The Bicycle, Cheese, and Science Blog

I think blue cheese is my favorite...

2011-02-15T22:20:00.001-08:00

Last night I could not decide how I wanted to eat my cheese, with bread & honey or with bread & salami. So I decided to have both and alternated between the two. In retrospect, I suppose I could of had cheese, honey, and salami all on one piece of bread; but for some reason that did not sound as good.

Look at this cheese! There is nothing really like blue cheese and when it is buttery and smooth like this one was, it's hard to beat.

Like usual, I typically go with my local cheesemonger @ Liberty Heights Fresh here in Salt Lake. They suggested trying this cheese that they just got in, with a really cool story behind it. It's called Chiriboga Blauschimmelkäse or Chiriboga Blue (Blauschimmelkase-means blue cheese) and it is amazing! It just melts in your mouth and has just the right amount of blue cheese bite to it. It is made by Mr. Arturo Chiriboga an Ecuadorian that mastered cheese making in France then relocated to Germany where this cheese is made from cows milk. If you see it at your local cheesemonger, do buy it!

The cheese was paired with Utah honey and also this really delicious salami from California called Nostrano. Seasoned simply with sea salt, cracked black pepper, garlic and white wine. It is mild and so good.

Yum!

Bicycles Loved & Lost #2

2011-02-10T06:01:00.000-08:00

This is another example of bicycle that I wish I kept. Built in the 1950's and sold at Gambles Department Stores, it's called a Hiawatha Seneca. This is definitely the oldest (and heaviest) bicycle that I've ever had the pleasure of fixing up and riding. The wheels had some minor rust issues but I was able to clean them up quite nicely! I repacked all the bearings with grease, new tires and tubes, buffed out the paint and it was good to go; which is pretty amazing for a bike so old. I doubt I will every find such an amazing bicycle again. I am pretty depressed about letting this one go, oh well. Nothing like some delicious cheese to cheer a guy up!

Bicycles Loved & Lost #1

2011-01-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

If you collect bicycles, or anything for that matter, than you might understand the motive behind this series of posts. I have had the opportunity to acquire, fix up, and ride some of the coolest bicycles. Eventually, however, you have to say goodbye to some of them. Sometimes you need the money; sometimes you have to many and need the extra space, and sometimes you have no idea why you sold them in the first place! I have no idea why I sold this one. It is a 1967 Schwinn Fastback in black. It is pretty much the coolest year for Schwinn handle bars with the swoop down grips. It was pieced together, actually my first Schwinn Stingray project. I think I let it go because while the majority of the parts were date matched, they were not original to the bike. I am such a purest! I should have several posts for this series, depending on photo availability.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

It has been almost a year since I have posted something on this blog. I doubt there were many followers to begin with, and if there were, I am sure they have abandoned the blog from lack of activity some time ago. In 2011, I hope blog more frequently. There is a lot of science to talk about; there are a lot of bicycle projects needing documentation, and of course, lots of cheese to be eaten! Stay tuned...

I can't breathe in Salt Lake

2010-01-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

Down there, in that valley, is where I reside, "cough, cough!". This is an image taken from little cottonwood canyon road looking down to the salt lake city valley on a nasty air quality day in 2007.

For what seems like an eternity now I have been enduring some of the most disgusting air quality I have ever experienced here in Salt Lake. I am from Phoenix originally and was pretty sure the air quality there was the cause of many breathing woes. However, the winter months in northern Utah take the cake! As you can see in the following images today (and for a couple of weeks now) the Salt Lake valley has been the stand alone place in the nation were you can breath tasty unhealthy air. That's right, even worse than LA! Why? Well, in the winter months here our valley is susceptible to lasting temperature inversions. This phenomenon traps close to ground level all of the vehicle emissions, smog blown east from LA, the Kennecot copper mine emissions, as well as pollution from the several coal and coke burning power plants located here.

While researching this topic, I was surprised to find out that bad air quality is nothing new to this region. The following image was taken of Salt Lake in 1930. A visable haze can be seen blanketing the area. Archives show that people living here as long ago as the 1880s were complaining about the air quality! "Will you call the attention of our City Fathers - for the city mothers already know it - to the fact that Salt Lake City is already suffering from this smoke nuisance", a resident complained to the local news in November, 1881.

UPDATE: January 18th. Almost like my post had something to do with it, a sprinkle of snow blankets the valley this morning. The sky is blue, there is a gentle breeze, and for now, the air is clear!

Blue cheese & honey in Flagstaff, AZ

2009-10-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend past, I drove to one of my favorite towns: Flagstaff, Arizona. There I met up with my sister Carrie and we both agreed that we should eat some delicious cheese together! A really good way of eating the blue cheese is simply to place it on some good crusty bread and then drizzled it with honey. If you have not tried it, I highly recommend it. Neither my sister nor her roommates had tried blue cheese in this way so I was a little nervous. Luckily, they all seemed to enjoy it!

If you are going to buy blue cheese you might as well splurge and go for the really good stuff. I ending up with a chunk from the Rogue Creamery out of Central Point, OR.

You must also have good honey too. Here, Carrie’s roommate Allie just so happened to have some superb local honey.

Yeah, it’s that good!

I toasted the pieces of bread, placed the cheese on top, then drowned them in honey!

Well, there you go! eat up! A glass of wine makes it a meal.

Some cool people eating some good cheese!

Sorry Max, no cheese for you!

New Cheese: Sampietrino

2009-08-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I decided it had been a while since I bought a chunk of expensive cheese and devoured it. I tried a new cheese called Sampietrino. The name comes from the distinctive stones that make up many old streets in Italy. This cheese has an earthy stone colored rind and is formed in cubes that look similar to the pavement stones. Sampietrino is made from cow & sheep's milk and is very good! It is a bit dry and crumbly and went well with some of my favorite cheese eating accompaniments: good fresh bread, fresh tomatoes, and good olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

Sampietrino pavement

Sort of crumbly...

Dinner is served!

Cheesy Space Goodness

2009-08-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

It is generally well accepted that our Moon is a lifeless hunk of rock. Many years of research have resulted in no evidence of life past or present. However, under the lunar regolith, could it be possible that the moon is made entirely of cheese? Okay, so probably not. However, it should be obvious to you by now that I love cheese and so I could not resist posting about two cheese & space related stories that caught my attention recently. Both stories derive their motivation from the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings.

