Must love dogs - the Australian Internet dating version
Oh John Cusack and Diane Lane; you were both so cute in the 2005 romantic comedy, Must Love Dogs.
And that’s why Jodie O'Brien and her husband, Tom, started www.lovemelovemypet.com.au, a dating website for a particularly niche clientele.
"We started to notice over the years that a lot of our friends are really intelligent, good looking people, easy to get along with. But they're having trouble finding a partner simply because they themselves might be big dog lovers and they can't find someone with the same passion for animals as them. Sometimes it has come down to that making a difference.:
Match-making for animal enthusiasts is just the latest service in Australia's booming pet industry, which, in recent years has expanded from pet shops and pooch salons to doggy daycare facilities, dog sports training, pet portraits and even pet psychics.
With around 65 per cent of Australian households owning at least one pet, Sydney dog-owner Brittney Smith recognised the large market for her website, dogtree.com.au, which she set up earlier this year.
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Described by many as Facebook for dogs, dogtree.com.au is a social networking site where owners can set up backyard playdates for their cuddly companions, instead of leaving them unsupervised to cause havoc at home.
Boys should urinate outside to stimulate the compost pile; girls, your pee is too acidic
Sometimes, when I wake up in the middle of the night, and don’t want to disturb Amy and Sorenne in our small space, I’ll go pee off the back deck.
I also don’t flush the toilet when I pee, unless I’ve eaten asparagus. Cameron Diaz would approve and say I’m saving the planet.
Gardeners at a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire are urging people to relieve themselves outdoors to help gardens grow greener.
A three-metre long "pee bale" has been installed at Wimpole Hall.
Head gardener Philip Whaites is urging his male colleagues to pee on the straw bale to activate the composting process on the estate's compost heap.
He said the "pee bale" is only in use out of visitor hours, since "we don't want to scare the public".
"There are obvious logistical benefits to limiting it to male members of the team, but also male pee is preferable to women's, as the male stuff is apparently less acidic."
"Adding a little pee just helps get it all going; it's totally safe and a bit of fun too."
As David Wilcox sang some 30 years ago,
Do it in the country they like it just fine
Do it in the city it’s a $20 fine
Hot hot papa
25 Chicago students arrested for a middle-school food fight
The cafeteria food fight, as immortalized in the 1978 film, Animal House, has become a high school rite of passage.
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Except in Chicago (home to John Belushi, right)
The New York Times reports this morning that 25 students, ages 11 to 15, were rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail on charges of reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, after a food fight at the middle-school campus of Perspectives Charter Schools, in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.
That was last Thursday afternoon. Now parents are questioning what seem to them like the criminalization of age-old adolescent pranks, and the lasting legal and psychological impact of the arrests.
“My children have to appear in court,” Erica Russell, the mother of two eighth-grade girls who spent eight hours in jail, said Tuesday. “They were handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals.”
Is that the entrée or are you just happy to see me? Nude barbecue in Oregon
Sub Rosa describes itself as a virtual restaurant & secret bar located in Dundee, Oregon. By day, it's a lunch room for the distillery office and stealth drop in bistro with thundering tunes, WiFi Internet connections and a limited lunch menu. By night, when we are open, it’s an underground fine dining restaurant and spirits bar.
Today, Sub Rosa posted on its web site that,
It will come to no surprise to many that Sub Rosa has a clothing optional policy.
This 'tradition' started with our wait staff. It was late July - the week of the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration and it was quite hot outside. We had to chill our Pinot Noir before serving because of the heat.
One wardrobe malfunction led to another that evening and soon the entire wait staff was topless. Being a huge wine tasting weekend, Sub Rosa was filled out-of-towners including some French guests. There is something about being on vacation that releases the inhibitions. It wasn't long until half the female guests had doffed their tops as well. You would have thought you were at some French Rivera private party, but no - just another magical weekend night at Sub Rosa in Dundee.
We've been known to cook topless with only the benefit of a kitchen apron separating us from the raw flame. Nude barbecue, while not the rule can happen on hot summer evening at Sub Rosa.
Sub Rosa's feeling is that both men and women deserve to go topless. Get over it already. You're starting to accept screw caps as alternatives to cork in wine bottles. You might as well get used to both sexes running around topless.
Nothing says classy like, Show me your hooters – with a $100 bottle of wine rather than Miller LIte.
How much am I paying that person to poop? Workpoop.com
How much time do you spend on the toilet? With foodborne illness, it could be hours and hours and hours.
Inventorspot reports on workpoop.com, an online calculator that helps answer a pressing question of every employer: how much am I paying that person to poop?
Photoshop isn't just for people - turkey breasts enhanced for magazine covers
The turkey has done what a supermodel never could: land the cover of dozens of magazines in a single month. The November covers of American food magazines are a turkey delight, with the burnished bird stuffed, garnished and splayed every which way.
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Dana Cowin, the editor in chief of Food & Wine, said,
“I know it seems like, hey, what could be simpler than roasting a bird? But the perfect roast bird is a challenge. Turkey, as a model, is very much like a fashion magazine with fashion models. There are plump turkeys, and, I’m not kidding you, there’s skinny turkeys, there are chesty turkeys, breasty turkeys, there are flat-chested turkeys.”
“We have enhanced the breasts of turkeys,” she admitted.
Can citrus-scented Windex make the world a better place?
From the reading-too-much–into-the-results-of-a-study category, researchers have found that people are unconsciously fairer and more generous when they are in clean-smelling environments.
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The research found a dramatic improvement in ethical behavior with just a few spritzes of citrus-scented Windex.
Katie Liljenquist, assistant professor of organizational leadership at BYU's Marriott School of Management, is the lead author on the piece in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science.
The researchers see implications for workplaces, retail stores and other organizations that have relied on traditional surveillance and security measures to enforce rules.
"Companies often employ heavy-handed interventions to regulate conduct, but they can be costly or oppressive," said Liljenquist, whose office smells quite average. "This is a very simple, unobtrusive way to promote ethical behavior."
The study titled "The Smell of Virtue" was unusually simple and conclusive.
Participants engaged in several tasks, the only difference being that some worked in unscented rooms, while others worked in rooms freshly spritzed with Windex.
The first experiment evaluated fairness. As a test of whether clean scents would enhance reciprocity, participants played a classic "trust game." Subjects received $12 of real money (allegedly sent by an anonymous partner in another room). They had to decide how much of it to either keep or return to their partners who had trusted them to divide it fairly. Subjects in clean-scented rooms were less likely to exploit the trust of their partners, returning a significantly higher share of the money.
Maybe it’s time to improve personal hygiene and stock up on the Irish Moss-scented Mennen Speed Stick.
Milking cows on the Sydney Habour bridge
The bridge over Sydney Harbour connecting Sydney with the business area of north Sydney is an engineering marvel.
Ben, Dani and I walked it one night after too much fine wine with some Australian colleagues. I’ve jogged across it many times. And walked, like in this pic from 2004 (right).
But I haven’t seen any cows.
On Sunday, for the first time since the 1930s when farmers paid tuppence to move their stock across the span, dairy cows, along with about 6000 people are expected to attend a picnic on the coathanger as part of the Breakfast on the Bridge event, the centrepiece of the Crave Sydney festival.
To help the cows acclimatise, a hectare of Kikuyu turf from Pitt Town in Sydney's far north-west will be transported to the heart of the city and laid over the tarmac.
Danielle Krix, the farm manager at Hurlstone Agricultural School, said,
''For some people that come from the city, it's going to be an eye-opener that milk comes out of an actual cow and not a carton.”
Evergreen Turf is the company responsible for trucking in the turf to cover the bridge roadway and its chief executive, Dean Holden, said it would take about eight semi-trailers to transport it and three hours to lay it.
''Three o'clock in the morning is always fun to be doing a bit of work … but while looking over Sydney Harbour it will be a magnificent experience.''
There will be a cow milking display for the ticket holders.
Breakfast on the Bridge will run for two hours from 6.30am, with the bridge closed on Sunday from 1am to 1pm.
It was over when she farted - there's a car for that
Of the few websites I have in my RSS feeds for entertainment is, It Was Over When, all about how couples didn’t come to be. From yesterday:
It was over when she farted at the dinner table and kept on eating like nothing happened.
—WarDog
Aftermath: It ended the next day after I confronted her about the act. She tried to blame it on my dog.
The Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi has smelled the glove and introduced a new interior package it calls cocochi, in which the upholstery in the PX-Miev incorporates an anti-allergen coating that Mitsubishi says breaks down offensive odours and volatile organic compounds as well as deactivating allergens such as ticks and pollen.
And if fighting farts isn't enough, each of the PX-Miev's four seats is air-conditioned to ensure any remaining odours are quickly distributed and dispelled.
The PX-Miev's obsession with smell doesn't end there. The air-conditioning system pumps out aroma molecules as well as negative-ion and enriched oxygen to reduce fatigue and enhance comfort.
Bathroom blogging in New York City
Amy, Sorenne and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to New York City.
And when we’re all in the same hotel room, and I wake up early to do some writing, I’ll go to the bathroom, shut the door and blog away.
If I go to NYC for five weeks Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday orgy in the U.S., I could make $10,000 – for blogging about bathrooms.
Procter & Gamble Co. is looking for five people who will, in return for $10,000, spend five weeks in a Charmin-branded, Manhattan bathroom and blog about the experience.
The five “Charmin Embassadors” will work in the Charmin Restrooms in Times Square from Nov. 23 to Dec. 31. Job requirements include interacting with hundreds of thousands of bathroom guests, maintaining their own blogs and content on Charmin-branded Web sites and popular social media sites, and sharing family-friendly video from the restroom space and surrounding areas.
How is friendly-family video defined? Reminds me of one of the earliest episodes of South Park where adults protesting apparently scandalous TV content inundate the studio and are stricken with foodborne illness – the green apple splatters.
I could eat a horse
In the wake of news that some in south Florida are taking to butchering horses, here are some tips from Australia on how to eat horse.
Horse Steaks
The world’s most famous horse steak eaters, the French, have only gained that reputation since the 1789-1799 revolution simply because the horses of aristocrats were an easy source of protein for a country in turmoil. Its popularity was reinforced during food shortages post World War II. Traditionally, horse meat is sold from boucheries chevalines (horse butchers), although now it can also be bought from supermarkets. In French-speaking Quebec, in Canada, horse meat is also popular (above, right, a horse butcher at the Toulouse market, 2007).
Chips Cooked in Horse Fat
Horse with Noodles
Pastissada de Caval
In northern Italy, the traditional horse meat stew from Verona known as Pastissada de caval is made with wine and paprika. Legend has it that the dish originates from the town’s inhabitants marinating the meat from dead horses in the local Valpolicella wine and herbs and spices after a battle between the Ostrogoths and Barbarians in AD489. In Italy, horse - and donkey - meat has traditionally been cured to make bresaola or carpaccio.
The Original Steak Tartare
Needless to say with horses being central to life on the central Asian steppes, so it is central to their diet. For those magnificent horsemen the Tartars, the most famous being Genghis Khan and his army, the horse was also a living meal. They would slice meat from the horses' hindquarters for sustenance, sewing-up the wound, and continuing on their rampage. Another legend has it that the Tartars tenderized their meat under their saddles, the origins of the classic French raw meat beef dish steak tartare.
Alcoholica Mare's Milk
This reliance on the horse on the central steppes also means a reliance on mare’s milk. Fermented, mare’s milk becomes a mildly alcoholic yoghurt-like drink known as Kumis or Airag. When visiting Mongolia in 2005 President Bush was apparently offered Kumis although there is no record as to whether or not he actually consumed it.
Horse Jerky
Commercially produced packets of horse meat jerky is an easy introduction to horse meat for squeamish tourists in Kazakhstan. For the locals though, horse flesh is a real treat and made into sausages including Kazy and the smoked sausage Shuzhuk.
Horse Sashimi
In Japan, barbecued, horse is simply called horse meat: baniku; or skewered horse: bagushi. But raw horse meat is poetic, named after its cherry-red colour and known as sakura (cherry blossom) or sakuraniku (cherry blossom meat). Sakura served sashimi-style with soy sauce and ginger is known as basashi.
Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - Canadian Thanksgiving edition
Sorenne eating dinner with mom, 7:30 p.m., Oct. 10, 2009.
The second Monday in October is Canadian Thanksgiving. In the U.S., it’s the fourth Thursday in November.
Why the difference?
Thanksgiving is a celebration of the harvest, and the harvest happens a lot earlier in cold Canada. But the annual gathering felt particularly Canadian last night, with plants being brought inside as the first frost hung in the air – ridiculously early for Manhattan, Kansas – and Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada on the tube as the Kansas State 66-14 football loss was too embarrassing to watch.
It especially felt like Canada because the Toronto Maple Leafs sucked – like they have for the past 42 years.
On the menu: turkey breast (overheard? Doug, how do you get it so moist? use a meat thermometer), stuffing (more vegetables than bread and used up all the sage before the frost), acorn squash stuffed with pecans, apple, lime juice and brown sugar (got the most raves); rosemary garlic mashed potatoes (thanks for the prep help, Jen) fat-free gravy via my coolio decanter, fruit salad (thanks Peter and Yasmin) and chocolate mousse (thanks, Jen).
Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - oatmeal
Sorenne eating breakfast with mom, Oct. 10, 2009, 7:30 a.m.
Steel-cut Irish oats, simmered in boiled water for 30 minutes. Serve with soy milk or buttermilk, along with frozen berries (which Amy didn’t have).
Alicia Silverstone will teach you how to poo
She was great in those Aerosmith videos, cute in Clueless, terrible in 1997’s Batman and Robin, and insufferable as a vegan spokesthingy.
And now she can teach you how to poop.
Alicia Silverstone, who has been a vegan for ten years, has a new book, The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight and Saving the Planet.
Some Alicia-isms:
"Remember, dairy was designed to make little baby calves turn into 400-pound cows, so that's what it does to you. …
"Most people aren't pooing. I know two girls in my life who are good friends, who were not pooing, but now they're pooing 'cause I helped them. I taught them how to poo."
Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - scrambled eggs with veggies and toast
Sorenne eating breakfast with dad, Oct. 9, 2009, 7:00 a.m.
Saute fresh rosemary, garlic, red pepper and garden-fresh tomato (the nighttime temperatures are cooler, but not quite freezing yet, when what’s left of the herbs and tomatoes will move inside). Add scrambled eggs, salt and pepper, cooking the salmonella out of the eggs. Serve with whole grain toast.
That’s toast. I like … toast.
Aerosmith's Joe Perry, hot sauce and macaroni
It’s no secret I’m a Rolling Stones fan, especially of the inspired work between 1968 and 1972.
Every generation has their Stones knockoff band. In the 1970s it was Aerosmith. The 1980s brought the Black Crowes. Not sure what the recreations were in the later decades, but they exist.
Turns out Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is, at least according to the Baltimore Sun, a bit of a foodie.
Nightlife reporter Sam Sessa hung out with Perry for a while on his tour bus, and spent a lot of time talking about food.
“I had no idea he's been a foodie for more than 35 years, and has his own line of hot sauces. He also told me he's planning on launching his own brand of mac 'n' cheese in the near future, called Joe Perry's Rock 'n' Roni.”
Does your own brand of mac ‘n’ cheese – or KD, as in Kraft Dinner in Canadian-speak – make one a foodie?
The Fatal Restaurant
A barfblog.com fan sent along this shot of the aptly named, Fatal Restaurant in Budapest (which apparently means wooden plate in Hungarian).
He writes:
While I've always tried to err on the paranoid side while cooking, barfblog has taught me a few things, and I wash my hands a lot more often now too. I can also now make a burger that got to 160 that my wife will still eat cause it's not all dried out!
I saw this today on one of those compilations of unfortunate restaurant names and thought of you ;)
It's like a bromance.
Customer can't get south of the border, shoots Taco Bell staff
It must suck to work in food service. Minimum wage, nerds like me telling staff to pay attention to food safety, and occasionally getting shot at by customers.
A man who was refused service around three in the morning by staff at Taco Bell on the outskirts of Miami waited outside in his white sports utility vehicle and when staff exited, he shot and wounded one female employee in the leg.
The victim was treated at a local hospital. Police are asking for help with their inquiry.
Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - roasted chicken with garlic sage stuffing
Sorenne eating dinner with dad, Oct. 3, 2009.
Take whole chicken, stuff with 30 cloves garlic, sage and bread crumbs (I use whole wheat leftovers in the freezer).
Serve the roasted garlic with brie cheese on French bread.
Make stock and soup with the bones and leftovers.
A weekly ritual.
Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - grilled salmon and sweet potato fries
Sorenne eating lunch with dad, Oct. 1, 2009.
Marinate farmed salmon fillets (I prefer aquaculture because it is more sustainable) in lime juice, garlic, olive oil and fresh rosemary.
Microwave 2 sweet potatoes, cool, cut into fry-like segments; baste in oil and rosemary.
Turn grill to high. Put fries on upper rack, salmon on direct heat; cook until an internal temperature of 120F.
Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - boiled eggs in a piggy
Sorenne eating (second) breakfast with dad, Oct. 1, 2009, about 7:15 a.m. (first one was about 4:45 a.m.).
Boiled eggs in a piggy, with whole grain toast and cantaloupe.
They’re called eggs in a piggy because the egg holders are ceramic pigs.
Bring salted water to a boil, carefully add eggs so they don’t crack, leave at slow boil for 5 minutes.
Remove and place in piggy. Let sit for 1 minute. At this point the egg yolk will just be transitioning from runny to solid. Dip the toast.
The dog is still there. Always.
Bunny boiler alert: when relationships sour, take care of the pets
In a scene strangely reminiscent of one in the 1988 movie A Fish Called Wanda – the one where a maniacal Kevin Kline starts eating pet-loving Ken’s fish -- a Houston-area woman fried and ate some of the pet goldfish she had bought with her former hubby in happier times.
Pasadena police say it's a civil matter and no charges will be filed.
Is that a Vegemite or an iSnack 2.0 sandwich, or are you just happy to see me?
In one of the most bizarre marketing decisions – ever, even for Australia – Kraft Foods decided to name its second generation Vegemite the iSnack 2.0.
I first heard the term Vegemite near the beginning of the worst decade of music ever, in the 1981 song, Down Under, by Men at Work.

Vegemite is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacturing, and various vegetable and spice additives. The taste may be described as salty, slightly bitter, and malty - somewhat similar to the taste of beef bouillon. The texture is smooth and sticky, much like peanut butter.
Helen Razer, a Melbourne writer, says in today’s (tomorrow’s) The Age, that the chief element in Vegemite's new product is cream cheese. A secondary ingredient appears to be abject failure. No one likes the name of this new yeast product, except at least six Harvard MBAs at Kraft Foods who adore it.
The winning name was announced during the telecast of the AFL grand final. In an effort ''to align the new product with a younger market - and the 'cool' credentials of Apple's iPod and iPhone'' Kraft chose iSnack 2.0 from a field of 48,000.
This raises many questions. Chief among them is how very terrible were the other 47,999 competition submissions that Kraft was left with iSnack 2.0?
Razer says the label is every bit as hip as a polka convention and every bit as convincingly ''now'' as parachute pants.
Sounds like the wardrobe for a 1981 video shoot.
Razer also says, on Monday, the global noticeboard Twitter was jammed with disgust. Comments that included ''I said do you speaka my language? She just smiled and gave me an iSnack 2.0 sandwich'' and ''What's the matter, was the name Crap Paste already trademarked?''
Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - buttermilk pancakes
Sorenne eating breakfast with dad, Sept. 29, 2009, about 7:15 a.m.
Buttermilk pancakes with berries, bacon and fruit
Dry
2 cups buckwheat flour
1tsp. baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
dash salt
Wet
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
vanilla
frozen berries
Mix wet and appropriate amount of dry, heat in frying pan, top with Canadian maple syrup (not that Vermont stuff) serve with bacon, fresh cantaloupe and pineapple.
The dog waits like a parasite every time Sorenne eats; does make cleanup easier.
Kiwifruit to help the toots
When I first moved to New Zealand and discovered the delicious gold kiwifruit I went a little overboard, consuming at least four of these a day. Little did I know the sweeter sibling of the green kiwifruit may be helping to keep me from, ummm, embarrassing body functions. Kiwi researchers have found that kiwifruit may help flatulence, reports The New Zealand Herald.
We've all had those awkward moments when a roomful of people tries to ignore a less-than-fragrant blast from someone's nether regions. It's bad enough at work - but much worse on the bus or, heaven forbid, in a lift. Now help could be on the way, with the humble kiwifruit…
Up to one in five men and one in four women suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), with flatulence and constipation among common symptoms. The fruit contains an enzyme called zyactinase, and a small study has shown it could provide relief for IBS sufferers.
Gastroenterologist Dr Russell Walmsley, who worked on the research, said,
"People think of kiwifruit for constipation but it also seemed to be quite good for general irritable bowel.”
Melanie Palmer, communications manager for kiwifruit marketing company Zespri, said the fruit was known for relieving that "blocked and bloated feeling".
Continuing,
"Early results show eating green kiwifruit as part of a meal may improve digestion."
I’m a fan of the Zespri kiwifruit, mainly because they come with a clever little knoon (knife/spoon) for scooping your fruit (see picture, right).
Cold prevention kit nonsense
In the anything-to-make-a-buck category, it’s the cold & flu prevention kit: Kleenex, antimicrobial wipes, soap and some other stuff, all conveniently wrapped in additional plastic.
Gonzalo, a student who works with me, snapped this shot at a local supermarket last night.
Warning: This sandwich may contain a gold earring
A Chicago man is suing McDonald's for injuries he sustained when he swallowed a gold earring that was in his sandwich.
