Oddities and Humor

The Huffington Post
One little boy said: "I’m not eating dinner because it’s my brother’s turn tonight. Tomorrow is my night." Is this unacceptable in your mind?
State's Welfare Cuts Having Disastrous Effects On Families
www.huffingtonpost.com
Last week, while working on a documentary about hunger in Michigan, Russ Russell had an experience that left him speechless. ..

Jet dryer catches fire after crash in Daytona 500

"The Daytona 500 has been halted by a fiery explosion caused when Juan Pablo Montoya slammed into a jet dryer under caution..."

2 yr old Kid falls out of car, tries to chase mom down

Samantha Garcia was at a friend’s house to watch the Daytona 500 Sunday afternoon when she stepped outside to find out what was causing a commotion in the front yard of his house in southwest Wichita.

That’s when she first saw the 2-year-old boy, crying, frightened and bleeding heavily from his nose and lip.

“He was scared,” Garcia said. “I’ve never seen a child’s lip that swollen.”

While he shied away from her male friend in the front yard of the house in the 2000 block of West Rita, northeast of Pawnee and Meridian, “as soon as I came up, he put his arms up and climbed right up into my arms, no problem,” Garcia said.

He had road rash on his arm and two deep cuts on his face, she said.

Wichita police on Monday said the boy was riding in the back seat of his mother’s car when he unbuckled his seat belt, opened the back door and fell out. His 22-year-old mother didn’t notice he was gone until she arrived at her home in the 2000 block of South Hiram more than 1 1/2 miles away.

She then retraced her steps, and found him at the house on Rita.

The mother claimed she panicked when she got home and took out the child safety seat, and wanted to leave with her child immediately, Garcia said.

“We wouldn’t let her have him until we knew what happened,” she said. “The police were on their way.”

No one apparently saw the child fall from the moving car.

“That’s heartbreaking,” Garcia said. “This kid had run for lord knows how long. Two years old and running down the street, bleeding.”

He was taken to Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis for treatment and evaluation, Lt. Doug Nolte said. He was admitted for observation and placed in protective custody.

The mother has been questioned but not arrested, Nolte said. It is against state law to have a young child riding in a car without the use of an age- and size-appropriate safety seat, he said.

“He’s a bright little boy,” Garcia said. “He sat on my lap and played on the iPhone” until the police arrived.

“I’m trying to wrap my head around it all…imagine how scared this kid was.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/02/27/2232683/2-year-old-falls-out-of-moving.html#storylink=omni_popular#storylink=cpy

="( the poor baby, im so happy he was found by that lady and not sick ****...But i dont understand how a mother can not notice her child not in the car???? when i drive with my little nephews/nieces/cousins, i always glance at them through one of my mirrors when i stop if they suddenly go quiet...all the females in my family and friends who are mothers do the same thing...this lady :\ don't know what the hell happen2her. Thank god the kid was found by lovely good people.

Alaska Man Says Obama Is Ineligible To Be President Because Of His Race
www.huffingtonpost.com
A new lawsuit filed by an Alaska man aims to remove President Barack Obama from the state's ballot, arguing that Obama is not a "natural born citizen" because he is African-American...

The madam, depicted by Dolly Parton, in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, has died.

"Kleffman said his aunt did not talk much about her time at the Chicken Ranch and that her neighbors in Phoenix probably had no idea about her past.

"She protected her privacy," he said.

She did, however, share with him that she "thoroughly did not like Zindler because he stuck his nose in where it didn't belong" and hated the movie, which was based on the Broadway musical written by Larry King.

"She said the movie was a joke," Kleffman said. "There was nothing about it right except that it happened in a whorehouse." "

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-02/warning-issued-over-giant-pine-cones/3864430

Those pine cones are freaks.

Did that area have an over abundance of water to have allowed such large pine cones to develop or is that the nature of the beast that is that tree?

I've seen pine cones like that on really old monkey puzzle trees. The older the tree gets, the bigger it and it's pine cones get.

An interesting scroll.

Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench
by Karl Tate, OurAmazingPlanet

http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/66-infographic-tallest-mountain-to-deepest-ocean-trench.html

Speech Jamming Gun

The drone of speakers who won't stop is an inevitable experience at conferences, meetings, cinemas, and public libraries.

Today, Kazutaka Kurihara at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and Koji Tsukada at Ochanomizu University, both in Japan, present a radical solution: a speech-jamming device that forces recalcitrant speakers into submission.

The idea is simple. Psychologists have known for some years that it is almost impossible to speak when your words are replayed to you with a delay of a fraction of a second.

Kurihara and Tsukada have simply built a handheld device consisting of a microphone and a speaker that does just that: it records a person's voice and replays it to them with a delay of about 0.2 seconds. The microphone and speaker are directional so the device can be aimed at a speaker from a distance, like a gun.

In tests, Kurihara and Tsukada say their speech jamming gun works well: "The system can disturb remote people's speech without any physical discomfort."

Their tests also identify some curious phenomena. They say the gun is more effective when the delay varies in time and more effective against speech that involves reading aloud than against spontaneous monologue. Sadly, they report that it has no effect on meaningless sound sequences such as "aaaaarghhh".

Kurihara and Tsukada make no claims about the commercial potential of their device but list various aplications. They say it could be used to maintain silence in public libraries and to "facilitate discussion" in group meetings. "We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking when speaking," they say.

That has important implications. "There are still many cases in which the negative aspects of speech become a barrier to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, " they point out.

Clearly, speech jamming has a significant future role in contributing to world peace and should obviously be installed at the United Nations with immediate effect.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1202.6106: SpeechJammer: A System Utilizing Artificial Speech Disturbance with Delayed Auditory Feedback

Would you like a cow eyeball with your burger?


One of the more-enduring urban legends about McDonald's is that their hamburgers contain cow eyeballs. While this has not proven to be the case, their Baked Hot Apple Pie does contain duck feathers, or at least an ingredient commonly derived from such. Truth can be just as strange as fiction.


How have duck feathers become a viable ingredient in apple pie? Welcome to the world of food additives. People have been adding flavors, spices, natural preservatives and ripening agents to food since antiquity. But as the popularity of highly processed food has risen dramatically since the 1950s, so has the astounding array of bizarre chemical additives used in food manufacturing. Fast-food recipes seem to be born more from the laboratory than from farm or field.


[ Related infographic: What's really inside your McDonald's oatmeal? ]



And although the powers that be deem these food-additive chemicals safe, the science fiction of it all is a bit unsettling. How do we come up with these things? Here are some of the wackiest of the bunch.


1. Duck feathers and human hair (l-cysteine)
You thought duck feathers sounded bad? How about human hair? These are the two most-common sources for l-cysteine, an amino acid used to condition dough for increased pliability, which facilitates better machine processing. CNN reported that most human-derived l-cysteine comes from Chinese women who help support their families by selling their locks to small chemical-processing plants.


Although originally the primary source for l-cysteine was human hair, many manufacturers seem to have moved away from hair-derived l-cysteine and on to the more-palatable duck feathers. According to Jeanne Yacoubou, MS, research editor for The Vegetarian Resource Group, 80 percent of l-cysteine is now derived from feathers. During her research, McDonald's told Yacoubou that the l-cysteine used in its Baked Hot Apple Pie, as well as its Wheat Roll and Warm Cinnamon Roll, was of the duck-feather variety. Many other fast-food joints rely on l-cysteine in bakery products as well.


And not to be sensationalist here, the resultant additive is far-removed from its original source - but still. It may be disturbing to many, and importantly, may fly in the face of ethical or religious dietary restrictions.

[ Related: 10 cooking staples that can outlive you ]



2. Sand (silicon dioxide)
Avoiding sand in your sandwich at the beach is obvious, avoiding sand in your restaurant-purchased meal may not be so apparent.


Silicon dioxide, also known as silica (also known as sand!), is used to make glass, optical fibers, ceramics, and cement. Oh, and chili. Used as an anti-caking agent, it is often added to processed beef and chicken to prevent clumping, and is listed in the ingredient panels for chili from both Wendy's and Taco Bell. Most experts suggest that it isn't harmful for consumption, but just know that the ingredient keeping that chili meat nice and non-caking is the also the primary component of diatomceous earth, commonly used as a pesticide.



