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By Joshua, March 24, 2010 3:34 am

Genetic engineering of mosquitos to deliver anti-malaria vaccine:

They are normally transmitters of the disease, but mosquitoes could one day be used to tackle malaria after scientists developed a genetically engineered version of the species that can deliver a vaccine. Researchers altered the salivary glands of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito, dubbed a “flying vaccinator,” so that it carried the Leishmania vaccine within its saliva.This mosquito, the main spreaders of human malaria, was shown in tests to transmit this vaccine when it bit its host, in this case laboratory mice, making it a transmitter of the vaccine. Bites from the insect succeeded in raising antibodies in the mice, indicating successful immunization with the vaccine, according to research published in Insect Molecular Biology, a British scientific journal.

The study, led by Associate Professor Shigeto Yoshida from the Jichi Medical University in Japan, could be used to formulate a new strategy in the global fight against malaria.

He said:  “The lack of an effective [malaria] vaccine means control of the carrier has become a crucial objective to combating the disease. Following bites, protective immune responses are induced, just like a conventional vaccination but with no pain and no cost… What’s more, continuous exposure to bites will maintain high levels of protective immunity, through natural boosting, for a lifetime. So the insect shifts from being a pest to being beneficial.”

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By Joshua, January 25, 2010 7:50 am

Happy birth-day to David, the The Waterglass Editor Emeritus who is busily celebrating his birth-day on his new blog.

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By Joshua, December 10, 2009 4:44 am

Fear!  Be afraid!  What you have been eating your whole life is just awful for you!  That’s the message Yahoo’s so-called “Healthy Living” column wants you to think.  They trot out one “expert” per food item and have them tell you that the food causes cancer or infertility or some other thing you don’t want in your body.

The 7 foods experts won’t eat

How healthy (or not) certain foods are—for us, for the environment—is a hotly debated topic among experts and consumers alike, and there are no easy answers. But when Prevention talked to the people at the forefront of food safety and asked them one simple question—“What foods do you avoid?”—we got some pretty interesting answers.

Canned Tomatoes

The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. 

The expert: Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri who studies bisphenol-A says “I won’t go near canned tomatoes.”

Microwave Popcorn

  Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize—and migrate into your popcorn. “They stay in your body for years and accumulate there,” says Olga Naidenko, PhD, a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group.

Nonorganic Potatoes

Jeffrey Moyer, chair of the National Organic Standards Board says, “Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won’t,” says Moyer, who is also farm director of the Rodale Institute (also owned by Rodale Inc., the publisher of Prevention). “I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.”

Conventional Apples

If fall fruits held a “most doused in pesticides contest,” apples would win. ”Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers,” Mark Kastel, former executive for agribusiness and codirector of the Cornucopia Institute, a farm-policy research group that supports organic foods says. And increasing numbers of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides (from all sources) with Parkinson’s disease. The solution: Buy organic apples. If you can’t afford organic, be sure to wash and peel them first.

 

Fear the reaper, all ye who eat these foods!  Cancer!  Parkinson’s!  Infertility!  Listen to the experts, most of whom are paid advocates for organic foods!

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By David, October 10, 2009 8:56 am

In a surprise twist announced early this morning, President Barack Hussein Obama has won the 2009 Pillsbury Bake-Off:

The Pillsbury company, several of whom spoke to the press, said awarding Obama the 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off could be seen as an early vote of confidence intended to build global support for the policies of his young administration.  “While he has not personally cooked them, president Obama’s bacon-wrapped scallops were the best dish ever imagined at the Pillsbury Bake-Off, and we are proud to give him this signal honor.”

It’s my understanding that he’s up for the Heisman Trophy soon, as well as an Academy Award.

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By Joshua, August 10, 2009 4:08 am

Meet your new meat:

Meat is murder? Well, perhaps not for much longer.

A pioneering group of scientists are working to grow real animal protein in the laboratory, which they not only claim is better for animal welfare, but actually healthier, both for people and the planet. It may sound like science fiction, but this technology to create in-vitro meat could be changing global diets within ten years.

“Cultured meat would have a lot of advantages,” said Jason Matheny of research group New Harvest. “We could precisely control the amount of fat in meat. We could make ground beef with an ideal fatty acid ratio — a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them.”

That’s right.  He said, “a hamburger that prevents heart attacks.”

But it isn’t just the possibility of creating designer ground beef with the fat profile of salmon that drives Matheny’s work. Meat and livestock farming is also the source of many human diseases, which he claims would be far less common when the product is raised in laboratory conditions.

“We could reduce the risks of diseases like swine flu, avian flu, ‘mad cow disease’, or contamination from Salmonella,” he told CNN. “We could produce meat in sterile conditions that are impossible in conventional animal farms and slaughterhouses. And when we grow only the meat we can eat, it’s more efficient. There’s no need to grow the whole animal and lose 75 to 95 percent of what we feed it.”

“We could reduce the environmental footprint of meat, which currently contributes more to global warming than the entire transportation sector,” says Matheny.

In-vitro meat needs sperm donations.  Pig semen.