The complaint asserts, among other things, that the sandwich "lacked any warning of the fact that it contained the gold earring" and that McDonald's "failed to prevent foreign objects not fit for human consumption, including but not limited to earrings, from being offered to the general public in the food being served."
Petting zoo zebra bites North Carolina girl's finger off
While attending K-State as a veterinary student, I’ve had the chance to observe many clinical cases in the teaching hospital ranging from a broken puppy leg to a zebra exam. That’s right, a zebra. Last fall a zebra from a zoo came into the hospital, and upon hearing about it, I quickly went down to its stall to take a look at the animal up close. I quickly found out that ‘close’ was a rela
tive term when it comes to zebras, as the animal was in a very secure pen with a large sign that read: “Caution: zebra is aggressive.” Who would’ve thought that a wild animal would be… wild? I left the hospital that day without any injuries, but unfortunately a little girl (right) in North Carolina found out how wild zebras really are when she left a petting zoo without half a finger.
According to the news story, nine-year-old Elizabeth was hand feeding a zebra at a petting zoo when it took off nearly all of her right pinkie finger. "It actually grabbed onto my hand and took it back a little bit. My papa had to smack it a few times to get my hand back. I was really scared," she said. Elizabeth is recovering with her bandaged half-pinkie and she’s also receiving a series of seven rabies shots.
"I stil
l couldn't believe it happened. It's not something you hear every day that your daughter's finger has gotten bitten off by a zebra," explained Elizabeth's mom, Kristy Ross (left). "I just assumed if they're giving me the food to feed them it will be OK. It's going to be safe."
Unfortunately those assumptions didn’t protect the little girl from the zebra. I can see the appeal of feeding goats and sheep, but zebras?! They’re unpredictable animals and have been known to rear up and kick or bite attackers when cornered. In the case of Elizabeth in NC, there’s not just one person to blame. The petting zoo owner admitted that two kids and one volunteer have been bitten in the last couple of years at his zoo, yet he didn’t remove the zebra from the exhibit. Maybe the owner should replace it with a Tijuana zebra. And as Elizabeth’s mom incorrectly assumed, being given food to feed a zebra doesn’t automatically make the zebra safe.
Animal behavior problems aside, I wonder how many of the petting zoo animals are infected with E. coli? Are there hand washing stations nearby?
To the right is a picture I took at the state fair last year. Luckily I wasn't bit.
No passport, no lunch
Aside from travelling, I don’t carry my Canadian passport with me -- the last thing I need is to lose it while overseas. Sure, I understood when the doctor or Liquor King employee asked me to produce it, but not when I was refused a burger for lack of I.D.
This past sunny Sunday a few gal pals and I decided to grab a burger for lunch at an Irish pub-style restaurant. The place had appeal because of the outdoor seating and 10 dollar burger and fries (which we’d tried and loved before). Upon ordering our meals (sans alcohol) we were asked to present I.D. When I produced my Canadian driver’s license I was told that we could not eat at the establishment unless I presented my passport. Gutted, we grabbed a bite at Burger Fuel instead.
It’s probably not a common experience, but it had me thinking: Is the pub that’s so strict with its patrons equally as strict with its food safety? Would my burger have been cooked to the proper internal temperature using a meat thermometer – the passport of burgers?
Harold and Kumar avoid Ohio prison with unique sandwich
A running gag in the movie, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, is avoiding a certain kind of sandwich served up by prison guards.
Life imitates art.
A former Ohio deputy accused of feeding an inmate a bologna sandwich that been rubbed against another inmate's genitals has pleaded guilty to two health code violations. In a Columbus courtroom on Wednesday, 38-year-old Joseph Cantwell also apologized for the shame and embarrassment that he said he had caused.
A judge fined him $500 plus court costs, and Cantwell also received a 90-day suspended jail sentence and five years' probation.
Cheech and Chong may be the cooks: why people shouldn't purchase brownies from streets vendors
I can’t wait until Sorenne goes to pre-school, only to be greeted by a teacher giggling, muttering to herself, “Dave’s not here.”
That’s what happened in April, 2009, when the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) notified officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) in California about a group of preschool teachers with nausea, dizziness, headache, and numbness and tingling of fingertips after consumption of brownies purchased 3 days before from a sidewalk vendor.
As reported in today’s U.S. Centers for Disease Control weekly update, “the findings also underscore the need to consider marijuana as a potential contaminant during foodborne illness investigations and the importance of identifying drug metabolites by testing of clinical specimens soon after symptom onset.
On the morning of April 7, 2009, a preschool teacher put brownies, which she had purchased on April 5, on a table in a break room to share with staff. The day before, she also had given two brownies to her adult son at home. Five preschool teachers (not including the teacher who had purchased the brownies) and the teacher's adult son were the only persons who ate the brownies. Each person ate only one brownie. At approximately 1:30 p.m., the preschool director and the administrator noticed that one of the teachers suddenly looked drowsy and was complaining of drowsiness, ataxia, dizziness, shortness of breath, and numbness and tingling of the face, forehead, arms, and hands. When the director and administrator learned that the teacher who had shared the brownies had purchased them from a sidewalk vendor for a church fundraiser, they suspected the affected teacher's drowsiness was associated with her ingestion of the brownie 30 minutes before onset of symptoms. The teacher did not seek medical care.
The brownies were sold as single, unlabeled units, individually wrapped in plastic wrap, costing $1.50 each. The preschool director contacted the head pastor of the church, who reported that the church had not held a fundraiser, and the pastor subsequently notified LAPD to investigate. After interviewing persons at the church and the preschool, LAPD suspected foodborne illness and contacted DPH on April 8.
Bicycle and dog-friendly drive-through
Sadie (right) is an energetic dog. We found her as a 10-week-old pup, hiding underneath our vehicle, shortly after Amy and I moved into our Kansas compound in downtown Manhattan.
It happens, with the transient population of military and students, dogs, unfortunately, are abandoned routinely.
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We followed procedure, ran ‘dog-found’ ads in the local paper, but no one claimed her. So we took her in.
I had a couple of Australian Shepherd-type-mutts back in Guelph (below, left), so was prepared for the, uh, high energy of Sadie. Which means she learned to run beside my bicycle. Quickly.
Sadie and I will sometimes bike to the grocery store in the morning and stock up for dinner, sometimes we’ll just bike, although we’re both moving a little slower 3 years later.
But the best is when we go to the bank.
Kansas State Bank has drive-through banking. My Canadian daughters still marvel at this when they visit. I still get paper cheques for this and that, so every couple of weeks, Sadie and I will bike to the drive-through bank. I’ll make a deposit using the pneumonic tubes, and the teller will send back a treat for Sadie, along with a deposit slip.
Oregon seems to be just figuring this out.
A couple of weeks ago, the state announced plans to crackdown on doggies in grocery stores. The N.Y. Times reported this as news this morning.
But the Los Angeles Times got it right. Kate Linthicum reported this morning that when Sarah Gilbert, a cyclist in Portland, Oregon, tried to order four cheeseburgers for her family at a Burgerville drive-through, she was denied.
Gilbert, a freelance blogger with thousands of online followers, went home and Twittered huffily about the experience ("burgerville on 26th/ powell turned me on my bike away from drivethrough. and not nicely at all."), and penned an open letter to Burgerville calling for more bike-friendly policies.
Many chain restaurants across America do not serve bicyclists at their drive-throughs, said Jeff Mapes, a Portland journalist who has written a book about bike culture. "In a lot of cities it doesn't make much of a splash at all," he said. "But here, it's a cause celebre."
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Jonathan Maus, who publishes a blog called bikeportland.org said, "They expect a business to treat them the same whether they come in a car or on a bike."
Advocates have successfully persuaded many local businesses to include bicycle parking, he said. Persuading banks, pharmacies, fast-food chains and other businesses with drive-throughs to serve bicyclists is the next step.
Which is why Gilbert's complaints struck a nerve. There was talk of a boycott. The story was picked up by local news outlets. Finally, Burgerville yielded. The chain apologized to Gilbert (it said it had no formal policy dictating how -- or where -- bicyclists could be served) and announced that it would henceforth welcome cyclists at all of its 39 drive-through locations in Oregon and Washington.
Sadie would approve.
Candy porn: Do these images make you randy?
Simon Simpkins, a Pontefract, West Yorkshire, U.K. father of two, says he was buying Haribo MAOAM sour candies for his children when he noticed the 'pornographic' illustrations of limes, lemons and cherries romping with each other.
'The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter.
'The lime, whom I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face.'
A spokesman for Haribo said the 'fun' packaging of the sweets was introduced in Germany 2002 and added: 'This jovial MAOAM man is very popular with fans, both young and old.'
Food, sex and porn - new magazine, and how it's done
Eat Me Daily reports that Food + Sex, a new magazine (bottom) with claims to be "The New Aesthetic of Food" featuring articles about human-incubated yogurt and "Tripping Balls on the Magic Penis" about eating psychedelic mushrooms, has debuted.
Sounds like the culmination of food porn.
For those who want more than titillation, The Enthusiast reports on how it’s done:
That mouth-watering Dominos pizza pull-apart, the tumbling ice cube dive-bombing into a perfect splash of soft drink — hell, even Whiskas looks pretty damn tasty when it’s artfully forked apart on TV commercials. Just who is responsible for these flirtatious parades of food pornography?
Welcome to the unspoken world of food stylists, a niche industry responsible for producing attractive food and drink footage of almost otherworldly beauty. This critical weapon is vital in convincing you to purchase that greasy burger, which otherwise looks like a flaccid afterthought by a distracted teenage fry cook.
Robert Carmack, an Australian food stylist of 20 years experience., says, there’s a simple code of conduct when it comes to advertising the product with some honesty. “We use the actual product when we’re selling that product. I’m free to use anything else when it’s an auxiliary. In other words, selling cereal means I must use the actual corn flakes, but the sugar and milk – or white-coloured glue – can be faked.” Mmm, we always did love the taste of Clag as kids!
Robert notes that many food stylists begin their life at gourmet publications, which usually involve proving your worth with mottled lighting and suspiciously realistic props. You’ll work your way up the (ahem) food chain, to photographing products like Big Macs against white Formica without any props at all, but still generating the same appeal to appetite.
In the age of Photoshop, however, everything is usually graphically manipulated after the final shot. “It tends to make stylists lazy when it comes to wiping out marks and drops, but it’s essential,” laments Robert.
McDonald's fillet-o-fish is really fish
Putting aside years of conspiracy theories, the Miami Herald commissioned Nova Southeastern professor Mahmood Shivji's to use DNA fingerprinting technology to confirm that the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwich is actually made of fish.
Alaska pollock.
McDonald's corporate website identifies pollock as one of two fish sources for its decades-old fish sandwich (the other being hoki, a fish found off the coasts of New Zealand and Australia).
Both fish species are recognized as sustainable, well-managed fisheries -- meaning Filet-O-Fish lovers can feel good that their guilty pleasure won't harm Mother Nature's marine ecosytems.
Woman's Day: Top-10 foods on a stick
While ironic that a magazine called Woman’s Day would feature the top-10 surprising foods on a stick – there’s probably an app for that – here they are:
Deep-Fried Spam (right)
Deep-Fried Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Octopus Tempura
Deep-Fried Tootsie Roll
Deep-Fried Mac-n-Cheese
Pizza
Deep-Fried Bacon and Fries
Deep-Fried Chocolate Cake (left)
Livermush
Deep-Fried Cheese
Barth and the Health Inspector featuring Alanis Morissette
Canadian actor Les Lye passed away in July at the age of 84, but Don Scaffner just sent me his classic bit, Barth and the Health Inspector featuring Alanis Morissette, from the Ottawa kids TV show, You Can’t Do That On Television.
For those unfamiliar, the premise of every Barth sketch is as follows: Barth is the proprietor of a burger joint, Barth’s Burgers, frequented by the show’s cast presumably by government mandate as Canada, of course, is widely known for its socialized burger program. The burgers are of such vile quality that the kids are compelled to speculate as to the source of the eponymous meat, to which the ill-sanitized restauranteur responds “D’Iyyyyyyye heard that!” then betrays his recipe as being primarily human-based. Then everyone vomits theatrically and with exaggerated gesticulations.
Horny college students told to wear surgical masks when kissing to reduce risk of swine flu
Is grinding an effective form of birth control? Are condoms recommended during oral sex? Should horny college students kiss while wearing surgical masks to reduce incidence of swine flu?
In what should provide a stimulus to the sexy doctor/nurse outfit industry, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control yesterday issued advice suggesting that if college students are ill, they should refrain from kissing but, if they must, wear a surgical mask while doing the deed.
Substitute the word condom for mask in the following excerpts from the story; makes it fun.
The recommendation reads, "If close contact with others cannot be avoided, the ill student should be asked to wear a surgical mask during the period of contact. Examples of close contact include kissing, sharing eating or drinking utensils, or having any other contact between persons likely to result in exposure to respiratory droplets."
CDC spokesperson Tom Skinner acknowledged that the language of the recommendation was confusing and that the agency would "look at rewording" the guidance.
"We're not telling them to wear a mask when they kiss," Skinner said. "What we're trying to do is give examples of 'close contact.'"
We’ll stick with our advice, below.
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Children and barf bags
The most awesome thing I ever did as a parent – according to Amy – is when we were flying back from Florida last year with daughter Courtlynn (right, with Sorenne).
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As the plane touched down in Kansas City, Courtlynn had that 13-year-old look of nausea that I recognized far too well.
I knew she was going to spew.
I deftly retrieved the barf bag from the seat pocket in front of me, Courtlynn filled it, and I nonchalantly deboarded the plane, barf bag in one hand, daughter’s hand in the other, and deposited it in the first available garbage receptacle.
Amy was awestruck.
Marlene, otherwise known as Momma, is apparently awestruck by people who edit blogs containing the word barf. She sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago flogging her oversized, fully disposable barf bags that come complete with sanitizing wipes for quick clean-up. And in three logos -- one for pregnancy, one for travel, and one with a college-style logo -- puke university.
Thanks for the swag, Momma. The three types of barf bags were at the homestead when we returned on Sunday. Who doesn’t need an appropriately adorned barf bag?
Beer can be made at home: so why is Whole Foods featuring beer shipped from Germany? Not sustainable
Pointing out the hypocrisy of Whole Foods is like going quail hunting with Dick Cheney: too easy, too stupid, and someone’s going to get shot in the face (or near the heart).
Whole Foods, defenders of all things natural and sustainable, is featuring beer imported from Germany -- or Czech Republic, depending on who's brewing it -- this month.
Beer is one of those things that can be fairly easily produced in a local venue: hops, malt, water, yeast.
Whole Foods CEO John Mackay was right last week when he said Whole Foods sold a bunch of junk.
Cheese curry commercial: Japanese rock with cheese and curry
Coldmud.com highlighted what it called the best commercial ever?: this gem for Nissin cup noodle European-style cheese curry.
I said a quarter chicken not a whole chicken - unleash the oil
Borrowing medieval battle tactics, a 24-year-old Australian man poured boiling oil over his sleeping housemate last August because he bought a whole takeaway chicken instead of a quarter.
Today he was sentenced to six years in prison.
Justice Mark Weinberg said the man’s act was "of extraordinary violence bought about by your feelings of anger and resentment towards your victim. Yours was a cowardly act and one of great cruelty."
KFC condiment kerfuffle
A 26-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday night by police in Surprise, Arizona, after she allegedly tried to back over a KFC employee with her car because her meal was served sans condiments.
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Surprise police said the woman was at the drive-through of a KFC when the argument began because employees failed to provide condiments with her meal.
She entered the KFC and had a verbal exchange with an employee about 7 p.m. Employees ordered the woman to leave the building and a KFC employee followed her out of the building and stood behind her vehicle to get a license plate number.
That’s when she apparently decided to put the car in reverse. And then she did it again.
The woman was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.
Burger King outs baby for 'no shoes' rule
No shirt, no shoes, no service, baby!
According to KSHB-TV, the manager of a Burger King near St. Louis, Missouri, told Jennifer Frederich she would have to get her food to go because her daughter, Kaylin, wasn’t wearing any shoes. 
"She doesn’t own shoes. She’s only six months old,” said Frederich after the manager explained that feet without shoes were against the health code, and, no, socks would not suffice.
“She doesn’t walk, so she’s not touching the ground," Frederich continued, "There is no reason for her to have shoes on.”
While the manager's apparent commitment to the health code was admirable, the misplaced emphasis suggests it was not a product of a culture of food safety.
"In fact," the Associated Press later reported, "shoelessness is not a health code violation in St. Louis County."
A statement by Burger King, cited by the AP, says the owner of that particular franchise "apologizes for this guest's experience...The franchisee is retraining his restaurant team on the proper use of the 'no shoes' policy."
The franchise owner also contacted Frederich to apologize in person.
No baby shoes, no service at Burger King
Sorenne turns 8-months-old tomorrow. Being in Florida, Amy bought her some flip-flops. But that’s about it for shoes.
However, a Burger King manager took the no shirt, no shoes, no service policy to some extremes and threatened to call police on a mom because her 6-month-old baby wasn’t wearing shoes in the restaurant.
Seriously, who would want to put a six month old on the floor of a Burger King?
The video below explains:
Brazil: Environment group says, pee in the shower to save water
I admit it: I pee in the shower.
And 30 minutes ago after returning from the beach, Sorenne peed on me and the towel she was wrapped in (that’s us, right, watching the sunset in Venice, Florida, last night).
But according to Brazilian environmental group SOS Mata, I’m a bona fide environmentalist.
dlisted reports that a new public service announcement is urging Brazilians to piss while showering (below) because it would save some 4,380 liters of water a year if every household didn't flush their toilet at least once a day. (The original dlisted report is hilarious, if not entirely PG.)
“They even suggest that you make it a non-stop partying by brushing your teeth in the shower while you wash your nalgas and go pissy times.”
I do that too.
Killer cows
Cows can be dangerous.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported last week that from 2003-2007, cattle were the primary or secondary cause of death for 108 people.
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During the same period, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska accounted for 16% of the nation's approximately 985,000 cattle operations and 21% of the nation's cattle and calf herd.
To better characterize cattle-caused deaths in these four states, investigators reviewed all such deaths occurring during the period 2003--2008 that were detected by two surveillance programs, the Iowa Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (IA FACE) and the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (GPCAH). This report summarizes that investigation, which identified 21 cattle-related deaths. These deaths occurred throughout the year, and decedents tended to be older (aged ≥60 years) (67%) and male (95%). Except in one case, the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head or chest. Circumstances associated with these deaths included working with cattle in enclosed areas (33%), moving or herding cattle (24%), loading (14%), and feeding (14%). One third of the deaths were caused by animals that had previously exhibited aggressive behavior.
To reduce the risk for death from cattle-caused injuries, farmers and ranchers should be aware of and follow recommended practices for safe livestock-handling facilities and proper precautions for working with cattle, especially cattle that have exhibited aggressiveness.
Want to avoid foodborne illness? Get hypnotized
The buzz created around microbial food safety leads to multiple hucksters trying to get in on the action. While we've covered new (and not really effective) ideas like home Salmonella testing kits, produce and consumer produce washes, this one is unique: Prevent Foodborne Infection With Seattle Hypnosis.
From the blog:
You can prevent foodborne infections with self-hypnosis that is is taught at the Seattle hypnosis offices of Roger Moore’s Counseling & Hypnotherapy LLC. Learn how to hypnotize yourself and change your eating habits...
Most cases of gastroenteritis caused by a common bacteria occur because people consume or prepare meat from infected chickens or cattle....
With self-hypnosis you really can end your desires for fats like beef and chicken and no longer expose yourself to the risks of the foodborne infection.
The Seattle-base hypnotists miss the mark (but full marks for trying) -- avoiding meat is not the answer. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a significant, if not the most significant, source of foodborne illness today in North America. The very characteristic that affords dietary benefit -- fresh -- also creates microbiological risk: Because they are not cooked, anything that comes into contact with fresh fruits and vegetables is a possible source of contamination.
Is the water used for irrigation or rinsing clean or is it loaded with pathogens? Do the workers who collect the produce follow strict hygienic practices such as thorough handwashing? Are the vehicles used to transport fresh produce also used to transport live animals that could be sources of microbial contamination?
Herbivores, omnivores, carnivores and locavores are all at risk for foodborne illness.
Frogs in frozen food and on Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s outfits are getting wonkier and wonkier. This week’s creation involved a disturbing violation of Kermit the Frog (pictured, right). Equally as wonky, a Texas woman found a dead frog (or most of it, pictured below) in a bag of frozen vegetables, reports KLTV 7.
Chasity Erbaugh was heating up a Great Value brand of steamable green beans - making lunch for her kids when she discovered a nasty surprise.
Erabaugh explained,
"Thank goodness I had put butter in the bottom of the bowl. I went to stir it and there's this brown clump."
After a close examination, Erbaugh was sick to her stomach at what she discovered. The "brown clump" was part of a frog… She found the whole front end of a frog, with the spinal cord and everything attached, in her green beans. The frog's tongue was even hanging out.
Shocked, she said,
"That's a frog! Or worse than that, it's part of a frog - 75% of it. They didn't even give me the frog legs with it."
Chasity bought the beans from the Walmart on Troup Highway. We gave the lot numbers to the health department, and Monday afternoon, they had the store pull the rest of the bags from that lot.
Brenda Elrod with the Northeast Texas Public Health District, said,
"What we try to do is coordinate with the manufacturer inspectors to make sure we can track it from our store back to the factory where it was made and back to the lot.”
Since being made aware of the incident, a Food and Drug officer is now sending the complaint up to the FDA.
"When you're washing field vegetables, you're going to get certain little pieces and parts, but we certainly don't want something so large you can identify what it is."
As for Erbaugh, she says from now on, it's fresh veggies only.
Doo doo in the Soo
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Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is a very unique place. Lovingly called the Soo, home of the Bon Soo winter carnival and Greyhounds Ontario Hockey League team, many, including myself, call it home.
