Juice glasses with sol
BTC Elements is an amazing online retailer featuring recycled and sustainably produced goods from ethically managed companies. These glasses are from 100% reclaimed Sol beer bottles.
The producers of this glassware take ordinary glass bottles, headed for the landfill and transform them into stylish, unique goblets and tumblers. The metamorphosis of these bottles turns them into useful, recycled glassware. The top of the bottle is flared, narrowed, twisted, and then separated from the bottom of the bottle. Using this procedure, the upper portion is transformed into an elegant goblet, while the remaining lower portion is a sturdy and faithful tumbler. The frosting detail is achieved from environmentally friendly sandblasting rather than acid etching. The company began production in South Africa, and due to international demand, now operates a facility in the USA.
The G-Shot
Can’t find it? Wanna make it bigger?
Designer Vagina G-Spot Amplification (DVGSA) is available to women in California who want to enlarge their g-spot in order to make it easier to find and, hopefully, enhance pleasure in the bedroom.
For $1,850, collagen is injected into the g-spot while the woman is under local anesthesia and is only as painful as a pinprick. The g-spot will reportedly remain swollen for four months.
Into what other body parts can we possibly inject collagen?
Daily calorie and nutrient needs
I know I have posted a link to Nutritiondata.com before, but it continues to impress me.
There is tool called the “Daily Needs Calculator”. Enter in your sex, age, height, weight, and daily level of activity, and it spits out your daily calorie needs, as well as your recommended nutrient minimums. If you are a woman, there is additional information for pregnancy and lactation requirements.
This is what it displayed for me:
When I clicked on Vitamin A, it took me to a list of foods that provide the most. (Broccoli, apparently.)
The Cupcake Dialogues
I just read this article by Geneen Roth in the April issue of Prevention magazine. You can also read it on their website. I found it quite helpful; I’ve been obsessing about chocolate cake lately, and not in the normal “I’d like something sweet” way. It’s more like “I’ll knock down an old lady to get to it if you tell me it’s vegan”. Anyway, this is a worthy read.
I’ve been thinking about chocolate cake recently. To be precise, I’ve been thinking about what happens when a piece of bittersweet flourless Chocolate Decadence Cake arrives at a table where a few friends and I have agreed to share the dense, sweet dessert. Eyes light up. Glints of mischief appear on people’s faces. Oohs and aahs are exclaimed. The whole environment becomes vibrant, joyous, and thrillingly alive.
The waitress puts the cake down in the middle of the table, and for a moment, there is a feeling of reverence, of hushed silence, as if we were all experiencing a holy event. Forks are lifted. Eyes are cast down. Breathing stops.
Will it taste as divine as it looks? Will it be as good as the last chocolate cake we ate–or the first? Can we get a fork in there fast enough to procure a satisfying morsel or will our beloved friends take such big bites that there will be none left?
In The House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne wrote that for Winnie the Pooh, “Although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.”
Pooh might not have known what it’s called, but I do. It’s called desire. It’s called anticipation. It’s called wanting–and if we let ourselves feel it, have it, and love it for its own sake, we set ourselves free.
Wanting versus Having
I realize that’s a radical statement–if you let yourself feel the depth of your wanting, you will set yourself free–but after 27 years of working with compulsive eaters, I’ve gotten the hang of what works and what doesn’t.
Norman Foster’s gherkin
They’re calling it a “gherkin”. It’s officially open now, and I can’t imagine driving through London without a chuckle. Despite it’s slightly ridiculous (phallic) appearance, it’s quite a breakthrough in green building design.
From Wired:
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a great big penis on the skyline. OK, not quite, but Londoners have dubbed architect Norman Foster’s revolutionary 40-floor addition to their horizon the Erotic Gherkin. A better name might be the Jolly Green Giant, because Foster’s controversial tower – the second tallest building in London – is stacked with breakthrough eco-friendly features. Insurance giant Swiss Re will spend three years and a reported $2 billion, um, erecting it, and expects to move in this winter. What’s it like to be in a pickle? Take a tour.
Disgusting
From Yahoo News: House Moves to Strip Food Warning Labels
The House voted Wednesday to strip many warnings from food labels, potentially affecting alerts about arsenic in bottled water, lead in candy and allergy-causing sulfites, among others.
Pushed by food companies seeking uniform labels across state lines, the bill would prevent states from adding food warnings that go beyond federal law. States could petition the Food and Drug Administration to add extra warnings, under the bill.
Lawmakers approved the bill on a 283-139 vote. Supporters expect a Senate version of the bill to be introduced soon.
“This bill is going to overturn 200 state laws that protect our food supply,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. “Why are we doing that? What’s wrong with our system of federalism?”