The first story takes us to Somerset County, England and a cheesemaker group there that attempted to send a 300 gram chunk of their farmhouse cheddar into space! In an amazing feat of cheese pride the organizers ultimate goal was to take a picture of their cheddar with the curvature of the Earth below it. To do this, they attached their cheddar to a weather balloon equipped with a camera and gps system. Okay, so maybe not into space but the hope was to get their payload far into the upper atmosphere so they could take the image. Unfortunately, soon after the weather balloon was released the gps system failed and the organizers lost track of it. The balloon (and cheese) was found returned to Earth in nearby Buckinghamshire County the next day. The weather balloon had popped indicating that it perhaps did reach a significant altitude. Sadly, the camera equipment also failed so no images were taken to confirm this.

The second story takes us to St. Marys, Ohio and the studio of Sarah Kaufmann who is affectionately known as the “Cheese Lady”. There she brilliantly used three enormous 640 pound blocks of Wisconsin mild cheddar to create a life-sized astronaut sculpture! Once competed, the sculpture was to be displayed at the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum in nearby Wapakoneta. However, very sadly, during the night before the magnificent cheese sculpture was to go on display the air conditioning in the museum was turned off and the sculpture melted!

What is cheese telling us about space? While there has long been a strange association with cheese and space and unfounded rumors that celestial objects like our Moon are made of cheese, if anything, these two failed attempts to bring cheese and space together suggest to me that cheese needs to stay terrestrial right here on planet Earth and preferably on my plate!

Biological Discovery in Woods Hole

2009-08-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I recently got back from Woods Hole, Massachusetts and a one month stay at the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL). The MBL is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country and is steeped with a rich history of scientific discovery, way more than I could give justice to in a blog post. Here is a link to their website if you would like to learn more about the MBL. The above image was taken from School Street, across from Eel pond. Starting from left to right, the building to the far left is the Marine Resource Center. Everyday a boat leaves Eel pond and heads out to sea to collect various specimens for the researchers and the animals they collect are housed there. The building to right of the MRC is the Lilly Building. Some administrative stuff is in that building but most importantly the library is there. The MBL library is top notch and I spent several evenings tucked away inside it. The building to the right of the Lilly is the Loeb Building. This is where all of our labs were. To the right of Loeb is Ebert Hall where my dorm room was. I must say, I do not miss the dorm life! Luckily, I had an awesome roommate. Finally to the right of Ebert Hall, on the far right of the image, is the Swope dining hall where I somehow managed to befriend all of the cafeteria ladies!

I applied to, and was accepted to, the Summer Program in Neuroscience, Ethics, and Survival course better known as SPINES. I was there the end of June, beginning of July, 2009. The basic structure of the course involved an introduction to the action potential where we spent one week modeling action potentials using custom computer software. This was followed by 2 weeks of playing around with intact crawfish preparations and using suction electrodes to record extracellular potentials both spontaneously and evoked under different conditions. To the complete novice, like myself, this was a great experience. However, to the typical neuroscience graduate student, I would imagine this being rather rudimentary.

The final week of the class was human brain anatomy lab, again, a subject that I have little experience with. Dr. Alfredo Quinones from Johns Hopkins University came out with 3 human brains. We were then allowed to make slices of them and at the same time he pounded basic anatomical structures into the memory of our own brains! Meeting Dr. Quinones was truly one of the best parts of the course. The man is a machine. Not only is he the director of the brain tumor program at Johns Hopkins Bayview campus performing over 300 surgeries a year, but he also heads an amazing laboratory focused on neuronal stem cells from the sub-ventricular zone and their potential role in tumor cell formation. With all that work, he also manages to have a beautiful family who we also met. He is only 4 years out of his residency! It was the conclusion by many of us that he probably does not sleep.

The rest of the course, when not in lab, was geared toward ethical issues in science as well as focusing on survival skills such as grantsmanship and manuscript writing. All very pertinent topics not often taught enough in many graduate programs. Finally we attended many seminars and scientific talks. I nearly filled an entire Mead composition book with my notes from these lectures. The summer months in Woods Hole were buzzing with the activity of our course and the many different courses offered there. It was a truly an amazing experience. All I can think about now is what ocean dwelling creature side project can I come up with so that my future summers can be spent there.

The BLUE LOBSTER! I had never seen one before. They are rather rare. They can apparently also come in yellow. Researchers at MBL use squids, sea urchins, horseshoe crabs, dogfish, clams, starfish, toadfish, sea slugs, and sea sponges among others to perform their research. Why marine models? Most sea dwelling creatures have simple nervous systems and most are hardy animals that can take a lot of poking and prodding. This makes them excellent models to study basic mechanisms.

The worlds smallest drawbridge. Or so they say! This drawbridge separates a good portion of the MBL from a lot of the best eating and drinking establishments. Therefore, while in Woods Hole, you will inevitably be stuck on one side of the bridge waiting for a boat to enter or leave Eel Pond.

This is MBL beach. I spent several hours here basking in the sun, reading scientific papers. I don’t like venturing out into the ocean however. I did put my feet in once. It was pretty damn cold! Also, notice the bicycle. If I ever make it back to Woods Hole, and a piece of advice if you ever find yourself there, get a bike! It’s the way to be. The shining sea bicycle trail is amazing.

How to restore a vintage bicycle - Post #3 Skip to the end!

2009-05-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well, bottom line, the bicycle is done! Once I start working on a project it’s hard to stop until it’s finished. In my haste I forgot to take detailed pictures of some key procedures, and for that I apologize. For instance, the rear wheel needed an overhaul. It is a Bendix coaster wheel and there are several pieces of hardware inside the hub that needed cleaning and re-greasing in order for the coaster brake to work properly again. I didn’t take any pictures though! Do not worry, I will be tearing apart another Bendix hub soon and I will make sure to document it. One thing I did want to mention are the items in the following picture. Basically you are looking at the ultimate rust cleaning equipment: some super fine brass wool and WD-40. It works every time! However, for really deep pitted rust there is no cure.

Finally, here are some pictures of the completed project. I was able to track down a new vintage Schwinn sting-ray seat (not the same color, but will work) and also correct handle bars. I also bought a new rear slik tire. I have already made some sweet skid marks with her on the test ride around the block!

Before, not rideable, destroyed seat, no brakes!

1967 vintage steel, ready to roll!

How to restore a vintage bicycle - Post #2 The Breakdown

2009-04-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

I started breaking down the new hoo-ride and with most vintage rides I found some discrepancies. Since this bicycle is 42 years old, you could imagine that some stuff has changed about it over the years. Being the Schwinn connoisseur I try to be, I was sort of bummed to find that the handle bars were not original (even though they looked the part) and also the rear wheel appears to be a reproduction single speed wheel. The most saddening thing is that this bicycle was originally a 3-speed! I will show you in a later bicycle post what the 3-speed Schwinn bicycles looked like. Bottom line, this bike is far from what it used to be. But, you know what? It doesn’t matter all that much. I love wrenching on these old bikes regardless! My plan is to try and find some correct replacement parts online and through some of my local bicycle geek friends and see if I can get her back to originality, but I will do so within reason. This hobby isn’t cheap! Since they literally don’t make them like they used to, even the obscure nut and bolt can fetch $100 online.