In-vitro meat is made from samples of animals conventionally slaughtered. For example, “pork” is made from pig ovaries retrieved from slaughterhouses, which are fertilized with pig semen, transforming them into embryos. They are then placed in a nutrient solution, where they grow and develop.

According to New Harvest, meat is already estimated to be a $1 trillion global market, and demand is expected to double by 2050. With concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment growing the appeal of in vitro meat is obvious.

“We think that a technology to produce cultured ground meats — burgers, sausages, nuggets, and so forth — could be commercialized within ten years,” said Matheny.

“We all want meat that’s safer and healthier. If cultured meat looks, tastes, and costs the same as regular meat, then do we care that it’s produced in a steel tank, rather than in an animal farm?

“Take hydroponic vegetables. We like the idea that they’re produced in sterile water instead of dirt and manure. It’s true that in-vitro meat isn’t natural. Nor for that matter are hydroponic vegetables, or bread, or cheese, or wine. Raising 10,000 chickens indoors and pumping them full of drugs isn’t natural, either, and it isn’t healthy or safe. The more we learn about how meat is produced now, the more in-vitro meat looks like a better alternative.”

Test tube burgers? It seems you could be eating them sooner than you might expect.

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By David, August 9, 2009 5:03 pm

The NY Post reports:

MICHELLE Obama, like her husband, enjoys a good burger, but not as well done. The first lady brought daughters Malia and Sasha to former “Top Chef” contestant Spike Mendelsohn’s Good Stuff Eatery in DC for cheeseburgers, onion rings, fries, and milkshakes. “They got the burgers medium,” says a spy. (President Obama was mildly ridiculed after ordering a burger medium-well in January.) “Three starving Secret Service guys were literally standing over the grill as Spike made the burgers, but didn’t eat,” our source adds. Fellow patrons had their cellphones temporarily confiscated to prevent pictures from being taken.

Does anyone else see anything wrong with people who just had the bad luck to eat at a restaurant that Michelle Obama wanted to go to having their personal property confiscated, however temporarily?  She’s not even the president.  Did Laura Bush do this?  How did it go down: did the Secret Service agents go up and down along all the booths and go, “Cellphones, please.  You’ll get them back when Mrs. Obama is done or you decide to leave.”

If this story is true, I suspect that there are several diners out there who’d prefer it if the Obamas wouldn’t inflict themselves on the public as often as they do.

(Thanks to Darleen for the pointer.)

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By David, July 2, 2009 7:08 pm

Plopp.

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By David, April 21, 2009 6:36 pm

Doughnut shop theme goes over like a lead you-know-what:

In the month since it opened, Campbell’s newest doughnut shop has caused quite a buzz in the community, although not everything is sweet.

The owners of Psycho Donuts intended for the shop to be a fun-filled, wacky place where kids and parents could enjoy unconventional doughnuts in an atmosphere unlike traditional corner doughnut shops.

But the “science experiment gone bad” theme is not resonating with everyone in the community, notably mental health advocates who find doughnuts dubbed “Bipolar” and “Massive Head Trauma” extremely offensive, as well as the straitjacket and padded cell where customers are invited to take pictures.

It’s not their intent to close the shop down, said John Mitchem, president of the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. But advocates want the owners of Psycho Donuts to understand that their business greatly impacts a minority of the community that has been stigmatized for decades, he said.

“People with a mental illness live on average about 25 years less than the rest of us, and to poke fun of people with serious mental illnesses seems to me not only unfortunate, but simply bad and immoral,” Mitchem said. “There’s nothing wrong with making money, but they shouldn’t make it on the backs of ill people.” NAMI and several other local organizations have brought their fight to Psycho Donuts owners Jordan Zweigoron and Kipp Berdiansky. They’ve demanded that the name of the shop, as well as its theme, be changed.

The intent wasn’t to poke fun.  It’s a shame that NAMI has misconstrued this.

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By David, April 10, 2009 1:26 pm

White House flies chef from Missouri to D.C.:

When you’re the president of the United States, only the best pizza will do – even if that means flying a chef  860 miles.

Chris Sommers, 33, jetted into Washington from St Louis, Missouri, on Thursday with a suitcase of dough, cheese and pans to to prepare food for the Obamas and their staff.

He had apparently been handpicked after the President had tasted his pizzas on the campaign trail last autumn.

Here’s the specialty Obama pizza:

[T]he Hyde Park topped with chicken and hot sauce.

I would have thought it was a thin-crust pie, topped with ham.

Now if I were President, I’d've moved the White House to Stamford, just to be near the Colony Grill.  The pizza’s worth it.

Thanks to Jack M. at Ace of Spades for the pointer.

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By Joshua, March 30, 2009 7:45 am

Cow farts are a major contributor to greenhouse gas levels.  A recent news story says:

More than a third of all methane emissions, around 900 billion tonnes every year, are produced by methanogen bacteria that live in the digestive systems of cattle, sheep and goats. By volume, methane is 20 times more powerful at trapping solar energy than carbon dioxide making it a potent greenhouse gas.

