to undertake the daily housework and preparation of meals.  So she asked her hubby if he could handle some of the chores till she recovered and the man pleaded weariness from work and errands he had to run.  And yet he refused to order out or go out for dinner, demanding that she still prepared his meals.

Our girl, who is no wilting violet, was furious and there has been a barrage of sarky little comments and evil looks cast at the clueless spouse.

Anyway, she was complaining violently over the phone and I could hear all the pent-up ire.  So when I found these pictures, I decided it would be a bad idea to post them to her.  

I do not want her hubby's demise to be on my blog.

Voice of God

Had lunch with an old friend who bemoaned the rising prices of property in a time when they suddenly found themselves with three properties on hand.

Having been a hausfrau for a long time, the prospect of having to return to the workforce just to manage the mortgages on all three properties is a horrifying one with much dramatic rolling of eyes, grimaces and woeful quivering of lips.

In other words, she was having a ball lamenting her fate.

She's a funny kid with a droll sense of humour and a self-professed love of doing nothing but shopping and lunching.

Their current house is next to a church that is frequented by the yuppies and bourgeoisie. Every Saturday and Sunday, the cars line up right up to their gates, both illegally and legally parked as their owners enter en mass into the house of God to hear His word.

Usually, the devotees would drive their poshest cars to church even if they live within 15 easy walking minutes' distance. It is an opportunity to display their wealth and positions.

We made snarky gasps of amazement that they did not have chauffeured cars as that would eliminate the need for parking. Trust the nouveau riche to be clueless.

Anyway, her husband is a Catholic but she is a forcibly converted one who is more comfortable in being spiritual than religious. She occasionally goes to church with him under duress and with the promise of a nice prezzie after.

So, having to deal with a battalion of cars blocking their gate and street when they leave for Sunday brunch is a reprehensible crime to her.

She recounted how she would call the police to remove the vehicles as a Sunday routine.

I commented that it was a trite bit unChristianly, driving her into a tirade against th equally hellish behaviour in blocking their way in and out of their own estate.

I jokingly said she should just take a loud speaker into the church. Get her husband to tome in his deep, authoritarian voice,

"Hark, would the driver of vehicle no. XXXX please remove your car from the gates of heaven. Amen."

Which would prompt some to declare they heard the voice of God and others to start jotting down the numbers so they could buy lottery.

She piped in that some might even burst into hallelujahs.

It was two rather hysterical women who rolled out of the restaurant for some coffee and cakes.

I am sure we are driving straight to hell after this.

Chicken Fillets in a Bag

I have truly surreal conversations sometimes. There we were, 10 women in a quiet studio late at night. The class had barely started when a student put her hand up to ask a question.

"How do you do that thing with your chest?"

"I beg your pardon????"

It turned out that quite a few of them had been struggling with isolating their pectoral muscles from their shoulders. We spent the next 15-20 minutes working on the mechanisms and drills when the same inquisitive student suddenly burst out, "It's because we have no chests, isn't it?" in frustration.

After assuring her that it was not the case, as blokes can do that and most of them did not have boobs, they started an assault of really personal questions.

"Are you wearing a bra?"

"What kind of bra do you wear?"
"How come you can do that if you are not wearing a push-up or paddings?"

"You don't ever wear padded bras, do you?"

"What kind of bras should we wear in order to do that?"

"How come the water bra I bought does not help me do the chest pops you do?"

Next thing you knew, we were having a tutorial not about dance techniques but about falsies.

Now, most of these ladies are mature, slightly conservative and very, very Asian. A few of them are medical doctors and we immediately dismissed the idea of breast implants as way too drastic an option.

I am not sure why they thought I would be able to shed light on headlights augmentation. Most of them had seen me in the altogether when we had to go to a Japanese bath together once. However, I was so nonplussed by the turn of the conversation that I started imparting some third-hand information on falsies.

Those gel-like fillets are better options if you stuff them into a push-up bra.

Why not the water bras?

Don't think those work as water is a live element and it can go in different direction with a buoyancy not seen in breastuses terra-firma, I think.

Oh. What about having serious sponge paddings?

