Photographers Gallery: Auto Waitress, by Murray Garrett.
Well, look at that.
Massive Health: Carbs Are Killing You [infographic].
Well, duh. I work hard to stay in shape ... but try taking away my occasional cheat-day Tater Tots or pasta. Just try.
NPR: Why McDonald’s In France Doesn’t Feel Like Fast Food.
“McDonald’s, meanwhile, offers all kinds of Frenchified dishes, from the Alpine burger with three different kinds of cheese to tasty little gallette des rois, or King’s Cakes, popular after Christmas and sold by all the bakeries. Last year, it introduced the McBaguette.”
!!!
bon appetit: How to “Wash” Your Cast-Iron Skillet.
Coarse salt. Cast iron’s good for the biceps, too.
Sprinkle Bakes: Red Wine Lollipops.
Recipe’s at the bottom; scroll down.
SF New Mexican: City bumps pay floor to national high.
“The city announced Thursday that the wage floor will increase to $10.29 an hour — up from the $9.85 imposed on employers for the last two years and a nickel higher than San Francisco’s.” It’s difficult to discern the direct effects of the living wage, other than portion sizes going down, quality going down, and prices go up at local ‘affordable’ restaurants. Perhaps fewer sales clerks in small retail stores. Businesses that used to skim by on the edge of profitability are largely gone. I see a lot of moving, looking for cheaper rental spaces.
New Scientist: Vegetarian orang-utans eat world’s cutest animal.
Burp. Video of a slow loris, if you’ve blanked on the animal.
The Guardian.UK: WikiLeaks - US targets EU over GM crops.
I suppose it’s of no use to remind everyone that the US has been at economic war with the EU since its inception?
WSJ: Hostess Brands, Maker of Twinkies, Preparing for Chapter 11 Filing.
Profit-seeking dentists will mourn, I suppose. I had a friend who used to dunk ‘em into Coke and eat. Makes my teeth ache just thinking about it.
The Atlantic: The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods.
“Chinese researchers have found small pieces of ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the blood and organs of humans who eat rice. The Nanjing University-based team showed that this genetic material will bind to proteins in human liver cells and influence the uptake of cholesterol from the blood. [snip] MicroRNAs have been studied extensively since their discovery ten years ago, and have been linked to human diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.” I run across so many dubious articles, both pro- and con-. It can get difficult to winnow through the mire, so I tend to drill down to the actual research, the actual studies, rather than read editorials and opinion pieces. This one seems a good one, worthy of bookmarking and using as argument-points with your GM-loving ‘science-is-always-superior’ friends at social gatherings.
Correction: I retract my support for this article. Poor source material. Read the comments on this post here.
If you’re gluten-free, and you miss Oreos.
Look for Schar (European) gluten-free Chocolate “O’s”. They rock. Hard to find. Ran across them at Sprouts in Austin last week.
The Atlantic Wire: Pepsi Says Mountain Dew Can Dissolve Mouse Carcasses.
The Atlantic: Don’t Hold the Salt: Attempts to Curb Sodium Intake Are Misguided.
“It is widely preached that hypertension is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and stroke. This is true. The assumption is therefore then made that by reducing dietary sodium we will reduce hypertension and thus reduce these untoward effects. This has not been demonstrably or conclusively shown, but it makes for great slogans, off the cuff advice, and lazy recommendations. It also makes for poor publicly mandated policy.” Eating salt has never harmed me, whereas boycotting salt almost prostrated me during my first experiences in the deserts of the Southwest.
BBC News: Groceries cheaper now than in 1862, Grocer magazine study finds.
“It found the biggest relative changes were seen in non-native fruits.” Of course, noone was eating pineapple in London unless they were affluent. Let’s be realistic. Porridge, anyone? Gruel?
Scribd: Sensory and Chemical Analysis of ‘Shackleton’s’ Mackinlay Scotch Whisky.
Geek out, Scotch drinkers.
NY Times: A Recipe for Simplifying Life: Ditch All the Recipes.
Tasteologie: Videos, making Christmas Ginger Jam Sponge Cake.
Banished.
I was adding garlic back into my daily vitamin regimen. Got a one-a-day ‘odorless’ from WF. I’ve taken three.
You can guess the rest of the story. I’d better go off and hike in the preserve, see if I can sweat it all out.
Treehugger: New App Lets iPad Users Play With Real Live Pigs.
“Since 2001, law has required pig farmers in the European Union to provide some form of entertainment to their livestock as a way of keeping them in good emotional health, which in turn helps curb aggression and anxiety.” Too bad they can’t tweet ... then again, they’d stress out about their personal branding (bacon?) ...
Eurekalert: Microbial contamination found in orange juice squeezed in bars and restaurants.
Cleanliness of prep equipment. Again. White vinegar’s a good cleaner, diluted. The smell doesn’t last long, and beats the chemical high you get from commercial cleaners.
WaPo: Tattoos have become the new must-have accessory in restaurant kitchens.
Makes me think of the multiple-piercings that seem to be part and parcel of being a barista. I could never choose a tattoo that would satisfy me for more than a month, max. I’d want to have Photoshop layer access to my skin.
Hops Chart: Visualizing Bitterness Flavors & Aromas of Beer Brewing Hops.
For homebrewers. Beer, not OS X command line ...
OxfordJournals: Don’t eat uncooked prepackaged cookie dough.
And use sterile procedures when you do so (how surgeonly of me to say so): A Novel Vehicle for Transmission of Escherichia coli O157:H7 to Humans: Multistate Outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 Infections Associated With Consumption of Ready-to-Bake Commercial Prepackaged Cookie Dough — United States, 2009 [PDF].
Vimeo: Gingerbread Geodesic Dome.
Do Christmas differently this year, with a geodesic gingerbread dome!
Discover: Consumer Reports Finds Excessive Arsenic & Lead In Apple & Grape Juices.
Well, this makes apple and grape juices less ... appeeling.