To the Breakdown: I will probably have a couple Breakdown posts. Before I begin, I must tell you that the bicycle hobby requires tools! While you can mostly get away with a standard tool box with metric and standard wrenches and ratchets, screwdrivers (flat head & Phillips, several sizes), hammer, etc., you will find that there are several specialty tools required. You can buy bicycle specific tool kits but they are really expensive. Since I am relatively poor, I have bought the vast majority of my bicycle tools as they were needed. Probably the number one tool you WILL need and the tool that will be THE most expensive is the bicycle stand. As you will be able to see in the following images the bicycle stand makes life easy. When I first starting taking apart vintage bicycles I did not have one and life was miserable!

Wheels, Tires, Pedals: I will start with some easy stuff!

Removing the wheels is pretty straight forward. You will need a socket and ratchet that fits the axel bolt and then it’s “Righty (or clockwise) Tighty & Lefty (or counterclockwise) Loosy”!

Once the bolt on each side is loose, gravity will drop the wheel from the “drop outs”. The place where the wheel bolts onto the bicycle frame is known as the “rear drop outs”. Hold on to the wheel, and remove the bicycle chain. You remove the front wheel in the same manner, but of course do not have to worry about the chain.

Once the chain is free and clear you can now remove the entire wheel from the frame.

Hello, reproduction wheel!

Next, let’s get rid of the tires and tubes from the wheel. The tires were not original Schwinn items either, but they rarely are on these old bikes. To remove the bicycle tires you are going to need some of these bicycle tire levers. These are pretty much the cheapest you can possibly find. They totally suck, but they get the job done.

First, you will need to let out all the air from the tires, assuming there is any! Then the basic idea is that you stick one of the levers underneath the rubber of the tire and pull the tire away from the inside edge of the rim. Sometimes it can get tricky, so what you do with the multiple levers is start one, then jab a second down the tire a bit (as shown here).

Once you get a good amount of the rubber away from the rim it’s easy to slide an additional lever all the way around the rim to remove the whole tire.

Removing bicycle pedals requires a special kind of wrench that is really thin. Here I have what is known as a “chain whip” bicycle tool. It is a multi-functional tool. The chain end is used to remove the freewheel from many older model bicycles, however, the opposite end is the proper 15 mm size to remove most bicycle pedals and gives you great leverage to do so.

Pedals can sometimes be stuck, if it is difficult to remove, I always place a couple drops of penetrating oil onto the pedal/crank arm interface and let it soak in for about 15-20 minutes.

Done deal!

Okay, this is where we are at so far! More posts to come.

How to restore a vintage bicycle – Post #1

2009-04-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

It is mid April in Salt Lake City and it’s snowing outside! However, that did not stop me from tracking down this beauty today. It is a May 1967 coppertone Schwinn ‘Slik Chik’ and my first girl Schwinn bicycle project!

Dating Schwinn bicycles is rather straight forward. The serial number on the bike frame corresponds to the month and year the bicycle was produced. Also, most of the bicycle parts (handle bars, crank, stem, etc.) were also date stamped. You will often find that some of these parts are dated from the year prior and that was because during assembly in Chicago they would pull parts out of huge bins where the parts could have been there from the previous year or so. There are convenient websites with information on cracking the serial number date codes found on the bicycle frame. Depending on the year of the bike, the serial number can be located under the bottom bracket, on the left rear dropout, or on the head tube.

Not familiar with those terms? Well, together we will bring this gorgeous Schwinn back to riding condition. I will fully dissemble her and we will piece her back together taking time to clean and fix any of the parts. It should be fun and along the way I will explain some of these terms. A lot of the basic terminology will still apply to your newer bicycle as well.

Washington Waterway Worries

2009-04-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

As early as the 1960’s it was observed that the nation’s rivers and lakes were rapidly turning green and choking with aquatic plant growth. This aberrant growth competes with the available dissolved oxygen content in the waters, thus being a major concern for fish and other river dwelling life. One reason for the changes in water quality has been attributed to increased plant nutrient availability, primarily phosphorous, that is thought to originate primarily from discharge waters containing household detergents including dishwasher soap. Only until recently have policy makers acted to now require low phosphate content detergents to be used in households, especially in areas with endangered waters. Enter, the Spokane River!

The Spokane River flows from Lake Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho approximately 90 miles northwest through Spokane, Washington, before emptying into the Columbia River above Grand Coulee Dam. Much of the river's flows, particularly during summer, come from underground springs fed by the important Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer. The Spokane River has too little water, too much pollution, and an uncertain future. In 2004 the Environmental Protection Agency reaffirmed the river’s 303(d), Category 5 status for sediment bioassay toxicity and fish tissue chemistry. That is right, don’t eat fish out of the Spokane River, and if you do, you should prepare it in a way that reduces the amount of toxins you could ingest. The river has a lot of things going against it. There are several mining facilities along the river so mining pollution is a problem and also there are 5 sewage treatment plants along the Spokane River. That’s right 5!

So, what can we do? A good start would be to reduce the amount of phosphate entering this river, and all of our waterways for that matter. So, this month, Spokane County banned the use of high phosphate containing dishwasher detergent. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010 with several other states following suit. How have the locals reacted? Well, take a good look at the person in the top image. She is one of the many housewives driving 45 minutes across the state line to Idaho, smuggling in regular phosphate laden dishwasher soap. People like this frustrate the crap out of me. Apparently, it is more important to have your dishes spotlessly clean vs. trying to preserve an important water way that allows you to even have water in the first place!! The chemical companies are aware that their new eco-friendly formulations are not yet optimized but newer formulations are on the way. I don’t have a dishwasher and wash my dishes by hand. My hand dishwashing soap is phosphate free and cleans my dishes just fine. I realize this was a random post, next up, BICYCLES!

