IS CHOCOLATE the key to cognitive success? Curious about the much-heralded benefits of flavonoids, found in chocolate as well as wine, Franz Messerli of St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York collected data on average chocolate consumption in various countries and compared it to those countries’ per-capita share of last year’s Nobel prizes.
Switzerland stood at the top of both rankings, and when Messerli plotted the numbers for other countries, they showed an impressively strong correlation, he writes in the New England Journal of Medicine (vol 367, p 1562).
“The minimally effective chocolate dose seems to hover around 2 kilograms per year,” Messerli states, “and the dose-response curve reveals no apparent ceiling on the number of Nobel laureates at the highest chocolate-dose level of 11 kilograms per year.” In other words - if we have understood this right - the more chocolate people eat, the more Nobel prizes their country gets.
It remains to be determined whether chocolate provides the vital brain boost, says Messerli, but, as a native of Switzerland himself, he admits to “regular daily chocolate consumption”.
The discovery came as no surprise to Eric Cornell, a US physicist who received the Nobel prize in physics in 2001. “I attribute essentially all my success to the very large amount of chocolate that I consume,” he told Reuters, and he heartily endorsed dark chocolate as “the way to go” when pursuing physics laurels.
Chocolate alone may not do the trick for most of us, but Feedback predicts it could put Messerli on track for a future Ig Nobel prize.
I Fought the Lawn and the Lawn Won
(around a picture of dandelions)
So Few Men, So Few Who Can Afford Me
I Suffer Occasional Delusions of Adequacy
If They Don’t Have Chocolate In Heaven, I Ain’t Going
At My Age, I’ve Seen It All, Done It All, Heard It All…
I Just Can’t Remember It All
My Mother Is A Travel Agent For Guilt Trips
Princess, Having Had Sufficient Experience With Princes, Seeks Frog
No, It Doesn’t Hurt
(on a “well-tattooed” man)
If You Can Read This, My Wife Fell Off
(on the back of a passing motorcyclist)
Yale Is Just One Big Party… (on the Front)
…With a $25,000 Cover Charge (on the back)
Coffee, Chocolate, Men … Some Things Are Just Better Rich
Liberal Arts Major … Will Think For Money
Growing Old is Inevitable; Growing Up is Optional
Gravity: It’s Not Just a Good Idea - It’s the Law.
If At First You Don’t Succeed, Skydiving Isn’t For You
Old Age Comes at a Bad Time
| — |
Stan Kegel |
The facade of Big Tree Farm’s all-bamboo chocolate factory
Image Gallery (7 images)We’ve seen cutting boards, bicycles, floors, even houses made of bamboo, but an organic chocolate factory? Evidently, when Ben Ripple and Frederick Schilling, the two co-CEOs of specialty food company Big Tree Farms (BTF) talked about sustainably building their new plant, they put their money where their mouths are. Now, the Indonesian island of Bali is home to what BTF claims is the largest all-bamboo commercial building ever constructed, and soon, it’ll be cranking out tasty chocolate bars by the thousands.
“Bamboo is definitely regarded as one of the most sustainable building materials in the world,” said Schilling. “What we’ve done here is created this very, very practical building using bamboo with, obviously, sustainability at the core purpose, but at the same time, we were able to create a very aesthetically beautiful building.”
If you’ve traveled anywhere in Asia, you’ve likely seen skyscrapers and other tall structures surrounded by bamboo scaffolding. Indeed, bamboo has been a vitally important building material for thousands of years, and for good reason. Not only does it grow quickly - some species can sprout close to a meter (39 inches) in a 24-hour period - but it also rivals the tensile and compressive strengths of mild steel and certain concrete mixtures respectively. Technically a grass, some of the largest timber species can grow to over 98 feet (30 m) in height and reach 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) in diameter.
As amazing as it is structurally, bamboo still has a few limitations that need to be addressed before it can be used in open construction. Savvy builders now know to treat the wood with both borax (fire retardant) and boric acid (insecticide), to help protect the occupants and keep termites and other wood-boring pests at bay. A majority of the interior walls, made from woven bamboo strips, were also sealed with a food-grade coating to satisfy local building code requirements.
BTF’s intention is for its traditionally-styled new 26,500 square foot (2,460 square meter) structure to be a “beans to bar” processing plant that will take the organic cacao from thousands of regional farmers and blend it with locally-harvested coconut-palm sugar to create a truly sustainable (and presumably delicious) new line of chocolates. How sweet is that?
Source: WAN
For men who say, Why buy a cow when you can get the milk for free:
it’s not worth buying an entire pig just to get a little sausage.
Men are like….
1. Men are like Laxatives. They irritate the crap out of you.
2 Men are like Bananas. The older they get, the less firm they are.
3. Men are like Weather. Nothing can be done to change them.
4. Men are like Blenders. You need one, but you’re not quite sure why.
5. Men are like Chocolate Bars. Sweet, smooth, & they usually head right for your hips.
6. Men are like Commercials. You can’t believe a word they say.
7. Men are like Department Stores. Their clothes are always 1/2 off!
8. Men are like Government Bonds. They take soooooooo long to mature.
9. Men are like Mascara. They usually run at the first sign of emotion.
10. Men are like Popcorn. They satisfy you, but only for a little while.
11. Men are like Snowstorms. You never know when they’re coming, how many inches you’ll get or how long it will last.
12. Men are like Lava Lamps. Fun to look at, but not very bright.
13. Men are like Parking Spots. All the good ones are taken, the rest are handicapped.
