Eideard

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 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…”

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 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?

Rock on, guys! Offer dark chocolate variations on the theme and I’ll be first in line.

Those who eat more chocolate have a 37 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who eat little, according to a Cambridge University analysis of seven separate studies, containing in total over 100,000 people.

They also have a 29 per cent lower chance of stroke, although they do not have a lower risk of heart failure.

The studies, which followed people in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the US and Japan for about a decade on average, did not focus on dark chocolate alone, which is believed to be the most beneficial type.

Rather, they included consumption of other types including milk chocolate and chocolate bars, drinks, biscuits and desserts.

Dr Oscar Franco, from the university’s Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, said no one really understood why chocolate appeared to be so good for heart health.

He said: “Foods are very complex structures where many substances interact to have a beneficial effect…”

Dr Franco presented the results at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Paris on Monday, while a paper has also been published in the British Medical Journal…

He said it only suggested two pieces of chocolate a day; while other studies have indicated a mere 20 to 50g – a small bar’s worth – is enough…

And while the analysis did not differentiate between different types of chocolate, he said it was clear that dark chocolate was the healthier option, as it contained less sugar and fat.

We’ve posted about the chocolate effect before. I certainly take it to heart [pun intended] as does my partner in the Deep South, KB.

I eat a little bit of chocolate almost every evening. Sometimes 72% dark chocolate, sometimes 85% dark.

Linda Bird couldn’t believe it when agents from the U.S. Border patrol at the crossing between Manitoba and Minnesota told her she had illegal contraband in her car – and that she faced the possibility of a $300 fine.

The unlawful property in question: a Kinder Surprise egg she had bought as a gift…

The family was driving to Ontario to visit her two daughters and going through the United States, which is a shorter drive, Bird said…

“They told us it was prohibited,” she said in an interview with the Star. Then they handed her a list of prohibited items that are not allowed in the United States which she took, escaping with just a warning.

“We kind of thought of it as more of a nuisance. We left. I didn’t think anything more about it.” That is until last week when she got a seven-page letter from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. The letter asked her if she wanted the egg back or if she was going to abandon any rights to it.

“I was in disbelief,” she said. “It’s a two-dollar egg. Why make a big fuss over it? Just throw it in the garbage.”

If she doesn’t sign the letter, let U.S. Customs and Border officials know whether she wants the egg, and return it within five business days, she also could be liable for $250 in storage costs for the egg in the event of a legal challenge.

When President Obama speaks of eliminating foolish spending by the government, he might wish to start with crap like this. Especially the part about storing confiscated items, charging for the storage – and I’ll bet there’s an equally complex and useless procedure for their disposal.

Thanks, Mr. Fusion

Could this corrupt your local gendarmes?

A Polish man arrested by police on suspicion of drunk cycling faces up to 10 years in prison after allegedly attempting to bribe the police officers with two pieces of chocolate fudge.

Prosecutors have charged the man, known only as Leszek, with being drunk in charge of a bicycle and attempting to pass on “material benefits” to the police.

The man apparently offered the fudge to the officers as he sat in their patrol car after being found asleep beside his bike by a road in the eastern town of Minsk Mazowiecki.

“I had only had two beers,” Leszek told the TVN24 television news channel.

“Anyway they put me in the back of the car, and I said ‘gentlemen would you like some fudge as an act of kindness, and can you let me go because I live right next door…?”

Leszek’s alleged bribery attempt means that he now faces a possible jail sentence 10 times longer than the one-year sentence he may have received for drunk cycling.

Penny-ante political crap from yokel police departments apparently hasn’t changed since last I was in Poland.

That was over 30 years ago. And you thought the obvious benefits of Western-style democracy was going to change everything, right?

Police in Scotland had to buy emergency supplies of chocolate and water for a planeload of Ryanair passengers who were close to mutiny after spending four hours on the tarmac without any food and drink.

Strathclyde police were called to the Ryanair flight at Prestwick airport in Ayrshire yesterday after the plane was held on the runway due to delays caused by an air traffic controllers strike in France.

The flight, to Girona in Spain, had been due to leave at 2pm but by 6pm the flight’s besieged crew called the police.

The 168 passengers, many with children, became increasingly angry after the crew refused to open the refreshment trolleys, saying they were forbidden from doing so until the flight was in the air. Others wanted to get off the plane.

Officers decided to buy Mars bars, Double Deckers and water at the force’s expense and brought the supplies on board. The flight eventually left shortly before 8pm…

Sarah Toom, one of the affected passengers, told BBC Scotland: “It was quite hectic in the aircraft earlier – a lot of parents with young kids were getting quite upset and raising their voices because we weren’t allowed off the aircraft to buy food and drink.

“None was being brought on board and none was being offered by Ryanair staff, whom, I have to say, were doing their best.”

She said a loud cheer went up when the police brought supplies.

The coppers were smarted than the bureaucrats running the airport. No surprise.

Undated file photo
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The man credited with inventing the world’s first automatic cash machine has died.

John Shepherd-Barron passed away at the age of 84 on Saturday after being treated for a brief illness at a hospital in northern Scotland.