Feeding the addiction

2009-03-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

Well I was hoping for a long overdue bicycle related post especially since the weather had been so nice and conducive to bicycle riding in Salt Lake City recently. I got out and dusted off the bicycles and as soon as I did that, it slipped right back into snowy winter conditions! This made me sort of depressed. I then realized that I still have some day passes to the Brighton Ski Resort that need to be used up this season. Looks like I will just have to go snowboarding this weekend instead! ---depression slowly fades away---

Anyway, on my way home from work the other day I stopped at my local fine foods store for one reason, fresh squeezed orange juice, THAT’S IT. While I was trying to check out I was accosted by this huge cheese booth right by the check out counter! I am not sure if they have done this in the past, however, it was the first time I have seen it. I was completely defenseless. Little morsels to try on toothpicks plus neatly wrapped affordable chunks for you to take home. How could I resist? Needless to say, I bought some and here is a picture for you. It’s called Lincolnshire Poacher. It’s a raw cow’s milk aged 16 months from Lincolnshire, Great Britain. It is down right delicious. To me, it has a Parmigiano Reggiano taste with a much more complex and earthy finish. Please also notice my nice new fancy cheese knifes and cheese board, complements of my sister Carrie. Thanks Sis!

Say Cheese!

2009-03-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

It’s a beautiful 55 degree Sunday in SLC and I just watched the first ever interview of a standing Federal Reserve chairmen Ben Bernanke on the television program 60 minutes. It was quite interesting. I decided what better way to stimulate the economy then to dump a bunch of $$$ at expensive and delicious CHEESE! I like to eat cheese with good crusty bread slathered in good olive oil shown here. The two new cheeses I purchased today were fantastic. Again, my market of choice when it comes to buying cheese is Liberty Heights Fresh. The cheese on the left is called Franklin’s Teleme from northern California. It’s a pillowy cheese very soft and quite good. The cheese on the right is called Twig Farm Fuzzy from Cornwall, Vermont. Wow! I think fuzzy refers to the absolutely moldy rind this cheese has. It is a raw goat and cow milk cheese that is strong, but not overwhelming, which makes it awesome in my book.

ASN 2009

2009-03-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Charleston, SC and the 2009 American Society for Neurochemistry meeting. I was jetlagged and exhausted upon my return to SLC but absolutely thrilled that I was able to attend. Charleston was fun, delicious, and beautiful! The meeting was a manageable size and chock-full of very interesting symposiums, posters, and plenary speakers. My mind is buzzing with scientific ideas that I would like to pursue. Since this meeting was relatively small in size it became much easier to visit with one and other. In doing so, I was able to meet several investigators whose work I have been admiring for several years now (Parpura, McCarthy, Boison, and Norenberg to name a few). My gracious hosts were Matt Riedy and his wife Jessica. Together some of the nicest people I have ever met. They let me stay at there really nice condo (off the peninsula, or just “off”, as the locals say). Matt is now a post-doc in the Laboratory of Neuromodulation and Behavior at the Medical University of South Carolina under the direction of Dr. Gary Aston-Jones. I was able to visit with Matt at his new lab and it appears he is doing fantastic there. The drive from their house to the thick of it all on the peninsula (downtown and MUSC) of was an easy 10 min drive in my rental car.

A typical sunset overlooking Charleston harbor.

I was unable to pursue a lot of the history of Charleston, which only means I will have to return some day. The civil war started in Charleston at Fort Sumter. While I did not make it to Fort Sumter, I did make it to the White Point Gardens shown here. I thought this was a rather poignant photo depicting local children playing around the bust of William Gilmore Simms an influential poet, novelist, and historian who also happened to be one of the most prominent pro-slavery advocates of the time.

The Revolutionary war general and former mayor of Charleston, William Moultrie, overlooking the harbor.

Upper King St. in Charelston doing some exploring. Lots of bicyles, my kind of town!

I ate at many great restaurants in Charleston (S.N.O.B., Magnolia, and Fiery Ron’s to name a few). I took the picture of this restaurant solely because of the bicycle. It turns out that this is one the best Thai restaurants in town! Dang it! Next time….

This is Matt & Jessica's cat Darwin. He was such a lover.

I got caught observing science!

Good times at the poster!

Live music and 5-year old Gouda in Denver

2009-02-22T14:20:00.000-08:00

I just got back from an amazing weekend in Denver, CO. My good friends Kim and Justin live there now and when I found out Willy Porter was playing at the Soiled Dove Underground I asked if they would be interesting in attending (oh, and also if I could stay at their place for the weekend!). The venue was fantastic and the performances were nothing but amazing. The concert featured the amazing guitar and banjo play of Tony Furtado. I had not heard of Tony before researching this concert. He was amazing, technically superb at every strum.

I am a big fan of Willy Porter, however, this was my first time seeing him live. His amazing music was only part of his performance the rest relies on his humor and theatrics. He was a total riot and an amazing shredder. The two artists one technical and serious, while the other equally talented and comical was a great combination.

If great music wasn’t enough Kim and Justin found a store they thought I might like called Chez Cheese Gourmet Market in downtown Denver. Oh man! We tasted some great cheeses! I was in love with this 5-year aged Gouda from Holland that has turned this dark orange color from the aging process. It was dry but melted in your mouth and had a complex flavor that finished almost like a fine liquor. We also tasted some amazing blues like this Blue D' Auvergne from France. So good! We also had some real STRONG cheeses, the ones where you shouldn’t smell before you eat! These kind of cheeses disagreed with Kim and Justin and with good reason, they do require some getting used to. It was a great weekend!

Tony Furtado on the sweet Banjo!

Willy Porter is insane! Carrie: after I did a shout out for it,
he played Jesus on the grill!

Tony and Willy shredding..

Kim and Justin in front of Chez Cheese

The cheese guys..

5-year old Gouda

Some serious blue!

Unicorn Whale

2009-02-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

I really don't have a lot to say here other than I have never heard of the Narwhal and that Nature is amazing!!

Bears in SPACE!

2009-02-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

I just discovered these little critters and wanted to share with you their amazing story. They are called tardigrades, however more affectionatley known as ‘water bears’. It turns out that these tiny invertebrates are some of the most resilient organisms on our planet. They are able to withstand intense pressures, radiation, and can survive extremely long periods of time being dried out (we’re talking on the order of years). What a perfect specimen to ask the question: can a living organism survive the most extreme conditions of all, open space? Until the water bear, the answer to this question has been no (except for bacteria, of course!). That is until Ingemar Jönsson of Sweden’s Kristiansand University launched two species of dried-up tardigrades aboard the European Space Agency’s FOTON-M3 scientific satellite in 2007. The results of the mission were remarkable and published in Current Biology in late 2008. After 10 whole days of being exposed to open space vacuum as well as various UV radiation conditions, including the full extent of the Sun’s UV radiation, it was found that these animals could be revived and even shown to reproduce! The vacuum of open space (0.00001 Pa vs. 100,000 Pa here on Earth!) seemed to be no problem for them at all. Healthy doses of unimaginable UV-A and UV-B radiation were not a problem either, however, there were some species differences. Unfortunately, (and what will remain one of the largest problems with human space travel) animals exposed to the full extent of the Sun’s UV radiation managed to wake up, however, died shortly thereafter. This is the first example of a rather complex living organism being able to withstand the treacherous conditions of space in any way. Pretty amazing stuff! Of course, further research is now needed to find out just how these creatures are able to pull it off.

