Spherification

This is the culinary process used to form a gelatinous membrane around a frozen liquid and it is called spherification. The process consists of submerging a liquid with sodium alginate in a bath of calcium to form a sphere. I got tired of googling so I’ll just give a couple of examples here. Examples of products created with this process include faux caviar and bubble tea. I assumed bubble tea was carbonated tea but it isn't, it’s a milky tea flavored with tapioca pearls (bigger than the ones in the pudding). And faux caviar, little fake fish egg bubbles, can come in many flavors. I’ll bet less fishy tasting than the real stuff. Anyway this process of spherification is now being used to make edible water bottles. The water is contained in a clear flexible pouch that looks like a (breast implant to me) Chinese dumpling (to the creators). What’s left for them to figure out is how to reseal after puncturing the pouch to open but the project’s leader, Rodrigo García González, hopes the new edible water bottle may be an environmentally-friendly solution to the millions of plastic bottles that clog America's landfills each year. 

My Garden, A Place to Reflect

It’s almost the end of the month and it has been quite a month. Recent April’s showers storms have caused a lot of heart ache and devastation throughout our country’s heartland. Yesterday was the Holocaust Day of Remembrance, a time to remember those lost during one of the darkest, most inhumane moments in human history. My husband’s father, who we affectionately called Old Poppa and lived to the ripe old age of 98, was born this month too. He was a gardener at heart even in his old age, born to a family of sharecroppers in 1905 and he is the one that infected me with the gardening bug. At times of loss or times of reflection, a garden is a hopeful place and maybe that’s why we plant so many memorial ones. They help us remember that life does go on. My garden this year is low tech too, no wifi or cell phones, just the sounds of insects buzzing, the smell of freshly turned soil, and the warmth of the sun on my back. I like to look for seedlings first poking their heads up through the soil each spring. I’m impatient for that and return to the garden daily after sowing. I know germination and garden growing doesn't happen overnight, but I never fail to find a weed or two that need pulling. Yet the best part of this is finding contentment in the promise of green bean casserole, tomatoes for spaghetti sauce or salsa, and the buttery sweetness fresh corn on the cob that my garden brings, and the promise of life renewed.

Reversing Blindness

Scientists have figured out a way to reverse blindness in mice by growing light sensing cells (the kind found in the retina) from scratch in a lab and transplanting them into the eyes of the mice. These cells then matured and connected themselves to nerves that send visual signals to the brain. If this can be done successfully with human embryonic stem cells researchers believe that most forms of blindness (in humans) can be cured. Trials are being conducted in Marlborough Massachusetts by a company that specializes in stem cell trials, Advanced Cell Technology and though there are still technical issues being addressed, I am hopeful. Because of these studies done with mice researchers now believe photo-receptor loss (now considered irreversible) can be reversed, and this means blindness can be reversed in the future, even within my lifetime. 

Bad Kitty creates his own Landscape of Fear

Couple of things here, who is Bad Kitty and what is a Landscape of Fear, to begin.

Bad Kitty is a feral cat (that my sister feeds) who even though now neutered still strikes fear in the hearts of the rest of the neighborhood cats and even a few of the neighborhood dogs. He is big, he used to be an indiscriminant killer, and even his own offspring weren’t off limits. He recently lay down in a fire ant bed and even when covered with fire ants proceeded on unaffected. That’s how mean he is, or at least still appears to be.

A Landscape of Fear is a place where an intimidating predator changes and controls entire areas by simply instilling fear in their prey. An example of this is when wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park. Researchers found that wolves didn’t just kill elk, their presence (scent maybe) created a perpetual state of apprehension (fear) causing the elk to move into areas that provided more protection but less food. The result even without the elk being eaten by the wolves was a decline in elk population.

So to put this all together, I guess Bad Kitty isn’t so bad after all and not just because he’s been fixed, having him still around helps keep the population of others in check in other ways too. My sister thinks his motive when he swats or chases others away is just a misguided attempt at play. I think Bad Kitty is just creating and maintaining his very own landscape of fear.

Methane Madness in the Arctic

One of my husband’s favorite sayings is, there’s a methane to my madness, (he is usually referring to his own gaseous expulsions and blaming someone else) but I didn’t know until recently that there are billions of tons of methane trapped below the surface of the East Siberian Arctic ice shelf. Around ten million tons leak out from under the ice shelf every year. Methane gas is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent that carbon dioxide. If at any one time 50 billion tons were suddenly released global warming would fast forward 35 years and such a release could happen at any time. The negative effect is predicted loss of crops due to heat and drought especially in Africa, Asia, and South America and rising sea levels and worsening tropical storms. On the positive side, melting due to the methane release might improve access to minerals on the ocean floor, increased fishing, and ice-free shipping channels. And here I thought we had the methane problems figured out with farmers using the methane produced by cows to fuel their dairy farm machinery, but it seems that cows aren't our planet’s biggest methane challenge after all.

McD’s Getting Sued Again

This time it isn't over hot coffee spills, instead a disabled man and his service dog have a gripe against the super sized fast food giant. Robert Mingo, 52, who suffers from muscular dystrophy and a chronic back ailment, alleges that he encountered hostility and poor treatment during two separate visits to the McDonald's in August 2012 and May 2013. According his lawsuit, he was not allowed to eat in the in the designated dining area with his service dog and on another occasion refused service at the counter and drive thru. The employees and manager didn’t want to serve the disabled man with his dog at the counter and subsequently found the wheelchair inadequate as a drive thru vehicle. Mingo was then barred from the restaurant. Now Mingo is seeking unspecified damages and requirements that company employees be educated about the disabilities act. McD’s comments included that, “We do our best to provide a great customer experience to every customer.” In this case it seems like their best wasn't good enough. I have spent a good bit of time in McD’s using the free wifi when I visit St. Pete (no wifi at my home there) and have definitely noticed a shift in the demographics that frequent the fast food restaurant. The late night crowd and the early morning crowd are older (in my age category) and with the changes in decor, added flat screen TVs, and downsized play areas, it seems that McD’s is looking for a different vibe that might be more attractive to the more mature coffee drinking types. In my regular visits to the stores on 38^th and 62^nd Ave. North I have always been treated well (even though I only get a coffee and use the wifi) but I have never seen any disabled customers or service animals. I wonder how Mr. Mingo’s lawsuit will turn out. I’ll post an update here when I find out. 

Saving on Gas

So I’m giving driving my car a rest in hopes that the price of gas will go down. Instead I am using my other vehicle, my bicycle, to get around. Fortunately in St. Marys there are plenty of sidewalks and not much foot traffic. The sidewalk always seems like the safest place for me but I still hold that we need bike lanes or at least well marked alternative routes on and off the main drag (Highway 40) which has a good bit of automobile traffic. I saw several bicyclists sharing the road today and for the most part drivers were courteous, giving them plenty of room. I also found most drivers attentive as I crossed numerous intersections (in the crosswalks) from my house, the Navy Federal Credit Union, Walmart, and back, except for one lady in a van that was texting while driving. I got all my errands done in under two hours, a leisurely retiree pace including a stop at the Dollar Tree for new reading glasses ( I got 2 pairs, a red framed and a green) where I saw an old friend and took time for a little catch up chat. I smelled confederate jasmine growing along the roadside and saw the tide coming in as I crossed Dark Entry Creek. I scared a few vultures away from their armadillo roadkill feast but not for long as they were back at it again when I made my return trip. The sounds I enjoyed alternated between birdsong, car and truck engine noise, and the occasional squeaky protest of my bike’s suspension as I went over a bump or manhole cover. I do like riding my bike.