I suppose those could work but my friends tell me that they do not bounce as naturally.

Your friends? Dancers too? What do they use?

Oh, my drag queen friends. They use condoms.

WHAT????

Er ...

I now had to explain my friends' unusual falsies experimentations. 

Apparently, water in balloons do not work. They burst too easily and you look like you were leaking milk from one breast. Two if you are lucky. Or not ...

Ziploc bags with water are weird-shaped and pokey in the wrong places.

Sponge paddings made your falsies look too hard and stand at attention in a bad way.

Chicken fillets are the safest option but the queens do not like them as much as you need some form of breasts for them to stick on to. So since most of them do not have moobs ... they prefer the next option.

Water-filled condoms apparently look the most realistic, do not burst as easily and feel the most natural. Don't ask. I didn't.

You wear these by stuffing them into those granny bras or full-figured bras and double-siding the edges of the bra to your skin so the condoms do not jump up and plaster across someone's face.

This works on queens and so far has not been tested on chicks.

We were in hysterics by the time I disclosed the last bit of information and much time was spent discussed the type of condoms that will be most resilient and hardy.

I am awaiting the test results from these bunch of ladies at some point.

Playing with Your Food

Food art.  Brilliant.

Easter Bunnies Go Wiggle Wiggle

Just saw this over at Circus Hour.  

So, here's another way to celebrate Easter then.

Zombie

I like body art.  Within reason.

While I love the art involved in the sinuous lines of ink or the jagged edginess of piercings, there is a line of pain I find unable to transcend.

I am OK with pain for myself but find it hard to watch someone else.  When getting injections of piercings, I like to keep an eye on the proceedings.  I think it is a control thing for me.  But I cannot even watch ER or any medical programme where people are getting jabbed or cut without feeling faint and ill.

So, it was with some degree of queasiness but total admiration and appreciation that I read this interview and viewed the photos.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Zombie ... a walking, talking piece of living art with his entire head tattoed with the visage of a skull and exposed brain and a body suit in progress.

Interview with BMEzine with excerpts ad verbatim as Zombie requested that the answers be left in his original text so we can hear his true voice.  Respect, mate.

BME: How did your interest start, and when did you get your first tattoo?

Well, at first... I wanted to do the real deal... But I couldn’t peel my skin off... So I had to fake it.

Got my first tattoo when I was sixteen — a puking one eyed zombie with cross bones on my upper arm. And after that I got the word zombie underneath it, in tribute to all that horror movie shit... and that’s how it started.

BME: By how many artist have you had work done?

Ten artists, little tattoos, and the body suit is one guy, Frank [at Derm FX Tattoo, Montreal, QC]. There’s a shitload left to my body suit — I still need instestines, more brains, and to finish the arms and the armpits and the legs ’nd shit.

BME: You’re kind of an internet celebrity — what do you think about it?

Not much, I don’t even own a computer. So fuck you assholes.

BME: Do you have any further projects in the works?

After my body suit I wanna start getting like Frankenstein bolts around my brain, get my eyes tattooed black, sharpen my teeth and shit like that.

BME: Facial tattoos are a big step from “regular” tattoo placement. How long had you thought it through before you started your facial tattoos?

Never really had to think about it... I’ve been white trash my whole life...

BME: How do people react and what do they say when they see you?

Depends who... Some people think I’m a joker... Some people don’t say anything... I get a lot more room on the bus though, so that’s cool...

BME: How many hours of tattooing has your head had?

I dont know, about twenty hours — neck was like nine or ten, back of my head one, brains six and face about three.

BME: Are you single?

Yes... Very single... I’m not very dependable... Girls cut into beer time.

BME: What did you family think about your transformation?

My mom told me, “You started it, you better finish it”... My little brother and sister think it’s cool but they don’t know it fucks you up.

BME: How does it “fuck you up”?

I never could be the manager at McDonalds, so I guess I’ll just have to settle doing porn.

BME: What’s the “next step” for you?

Once finished... Maybe get a desk job.

BME: Have these modifications changed you as a person?

Nah... I was already a little fucked in the head.