3. Wood (cellulose)
Processed wood pulp, known as cellulose, is used in everything from cheese to salad dressing, from muffins to strawberry syrup. Food processors use it to thicken and stabilize foods, replace fat and boost fiber content - as well as to minimize reliance on more costly ingredients like oil or flour. Powdered cellulose is produced by cooking virgin wood pulp in chemicals to separate the cellulose, and then purified. Modified versions require extra processing, such as exposure to acid in order to further break down the fiber.


Ironically, with the increase in nutritional awareness has come an increase in the use of cellulose - with the addition of wood pulp, products can boast of less fat and more fiber. Just don't mind the wood.


McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, Sonic, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, Arby's, Jack in the Box, and many others include cellulose in their repertoire.


4. Silly Putty plastic (dimethylpolysiloxane)
Eight-syllable ingredients make sense for Silly Putty, but French fries? Sure enough, dimethylpolysiloxane, a form of silicone used in cosmetics and Silly Putty, is also found in many a fast-food fried thing. It is the secret ingredient that keeps fryer oil from foaming. McDonald's Filet-O-Fish and French fries have it, as do Wendy's Natural-Cut Fries With Sea Salt. In fact, most fast-food items that bathe in a deep-fat fryer are imbued with a hint of dimethylpolysiloxane. Should you be concerned? The World Health Organization found no adverse health effects associated with dimethylpolysiloxane, but come on - what's wrong with using potatoes, oil, and salt for fries?


5. Petroleum-derived preservatives (TBHQ)
Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) is made from compounds derived from petroleum and finds a home in cosmetic and skincare products, varnish, lacquers and resins - and processed food. McDonald's, for example, uses it in 18 products ranging from their Fruit and Walnut Salad to Griddle Cakes to McNuggets.


TBHQ was finally approved after many years of pressure from food manufacturers, though with approval, the FDA mandated that the chemical must not exceed 0.02 percent of a food's oil and fat content. Why would there be a limit? Because five grams would be lethal, while one gram can cause nausea, vomiting, delirium, a sense of suffocation and collapse. (Although you would have to eat more than 11 pounds of McNuggets to reach that level. And if you're willing to eat 11 pounds of McNuggets in one sitting, well...)


6. Soil fertilizer (ammonium sulfate)
Ammonium sulfate is sold by chemical companies to food manufacturers as "yeast food for bread," and many fast-food companies list the ingredient in their bakery products.


But that's just its night job; when ammonium sulfate is not moonlighting as a food additive, it performs its main task: as a fertilizer for alkaline soils. Ammonium sulfate also does duty as an agricultural spray adjuvant for water soluble insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.

[ Related: Can plastic forks and knives be recycled? ]

7. Beetle juices (carminic acid, confectioner's glaze)


Food dyes approved by the FDA include colors synthesized from petroleum derivatives and coal tar, but with all of the negative attention paid to artificial food color, natural dyes are on the rise. Yet some food dyes based on natural ingredients come from things that you may not care to ingest. Meet carminic acid, a commonly used red food coloring that comes from the dried, crushed bodies of female scale insects called cochineal. Variously known as Cochineal, Cochineal Extract, Carmine, Crimson Lake, Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470, E120 - it is used in a wide variety of products ranging from some meat, sausages, processed poultry products, marinades, bakery products, toppings, cookies, desserts, icings, pie fillings, jams, preserves, gelatins, juices, drinks, dairy products, sauces and dessert products.


From the same family of the cochineal comes the Lac beetle, which is the source of shellac - as in wood-primer-and-varnish shellac. The female beetle secretes a resin that is scraped from trees in Southeast Asia and Mexico. The resin is collected and processed into a shiny coating to be donned by a variety of foods, including candy, vitamins, pills, tablets, capsules, chocolate and waxed fresh fruit. You won't find beetle excretions on the ingredients list, however, look for its aliases: Confectioner's Glaze, Resinous Glaze, Shellac, Pharmaceutical Glaze, Pure Food Glaze, Natural Glaze, or Lac-Resin.