Fish oils should be the primary weapon in the global War on Cow Farts:

The benefits to humans of omega 3 fatty acids in fish oils are well documented, but a new study has found that fish oils can have a wider benefit to the environment — by reducing the amount of methane produced by cows. The report produced by University College Dublin found that by including two percent fish oil in the diet of cattle they achieved a reduction in the amount of methane released by the animals. Lowering methane emissions is important for the environment, as the gas given off by farm animals is a major contributor to greenhouse gas levels.

“The fish oil affects the methane-producing bacteria in the rumen part of the cow’s gut, leading to reduced emissions,” said Dr Lorraine Lillis, one of the researchers, speaking at the Society for General Microbiology meeting in Harrogate, England.

“Understanding which microbial species are particularly influenced by changes in diet and relating them to methane production could bring about a more targeted approach to reducing methane emissions in animals.” Approximately 50 percent of Irish agricultural methane emissions result from farm animals, which has led to suggestions that, to help combat global warming, the numbers of cattle, sheep and goats should be capped. The researchers believe that it may not be necessary to limit the number of farm animals if their methane levels are reduced through diet.

In other words, to win the War on Cow Farts, we don’t have to kill the cows: we have to feed them fish oil.  In the fight against global warming, don’t kill the messenger; rather, kill their farts.

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By Joshua, February 12, 2009 7:43 am

“I’m looking for economical food.” — Man-on-the-street interviewee, New York City, USA.  See the BBC report here.

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By Joshua, February 9, 2009 9:03 am

When the government responded to 9/11, they eventually created a Department of Homeland Security.  Why?  Because the seperate agencies designed to detect this problem and stop it from happening failed to do this job.  Consolidation of the intelligence infrastructure under one department has helped to bring these disparate agencies together in a functional way.

Considering the Spinach Flu, the Hot Dog Chili Sauce Botulism Outbreak, and now, the PB Plague, and not at all comparing it to 9/11 except in the way I mentioned above, it is time to create a Department of Food.  Asks the New York Times:

Food-borne illnesses are not uncommon. But this case has raised particular concern because peanuts are ubiquitous and the patchwork monitoring system — with at least 12 federal agencies regulating food safety — was unable to detect and stop shipments of tainted products, going back as far as 2007.   Would creating a single “Department of Food,” consolidating the food-safety work of the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration, to name just two agencies, better protect consumers?

Here is a snippet of some arguments for and against this idea:

–  “If there’s one incident that shows our food safety system is broken, this nationwide salmonella outbreak is it. Under the current regulatory framework, it is up to the Food and Drug Administration to discover whether there are problems at a plant. Yet, the tools and resources that the agency has at its disposal are so limited that it’s no surprise that problems go undetected.”

–  “We’ve already built a federal administration mandated to undertake such a task. The fact that the Food and Drug Administration — specifically the Center of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition — has abjectly failed to do its job strikes me as an inadequate justification for such an expensive addition to the federal government. Bureaucracy might be a necessary evil, but a redundant bureaucracy is just plain evil.”

–  “I don’t believe that a Department of Food in and of itself would make our food system safer. What we need is to reinvent our food system to a more sustainable one, where the health of our children and planet are given more priority than a bottom line.”

–  “When President Abraham Lincoln established the United States Department of Agriculture in 1862, he called it the People’s Department. And that still holds true today.”

I think we should call the new department, The Department of Foodland Security.  What do you think?

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By Joshua, January 26, 2009 4:23 am

Instead of new content, why not repackage old content and sell it in 3 minute increments on-line, laced with crappy advertising?  GOOD IDEA:

…at the headquarters of Discovery Communications … a small team of editors mines the 23-year-old video vault of the Discovery Channel for animal attacks, dinosaur animations and scientific oddities. Old shows that ordinarily would not be repeated on Discovery or its other cable channels can be repackaged online, turning every week into “Shark Week,” three minutes at a time.  As users spend more time watching videos with advertisements attached, they are fast becoming an incremental moneymaker for media companies.

When the executive vice president for digital media at Discovery, Josh Freeman, arrived from AOL in mid-2007, he said, he concluded that Discovery “was just leaving money on the table” in online video. Now, he says, the company is playing catch-up.

“Cheetahs are still killing gazelles the same way they did 3,000 years ago,” Doug Craig, the senior vice president for digital media production, said, “and on top of that, we don’t have to pay residuals.”

That’s just great.  This is what the internet has become: a repository for old content that magacorporations want to sqeeze the last few dollars out of.  Says Mr. Freeman:

“Those dollars are going to come,” he said. “I want to be there when they do.”

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By David, December 15, 2008 4:57 pm

Me: *washing an omelette pan*

Aggie: *comes in, peers* “I already washed that one!”

Me: “It had grease spots on the edge here.  See?”

Aggie: “I’m seasoning it!”

Me: *puts now-clean pan on cutting board* “You can’t season a non-stick pan, you doofus.”

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By David, December 12, 2008 6:37 pm

Aggie, rubbing the base of the tail near the back of Connie, our large orange cat, with her big toe:

“I’m gonna scratch your scruffy ass!”

*scritch* *scritch*