BME: So... finally... why?

Yo-G, living deads’ tha shit!

BME: Any last words?

Which way to the circus!!?!!

Hilarious.

Hacking The Good Book

In a recent post, I wrote about the interview Esquire did with George Clooney. 

Today, I read an article about a journalist called A J Jacobs who carried out an unusual experiment. The name caught my attention and it took me a few minutes before I remembered where I had heard it. It was the journalist who had interviewed Clooney.
Serendipity? 

My mind works in a rather strange pattern. It goes off on tangents and loves experiments based on the obscure. Therefore, Jacobs' decision to spend a whole year living out the doctrines of the bible, both Old and New Testaments, is wildly fascinating to me.

I would have loved to have documented, studied and analysed the results and findings from this experiment. Failing that, I look forward to obtaining a copy of his book, A Year of Living Biblically, to let my mind and imagination roam freely over this fascinating experimental terrain.

A J Jacobs: My year of playing it by the Book 
Last Updated: 12:02am GMT 12/03/2008The Telegraph

It seemed a simple idea. New Yorker A J Jacobs decided to follow the Bible to the letter for 12 months. But, reports Tom Leonard, his sins soon began to find him out.

The thicket of a beard has gone, the clothing is no longer checked minutely for mixed fibres, the wearer hasn't phoned an anti-gossiping counsellor for months.

Arnold Jacobs, possibly the only householder to have ever prompted a Jehovah's Witness to look nervously at his watch and mutter about getting home, has clearly readjusted to the norms of 21st-century life in Manhattan.

'When I stopped gossiping I stopped having negative thoughts'.

It is 18 months since he finished a year-long experiment - for a book that became a US bestseller - in which he attempted to follow the Bible as literally as possible.

Not just the obvious religious and moral imperatives about the Sabbath, murder and thy neighbour's ox, but the more obscure edicts like Deuteronomy 14:25 (to bind money to your hand) and Numbers 15:38 (to wear fringes on the corners of your garments).

He quickly realised he had bitten off more than he could chew. "I had no idea what I was getting into," he says. "I knew it would be challenging but I didn't know it would affect everything in my life - the way I talked, the way I ate, the way I thought, the way I touched my wife Julie. It was totally overwhelming."

Seeing him now, sitting in his beautiful corner apartment overlooking Central Park, one might sympathise with the evangelical Christian he mentions in the book who refused to get involved with the experiment, predicting it would be little more than a protracted stunt unless Jacobs actually invited God into his life.

But Jacobs, who previously wrote a book about reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, insists he approached the Bible project with an open mind and serious - or at least sometimes serious - intent.

He says he became interested in religion after the birth of his first child and also wanted to discover whether America's fundamentalist Christians were following the good book as literally as they claimed.

But well-intentioned curiosity aside, there is a rather obvious flaw to a professed Jewish agnostic New Yorker, and a journalist on a glossy men's magazine to boot, attempting to follow the Bible. How could he hope to succeed if he didn't really believe?

The answer, he insists, is that he did end up believing. Well, sort of. Anyway, having first read both Old and New Testaments, he amassed a list of more than 700 dos and don'ts.
His initial resolve to observe them all soon turned out to be ridiculously over-optimistic so he picked some and discarded others. He later had to redefine the challenge even further, concentrating on certain rules on certain days.

Jacobs, 40, also recruited an advisory board of well-disposed rabbis, priests and ministers. And then he got started. Two areas proved difficult right from the start, he says. "First was the challenge of tackling the little sins we commit every day... lying, coveting, gossiping.

In New York City, that's what we do 60 per cent of the day," he says. By day seven, he was censoring about a fifth of his sentences before he uttered them. He was particularly shocked at how accustomed he was to gossiping - the Bible calls it "evil tongue", he says - and speaking negatively about others.

"When I stopped gossiping, I stopped having negative thoughts about people. It was one of the bigger lessons of the year - how much your behaviour affects your thoughts."

He insists that this even held true when it came to the challenge - for him - of praying. By the end of the year, he says he was praying so much that he was believing in God. When he stopped praying, he stopped believing. "As they say in business, fake it 'til you make it. You do it and then you start to feel it."

