The Inquisitive Skink

This Bamboo Taxi Van runs on coconut biodiesel fuel. Looks so pretty and fun for a trip around town. Picture and article are at Fast Company.

While in the U.P. I asked for directions from the dimestore clerk (they still have a dime store in Crystal Falls!) on how to get to th St. Vincent DePaul store - the equivalent to a Goodwill store here. She told me to go down 2 blocks to the ice cream shop. Went outside looking down the street ........no ice cream shop in sight. That's cuz it really is the sausage shop. Is it just me, or is that an odd combination or what? This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. has won a patent for a method of extracting oil from the tiny seeds of cranberries. This news makes me want to go out and buy a bag of cranberries and just take a look at those seeds....pretty tiny if I remember correctly. It will take an awful lot of berries to come up with enough oil with therapeutic value, but Ocean Spray is wise to come up with a product that uses the left over mash left from squeezing out all that juice. The patent claims the extracted oil can be used for “treating or reducing the occurrence of breast cancer,” among other diseases. This is a pretty powerful claim, and from what I have read all research is definitely in the preliminary stage. The patent claims the use of the oil for its anticancer, hypocholesterolemic, antithrombotic, antioxidizing, antiatherogenic, antiinflammatory, and immunoregulatory properties. I am already a big believer in the use of grapefruit seed extract and I think it makes sense that seeds would be powerh...

http://www.diseaseproof.com/ archives/healthy-food-soy- compound-and-bone-building. html Direct quote: After two years, those taking the soy product had better bone mineral density than those taking placebo. "[Even] after one year, there was a clear difference in the women who got the genistein," said Steven Wilson, a biostatistician at National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, and a co-author of the study, published June 19 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and the University of Messina, Italy. Genistein, an isoflavone phytoestrogen, is found abundantly in soybean products. Experts who study it hope it can build bone without the adverse side effects -- such as increased risk of heart disease and certain cancers -- associated with hormone replacement therapy. Published ahead of printed in the journal Fertility and Sterility , researchers reviewed the findings of 15 studies and found despite th...