Coal mining ravages Appalachia mountains
February 23, 2008
They’re ripping the tops off mountains in West Virginia coal country to feed our insatiable appetite for power. It’s cheaper that way. And the trees and the animals and the flooding? It may not be pretty, but we’ve got all those dishwashers to run
Feb 23, 2008 04:30 AM
Catherine Porter
Environment Reporter
CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA–When you flick on the lights this evening, think of Kayford Mountain. Or what was Kayford Mountain, but now is a sprawling, muddy, trembling construction site 100 metres below Larry Gibson’s home.
Three years ago, Gibson hunted wild boar here, picked gooseberries and peaches, and sat under the shade of white oaks and hickories so thick he couldn’t see the sky.
“Now, you can see the sky below your feet,” Gibson says.
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In the land of the Iron Chef
February 13, 2008
MARK SCHATZKER
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
February 9, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
The Globe and Mail
TOKYO —
Not a single grain of wheat flour goes into the noodles at the Tokyo soba shrine — I mean restaurant — called Kikouchitei. The noodles are hand-cut from freshly rolled dough containing buckwheat and only buckwheat.
If that doesn’t strike you as unusual, then there’s something you should know about buckwheat dough: It is the world’s most temperamental substance. Without the glutinous binding properties of wheat, the dough becomes so prone to shredding that learning how to make it takes a staggering three years of training — after which one attains the status of “soba master.”
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