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trivia 2
Today I was once again searching for excuses not to study for my exams and I remembered a question I'd asked myself long ago. It went something like, "Self, where does canola oil come from?" Good question self."
Since you asked, it's made of rapeseed. (That picture is of Katie standing in a big field of rapeseed near Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic) But here's the deal, the seed of rapeseed plant is teriffic for producing oil. But there are two problems, rapeseed oil is full of erucic acid, which is mildly toxic in large doses, and the name poses a *bit* if a marketing challenge. Well, some clever Canadians solved both problems when they bred a new variant and named it "Canadian oil, low acid" - Canola.
Now we know.
Clever Canadians.
Incidentally 13% of farmed land in India is devoted to growing rapeseed.
Posted by neal on Dec 16, 2005 at 12:56 AM | Comments (4)
truth cometh from small mouths
This morning, I was doing laundry when Mac, one of the guys who lives in the dorm, walked by with a family he was showing around. With the family was a 4 year old girl named Josie. Mac said, in his tongue-in-cheek way, "This is Neal. He's the coolest." So I said "Hi Josie." Josie looked at me silently for a few seconds, then said, "He doesn't *look* cool."
sigh...
Humbled by the honesty of a four year old.
Posted by neal on Dec 13, 2005 at 12:16 PM | Comments (1)