i never thought i would say this but i am so sick of thinking about food.

nora #6

i don’t actually own this song so you’ll have to do with the youtube version

Hercules and Love Affair — Hercules Theme

what i’ve been thinking about instead of schoolwork

vintage bicycles

Mexico City

Sao Paulo

sprawling latin american cities

Frye boots!

why do dogs like to lick people?

nora #5

via Mojo4Music.com

The Mars Volta — Eriatarka

Sometimes–when you are in the midst of writing a paper on the decline of African American farmers, for example–you find that you need to stop, stretch, take a sip of tea, and assault your ears with a carpet of sound. Enter The Mars Volta. I  like this band a lot, but listening to their stuff reminds me of highschool, a particularly strange, hormonal and generally unsavory period in my life.  I was going to start this entry on an apologetic note, like  “I know this band is so 2003, BUT…” Then I googled them and saw that Rolling Stone magazine named them the best Prog-Rock band of 2008. Excuse me? They’re still around?? Joke’s on me.

more melamine

…On a more concrete note, melamine not only has widespread industrial applications, but is also used to buttress the foundation of American agriculture.

Fertilizer companies commonly add melamine to their products because it helps control the rate at which nitrogen seeps into soil, thereby allowing the farmer to get more nutrient bang for the fertilizer buck. But the government doesn’t regulate how much melamine is applied to the soil. This melamine accumulates as salt crystals in the ground, tainting the soil through which American food sucks up American nutrients.

A related area of agricultural concern is animal feed. Chinese eggs seized last month in Hong Kong, for instance, contained elevated levels of melamine because of the melamine-laden wheat gluten used in the feed for the chickens that produced the eggs.

To think American consumers are immune to this unscrupulous behavior is to ignore the Byzantine reality of the global gluten trade. Tracking the flow of wheat gluten around the world, much less evaluating its quality, is like trying to contain a drop of dye in a churning whirlpool.

More ominous, the United States imports most of its wheat gluten. Last year, for instance, the F.D.A. reported that millions of Americans had eaten chicken fattened on feed with melamine-tainted gluten imported from China. Around the same time, Tyson Foods slaughtered and processed hogs that had eaten melamine-contaminated feed. The government decided not to recall the meat.

Only a week earlier, however, the F.D.A. had announced that thousands of cats and dogs had died from melamine-laden pet food. This high-profile pet scandal did not prove to be a spur to reform so much as a red herring. Our attention was diverted to Fido and away from the animals we happen to kill and eat rather than spoil.

via The New York Times:

Our Homegrown Melamine Problem by James E McWilliams

there’s a monster in my fridge!

…oh, just kidding. it’s only a large celery root.

what do I do with this baby? sautee? roast? soup??

i don’t even like kids

But this video is incredibly convincing. Watch Chef Anne Cooper of Berkeley Public schools speak passionately about the need for healthy school breakfast and lunch programs in Chow.com’s School Lunch Revolutionary.

animals are the name of the game

Goldendoodle? Purebred? Adopted? What’ll it be, Mr Obama? – The Search for The First Puppy

…and in less important news: Attacked Jogger Takes Fox For Run

quote of the day

don’t believe in me/don’t believe me/i’ve graduated from hungry and made it to greedy/my flow is like pasta/take it and eat it/but i’ma need cheese if i’m baking a ziti

-lil wayne