Morning thoughts

Why is it that green is such an essential color in nature, but is (comparatively) not used much at all for man-made things? Blues and reds seem much more popular.

Yesterday I bought a can of cream of mushroom soup. It took far longer than I'd expected, though, because I couldn't find the house brand of soups (the kosher ones), except in cream of celery. There weren't any other blue cans on the shelf. It was weird. I kept scanning the shelves nearby, but nothing. And then I finally noticed that the house-brand cans were there all along... in red. They've completely redesigned the labels, to look more like Campbell's, I assume (those of the "M'm. M'm." fame). Do they think they'll get more people buying their soup accidentally? Or did they succumb to the "red is best" for packaging idea, or what?

According to these listings, some of the local farmer's markets are starting in just a couple of weeks. Hooray!

A banana on bass, a pineapple vocalist, a melon playing out of control, a fighting blueberry: fruit punch jam.

[1150 addendum:
local: nearby place with diet food]

Misc-osity

Nature notes from the office
Not only is there a mating pair of cardinals flying around, there's also a raccoon exploring the little bit of fenced green space outside. I wonder where he came from. Having an orker come by announcing "Raccoon alert!" is always a good thing (as long as I didn't leave my raccoon with its lights on, or something :-)

Write what you mean
One of the ancillary activities uses tiles to model two-step equations (2x + 5 = 12, –4r + 3 = –7, that kind of thing). Somehow "Two-Step Equation Tiling" makes me unsure whether to think of dancing or home improvement, however.

A use for the common cold
Apparently there is one: researchers are using a modified version of the virus to treat a form of brain cancer. Trials have been done only in mice, so far, but apparently it looks good enough that they're speeding up the cycle of testing.

Similarly, there are researchers working on using the Ebola virus (also rendered inert, of course) as a way to deliver normal DNA to people with cystic fibrosis.

Amazing, really. I wonder how anyone came up with the idea in the first place...
Next thing you know, there's going to be a good use for mosquitoes, too. *snerk*