The bill’s supporters argue that consumers deserve the same warnings on supermarket shelves across the country. The bill would allow a state to seek a nationwide warning from FDA.
“We ought to do it in all 50 states,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. “Chicken grown in Louisiana is going to end up on a plate in Michigan.”
Rogers mentioned a warning his own state about allergy-causing sulfites: “If they’re bad for Michigan citizens, I think they’re bad in all of the other 49 states,” he said.
Nationwide, as many as 200 state laws or regulations could be affected, according to the Congressional Budget Office. They include warnings about lead and alcohol in candy, arsenic in bottled water and many others.
The government would spend at least $100 million to answer petitions for tougher state rules, according to CBO.
Celebrity worth celebrating
I love when normal people become famous and stay normal. Example? Tony Hawk..skating god.
Page 82 of the November 2005 issue of Spin Magazine is an interview with Tony.
Spin: Do you ever thank the gods for giving you the last name Hawk?
TH: “You know what? ‘Tony Hawk’ was easily rhymed with ‘bony cock’. So it never seemed like a blessing at all.”
I love him.
Vegetable Love
I plan on buying two, maybe three of these books.
There was a time when a new Barbara Kafka books generated a loud foodie buzz. Ms. Kafka, a contemporary of the late James Beard, specializes in thorough, weighty books that her followers devour like Marcona almonds. Her tomes on roasting and microwaving brought new fans to each method.
Her latest is Vegetable Love, with nearly 700 pages of recipes, tips and techniques. This book was meticulously researched; a Cook’s Guide tells, for example, how much a small, medium and large turnip should weigh, and how many cups of diced turnip that would be both raw and cooked.
The only pictures are small and printed in forest-green ink – disappointing in a book that aims to educate.
The real value is the 750 recipes for everything from carrot bread to Asian-Flavored Red Kuri Puree.
Many are classics, while others are dishes of her own invention. From the too-much category: Pickled Samphire. Samphire, she writes, isn’t a seaweed but could be mistaken for same.
That’s what makes this book classic Kafka. It’s packed with Easter eggs for the reader intrepid enough to slog through stuff that looks like seaweed.
From The Dallas Morning News – Feb. 22, 2006
Nature’s Supergrain
It’s called quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) and if you haven’t tried it and are bored with the usual brown rice routine, you should head to the nearest Whole Foods. This tiny grain-like seed was called “The Mother Grain” by ancient Incans. A bonus: it cooks in 15 minutes.
From Whole Health MD:
Nutritionally, quinoa might be considered a supergrain–although it is not really a grain, but the seed of a leafy plant that’s distantly related to spinach. Quinoa has excellent reserves of protein, and unlike other grains, is not missing the amino acid lysine, so the protein is more complete (a trait it shares with other “non-true” grains such as buckwheat and amaranth). The World Health Organization has rated the quality of protein in quinoa at least equivalent to that in milk. Quinoa offers more iron than other grains and contains high levels of potassium and riboflavin, as well as other B vitamins: B6, niacin, and thiamin. It is also a good source of magnesium, zinc, copper, and manganese, and has some folate (folic acid).
If Batman were more innovative
These guys are not your typical pot heads.
From WTVF Nashville:
From the outside, the house looks like a beautiful vacation home, but investigators say it was just a prop and what it concealed is right out [of] the movies.
More than 1,000 marijuana plants were grown deep underground.
The house was built on top of the natural cave, but investigators say no one lived there. It wasn’t even furnished. But inside the house there is a secret passageway into the cave.
Read the rest here
Vegans: The real enemy
From Boing Boing:
Department of Homeland Security: ever-vigilant against vegan menace
A vegan who picketed a ham store was surveilled by a Homeland Security spook, who arrested her for taking down his license-plate number. Tax-dollars well-spent. Nation well-defended. Once every person with a nonstandard dietary preference has been imprisoned, I’m sure we’ll be able to leave our shoes on in the airport again.
Magic sheets
When I make the bed, sometimes it’s like I’m a magician.
New kicks for vegan shoe lovers
It’s hot. It’s sexy. And no one had to die to make it possible.
Matt & Nat, a Montreal-based company specializing in quality handbags and accessories, has launched a new line of shoes. The edgy fashion group runs under the direction of founder Inder Bedi, a strict vegetarian and environmentalist, and his business partner Manny Kohli, vegetarian and “staunch yoga practitioner”. The company, (known also as Via Vegan), has gained international attention for designing quality leather-like products for vegans. They are so high quality that Matt & Nat has garnered the devotion of non-vegans who appreciate the style, durability and versatility of the products.
The company logo is beautiful and original; of a man and woman holding hands. “the logo is the symbol of a boy and girl, and represents balance, like yin and yang”, says Inder, “the positivity message corresponds to my own personal beliefs and how to incorporate them into the world of fashion; it is now part of our corporate future”.