Today, while creeping on a fellow Saultite’s Facebook photos, I came across this picture (right). My workmate asked if cartwheeling was Canadian slang for something – I’m pretty sure it refers to the gymnastics move.
If you cartwheel in doo doo, wash your hands.
Where to get germs while on vacation
I've walked down Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Chinese Theatre. I bought a $2 map of the stars' houses and photographed the "foot prints" of Star Wars' R2D2 and C3PO in the cement. But I didn't touch anything.
That sidewalk made the list of the five germiest tourist spots in the world as determined by editors at TripAdvisor.com this summer:
1. Blarney Stone in Blarney, Ireland - Last year, about 400,000 people hung upside down to kiss this stone in their quest for the gift of eloquence.
2. Market Theater Gum Wall in Seattle, Washington - This 15'x50' wall of gum began as a few sticky pieces discarded by college students waiting in line for movie tickets fifteen years ago.
3. St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy - For some reason, people love feeding the pigeons here, though city officials have been cracking down on the pooping menaces in recent years.
4. Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California - The celebrity handprints in the cement out front encourage bare-hand contact with a city sidewalk, which, according to a Theatre tour guide, is mopped daily and pressure washed once a week to support the trend.
5. Oscar Wilde's Tomb in Paris, France - Admirers of author and playwright Oscar Wilde don bright lipstick to kiss his tomb when they come to pay their respects.
CNN's report of the list states,
"Though it is unlikely to get sick from visiting one of these places, health experts say germs are always a gamble. The more people who touch and visit a spot, the more germs there are in the mix, they say.
"Their traveling advice? Travelers should load up on hand sanitizers and wash their hands often on their trips."
Good advice, baseless assumptions. Now, what about the kissing? And the pigeons?
TripAdvisor travel expert Brooke Ferencsik was quoted as saying, "These places are great attractions regardless of the fact that they are germy."
I'd say they were good for a photo, maybe. But I'm passing on the hands-on (or mouth-on) participation.
The rise of the space toilet
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind on the surface of the moon forty years ago.
On this special anniversary, Craig Nelson, author of Rocket Men, released ten little-known facts about the Apollo 11 mission that took Armstrong and Aldrin to the moon and back. 
The list highlights several aspects of space travel that have been updated and improved upon since that time, including restroom facilities.
Nelson writes that in 1969 "urinating and defecating in zero gravity...had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it."
The waste ejection predicament of the Endevour at the international space station just seems to pale in comparison.
Space toilet is plugged
The Associated Press reports today that one of the international space station's toilets is out of order. As an often user of a plunger in my house, I know the embarrassment (or pride for some folks) that arises from plugging the commode.
While flight director Brian Smith declined to speculate whether overuse caused the toilet trouble, he was quoted as saying "We don't yet know the extent of the problem. It may turn out to be of no consequence at all. It could turn out to be significant. It's too early to tell right now."
The situation might get stickier as the space station guests, crew of the Endevour, are restricted to relieving themselves in their own vehicle. The AP says that the Endevour is parked next to the Japanese porch and can't eject waste, Cousin Eddie-style, without spraying it all over the porch.
NASA, the food safety equivalent of the always-prepared Boy Scouts (without the funky green uniforms) was a catalyst in the creation of the modern food safety risk reduction system. In the 1960s NASA commissioned Pillsbury to rethink how to address risks in food processing and moved away from the use of end product testing as the only check. The result, hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) was created and seen as the best way to keep astronauts from acquiring foodborne illness and the avoiding awkwardness that would be created by explosive diarrhea in weightlessness.
The toilet repair work reportedly fell to Belgian astronaut/plumber Frank De Winne who wore goggles, gloves and a mask.
Wienermobile enters home, wasn't invited
Although it’s National Hot Dog month, it’s been a lousy couple of weeks for Oscar Mayer.
On July 7, 2009, Oscar G. Mayer, retired chairman of the Wisconsin-based meat processing company that bears his name, died at the age of 95.
He was the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded Oscar Mayer Foods, which was once the largest private employer in Madison. His grandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, died in 1955 and his father, Oscar G. Mayer Sr., died in 1965.
Mayer retired as chairman of the board in 1977 at age 62 soon after the company recorded its first $1 billion year. The company was later sold to General Foods and is now a business unit of Kraft.
Besides the actual hot dogs, Oscar Mayer is well-known for its Wienermobile. Amy saw it once on the back roads of Missouri. My kids had the plastic replicas (thanks, John).
Yesterday, Wienermobile was turning around in a Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, driveway, about 35 miles south of Milwaukee. The driver thought her wiener was in reverse but it was in drive. No one was home and no one was injured. No citations were immediately issued.
E. coli and Salmonella found on goat penis in Vietnam; not fit for human consumption
Ho Chi Minh City destroyed nearly 1.5 tons of goat penis, imported from Australia and contaminated with bacteria.
Nguyen Thi Thu Nga, chief inspector of the HCMC Animal Health Agency, said the products were contaminated with bacteria, including Salmonella and E.coli, and also failed to meet other food safety criteria.
However, inspectors said 47 of the 72 boxes imported had been sold as food. The inspectors issued fines against the company for trading animal products contaminated with bacteria.
In addition to a reproductive organ and Asian meat, GoatPenis is also a heavy metal band from Brazil formed in 1991 and performing under the Satanic Skinhead label. Sounds as bad as Journey.
Emirates chef fined $27,000 for expired (by 1 day) yoghurt
Before the widespread use of refrigeration, fresh milk was often fermented into yoghurt, chesse and other dairy products for long-term storage.
So in what seems an excessively harsh penalty, if true, a British chef at a restaurant in the Emirates Palace hotel is appealing his U.S. $27,000 fine after inspectors from Abu Dhabi Municipality found the yoghurt during a routine visit to the kitchen of the Etoiles restaurant and lounge about a month ago. 


The head chef, identified as PH, was convicted and ordered to pay Dh70,000 for not educating his staff on the emirate’s food expiration laws and Dh20,000 for storing expired food. He also had to pay another Dh2,000 for the municipality’s fees.
PH appealed the court sentence in the past few weeks, and the case was referred to the Criminal Court of Appeal, where it was heard yesterday. 

His attorney said the food was only one day past its use-by date; court documents do not specify when the food expired.
Slap Chop Rap makes it to mainstream TV
Roll over, Billy Mays.
Eat Me Daily reports that the Internet phenomena that is "Slap Chop Rap" — the auto-tuned remix video of the Slap Chop infomercial by DJ Steve Porter that's gotten an astounding 3.7 million views — has made the big time, airing on television. TMZ says it's so.
Creepy.
It's all fun and games and molecular gastronomy sounds cool - until someone loses their hands
I played lots with liquid nitrogen as a graduate student in molecular biology and genetics back in the mid-1980s (the music was so bad I listened to baseball games on the radio during evening lab sessions).
A 24-year-old man from Stahnsdorf near Berlin was poised to try out a new recipe from the school of molecular cooking, which aims to apply scientific processes to gastronomy.
There was an "enormous explosion", according to the Berliner Morgenpost daily.
The man lost one hand in the explosion and the other was so badly injured it had to be amputated.
Jaw Wired Shut blog
I had a broken jaw once – wired shut for six weeks. Filled up on soup, shakes and various forms of slop.
That was a long time ago. Today, people with broken jaws can go to the Jaw Wired Shut blog.
Frank Bruni writes in the New York Times,
Jaw Wired Shut is one of those when-God-gives-you-lemons things, and it really does capture the glory of the Internet, which allows people in very particular situations, with very particular needs, to find guidance and company. To connect.
But it also has an amusing dimension, with a cultural-commentary side. As the blog’s author approaches her latest appointment with the blender, she muses on flavors and food rituals much the way any other recipe writer or tester would, never mind that her end result will invariably be … mush.
The posts play as a simultaneous homage to, and parody of, food porn today.
“Fresh lettuce reminds me of childhood summers,” begins one recent post. “I loved going next door to play in the dirt in our neighbor’s garden.”
Camel burgers on the menu in Saudi Arabia
Amy is forever telling me she wants a llama. I figure she saw it in the movie, Napolean Dynamite, and that maybe it would be cool in a retro sorta way. She also grew up with deer, so there’s some validity to it.
Amy also talks of the farm on Interstate-70 between Manhattan (Kansas) and Topeka where she would see a camel on the hill. I never saw the camel. But Amy told the story to enough people that she finally ran into one who knew of the Kansas camel, and said the farmer got rid of it.
Maybe it was made into camel burgers? Cause that’s what they’re doing in Saudi Arabia, where a fast food restaurant is offering baby camel burgers as the latest way for the camel-crazed country to enjoy one of their favorite delicacies.
Saleh Quwaisi, one of the owners of the Local Hashi Meals restaurant in the capital Riyadh which plans to open a second branch soon and considers to expand further, said,
"The idea...was to invent something new. It is about the love of Saudi people for camel meat.”
Walid Sanchez, managing director of sufraiti.com, a popular Saudi online dining directory, sees a huge market for camel burgers as Saudis like to try out new menus and appreciate the quality of locally made meat.
"People like camel meat but no one experimented with camel burgers before...I think it will be a popular thing, it will definitely take off.”
Ahmad al-Okaili, ordering "Hashi" burgers -- Arabic for baby camel -- for him and his children, agreed: "I like their idea and enthusiasm, they're the first to do this and they've become famous with it, which is well-deserved."
Rolling Stones Rice Krispies advert, 1963
I’m a Stones fan. They even make commercials cool. Saw this 1963 advertisement for Rice Krispies on Coldmud.com this morning.
Roadkill burgers banned in Newfoundland
"I've been involved in getting moose for over 30 years from wildlife, and I have never heard of anyone ever getting sick from eating a moose burger."
So says Dave Barker, who works for the Knights of Columbus in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland.
I hear similar sentiments all the time. It’s completely meaningless.
If someone got sick from a past practice, they would probably not accurately link it to a specific food; if they died, they wouldn’t be around to complain.
But perhaps the bureaucrats in the Canadian province of Newfoundland have gone a bit too … bureaucratic.
The provincial government recently discontinued the donation of roadkill moose meat, and charity groups say the decision strips them of a vital source of fundraising.
For decades, wildlife officers have offered charities moose killed in road collisions. The charities had butchers mince the meat into burgers, a very popular treat in the province, and held community barbecues and other events to raise money for their various causes.
"It depends on how much moose is actually destroyed in the accident, but normally you get at least two moose burger sales out of one moose, so you're looking at anywhere from $2,500 to $3,000," said Shane Budgell, president of the Lions Club in Grand Falls-Windsor.
The government's decision comes after the province's auditor general flagged problems earlier this year about the department's donations of wild game meat.
"The department did not always track where all of the meat from a particular animal was sent," John Noseworthy wrote in his annual report.
After a review, the government decided to stop donating roadkill moose meat, saying the practice would expose them to liability if any health or safety risks arose.
Moose are ruminants, and there have been outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 associated with moose meat (it’s not just corn-fed feedlot cattle; I'm talking to you, Michael Pollan and Food Inc.).
But rather than ban the use of roadkill, why not have better training for butchers and food service types and teach them how to not cross-contaminate and use tip-sensitive thermometers to ensure the meat is prepared safely?
Oregon. man upset by McDonald's order repeatedly calls 911
Oregon appears to be an emerging state for 911 wackos – rivaling Florida and Texas – after a 23-year-old called 911 Friday to complain about his order at a McDonald’s in Clackamas, Ore.
Last month, a fellow Oregonian was arrested after calling 911 to complain about a juice box missing from his McDonald’s order. From insufficient shrimp in Texas, a McNuggets emergency and missing lemonade at a Burger King, 2009 is turning into a watershed year as American fast-food diners to a 911-mediated slide into idiocracy.
In the latest incident, KOMO News reports that a man said he had paid $10 in the drive-thru but only received a single burger and a fry before he was told to pull around.
"Sir, this is not a police matter," the dispatcher told him. "You need to take it up with the manager of the McDonald's."
The man thought it would be wise to call 911 again.
"This is a 911 emergency. I got robbed for eight dollars."
"Sir, 911 is life-and-death only. If you do continue calling 911 you will be arrested for misuse."
"Well, arrest me at (expletive) 82nd and Sunnyside Road. Please send a cop right now. I swear to God all my life..."
The man was arrested and spent the night in jail.
On Saturday, the man told KATU he stood by his actions.
"I was very upset that they tried to charge me for food I had already paid for. … For me to end up going to jail over a $10 order, that's just ridiculous.”
A cookbook of recipes to move the poop: The Un-Constipated Gourmet
Baby Sorenne is coming up on seven months, and her poop is changing. As more solids are introduced into her diet, her poop has gone from runny brown to sticky to fully formed turds.
Yesterday, she started screaming as loud as she could for about 20 seconds. Sure enough, out popped a poop. That was about the fourth consecutive time it’s happened. Really, who hasn’t wanted to scream during a plugged up poop.
If you’re one of those people, Eat Me Daily reports today on The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets for a Movable Feast, a collection of recipes designed to make you poop by first-time author Danielle Svetcov.
Svetcov's hope is that the book — which promises recipes you can serve to your "uncorked" friends without them realizing that they're specially engineered for your own digestive needs — will deliver "superfoods with an agenda" so that the "potty-challenged" and those with "bathroom envy" will find themselves "called to duty."
India: Red hot chillis to be used in hand grenades
India's security forces are planning to mix one of the world's hottest chilli powders in hand grenades to control riots and during insurgency operations in the remote northeast.
India's defense scientists say they will replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chilli to immobilize a person without killing him.
Scientists said the chilli found in the country's northeast generates so much heat it was enough to startle a person for a while when used as a weapon.
The bhut jolokia chilli is said to generate 1,000,000 heat units on the Scoville scale -- a measure of hotness -- at least a thousand times more than a common kitchen chilli.
The Scoville scale was named after American scientist Wilbur Scoville, the first to measure the heat component in chillies.
Furry marmot joins diners at Wash. restaurant
Diners at a restaurant in Prosser, Wash., were startled Monday when a furry marmot wandered through the front door and settled into a corner.
City Administrator Charlie Bush told the Tri-City Herald the big rodents have long been a problem in the central Washington wine town, adding,
"I know there's a lot of marmots in Prosser, there's no question. They're happy marmots. They're fat, they're having a good time."
Bush said several people in the restaurant helped build a makeshift tunnel out of advertising signs, and with some gentle prodding, the animal "just took off like a shot."
Florida woman assaulted at church with cucumber
Cucumbers should be used as vegetables, or even conversation starters like in this scene from the movie, Animal House (right).
But a Lee County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office report says that during a food giveaway at the Lehigh Christian Church, a 33-year-old woman was struck with a cucumber by another woman after an argument over which free food belonged to which woman.
The church asked both women to leave.
Bunny burgers
Kevin Nealon is great on Weeds and he’s great on this 1994 television pilot: Bunny Burgers.
Eat Me Daily writes that to see "just how low American marketers would go to help us to get a completely ridiculous to your shopping mall," they designed stationary, made a 24-page business plan, hired an actor to play the Japanese billionaire investor, and lured PR flacks to the Ritz Carlton to see if they wanted to represent the company. They ran focus groups and rented a store in a mall in New Jersey, offering bunny burgers to unsuspecting customers, complete with hot pink uniforms and creepy bunny mascot. Said one of the people in the mall: "Who dreamed up this name? It's like trying to sell Bambi burgers, you know?"
The bunnies are eating the beans in my all-natural garden; the cats need to be more vigilant.
"Yummy yummy got bunny in my tummy / It's the Bunny Burger taste sensation / Kinda like chicken / Kinda like roast beef / Pledge allegiance to the Bunny Burger nation / They love it in France / Come and give it a chance / Bunny Burger.
Murder Burger's staff wear Meat is Murder T-shirts - and only serve meat
Murder Burger, a New Zealand gourmet burger store that opened in the swish Auckland suburb of Ponsonby last year, used the following for an on-line Help wanted ad:
"We need a bunch of people to hang out with, make burgers and talk shit.”
The ad specifically requested student nurses and teachers to apply, explaining, "I've gone out with two nurses and two teachers and they were all awesome."
Not wanted were politics students ("Nothing personal, we just don't understand you") or methamphetamine addicts.
"Again nothing personal. It's just that the benefit of you being able to work seven shifts in a row is pretty much outweighed by the probability that you will one day flip, grab a knife and become Mr Stabby."
I’m all for it, as long as the burgers are verified 160F with a tip-sensitive thermometer.
Science says: wine-in-a-box OK
That’s a relief. I love my vino in a box, or from a box. In Maubisson, France, I’d bike to the store, and the dude would fill up a 2 litre bottle with Bordeaux from a box. Awesome.
Gary J. Pickering, senior author of a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry says that for some reason the researchers can't explain, wines stored in Tetra Pak-brand cartons had the lowest levels of unwanted chemicals, called methoxypyrazines.
One possibility, Pickering said, is that the chemicals escape through the carton's innermost layer, made of polyethylene, and then attach to an adjacent layer made of aluminum foil.
The best storage method for preventing that problem, the study found, was a bottle sealed with a screw-cap - which, like the cardboard carton, has some connoisseurs wrinkling their refined noses.
Clear labeling needed; Crunch Berries not a fruit
It's important for food companies to disclose relevant information to the public so that consumers can make informed decisions about what they eat.
For example, Cap'n Crunch should make it abundantly clear that the berries in its cereal are not real fruit so that Californian Janine Sugawara can intelligently balance her diet. 
News 10 in Sacramento reports that Sugawara filed a class-action lawsuit against the makers of Cap'n Crunch cereal last June because one product's label misled her. She bought Cap'n Crunch cereal for four years because she thought the Crunch Berries were real fruit.
Federal Judge Morrison England, Jr. dismissed the suit, saying, "a reasonable consumer would have understood the product packaging to expressly warrant only that the product contained sweetened corn and oat cereal, which it did."
"As far as this court has been been made aware, there is no such fruit (Crunch Berries) growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world," England wrote.
England also noted that Sugawara's lawyer, Harold Hewell, filed a simliar suit against Fruit Loops that was also thrown out of court.
Jason Mraz on how to wipe your azz
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For the past few weeks my morning routine has involved listening to the radio while making myself presentable, and it seems like every morning the same songs play. One of the radio-repeat songs is titled “I’m Yours” and is sung by Jason Mraz, a fellow blogger.
In an attempt to save the planet, Mr. Mraz provides tips for using less toilet paper,
- Start small. Challenge yourself to use only 8 squares in your session. We’ve all been in that place where it’s close to the cardboard roll and you have to be MacGuyver to make a clean get-away. This will force you to get creative while taking good care of each square.
- Use both sides. I mean that. I bet some people are afraid to look at or get close to their own skid-marks. But I say it’s better to know how your body’s handling the business of your health. Fold the paper again and again using a clean angle from the very same square. There’s a lot of real estate wasted on each sheet when you only wipe once.
- Should you find the paper too thin and become the victim of too many breakthroughs, try using a stronger material as a backing. This worked when I was camping. The paper wasn’t holding up in the dampness of camp, so I used a leaf to give the paper more strength from behind. Plus the leaf was textured, which handled the job with far more efficiency than just the paper by itself.
Though I found Mr. Mraz’s post quite entertaining, I wish he would have mentioned the importance of handwashing post-wipe, especially when one of these MacGuyver techniques fails and you get a bit of breakthrough. Oh, and the picture, right, is what he originally posted on Myspace.
Are you okay to kiss?
Amy and I (right, exactly as shown) cuddle and have PDAs (public displays of affection) all the time, even with baby Sorenne. But at bedtime, there’s a sleeping position rule: no up close face-to-face.
She says she doesn’t like to breathe used air.
Can’t fault her with that.
But maybe this will help.
Tel Aviv University researchers have come up a pocket-size breath test which lets you know if malodorous bacteria are brewing in your mouth. A blue result suggests you need a toothbrush. But if it's clear, you're "okay to kiss."
Until now, scientists believed that only one population of bacteria (the Gram-negative ones) break down the proteins in the mouth and produce foul odor. But Prof. Mel Rosenberg and Dr. Nir Sterer of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine recently discovered that the other population of bacteria (the Gram-positive ones) are bad breath's bacterial partner. These bacteria appear to help the Gram-negative ones by producing enzymes that chop sugary bits off the proteins that make them more easily degraded. This enzymatic activity, present in saliva, serves as the basis for the new "OkayToKiss" test.
Prof. Rosenberg, international authority on the diagnosis and treatment of bad breath, who co-developed the kit with Dr. Sterer, published their findings this past March in the Journal of Breath Research.
It’s one of my favorite journals.
Cocaine found in Red Bull drinks
Cases of Red Bull are being pulled from store shelves by officials in several countries due to the detection of cocaine in the products.
Trace amounts of the drug (0.4 micrograms per liter) were detected in Red Bull Cola by German authorities two weeks ago.
A few days later, Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. However, bans on the drink were initiated in several German states due to concerns that their sale may violate narcotics laws.
When the Department of Health in Taiwan heard about the German’s discovery, they decided to test Red Bull Energy Drink—another product by the same manufacturer. They, too, found 0.4 micrograms of cocaine for each liter tested.
A statement made by the folks at Red Bull two days ago said,
"It would have been absolutely impossible for Asian (or any other) authorities to have found traces of cocaine in Red Bull Energy Drink. We believe that Asian authorities mistakenly applied concerns about Red Bull Simply Cola to Red Bull Energy Drink, a completely different product with an entirely different formula. Nevertheless, we had Red Bull Energy Drink product samples from Asia analyzed by an independent and accredited institute and confirmed that Red Bull Energy Drink does not contain any cocaine."