Microbiological meteorology

2009-01-31T06:22:00.000-08:00

"There is no point trying to hide from your bacteria, for they are on you and around you always, in numbers you can't conceive of. If you are in good health and averagely diligent about your hygiene, you will have a herd of about one trillion bacteria grazing on your fleshy plains - about one hundred thousand of them on every square centimetre of skin. And those are just the bacteria that inhabit your skin... Every human body consists of about ten quadrillion cells, but it is host to about a hundred quadrillion bacterial cells. They are, in short, a big part of us. From the bacteria's point of view, of course, we are a rather small part of them… This is their planet, and we are only on it because they allow us to be”.

- Bill Bryson

This is a great quote from a great book by Bill Bryson called “A Short History of Nearly Everything”. I recommend you read this book if you want a great review of many of the major concepts from virtually all fields of science. The chapter on bacteria is fascinating and so I wanted to share with you a most interesting bacteria called Pseudomonas syringae. As described below, this is a most appropriate posting since for one its winter and snow is everywhere, and second, I have been eating a lot of snow lately as I learn how to snowboard! I took this picture just yesterday at the top of the Snake Creek Express run at Brighton Ski Resort. The inset is a scanning electron microscope image of this “cool” bacteria.

Scientists have long known that airborne dust can contribute the formation of rain droplets and snow within clouds. However, recent research by Dr. Brent Christner of Louisiana State University suggests that bacteria such as P. syringae may also play an important role in weather formation. A special protein on the surface of these plant loving bacteria can bind water in a way that mimics the structure of an ice crystal and therefore can catalyze the formation of ice much more rapidly than without it. This is not necessarily a new finding as P. syringae is known as a plant pathogen for its ability to promote frost damage in crops. What is really interesting, and what Dr. Christner has discovered, is that even in locations where there is absolutely no vegetation, including Antarctica, you can still find this curious bacteria just hanging out wishing it was near a plant so it can multiply. Far from their plant hosts, his findings suggest that in order to travel to such remote and vegetation lacking locations these bacteria most likely hitchhike in the clouds. It is hypothesized that they may contribute to atmospheric processes by serving as freezing catalysts in clouds thus inducing precipitation! I thought this was really interesting because it means that perhaps the weather is biological phenomenon! (perhaps..)

Manchego in Tucson!

2009-01-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everybody! My first post of 2009 is a story about friends and there is some cheese in there too. The day after Christmas I drove down to Tucson to visit my good friends Kelly & Kristian. They just bought a home down there and I was pleased to be one of their first house guests. It was a rainy day but that didn’t stop us from drinking heavily and eating, of course, delicious cheese! The cheese was manchego, a sheep’s milk product of Spain that we bought at the Sunflower Market which is a really cool local fine foods store near their house. We all agreed that the cheese was pretty darn good on the crackers we also bought.

Since I currently reside in SLC and am used to “near-beer”, it didn’t take long before I was drunk and merry. The gigantic bottle of champagne that I had brought down as a house warming gift helped us to reach the inebriated state. It is safe to say that I was pretty drunk before leaving their house to go hit up some bars after dinner. Kelly’s sister Sarah and her boyfriend Curtis joined us for dinner and the evening out. It was a fun night and it was great to catch up with some old friends.

Kelly and kitty!

Kristian, aka Watty, aka Duane

Sarah & Kelly

Curtis (where did that cork go??)

Sarah, Curtis and Sarah's friend Mona

Cheese, Good!

2008-12-10T09:40:00.001-08:00

I am running out of clever cheese quotes! Did I mention I like cheese? When ever I have some extra money, which is not often, I figure I should try some new cheese. Man, were these cheeses ever so good! One is called Roaring 40s Blue out of King Island, Australia. This stuff is so good but in a way that is different from the other blue cheeses I have had so far on the blog. This one really has an aftertaste to it that lingers…it is hard to describe it. The best I have come up with is “earthy”. That might not sound good to you but it is to me. It is encased in a funky jet black wax. The other cheese I tried is called Barley Buzzed Cheddar that hails out of the Beehive Cheese Company right here in Ogden, UT! I wholeheartedly recommend that you go try this cheese. It is crazy. The rind is made out of crushed espresso and dried lavender buds? Sometimes when I have a piece of it, it tastes sort of like coffee, sometimes it tastes very floral, or sometimes both. It is probably the most interesting cheese I have had so far. Really good too.

The future of shifting!

2008-12-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

I just heard about this new component group from Shimano called the Dura-Ace 7970 Di2. The worlds first perfect electronic shifting! It does not take much for me to get excited about stuff and this is no exception. What appears to be a standard carbon fiber shifter is actually a switch that sends gear changes via a wire to sensors in the front and rear derailleurs. There is a CPU in the front derailleur controlling the whole show making sure there are no missed shifts, even under high torque loads, and it also self adjusts to with different trim postitions depending on what gear you are in. It runs off a rechargeable battery that attaches onto the watter bottle rack screws ( I think) and the whole group set weighs less than Shimano’s equivalent mechanical group set from last year. I am pretty impressed, no more cables. But will it hold up under treacherous weather? Apparently it has been in testing for the past 3 years and the answer is, yes. It was used extensively in this years Tour de France. I have posted some pictures and a video of the shifters in action (probably from this years Interbike, I WILL go to one.. someday!). Hey only 4K! haha. Enjoy.

Eat your vegetables!

2008-11-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

On a more serious note, the speaker we had today (which is why we had that free lunch) was really great. Even though I had little to NO background knowledge on the pathways and mechanisms Dr. Shyam Biswal of Johns Hopkins University discussed, I did come away with a most interesting bit of information I thought I would share. Turns out we ALL should be eating more broccoli! Of course, eat more vegetables, like I have not heard that before. However, today I saw actual data regarding the anti-cancer properties of a compound found in cruciferous vegetables including broccoli called sulforaphane glucosinolate. This stuff is an amazing antioxidant that can reduce certain cancer tumor size and inhibit the formation of premalignant lesions in laboratory animal testing. It turns out that high levels of this compound are found in broccoli sprouts (very young broccoli). So, of course, I had to go get some. I went to the local Whole Foods here in SLC and actually found them.