On that particular issue of gossiping, Jacobs discovered an emergency phoneline run by Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn which "talks down" callers feeling the urge to gossip.

As with the Jewish professional mixed-fibre checker who came round with a microscope to examine his wardrobe (Deuteronomy 22:11 says: "Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together"), Jacobs was repeatedly surprised to find that others were observing the most arcane injunctions.

He discovered from the internet that he wasn't the only one looking to praise God on a 10-string harp. He also found an American evangelical Christian film-censoring service that edits anything remotely ungodly out of Hollywood releases.

The second problem area in his observance schedule, he says, was to follow rules that would nowadays get him arrested - stoning adulterers, sacrificing oxen, building a hut on the pavement. Not sacrificing his child to the pagan god Moab and not taking his wife's sister as a wife while the former was still alive were a cinch, he says.

Jacobs may not have got far with stoning - although he did lob gravel at a man sitting on a park bench who had admitted to adultery - but he persevered with not touching his wife, Julie, while she was menstruating.

This went down as well as can be expected. The ban extended to sitting in chairs she had used, prompting her at one point to ring him at work to say she had just sat on every seat and chair in the apartment.

Jacobs bought his own collapsible chair. Julie, who isn't religious either, says she still "felt like a leper". She adds: "When it comes down to it, the Bible is very sexist. It was written a long time ago and to follow it literally now is crazy."

Jacobs's liberal inclinations inevitably coloured what he chose to observe and how. Condemning homosexuality proved particularly galling. Rather conveniently, he found an evangelical gay preacher to convince him that Jesus would have no problem with a modern same-sex couple.

Fundamentalists talk disapprovingly of "cafeteria religions" whose adherents pick and choose what they observe, but Jacobs insists his experience shows it is impossible not to do this.

"It's about picking the right parts - about compassion, loving your neighbour and about the Ten Commandments, as opposed to the parts about homosexuality being a sin."

Meanwhile, he continued in his job as a writer on Esquire magazine, rooted though it is in appealing to feelings of lust, envy and covetousness.

His editor didn't make his mission any easier, at one point dispatching him to Hollywo

od to interview a particularly attractive but sexually frank young actress. "I had to say a lot of prayers that night," says Jacobs.

Jacobs also tried to understand the fundamentalists, visiting an Amish community, Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians. In the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses, they did the visiting.

Even with the Creationists - with whom he completely disagreed - he came away well disposed. And his book has a feelgood ending - some of the spirituality rubbed off.

"I began the year an agnostic and I finished it as what a minister friend called a 'reverent agnostic'," he says. "Whether or not there's a God, I now believe there's something to the idea of sacredness.

" Jacobs, who has been invited to speak to Christian and Jewish groups about his experience, says his life has been changed by the religious concept of gratitude.

"Now, instead of focusing on the three or four things that go wrong every day, I try to focus on the 200 things that went right and that I would usually not notice." Finally, he estimates he has cut down his coveting, gossiping and lying "by 40 per cent".
That sounds like just the wrong sort of boasting (James 4:16) but we shall let it pass.

I did a bit more research and found out that the 700 precepts he tried to follow included:

•Wear white. 

"It was like always being dressed for the semifinals at Wimbledon or a P. Diddy party."

•Wear a robe and sandals. 

"Reactions varied from raised eyebrows, to people crossing to the other side of the street, to those who thought I was a tourist attraction and took pictures."

•Herd sheep.

"It's very good for the ego. Sheep live up to stereotype — they're sheepish. It was a good entry-level job for patriarchs. First they were shepherds, and then they led people out of Israel."

•Eat crickets. 

"I chose to eat the chocolate-covered ones. They were crunchy."

I am surprised he managed to hang onto his job with the no lying, no gossiping adherence as that is all we do as journalists. I'm surprised he managed to hang onto his wife with the no touching ban. Not only that but he certainly lived out one of the precepts to the max ... that of be fruitful and multiply.  During the year of living biblically, his wife gave birth to twins.  Maybe God was watching out for him?