Many goods from Matt & Nat are stamped with the positivity message :
choose life choose positivity
choose the golden rule
choose to be at peace with
yourself choose salvation
chosissez de faire une différence
choose to make a difference
scegliete de fare una diferenza
choose to be different choose to
be a rebel choose to be funky
choose to be yourself choose
to create a fashion statement
Burning Man Cupcakes
From the Burning Man festival in Nevada. This photo and a short description can be found in the current issue of Psychology Today magazine.
Everything is allowed except money and commerce.
“Meth mouth” and other advice to dentists
Lithium, muriatic and sulfuric acids, ether, red phosphorus and lye – key ingredients in Meth manufacturing – are all corrosive and will cause skin burns even when used properly. When a person smokes Meth, these substances are heated, vaporized and swirl throughout the user’s mouth. They irritate and burn the sensitive skin inside the mouth, create sores and lead to infection. Chronic Meth smokers have teeth rotted to the gum line from the continuous affect of the vapors on tooth enamel.
If you notice that someone is tweaking, be careful how you handle the situation. Keep in mind these six safety tips for approaching a tweaker:
1. Keep your distance. Coming too close can be perceived as threatening.
2. No bright lights. The tweaker is paranoid and bright lights may cause them to react violently.
3. Slow your speech, lower your voice.
4. Slow your movements. The tweaker is paranoid and may misunderstand your movements.
5. Keep your hands visible, or they may feel threatened and become violent.
6. Keep the tweaker talking. A tweaker who falls silent can be extremely dangerous. Silence often means that his paranoid thoughts have taken over reality, and anyone present can become part of the tweaker’s paranoid delusions.
Analyze your food
The caloric ratio of broccoli
The caloric ratio of a McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with cheese
Nutritiondata.com is a fabulous user-friendly website that connects ordinary people with detailed nutrition data for thousands of foods. Choose any food you can imagine (even fast foods from major chains) and the site will tell you the positives and the negatives.
There is an option to list all the ingredients in a meal for a complete nutritional breakdown — including calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and more. If your meal is lacking a particular vitamin or mineral, the site suggests other complimentary food sources.
You can also utilize a BMI calculator, estimate calories burned, and a nutrition glossary, and search for foods that meet specific dietary needs such as “low fat, high fiber”.
Are you truly nonjudgmental?
Susan Mrosek is an amazing artist, and her cards are quirky and offer a fresh perspective. Her brand is Pondering Pool.
The Nutrient-Weight Conflabulation
This is an excerpt from Eat to Live, by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. He is making a point about the USDA’s labeling system to make meat and dairy products sound healthier. Fat is reported as a percentage of weight, not calories. As an example, one teaspoon of butter (containing 100 calories) mixed in a glass of hot water would be 98% fat free, by weight, using the USDA’s methods.
Nutrient-weight ratios hide how nutrient-deficient processed food is and make animal-source food not look so fatty. Could this be why the food industry and the USDA chose this method? Could it be a conspiracy to have consumers not realize what they are really eating?
For example, a Burger King bacon double cheeseburger is clearly not a low-fat food. If we calculate its percentage of fat by weight and include the ketchup and the bun, we can accurately state that it is only 18 percent fat (over 80 percent fat-free). However, as a percentage of calories it is 54 percent fat, and the hamburger patty alone is 68 percent fat. McDonald’s McLean burger was advertised a few years back as 91 percent fat-free using the same numbers trick, when in fact 49 percent of its calories came from fat.
Your minimum payments are about to increase
Many people will receive a shock when they open their credit card statements in January — more than usual.
The minimum payments on credit cards are going up in January 2006, from (on average) 2% to 4%.
In April 2005, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requested banks to increase the minimum payments on credit cards. Many banks have already made the change, while others will be doing so shortly. The change should be seen on all credit cards by early 2006.
This change is supposed to help people get out of debt faster. However, there will be some obvious initial negative impact. If you typically pay for Christmas with a credit card, and then carry the balance, you may want to rethink your spending habits.
Read the full story here.
Safe Sex Dress
There are no mixed signals from the lady who wears this dress.
Outliving Atkins
Donald Watson, the founder of veganism, died last month at 95 years old. His rather amusing obituary can be found at the Times Online.
Watson never took medications and was rarely ever ill. His longevity was not genetic; both his parents were in poor health and did not live long lives. Watson’s prescription for a healthy, lengthy life is obvious. The vegan diet refuses all animal meats and animal products, and welcomes fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, which protect against cancers and heart disease. How do we know it works? The founder just died at 95 years old, without ever experiencing cancers or taking heart medications.
