Carrot, Turnip, Parsnip, the Nano-Dream of Economist & Bikers Alike

Fly fishing rods of the new biocomposite, curran - Scots Gaelic for carrot, are now available. Curran is made of resin mixed with nano-sized carrot fibres. The patent for it is here. CelluComp, Ltd. is the manufacturer. Curran exhibits faster damping and has a lower density, than carbon fibre, plus it's moldable.

Meanwhile, over on A Canadian Econoview, an economist's imagination runs wild over the possibilities of getting around in vehicles made of carrots and turnip, and the then potential need for a central carrot governing body and strategic carrot reserve. :) And on the UK site, Bike Biz, they are excited by the potential end of what they're calling a "carbon fibre famine", due to biocomposites made from assorted root vegetables which cellulose fibre could be made of to mix with the resin to form the curran nano-bio-composite. They have added parsnips to the other two veggies. I'd like to add the humble rutabaga to the potential list.

OTOH, this might be bad for world food prices of these comestibles. Look at what's happened to vanilla once the whole aromatherapy-based body product thing took off. The price has gone way up because the demand is so high.

Anti-freeze & Lead in Medicine, Plastic in the Pork Chops

A 7 page special from the New York Times on how diethylene glycol - aka antifreeze, is being substituted for glycerin in medicines and some food products.

This article mentions that vitamins from are adulterated with lead.

And where are these from? The same place as the melamine, cyanuric acid, (a pool stabilizer) and aminopterin laced pet foods and animal feed mixtures: China. Yes, China, supporter of Sudan, stealer of Tibet, harvester of shark fins from live sharks, and organs from live political prisoners and the religious - I'm with this Stoney Creek man who's decided to boycott Chinese goods; given all the toxins that are being purposely added to Chinese exports to make a profit, it's a sensible thing to do for one's own safety.

Here are some sites with information on why and how to boycott Chinese made goods and products.

"Buying the Dragon's Teeth" was published in 2004. It outlines the reasons to boycott.

U.S. State Department info on Organ Harvesting in China

Epoch Times list of all their reports on Trade in Organ Removal from Live Humans.

Boycott 'Made in China'

Don't Feed the Dragon Campaign

Organic Bees Not As Susceptible to Colony Collapse

Some beekeepers are reporting that their organic beehives are not suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder, which is decimating normal hives in North America. The speculation is that this is because of the absence of pesticide fumigation to combat the varroa mite, a parasite which has been attacting hives in North America for the last few years.

Here is a website about organic honey bees.

Melamine Used As Cake Additive: Chinese Chem. Plant Manager

"Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for animal feed," said Li Xiuping, a manager at Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical in Henan Province. "Melamine is mainly used in the chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes."

There you have it folks - from the International Herald Tribune. It's at the very bottom of the article. And the Washington Post has the revelation that before melamine there was urea being added, for the same reason - inflated and bogus protein content.

Melamine scrap is used in North America as an abrasive blast medium. Sonapa sells recycled plastics, including melamine scrap with formaldehyde. Here is there ad for "Type III – Thermoset Melamine Formaldehyde: Melamine is engineered for stripping the most difficult surfaces while providing an effective stripping rate. Melamine is the most aggressive plastic abrasive, offering an excellent range of stripping capabilities. Melamine can be used as a replacement for glass beads and other harsh abrasives."

In China, melamine scrap is mixed into soymeal, and sold to feedlots and farmers. A manager with Tai'an Yongfeng Feedmill Co. Ltd in the coastal province of Shandong says that "The chemical plant next to us used the melamine scrap as waste for landfill and built houses on it. Then they tore down the buildings to get the scrap once the price rose. It is a very popular business here. I know people have been mixing this since 1991."

One article I read spoke of an online market, Alibaba.com, where companies sell and buy chemicals and which is very big in China.

Latrines & Farmed Fish

The picture above is from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and shows a latrine situated over a fish pond, in China. The addition of manure and other waste materials like sewage, is a common practice in aquaculture - see Auburn University's online site about it with pictures.

The FAO recommends in this instructional guide to would-be freshwater fish farmers recommends that latrines be located at last 10 feet from fish ponds to avoid the fish being unsafe to eat.

the Chinese and Vietnamese are using latrine ponds full of human and other wastes to raise fish which they sell to North American and other markets for export.

Aplastic-anemia.org has this information about imported fish: "According to the Catfish Institute, most of the catfish from Vietnam are raised in floating cages in the Mekong River or in "latrine ponds" in provinces along the river. Slow moving currents during the dry season adversely affect cage-raised fish and the Mekong River is subject to pesticide contamination... "Latrine ponds are depressions that employ the Chinese system of channeling human and other waste into ponds used to raise fish."

