NASA Launches Super-Size Mars Rover To Red Planet | Fox News

NASA Launches Super-Size Mars Rover To Red Planet | Fox News.

In other news, Macy’s launches super-size pants for the average shopper.  McDonald’s disclaims any responsibility for either venture.

Gotta wonder – if there are Martians, how will they react to a nuclear powered car-sized robot from outer space?

Why the big probe?  It’s a real-estate appraisal.  How badly do we want the red planet, and who gets to plant the flag?

Brine Time for Thanksgiving Turkeys

Brine Time for Thanksgiving Turkeys – Bethwood, CT Patch.

Al Capone had a better method:  “Foist, I rough it up a little, see? Take out the ol’ brass knuckles and give it a good what fer.  Then I bag it and me an the boys kick the thing around until it don’t resist no more.  Once it’s out, I get the toikey foot molds, which only require maybe a thoid of the cement ya  would use for a normal guy.  You let that set up nice for an hour or so.  Strap a buoy around one of the blocks and row out maybe a quarter mile.  Roll da boid over the side and let him pickle fer a day or so.  But put somebody out as look out, cause one year some fisherman started poking around and we had to give him a warning, else he would have pulled da boid up to soon.”

See what vegetarians eat for Thanksgiving – Atlanta Healthy Trends | Examiner.com

See what vegetarians eat for Thanksgiving – Atlanta Healthy Trends | Examiner.com.

Mmmmm…. lentil loaf.  Now that’s good eatin’.  I like to get my lentils fresh from a local farmer.  We swing the lentils around til they’re dizzy, then chop their heads off.  I hate the smell of all those wet lentil feathers, but boy oh boy, nothing like a juicy lentil drumstick!

Seriously, what crazed veggie came up with Tofurky?  “I know, Day Blossom, let’s take our soy protein and fashion it into the facsimile of a turkey.  It’ll fool our bourgeoise guests as long as they do enough shrooms before sitting down.  Better put some more shrooms in the stuffing, this stuff is nasty.”

Health News: Increased Rate Of Child Obesity | Health Spa Blog

Health News: Increased Rate Of Child Obesity | Health Spa Blog.

I love the graphic of this post, but even more impressive are the amazing statements: “As we have seen the many problem occur due to child obesity further results to enlargement adult mortality so it is very essential to take proper step to reduce child obesity the best way to guard against childhood obesity is to reduce screen time, eat well and move more by following these three tips you and family all become healthier and as a result your family relationships will be brace.”

Ok, ok, I’m definitely doing more!  Let my family relationships be brace!  It sounds so good, I just don’t know what it means!

Wearing milk? Why not?

Image via Wikipedia

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=142335673

In a sudden inspired moment, a German woman has decided that wearing gooey white stuff should be possible for everyone.  She turned it into a fabric and will not comment on her previous attempts to create fabric from Cheerios, Spam, and – well, her boyfriend was exhausted.

Related articles

• Love Milk? Now You Can Wear It (newser.com)
• Strong Bones, Sexy Dresses: Fabric Made From Milk (geekologie.com)
• Wear Milk? Designer Uses Textile Made From 100 Percent Cow Juice (foxnews.com)
• These Women Are Wearing Clothes Made of Real Milk [Video] (gizmodo.com)
• Milk does a body good _ even when worn (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

‘Pox Parties’ Bring Back 18th Century Tradition

Image via Wikipedia

‘Pox Parties’ in the Age of Facebook – NYTimes.com.

With the current lack of an indigenous population to wipe out, people have begun to infect each other with the pox.  Rather than swapping land for infected blankets, the norm is to use Paypal.  A spokesperson for indigenous people worldwide said:  “it’s about time you wiped yourselves out.”

Look for upcoming STD parties as the same parents look for ways for their children to strengthen their immune systems even more.

Related articles

• The Pox Party pops over the top on Facebook (zdnet.com)
• Chicken Pox Lollipops!! What?? (q104.radio.com)
• From Pox Parties To Unintentional Bioterrorism (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Pox in Socks, Pox in Mail Box? (dontforgetyourjacket.com)
• Chickenpox Lollipops? Vaccination Fears Lead to Pox Parties (inquisitr.com)
• Pox-pops explode irony meters world-wide (scienceblogs.com)
• Feds warn ‘pox party’ zealots not to send viruses in post (go.theregister.com)
• Chicken Pox Lollipops? You’ve Got to be Kidding! (reason.com)
• Anti-vaccine insanity: ‘Pox Parties’ (junkscience.com)
• Insane Parents Now Buying and Selling Chicken Pox Lollipops [Vaccines] (gawker.com)

Researchers Find Party Gene!

Alcoholism strongly linked to specific gene mutations – latimes.com.

In finding appropriately named “cannabinoid receptor 1″ alcohol gene researchers have generated a flurry of excitement.  Football dads are demanding a fast track to gene therapy, especially for their children cursed with geek genes.

In comparison, last year they found the “tea totaller” gene and- no one cared.

Researchers are currently hard at work discovering the researcher gene, the gene that makes them try to assign everything a gene.  “We’ll get there,” says high muckety-muck Ivy League guy.  “Unless, of course, we figure out how to splice ourselves party genes instead.”

Miracle Berry Floats on Water, Changes Sour to Sweet.

Image via Wikipedia

In odd news, miracle berries were on hand for “flavor-tripping” at a Boston University party.

Known to medical science since at least 1968, these red berries,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum, are known for their ability to bind with the tongue and convince the brain that sour tastes are sweet.

