Hot Dog Nonsense

Here is another way, to scare the public. The American Academy of Pediatrics wants foods like hot dogs to come with a warning label, not because of their nutritional risks, but because they pose a choking hazard to babies and children.

More than half of hot dogs sold in stores already have choking-prevention tips on their packages, advising parents to cut them into small pieces. The Food and Drug Administration, which has authority to recall products it considers "unfit for food," plans to review the new statement, spokeswoman Rita Chappelle says.

Here are the facts, stripped from the other numbers they use to scare us. 'Annually, up to 77 children under the age of 14 who go to the Emergency Room for choking on food, die', says the new policy statement, published online in Pediatrics (Feb 2010). It continues, 'about 17% of food-related asphyxiations are caused by hot dogs'. So 17% of 77 equals 13.09 children die each year from choking on hot dogs.

The academy would like to see foods such as hot dogs "redesigned" so their size, shape and texture make them less likely to lodge in a youngster's throat. I feel bad about 13 children dying, but to change a whole industry for that number seems a bit ludicrous. Maybe the Academy might make better use of its time solving some real childhood diseases that affect more than 13 children each year. A big weenie to the Academy!

Tree Saver

Leave it to the Japanese to be this creative. Oriental Company has come up with a machine by the name of ‘White Goat’ recently. It is an innovative machine that converts your wasted office paper into toilet paper in about 30minutes. After you put about 40sheeets of paper into the machine will then shred the paper, dissolve it in the water, thin the paper out, and then dry it into toilet sheets.


The company claims it costs $0.11 to churn out one toilet roll and it will save up to 60 trees a year. The machine is expected to hit the market in Japan in summer 2010, at a price of about $100,000. Ingenious.

Dooley Wilson

Texan “Dooley” Wilson, the piano player Sam and sidekick to saloonkeeper Rick Blaine in the classic 1942 film Casablanca, couldn’t play the piano, but he did do the singing. Sorry, didn't mean to ruin the illusion.

Marriage

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong admit it;
Whenever you’re right shut up.

What's in a Name

Have you ever wondered where is Old Zealand? New Zealand is actually named after Zeeland, a major seafaring province of the Netherlands, by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642. You might also notice the island of Tasmania is named after him. Captain James Cook misspelled it New Zealand and the name stuck ever since. (Tasmania is just below Australia and to the left of New Zealand.)

How about New Amsterdam? New York City was originally settled by the Dutch and named New Amsterdam in 1625. It was situated right outside of Fort Amsterdam. It became New York (after the Duke of York) in 1665. Then it became New Orange after the Dutch took it back in 1673, then finally back to New York in 1674. Wow, New Orange became the Big Apple.

Philtrum

It is also known as the infranasal depression, is the vertical groove in the upper lip. It has no apparent function besides its visual prominence.


Some people have a beautiful philtrum.

Close Buttons

Did you know most elevators built or installed since the early 1990s don’t have close buttons that actually work, unless you use a fireman or repair key? People push them, because the fact that the door eventually closes reinforces their belief that the button works. Doors are set on a delay timer to close. Older ones do work as advertised.

Coffee's Hot

A little shameless self promotion here. This blog, Shubsthoughts, is featured on Coffee's Hot site this week. LINK

Why not take a break and go check it out and see what some of the other authors, bloggers, and readers are doing. As always, thanks for stopping by.

Penny for Your Thoughts

The government spends 1.8 cents to make one penny and 9 cents to produce a nickel. Because metal prices have shot up lately, the cost to make these two coins is more than what they are worth as coins. This costs us an additional $100 million a year.

The government is loosening up its rules for what metals can be used to used to make coins. Using cheaper metal should help bring the cost of making one penny closer to one penny. Seems we should have respected the old axiom of 'take care of your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves'. Now we spend trillions of dollars and the pennies do not take care of themselves. Maybe we should change the politicians instead of changing the metals.

Intel Newest Computer Chip

Intel announced on Feb 8 its newest Intel announced its Itanium 9300 series microprocessor, a high-end supercomputing chip with 2 billion transistors on a single chip. The number of transistors, or basic on-off switches that control the flow of electrical signals in a chip, is about twice as much as what Intel and other big companies normally put in a chip.

Marriage and TV

Ages of Marriage:
Twenty is when you watch TV after.
Forty is when you watch TV during.
Sixty is when you watch TV instead.

Fly Paper

You have heard of fly paper, but have you seen a paper fly?

Alzheimer's Drink

Rush University Medical Center is leading a nationwide clinical trial of a nutritional drink to determine whether it can improve cognitive performance in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's. The study follows recently released results from an earlier trial conducted in Europe showing that the drink, called Souvenaid, improved verbal recall in people with mild disease who were followed for three months.

Results of the first European study were released recently, following publication in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia. In that study, 225 patients with mild Alzheimer's were divided into two groups. Some drank Souvenaid and the others sipped a non-medical drink every day for 12 weeks.

Researchers found that the patients who drank Souvenaid improved in a delayed verbal recall task.

A total of 500 individuals who are taking medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the symptomatic treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease will be enrolled in the present study at 40 sites across the U.S. In the double-blinded study, half of the participants will drink about four ounces of Souvenaid once a day for 24 weeks. The other half will drink a control product that is similar in flavor, appearance, and composition, but without the Souvenaid nutrients. Neither group will know whether they are drinking Souvenaid or the other beverage.

Treasury Paper Pay Stubs

The Treasury Department currently mails paper pay stubs to its employees, which will cost $1.5 million in 2011 and will cost $2 million per year after that. By using electronic pay stubs the department will join the 21st century and switch to electronic stubs. Isn't this the same 'green' government that asks us to eliminate paper to save the environment? Reminds me of another axiom, 'penny wise and pound foolish'. This will really help reduce the multi-trillion dollar deficit.