China Adding Toxins On Purpose; Motive May Be Sinister

Melamine is a plastic. Aminopterin is a toxic folic acid analogue and a rat poison (banned, at least in North America). Cyanuric acid is a pool chemical.

None of them should be on anyone's menu. But now pigs, (see here also), as well as chicken and fish have been found to have been fed food containing contaminated feed grade grain products - all from China.

The FDA suspects that China is adding nitrogen-rich toxins DELIBERATELY to grain products to jack apparent protein contents and they have found there way into our food supplies. And not just our pets' food.

Peachy.

Scientists have found that combining melamine and cyanuric acid produces crystals like those found in the pets who died after eating the contaminated food. Here is another report about the chemical reaction.

"Our food-safety system is broken," Rosa L. DeLauro, Chair of the US House Subcommittee that funds the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture, told UP reporters in this Science Daily article on the tainted farmed fish.

She's hardly understating the problem.

Meanwhile over on the Huffington Post, David Goldstein says he's having a crisis of faith in the US FDA, which he terms the faith-based Dining system. Some interesting quotes on that site.

The plot is very thick at this point - the motive - sell inferior goods for a fattened profit margin to the gaijin: The International Herald Tribune is reporting that Chinese chemical producers say it's common knowledge that ... for years feed producers in China have quietly and secretly used cyanuric acid to cheat buyers of animal feed. Two of the chemical makers said that Chinese feed producers used cyanuric acid because it is even cheaper than melamine and is also high in nitrogen, enabling feed producers to artificially lift the protein reading of the feed.

Over a month ago when the pet food scandal first came to light, I held back from reporting what my gut and intuition knew to be true - that the toxins had been added on purpose. "Why would someone do that?" I wondered to myself. Also I had no hard evidence at that time - just a sneaking suspicion that since feed grains are eaten by more than just pets, the initial scandal was just the tip of the iceberg. I really truly wish I had been wrong. But no - the scandal keeps getting bigger and the plot has thickened and stinks considerably more than when I predicted it would get messy and ugly. It's not just wheat gluten, it's rice and corn and who knows what else in the Chinese grain department.

What are we feeding our animals? What are we feeding ourselves? Should we be trading with regimes that are unprincipalled enough to sell us garbage?

And why is ANYONE in North America buying wheat form the Chinese who have enough trouble feeding themselves, when Canada, the United States, Russia and Ukrainian are the largest wheat producers in the world??

Is it just all about money? Maybe not! There may be VERY SINISTER REASON the Chinese governemnt is allowing this if the expatriate Chinese journalists over at Epoch Times are correct. China has imprisoned several of the news outlet's reporters.

According to two speeches by CCP's former Defense Minister, Chi Haotian and published by the Epoch Times, China's government plans to exterminate US citizens. Here is the other article "The War Is Approaching Us". Chi was responsible for and in operational command during the Tianammen Square massacres in the 1990's. The Epoch Times is run by people who do a lot of investigative work in China. I hope they are wrong but my gut says this article is true. The country is strapped for space, they have annexed Tibet. They would stand to gain a lot of land and resources if they could take over North America. The Chinese government is not without a plausible motive to follow through on Chi's Mein Kampf-esque ideas.

A Very Fly Show - part 1 of the Best of Let X = X

From May 14th to June 4th, the station is installing new on-air studios. This means our production studios will be used for on air, as well as for on-air guests. To avoid a production nightmare as everyone scurries for time slots around live shows (gah!) I decided we would air 4 weeks of some of the best of our shows from the last year.

Let X = X, every Wednesdays, you can listen via the web, 9:15 am-9:30 am. Right after the Garden Spot News. Just click the link on the side bar! You will need Real Player but you can download it at our live webcast link.

So this week, tune in and enjoy our special re-broadcast this week where we look at some biological links to food and forensics to a new patented method of preventing listeria in deli meats, to why a beloved (to some) food was banned by at least one government, and the lowdown on cheese and bacon and ham skippers and hoppers.

After breakfast biology on CKCU-FM!

PVC; Small Portable Homes

Two short items of possible interest.

As I was deep in writing and research mode for the show unearthing stuff about two chemicals that have made the news (because of environmental contamination, as well as occupational safety (at least in one case)), I tripped over thee following information about another chemical you may have heard of: PVC.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) expose over at the Houston Chronicle. Not sure what sort of cleanup has happened in the intervening almost decade. Wikipedia has some referenced information on the compound and its uses.

In completely unrelated news, I stumbled upon this today: a portable dwelling that claims to be part Yurt, part Dome, the "Yome".
Then again, there is the more traditional looking tiny home from, natch, Tumbleweed Tiny Homes.