The Botany of Desire is a new documentary that explores the history and evolution of some most common plants today: apple, potato, tulip and cannabis. Michael Pollan, the director, tells the story from the plant’s point of view and explores how we, humans, helped these plants to evolve and succeed. This exceptionally well done documentary presents some interesting facts from the plant’s history and science. The author connects these most popular plants with our drives and desires and assigns each one to a specific plant which managed to dominate it.    more »

This episode of Watchdogs continues to investigate flu vaccine, the no protection part and recommendations to pregnant women. We wrote to CDC and FDA with these questions and got some answers. You will also see the ad that ran on national television promoting the vaccine. We asked FDA and CDC about that too.

Summer has started and, as usual, many people head out to the store to buy sunscreen lotions to "protect" their skin against harmful UV rays. It is known that the excess of sun can cause cancer, but what has not been known, or rather not talked about much, is that the chemicals in sunscreen lotions can cause cancer too and most of them offer no protection at all.   more »

Oksana, Olinda and Cassy performed their belly dances at the South San Francisco Retirement Center on Father's Day June 20, 2010 as part of Arabesque Belly Dance Troupe. This is a second year, the Retirement Center invites this troupe to perform. Here are the videos from two of the dances.   more »

My online friend Jeremy, who's been known for researching and producing videos as Alien Scientist, just added a new video on the most disturbing subject of the enormous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In his video titled "The Video BP & Big Oil Don't Want You to See" he explored the spider web of the oil industry, their related businesses and corruption in which they breed. No matter what your stand on the issue is, this video is definitely worth watching. It has received high ratings and 276 comments in the first 24 hours after it was posted.   more »

Billions of dollars spent, thousands of people put in prison for some 30 years all in the name of fighting drugs only to find that in the year 2010 the drugs have won and now drive the U.S. economy. According to the book, “The Truth about the Drug Companies”, one in every third American is on drugs and it is absolutely legal, prescribed by a doctor and sold at the neighborhood friendly drug store. The same book states that every drug-using American spends an average $300 a month on prescription drugs.   more »

I recently found an excellent all organic bread in Trader Joe's. It reminds me of the Ukrainian Gray Bread (seryj hleb). It's got a thick crust and a grayish softer middle. It tastes great and has only 3 ingredients: Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Filtered Water, Sea Salt.   more »

San Francisco night club called "1015", named by its address on Folsom street, has a new light technician with noticably new lighting skills. This video snippet was captured during Dubfire's May 22, 2010 performance. See for yourself.    more »

Some people have been complaining about the lack of jobs in the journalism world and that may be still so, but there is a new trend of journalism emerging. It is called reporting embedded alongside its publisher's marketing campaigns. And Army Times is leading the way in this market.   more »

San Francisco Rail Road junk yard in Bay View has become a home to a heard of goats, who from time to time go on weed removal assignments, all green and organic solution to poison oak and other unwanted weeds. "Poison oak is actually good for goats," says David Simon..   more »

Amidst budget cuts and lay offs, arts programs are usually the first ones to go, but not at South San Francisco High School. They managed to keep their Ballet Folklorico Alma de Mexico alive and thriving for almost 20 years, performing, educating, earning awards and engaging teens in the community with something more than fun.   more »

On April 9, 2010 during the annual Arts on Fire Festival, Arabesque Belly Dance Troupe gave another fiery belly dance performance. Here are the video snippets of some dances.   more »