This 'n That Thursdays: Will Chocolate Go Extinct?

From Concept News Central

Please say it isn't so!  According to an article in Business Insider there is a good chance that suitable habitat for cacao plants will all but disappear by the year 2050, thanks to increasing temperatures and drier weather conditions.  Cacao trees only grow in rain forests within a limited latitudinal range, and most of the world's chocolate comes from just two African countries, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, which could no longer be suitable for cacao plants in just a few decades.  The trees may be able to grow at much higher elevations, but just imagine the impossibility of land owners trying to move their cacao plantations to land that they do not own, or the lag time needed to clear and prepare new land as well as get plants established and producing, not to mention the negative ecological impacts of such a move!

This dire prediction has worried chocolate producer Mars, Incorporated (maker of Snickers bars and M&Ms) enough that they are now in collaboration with scientists from The University of California Berkeley attempting to develop hardier cacao plants that will be able to survive future hotter and drier conditions in current plantation locations.  The company is investing $1 billion in a variety of ways to decrease their carbon footprint.  If the Berkeley scientists are successful in developing a hardier cacao tree, there will be no need to consider moving cacao plantations to land currently being used mainly for wildlife preservation.  New technology called CRISPR, known primarily for its potential to eliminate genetic diseases, is being used to genetically tweak the DNA of cacao plants (see a more simplified explanation of CRISPR here).

Basically, CRISPR is a form of genetic editing rather than genetic modification.  This technology has led to a whole new set of questions over the safety and advisability of tinkering with DNA, whether in humans or food crops, so even if it is possible to develop altered cacao plants it may be difficult to get growers and consumers to accept them.  As if the world does not have enough problems, now we have to worry about the possibility that one of our favorite comfort foods may be doomed to disappear!

Pod-laden cacao trees (from Confectionery News).

           

This 'n That Thursdays: Edible Spoons!

From The Hunger Site

I am all for supporting products that make our world a little more environmentally friendly, so when I saw an article about edible spoons as an alternative to the plastic throwaway versions given out by fast food establishments I was intrigued.  A company in India called Bakey's Foods began production of spoons that are edible and biodegradable in 2010.  The spoons come in plain, sweet, or savory flavors that can be selected to complement whatever food you happen to order.  They are made of various grains such as millet, rice, and wheat, but the primary ingredient is sorghum which is produced from millet.  Since millet is a very water-sparing crop it is much better for the environment than a grain like water-loving rice.

If you decide not to eat the spoon, it is completely biodegradable, unlike plastic cutlery which can remain in a landfill for centuries.  The company has plans to manufacture edible forks, chopsticks, and even salad bowls in the future.  Learn more about the company, its products, and the present and future goals of its founder in the YouTube video below.  Let's hope that these eco-friendly options become standard at fast food establishments in the near future so that we can reduce the amount of non-biodegradable trash in our landfills as soon as possible!

                

This 'n That Thursdays: Doggie DNA Tests

Maddie (left) and Ruby (right).

Have you ever gotten your pet DNA-tested?  After we adopted our unusual-looking (in a good way!) mixed breed dog Maddie, we decided to have her DNA analyzed to get some idea of just what those breeds might be.  We were guessing some sort of setter and hound mix, the latter most likely Beagle, because she has a hound face and ears plus short and stumpy Beagle-like legs, but a sort of long-haired coat and an especially long, plumy, curved tail that is definitely not hound-like.  We have never had a setter before, but thought she might have some English Setter in her:

From Northwoods Bird Dogs

Since we were having Maddie tested, we decided to get our terrier mix Ruby done as well.  We, and everyone else who has seen her, have always assumed that she is part Pit Bull:

From Wikipedia

However, her small delicate head, long and slender legs, and upright brushy tail all indicate some other breed(s) as well, one of which we thought might be a Rat Terrier (or "Feist" dog, as they are known locally):

From NCHuntAndFish

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This week I got our dogs' test results back, and we could not have been more surprised!  According to Maddie's results, she is likely mostly part Beagle, which was not unexpected.  However, the next most likely breed turned out to be the Chow Chow, and that really perplexed us, although it could explain the plumy tail, I guess.  She also showed traces of Parson (Jack) Russell Terrier and Rottweiler!  Hmmm!!!

Even more amazing were Ruby's results.  Her DNA test came back as likely mostly part Irish Setter!  This is for a dog that could not look and act less like an Irish Setter (Maddie is a much more plausible candidate, in our opinion!).  Next most likely is the Australian Cattle Dog, with a bit of Boston Terrier, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and Poodle thrown in!  Even if she does have DNA from each of these breeds, the fact that Pit Bull did not show up at all completely befuddles us! Ruby was a stray who followed me home one day.  We live in a rural Georgia county where Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes are extremely common, so the fact that no trace of this breed showed up in her results is confusing, to say the least.  Oh well, in the extremely unlikely event that we ever consider moving to an area that bans Pit Bulls, we can simply whip out her DNA test results and assure everyone that Ruby is just an Irish Setter mix in disguise!

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The test kit did warn that if dogs shared toys or other items, the cheek swabs used to run the DNA tests might have compromised results.  Even though I tried to make sure, as instructed, that the dogs did not put anything into their mouths one hour prior to being swabbed, they could have briefly grabbed something when I wasn't looking and messed up their tests.  I have concluded that the only way to make sure their samples are clean would be to have a professional do the collections, but for now we are deriving considerable amusement from our Beagle/Chow Chow and Irish Setter/Australian Cattle Dog mixed breeds!

From VCA Animal Hospitals (left and right).

