A few health-related newsflashes for you….

First up… downing a cup of coffee after a long night out does more than cure the hangover… it also helps prevent liver damage.

Which works well if you were drinking beer the night before, which you must do since it may prevent prostate cancer.  To the bar!

Last but not least, scientists are trying to track down the bird flu in Alaska.  That is interesting in and of itself, but I wanted to call attention to a food item that is mentioned in this article:

More than 300 Barrow residents show up at the outdoor community festival, called an apugauti, for a bowl of duck soup and some mikigaq, a tangy black viscous mixture of fermented whale blood, blubber and meat that the children gobble up like candy. The elderly in fur-trimmed parkas and youngsters in hooded sweatshirts sit at long tables at a windy community playground.

The words "tangy," "black," "viscous," "fermented," "whale," "blood" and "blubber" should NEVER appear together.  Ever.  Please.

However, I foolishly went searching for more information and a Google search came up with this page.  This page explained mikigaq as being "whale meat taken from the head, neck, and tongue, perhaps with some maktak (whale blubber with skin attached) thrown in, and allowed to ferment for two weeks in the whale’s own blood."

I am going to stop now before you all claw your eyeballs out.