The same day, officials at the Centre for Food Safety in Hong Kong said a laboratory analysis found 0.1 and 0.3 micrograms of the illegal drug per liter in samples of Red Bull Sugar-free, as well as Red Bull Cola and Red Bull Energy Drink.
Are they lying, too, Red Bull?
The remainder of the statement by Red Bull said,
"A German authority had raised concerns regarding the use of de-cocainized coca leaf extract in Red Bull Simply Cola. …
"De-cocainized coca leaf extracts are used as flavoring in food products around the world and are considered to be safe. Indeed, in 21 C.FR. 182.20, the Food and Drug Administration regulations provide that it is acceptable and safe to use de-cocainized coca in food products in the United States."
Each country—and each consumer for that matter—is entitled to determine the level of risk that is acceptable to them. Food producers should respect that, and provide the information needed to make those determinations.
They should also provide sufficient data when calling anyone a liar. People who are already pulling products likely need more data than results of an undisclosed number of samples tested by a single, unnamed institute. Less arrogance is definitely in order.
Hockey hat trick hats are often discarded for sanitary reasons
After three games of the Stanley Cup finals with Detroit leading Pittsburgh 2-1, and some of the best hockey in years, I finally have a reason to blog about it.
Puck Daddy asked today, What happens to hats thrown for hat tricks?
It all comes down to sanitation.
In hockey, when a player scores three goals in a game, it’s called a hat trick, and after the third goal, the ice is often littered with hats from fans.
One of hockey's greatest traditions, the tossing of hats on the ice when a player scores thrice evolved from local businessmen handing out fedoras to players about 90 years ago. During the 1970s, fans built on that tradition by tossing hats on the ice, and the NHL eventually amended its rule book to say that "articles thrown onto the ice following a special occasion (i.e. hat trick) will not result in a bench minor penalty being assessed" to the home team for delay of the game.
So where do all of these hat-trick hats eventually end up?
1. The Players Keep the Hats.
2. The Garbage: Remember what mom used to say about wearing other kids' hats back in elementary school? Turns out that health concerns about the indiscriminate origin of the hats is a consideration.
Mike Sundheim, media relations for the Carolina Hurricanes, said that a portion of the hats that are in decent shape are given to the players, but that "the majority of the older, well-worn ones pretty much have to go in the trash because of health concerns."
That was echoed by VP of communications Tom McMillan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, although he said a student once did a project with the Penguins in which he took hats thrown on the ice, had them "cleaned and medically approved" and then donated them to charity.
North Korea's Kim Jong-il 'eats live fish' claims former chef; so do others
Kim Jong-il enjoys raw fish so fresh "that it is still moving" washed down with fine French wines and brandies.
Kenji Fujimoto, a 56-year-old chef, who is in hiding in Japan after fleeing North Korea, and is set to publish a book called I Was Kim Jong-il's Cook, says,
"He particularly enjoyed raw fish so fresh that he could start eating as its mouth is still gasping and the tail is still thrashing. I sliced the fish so as not to puncture any of the vital organs, so of course it was still moving. was delighted. He would eat with gusto."
But a bites.ksu.edu reader says,
I was an English teacher in South Korea a couple of years ago, and one of my colleagues once told me about how she was treated to a dinner with something similar. The fish was still live, but laid out on the plate with its side cut into sashimi pieces. She said the fish looked at her while she contemplated digging in (I don't think she did, in the end).
Texas teen eats toxic pig testicles on a dare
High school biology classes often involve dissections. I distinctly remember the day my teacher, Mr. Deluca, brought in the fetal pigs. My partner was queezy at the thought of cutting open the little piggys, so I ended up doing most of the work, and truthfully was unphased by the dissection apart from the strong smell of formaldehyde in the classroom.
A teenage boy in Texas was less put-off by the smell of formaldehyde when he ate the testicles from a fetal pig on a dare during the class dissection, reports the Dallas Morning News.
Last week at Shepton High School in Plano, a ninth-grader agreed to eat parts of a fetal pig – and not just any parts – for $50. [The boy] gulped them down one at a time, he said, trying not to bite down.
The 15-year old boy, explained,
"It was just like swallowing a pill. It wasn't that bad."
School officials, who declined to comment, apparently took a different view, especially because the pigs are soaked in formaldehyde, a toxic chemical used to preserve the tissue.
The boy was sent to the hospital, but appears fine, commenting,
"It wasn't very smart.”
Oregon man calls 911 to protest missing juice box
In keeping with the storyline of idiots who think 911 is their babysitter, a man who called 911 to complain that McDonald's left a juice box out of his drive-through order was arrested on Monday, Portland television station KPTV reported.
Raibin Osman appeared before a Washington County judge Tuesday on a charge of misusing emergency services. He said he called emergency dispatchers after the drive-through employee wouldn't come back to the window to give him a juice box.
flushable wipes might not be so flushable
Having a baby around the house has introduced me to a bunch of new life necessities like soothers, gripe water and wipes. I'm not a huge diaper-changing fan, but when it’s my turn I try to do everything in a quick, fluid-like step but it doesn't always work out. The wipes help a lot.
I have a close friend back in Guelph who also uses wipes. And he doesn't have a baby.
A couple of years ago he led a discussion at a party about the political-correctness of adults using baby wipes for the not-so-clean trips to the restroom. As the
Raleigh News and Observer puts it, wipes can provide consumers a "shower-fresh" feeling for their bottoms. Since the discussion, this friend reports that he has been buying wipes, stashing them in his desk and covertly grabbing one daily as he goes to have a dump.
According to the
News and Observer,it turns out that flushing the wipes, even if they are the flushable ones is not a good idea for the sewer systems (at least in Raleigh).
Tissues and wipes of all stripes get balled up with hair and grease in the city's pipes, creating clogs that send sewage cascading from manholes. The problem has gotten worse in recent years with the introduction of wipes designed to disappear down toilets, Wastewater Treatment Superintendent T.J. Lynch said.
"What we see a lot of times in the collection system are overflows caused by those types of materials that don't degrade like they're supposed to or they claim to," he said.
Lynch knows this from experience and because he asked the lab at the Neuse River Wastewater Treatment Plant to test several kinds of wipes to see how quickly they break down in water.
The test, performed in March, was simple: Put a wipe or a tissue in a beaker of water with a magnet on the bottom that rotates, creating a vortex not unlike a flushing toilet. The lab put nearly a dozen products through this process, letting them spin for an hour.
Toilet paper begins to break down into a milky mush almost immediately, lab supervisor Darrell Crews said. Other items survived more or less intact. Some, such as Kleenex and other facial tissues, are well-known to people in the sewage business.
"A lot of people flush Kleenex thinking that it's just like toilet paper," Crews said. "But I can tell you, Kleenex doesn't break down. You can stir it, beat on it, it's just not going to break down."
It turns out that flushable wipes don't break down either, Crews said.
I’m not sure that public data exists around the extent of use of the wipes, but I doubt my Guelph friend is the only one sneaking around with them. Having them disposed in waste baskets beside the toilet, or elsewhere in the restroom after a clean-up probably isn’t a great public health strategy. Flushable wipes, if they breakdown and don’t lead to sewage spewing from manholes, are a good idea.
Canada's governor general eats raw seal heart: EU says too bizarre to acknowledge
Canada's governor general Michaelle Jean (below, right), the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II – ‘hellooooo little people ‘ -- ate a slaughtered seal's raw heart today in a show of support to the country's seal hunters.
Hundreds of Inuit at a community festival gathered Monday as Jean knelt above a pair of seal carcasses and used a traditional ulu blade to slice the meat off the skin. After cutting through the flesh, Jean turned to the woman beside her and asked: "Could I try the heart?"
'It's like sushi'
A spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said, "No comment; it's too bizarre to acknowledge.”
Two heads, seven legs, mutants amongst us
About 25 years ago, my ex was working as a veterinary intern and gave me a call. She said, you have to come see this.
A calf had been born with two heads and was at the vet school in Guelph and still alive. The heads were mirror images of each other. It was sorta freaky, but then again, so is most biology.
So I wasn’t that surprised when USA Today reported yesterday that a seven-legged calf (right) had been delivered on Thursday in Colorado.
The staff at the Steamboat Veterinary Hospital said the Black Angus calf, which was delivered by Caesarean section, had two spines but one head. One leg also had two hooves.
The calf lived for only about 10 minutes.
Veterinarian Lee Meyring says the birth resulted from an incomplete splitting of the embryo into twins.
Are reusable bags really a food safety concern?
The Canadian Plastic Industry Association (likely feeling reduced sales due to the popularity of reusable cloth bags) says that reusable bags are a public health risk. In a press release yesterday the plastic dudes touted the results of a bag swabbing study conducted earlier this year. Cited as the first study of its kind in North America, the plastics industry swabbed a whopping 25 bags, with 4 controls looking for anything they could find.
Swab-testing of a scientifically-meaningful sample of both single-use and reusable grocery bags found unacceptably high levels of bacterial, yeast, mold and coliform counts in the reusable bags. The swab testing was conducted March 7-April 10th by two independent laboratories. The study found that 64% of the reusable bags were contaminated with some level of bacteria and close to 30% had elevated bacterial counts higher than the 500 CFU/mL considered safe for drinking water..jpg)
Um, yeah except that coliform isn't an indicator of really anything in a shopping bag. It's a great indicator of water quality, but not great for food (coliforms are all over the place, including on produce). And mean relatively nothing.
The lack of real data is probably why it was reported in CFU/ml (a water measurement -- pretty hard to tell what a ml of a shopping bag represents). The most telling data was that no generic E. coli or Salmonella was found.
Not the best methodology design. Or reporting of results.
Not to be phased by the lack of data, Dr. Richard Summerbell, Director of Research at Toronto-based Sporometrics and former Chief of Medical Mycology for the Ontario Ministry of Health (1991-2000), who evaluated the study results said, "The main risk is food poisoning. But other significant risks include skin infections such as bacterial boils, allergic reactions, triggering of asthma attacks, and ear infections."
Wow. Maybe if you're talking about yeast and molds? But when it comes to pathogenic microorganisms the data just isn't there.
We use reusable bags all the time for our shopping and take a few precautions to maybe reduce any potential risks: we keep them dry; wash them every couple of weeks and use one-use bags for raw meat.
Wacky women at the Waffle House
On Sunday my Kansas family and I went out for brunch at a local restaurant. I ordered French toast, which I was less than impressed with, but since it was a busy day I didn’t throw my breakfast at the waitress.
An angry South Carolina Waffle House patron did throw a waffle at her waitress, which lead to an altercation involving a gun, reports WLTX.com.
[Crystal Samuel] didn't get what she came for. Instead, she says while she waited for her order, her friends started eating. That's when Samuel says she was told they couldn't eat from carryout trays inside the restaurant.
The two proceeded to have a verbal argument inside the restaurant, and Samuel admits,
"I did actually throw some food but it didn't hit her. That's when she [Yakeisha Ward, the waitress] jumped across the counter and we got into it."
The altercation moved outside, where Ward went to her car, got a gun, and attempted to shoot Samuel.
Ward has bonded out of jail. On Tuesday afternoon, News 19 found her inside the Waffle House where the incident happened.
Couple didn't know what they were eating
A 47-year-old Israeli woman crawled feebly to the front door to call for help from a neighbor before passing out. Her partner, also 47, had already fallen unconscious.
FOX News reports that the couple began to feel dizzy after eating a meal of fried blowfish, and could barely breathe when the ambulance arrived.
“From what they have been able to tell us,” Rambam Hospital spokesman David Ratner said, “a neighbor gave them the fish as a gift. They didn’t know what it was; they fried it up for dinner and ate it.“
The couple was unaware of the neurotoxins contained in the skin and certain internal organs of blowfish that are highly toxic to humans. Contacting or ingesting these toxins leads to muscle paralysis and can result in an excruciatingly slow and painful death.
Marine biologist Dr. Nadav Shashar said, though the fish is the second most poisonous vertebrae in the world, it is considered a delicacy in Japan and Korea, "but they know how to prepare it."
Dr. Shashar concluded by saying, “The basic rule of thumb is simple: Don’t stick things in your mouth if you don’t know what they are.”
Don't eat poop or blowfish poison.
Pearl Jam guitar player Mike McCready loves restroom access
I love Pearl Jam -- Two of their albums (Ten and Vitalogy) definitely make my top 5 favorite albums. They are my guilty pleasure (the band I'm not too sure I want to tell folks I love because it might reduce my coolness factor).
It's a stretch, but Pearl Jam provides some barfblog material today:
According to 93X Rocks, a public-access-to-restrooms law, that Pearl Jam guitar player Mike McCready has been lobbying for, was signed into law yesterday.
The guitarist, who suffers from Crohn's Disease, testified before the Washington State legislature in favor of a bill that would allow people suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases to use business restrooms. The bill singed into law yesterday has that provision, and also requires businesses to allow any customer to use an employee restroom if three or more employees are working at the time and the request doesn't pose a security risk.
Yeah for Pearl Jam, the pooping activist band. Hope those restrooms will also have to be stocked with the tools needed for proper handwashing.
Customer says: I've had it with these mofo snakes on this mofo broccoli
Jack Pendleton found a snakehead, the size of the end of his thumb, while eating Sunday at the T.G.I. Friday's in Clifton Park, N.Y. The chain restaurant said it regrets the appetite-killing error. Pendleton said he has no plans to sue.
Pendleton, doing what all consumers should do to hold suppliers of food accountable, snapped a photo with his cellphone camera, then summoned the waiter.
Amy Freshwater, a spokeswoman for the chain, said in an e-mailed statement the company is trying to determine what happened.
"We are taking this situation very seriously. We immediately pulled the broccoli from this restaurant and began an extensive investigation. As a precautionary measure, we pulled broccoli from all restaurants that received product from this supplier. We have since isolated the specific lot date of the broccoli in question and have now reintroduced the product in all restaurants not included in the product hold."
White Castle pulls pulled pork pig ad
Maybe it was the swine flu, maybe it was the bad Flashdance welder-by-day-peeler-by-night references, maybe it was the BBQ sauce, but an advertisement for White Castle’s new pulled pork sliders has disappeared, only to reappear through the magic of YouTube.
America's best restroom
If you ever find yourself in downtown Nashville, TN looking for a place to pee, WBBM780 Chicago recommends using the facilities at the Hermitage Hotel.
The hotel’s ground-floor men’s bathroom has won the award for “America’s Best Restroom”.
Janet Kurtz, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, says,
"You just can't find anything like it anywhere else. People see it and fall in love with it."
The redoubtable restroom is art-deco style with gleaming lime-green-and-black leaded glass tiles, lime-green fixtures, terrazzo floor and a two-seat shoeshine station.
The restroom won the honor in online voting sponsored by Cincinnati-based Cintas Corp., which supplies restroom hygiene products and services. The company says "tens of thousands" of people voted over two months last summer.
Criteria were hygiene, style and access to the public. The highfalutin honor has earned the restroom entry to "America's Best Restroom Hall of Fame."
Escaped bull shops for produce
No one was hurt when a bull escaped the clutches of its owner and ran into Cummins' Super-Valu in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, Ireland.
Independent.ie reports the bull had been at the local mart a few hundred yards away when it made its great escape.
Was it shopping for steaks?
By the time the bull was eventually recaptured by its owner, a local farmer, the only damage done was to fruit and vegetable stands.
"People were joking afterwards that our beef was fresh and fully traceable," said Mr Cummins. "He passed out Tesco to get to us. That tells its own story."
Food auctions: new trend in a down economy
While canning, freezing and growing food at home are increasing, so are discounted food sales. Sean Gregory writes in this week's Time that food items are now appearing at auctions across the U.S.,
As the stock market headed south last fall, Ron Peterson, owner of Elmer Auction, LLC, added grocery items like cereals and cleaning supplies to his ledger. And they've sold, to the cash-strapped ladies and gentlemen sitting in each and every row. "People are skipping the decorative items," says Peterson, "and buying what they need."
The story goes on to give a couple of examples of what is being sold at these auctions:
Clyde DeHart, owner of DeHart's Auction Service in Carlisle, Pa., takes "scratch n' dent" items from a nearby BJ's Wholesale Club store. Since BJ's sells in bulk, if one can of corn gets smashed in the truck, the whole case can't be displayed in the store. So DeHart takes the case, throws out the bad can, and auctions off the rest.
Some items are near or slightly past their sell-by dates, but these days, expiration won't keep shoppers from a discount. Other stuff is just sitting on the shelves, and will go to waste if it's not auctioned off.
At a grocery auction in early April, [Randy Zimmerman, mother of seven] bought hot dogs, frozen pizzas and an Easter ham, among other items. Zimmerman figures all the stuff she bought would have cost $300 in the grocery store. She paid $100.
Ripped bulk packaging isn't that much of a risk, but anything where the integrity of the direct packaging has been comprimised (such as a dented can) would be something to avoid.
It's not surprising that alternative (and cheaper) sources for food are popping up -- and that folks are seeking them out. The biggest issue with some of the items mentioned would be temperature control -- hard to trust that foods like Easter hams and hot dogs were held at the refrigeration temperatures after leaving (or being set aside) by the retailer. Handling of bulk fruits and vegetables by auctioneers and their staff could also lead to food safety problems.
Best beer movies of all time
Boatloads of beer can mean barf..jpg)
And with the opening today of the movie Beer Wars, Digital City decided to produce a best beer movies list. For those playing at home, the criteria for this list is that the movie either features great beer games or that the movie would have no story without beer. The list does not discriminate between good or bad movies.
Strange Brew (right) may be the greatest beer movie of all time. Max Von Sydow plans on taking over the world with a beer additive that allows him to control those who drink it. In one scene, Rick Moranis saves himself from drowning in vat of beer by drinking it. Their how-to on how to get a free beer: putting a mouse inside. It's timeless because it works.
The rest are irrelevant, but are included for curiosity:
Artie Lange's Beer League
Beerfest
Revenge of the Nerds (with Booger, left)
The Saddest Music in the World
Enough is enough: I've had it with this mofo snakes on this mofo plane
Samuel L. Jackson would be proud of Australia’s Qantas airlines after four pythons escaped from their carrier and became snakes on a plane.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the plane was grounded and fumigated after the snakes could not be found.
Native to the arid and rocky parts of western and central Australia, the Stimson's python eats its prey whole — and this includes small mammals, birds, frogs and other reptiles.
Stuff your taco with money
In a post more suited for d-listed, I came across this oddly shaped wallet while browsing an online shopping site. After many inappropriate jokes about what the taco-shaped wallet resembles, Doug, Amy and I found food safety relevance for the tacky taco accessory.
A brief history of taco-related food safety:
Taco Bell, like many other restaurants in June 2008, removed tomatoes from menus after an outbreak of Salmonella identified them as one of the outbreak culprits.
In December 2006 two separate outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 were linked to produce at Taco Bell and Taco John’s outlets in various U.S. states. The infosheet is here.
Taco lovers can purchase the taco purse for $7.99 + S&H.
911 is for medical emergencies, not a screwed up restaurant order
In an act typically associated with angry Florida fast food patrons, a woman in Texas called 911 after paying $1.62 for extra shrimp in her fried rice, and not receiving it, reports MY FOX in Dallas-Fort Worth.
The incident happened at A&D Buffalo's…Restaurant' employees said the woman originally left with her order, but came back claiming she did not get her full $1.62 worth of extra shrimp. Since she had already left the building with her food, they refused to give her a refund.
At this point the woman became irate, and called 911, telling the operator,
"I always get the shrimp fried rice, so I said I'm going to get extra meat this time. But he didn’t even put extra shrimp in there."
The woman also told the operator that she demanded either a refund or the additional crustaceans, and that she decided to place the emergency call when she was met with resistance.
Similar incidents have happened far too often. A disgruntled patron called 911 when a fast food joint ran out of lemonade, or chicken nuggets, or someone doesn’t like the way their sandwich or hamburger was prepared.
I wish they’d arrested the shrimp lover, perhaps giving her a lesson in the appropriate times to call 911.
One dead man, one naked man extricated from Colorado exhaust vents last week
Last Thursday morning, 49-year-old electrician Michael Goodspeed was found dead in an exhaust vent of a restaurant in Steamboat Springs, CO.
The Associated Press reports,
Goodspeed became wedged in a tapering section of the vent. The Routt County Coroner says it appears Goodspeed died of "positional asphyxiation".
Goodspeed and his coworkers were staying at the restaurant while doing work there before it officially opened. He climbed into the vent in an attempt to enter the restaurant after he was apparently locked out.
The next day, the manager of a Blackjack Pizza in Denver—about 150 miles away—discovered a younger man close to meeting the same fate.
According to the Denver Post, 21-year-old Andrew Baca was found dangling above the oven yelling, “Help me, help me,” after being stuck in a vent for five to six hours.
Firefighters were able to extricate Baca from the vent with only minor cuts and abrasions, though his clothes were removed in the rescue effort.
Police said the intruder, though lucky to be alive, was being held for investigation of burglary and criminal mischief.
The AP noted that the restaurant was closed later that day. It is unknown whether this was by order of the police force or the health department.
Woman finds sliced mouse in bag of frozen peppers
According to Metro (UK) Andrea Smith has been put off peppers for life after finding a field mouse while making dinner:
'My partner poured the peppers into a pan and was startled to find a clump of mouse fur and intestines falling out of the bag,' said the 37-year-old.
'After leaving it to defrost you could see the slice marks – it looked as if it had passed through a shredder with the peppers. The sight and thought of it made me feel sick. Mice carry all sorts of germs and there is no telling what my family could have caught.' 
Miss Smith, a mother of one, bought the bag from her local Morrisons supermarket in Gosport, Hampshire.
A manager was sent round to collect the corpse and carried out an investigation. Tests revealed it was a field mouse.
Bosses described the incident as a one-off and wrote a letter of apology to Miss Smith, in which they offered her a bottle of wine and vouchers to spend in store.
