From Physorg.com, an Indian pepper, the Bhut Jolokia, has one million Scoville heat units. Abstract

Two articles about healthier chocolates. The first from newkerala.com, Horizon Science has come up with a chocolates that busts the anti-oxidants and lowered bad sugars. The seconds is a press release about adding probiotics to chocolate from Barry Callebaut

A couple of stories: First from Green Options, talks about French fair trade chocolate. Second from Fox News, research should that by resisting chocolate urges, more chocolate is eaten when presented with it.

From Physorg.com, A apartment complex in NYC is using ladybugs to take care of aphids and mites. the company, Planet Natural, supply the bugs. Collecting and using the ladybugs instead of pesticides is a cool idea. One problem is that there are some people who don’t like insects.

Yesterday it was fog. A very dense white enveloping everything. As I walked through it, there seemed to be a circle where there wasn’t any fog. The whiteness has dissipated. And yet the fog was still hanging in the air as thick as ever beyond the circle. What is it about fog that can create this unsubstantial illusion?

Today was the wind and the rain. I had heard them both before crawling out of my cozy bed. The rain had stopped momentarily leaving the wind. It would be a gust the whittled away to nothing. With a dampness in the air there something that can only be described as crispness. The way that the wind touches your face leaves a lingering feeling. And the cascading of the wind in the leaves isn’t a harsh sound like rustling. The wind caused the gray on gray clouds to race across the sky. Then it started raining again.

From Physorg.com, A professor has looked at various stories from ancient Rome and Greece and has linked ghost stories with death and its rituals. I like scary stories and movies so knowing that ancient peoples have a liking for the same is not too surprising. And leads me to wonder what stories were told about the Neolithic fire before going to sleep. I can imagine a storyteller setting the scene of a great hunt and during this pursuit, one of the hunters is killed. And his fellows stop immediately to gather up some flowers and get his belongs to place in the burial chamber that they create. And this storyteller reminds the listeners that it is selfish to butcher the meat before the hunter is put to rest so that his spirit will not come to frighten and plea to go onward.

From Telegraph.co.uk, a study where men who ate chocolate every day and those who did not. Differences in metabolites indicate that there are differences in the microfauna of the two groups. This has me thinking about quorum sensing in bacteria and how this might effect our cells.

Abstract

From Physorg.com, The shell of diatoms have an iridescent property that can make cleaner, shiner colors. The idea of diatom farming has a certain appeal to me.

From Physorg.com, using the genomes from a verity of organisms, researchers have found a link between metabolism and protein mutation. It also seems to indicate that mammals should have a higher mutation rate. Interesting speculation: After the demise of the dinosaurs, the rapid evolution of the mammals could have been to their warm bloodedness? Birds too?