These are called “Brocco Sprouts” and wouldn’t you know? They come out of Baltimore, MD and from a company called Brassica Protection Products. This company apparently seeks to commercialize research findings from Johns Hopkins University researchers! These sprouts are even patented (which I thought was odd – like couldn’t anyone grow these?). Well, I have some pictures here. As soon as I got home with them I opened them up and ate a huge mouthful. They taste absolutely awful! I could see them mixed into a salad or put on a sandwich and being decent.

UPDATE: I put some of the Brocco Sprouts into a penut butter and jelly sandwich ( yeah, that's right - don't judge me). I could not taste them at all, not bad.

UPDATE: Recent review article discussing sulforaphane and cancer, click here.

When cheese goes wrong!

2008-11-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Today, I had lunch from a catering service called Apple Spice Junction here in Salt Lake. We get these free lunches every now and then when a visiting seminar speaker comes into town. The lunch is an opportunity for the graduate students to interact with the visiting speaker. The menu varies from “the taco bar” to “the sandwich bar” and various others. Today was a special treat, vegetarian lasagna! This essentially means a huge pile of processed cheese abomination. I was able to secretly take a picture of this atrocity with a hidden spy camera. I wanted to share this with you because I feel you really need to hit rock bottom before you can appreciate the better things in life. I usually do not complain about free food and will always eat anything cheesy but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. Hat tip to C-bizzle.

Cheese is better when shared with friends!

2008-11-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I ate some cheese. This is not unusual of course, however, tonight it was with some friends. Sara, Alax, and Olive are stopping through SLC this evening on their way to Portland, OR. Sara will be moving to Portland next month, Alax is her homegirl tagging along for the road trip, and Olive is an adorable runaway circus dog they picked up along they way! Tonight I have two delicious cheeses to share with you. One is a blue cheese called Maytag, from Newton, Iowa. I heard about this cheese from my friend Jessica and so had to try it. The other cheese is pretty much the best cheddar I have had (to date) called Montgomery Farmhouse, from Somerset, England.

Sara: Cheddar - good, firm, not gross, not crumbly. Blue Cheese - A magical delight when placed on wholesome bread with "secret sauce".

Alax: Cheddar - mmmm, a great peppery taste. Blue Cheese - mmmm, creamy, mmmm. Also a fan of the sauce... the secret sauce.

Jay: You know, as far as blue cheese goes, this Maytag was up there! Really good, but it did not "melt" in my mouth like the Pena Corado. The Montgomery cheddar was freaking amazing! Best cheddar I've had in a while. Go get some!

Alax, Sara, and I eating cheese!

Olive approved this blog post!

Political Science

2008-11-15T15:16:00.001-08:00

Before I commented on the outcome of the 2008 presidential election I wanted to let it really soak in. Where were you when you saw history in the making? I pose that question to the few readers of this blog. For me it was American as it gets! I was at my favorite local beer & wings establishment with good friends. I ate freshly made apple pie (thanks again Kate!), Cajun-Lemon hot chicken wings, and lots of “near” beer. It was a great night. I distinctly remember how loud it was in there that night and how quite it became when John McCain gave is remarkably good concession speech and also when Barack Obama gave his victory speech. Both were brilliant speeches in my opinion and actually brought tears to several folks in the building that night.

I just wanted to thank both the candidates and especially Barack Obama for inspiring me to actually get motivated about the election process this time around. Granted, I have always had strong political views but often enough my motivation for politics fades fast. This time I was into it, watched every debate, donated $$ for lawn signs (that were stolen twice - Utah for you), and made damn sure to vote early.

I really hope Mr. Obama can bring it. Have you seen this website, www.change.gov ? This is definitely different from the normal governing we’ve been used to over the last several years and I hope a small part of the changes to come. In the spirit of being different I wanted to share with you these voting maps provided by physics professor Dr. Mark Newman at the University of Michigan. You’ve probably already seen this but I think it’s cool AND it's my blog!

This first map represents the 2008 election results by county. Doesn’t this seem strange? There is so much red but we know Obama won and convincingly.

As Dr. Newman describes, this standard way of looking at election results does not take into account population density. Therefore, using an algorithm that changes the shape and area of the voting districts based on the population of each county you see this strange looking map that now has much more blue than red! Pretty neat.

"Cheese - Milk's leap toward immortality"

2008-11-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

So I have been neglecting one of my favorite things and also a topic of discussion within this blog and that is cheese! So, I would like to share with you two delicious cheeses I recently purchased at my local fine foods store called Liberty Heights. I must say, these folks know what they are doing when it comes to cheese. If you remember to my first cheese post, I made the mistake of buying a super soft creamy cheese from the local supermarket where they wrap their cheeses in most likely normal plastic wrap that does not let the cheese breath. In that case the result was disgusting.

At Liberty Heights they wrap their cheeses in two ways. One way is with a special plastic wrap that has micro pores in it. This allows for the cheese to breath and not become disgusting, however, it probably still is not the best method. They also use a special paper that has a very porated thin plastic lining on the inside and is fused to a butcher paper material on the outside. This is apparently the best way to store it. I need to find some of this stuff? I got that information from a fellow named Matt who works there. He was just as excited about cheese as I am and he let me taste several before I decided to go with the following. First we have Pena Corado, that comes out of Leon, Spain. It’s a blue cheese and the rind is made of grape leaves, so cool! The taste of this cheese is amazing. As soon as it hits your mouth the heat there melts it away. It’s amazing. The second is called Ewehoria Gouda from the Netherlands. It’s a sheep’s milk Gouda which I thought was interesting in its self. I was sort of hoping that it was made with some worm wood extract or something like that! The cheese is rather firm, but the taste is fantastic. It didn't knock my socks off, but I would get it again for sure.

Myco-Diesel, believe it!

2008-11-09T13:39:00.000-08:00

Take a good look at the future of energy production! Okay, okay, I said no more energy related posts but this is just too darn interesting to pass up. Recently professor Gary Strobel of Montana State University, noted for his many natural product discoveries, has identified a type of fungus called Gliocladium roseum (see image) that apparently has the capability to produce small chain volatile hydrocarbons better known as components of diesel fuel. These compounds have been cleverly coined “myco-diesel”. His work is published in the current volume of Microbiology. This fungus was discovered living inside an ancient species of tree called "ulmo" that resides in northern Patagonia. This fungi is known as an endophyte or a bacteria/fungus that lives within a plant symbiotically. Once Dr. Strobel and his team isolated the fungi they began a series of studies to determine what compounds it produced under different growth media conditions. By measuring gases released to the air space above the culturing conditions using solid phase micro-extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques, the group found that this fungus growing in an oatmeal or pure cellulose growth medium (under low oxygen conditions) produces many of the volatile derivatives commonly found in diesel fuel. These compounds include octane, heptane, undecane, and benzene as well as a series of many straight-chained alkane acetyl esters. This is not the first microorganism shown to produce some sort of hydrocarbon, however, this finding is surprising because of the breadth of low weight hydrocarbons shown to be produced and under these growth conditions. The researchers by no means are claiming to start filling up your gas tank with this fungus, however, suggest that studies of the genetic mechanisms responsible for such hydrocarbon production may be an important area of energy research in the future. An interesting remark made in the paper is the idea of where fossil fuels come from. Geologists have traditionally viewed fossil fuels as the products of ancient organic material subjected to intense geological conditions over huge amounts of time. This work suggests that it may be possible to create such fossil fuels on a much faster time scale.