'I think the memory is going to stay with me for a long time,' said Miss Smith.
A Morrisons spokesman thanked her for 'bringing this to our attention'.
'We take the quality and the safety of all the products that we sell very seriously indeed,' the spokesman added.
'We would like to reassure her and our customers that this is an isolated incident.'
Fast food vigilante
In an attempt to upstage upset fast food patrons who call 911 when they don't get their McNuggets, lemonade, cheeseburger or proper garnish, a man in Peoria IL took the law into his own hands.
PJ Star.com reports that a McDonalds staff member was assaulted with an eggless McGriddle, after a customer, who purchased the breakfast sandwich, was angered by its lack of egg. 
Police were called to a West Bluff McDonald's restaurant early Saturday after an employee was allegedly assaulted with a breakfast sandwich.
About 5:20 a.m., a man at the drive-through window at 627 N. Western Ave. was upset his McGriddle sandwich didn't have an egg in it, the victim told police. She told the man she would correct the sandwich, but he became irate when the driver of the vehicle behind him honked at him to move.
The man then threw the hot, greasy sandwich at the 38-year-old employee's face, according to police reports. The man drove off before police arrived.
The woman refused medical attention.
I'm not a huge McGriddle fan, but I do really like those sausage and egg McMuffins.
McNuggets are not a 911 emergency
In yet another example of America’s slide toward Idiocracy, a Florida woman called 911 after paying for 10 Chicken McNuggets and told that no deep-fried chicken bits were available and would she like something else because all sales are final.
She called 911 three times.
"This is an emergency, If I would have known they didn't have McNuggets, I wouldn't have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don't want one. This is an emergency."
Once police arrived, the woman told police,
"I called 911 because I couldn't get a refund, and I wanted my McNuggets.”
The police report states the woman,
"maintained the attitude 'this is an emergency, my McNuggets are an emergency.'"
And why do these food-related 911 calls keep recurring in Florida?
Women fart, and that's extra cool in New Zealand
First it was Jamie Lee Curtis flogging Activia yoghurt, and its, uh, ability to restore digestive regularity.
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Now New Zealand brewer Tui has shattered one of the great myths of the sexes, with a billboard that reads, "Chicks never fart. Yeah, right.”
A survey of almost 600 women was carried out by Anchor's low-fat probiotic yoghurt brand Symbio, which is promoting a 14-day programme to reduce digestive problems.
The company says the programme - run through www.abetteryou.co.nz - has already registered 10,000 people.
The study of digestive health has found that 45 per cent of women experienced gas at least two to three times a week, but only 12 per cent of women are likely to tell their friends they're experiencing some sort of discomfort, even though three-quarters feel embarrassment when it strikes during social situations.
Sue McCarty, chief executive of the Auckland-based Via finishing school, said it was a "complete myth women don't pass wind."
For those suffering, her advice was: Better out than in. She said women here had less to be concerned about. "We're in New Zealand, remember. Lots more things are acceptable here than in other cultures."
HP sauce in UK bobby assault
UK police officers were rushed to hospital after a suspicious substance was thrown through a car window. The Metropolitan Police said officers responded to reports of an "unusual smell" coming from a car with a smashed window in Enfield, north London.
They saw an unknown brown substance inside and those who came into contact with it were taken to hospital.
The officers were released when the substance was identified as HP sauce.
Beware of falling mice!
The Birmingham Mail in England reported a couple weeks ago that half a dozen expired mice dropped to the floor next to diners at the food hall in a local Selfridges department store.
The rodents were victims of pest contol measures carried out after mice droppings were spotted in a back-of-house area during regular checks.
caterersearch, who reported the story today, says the mice fell out of the ventilation system.
The surprised diners were refunded and the company apologized in a statement for any distress caused by the fallen mice.
Pest control personnel were called out to clear away the remaining mice.
Additionally, a spokesman explained,
“Environmental health officers were called in to make sure the matter was dealt with and doesn’t happen again.
“At their recommendation we have now identified areas the mice may have been coming in and had those blocked off.”
The spokesman added there had been no more incidents and the food hall was open as usual as soon as these steps were taken.
Man dialed 911 when lemonade ran out
Have Americans become so self-absorbed they have to call 911 when food is not to their liking?
First it was a dude in Jacksonville, FL, who called 911 because he didn’t like the way his Subway sandwich was prepared. He could have just called Jared.
Last year, someone called 911 because she couldn’t get a cheeseburger.
On Friday, a man in Boynton Beach, FL, was arrested and charged with abuse of 911 communication after calling to complain that a local Burger King in did not have any lemonade.
If I was going to call 911 on Burger King it’d be related to that mascot that looks like a creepy Thunderbirds-clone
'Scorpion king' back after bananas bite
Daniel Amey, 30, thought he had scratched himself until he noticed his finger was swelling up.
The Telegraph reported yesterday he was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered part of a scorpion's tail in his finger.
Mr Amey (right, photo from telegraph.uk.com), who works at The Food Company said,
"I put my hand in the box and thought I had cut it but by the time I was carrying the bananas, my finger had swollen up to twice its size and it felt like it was burning. The doctor was ex-Army and he knew straight away that it was a scorpion as there was a single impact wound from the sting. He told me that if it had been the other kind of scorpion from Africa, I would have been dead within 15 minutes.”
The greengrocer returned to work the same day but says he will be more cautious when unpacking bananas.
Recycling used chopsticks
A Japanese man spent over 3 months gluing together used chopsticks to make a canoe. 
Shuhei Ogawara collected the 7,382 chopsticks from the cafeteria at the city hall where he worked. The collection took two years.
Ogawara commented that simply disposing of the chopsticks were a waste of perfectly good wood.
A man in Beijing with the same thought was once caught packaging and selling used chopsticks without any form of disinfection.
I prefer the boat idea.
How to control squirrels in the UK? Eat 'em.
I’m always open to trying new foods, but I don’t know if I’m all that interested in eating squirrel. Sure they’re terribly cute with their little hands and bright eyes, but I can’t help but wonder what kinds of diseases they carry. In terms of food I’ve always thought squirrel was more of a roadkill dish.
The Brtis sure don’t agree with my opinion of the squirrel. There is a booming industry for squirrel meat in the UK, and the public cannot get enough of it. In farmers’ markets, butcher shops, village pubs and elegant restaurants, squirrel is selling as fast as gamekeepers and hunters can bring it in. It’s not just a matter of eating something trendy, culling squirrels has become a necessity with the red squirrel population being pushed out by the gray squirrels.
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“The situation is more than simply a matter of having too many squirrels. In fact, there is a war raging in Squirreltown: invading interlopers (gray squirrels introduced from North America over the past century or more) are crowding out a British icon, the indigenous red squirrel immortalized by Beatrix Potter and cherished by generations since. The grays take over the reds’ habitat, eat voraciously and harbor a virus named squirrel parapox (harmless to humans) that does not harm grays but can devastate reds. (Reports indicate, though, that the reds are developing resistance.)
The “Save Our Squirrels” campaign began in 2006 to rescue Britain’s red squirrels by piquing the nation’s appetite for their marauding North American cousins. With a rallying motto of “Save a red, eat a gray!” the campaign created a market for culled squirrel meat.”
Though squirrel has been promoted as a low-fat food, discrepancies have been found in meat quality. Nichola Fletcher, a food writer and co-owner of a venison farm, said that in her experience, “the quality and amount of fat varied from no visible fat to about 30 percent, depending on the season, their age and, especially, diet.” I guess there’s no USDA grading system for squirrels. Though there don’t seem to be written standards in preparing a squirrel dish, food safety standards, such as handwashing and cooking meat thoroughly, should always be a top priority when preparing a meal.
“If you want to grab your shotgun, make sure you have very good aim — squirrels must be shot in the head; a body shot renders them impossible to skin or eat. (You want to get rid of the head in any event, as squirrel brains have been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease.)”
For those interested in trying squirrel, recipes can be found here and here.
'I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a lobotomy
Some new New York restaurant is going to offer wine and beer in baby bottles to diners.
The New York Times described the impending birth of La Cave des Fondus, an underground crib at Prince and Elizabeth Streets, as “a faithful homage to the Montmartre restaurant Le Refuge des Fondus, where Parisians enthusiastically suck down the house red and white."
The owner of the Manhatten playpen said,
“I wanted to set up my place exactly like the one in Paris. It’s such a fun place. Everybody loves drinking beer and wine from baby bottles - even my father thought it was fun - and I think New Yorkers will like it too. I checked with the health department and as long as we put the bottles in the dishwasher they have no problem with it.”
Shouldn’t these geniuses be figuring out a way to deliver beer and wine through the breast? Everyone knows breastfeeding is best for babies.
Pregnant with a monkey? Nothing to be proud of
A woman smuggled a sedated monkey under her blouse in a flight from Thailand to Los Angeles, pretending to be pregnant. 
Gypsy Lawson, 29, passed through U.S. customs with her mother and the monkey on Nov. 28, 2007.
Lawson was arrested after boasting to a clothing store salesperson about her accomplishments. Both women were charged guilty of conspiracy and smuggling goods into the United States.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulates the import of animals on a federal level, although there are also state restrictions. The import of animals is highly regulated to prevent diseases and the introduction of an invasive species, or to protect endangered or threatened species.
The rhesus macaque is not an endangered species, but it can transmit diseases.
“The callousness and intent these people showed in carrying out their plan was egregious and placed at risk not only wildlife but potentially the health of other passengers on the plane and in their community,” said Paul Chang, special agent in charge of law enforcement for the Pacific Region of the FWS. “These animals are known carriers of viruses and parasites that can be transmitted to humans, although this particular animal tested negative.”
All wildlife, including rhesus macaques, must be declared to CBP at the port of first arrival in the United States. When importing any wildlife, importers or their agents must file a completed Declaration for Importation or Exportation of Fish and Wildlife.
The smuggling conviction carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of up to five years and a $250,000 fine.
Despite fines that smugglers face, there are millions of animals smuggled across the border illegally, according to Buzzle.com. The $10 billion-a-year black market for non-native animals is second only to illegal drugs.
It came out of the sky ...
That’s the song by CCR that plays at the end of this WKRP in Cincinnati skit (below). As part of a station promotion, where the suits take on the dungarees, Les, Herb and Mr., Carlson decide to give away Thanksgiving turkeys – by dropping them from a helicopter at a local shopping mall.
That late 1970s television bit has evolved into Cincinnati’s traditional Turkey Bowl, an annual outdoor event using frozen turkeys in place of bowling balls.
Contestants will try to knock down 10 pins Tuesday by sliding rock-hard birds down a lane on the holiday season ice skating rink on downtown's landmark Fountain Square.
The person with the highest score after three rounds wins $100 cash and "WKRP in Cincinnati" DVDs including the series' famous "Turkeys Away" episode.
The frozen birds used in Turkey Bowl are discarded store turkeys not intended for anyone's table.
What Brits do on the toilet
I remember when Chapman got a blackberry, the first in our little group to get one. He sent me an e-mail, and then another shortly thereafter:
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“I wrote and sent that e-mail while sitting on the toilet.”
Today, it’s almost impossible to enter a public restroom without wondering who’s talking – it’s someone sitting on the toilet with verbal diarrhea into their cell phone.
So in honor of World Toilet Day, a survey of more than 2,000 people commissioned by charity Tearfund found that reading, chatting and texting are among the favourite activities of Britons on the toilet.
The study suggests more than 14 million people in the UK read newspapers, books and magazines on the loo.
The poll points to eight million people talking - either on the phone or to family - and one in five send texts.
The study also suggested people mostly thought about food while on the toilet, and that men were more likely to look around for a distraction than women.
Dangers of role reversal
Proven by Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage, switching roles (whether brought on by a magic skull, or a bottle of red wine on an empty stomach) can be dangerously unfunny.
Here's what I'm talking about: Humans need stay away from pet food and pets need to stay away from human food. 
UK veterinary charity PDSA, says that feeding pets food destined for human plates is a factor in the increased problem of pet obesity.
The Globe and Mail reports that a 13-year-old feline, Tinks, who lives in Gillingham in southeast England, weighs in at 9.8 kilograms (21.6 pounds), which makes him around 95 per cent overweight.
It also makes him one of Britain's most obese pets, eight of which are to embark on a 100-day diet and fitness regime in a kind of animal version of the TV show The Biggest Loser. The winner will be crowned this year's feline or canine weight-loss champion.
Deryck Wilson, Spokesperson from the UK veterinary charity PDSA, says the competition - now in its fourth year - has produced an increase in people bringing their pets to the PDSA's weight clinics.
"More and more people are becoming aware that by feeding scraps to their pets and giving them chocolates - although they're doing it as an expression of their affection towards their pet - in reality they're ... killing with kindness."
In somewhat related news, the newest food safety infosheet focuses on Salmonella-contaminated dry pet food which has led to at least 79 illnesses, in humans, since 2006. How does this happen? Google kids and pet food and you'll see a few examples on blogs (like here and here).
CDC also suggests that there is a cross-contamination potential, and that hands need to be washed after handling dry pet food. As Randy Phebus says: Assume all dry pet foods and treats are potentially contaminated.
You can download the food safety infosheet here.
A rat-shaped bun... or a bun-shaped rat?
BJ’s wholesalers has pulled all products from a bakery after a local man in North Carolina discovered a form that looks like a mouse attached to a hotdog bun.
Arnold’s Bread Bakery claims it is hardened dough or “pan accumulation”.
The supposed accumulated dough took, “the eyes and the ears and the feet curled up underneath him and the tail,” said Bruce Van Dyne describing what he had found.
North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture began investigations and asked Florida to inspect the factory where the buns were baked.
The chief health inspector in Florida told NewsChannel 36 that businesses rarely fail inspections, but Arnold's Bakery failed twice -- in April and on their re-inspection in May.
Some of the violations: One report shows there was evidence of the presence of insects or rodents, there were bugs in a mixer, and the conveyor built where the dough is baked was held together with duct tape.
The bread company has sent the bun to be tested, expecting results next week.
According to the CDC website, rats and mice can spread over 35 diseases.
Rodent-borne diseases are spread directly to humans through bite wounds, consuming food or
Diseases from rodents are also spread indirectly to humans by way of ticks, mites, and fleas that transmit the infection to humans after feeding on infected rodents. In some cases, the rodents are the reservoirs (carriers) of the diseases, while in other cases the ticks, mites, or fleas act as the disease reservoirs.
The list of diseases transmitted directly by rodents to humans include: Hantavirus, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, rat-bite fever, salmonellosis, among others.
Swedish court rules that diarrhea no excuse for speeding
A court in Trelleborg, Sweden, has ruled that a woman's diarrhea was not a sufficient reason for her to break the posted speed limit while driving.
The district court rejected the 49-year-old woman's argument that she was forced to drive 53 mph in a 43 mph zone because of her digestive issues, Swedish news agency TT reported Thursday.
The court said the speed limit can only be broken in cases of emergency, which it defined as a danger to someone's life or to prevent a serious crime.
The woman was ordered to pay her speeding ticket.
Student dies during bun eating contest at Taiwan university
A 23-year-old graduate student died after participating in a steamed bun eating competition at Dayeh University in Changhua.
The Taipei Times reports the student could not stop vomiting and fell unconscious after he began to feel uncomfortable during the school’s eating competition on Wednesday to determine who could finish two steamed buns stuffed with egg and cheese in the fastest time.
School medical personnel immediately performed CPR on the student and an ambulance was called which rushed him to a nearby hospital, but the student was pronounced dead. The cause of death remains unclear, but doctors said that the student may have choked to death
Pick up your dog poop - or PooPrints will find you
Dane Cook, watch out.
The unfunny man who has been fighting with his landlord about cleaning up dog poop could be fingered by the same DNA fingerprinting that troubled O.J. and Bill Clinton.
You let your pooch poop wherever, and pissed-off people will come after you.
BioPet Vet Lab, a Knoxville, Tenn., DNA laboratory, announced today the introduction of PooPrints™, a program designed to encourage dog owners to pick up their dog’s “droppings."
The program is targeted initially to neighborhoods, but could be applied to any municipality that wants to clean up its public areas. The PooPrints™ program recommends that a home owner association (HOA) pass an amendment to its existing covenant that requires all dog owners in the community to have their dogs’ DNA analyzed and filed with Bio-Pet’s "DNA World Pet Registry."
Once the DNA is on file, any dropping found in the public areas of the neighborhood can be sent to BioPet to be analyzed and matched up with the DNA already on file. Once the dog is identified, an email report is sent to the HOA, which then can identify the offending owner. The matching process takes three to four days after receipt to process. With positive proof through the DNA matchup, the association may elect to impose fines on the offenders, which will defray the cost of the program to the HOA.
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Three to four days? That’s faster than Canadians can match an E. coli or listeria DNA fingerprint.
Tampa Bay is in the World Series cause they let fans bring their own food to the ballpark
Baseball is incredibly boring. Anytime someone gases on about the mathematics and how literal it all is, I’m reminded of the time Homer Simpson was sober for a month and agreed that watching baseball was the most boring thing ever. At a hockey game in Sweden last night the crowd littered the ice with dildos. Hockey’s a great game.
But I’m forced to write about baseball because the World-Series bound Tampa Bay Rays did something somewhat astute: as reported in the New York Times, “The Rays are here (in the World Series) because of the outstanding good karma of allowing fans to bring their own food into the dome.
“In the vast majority of sports arenas and stadiums in this great land of freedom and opportunity, anybody caught transporting edible contraband through the turnstiles is immediately taken under the stands and beaten with rubber hoses.”
Tell me about it.
A pregnant Amy and I went to a Kansas State football game a few weeks ago. The dude doing the bag check found a wrapped energy bar and confiscated the offending carbs. I said, ‘She’s pregnant, she needs food.”
He grunted, which was as persuasive as K-State’s terrible football defense.
And unlike airport security, where an empty water bottle will be allowed through, K-State only allows full bottles of water. No one would ever fill a water bottle with vodka.
Back in Tampa, the Times reports that,
“Under this sane policy, fans can actually bring carrots and apples and cereal to the ball park and not have them wrestled away by gristly guards. I know what you are thinking: “There’s no healthy eating in baseball,” what with the mandatory calories and salt and sugar laced into the junk food sold in the corridors of American arenas.”
Chocolate body spread recalled by UK regulators
All you Brits shopping at Ann Summers sex shops -- the UK’s leading adult toys & lingerie pleasure retailer -- stay away from the chocolate body spread.
The U.K. Food Standards Agency said today it found traces of melamine in the novelty chocolate spreads, which were manufactured in Zhongshan, China, and imported into the country by Scobie (Llarn) Ltd.
"We've never had to put out an alert before on (body spread) - chocolate-flavoured or otherwise," the agency said on its website.
Chicken soup may lower blood pressure, study finds
Lunch was delicious, thanks.
The key to a good soup or stew is a good homemade stock. Canadian Thanksgiving dinner last Monday night was a hit and the students ate everything so there were no leftovers.
I made a turkey stock with the remnants, and then cooked another turkey breast later in the week so Amy and I could enjoy turkey leftovers. What you see (right) is the second batch of stock draining into the stock pot, and a container of the first batch of stock that has cooled in the fridge so the fat has solidified on top. Remove the fat, sauté some garlic, onion, veggies (I use a mixture of frozen and fresh, whatever is around), add some turkey meat, fresh oregano and hot sauce and the stock and it’s turkey soup or stew for lunch.
According to a report to be published in the Oct. 22 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Japanese researchers have found that collagen proteins found in chicken may actually lower blood pressure.
Dr. Byron Lee, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, said,
"As this study suggests, some collagen in chicken may lower blood pressure. But be careful. The salt we put on our chicken and in our chicken soup may offset or even reverse this potential benefit."
I don’t add salt.
Squirrel melts for lunch - like tuna melts, but with squirrel
A friend sent along this year-old video of “Huntress” Heidi Wilson, a redneck Rachel Ray with a heavy dose of Martha Stewart-inspired soft lens on the camera.
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife describes squirrel as "good table fare," offering recipes for squirrel chowder, stew and barbecue.
In Aug., 1997, Joseph Berger, Erick Weisman and Beverly Weisman of the University of Kentucky reported in The Lancet, they may have found a link between the consumption of squirrel brains, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
The scientists reported on five patients, aged between 56 and 78, who had been diagnosed as having Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. All of them reported that they had eaten squirrel brains.
Weisman told the N.Y. Times squirrels were a popular food in rural Kentucky, where people eat either the meat or the brains but generally not both.
Families tend to prefer one or the other depending on tradition. Those who eat only squirrel meat chop up the carcass and prepare it with vegetables in a stew called burgoo. Squirrels recently killed on the road are often thrown into the pot.
Families that eat brains follow only certain rituals.
"Someone comes by the house with just the head of a squirrel," said Weisman "and gives it to the matriarch of the family. She shaves the fur off the top of the head and fries the head whole. The skull is cracked open at the dinner table and the brains are sucked out." It is a gift-giving ritual.
The second most popular way to prepare squirrel brains is to scramble them in white gravy, he said, or to scramble them with eggs. In each case, the walnut-sized skull is cracked open and the brains are scooped out for cooking.
These practices are not related to poverty, Berger was cited as saying. People of all income levels eat squirrel brains in rural Kentucky and in other parts of the South.
Amy says squirrel tastes like chicken -- if you add ketchup.
When an employee dies, do not continue to prepare food
A Wolverhampton Magistrates Court in the U.K.banned 45-year-old Jaswinder Singh from working with food ever again after court heard he carried on cooking in a fly-infested prep room at Pappu Sweet Centre & Catering despite the sudden death of one of his workers.
District Judge Martin Brown said,
"The facts in this case are extraordinarily serious, they are about as grave as one might get in such a case."
