To me, it makes nonsense to eat hamburgers and French fries in a traditional restaurant. So last weekend I was amused to see several customers did just that in the Ruby Tuesday, a family restaurant chain. If they want to eat hamburgers, why don’t they go to fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s or Arby’s which are right across the hall? Are there any big differences between hamburgers made in the Ruby Tuesday and McDonald’s?

On the other hand, I was disturbed to find that in the kid’s menu, all that the Ruby Tuesday offers are hamburgers, chicken strips, and macaroni cheese, generously supplied with French fries. They are not different from those happy meals in fast food restaurants.

I was even more upset when my son came home announcing that he ate a hamburger or a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch these days. He commented that they were delicious. Kids are now flooded with high fat and high protein foods with little vegetables, unless you count French fries as vegetables.

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It has been a tradition in China to send seeds of plants and fungus to the out space, hoping the out space radiation can create some exotic mutations in them. In Sep. 9, 2006, a research satellite was launched in Jiuquan Satellite Center, with 215 (!) km seeds in its body. It is the largest payload ever sent to the out space since 1987.

Chinese researchers have claimed that seeds bred in the out space can improve their yields, quality and efficiency. However, this is an illusion. There is no evidence outside China suggesting that mutation caused by space radiation is better than those caused by machine-generated radiation or by chemical stimulants. Furthermore, space radiation won’t guarantee a favorable mutation. Mutation is random in its own way, no matter what sources cause it. Finally, radiation in space by no means differs significantly from radiation created on earth. They are all similar to x-rays.

Apparently, other space giants never buy this Chinese invention. No country is willing to waste billions of dollars sending seeds to the out space. Probably they have figured that space breeding is not a science at all. In fact, I guess that Chinese space breeding program is a descendent of old Lamark’s theory and Lysenko’s crazy idea in which one can manipulate environment to create better genes, or favorable gene mutation can be determined by environment.

Ironically, there are some agriculture products in Chinese market claiming they are from space seeds. However, there is no evidence suggesting those claims are true. It’s more like a self-serving lie. There is no comparison study showing that seeds bred in the out space are indeed better that those bred on the earth. China needs to do some scientific experiments to justify its claim and further space seed breeding program. We need some real statistics.

Ancel Keys is a prominent physiologist and epidemiologist who devoted his life to human nutrition. His semi-starvation study in 1950 clearly (and may be unethical by current research code) demonstrated the physiological change during gradual starvation. He postulated that cholesterol is the culprit of cardiovascular disease and was praised as “the cholesterol-man” by Time magazine in 1961.

Keys’ influential contributions to science and to our understanding of health are indisputable. But to common people, it is worth noting that Keys is the first person who promoted low-saturated fat diets, specifically, the Mediterranean diet. Ancel Keys and his wife, Margaret, wrote a series of cooking books on this topic and became a millionaire many years ago.

I met him once. At that time, he was 99 and was in wheelchair but appeared in good shape. When I was introduced to him, he nodded and commented “good.” He lived two more years and died just before his 101 birthday. His fruitful and rich life may make a lot of us feel jealous.

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200 years of history is surprisingly short for a staple food. Potato was a miscellaneous prize when Spanish Conquistadors subdued the Inca empire during the 1500s. However, this ugly vegetable tube didn’t receive warm welcome from Europeans except from Irish peasants who were cheap, daring, and always in hunger. Even in Ireland, potato was considered unholy because it was not mentioned in the Bible. Queen Elizabeth’s chef once served the Queen not with the edible tube but with the leaves which sickened the Queen. Nevertheless, later the potato was adopted by French and eventually was spread over the whole world. Now in the northern China, people never question the belief that potato is their native food.

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Minamata city (水俣市) is by no means a beautiful city, but it has a nice bay. Located on the west coast of Kyushu island (one of the four large islands in Japan), the city is still quite remote even by Japanese standard.

This little town in the spring of 1956 looked not much different from that in previous years. Walking in the street, you could see cats rolling or dancing madly, and occasionally people stumbled stupidly. Not far away, there were dead fish floating in the bay. Residents had gotten used to these bizarre things.

But something was strange this year. It seemed more and more people behaved like a mad or drunk person. Rumors had spread all over the town. There was an infectious disease circulating in the town. Superstitious people suspected that those affected people had committed sins, or were haunted by ghosts.

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It is very sad but maybe a little bit irony that one of the most enthusiastic animal lovers, Steve Irwin, was killed by a stingray, a type of fish rarely kills people. In fact, Steve is the second person killed by a stingray during the last fifty years in Australia.

Steve is famous for his master skills in handling dangerous animals such as crocodiles and toxic snakes. His show, called Crocodile Hunter and aired in the Animal Planet Channel, is an eye-opening and jaw-dropping presentation. Often seen as crouching towards an unsuspected crocodile or being chased by an angry one, Steve masks the seriousness of danger in that situation by his light chat and nimble movements. To some extent, he is an entertainer rather than a claimed naturist.

Furthermore, because of his deceptive presentation and exaggerating gesture, kids love to watch his show. However, this creates a dilemma. Although Steve tried hard to tell the audience that these are dangerous animals, he insisted that with love from your heart, you could handle crocodile as he did. Unfortunately, this is not true. Even if my heart is full of love, crocodiles and snakes may perceive my love differently and may mistake my approach as an intrusion to his territory. Kids need to know the truth. Are crocodiles dangerous? Can they kill people? Is that OK to touch a toxic snake? Can we chase a snake? Any sane parents will say no to all of the above questions. In this respect, Steve gave kids false information.

Needless to say, Steve’s untimely death is a big loss for all of us, especially for those animal lovers. Steve holds religious view of animal rights and wildlife. He is a hero in the eyes of his fans. He is the son of nature, and he returns to her finally.