utenzi

A few weeks ago while at Wal-mart, Julie and I picked up some plants. She picked up several spice plants like rosemary and sage and I picked up a green pepper plant. Julie's been using the leaves from her spice plants for a while now but my peppers are only starting to get some size on them. But in a few more weeks... they'll be on the grill getting all tender and sweet. Yum.

I woke up early on Sunday and captured these images before the sun burned the dew off the plants. As you can probably tell, I ramped up the green quality of the Lamb's Ear a little in Photoshop. They just looked a little too boring with just a muted green coloration. Like they should be called Sheep's Ear instead. Personally I think something named "lamb" should be a little brighter and more vivacious thus the help from Photoshop.

I finally started watching this season's episodes of Heroes . What a show. I watched the first 3 episodes in the wee hours of Monday morning and then watched the fourth episode just a few minutes ago. The show is just a little less compelling this season than last but I still like it a lot. There's a couple of new shows this season that are rivaling Heroes for quality but it's still up there near the top. That's better than Lost did going into its second season! I watched Friday's pilot episode of ABC's Women's Murder Club over the weekend and was surprised to find that I liked it. It was very familiar, seeming like a cross between Bones and Crossing Jordan , but it wasn't all that bad. Certainly better than those two shows. And given its roots in James Patterson's books, I didn't have much hope for it. It's not easy to rise above bad material. But it started off pretty well. On the other hand, Jimmy Smits and his show Cane are starting ...

We tend to think of plants as being innocent but consider their private parts. We don't view our own genitals as being innocent--witness how much effort is made to keep them hidden. So how can you view the balls of a pine, seen above, as being okay for children to see? Hell, the picture below nearly makes me blush it's so lush and naughty. Perhaps we should be censoring nature in addition to our art museums and magazine stands. Just a thought...

You might wonder what plants have to do with peripheral nervous system receptors. It does seem a little odd to associate the two. However there's an article in yesterday's issue of Nature (May 30, 2007) regarding the menthol receptor TRPM8 and how it senses cold. In so doing, the receptor illuminates a mechanism that mediates how the body experiences strong stimuli like temperature that can cause pain. As such, the receptor -- known as menthol receptor TRPM8 -- provides a target for studying acute and chronic pain, as can result from inflammatory or nerve injury, the researchers say, and a potential new target for treating pain. The senior author on this paper is David Julius, chairman and professor of physiology at UCSF. In 2002, his lab discovered that the TRPM8 receptor was activated by chemical cooling agents such as menthol, a natural product of mint, and cool air. According to Dr Julius, "It's been known for years that menthol and related cooling agents evoke th...