The catalogue of horrors at the Cannock Road business also included staff smoking and spitting on the floor; a rodent infestation with a dead rat found under a pan in the kitchen; refrigerators running at more than 68F (20OC); mouldy food; and filthy conditions.
Singh, who lives in Prosser Street, Park Village, was banned from managing any food business in the future and ordered to pay £3,861 in fines and costs.
He was caught cooking next to the dead worker in August by a police officer investigating the employee's sudden death. The Pc was so disgusted, he immediately closed the premises.
Singh, unrepresented in court, has owned the business since 1996. He was also fined £2,000 for poor hygiene in 2001. He yesterday admitted 12 food hygiene charges – two of failing to have procedures to control pests.
Singh told the city's magistrates court he should get "one last chance.”
Latvia's hospital-themed restaurant
Amy and I just got back from another prenatal visit with the doc. She says everything is great, and we’ve checked out the facilities at the local hospital – doc says upon admittance, make sure to ask for one of the rooms with the hot tub.
The dining facilities aren’t quite so elaborate, although you can order from a menu and have it delivered within 30 minutes. And while I’m still hot on the idea of a Safe Food Café for dining and research, I won’t be pushing for a hospital-themed restaurant anytime soon. But that is exactly what opened in Riga, Latvia, where guests can dine on consulting beds, while being waited upon by nurses.
No nail jobs in Washington fish tanks
The Washington state Department of Licensing has decided that pedicures by fish — the use of live, tiny carp to clean feet — is unsanitary and illegal.
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Christine Anthony, spokeswoman for the department, said it's impossible to sanitize the live fish.
"You can clean the tank, you can clean the water, but there's no guarantee that the fish aren't carrying something from the previous customer."
The Seattle Times reports that the pedicures, popular in Turkey and other Asian countries, started gaining attention in the states after a Virginia-based spa talked to the media this summer about the benefits of using the fish instead of razors to slough away scales and calluses.
At Peridot, the only Washington salon believed to offer the nail job, an employee who declined to give his name, said he was "speechless" about the state's ruling.
Bad idea: using air conditioned hotel room for food storage
Pennsylvania state inspectors said the Holiday Inn on Greenfield Road, east of Lancaster, was using a guest room to store perishable food because a refrigerator in the restaurant had stopped working. 


Bill Chirdon, Director of Food Safety for the State Agriculture Department said,
“Yes. We did have an unusual situation."
The agency got a tip last week from an employee at the Holiday Inn on Greenfield Road, just off Route 30, east of Lancaster. 

The employee said perishable food from the restaurant was being stored in a guest room because a commercial refrigerator broke.
Chirdon said that means the food was stored at around 65 degrees, not nearly cold enough to be safe. 

He said the commercial refrigerator at the hotel was repaired and the poorly stored food was thrown out. He said follow-up inspections will be done.
You can't have three breasts at KFC - it's two breasts and a leg ... or else
A KFC manager hurled cooking oil, gravy and a metal chip drainer at a customer who complained after a server insisted he could only have two breasts and a leg in his meal, screaming,
"You'll get what you're given” and calling the customer a "motherf***er."
The Mirror reports that stunned families watched on in disbelief.
Police were called and both men were arrested at the restaurant and given £80 fixed penalty fines.
The customer said,
"That was the most expensive fast food meal I ever had. I got a battering from the Colonel. I just can't believe how rude the KFC staff were. The manager was swearing at me and insulting my mum. When I swore back it became a free for all. I was no angel in all this and responded when sworn at. But I'm now pursuing KFC for compensation for my ruined clothing."
The 26-year-old manager has been suspended while KFC bosses carry out an investigation into the incident at Ealing, West London.
UK chef dies after eating 'super hot' chili
Amy and I were in Kansas City and surrounding area last weekend. We’re working with some high school kids in Olathe, Kansas, which is geographically to Kansas City what Brampton is to Toronto, except a lot nicer.
Sunday we had some time, checked out the big city baby stores for the impending birth, and I found out everything I knew 20 years ago was completely irrelevant, so we went to dinner.
The meal came with a hot pepper on the side of my fish and veggies. Having flipped through some food porn – is there a better way to watch than fast-forwarding – I thought I heard that the hot part was in the seeds and stems, and if trimmed away, the hotness would be more manageable.
I was wrong.
So was Andrew Lee, 33, who challenged his girlfriend's brother to a contest on September 19 to see who could make and eat the hottest sauce.
He died.
The forklift driver from Edlington, West Yorkshire in England, made a tomato sauce with red chillies grown by his father, but after eating it suffered intense discomfort and itching.
Mr Lee went to bed and asked his girlfriend, Samantha Bailey, to scratch his back until he fell asleep.
When she woke in the morning he was dead, possibly after suffering a heart attack, The Guardian said.
Casey Jacob, guest barfblogger: What to do with breast milk?
Hans Locher of the Storchen restaurant in Switzerland, experienced “excellent results” in creating novel dishes utilizing his wife’s surplus breast milk after the birth of their daughter 35 years ago. Recently, he noticed several new mothers in his neighborhood and told the Swissinfo website, “One evening I thought that they must have a lot of extra breast milk that I could do something with." His recipe for Chantarelle sauce with breast milk and cognac can be found here.
Moms willing to experiment have also found good use for breast milk in cream soup, once its been bottled up for baby, but sat in the fridge to long to be considered “sterile.” The pot of cream of carrot shown here was reportedly sweeter than recipes using other milks.
Last November, the Associated Press reported that a young mom donated much of her breast milk that was pumped and immediately frozen (since her infant daughter refused to drink from a bottle) to the University of Iowa’s Mother’s Milk Bank.
Several human milk banks exist in the US, and benefit newborns whose mothers are unable to produce enough safe breast milk to sufficiently feed them, as well as a few adults who seek it out as a prescribed cancer treatment.
The Iowa mom hit a snag, though, when 100 ounces of the milk pumped before her enrollment in the program was not accepted as a donation. Therefore, she took out a newspaper ad asking $200 (equivalent to $16 per 8 oz. baby bottle, or $2 per each ounce) for its sale, after confirming that the state of Iowa held no laws against the sale of breast milk. A spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health was also not aware of any laws in Iowa restricting the sale of breast milk, but said that state health officials advised against it.
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Mr. Loucher, who offered less than 50 cents per ounce, was threatened with lawsuits by his canton’s food regulatory body if he purchased human breast milk for his restaurant, because the product was not a registered or regulated food.
Of course, regulation does not ensure safety … but it might do more to encourage it.
Casey Jacob, guest barfblogger: Swiss restaurant barred from serving human breast milk
The Swiss restaurant hailed as the inspiration for PETA’s plea to Ben and Jerry’s to replace the cow’s milk in their ice cream with human breast milk is facing legal action if it continues with its plan to use breast milk purchased from new mothers in its soups and sauces. .jpg)
The public was startled by Hans Loucher’s newspaper advertisements to new mothers to purchase their excess breast milk for $14.50/liter (or about $3.50 per 8oz. baby bottle) for use in his restaurant, the Storchen, whose name ironically refers to a stork in English.
“The mother’s milk is the most natural thing in the world – how can anyone be against it?” Mr. Loucher asked the Times Online. “I served the meals to my friends without telling them about the new ingredient and the feedback was excellent.”
Of course, being a “natural” food does not make it free of disease-causing microorganisms. It would be very difficult to regulate how the milk was handled before purchase by the restaurateur, and it is not likely he possesses the equipment necessary to pasteurize it before use.
Last week, as reported by the Times Online, the canton’s food regulatory body ruled that Mr. Locher would not be able to store the human milk properly nor guarantee that it was fresh and safe for consumption, since the product was not a registered or regulated food. Along with the Association of Swiss Milk Producers, Zurich’s food regulator has threatened lawsuits against Mr. Locher and anyone who provides human milk for his cause.
Casey Jacob, guest barfblogger: PETA wants human breast milk in Ben & Jerry's ice cream
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk used in their ice cream products with human breast milk.
"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in a press release. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."
Whatever floats your boat, I guess… as long as it’s pasteurized for the kiddos. And, yes, evidence suggests that Ben and Jerry are fans of pasteurization.
A blog post in The PETA Files explains the inspiration behind their request. “Storchen, a (very innovative) restaurant in Switzerland, has just announced that they will be unveiling a new menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent human breast milk,” blogged Carrie Ann Harris. “Some folks might think that drinking human breast milk is strange … but really, what's even stranger is that humans are the only species on the planet that drinks the milk of another species.”
Ben and Jerry’s responded by saying, “We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child.”
Hallucinogenic chocolates doom Berlin sweet shop
In a scene seemingly straight out of the TV show, Weeds, Reuters reports that police closed down a Berlin sweet shop after discovering the owner was selling chocolates and lollipops laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms and marijuana.
The 23-year old owner of the shop in the trendy east Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, an area known for its vibrant night life, was taken into custody on suspicion of drug-dealing.
"In the shop we found 120 pieces of magic mushroom chocolate and countless cannabis lollipops," said police, who confiscated around 70 sachets containing various drugs, about 20 marijuana joints, a range of pills and some jars of drug-laced honey.
Former Tasting and Complaining host forced to resign as Thai PM
Thailand's prime minister was forced out of office Tuesday along with his Cabinet after a court ruled that he had broken a conflict-of-interest law by hosting TV cooking shows.
There sure is a lot of crap on TV cooking shows. We covered it in our 2004 paper here.
Others have apparently borrowed our idea. Imitation is a form of flattery, I guess. Or it's just posing.
Samak Sundaravej's 73, a self-proclaimed foodie, hosted a popular television cooking show — "Tasting and Complaining" — for seven years before becoming prime minister. But he also made several appearances after taking office, breaking a constitutional prohibition on private employment while in office.
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Dave's not here, man - but THC may fight bacteria
Cheech and Chong are back on the road and researchers in Italy and Britain have found that the main active ingredient in marijuana — tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — and related compounds show promise as antibacterial agents, particularly against microbial strains that are already resistant to several classes of drugs.
The N.Y. Times reports,
“It has been known for decades that Cannabis sativa has antibacterial properties. Experiments in the 1950s tested various marijuana preparations against skin and other infections, but researchers at the time had little understanding of marijuana’s chemical makeup.
“The current research … looked at the antibacterial activity of the five most common cannabinoids. All were found effective against several common multi-resistant bacterial strains, although, perhaps understandably, the researchers suggested that the nonpsychotropic cannabinoids might prove more promising for eventual use.”
Typo in food magazine recipe poisons Swedes
Ten thousand copies of a food magazine were recalled in Sweden last month after a mistake in one of its recipes left four people poisoned.
Matmagasinet's chief editor Ulla Cocke told AFP,
"There was a mistake in a recipe for apple cake. Instead of calling for two pinches of nutmeg it said 20 nutmeg nuts were needed.”
When Matmagasinet first discovered the mistake it immediately sent out letters to its 50,000 subscribers and placed a leaflet inside the copies sold in the store, cautioning that "high doses of nutmeg can cause poisoning symptoms."
"We publish 1,200 recipes each year, and of course there have been times when they've had a bit too much butter or too little flour, but we have never experienced anything like this before," Cocke said.
In large doses, nutmeg is a mild hallucinogen.
Cats eating better than their owners
I’ve just started my first year of veterinary school, and after only two days into the program, I’ve been contacted by at least five pet food companies touting their premium pet food that is healthy for pets and tasty as well. I suppose that pets enjoy the variety of flavors, but a new study from Australia suggests it’s doing more harm than good.
Deakin University scientist Dr Giovanni Turchini has discovered an estimated 2.48 million tonnes of forage fish - a limited biological resource - is consumed by the global cat food industry each year.
This puts cats ahead of people as far as consumption rates go; pet cats are eating an estimated 13.7 kilograms of fish a year, which far exceeds the Australian average (human) per capita fish and seafood consumption of around 11 kilograms.
Just as obesity has become a major epidemic among Americans, it is also an epidemic among pets. These tasty canned foods with enticing flavors such as “shredded yellowfin tuna fare” only encourage pets to grow wider around the belly all while pet food companies continue to cook up new ideas for making cats want their food.
What happened to cats eating regular dry food? Though, even the dry food goes overboard for Fancy Feast, which touts three different flavors for the finicky cat. With the slogan of “A bowl full of ‘I love you,’” Fancy Feast has definitely gone overboard in pampering cats. If you love your pet, then why are you feeding it a high-fat meal?
The luxury products containing fish unfortunately are contributing to the overfishing problem worldwide.
Pregnant humans and cats can co-mingle
My friend and OK hockey player Scott Weese seems to be having fun with his Worms and Germs blog. It’s a great resource for pet ownership, especially aspects of zoonotic disease.
Yesterday, Scott asked, are pregnancy and cats compatible? Amy, who’s six months pregnant, and I share our Manhattan home with two dogs and two cats (the cats are from Walkerton, Ontario, and made the trip to Kansas with me). Scott writes, and I didn’t know about the 24-hour infectious bit, that,
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“Cats are the only animal species that can spread Toxoplasma in their stool. Shedding rates in cats are quite low, but can be higher in cats that go outside, hunt or are fed raw meat. However, it takes 24 hours or more for Toxoplasma in stool to be infectious (that means that fresh stool cannot spread Toxoplasma). That key point greatly reduces the risk of transmission from cats.”
Sure, if you clean the litter box regularly. That’s Amy with Crystal (right).
Phony fish on some menus in New York
Two high school students have determined that 25 per cent of 60 seafood samples from New York sushi restaurants and seafood markets are fakes, often cheap fish posing as fancy – and more expensive.
The New York Times reports that,
"Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who graduated this year from the Trinity School in Manhattan, took on a freelance science project in which they checked 60 samples of seafood using a simplified genetic fingerprinting technique to see whether the fish New Yorkers buy is what they think they are getting.
"They found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt. Seven of nine samples that were called red snapper were mislabeled, and they turned out to be anything from Atlantic cod to Acadian redfish, an endangered species. ...
"The results of Ms. Strauss and Ms. Stoeckle’s research are being published in Pacific Fishing magazine, a publication for commercial fishermen. The sample size is too small to serve as an indictment of all New York fishmongers and restaurateurs, but the results are unlikely to be a mere statistical fluke. ...
"Ms. Stoeckle said the underlying message of the research was simple: “If you’re paying for white tuna and you’re eating tilapia, I think you’d want to know that.”
A typical Michael Phelps breakfast
An increasingly pregnant Amy and I were strolling along Venice Beach this morning, marveling at the complete lack of a storm – Fay fizzled – and Amy said she was hungry for bacon and eggs and French toast. She had eaten an hour earlier.
This is normal in pregnancy.
uber-Olympian Michael Phelps isn’t pregnant, but consumes 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day.
Serious Eats reports that Phelps' typical breakfast order from Pete's Grille in Baltimore, Maryland, as is recounted in autobiography Beneath the Surface, is:
“Start with three sandwiches of fried eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions, and mayonnaise; add one omelet, a bowl of grits, and three slices of French toast with powdered sugar; then wash down with three chocolate chip pancakes.”
Maybe the U.S. track team should have been hanging out with Phelps. The N.Y. Times reported Saturday that several members of the United States track team became ill at the team’s pre-Olympic training center in Dalian, about 300 miles east of Beijing, and food poisoning was the likely cause.
A nail job in a fish tank
Local health inspectors may have a new task to add to their burgeoning workload: inspecting salons that offer pedicures in tanks filled with toothless fish that nibble away at dead skin.
MSNBC reports that fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the Washington D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months.
John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.
"This is a good treatment for everyone who likes to have nice feet," Ho said.
He said he wanted to come up with something unique while finding a replacement for pedicures that use razors to scrape off dead skin. The razors have fallen out of favor with state regulators because of concerns about whether they're sanitary.
Ho was skeptical at first about the fish, which are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries. …
First time customer KaNin Reese, 32, described the tingling sensation created by the toothless fish: "It kind of feels like your foot's asleep," she said.
The fish don't do the job alone. After 15 to 30 minutes in the tank, customers get a standard pedicure, made easier by the soft skin the doctor fish leave behind. …
State regulations make no provision for regulating fish pedicures. But the county health department — which does regulate pools — required the salon to switch from a shallow, tiled communal pool that served as many as eight people to individual tanks in which the water is changed for each customer.
The communal pool also presented its own problem: At times the fish would flock to the feet of an individual with a surplus of dead skin, leaving others with a dearth of fish.
"It would sometimes be embarrassing for them but it was also really hilarious," Ho said.
Sandwich rage: Man calls 911 over garnish error
Witnesses inside the store say Peterson eventually started screaming at everyone inside. When Peterson went outside to call police. Employees closed the store and locked the door to keep him from returning.The man then called police again to complain that the police hadn’t shown up yet.
The man was arrested and at his request the sandwiches were thrown away.
Beijing: Serving up water buffalo penis, yak's testicles, and deer penis juice at the Guo-li-Zhuang restaurant
China has been known to have a wide array of food items available at markets and restaurants. Beijing's Guo-li-Zhuang restaurant offers something even more exotic than fugu (puffer fish) or fried whale. Here the menu consists almost entirely of penis and testicle dishes — made from the private parts of deer, snakes, yaks, horses, seals and ducks, among others.“Chinese eat anything with four legs, except tables. And everything that flies, except airplanes,” says business student Zhaoran, quoting a well-known Chinese saying. This may be true, but even in China a penis restaurant is unusual.
Guolizhuang's owner, who set it up in November 2005, is proud to combine his own surname (Guo), his wife's (Li) and his son's nickname (Zhuang) into its title. A booking comes with a trained waitress and a nutritionist in attendance, to explain the menu and to boast its medicinal virtues.
At the first thought of eating animal penises, most cringe. But the Chinese consider it a health treatment for the libido, and repeatedly eating the penis and testicles of an animal is said to help raise the libido of men and cure kidney and erection problems. For their medicinal effect to work, the dishes have to be consumed regularly.
There is also a wine available that is fast-acting and is said to work better than Viagra (without the side effects). The wine contains extracts of heart, penis, and blood from a deer; it is said to taste like a bitter lemon. Ladies are even invited to try some of the dishes. Penis is said to be good for the skin, but women do not eat testicles in order to prevent masculine features from developing.
The meals served do not come cheap: A yak penis costs €179, while a hotpot with 10 different penis-and-testicle selections served on an attractive, four-sided plate tower with little statues of animals will set you back €89. For particularly discerning palates, the menu also offers deer and sheep fetuses (€36 and €9, respectively).
If you’ve made travel plans to enjoy the Olympics in Beijing, I suggest this restaurant as an adventurous dining experience.
BBC Reporter Stefan Gates speaks with one of the chefs about their menu items.
Give these cows some dried prunes
I was visiting a close friend about a week ago and he sent me to the store to get some “poop pills” – a bag of dried prunes. He eats about 4 or 5 each morning while reading the paper.
His mother is another constipation victim of the family. She was telling me she cannot afford to skip her daily “poopy shake”– a mixture of 8 different types of fiber that she mixes with orange juice. She eats a ton of fruits and vegetables, and has a wide variety of natural laxatives in the medicine cabinet. This is the most impressive one here (in Spanish, sorry)
Maybe these cows could call my friend or his mom for some advice.
Read the story at: the times news
Michelle Mazur: Cloning pets not for me
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BioArts International is behind a project called Best Friends Again where they’ve developed a commercial method to clone dogs. They’ve launched a “Golden Clone Giveaway,” in which owners send in a 500-word essay about why their dog would be the best dog to be cloned. The winner will be chosen June 30th, and their pet will be cloned for free.I work at a local vet clinic in Wichita, Kansas, and most clients I talk with say they would be delighted to have the chance to clone their beloved dog. Not me. Cloned pets can come with a ton of medical problems, and there’s a pretty good chance that they won’t have the same personality at the original dog. There’s no guarantee that cloned Fluffy will be as good as original Fluffy, and may leave an even larger hole in the owner’s heart. I can’t imagine going through the heartbreak of cloning my dog, Joey. Yes, I said heartbreak.
Joey is a six-year-old West Highland white terrier. This breed is well known for being prone to allergies, however Joey is completely without. He is incredibly healthy and happy; I really couldn’t ask for a better dog. But once he passes away, I plan to act like a normal person and cope with my grief. Coping will not include sending a DNA sample to Best Friends Again in California. Most likely, I would be sent a rambunctious little devil that bears no similarities to Joey, other than physical appearance. This terror dog will quickly ruin any memories of Joey that I had.
I can’t imagine a more perfect dog to be cloned than Joey, but I’ll save my money and tears and instead adopt one of the many thousands of dogs at animals shelters all across the nation.
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Consumers looking for antioxidants in food to control aging
According to the Arizona Republic, these are the ingredients for a more youthful appearance, and restaurants are jumping on the trend by offering antioxidant-rich dishes.Annika Stensson, spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association, said the association recently conducted a survey asking more than 1,200 professional chefs in the United States to list the trendiest items on their menus. Out of almost 200 items, pomegranate finished 16th, fresh fruits were 61st and scallops were 100th. All are foods rich in antioxidants.
The interest in antioxidants also has been transforming beverage lists. Trudy Thomas, director of beverages for Camelback Inn, said the resort created an antioxidant-rich margarita, the Frozen Sangria Rita, after guests expressed interest in red wine's antioxidant qualities.
Since its debut in February, the concoction of red wine, pomegranate and blueberry has been one of the most popular drinks on the menu, she said.Diane Aiello, owner of Glam Lounge in Scottsdale, said,
"I am a huge believer in antioxidants. … When we do an oxygen facial, we can see the person's skin actually changing. The skin is more hydrated, more plump, and lines are softer."
Madonna is said to be a fan.
Michelle Mazur, guest barfblogger: Insect, the other white meat
Western culture has put a certain social taboo on insects in general. If a cockroach is found in a kitchen of a restaurant, health inspectors will shut the place down. But who can blame them? Most Americans are brought up to find bugs disgusting and dirty.