On the other side of the spectrum, Dr. Atkins, of the once popular Atkins diet, died a much publicized death in April, 2003 at 72 years old. Atkins was the father of the low carb, high protein diet and advocated eating meats and cheeses instead of grains and fruits because he believed the carbohydrates in these healthy foods were making America fat.
At Atkins’ death, he weighed 258 pounds and had a history of heart disease. There is much controversy over his death, because the official cause was a head injury.
Controversy and speculation aside, the founder of the vegan diet died a healthy man at 95, and the founder of the meat/dairy-centric diet died with heart complications at 72.
Follow the White Rabbit
Some facts about animal testing, from the Animal Protection Institute:
1. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission do not require animal testing for cosmetics or household products.
2. Sufficient existing safety data, as well as in vitro (test tube) alternatives make animal testing for cosmetics and household products unnecessary.
3. Because mice and rats are excluded from the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), the actual number of animals used in product testing is unreported and unknown. It has been estimated that as many as 100 million mice are used in U.S. laboratories every year.
4. Common animal tests currently used for cosmetics and household products include the Draize eye irritancy test, oral toxicity tests, and skin irritancy tests.
5. Animals used in testing are most usually purchased from specialized breeding facilities. However, they may also be taken from the wild or acquired from animal shelters (through a practice known as “pound seizure”).
6. Animals used in product testing most commonly include guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, rats, and dogs. Animal subjects can also include cats, ferrets, birds, and nonhuman primates, to name a few.
7. Claims about animal testing on packaging and labels of cosmetics and household products are not regulated. Statements such as “not tested on animals” or “cruelty-free” can be deceptive, and require further inquiry.
8. Shop with confidence and compassion by only purchasing products from companies approved by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) – the Leaping Bunny program. This is the only international standard that ensures that both products and ingredients did not involve new animal testing.
9. Animal testing can occur anywhere within the manufacturing process, including final (or finished) products, ingredient suppliers, associated manufacturers, and contract testing laboratories.
10. Animal testing for cosmetics has been banned in a number of European Union (EU) countries and a complete EU-wide ban is on the way.
Click here for a list of products that are not tested on animals
Racist Ideologies
From my Sociology textbook:
Any racial or ethnic group can use racist ideologies to explain their own or another group’s behavior. One example of a racist ideology is the hypothesis offered by former Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates to explain why so many blacks have died from restraining chokeholds: their “veins and arteries do not open up as fast as they do on normal people” (John Gregory Dunne, 1991. “Law and in Los Angeles.” New York Review of Books)
Calcium without the mustache
Calcium is not only found in milk. It seems that the propaganda that has assaulted the American public has succeeded in making most of us believe that we will get osteoporosis if we don’t drink our milk.
This information does not come from an extremist group with an animal rights agenda, but from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, one of many sources supplying data of this sort.
The most healthful calcium sources are green leafy vegetables and legumes, or “greens and beans” for short. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard, and other greens are loaded with highly absorbable calcium and a host of other healthful nutrients. The exception is spinach, which contains a large amount of calcium but tends to hold onto it very tenaciously, so that you will absorb less of it.
Beans are humble foods, and you might not know that they are loaded with calcium. There is more than 100 milligrams of calcium in a plate of baked beans. If you prefer chickpeas, tofu, or other bean or bean products, you will find plenty of calcium there, as well. These foods also contain magnesium, which your body uses along with calcium to build bones.
Consumption vs. Freedom
A severly overweight family member was eating a second helping of dinner one night while we were at my mother’s house. She had loaded her plate with fried chicken, Velveeta Shells and Cheese, mashed potatoes with butter and gravy, and would later enjoy a large slice of pie. As she talked over dinner, I could see her partially chewed food, because her mouth was full. I noticed that at no time during the conversation did she fully finish one bite before proceeding to the next. The view inside her mouth was sort of a tan color, because all the offerings on her plate were being mashed into one constantly evolving mass that never seemed to disappear.
Worse than the view of the food, was the sound of her voice. Her garbled speech was accented by occasional grunting and coughing. I could no longer hear what she was saying, because I was focused on the sounds her body was making. Her throat was protesting, but her fork seemed to be on auto pilot and never stopped to rest.
Consumed with consuming, she was lost. I could no longer hear her voice, and her face was distorted with bulging cheeks and watery eyes.
I get the feeling that this is not an isolated incident. Is this the direction of health in America? Who is really hiding inside the distorted bodies of the 21% of Americans who are obese? Who could they be, if they were not crippled by their disease? What more could they enjoy? And what more could they taste, if they were not shoveling food into their bellies mindlessly and without joy?
Our culture has taught us that to consume is to be American and free. In my opinion, consumption creates Americans who are shackled to their vices, without voices of their own, and hardly free.
