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Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:39:57 GMT

Arctium minus

Another thank you is due to Anne from Alberta (aka annkelliott@Flickr) for contributing a photo to BPotD (original via BPotD Flickr Group Pool), so.... thank you once again!

Well, I don''t want to bore anyone, but I do need to mention that I had a dream with burdock in it a couple nights ago. Travelling along a forested road in my dream, I remember a forest understorey dominated by burdock (and that''s about all I remember).

Arctium minus, or lesser burdock, is native to most of Europe, temperate west Asia and northern Africa. However, it has been introduced to North and South America, as well as New Zealand. In North America, it is now found across the continent. Its spread isn''t surprising given the dispersal mechanism used, epizoochory (cf. epianthropochory).

Lesser burdock has a long history of culinary and medicinal uses, discussed in the Plants for a Future database and (briefly) in Emergent Vegetation of the Urban Ecosystem. For the usual excellent factsheet, Arctium minus at Missouriplants.com offers both a description and extra photographs. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:33:13 GMT

Scary Monsters

For the WSWS, Christie Schaefer reviews World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War: "Unlike much of the work in science fiction and horror genres today, Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft) approaches his work with a straight face-there is not the expected and desired wink that would make it seem 'all right' and less frightening. From the first pages of this book, which is written as a series of interviews with survivors of a future 'zombie war' from every level of society, Brooks is in character."

The New-York Ghost presents its Halloween issue.

When Not Coming to a Theater Near You's 31 Days of Horror got rolling this year, David Carter placed dibs on Thursdays for a mini-series on cannibal movies. This week, he's made a pretty surprising choice, and a thought-provoking one, too. In a good way. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:44:48 GMT

Chief carbon officer

A few years ago, carbon trading was seen as a niche business. Not any more. There is now a growing recognition that it is set to become the world's biggest commodity market. Potentially, it could be the world's biggest market overall. Certainly, it will be the world's fastest growing market which is why the banks are getting into it big time. And because traders with experience are scarce, we will see leading investment banks poaching staff from oil companies or utilities.

Expect competition from companies who will be looking to create the special position of "Chief Carbon Officer". It's not yet an official designation, but it's a matter of time as carbon trading changes from being a matter of risk management, to one of management planning. More details from Tony McAuley at CFOEurope.com. Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:02:09 GMT

Four Seasons In Each Picture

Four Seasons In Each Picture. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:09:42 GMT

lolsecretz

Via lolsecretz - Quoted - Lolsecretz is the meeting of two of the internet's most famous memes- PostSecret (the blog where people anonymously confess their deepest darkest secrets) crossed with Lolcat Macros (the phenomenon where people ascribe poorly spelled human emotions to animals). Enjoy! Posted by: Zinzi      Read more     Source

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:10:05 GMT

GM's Pushing Ethanol To Pittsburgh Customers

It'd be even sunnier in Pittsburgh if GM's customers drove on E85.

By Gunnar Heinrich

No, the General hasn't taken up bartending on weekends to make ends meet.

GM is busy promoting the fact that according to its numbers, if every one of its customers who live in greater Pittsburgh, PA and drive Genuine GM E85-ready cars swapped dino-juice for corn booze, there'd be 6.2 million gallons of gasoline left over every year for the rest of us.

But those Pittsburghers are such gas hogs. Little do they realize how readily accessible everyone of those (count 'em) seven local ethanol pumps (not stations) are to be used at their disposal. Talk about convenience and ease of access.

Well, the General's out to tell them. And to try and encourage that a few more E85 pumps get put in locally.

Read the full press release after the jump.

[Source: GM] Read more of "GM's Pushing Ethanol To Pittsburgh Customers" Posted by: Gunnar Heinrich      Read more     Source

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:06:37 GMT

The Heartbreak Kid.

"If you haven't seen The Heartbreak Kid, Elaine May's 1972 adaptation of a short story by Bruce Jay Friedman (with a screenplay by Neil Simon), you're missing a minor, if somewhat dated, classic, a study in Jewish male sexual anxiety that fits comfortably (which is to say nervously and neurotically) alongside Portnoy's Complaint and the early films of Woody Allen and Paul Mazursky," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "If you haven't seen The Heartbreak Kid, Peter and Bobby Farrelly's new update of that earlier picture, I'm jealous."

"The first movie was a sharp-edged satire in which Cantrow had to face the melancholy consequences of attaining his shiksa trophy; the new one is a raunchy romp that mocks the fantasy of true love even as it hinges on it," writes Lawrence Levi at Nextbook. "Once you've added a sex-crazed bride and a poisonous jellyfish whose sting requires urine as an antidote, who needs subtext?"

Updated through 10/6. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:03:43 GMT

Facebook May Make Deal With Microsoft

According to TimesOnline, Microsoft wants a 5% share in Facebook and is willing to pay $500 million (US) to get it. Counter offers from other big name Internet companies are expected too.



Last year Facebook was offered $1 billion from Yahoo!, but Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg turned them down because he wants to keep Facebook all to himself. Who can blame him, it's been very successful.

On the other hand, advertising is always needed to keep a big site like Facebook running. That's why they are accepting advertising offers from Microsoft. Will it turn into anything else? That remains to be seen. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:25:53 GMT

Lake of Fire

"[Tony] Kaye has said he wants Lake of Fire to be the film on the issue of abortion - the one that both camps will watch and say, 'Okay, that's fair,' even if they still leave wanting to strangle the people on the other side," writes David Edelstein in New York. "Most of the interviews were done in the 90s, before the director, a voluble Englishman, made the skinhead drama American History X (and dynamited his Hollywood career by loudly denouncing the studio and the star, Edward Norton, for recutting the film). But the dialogue hasn't progressed much; the principal difference is that today, the Supreme Court is a lot closer to overturning Roe v Wade. That makes this sprawling, scary, nearly unbearable film more important than ever."

Updated through 10/2. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:21:02 GMT

10 Million Americans Busted for Pot

Via AlterNet - Quoted - Since 1990, over 10.4 million Americans have been busted for pot. When will we recognize it's time to stand up to the war on harmless pot smoking? What would cops do without weed? For one thing, they'd sure spend a lot less time arresting and processing petty pot violators. How much time? For starters, however long it took to bust the estimated 739,000 Americans arrested for minor pot possession in 2006. Posted by: Zinzi      Read more     Source