As part of an introductory entomology class in my undergraduate work, I had the chance to try cookies containing dried crickets and salsa containing live mealworms. I definitely was not excited about tasting either of them, but you would be surprised what some students would do for extra credit. After sampling the supposedly “tasty treats” I have to admit that they weren’t half bad; in fact they tasted completely normal.
Just as a cook might add tofu to a noodle dish, there is also the option of earthworms or grasshoppers for an extra dose of protein. And a large number of countries have a booming market for raising insects, just as there is a market here in Kansas for raising beef cattle.
Not only would there be a little more variety in food options, but also the option to “go green” in other ways than driving a hybrid. Multiple studies and articles have been written about how insects are much more efficient converters of energy compared to typical farm animals. Bryan Walsh of Time.com has a terrific article about how environmentally friendly insects can be used as a food source.
Now I’ve read the articles too, but the first large hurdle to jump over will be the cultural taboo. The food industry of Western culture will have a hard time changing “Waiter, waiter, there is a fly in my soup!” into “Waiter, waiter, I do not have enough flies in my soup!”
Michelle Mazur, guest barfblogger: Gus, the World's Ugliest Dog
The World's Ugliest Dog contest has taken place each year in Petaluma, California since 1976, and each year many people gather to look at faces of dogs that only a mother could love. It’s kind of like a bad car wreck, these dogs are so disgustingly ugly, but you can’t look away.
There are numerous sites on the web that showcase photos of the cutest, cuddliest pets. So why do people care about the ugly ones? I suppose that just as beauty is celebrated throughout the media, it would be only fair to display the ugliness as well. Many magazines at the checkout line in the grocery stores have photos of celebrities on the red carpet in all their glory, and they also have photos of celebrities looking their worst, without any makeup or fancy clothes.
American culture will continue to celebrate the cutest of the cute pets, but there will always be a special place in our hearts for those truly ugly dogs.
Entomophagy -- it's all the rage
The New Zealand Herald reports that scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have catalogued 1,700 different species and found that bugs are eaten in at least 113 countries worldwide.
David George Gordon, a Seattle-based naturalist and author, said,
"Insects are the most valuable, underused and delicious animals in the world," and the West "is one the few cultures" that doesn't eat them. "Maybe we are the weirdos."A plate of maguey worms - larvae of a giant butterfly - sell for NZ$31.50 in smart Mexican restaurants (right).
Sago grubs wrapped in banana leaves are a delicacy in Papua New Guinea.
Large leafcutter ants are popular in Colombia.
Don Schaffner, guest barfblogger: Perhaps it will help keep poop out of food?
I've always found it interesting when disparate objects or ideas come together.
One such collision was the subject of an earlier barfblog contribution when I wrote about a norovirus at a boy scout camp, integrating my interest in food safety and the the volunteer work I do with the boy scouts.
It also happened twice this week. The first example has nothing to do with food safety, but hey, if Doug can write about Blacky the donkey, all's fair. I just can't resist plugging this amazing YouTube video, where the band Phish covers the Lou Reed classic "Sweet Jane". Hippy culture meets New York grit. Cool stuff.
Anyway, on with the food safety story, sort of. I need to explain: I'm a productivity pr0n addict. For more on this addiction look here. I think that one of the most entertaining and useful productivity gurus out there is Merlin Mann (yes, that's his real name), the editor and founder of productivity website 43Folders.com. Anyway, when Merlin is not blogging about productivity, talking at The Google or Macworld, he's scouring the interweb looking for cool stuff.
And... now we get to the point of this article... and the second collision, where productivity guru meets food safety: Bottom Toilet Tissue Aid Self-wipe Cleaning: Health & Personal Care. As Merlin quips, "Why is all the cool stuff for "disabled" people? I could totally use this". And maybe he right. This might be something we could all use, and as Amazon notes "After use the tissue is discarded by pressing an easy-to-use release button on the end of the handle.
This might be the solution to fecal cross contamination, and allow us all to avoid what O. Pete Snyder calls "toilet paper slips", helping us all to eat less poop.
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Don Schaffner is an Extension Specialist in Food Science at Rutgers University, the newly appointed director of the Center for Advanced Food Technology, and a self-confessed productivity pr0n addict.
Celebrity jackasses jailed, now a donkey
Nick. Kid. Hugh.
A donkey.
In an apparent logical extension of the latest Hollywood fad of acting like an ass and doing time, Blacky the donkey was incarcerated for three days in a Mexican jail that normally holds people for public drunkenness and other disturbances after biting and kicking two men near a ranch outside Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the southern state of Chiapas.
Blacky was freed last week after its parents owner paid a fine of $36 and the $115 hospital bill of the men, who suffered bites to the chest and a broken ankle. Authorities say the owner must also pay $480 to each man for missed work days.
Sleeps with the fishes - Australian style
A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology warns that thieves - including bikie gangs - are exploiting national parks in New South Wales by using illegal divers and families using the guise of indigenous hunting. Oyster theft is so well organised that thieves use lifting equipment on vehicles to steal whole racks from farms, the report says.
The report says that while the main market for abalone and shark fin is Hong Kong, there is "an extensive illicit Australian market for these other species. The market includes clubs, restaurants, hotels, fish and chip shops."
The study was prompted by research showing there had been growth in organised crime involving abalone and rock lobster, and an increase in criminals using the industry to launder money and make drugs at aquaculture farms.
Nip/tuck -- doggy style
Now, for the first time, liposuction is available outside Germany at the University of Sydney's new $2.3 million Canine Teaching Hospital, which opened last week.
The university's associate professor in small animal surgery, Geraldine Hunt, introduced the technology here two years ago, and has so far performed the procedure, which can cost about $2000, on 15 dogs.However, Dr Hunt urged owners to review their pets' exercise and diet regime before considering any surgical procedures.
"I would have to be very careful about whether to recommend it for cosmetic reasons. It is much more responsible to look at what is in the best interests of the dog."
The story also says that owners were asking for testicular implants for their pooches, most often so they could compete in dog shows, be exported for sale overseas or to negate a prostate problem.
But, occasionally, people requested the $400 procedure — which excludes the cost of the implants in small, medium and large — for the sake of appearances.
Randwick Veterinary Hospital's Andrew Herron said,
"I would definitely be counselling these people that this is a cosmetic procedure and they'd have to give me a pretty good reason to do it. If it was to show off down the park, I'd probably suggest I take them from him and put his in the dog."
UK foodies going nuts about squirrel -- tastes like chicken
At Ridley's Fish and Game shop in Corbridge, Northumberland, owner David Ridley said he has sold 1000 - at 3.50 ($8.89) a squirrel - since the beginning of the year.
"I wasn't sure at first, and wondered would people really eat it. Now I take every squirrel I can get my hands on. I've had days when I have managed to get 60 and they've all sold straight away."
Some say squirrel tastes like wild boar. Others think it is more a cross between duck and lamb.
Amy says squirrel tastes like chicken -- if you add ketchup.
Fish and ice cream: together at least
CIFT director K Devadasan told The Economic Times that cooked cuttle fish is used in the ice cream because cuttle fish has white flesh and it has far less fishy smell, thus blending well with other ingredients. It can also be substituted with squid which displays similar properties.And since I'm watching the Simpson's, Mmmhhhhh, squid ice cream.
Guerrilla gardening
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The handbook, On Guerrilla Gardening, by Richard Reynolds, defines the activity as "the illicit cultivation" of someone else's land."Land is a finite resource, and yet areas like this are not being used. That seems crazy to me. And if the authorities want to get in the way of that logic, then we will fight them, but peacefully, showing them what we can achieve with plants. … Scattering seeds is the easiest way to guerrilla gardening. You do not even have to stop moving to do it."
Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD, dies at 102
I mention this because a lot of people come to barfblog because of this groovy LSD-inspired picture. And Amy and I watched a fairly heady documentary about psychedlics last week.
According to the obituary in the N.Y. Times:
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Dr. Hofmann first synthesized the compound lysergic acid diethylamide in 1938 but did not discover its psychopharmacological effects until five years later, when he accidentally ingested the substance that became known to the 1960s counterculture as acid.He then took LSD hundreds of times, but regarded it as a powerful and potentially dangerous psychotropic drug that demanded respect. More important to him than the pleasures of the psychedelic experience was the drug’s value as a revelatory aid for contemplating and understanding what he saw as humanity’s oneness with nature. That perception, of union, which came to Dr. Hofmann as almost a religious epiphany while still a child, directed much of his personal and professional life.
“It happened on a May morning — I have forgotten the year — but I can still point to the exact spot where it occurred, on a forest path on Martinsberg above Baden,” he wrote in “LSD: My Problem Child.” “As I strolled through the freshly greened woods filled with bird song and lit up by the morning sun, all at once everything appeared in an uncommonly clear light.
“It shone with the most beautiful radiance, speaking to the heart, as though it wanted to encompass me in its majesty. I was filled with an indescribable sensation of joy, oneness and blissful security.”
He earned his Ph.D. there in 1929, when he was just 23. He then took a job with Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, attracted by a program there that sought to synthesize pharmacological compounds from medicinally important plants.
It was during his work on the ergot fungus, which grows in rye kernels, that he stumbled on LSD, accidentally ingesting a trace of the compound one Friday afternoon in April 1943. Soon he experienced an altered state of consciousness similar to the one he had experienced as a child.
On the following Monday, he deliberately swallowed a dose of LSD and rode his bicycle home as the effects of the drug overwhelmed him. That day, April 19, later became memorialized by LSD enthusiasts as “bicycle day.”
Kansas wins NCAA men's basketball
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People on TV swarming the streets in Lawrence are saying this is the happiest moment of their entire lives.Ahem …
Being Canadian, I don't get all the intra-state rivalry; this KU logo may draw more vigorous complaints than Honduran cantaloupes.
But I say, good for Kansas. And besides, Kansas State was one of three teams that actually beat KU this season.
Now, about that hockey arena …
Man throws hedgehog at teenager, charged with assault
The Herald on Sunday say police alleged that William Singalargh, 27, picked up the hedgehog and threw it at a 15-year-old boy in the North Island east coast town of Whakatane on February 9.
Police Senior Sgt. Bruce Jenkins said Monday,"It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks."
Police arrested Singalargh shortly after the incident, and charged him with assault with a weapon -- the hedgehog.
The Herald said the hedgehog was dead when it was collected as evidence, but did not know if it was dead or alive at the time of the alleged attack.
The Herald reported Singalargh's arrest under the headline "Raise your hands and step away from the hedgehog."
California high school girls microwave hamster, face charges
They also briefly put him a freezer.
An investigating police officer said the girls have admitting microwaving Bugsy because they were bored."These girls showed no remorse."
The Press Democrat reports that the hamster, Bugsy, survived, but three of his feet were severely burned. Lake County Animal Control Officer Morgan Hermann said the legs later turned black and the hamster chewed them off, adding,
“Now (Bugsy) has one leg."
The incident occurred in December, but it was not reported to Animal Control and police until the students had been released for Spring break.
Unlike the pic (right) this was not a happy hamster.
Vegan strippers
Johnny Diablo of Portland, Ore., decided to open a business to combine vegans and strippers at his Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club, where soy protein replaces beef in the tacos and chimichangas and the dancers wear pleather, not leather. However, since the strip club opened last month, Portland's young feminists have been complaining “all over the Internet,” according to the aptly named Diablo. “One of them came in here once. I could tell she had an attitude right when she came in. She was all hostile.”
Mr. Diablo, who hasn’t worn or eaten animal products in 24 years and is worried about cruelty to animals says he isn’t concerned with the “feminazis,” adding, “My sole purpose in this universe is to save every possible creature from pain and suffering."
The Times says that in Los Angeles, some frown at the scantily clad Vegan Vixens — a kind of animal-loving Pussycat Dolls — who perform songs like “Real Men Don’t Hunt” at fund-raisers for animal welfare groups.
And many vegans who want to publicize cruelty within the fur industry are nonetheless dismayed by the new “Ink, Not Mink” advertising campaign from peta2, the youth arm of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It features members of the Internet-based pinup group the Suicide Girls, sporting little more than tattoos and body piercings.Many vegans have long criticized PETA for using naked celebrities in its advertising campaigns and for staging stunts like naked protests.
As an aside, the Times says that Mr. Diablo put the club up for sale last week, although not because of the criticism. He may have underestimated the appeal of stripping to vegans, or of vegan cuisine to striptease fans; an earlier vegan restaurant he ran was poorly received.
The aside is the most important feature of this story.
Lamb leg thrown at football match
United and Distillery on Saturday in Northern Ireland.Animal welfare types were not amused.
A USPCA spokesman said it,
"demonstrated general disregard for animal welfare. It also follows a recent incident in which a horse's head was left outside the home of a hockey player in Cookstown."
Grapples -- will kids eat more fruit?
Grapple. "Looks like an apple. Tastes like a grape." Apparently Grapples have been around for a few years. The bag of Braeburn apples I bought were $1.70/lb; the Grapples rang in about $4/lb.
Courtlynn said she liked the idea, but was underwhelmed after consuming one.
"Tastes like an apple."
Welcome to Wildcat country.
E-mailing Doug Powell? Don't send it to Guelph
"Take a look at the bathroom. You want to see soap, paper towels and lots of running water. If you don't see those, you've got a problem, because those are the essentials for good hand washing."
Ok, not so sage, Boring
The journos -- and many others -- often contact me through my University of Guelph e-mail address.
Don't.
I mean yes, contact me, I love the attention, but don't go through Guelph.In Feb. 2007, my previous institution, the University of Guelph, Canada, unilaterally decided not to continue a partnership with Kansas State, and eliminated access to my staff and funds that I had established in Guelph (about $750,000). An additional $135,000 the fine supporters of the Food Safety Network had provided to produce news has also magically disappeared.
And no one at Guelph will talk about it.
Now, the University of Guelph has frozen my e-mail account. They didn't tell me, it just stopped working. So if you sent an e-mail to my Guelph account -- and I was getting about 100 a day on that account -- please resend to dpowell@ksu.edu. You won't get an error message from the Guelph account, so you'll just think I'm being aloof or something and not bothering to respond. You may think that anyway. When I inquired about what had happened, since an e-mail account is fairly standard for adjunct professors and alumni, I was eventually told, and this is a direct quote from an admin-type,
"Your name (was removed) from sponsored accounts as we could not think of any reason why you needed a UofG account."
Oh well. The hacks and posers can busy themselves with e-mail account access management. I have news and research to produce. In the 68 F sun. With my family. In Kansas.
And there are some big changes coming to the daily news. If you have any suggestions, please e-mail me, at Kansas State University, dpowell@ksu.edu.
Don't eat poop.
Thieves beware: Englishman will defend farm with "chickenshit"
Local cops have said that they will prosecute Watson-Webb if he uses the catapult to defend his property against arsonists and robbers, but he says,"I'm not out to kill anyone or even hurt them. I just want to keep yobs off my land. … This is a serious issue. People all over Britain are sick and tired of feeling like prisoners in their own homes and seeing yobs get away with it."
Using pigs as bug control in an orchard?
Jim Koan has gone hog-wild in his battle against a beetle that threatens his 120-acre organic apple orchard. [The] porkers patrol his orchard, gobbling down fallen, immature apples containing the beetle's larvae. After a successful trial run late last spring, he and some researchers at Michigan State University are preparing for year two of the experiment at AlMar Orchards & Cidery in eastern Michigan.
They hope their work will someday help fruit growers throughout the world reduce the use of pesticides while diversifying their agricultural operations, as he is doing. He plans to periodically sell off the offspring of his four original hogs, keeping only what he needs.
Interesting move, definitely thinking outside the box, as organic producers must, when it comes to pest control. I wonder if there is a segment of the research that looks at the microbiological differences between the fresh apples (and the drops) on his farm and other producers not using the hogs. This pest reduction plan might be introducing new food safety risks that weren't there before.
Feral pigs seemed to play a part in the the 2006 spinach outbreak. Last March the FDA said: "Potential environmental risk factors for E.coli O157:H7 contamination at or near the field included the presence of wild pigs, the proximity of irrigation wells used to grow produce for ready-to-eat packaging, and surface waterways exposed to feces from cattle and wildlife."
UK woman keeps 75 hibernating tortoises in her fridges
Mrs Neely who runs the Jersey-based Tortoise Sanctuary, had to set up the fridges because of the particularly mild winter.Her tortoises hibernate for up to three months between December and March, and need steady temperatures between 3c and 8c.
They are in danger of waking early if it heats up - and then do not have enough body weight to keep themselves warm and not enough energy to eat or drink.
But fridges, at a steady 4c to 6c, are the perfect environment.
She opens the doors each day to waft fresh air inside. As tortoises breathe only once a minute during hibernation, this is sufficient to keep them healthy.
Turtles can be salmonella factories.
America's worst bathroom contest
We are running an online contest for Scott Paper and White Cloud toiler paper in an effort to find America’s Worst Bathroom. We have been notified by several entrants about an entry with a photo that appeared on your blog. The link to the entry is here. Could you please contact me either via e-mail or; better yet, by phone as soon as possible? I am trying to find out who owns the copyright for the image in question. Did you take the photo? If so, I have to remove this entry and replace it with another. If not, the entry stays in the contest and I don’t have to make any changes.
Sounds like a serious contest. I didn't take the original picture, found it somewhere on the interwebs using Google Image Search (like a lot of the barfblog photos). Go check out the contest and vote for the dirtiest bathroom.
Bird flu may kill badminton grand prix
The story says:Bird flu outbreaks in China had made India ban import of all premium goose feathers of Chinese origin to manufacture shuttlecocks.
In a last-minute bid to save India the blushes, BAI president V K Verma has shot off letters to secretaries in the animal husbandry department and the ministries of health and agriculture, as well as to the Sports Authority of India, urging them to review the ban.
Interesting fallout from the animal disease outbreak.
Roll over Colonel Sanders
Siler said the fried chicken, first served by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1940, deserves the title because of the worldwide attention and economic benefit it has brought to the state.
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Bruce Friedrich, vice president at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, responded, "If the state legislature moves forward with this one, then they should change Kentucky's state bird from the cardinal to the debeaked, crippled, scalded, diseased, dead chicken."
Two years ago, PETA launched an initiative to have a bust of the bespectacled Colonel Sanders removed from the Kentucky Capitol. Sanders, with his white goatee and black string tie, became recognizable worldwide by marketing his fried chicken.
Cher's mystery illness not foodborne
Cher was forced to cancel appearances in Dec. 2007 and checked into a German clinic for treatment. She was subsequently diagnosed with diverticulitis, an inflammation of pockets in the intestines.Cher begins her run of performances in May, three years after her farewell tour.
Who is she, The Who?
The beefsteak ritual survives -- without silverware
He's talking about a beefsteak, described by Paul Lukas of the N.Y. Times as a
"raucous all-you-can-eat-and-drink banquet."
The story says that back in the days before cholesterol testing, beefsteaks — boisterous mass feeds featuring unlimited servings of steak, lamb chops, bacon-wrapped lamb kidneys, crabmeat, shrimp and beer, all consumed without such niceties as silverware, napkins or women — held sway in New York for the better part of a century.
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The ritual was documented by the writer Joseph Mitchell for the New Yorker magazine in his 1939 article “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks.” As Mr. Mitchell told it, the beefsteak came into being in the mid-1800s, became popular as a political fund-raiser and vote-buyer, and began a slow decline when women started taking part after being granted suffrage in 1920.Today the beefsteak features slices of beef tenderloin washed down with pitchers of beer, and has migrated from its New York roots to New Jersey.
The events, which typically attract crowds of 150 or more, with a ticket price of about $40, are popular as political meet-and-greets, annual dinners for businesses and civic groups, and charity fundraisers. Caterers said they put on about 1,000 of them in the region last year.
The story says that in 1938 a Clifton butcher and grocer named Garret Nightingale, known as Hap, began catering parties with a set formula.
He grilled tenderloins (the muscle used for filet mignon) over charcoal, sliced them, dipped the slices in melted butter, served them on slices of white sandwich bread, added French fries on the side, and let everyone eat as much as they wanted. This he called a beefsteak. Within a decade, it had become an entrenched local phenomenon.
Hap Nightingale died in 1982. By that time he had passed the business on to his son, Bob, who turned it over to his son, Rob, in 1995. The second- and third-generation Nightingales continue to run the operation today out of an unassuming Clifton house where Bob Nightingale was raised and still lives. Their business office is the house’s cramped basement, and the tenderloins are grilled over hardwood charcoal in the driveway before being taken to the beefsteak venues. From this unlikely command center, the Nightingales catered over 600 beefsteaks last year, going through 88,000 pounds of tenderloin in the process.
Proper ferret care: Don't throw it in a bathtub with a naked Jeff "The Dude" Bridges
Produced in association with the Ferret Education & Research Trust (FERT), the leaflet reflects the growing popularity of these intelligent and curious animals as household pets.Carl Padgett, Chair of the BVA AWF Trustees explained that,
"while ferrets can sleep for a large period of the day, when they are awake they are very active and need a lot of stimulation to occupy their time. They live an average of eight to ten years so a high level of commitment and care is needed but our new guide should ensure that even the novice owner has all the information necessary to ensure their pet's health and welfare."
Covering the basics such as housing, feeding, health care and toilet training, the guide also offers advice on 'ferret-proofing' your home and garden, advice on games - ferrets particularly love hide-and-seek - and, very importantly, breeding and neutering as well as vaccination against Canine Distemper should owners be tempted to take their ferret for a walk on a lead and harness.
The 'Caring for your ferret' leaflet is available to download from the BVA AWF website at http://www.bva-awf.org.uk/resources/leaflets.(Doug Powell and Ben Chapman, left, not exactly as pictured).
