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What is the Meatrix?

I consider it a public service, if not a public duty, to explain why pizza can be considered a health food. Allow me to quote from the HerbalGram article on lycopene:

Lycopene is a potent quencher of singlet oxygen (a reactive form of oxygen), which suggests that it may have comparatively stronger antioxidant properties than other major plasma carotenoids… Lycopene has been found to be a potent and specific inhibitor of cancer cell proliferation… Lycopene induces Phase II enzymes which help to eliminate carcinogens and toxins from the body.

The article goes deep into the science behind the claims, and uses the phrase “conjugate reactive electrophiles” which makes me smile because it reminds me of dack’s web economy bullshit generator.

Anyway, in the table of lycopene content of common foods, the highest-rated item is, you guessed it, pizza sauce.

Pictured is the Starbucks franchise at the corner of Thurlow and Robson in Vancouver, BC… as seen from inside the other Starbucks at the corner of Thurlow and Robson in Vancouver, BC. Yes, there are two Starbucks stores at the same intersection, diagonally opposite one another.

The best thing I can say about this is that both Starbucks had plenty of open seats, whereas the non-chain Italian coffee house at one of the other two corners had a huge crowd and a line waiting for tables.

The worst thing I can say is that I went into Starbucks and took one of those open seats. I ordered an oatmeal cookie and a bottle of root beer, thereby contributing to the decline of cultural diversity as well as to the success of an exported American monopoly. Sigh. At least I didn’t also visit KFC, McDonald’s, Burger King, Quiznos, etc., despite numerous opportunities.

(The truth is, given that there are 112 Starbucks in Vancouver, concentrated in the commercial and tourist areas, the chances of not going into one, at least inadvertently, are lower than you’d think!)

One of the problems of traveling in July is returning home to find that the neighbors have eaten all the plums.

LA’s skyline-signature palm trees are succumbing to old age and disease, and the city can’t afford to replace them. Here’s the story: Palms in Twilight.

“Vegas has priced just about every municipality out of the market,” says George Gonzalez, chief forester for the city of Los Angeles. Demand from casinos has forced prices for Canary Island date palms to $350 to $500 per foot of trunk, never mind craning, trucking and planting. Across the palm market, including installation, a 15-foot Canary Island date palm might cost $7,500, a date palm $3,500, a queen palm $1,500, a Mexican fan palm $1,000. To start with trees of decent size, city tree buyers have been turning to oaks, jacarandas and ficus saplings, with price tags in the hundreds, not thousands.