8. Meat paste-goop (mechanically separated meat)
Mechanically separated meat (MSM) has been produced since the 1960s, but has been enjoying new fame lately courtesy of a photo making the rounds which shows an industrial machine extruding a plump ribbon of pink paste into a box. It is commonly referred to as "pink slime." Looking more like frosting than pureed meat and bone bits, the FDA defines mechanically separated poultry (MSP) as "a paste-like and batter-like poultry product produced by forcing bones, with attached edible tissue, through a sieve or similar device under high pressure to separate bone from the edible tissue." Mechanically separated pork is used too, although in 2004 to protect consumers against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, mechanically separated beef was considered inedible and prohibited for use as human food.


After the meat slurry has been produced, it is sometimes treated with ammonium hydroxide to remove excess bacteria. Ammonium hydroxide is also used as a household cleaner and in fertilizers. Since the resultant meat-bone-muscle-tendon-ammonium-hydroxide goop doesn't taste much like meat, artificial flavors are added to finish the whole thing off.


Mechanically separated meat is to blame for a number of processed meat products; think hot dogs, salami, bologna, burgers and many a chicken nugget. Fast-food restaurants are known for employing pink slime, although recently McDonald's made clear that it no longer relies upon it in its burgers.

[Related: McDonald's gets rid of pink slime from beef]


Generally recognized as safe (GRAS)
These four little words seem to have become the FDA mantra when it comes to food additives; all of the above ingredients, and an expansive array of other chemical additives, have been generally recognized as safe in scientific studies. Taken out of context and looked at individually, maybe a little ammonium sulfate here and a petroleum product there aren't going to cause quantitative damage to lab animals. But if you were to add up all of the chemical ingredients consumed during a life of a fast-food fueled western diet, what would that look like? Would it look like an epidemic of obesity,diabetes or cancer?


Michael Pollan's advice, "Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" never seemed so appealing.

duckdown--Its what makes the crust so light .MMMMM

I would like to see a few spiders and snakes added to the mix. Not to mention, dooty.

one of my many jobs years ago (in my first marriage and before education), I ran a pie cooking operation for one of the big national pie companies. I had several "Cooks" who made these recipes of **** like

LIST OF INGREDIENTS

1. 500 lb frozen blueberries
2. 250 lb sugar
3. 75 lb butter
4. 20lb cinnamon
5. 10 lb pack of pectin
6. 50 lb corn starch
7.300 gal water

This was all mixed in like a large "Bathtub' stainless doohickie' There were two big fan-like beaters that stirred the whole thing while steam pipes were inserted into the mix to slowly add steam heat . This was all brought up to temperateure when it was shipped over to a blueberry pump that shot the fruit mix into the blueberry pie shells

THE whole point of the story is that we would often see bugs and spiders in the blueberries and whenever Id shut the line down to get these insects out of the pie mix, the plant supreintendent would come flying over and chew me out. I threatened to shove a spider up his nose once and he wasnt so insistant . He laetr made me the shift foreman and that got me into a terrible quandry of ethics.


1. my paycheck depended upon optimal production with generous bonuses for amounts above plant quotas IOR

2Stop, clean out the bugs and feel assured that I would not be responsible for marketing bluberry (and several other fruit mix) pies that contained insect parts and entire specimens

I merely stopped eating commercial pies entirely and took my bonuses and then quit shortly thereafter. I think that all,commercial food production is only handled by people who barely give a rats ass about quality or cleanliness

THE ENTIRE POINT IS
dont worry about it. Most of your food is loaded with bugs and bits of bugs. You cant hyave an ag product that is harvested by machine be concerned with verminious infectations. Faggedaboudit, you are getting your daily minimum of alloted arthropoda in everything you eat that comes in a wrapper, box, can or jar.

I agree with that. I once bit into a sandwich that had rat **** embedded in the crust. I don't care to discuss the flavor.