Washroom

During a break while attending the annual meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists in Dallas in 2000, I sat in a chair that turned out to have a view of the sinks in a men's bathroom. The details escape me now, but easily 50% of those who went in did not wash their hands before leaving.

These were men in the food industry, where we practically burn it into a person's memory to always wash your hands. Perhaps they all went in to straighten their ties or check their teeth, but we all know better.

Are the odds stacked against the average Joe or Josephina if professionals can't get it right? This week, a look at washing your hands...or not.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you oughtta go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it's not for the timid." - Q to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Q Who?"

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Washroom

The Darker Side of e-mail

Like the telephone or the TV, e-mail is a technology so embedded in our lives, we think nothing of it. Both help and hindrance, on one hand it is the original "killer application" of the Internet and on the other it's a spam-spewing slave-driver.

We are used to hearing about the negative side of the balance-sheet, about e-mail's addictive nature and the unnecessary stress it injects into the modern worker's life, but we downplay these problems because it is so incredibly useful.

This week, with e-mail well into middle age (the first emails were sent in 1965), we take a look at what we know about the darker side of e-mail.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Damn it, Bones, you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves! I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!!" - Captain James Kirk, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

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E-mail

The Surprisingly Cool History of Ice

In 1805, two wealthy brothers from Boston were at a family picnic, enjoying the rare luxuries of cold beverages and ice cream. They joked about how their chilled refreshments would be the envy of all the colonists sweating in the West Indies. It was a passing remark, but it stuck with one of the brothers. His name was Frederic Tudor, and 30 years later, he would ship nearly 200 tons of ice halfway around the globe to become the “Ice King.”

This week, a look at the surprisingly cool history of ice.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "There are always alternatives." - Commander Spock, Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Galileo Seven"

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The Surprisingly Cool History of Ice

Savory

Satureja is a genus of aromatic plants of the family Lamiaceae, related to rosemary and thyme. There are about 30 species called savories, of which Summer savory and Winter savory are the most important in cultivation.

This week, a look at savory.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Do you want to tell me what’s bothering you or would you like to break some more furniture?" - Counselor Deanna Troi, to Commander Worf, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Birthright"

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Savory

Food Fraud

Acting on an informant's tip, in June 1973, French tax inspectors barged into the offices of the 155-year-old Cruse et Fils Frères wine shippers. Eighteen men were eventually prosecuted by the French government, accused, among other things, of passing off humble wines from the Languedoc region as the noble and five-times-as-costly wine of Bordeaux. During the trial it came out that the Bordeaux wine merchants regularly defrauded foreigners. One vat of wine considered extremely inferior, for example, was labeled "Salable as Beaujolais to Americans."

It's not just that bottle of vino you need to wonder about. False origins/composition/etc. has been documented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, cheese, vinegar, spirits and maple syrup, just to name a few.

Caveat emptor, indeed. This week, a look at food fraud.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Have you ever known me to do anything foolish?" - Captain Jonathan Archer, Star Trek: Enterprise, "Rogue Planet"

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35869978-Food-Fraud

Buy Local, Act Evil?

A University of Toronto study suggests people who buy green are more likely cut moral corners elsewhere, that buying green is tantamount to a free pass for commensurate bad behavior in other areas of their lives.

I beg to differ, as I don't feel the need to cut someone off in traffic on the way home from buying compact florescent light bulbs or mock the eco-celebrity crowd and their use of "carbon offsets" as a method to justify their eco-hypocrisy.

This week, can buying local may you act evil?

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: Kirk: "My God, Bones, what have I done?" McCoy: "What you had to do; what you always do: turn death into a fighting chance to live." - Doctor Leonard McCoy to Admiral James T. Kirk while witnessing the destruction of the Enterprise, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

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Buy Local, Act Evil

Stomach versus Brain

Scholars have understood the different motives for eating as far back as Socrates, who counseled, "Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat."

Nowadays, scientists are using sophisticated brain-imaging technology to understand how the lure of delicious food can overwhelm the body's built-in mechanism to regulate hunger and fullness, what's called "hedonic" versus "homeostatic" eating.

This week, it's stomach versus brain. May the best organ win.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "When every logical course of action is exhausted, the only logical course that remains is inaction." - Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, Star Trek: Voyager, "Twisted"

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Stomach vs Brain