Stress Fracture

2008-11-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

The last several weeks have been pretty hectic. I have been working on my dissertation proposal. The title of my dissertation proposal reads as, “Changes to protein expression and cell function in astrocytes in an animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy”, or something like that! Basically, I am interested in finding out what happens to these astrocytes during epileptogenesis or the process or processes that take place in the brain after an injury that ultimately results in seizures and epilepsy. These astrocytes are such interesting cells and actually out number neurons 10 to 1 in the mammalian brain.

This research work is a far cry from my chemistry degree and post-mortem toxicology experience that I received from my time at the medical examiner’s office in Phoenix. I must say, I really love this neuroscience stuff though. The brain is so damn interesting! Even though we know a good bit about how it works there is so much we do not know and that keeps me motivated to keep on going. All the work I had been putting into my proposal finally came to a close last Monday when I had to present my proposal to my entire department (faculty and students! yikes). Now that it’s over I have since received a lot of great feedback from students and faculty. So that’s good.

Now that things are a little less stressful I have been trying to ride my bike more often. I was planning on riding my commuter bike everyday next week but that does not appear to be possible. When I was riding the good old commuter bike home from school last Thursday I got up to pedal from being stopped at a light and when I started to pedal my right crank arm broke clean off!! It was quite amazing. How is it that even possible? It’s a huge chunk of metal? Anyway, I thought I would share the pictures of the broken crank. I am hoping I will be able to find a replacement part but that may not be possible as my commuter bike is actually pretty old and uses older bicycle technology. This bike was actually my very first mountain bike, thanks Dad!

Bicycle Love

2008-10-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share with you some pictures I took of my bicycle stable (my apartment living room). These pictures were taken about a year ago now. One of my favorite hobbies is working on these old bikes. It is amazing what some fine brass wool and a touch of WD-40 can do to a rusty old piece of chrome! Aside from my primary commuter bike and road bike (which I will blog about at another time) I try to only take in older vintage bicycles that were made in or before 1973. This is the year when most Schwinn bicycles stopped being made in the good old USA at their main Chicago factory. I have a slight preference for Schwinns, however as you can see in the pic, I can allow non-schwinn bicycles into my home from time to time! Also, to be honest, I have brought in some early 80’s road bikes in an assortment of brands which can be a lot of fun to fix up. What can I say, it’s hard to control this addiction!

Lately, I have thinned out my collection and actually every bicycle in these pictures has now moved on to new, hopefully happy, owners. The bicycle scene here in Salt Lake has really grown since I first arrived. New community bicycle projects like the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective have been real champions of spreading bicycle love around town. However, a draw back to this re-birth of bicycle enjoyment has been that it is much harder to find good project bicycles for a reasonable price. These days folks assume if their bike was made at least 10 years ago it’s “vintage” and worth $300+. It has been getting a little silly out there but you can still find good deals. If you like getting your hands dirty, go find an old bike, fix it up, and ride it!

"new-kyu-ler" vs. "new-clear"

2008-10-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

I promise that this will be the last politically inspired and energy related post for a while but let’s face it, this is an important election and energy is an important issue.

Although commonly mispronounced we all understand that nuclear energy is an important component of energy production and consumption in the US. In my opinion nuclear energy is the ultimate technology trap. A technology trap occurs when people become too depended on a technology and eventually become slaves to it. There is no better example of this than the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (PVNGS) located just 45 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona (even closer to my home town of Peoria, AZ). As the country’s largest nuclear power station, boasting three reactors, do you think the size and function of cites such as Phoenix and Las Vegas would be possible with out it? The PVNGS was built in 1985 and is now pretty old and on the “re-build”-everything or shutdown list from Nuclear Regulator Commission.

What got me thinking about this topic are some recent quotes from the 2008 presidential debates that have stuck in my mind (I’ll leave it to you to decide who said it – seee… at least I am fair and balanced!)

“And -- and I know that we can reprocess the spent nuclear fuel. The Japanese, the British, the French do it. And we can do it, too.”

“We can eliminate our dependence on foreign oil by building 45 new nuclear plants, power plants, right away.”

I had no idea you could reprocess spent nuclear fuel! It was my understanding that no one knew what to do with this stuff, which is why we have been planning for many years to store it all underground in caves for lack of an alternative. Have you ever heard of Yucca Mountain?

As it turns out, reprocessing spent nuclear fuel does occur. Several countries have the capability to reprocess and there are two large scale commercial reprocessing plants worldwide, one in the UK and one in France. Fuel rods used in nuclear power stations are comprised of concentrated uranium and have an average life of 4 years. At the end of this time the uranium has largely been converted to plutonium by the fission reaction greatly reducing its efficiency in producing energy. In reprocessing, the spend fuel rods are dissolved in acid and the plutonium and uranium are separated. The recovered uranium goes back into producing new rods and the now enriched plutonium is mixed with natural uranium to make a fuel known as Mox. While less efficient than new uranium rods, Mox has a substantial amount of potential energy as a fuel and is sold for use in nuclear power plants set up to use it world wide. It is important to note that this process is NOT clean and at the end of reprocessing there is a significant amount of radioactive waste produced that must be dealt with. Salt Lake City’s very own Energy Solutions corporation recently just tried to import large amounts of post-process radioactive waste from Italy for permanent storage at the company’s west desert storage site. Strong opposition to this shipment has so far prevented this transaction from occurring.

So why doesn’t the US reprocess the 2000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel that it produces each year? It turns out that nearly three decades ago the US decided on non-proliferation grounds not to reprocess. It has to do with one of those by-products I mentioned earlier, enriched plutonium. The plutonium generated in reprocessing, if not turned into Mox, is perfect for the production of nuclear weapons. There are many concerned with what exactly we would do with all the plutonium generated from reprocessing, what if it got into the hands of terrorists? Did I mention that we live in uncertain, dangerous, troubling times?