Shepherd-Barron once said that he came up with the idea after being locked out of a bank, and that his invention was inspired by a machine that dispensed chocolate candy bars.

“It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, anywhere in the world,” he said in a BBC interview in 2007 to mark the ATM’s 40th anniversary.

“I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash.”

He later sold his concept for an automatic teller machine, now known as an ATM, to Barclay’s Bank more than 40 years ago…

Today, there are at least 1.7 million ATM machines around the world.

Enough for every novice hacker – or mugger – to practice on.

RTFA. Enjoyable. Bright dude.

Eating as little as a quarter of an ounce of chocolate each day — an amount equal to about one small Easter egg — may lower your risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke, a new study has found. For best results, the chocolate should be dark, experts say.

“Dark chocolate exhibits the greatest effects, milk chocolate fewer, and white chocolate no effects,” says the lead author of the study, Brian Buijsse…

In the study, Buijsse and his colleagues followed nearly 20,000 people for an average of eight years. The researchers surveyed the study participants about their chocolate consumption (as well as the rest of their diet), and also tracked the heart attacks and strokes that occurred in the group.

Compared with people who rarely ate chocolate (about one bar per month), the people who ate the most chocolate (slightly more than one bar per week) had a 27 percent and 48 percent reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, respectively, the researchers found…

The people in the study were part of a larger study on the effect of diet and lifestyle on cancer risk. For the current study, Buijsse and his colleagues excluded anyone with a history of heart disease or stroke, and also controlled for age, diet, lifestyle, and other factors.

Experts believe that natural compounds known as flavonoids (or flavonols), which appear to promote artery health and reduce inflammation, are responsible for the cardiovascular benefits that have been associated with chocolate consumption.

Flavonols are found in cocoa, and dark chocolate contains more cocoa than milk chocolate does.

Both the stores where we shop have a range of chocolate – and since I grew up with Euro-style chocolate in the house, I prefer the 72% super chocolate I get at Trader Joe’s. They have a small, skinny bar that’s just 1.65 ounce.

Which is the real UFO?

Reports of “flying Toblerones” and objects travelling at 1,100 mph across the Scottish sky have been released by the Ministry of Defence.

The files detail how unidentified objects have been witnessed flying over a range of locations across Scotland.

The Scottish accounts are among the thousands of reports made of close encounters with UFOs across the UK which have been released in a joint project between the MoD and the National Archives.

I think flying chocolate bars is a terrific idea.

Cadbury, which [looks as if it] has been sold to US firm Kraft, is one of several great British firms founded by Quakers. But how did they gain such a stranglehold on the chocolate industry and why were they so successful in business?

For a religious sect more interested in championing social reform than industry, the Quakers have established an impressive roll call of household business names.

Barclays and Lloyds banks, Clarks shoes, Bryant & May matches and the biscuit firms Huntley & Palmers and Carrs are just a few of the companies founded by members of the pacifist group.

But when it comes to confectionery, there has been a virtual monopoly for more than a century, led by Cadbury of Birmingham, Fry’s of Bristol and Rowntree’s and Terrys of York…

This achievement is all the more remarkable given the tiny numbers of Quakers. In 1851 they only accounted for about one in 1,400 of the population of 21 million in England, Scotland and Wales – less than 0.1%.

The move into chocolate began with cocoa drinks in the 19th Century as a reaction against the perceived misery and deprivation caused by alcohol, says Quaker historian Helen Rowlands.

“Quakers and other non-conformists at the time were concerned about levels of alcohol misuse in the population at large, they were part of the temperance movement.

“Cocoa was a way of providing cheap and available drink. It was healthy because you had to boil the water to make it when they didn’t have good water supplies…”

Another advantage was their reputation for honesty and reliability running parallel with their quest for justice, equality and social reform.

“They were amongst the first to set a firm price for goods. There was a lot of bartering before, but the Quakers said ‘no, we’ll state the price for goods and a fair price’,” says Ms Rowlands.

“People appreciated that, they knew where they stood with Quaker businessmen – they were in it to make a livelihood but not at the expense of customers or employees…”

RTFA. Lots of interesting history. There are parallels in many nations, many lands.

Looking forward to this lovely chocolate being stuffed with Velveeta?

Cadbury, the world’s second biggest confectionery company, has agreed to a takeover worth $19.5bn from Kraft, the US food conglomerate, the two companies have said.

Kraft announced its improved bid for the British firm on Tuesday, after Cadbury’s management repeatedly dismissed an earlier $17.1bn offer as “derisory”…

Kraft expects that swallowing the iconic British confectioner will create the world’s leading chocolate and sweets company, with annual sales totalling more than $100m.

Irene Rosenfeld, the chief executive officer of Kraft, said on Tuesday that the deal represented “a compelling opportunity for Cadbury shareholders”…

We all know that’s so much more important than product standards.

Kraft still has to persuade a majority of Cadbury shareholders to accept the deal, and the door remains open until Saturday for The Hershey Company, a US confectioner which has also expressed an interest in the company, to jump in with a rival bid…

Globalization may not be avoidable. Maintaining a corporation’s history of attainment, product and achievement should still stand for something.

But, then, who gets to make these decision other than major investors and hedge funds?