Gossamer Webs 1.2

* When the news first emerged of the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, I ruminated over commenting on this, but it soon morphed into a traumatic topic given the unquantifiable impacts both on flora and fauna. Therefore, here’s an illuminating and succinct insight on the effects of oil spills.
http://whiteswetlands.blogspot.com/2010/06/oil-spills-kill.html

* We read about a catamaran made out of 12500 plastic bottles. And now plans on converting the North Pacific Gyre into a floating island?
http://www.recycledisland.com/

* At least something good has emerged from climate change: The cannibalistic large blue butterfly (Maculinea), which went extinct in the UK in 1979 and is now globally endangered, might be successfully reintroduced because of the rise in temperatures in the Cotswolds- all thanks to the research by Professor Jeremy Thomas (Professor of Ecology and Fellow of New College, Oxford University).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/28/large-blue-butterfly-cotswolds

* Good news for those with hypertension AND a sweet tooth. A meta-analysis by Dr Karin Ried and colleagues reveals that eating chocolates reduces B.P.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/8/39/abstract

* And more on hypertension. Here's another example of how nature always holds the cure for health ailments. A study, by Vikas Kapil, published in Hypertension (‘Inorganic Nitrate Supplementation Lowers Blood Pressure in Humans. Role for Nitrite-Derived NO’ establishes that drinking a glass of beetroot juice per day can dramatically lower blood pressure, and reduces incidences of heart diseases and strokes.
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/HYPERTENSIONAHA.110.153536v2?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=beetroot&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT