I’ve been planning on visiting California Academy of Science since it’s re-opening on September 27th, 2008 and now it’s already 2010. It’s amazing how time flies! But I think this year I’ll have to put the extra effort and mark my calendar.

I’m planning on September 25th. As this will be the 6th annual FREE museum day sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine and Toyota Avalon.

Regular admission is pricey (and it’s gone up since the 2008 opening). So this is a great chance for people to visit for free.

The Academy is one of the most memorable Bay Area attractions, and is a great place to bring friends and family.

General Admission
Adult $29.95
Senior (ages 65 and over) $24.95
Student $24.95
Youth (ages 12-17) $24.95
Child (ages 4-11) $19.95
Ages 3 and under FREE

Before you can get in, you’ll have to go to the Smithsonian website and fill out a form to download your free ticket. It is valid for two people and one ticket per household.

Read the rest of this entry »

When we think of super food, we usually think of blueberries or even exotic fruits such as acai berries coming from Brazil.

Dr. Zhimin Xu of Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge has new promising research on the health benefits of black rice.

He stated, “Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar and more fiber and vitamin E antioxidants.”

Anthocyanin antioxidants are commonly found in such foods that are red, purple, or blue in color.  Such as strawberries, grapes, red onion, and more.

These antioxidants have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

The only black rice I’m familiar with is Japonica Black rice and Chinese Black rice. We usually refer to them as purple rice. And it’s best cooked as rice pudding or other desserts.

Photo from The Prepared Pantry.

Read the rest of this entry »

I saw this cute furry animal from a Pier 1 Import ad recently.

I was thinking it was a fox, but exactly what type of fox I wasn’t sure.

Then M told me these are probably a desert fox due to it’s large ears. As large ears help to radiate body heat and help them keep cool.

And he’s right, they are fennec fox found in the desert of North Africa.

There are many type of desert foxes, but the cutest and smallest one of them all is fennec fox.

Fennec foxes are found in the Saharan desert. The term fennec comes from Arabic meaning fox. They live in underground sandy dens with up to ten other fennec foxes. Being nocturnal helps them stay cool when hunting at night.

It’s a luxe life for the fennec fox! Photo from Pier 1 Imports.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the future, hopefully all cars will become more “green.” But the cost of green cars such as hybrids are still expensive. Especially when you think of having to replace the batteries.

In June of 2008, hybrid car manufactures such as Toyota and Honda started to lower the prices of the car’s replacement batteries.

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. Image from Wiki Commons.

For Honda, the cost of its batteries went from $3,400 (excluding installation) to as low as $1,968 on an Insight. And as high as $2,440 on an Accord hybrid. Toyota also reduce their battery prices, which is at $3,000 (excluding installation), down from $5,500 on the original Prius.

That would seem to be good news to many hybrid owners that will need to replace their batteries soon. That was two years ago.

But now there is another issue with the battery. The LA Times reported recently in August that Honda mailed out letters to more than 100,000 owners of 2006, 2007 and 2008 Civics in the U.S. and Canada. The letter stated the batteries “may deteriorate and eventually fail” earlier then expected. The company states a software fix would solve the problem.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I think of Luang Prabang (in Laos), I usually think of clean and quaint streets. Along with sacred Buddhist temples and other beautiful scenery.

But then I came across this article. The author was talking about how plastic bags are becoming a polluting sight seen along roadsides to landing between crops.

There are also sight of rubbish mounds (mostly of plastic bags) being burn across many villages.  Which only adds to more air pollution.  It really saddens me to hear this.

A unique way to take cabbages from the market. Plastic or Rattan? Photo from EatingAsia.

An excerpt from EatingAsia:

Each item, purchased from a different vendor, will be placed into its own clear plastic bag –, and each of those bags slipped into another, larger one. Customers leave the market with their fingers dripping yellow, pink, black, red plastic bags.

Most of those bags will never see a second use. If you live or have traveled here you’ve probably seen where they can end up: alongside roads, strewn over hillsides, on beaches, blanketing land resting between crops.”

What ever happened to traditional market baskets? The nicely weaved ones that can carry loads of vegetables. Even heavy duty and reusable nylon bags and cotton bags would be a better choice.

To my surprise, not all hope is lost.  As market vendors came up with this neat idea.  Instead of “Paper or Plastic? In Luang Prabang, it’s plastic or rattan strips?”

