BAVRT monthly newsletter

[Guest guest]

December 28, 2002 (Last Saturday of every month)

Time: 6:00 p.m.

 

Host: Winnie

 

Site: Vanessa Restaurant

2042 University Ave (@ Shattuck)

Berkeley, CA

(510) 486-8328

 

Type: Veg and non-veg restaurant

Cost: Prix Fixe vegan dinner ($12 per plate includes tax+tip)

 

RSVP to [ *82 (925) 944-4743 ] by Tuesday, Dec 24.

BAVRT is NOT a drop-in dinner event. If you have problems emailing

me, please use http://veginfo.com/contact/general

 

As always, you come under your own liability for all events. Pass

the word to your friends. This is not an exclusive net-folks only

event. This is not an activist group or singles event. Note that

if you plan to attend this dinner, you can order only vegetarian

dishes, even if the restaurant serves other stuff.

 

If you have suggestions for future sites, please e-mail them to

. If you want to volunteer host a BAVRT dinner,

please let me know!!

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Contents

#1) What is in a word?

#2) This month's trek

#3) Last month's trek

#4) Hosting

#5) News Section

#6) NON-BAVRT related stuff (feel free to skip)

 

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#1) What is in a word?

 

Have you considered in the abstract, what is " safe " and what

is " unsafe? " Granted these words are antonyms, but what else?

This is not just an idle exercise in linguistics, but something

of paramount importance.

 

Consider the field of GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) or

genetically modified food. Quite a lot rides on the difference

between these words, safe and unsafe. Some folks seem to use

risk analysis to determine whether GMO is safe, while others

use pecautionary principles to determine what is unsafe.

 

So which way do you lean? Do you believe (to paraphrase a

common quote) " Safe, unless proven otherwise " [risk analysis?]

or " Better be safe than sorry " [precaution?] Depending on your

choice, you may come up with totally different interpretations

of safe/unsafe. Do a search on Internet to see how scientists,

PR folks, officials or even countries have differed sharply on

this subject, if interested.

 

[ If you are familiar with Godel's theorem, do you think

it has any part to play in this? ]

 

---

#2) This month's trek

 

Winne graciously agreed to host a BAVRT dinner again! This time,

Vanessa restaurant in Berkeley, is her choice of restaurant. She

has arranged an all vegan dinner for us. Here is the menu for

this month's dinner, all for an incredibly cheap and affordable

price of $12 per plate (tax and tip included). All this without

fake meat analogues :-)

 

- Fried sweet potato appetizer

- Thai salad with tofu

- Lemon grass tofu

- Mongolian tofu

- Mixed Vegetables with soy sauce

- Curry Potatoes

- Garlic Eggplant

- Brown rice

- Agar Agar (vegan jello, made from plants)

with coconut milk dessert

 

It is great that Winnie was able to convince a veg/non-veg

restaurant but vegetarian friendly, to come up with a totally

vegan dinner! (hint, hint for future hosts).

 

Make sure to RSVP early for this dinner. Have a fun vegan

dinner with kindred souls and get ready to say goodbye to 2002

and welcome 2003.

 

---

#3) Last month's trek

http://www.veginfo.com/bavrt/restaurantlist.html

 

Cheryl hosted last month's dinner at Star of Siam in Soquel.

Though the restaurant was veg/non-veg, they have a veg menu

and did not have any problem in making anything vegan

(leave off the shrimp paste etc that is used even in veg dishes

in most Thai restaurants).

 

The food was very good. 15 people RSVPed and showed up - also

there was one cancellation. It was a nice and cozy dinner.

The restaurant looked really popular.

 

---

#4) Hosting

 

You may remember that Winnie, our host for this month, hosted

the successful 100th BAVRT dinner. Cheryl, our host for last

month also had hosted a very successful BAVRT dinner in the past.

 

Why am I mentioning all this? Folks, BAVRT depends on hosts (read

what you want into it). If interested in volunteering to host a

BAVRT dinner, which can be fun, please step forward! :-)

 

BAVRT - What is involved in hosting a dinner?

http://www.veginfo.com/bavrt/hosting.html

 

---

#5) News Section

( If you come across news items, veg or otherwise, in the

mainstream media that may be of potential interest to

BAVRT members, please forward me the URL. )

 

a) Iceland invents energy-from-water machine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2352853.stm

 

b) 'GM seed spread' warning

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2321443.stm

 

c) Agribusiness goes organic

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/10/13/MN242010.DTL

 

---

#6) NON-BAVRT related stuff (feel free to skip)

 

a) McDonald's Is Warning Customers Away!

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/ns/ftecontent.jsp?file=/news/mcdonalds/mcdo\

nalds.jsp

 

b) Coffee May Lower Women's Gallstone Risk

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & u=/nm/20021204/hl_nm/coffee_gallston\

es_dc_1

 

c) Corrupt audio discs, aka " Copy-Protected CDs "

http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/quick/

 

=====================================================================

 

Das Devaraj

email - -- Phone *82 (925) 944-4743