The berries have been blocked from wide production, but that may be changing.  Although the berries don’t have strong enough support to offset the sugar lobby, the protein that sweetens, “miraculin,” will soon be added to our genetically modified tomatoes.

As for safety profiling, there is none.  No toxicity studies, no long-term studies of any kind.  Mmmm… gene spliced tomatoes full of taste modifying proteins of uncertain safety.  Sign me up!

J Agric Food Chem. 2010 May 26;58(10):6096-101.

Production of recombinant miraculin using transgenic tomatoes in a
closed cultivation system.

Hirai T, Fukukawa G, Kakuta H, Fukuda N, Ezura H.

Source

Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of
Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan.

Abstract

We constructed a cultivation system with a controlled light period,
light intensity, temperature, and CO(2) concentration for mass production of
the taste-modifying protein miraculin from transgenic tomatoes. The tomato plants
exhibited normal growth and produced over 270 g of fresh weight (FW) fruit per
plant, with the recombinant miraculin concentration reaching up to 90 microg
per g FW of tomatoes. The recombinant miraculin content of transgenic tomatoes
was compared to that of plants grown in a netted greenhouse. The recombinant
miraculin content of transgenic tomatoes grown in a closed cultivation system
was more stable than that of tomatoes grown in a netted greenhouse, suggesting
that the closed cultivation system is suitable for the production of
recombinant miraculin. We estimate that 45 tFW of tomatoes and 4 kg of
recombinant miraculin per 1,000 m(2) of cultivation area can be harvested per
year.

PMID: 20426470

Related articles

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• Why does eating a spoonful of this powder turn sourness to sweetness? [Food Science] (io9.com)
• How Sour Tastes Sweet: Science of ‘Flavor-Tripping’ Fruit Revealed (livescience.com)
• Making Sour Taste Sweet: Behold the Miracle Berry (healthland.time.com)
• A Gear Diary Taste Test Fest: mBerrys, the Miracle Fruit That Changes the Way You Experience Food! (geardiary.com)
• Miracle fruit study reveals secret of flavor-shifting berry (cbsnews.com)
• Miracle fruit surrenders its secret (blogs.nature.com)
• Miracle Fruit’s Flavor Tripping Powers Explained (inquisitr.com)
• A Miracle Fruit Party and Its Attendant Trend Story (theawl.com)

foodconsumer.org – Are You Eating This All-Time Favorite “Cancer-in-a-Can” Snack?

Image via Wikipedia

foodconsumer.org – Are You Eating This All-Time Favorite “Cancer-in-a-Can” Snack?.

Mmmm… Cancer-in-a-can.  Can I get mine supersized?

Is it all hoopla?  Nope,  this is a nasty chemical.

Toxicol Mech Methods. 2011 Oct 24. [Epub ahead of print]

Acrylamide in snack foods.

Das AB, Srivastav PP.

Source

Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology , Kharagpur , India.

Abstract

Research on acrylamide has been going on for the last four decades. However, its presence in carbohydrate-rich and high temperature processed foods was confirmed in 2002, after which a significant progress in this field has been made. A number of studies were conducted to explore the mechanism of its formation in carbohydrate-rich foods. Carbohydrate, protein, and fat are the main constituents of food, which are mainly responsible for the formation of acrylamide, and thus, a number of investigations were carried out to reduce its quantity in food. Moreover, various studies regarding carcinogenic and neurotoxic effects of acrylamide on animal models suggested that acrylamide can produce tumor in the thyroid gland, testes, mammary gland, lungs, clitoral gland, brain, and also enhance mutation, a step to cancer. Therefore, this review addresses the studies conducted since recently on the toxicological effects, formation mechanism and reduction of the formation of acrylamide in snack foods.

PMID:

22023505

Related articles

• foodconsumer.org – Are You Eating This All-Time Favorite “Cancer-in-a-Can” Snack? (humanbodyengineer.wordpress.com)
• Truth about potato chips revealed: Baked is not better than fried (healthzone.ca)
• Shocking Truth About Pringles ”Potato” Chips: carcinogen acrylamid. Also in French Fries, roasted, fried potatoes, sodas, doughnuts. Avoid. (worldnewsrecord.wordpress.com)
• Snack Healthy Compensation Plan (snackhealthysnacks.wordpress.com)
• REPORT: Acrylamide-containing foods (nutritionbyte.wordpress.com)

The Narwhals Get Tagged and Win at Quiddich?

Image via Wikipedia

In science news, there is a plan afoot to tag all the existing narwhals and monitor them.  In sporting news, the Quiddich team Narwhals is doing quite well.

I’m sorry, I’m missing something here.  Wasn’t Quiddich an imaginary game that involved flying broomsticks?  Ahhh…  I guess it involves running about with fake broomsticks now.  I shouldn’t be surprised, one of my friends has a match built in his back yard.  I just hadn’t realized it had made it to the team/tournament level.  How long until we see Quiddich as an Olympic sport?  If so, I vote that we have to get some jet pack brooms.  Where’s that Segway fellow when you need him?

Related articles

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• Narwhals to be tracked via satellite (cbc.ca)
• Narwhal Horns Candy (neatorama.com)
• Inuit Myth Page: the Narwhal Goddess (glitternight.com)
• Caffeine & Edibles : Narwhal Horn Mints (thinkgeek.com)
• Quiddich scavenger hunt and more at SPAC (timesunion.com)
• When Does the Narwhal Bacon? (zazzle.com)
• Ottawa, Inuit won’t go to court over narwhal fight (ctv.ca)
• Is there any proof that unicorns exist (wiki.answers.com)