From Seinfeld to science: Dip once or dip twice?
It was conducted as part of a Clemson University program designed to get undergraduate students involved in scientific research. Prof. Paul L. Dawson, a food microbiologist, proposed it after he saw a rerun of a 1993 “Seinfeld” show in which George Costanza is confronted at a funeral reception by Timmy, his girlfriend’s brother, after dipping the same chip twice.“Did, did you just double dip that chip?” Timmy asks incredulously, later objecting, “That’s like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!” Finally George retorts, “You dip the way you want to dip, I’ll dip the way I want to dip,” and aims another used chip at the bowl. Timmy tries to take it away, and the scene ends as they wrestle for it.
Peter Mehlman, a veteran “Seinfeld” writer, wrote the episode, and said,
"At the time I was living in Los Angeles, in Venice. There was a party on one of the canals, and apparently someone dipped twice with the same chip. And a woman flipped out. ‘You just dipped twice! How could you do that? Now all your germs are in there!’ I thought, this is just too good not to use on the show.”
The story says that on average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip.
Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.
Pomegranate juice boosts sperm quality
Gaffari Turk from Firat University in Turkey was quoted as writing, "The results of this study demonstrated, for the first time, that daily consumption of PJ for seven weeks caused increased spermatogenic cell density, epididymal sperm concentration, sperm motility and decreased abnormal sperm rate related with decreased lipid peroxidation in male rats."I'll stick to my berries and beer.
KState beats KU in men's basketball; fans mob floor
For the first time in 24 years, Kansas State beat number 2 ranked Kansas at home, 84-75.I have nothing on food safety. But Amy won free tickets for the rest of the season from a draw at a local Radio Shack and this was the first college basketball game I'd ever attended.
Guess we picked a good one.
I think Bramlage Coliseum would make an excellent hockey arena.
Health department sued over inspection
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poor inspection. Owners of Mo's Restaurant in Monticello, Indiana, claim that following inspections of their restaurant, health department employees "negligently and/or intentionally prepar[ed] a false and defamatory Food Inspection Report" on three different occasions. A story in the town's Herald-Journal says, "The lawsuit seeks a judgment against the defendants in an amount sufficient to compensate Drake and Liebner for their losses, including permanent and temporary damage, loss of value, loss of profits, loss of use, costs of repair and mental and emotional stress, as well as "such further relief as the court deems appropriate."
From the making poop on your desk file....
The story says that this gadget is from artist Wim Delvoye, and is his latest installation of his Cloaca series.
This model is called the "Mini Cloaca." Delvoye's machines take food, grind it up, add it to a slurry of digestive juices, and make—more or less—shit. While previous models were almost industrial-sized, the Mini consumes about as much food as a breakfast meal.
Delvoye's wiki entry says that The first Cloaca machine was exhibited at the MuHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp) in 2000.
The machine was "fed" an exquisite meal twice a day, the feces coming out at the other end of the processing unit as a result of the "digestion" of the food.
There are several Cloaca set-ups: the original setup is that of a series of containers in glass on a long table, while the more modern ones are comparatively shorter, digesting food through what looks like a series of washing machines.
The logo and other promotional art work of the Cloaca project are a parody of the logos of Coca-Cola, Ford, Mr. Clean, and other brands. The feces produced by the Cloaca machines are sold vacuum-packed in translucent boxes.
Check out his website at www.cloaca.bemmm.
Bill Murray coming to Manhattan (Kansas)
Who knew.
He not only played Lou Loomis in Caddyshack, which made his brother Bill famous, he co-wrote the script with Harold Ramis and Douglas Kenney. What about that turn in Wayne's World? And the numerous characters on the Canadian television version of Second City TV.
Anyway, the Manhattan Mercury reports that Bill Murray is expected to be in Manhattan Friday to attend the induction of Del Close into the Manhattan High School Hall of Fame.
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The story says that his fame began at the Second City comedy theater in Chicago, which is where he came under the guidance of Close. Close is regarded as the comic godfather of many Second City talents, including John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Chris Farley and others. Close was in the Manhattan High School class of 1952.
Doyle-Murray was cited as telling the Mercury today that he wouldn't be able to attend the induction ceremony because of a movie commitment in California, but that Bill would be here.
The ceremony is scheduled to take place between the boys' and girls' games — about 7:15 p.m. — at Manhattan High, in the north gym.
Can mistletoe be dangerous?
But in studies of hundreds of cases of accidental ingestion over the years, there were no fatalities and only a handful of severe reactions. One study published in 1996 looked at 92 cases of mistletoe ingestion and found that only a small fraction of patients showed any symptoms. Eight of 10 people who consumed five or more berries had no symptoms, and 3 of the 11 people who consumed only leaves had upset stomachs.Other studies have found similar effects, suggesting that while mistletoe can be toxic, its lethal reputation is not quite deserved.
But, like poop, don't eat it.
Glowing cats
South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure that could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases.As part of the procedure's side effects, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.
The Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday,
"It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned. The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model [cloned] animals suffering from the same diseases as humans."
Vegansexuality
As part of its annual cool ideas theme, the New York Times Magazine today included vegansexuality among its top-100 ideas.Annie Potts, a researcher at the University of Canterbury and a director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, found in a survey of 157 vegans and vegetarians (120 of them women) which included questions about "rejecting meat eaters as intimate partners" that some of the survey respondents volunteered their reluctance to kiss meat eaters.
A 49-year-old vegan woman from Auckland was quoted as saying,
"I couldn’t think of kissing lips that allow dead animal pieces to pass between them."
A 41-year-old Christchurch vegan woman said,
"Nonvegetarian bodies smell different to me. They are, after all, literally sustained through carcasses — the murdered flesh of others.”
A blog for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals noted that sleeping with only fellow vegans means forgoing the opportunity to turn carnivores into vegans by the most powerful recruiting tool available — sex.
Top-10 dining experiences?
1. Toilet
The toilet-themed restaurant is nothing new in China. Instead of serviette or napkins, customers wipe their hands and mouths using toilet paper rolls The restaurant is also decorated with various shaped urinals and toilet seats on the wall.
2. HospitalAurum is a newly opened hospital-themed restaurant in Clark Quay, Singapore. As you enter the Aurum, the restaurant's reception resembles a morgue. The lightings remind you of the ones in the operating theatre. Customers sit on golden wheelchairs and the meals are served on the operating tables. The cutleries used for the meal include syringes.
3. Pet-Friendly
In 2005, Dorothy Moore opened The Dining Dog Café in Edmonds, WA, a pet-friendly restaurant for dogs and their owners.
4. Condom
The Cabbage and Condom is a popular condom-themed restaurant in Thailand that promotes safe sex and family planning. The menu consists of mostly condom-themed dishes, for example "condom salad" and the after meal mint which is normally distributed after each meal is replaced with a packet of condom.
5. Bed
Duvet, a restaurant in New York city features 30 customized, designer dining beds as the "seats" with tables, catered for extra comfort. Customers are also offered to wear customized bedroom slippers when they enter the restaurant.
6. Rude Service
If you like to experience rude service you can go to the Dick's Last Resort in Chicago. This is where you can not only enjoy a wide range of choices in its menu but also have lots of fun from watching the waiters who will inflict rude jokes and humor upon the customers (including you).
7. PrisonThe Jail is a prison-themed restaurant in Taiwan. The layout is just like any other prison with sliding iron bars and metallic aluminum floors with waitresses dressed as sexy wardens. Customers will be given the option to be handcuffed and taken to their own prison cell with a dining table and comfortable seats. This is where patrons can enjoy good food and soothing music.
8. Anger Release
If you are stress and need an alternative punch bag, you can visit Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing, China. Customers can release their anger caused by stress and problems in daily life. They are allowed to throw and smash the plates and glasses or even hit the waiters who have been given special training for the job.
9. Body Platter
Hadaka Sushi, a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, USA, introduces a sensual concept of "Nyotaimori" which basically means female body as the food platter. Usually the woman chosen for the task is a beautiful model who will then lay down as still as possible on a serving table. Most parts of her body will be covered with banana leaves where clusters of sushi will be placed on them.
10. Dark
For those who would like to experience dining in total darkness, you can visit Nocti Vagus Dark Restaurant in Berlin, Germany. The well-trained waiters who will serve you are blind. Customers will be entertained with special cultural programs also in darkness.
Stephanie Maurer, guest barfblogger: See monkey? No touchy!
‘It bit the top of my eyelid and it just kind of latched onto my cheek,’ she said.”
This just goes to show that you should always ask the owner of animal if it is OK to pet the animal before you touch it. Also, it shows that people should leave their pet monkeys at home instead of taking them to a convenience store.
Stephanie is a soon to be graduate of Kansas State University, with a Bachelor's in Animal Science, a minor in French, and a Certificate in Equine Studies. She doesn't poke strange animals.
Sex, chocolate and meat best for the brain
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that plenty of sex, dark chocolate and cold meats are the latest keys to boosting your brain power, according to a new book published in BritainTerry Horne and Simon Wootton, authors of Teach Yourself: Train Your Brain, contend their recommendations are based on various chemical reactions within the body brought on by certain activities, and that those who want to stop their brain deteriorating should avoid watching TV soap operas, smoking cannabis and mixing with moaners.
While sex, dark chocolate and eating cold meats for breakfast top the list for the best ways to keep the brain fit, cuddling babies, cheating at homework, doing a business degree and reading out loud are also recommended.
"Mix with people who make you laugh, have a good sense of humour or who share the same interests as you and avoid people who whinge, whine and complain as people who are negative will make you depressed."
I'll add in berries and beer.
Change your socks and underwear, take handsanitizer to Britain
Regionally, people in London and Scotland are the cleanest with 68% bathing daily, compared to just 23% of Irish and 58% of Welsh. However, while the majority of Londoners are keeping clean, the capital also had the highest percentage of people only bathing once a month. In the UK, people in the South West of England have the best hand hygiene with 95% washing hands after going to the toilet, closely followed by the North West 93% and Wales 91%. Worst for hand washing were the Northern Irish with over a third not washing hands after going to the toilet, followed by Scotland 15% and the Midlands 13%.
Milton Pharmaceutical (who also happened to sponsor the research) provided some predictable tips on hygiene:
While you might maintain excellent standards of personal hygiene, can the same be said for the person sitting next to you on the bus? It’s very easy to pick up germs and viruses from public surfaces left there by dirty hands. Keep Milton Antibacterial Hand Gel in your bag to keep hands clean while on the go and kill any germs you might pick up.
Bracelet found in chicken after 25 years
Associated Press explains that Giles had lived in Fairmont as a child and played hide-and-seek and other games with his brothers in their grandfather's barn near Sherburn.
The 31-year-old Giles said,"I would spend most of my time out at his farm, and that's the only place I can think of that I would have lost it."
Giles figures the bracelet was lost when he was 4 or 5.
The barn was dismantled a few years ago, and Giles thinks his bracelet was imbedded in materials used to construct another barn in Elmore, about 45 miles away.
The bracelet was found in a chicken that came from an Elmore farm.
Food is the hot new spa treatment
Fruit cocktail facialParsley and cucumber eye treatment
Chocolate and roses pedicure
Grape crush exfoliation
Nutty cream body scrub with cognac
Cherry body massage for 2
Vanilla honey chocolate hydrotherapy
Oresta Korbutiak, owner of Oresta Organics on O'Connor Street, whose facial offerings include Chocolate Decadence and Yam & Pumpkin Enzyme Peel, said,
"I was blown away by the results I could get from using food-based ingredients. I get better results from food-based products than I did from the chemical lines I used before."
Joe Schwarcz, a chemistry prof at McGill said,
"There's no magical ingredient that can get rid of (body fat) save for liposuction. The only thing you can do when you rub something on it is affect the surface of the skin. Moisturizing creams will do that. They leave behind a layer of essentially fatty material that prevents water inside the skin from evaporating. Whether you're using Crisco or Vaseline or La Prairie's $500 cream, you're getting the same effect. …
"If you're looking at an AHA, like lactic acid, what is the difference if you're making that in the lab or if you extract it from sour milk? What defines a substance is its molecular structure, not its ancestry. One of the biggest myths out there is that somehow natural substances are better than synthetic. Nature isn't benign."U.S. Thanksgiving treats; turkey and hairballs
A Thermite Thanksgiving
Second one is a nice food safety story about what happens when you eat your hair. Here's a preview picture (this was removed from an 18-year-old girl).
from a New England Journal of Medicine article covered on CNN:
She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss.
After a scan of the woman's abdomen showed a large mass, doctors lowered a scope through her esophagus.
"On questioning, the patient stated that she had had a habit of eating her hair for many years -- a condition called trichophagia," the authors of the article wrote.
My favourite part of the article is:
A year later, the pain and vomiting were gone, the patient had regained 20 pounds "and reports that she has stopped eating her hair."
Tiffany Eversley, guest barfblogger: Dry lips? Try some Chicken Poop
The label reads “100% free range chicken poop lip junk “ however despite the name, there is no fecal matter listed in the ingredients. In fact, the natural ingredients include all natural 100% pure non-GMO soy, jojoba, sweet orange, lavender, and bees wax.
I was relieved to find out that consumers weren’t actually putting shit on their lips. Chicken feces are often a vector of salmonella- a serious bacteria that can cause sever diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps.
Chicken poop lip junk originated when its creator, Jamie Faith Tabor Schmidt, heard her grandfather say, "I know how to fix those chapped lips, I'll rub some chicken poop on `em so you won't be lickin` 'em."
Along with the ambiguous Chicken poop lip chap, The Simone Chickenbone™ Natural Put-Ons™ line also includes “Good gravy”, a moisturizing hair pomade, and “Kill It Dead”, a natural vegan spray deodorant- great stocking stuffers for the 2007 holiday season.
--
Tiffany Eversley is an fourth year food science student at the University of Guelph
Donuts for handwashing
The gesture, to begin later this month, is aimed at reducing the number of hospital-acquired methicillen-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections to zero, said Michael Gardam, the director of infection prevention and control for the University Health Network.
Very cool -- we have heard through some of our research that incentives and recognition for good food safety practices can be valued by front-line staff, but aren't always offered.
University Health Network's Dr. Gardam said he got the idea after hearing how Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles offered $10 (U.S.) Starbucks gift certificates to doctors in a bid to increase hand hygiene compliance.
Though the coffee chain is different, and the gift certificate's denomination is more humble, the thought is the same: a small token to reward those with "good behaviour as well as try to improve the not so good," said Dr. Gardam. To that end, he has purchased $1,000 worth of Tim Hortons gift certificates and will buy more should he receive a favourable response from hospital workers.
Science fair: Using photos to check when a burger is done
Above a stove, the girls mounted a camera that took a picture every 30 seconds. They measured how much each burger shrank during cooking, and recorded the size when it reached the proper temperature. Aided by computer software designed to measure geometric shapes, they calculated the percentage of shrinkage for various brands of frozen patties. And then they tested the finding by injecting raw burgers with E. coli.
The principal investigator, Naomi Collipp, suggested that "It pretty much worked every time."
Interesting idea, but seems like it's drastically more complicated than having thermometers everywhere. I do like the thinking-outside-of-the-box nature of the project though -- thermometers might not get used in every kitchen and maybe a grill-mounted camera snapping pictures burgers leads to safer food. Would be interesting to see how fat content impacts their findings.
Is vomiting a symptom of bird flu?
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Crew on the flight, from South Korea via Australia, alerted airport authorities when the woman began vomiting and showing other possible bird flu symptoms, sparking a lockdown on the tarmac as the plane landed, said Norman Upjohn, an ambulance duty manager.
The 223 people aboard the Boeing 747 were held for about an hour under ''full quarantine procedure'' while a paramedic in protective clothing examined the woman, Upjohn said.
South Korea declared itself bird flu free in June, after reporting no new cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu -- in birds or humans -- for three months.
I sure hope that no one with a bit of vomit or diarrhea flies to NZ from the UK this week.
Suzanne Schreck, guest barfblogger: Wine protects against nasty bugs
In recent months, media reports on new research being conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia have indicated that that glass of cabernet may effectively kill bacterial pathogens that have found their way into my meal, making it safer. Just this weekend WTAE TV in Pittsburgh reported on the results of this research:
The neat thing about the study is that it doesn't seem to matter about the price. It's all in the color of the wine: red.
Researchers said cabernet, pinot noir and merlot have the right stuff to protect against Salmonella typhimurium, H.pylori and the potentially fatal Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli.
After reading this report, one might conclude that eating raw cookie dough is OK as long as it’s followed by a glass of red wine. But what do the researchers really have to say? Azlin Mustapha and Atreyee Das were interviewed by Abraham Mahshie for an article in the Columbia Tribune. In the interview, Das said, “Sixty percent [concentration] wine is enough to kill bacteria,” but that concentration was reached in a controlled environment in a test tube in a lab – not in the human gut, which is where consumers might seek practical application of this new knowledge.
Lead researcher Mustapha told the Tribune, “I would not recommend that people go out and consume wine in excess.” But how does this research really apply to the average person’s wine consumption? Early reporting on the findings may give us false hope that one, two, even three glasses of red wine with dinner might make eating a rare hamburger safe.
Mustapha and Das anticipate two to three years of additional research on the subject. When their study is published, maybe they’ll be able to tell me how much cabernet I have to drink to kill the pathogens on my steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. Until then, I’ll rely on the system, from farm to fork, to keep the pathogens off my plate to begin with.
Suzanne Schreck is the communications director of Marler Clark. Since joining Marler Clark in 2002, Ms. Schreck has managed the firm's media relations and on-line presence, including the firm's websites and blogs.
Power from poultry poop, and a science oops
The first one, about using turkey manure appeared on Minnesota's TV KARE 11 website. Minnesota Governer Tim Pawletny was quoted as saying "There is gold in that there manure." The story suggests that 100 semi-truck loads of turkey manure provides the fuel to power 40,000 homes.
The $200 million 54 megawatt plant is owned by Fibrominn, a subsidiary of a British company that operates three similar plants in Great Britain.
The story says that for Minnesota turkey farmers it's a dream come true; free trucking and a small payment for manure. What interests me is how this power-from-poop impacts biosecurity practices and controlling animal diseases. I wonder if and how the trucks are cleaned between loads, and what would happen if avian influenza (high or low pathogenic) appeared in Minnesota.
The second story that I loved today appeared in Saturday's New York Times and was about state and federal biologists in Colorado recently learning that they may have been protecting the wrong species of fish for the past 20 years.
It seems that the biologists have been trying to restore the rare greenback cutthroat trout to Colorado waters, but were actually saving the similar but more common Colorado River cutthroat trout.
A three-year study led by University of Colorado researchers and published in August found that out of nine fish populations believed to be descendants of original greenbacks, five were actually Colorado River cutthroat trout.
Tom Nesler, state biologist was quoted as saying (maybe the best quote I've seen in the past month or so) “Hey, science happens.” New developments in DNA testing have illuminated the problem, Nesler was quoted as saying that "Up until a year ago, no one could tell us the difference between the two."
Vanilla made from cow poop: demand slow
Mayu Yamamoto, exactly as shown, left, accepts her Ig Nobel prize for research that "cannot or should not be reproduced," Thursday night.Ms. Yamamoto, of the International Medical Centre of Japan, won the chemistry prize in the annual spoofs of the real Nobel awards for discovering that vanillin, the main ingredient of vanilla essence, can be synthesized from a wide variety of herbivore animal dung -- from cows, goats, horses and even pandas. It cannot be made, however, from tiger excrement.
Although the production cost using dung is less than a half of making vanillin out of vanilla beans, Yamamoto found that her work was ignored by multinational corporations.
A purpose for your appendix
Many people have their appendix removed after a horrid bout with appendicitis. And they function just fine without it. So in all my human anatomy classes (one in high school and one here at K-State), I had been told that its function was unknown, and it might even be worthless altogether. (It's that little white thing pictured at the right that sort of looks like a worm.)
But scientists at Duke University Medical School think they've figured it out.
Your gut harbors entire populations of good bacteria that help to digest your food and outnumber bad bacteria. Sometimes these populations can get wiped out by diseases like cholera or amoebic dysentery, which are more common in less developed countries. Iraq, right now, is having a huge problem with cholera because of their poor water supplies.
The appendix, then, is responsible for restoring your population of good bacteria.
Back in the day, when people didn't live so close together, they couldn't get back their populations of gut flora. Nowadays, germs are all over the place, so its not quite as necessary, but still... it has a purpose! And I for one, am happy for it.
Red hot chili closes London roads, burns throats
Extra-hot bird's eye chilies that had been left dry-frying at the Thai Cottage restaurant sparked road closures and evacuations in central London after passers-by complained that a chemical emanating from a Thai restaurant was burning their throats.Associated Press reported that the London Fire Brigade sent a chemical response team, closed off roads, sealed buildings and donned special breathing masks to ferret out the source of the acrid smell as onlookers coughed.
A police spokesman said that no one was arrested, adding, "As far as I'm aware, it's not a criminal offense to cook very strong chili."
Stressed? A shot of straight whiskey, err, I mean super-premium milk
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The Agence France Presse today reports that a Japanese dairy company on Thursday announced the launch of super-premium milk for stressed-out adults -- at the price of $43 for a 900 mL, or 1 qt bottle.According to the story, Tokyo-based Nakazawa Foods will launch the "Adult Milk" line of products in October targeting "adults who live in a stressful society."
The price of 5,000 yen ($43) a bottle is nearly 30 times as expensive as ordinary milk even in Tokyo, which is famous for its high prices.
The milk is taken from cows once a week at the break of dawn as they discharge a lot of a stress-relieving hormone called melatonin during the night.
The milk is bottled within six hours of milking at a farm north of Tokyo and is said to contain three to four times as much melatonin as usual milk.