From VCA Animal Hospitals (left) and vetSTREET (right).

                

This 'n That Thursdays: The Eggstractor -- Friend or Foe?

EGGSTRACTOR
"It peels your eggs for you!"

I don't consider myself either a lover or hater of gadgets -- I am mildly interested, but would not go out of my way to acquire supposedly helpful household inventions.  The other day my husband mentioned something called the Eggstractor, a gadget which he found fascinating because it forces air into the empty space at the base of an egg to pop a hard-boiled egg right out of its shell.  Out of curiosity, I decided to learn more about the Eggstractor.  The first bit of information I found was an article on the Huffington Post website entitled "The Eggstractor Cannot Possibly Work, As Confirmed by Amazon Reviews (VIDEO)".  Oh dear, not good!  I read the article, which basically declared any and all egg separators to be useless and dumb ideas, despite the claims of the typically overenthusiastic informercial video included in the review.

Thinking that perhaps the author of this piece had some sort of bias against gadgets, I went to the Amazon website to read the Eggstractor reviews.  With a 1.8 out of five stars rating from 44 customers, the Eggstractor continued to lose credibility.  Almost all of the reviews were negative, and some were positively hilarious, with the general consensus being that the Eggstractor should be renamed the Eggsploder!  It seems that very few eggs escape this implement unscathed, with most either losing the yolk but retaining the shell on the white, or just ending up splitting into an unappetizing mess of egg fragments still stuck to bits of shell.  Herculean strength also seemed to be a prerequisite, as less muscular users complained that the bellows portion of the device was impossible to compress.

I was thoroughly intrigued now, and had to check out some YouTube videos of the Eggstractor put to use by the average person.  The first video I watched, called "Re: Eggstractor for the rest of us", just cracked me up (pun intended).  A very ordinary woman matter-of-factly explains the woes she faces in her attempts to use the Eggstractor.  She pushes and pushes and pushes on the bellows, to no avail, as the egg stubbornly remains unpeeled on the stand.  Finally, after the sixth try, out pops the yolk, the white remaining behind in the completely undamaged shell!

The fellow in the second video I viewed had much better luck.  Despite the fact that he was a bit disorganized, and distracted by a parrot in the kitchen as well as a very loud television set in the background, he managed to get the eggs properly boiled (only breaking one in the process) and ready to be extracted.  On a rather small and slippery countertop, this man managed to extract all but one of the undamaged eggs.  He got a bit overconfident at one point and did mangle one egg, but the rest were perfect, with just a tiny bit of shell left adhering to the bottoms which was easily removed.

After watching several more Eggstractor videos, I came to two conclusions:

1) If you are a young healthy male you will have few problems using the Eggstractor; everyone else will usually either be unable to properly push the bellows or end up creating an unusable egg mess.

2) Buy this gadget if you want to have a bit of fun and don't mind wasting a lot of eggs, but don't expect it to make peeling hard-boiled eggs easier for you.

Easter will be here in less than two weeks, and that means lots of hard-boiled eggs.  If you and your family are not really fond of eggs and are looking for entertainment, by all means get yourself an Eggstractor.  However, I really don't think there is an Eggstractor coming into my life anytime soon.  I've learned that if you boil fresh eggs they will be hard to peel, but older eggs are easily peeled after boiling, so I will just continue to boil older eggs and peel them manually.

On the other hand, there is a nifty little gadget called the Dreamland Egg Mold that somehow creates amazingly shaped yolks within the whites of hard-cooked eggs that you then cut into decorative slices.

I may just have to get myself one of these contraptions.  After all, how hard could it possibly be to use?

                

This 'n That Thursdays: Has My Flying Car Finally Arrived?

Vertical liftoff of Terrafugia's TF-X

I think I may have complained a couple of times here that I am still waiting for the oft-promised flying car.  Well, could it be that my long and presumed fruitless wait is soon to be over?  A recent news article stated that the Boston aerospace company Terrafugia has already succeeded in producing an airplane-like flying car and is looking into the feasibility of creating one that is more like a helicopter, able to take off and land vertically.  Believe it or not, their Transition flying car can actually be reserved for purchase.

Terrafugia's Transition switching from driving to flying mode

It can convert from flying to driving, and is street-legal in the latter mode, but it can only take off and land from airports when in flying mode.  Hence the need to design a flying vehicle that can perform these important functions vertically, which would greatly expand its utility.  Terrafugia is developing the TF-X flying car with this capacity, and the company would love to have your help!  If you are interested in the idea of a flying car in your future, check out their suggestions for aiding in the advancement of this technology.  If qualified, you can also invest in the project or even apply for a career with the company!

Of course, before a flying car can ever become a standard mode of transportation, many changes in laws and regulations will be needed to accommodate this new technology.  A few pessimists may object to change, and some have predicted that chaos and catastrophe will reign should the flying car become a reality.  Personally, I think that if people are competent enough to drive cars and/or fly aircraft, then they should be able to come up with a way to make flying cars a safe and practical reality.  After all, we figured out how to adjust to horseless carriages, despite the problems and inconveniences these primitive vehicles created initially, and equine transportation is now pretty much a thing of the past.  Some day flightless cars may be on the way to extinction like land line phones and paper books.  We will always find the old ways nostalgic, but for humans change is inevitable, and if done responsibly could even be for the better!

"Back to the Future" flying DeLorean time machine (from PopSci)

(Since there are those who are convinced that flying cars will be catastrophic, the above photo brings to mind another interesting question to ponder -- is time travel a good idea?  If it is even possible, should we pursue the technology?  What do you think?)