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5th Annual Fall Garden Festival Oct. 17 & 18

The Botanical Garden at City Park will be the site of the 5th Annual Fall Garden Festival. The festival, slated for Oct. 17 & 18, from 10am to 5pm, offers the general public a unique opportunity to view one of the largest gardening events in the New Orleans area.

The 1998 show is sponsored by the LSU Agricultural Center's Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, the Metro Area Horticulture Committee Foundation and the New Orleans Botanical Garden. The booth area will display a wide array of gardening products and offer consumers up-to-date information.

Exhibits in the Pavilion, as well as out-of-doors and in ground displays, will be shown. Plant societies and garden centers will feature the latest in gardening and product information. For individuals with specific plant care questions, experts will be available to provide answers at the Plant Health Clinic. Plants with insect or disease problems can be brought for diagnosis and control. Soil testing kits may be picked up at the show or a one pint sample of soil may be dropped off at the clinic. Samples will be analyzed at the LSU Ag Centers's Soil Testing Laboratory for $4 per sample.

An informative series of "how to" demonstrations and horticulture seminars by gardening experts will be presented each day. Plant and product sales by exhibitors will feature unusual and hard-to-find gardening supplies which can be obtained in the sales area. A tent for kids' activities will feature hands-on gardening and environmental activities for youngsters.

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New Nat'l Student-Run College Organization Formed

The student-run National Collegiate Pride Association, believed to b the first US student-run national organization for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender college students, was launched Sept. 9. Among its purposes: to provide networking and other support for such students and their allies, and to "create a viable communication network of all American collegiate based sexual minority organizations." The organization, based in Flagstaff, AZ, says it's "especially dedicated to providing education and advocacy pertaining to issues concerning suicide of sexual minority youth and the continued oppression of sexual minorities within the realms of collegiate athletics."

For more information, contact executive director M. Shelby Blanton at 520.214.5757 or check out the Web site.

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Coffee Bean Could Be Used to Fight HIV

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found the chicoric acid, a compound found in green coffee beans, appears to block an enzyme used by HIV to integrate into cellular DNA. The researchers--who reported their findings in the Sept. 11 issue of the Journal of Virology--observed that chicoric acid inhibits integrase, breaking a key step in the HIV replication system. The scientists also found that HIV became resistant to the compound. According to Edward Robinson, who led the research team, the compound is not strong enough to inhibit HIV alone, but could be useful in drug combinations. [from The Advocate]

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