Terrorism concerns aside, if you do some quick Google searches of: nuclear+ reprocessing+ Europe, you will find many articles describing the pain involved in moving waste from one country to another country that has reprocessing capabilities, disputes over who will reprocess what and when, and countries vetting locations to store their waste here or there. Basically it’s a cluster out there and currently the US does not have to worry about a lot of it, because we do not reprocess. The flipside is that we store our spent fuel waste on-site and we are endlessly looking for a big rock hole to shove it all in. So, is new-clear energy the solution to all of our energy problems? I think it can be part of it but it certainly comes with substantial baggage. I predict if the US goes on a nuclear power plant building rampage it will only be a matter of time before something goes terribly wrong. Also, if we become a leader in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, look for shipments of waste from around the world heading to a backyard near you!

Trifecta

2008-10-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

It has been several days since my last post. So, I bring you a trifecta post! Yes, that’s right, Bicycles, Cheese, and Science, all in one post! My entertaining sister Carrie is in town right now for the 35th annual SACNAS conference that we both attended and presented scientific posters at. The conference presents research from all facets of science, however, the theme of this years meeting revolved around the polar sciences. Once again, any doubts I might of had regarding human influence on climate change were trampled by the research presentations from climatologists from all over the world documenting the unprecedented change that is happening to our planet right now.

In true bicycle nerd fashion we rode our bikes from my house to the convention center to partake in the over 2,000 attendee meeting.

It was quite a meeting with lots of interesting research going on and very nice accommodations. Carrie and I met a new friend named Vanesa at the meeting. She attends the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City. We hope to stay in touch with her.

I was very proud of my sister and I. We both had many folks interested in our posters!

To really round out the experience, why not celebrate with a delicious post-meeting breakfast that of course included CHEESE! We picked up this Spanish style “Gran Queso” from the market. It is made by the Roth Kase cheese company in Monroe, Wisconsin. I thought it was quite delicious. It went well sliced thinly over our mushroom omelets. Carrie did not like the cheese, not because it wasn’t delicious, but because she prefers less firm cheeses. Hope you enjoy!

I'll take the double decker please…(no mayo!)

2008-10-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

In order to avoid any confusion about the purpose of this blog, I thought on its inaugural day I would create one post of each of the topics this blog is meant to discuss. I think bicycles and bicycle riding are one of the greatest inventions and activities one can be involved with. Within this blog I will try to share with you bicyclist related stories for your reading pleasure.

I took this photograph on recent Denver, CO trip visiting my old college roommate. In the downtown area before attending a Colorado Rockies baseball game I spotted a very unusual bicycle. As you can see with some crafty (but safe?) welding someone merged two bicycle frames into one to create this double decker bicycle. Here in SLC I have been seeing more and more of these types of bicycles. Aside from my obvious questions like how do you get on it? What do you do at a stop light?, etc., my major critique is who welded it and is it safe? The last time I saw one of these bicycles it was at night and the rider was going in the opposite direction of traffic, wearing dark clothing, had no helmet on, and had no lights! Riding your bicycle under these conditions alone is dangerous enough and certainly would be made worse if you hit a bump and your crappy welding job gave way. I will try taking a closer look at the welds and design of one these bicycles in a future blogpost.

“When a dog has money, he buys cheese.”

2008-10-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, my local Smith’s Marketplace has quite the selection of various cheeses. As the first cheese-related post on the BC&S blog, I thought I would mention that I love cheese! I do not discriminate cheeses based on brand, cost, or where it is purchased for that matter. With that said, let us take a look at a wedge of French Saint Albray I picked up this afternoon.

I chose this cheese because it looked creamy and delicious! Typical of grocery store cheeses, it was wrapped in plastic wrap. When I opened it, the odor was QUITE STRONG! My first reaction was that it smelled like dirty gym shoes. However, I have had stinky cheeses before and know that in some cases a cheese can smell sort of funny but taste quite remarkable.

I decided to let it air out a bit and took the picture you see. After about 20 minutes I decided to go for it. I smeared a piece onto some bread and popped it in my mouth. I immediately popped it right out! This stuff is absolutely rotten and tasted just like it smelled. I am not sure even Andrew Zimmern would be into this stuff. I was very disappointed to say the least and my first cheese blogpost no less! From what I can tell Saint Albray should be very good. I have a feeling that this cheese needs to breath, not be wrapped in plastic wrap, and perhaps be stored at a certain temperature that the grocery store is not set up to accommodate. Well, there you go. Hopefully the next cheese is better!

Clean coal technology, an oxymoron?

2008-10-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been hearing the 2008 presidential candidates clamor about clean coal technology and how it’s a way for our nation to utilize this most abundant fossil fuel and free us from foreign energy dependence. But is clean coal really clean?

Apparently, the cleanest coal plant in North America is in rural Florida. They call it clean because at this plant they use a technique called gasification. Here, steam and hot pressurized air or oxygen is combined with coal in a reaction that forces carbon molecules apart. The resulting gas, called syngas, is then burned in gas turbines to make electricity.

Other forms of “clean” coal technology include filtering the flue gas (the billowing clouds you see coming out of smoke stacks) with wet scrubbers. Here, the flue gas is sprayed with limestone and water. This mixture reacts with the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen, and soot that are present in the flue gas to form an inert powder that can be collected and discarded. Coal washing is another popular technique. In this process unwanted minerals in the coal are removed by crushing the coal and mixing it with a liquid and allowing the impurities to separate and settle.

However, “There is no coal plant that captures the carbon dioxide and that’s the major long-term pollutant”, says James Hansen NASA’s expert on global warming. This is where clean coal technologies fall short because if you believe that our civilization’s carbon emissions are contributing to global warming like I certainly do the creation of many more of these cleaner coal plants will probably do more harm than good.

Many scientists believe there is a solution. They believe it's possible to recover most of the carbon dioxide and store it underground. The idea is called carbon sequestration and the race is on to develop new technologies in order to do this. America's efforts to sequester carbon have stalled. The Department of Energy planned to fund the construction of a plant in Illinois called FutureGen, but pulled all funding when the price grew too high. I just checked the DOE website and it appears the program is struggling to come back online in a cost-shared collaboration between the government and industry, which they are calling the Restructured FutureGen program. So, we will have to wait and see if the project can get back on its feet.

In theory, it would seem beneficial to remove excess carbon from our atmosphere. However, I am not aware if storing tons of captured carbon underground or tossing it into deep ocean abyssal caves (which is what I am assuming you would do with all the carbon you have collected) is a good idea for the planet in general and will most likely require another blogpost on the topic.