Other vegetables that can be strung and carry this way are bamboo shoots, lettuce, and even small bunches of herbs such as peppermint. I think it’s a great idea!  

Read the rest of this entry »

From nature’s world of cactus, we have sisal.  It is part of the cactus family of agave (Agave sisalana).

It’s not only used to make sisal rugs, but also other products such as hats, bags, cat scratch post, and much more.

The leaves have very pointy looking tips.  They also produce flowers too. Photo from Wikipedia.

The plants are grown in large plantations in such places as Brazil. Sisal prefer tropical warm climate and is drought tolerate. They are propagated from bulbils or rhizomes from mature plants. They take about 3 to 5 years to mature and can produced leaves for up to 8 years. And like hemp, chemical fertilizer is not used in growing sisal. So that is a plus for sisal farmers.

The top 3 sisal producing countries are Brazil, Tanzania, and China.  Other countries that produce and export sisal include South Africa and Kenya.

In sisal production, the leaves are dried, then brushed with a machine, and finally pressed into bales to be exported.  Pretty simple but I’m sure is hard work!

Read the rest of this entry »

A long while back, I was thinking of getting a new car. And I almost got myself a little VW Golf TDI (diesel). It was a fuel efficient car getting about 40 mpg highway. The key point being TDI: Turbocharged Direct Injection.

But that was a long time ago and California car dealers could not sell the TDI. It was due to the state’s diesel compliant law. Luckily that is not the case anymore for Californians.

Here is the new VW Golf TDI. TDI vehicles is marketed by VW as “high-performance, fuel-efficient, and environmentally conscious”. Unfortunately the hybrid version is still only a concept car.

Photo from The Car Connection. The car was reviewed last year for the 2010 market starting at $23K.

I would love to own a hybrid electric vehicle. But even if I did need a new car, the price range of some of these hybrids are still too much for me.

Read the rest of this entry »

“There came a Day at Summer’s full/ Entirely for me.” - Emily Dickenson

It’s August and I am taking in all the beauty of this season. The sun is always shining and flowers are in full bloom.

And one of the most unforgettable flower I saw in bloom are water lotus. It was just a few weeks ago when I took my mother to the local Buddhist temple and got to witness this for the first time.

So on my next visit to the temple I had my camera ready to capture some of the blooms. But sadly it looked like all the flowers were gone. But what remained was something just as interesting. There were pods after pods of water lotus seeds.

Here is a photo of the youngest pod. During the life cycle of the water lotus, the flower blooms, the petals die out and then the fruit pod grows. Eventually the dried pods drops off and float on the surface of the water flat side down. This way the seeds can sink to the bottom of the pond and a new cycle begins.

Read the rest of this entry »

I first learned about jaboticaba from The Fruit Hunter. It’s probably one of the most interesting, if not unusual fruit I’ve ever knew is in existence.

Brazil would be a fruit lovers dream destination as it’s known for it’s many variety of unique fruits, especially the Acai berries. Jaboticaba is probably loaded with vitamins just by looking at the dark purplish color of the skin.

This reminds me of modern art where someone decides to place each giant grape along the tree trunks. Image source: Wikipedia/Jabuticaba

According to the California Rare Fruit Growers, this fruit is from the same species as camu-camu. It can also be grown successfully from Florida to Hawaii. Some are also grown in southern California and also as far north as the San Jose and San Francisco Bay areas. The plant grows well as a container specimen.

The fruit is described as tasting very similar to Muscadine grapes. But the skin contains tannin so it makes your lips pucker. The real treat is probably the sweet flesh. It’s described as being delicious eaten out-of-hand. And it can be made into jellies, jams and wine.

Read the rest of this entry »

These are Mexican Evening Primrose. I planted the seeds last year in my mom’s flower garden. And they finally starting to bloom this summer.

Since it took so long to bloom, I had thought the seeds were dud and I got weeds instead. Especially since the plant just kept on growing leaves for most of the year.

During the spring, I had wanted to pull the whole thing out because I didn’t see any flowers. And I also wanted to make room to grow other flowers too. But I’m glad I didn’t. The Mexican Evening Primrose are especially nice late in the evening when the breeze comes by and it starts to sway.

Read the rest of this entry »