AXE Hair Commercial

Okay, this may not be food related, but we think it's funny.

The Tuna Commercial

Here's a tuna commercial we thought you might have fun with.

Theo Albrecht -Trader Joe's Founder - Dead at 88

Theo Albrecht, one of Germany's richest people and the man who brought the Trader Joe's to America, died July 24 in Essen, Germany.

He was Known as reclusive and secretive, but Theo Albrecht and his brother Karl made their fortune taking over their parents' grocery store and turned it into the international Aldi chain.

In 1971, Mr. Albrecht was kidnapped for 17 days until his family paid a ransom of 7 million deutsche marks ($4.6 million).

In 1979, through a family trust established by Theo Albrecht, Trader Joe's was purchased from founder Joseph Coulombe.
In 1967 Joseph Coulombe had turned his Pronto convenience stores into Trader Joe's and opened the first one in Pasadena.
But now it belonged to the Albrecht family.

Even in death, his privacy and secrecy continues,

Keeping loyal to secrecy and privacy, Trader Joe's refused Wednesday to comment on Theo Albrecht, even refusing to confirm that the chain is owned by the Albrecht family.

The business information provider Hoover's confirms that the billionaire brothers bought the U.S. company in 1979. The chain now has 342 outlets and last year had sales of about $8 billion.

Besides his brother, Albrecht is survived by his wife and two sons.

Bloomberg Business says Louisiana is the laziest state

Bloomberg Business Week has calculated all the numbers and have figured that Louisiana is the laziest state in the country.
They try to explain the story by saying "We aren't trying to beat up on Louisiana. Goodness knows, between Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill, the state has been through some tough times in recent years. But the statistics speak for themselves."

They have a concoction of numbers which measures people by how much money they have, how much TV they watch and their obesity ranking.

Here are the Bloomberg numbers:

Time sleeping: 8 hours, 44 minutes
Time watching TV: 3 hours, 5 minutes
Time relaxing and thinking: 29 minutes
Time socializing: 54 minutes
Time working (averaged over total population ages 15 and older): 2 hours, 41 minutes*
Median age: 35.1
Obesity ranking: No. 5 (31.2 percent)

Maybe because New Orleans is our second home we see things different, but we still fail to understand how a business magazine can define people by calculations.
Honestly we started laughing at this silly bunch of numbers because we don't think Bloomberg Business Week really gets it.

We define who we are by what we get out of life and what we enjoy.
We understand how to withstand and overcome hardships.
We know how to appreciate the culture, the music and yes, the food we eat.

Bloomberg goes on to say:
To be clear, by “lazy” we do not mean lacking work ethic or engagement. Rather, it is a measure of leisure time spent doing sedentary activities compared with activities that require more physical effort, such as exercising and even working.

What was that? They don't measure work ethic, just whether people are working.
They continue to point out that people in Louisiana don’t work or have enough physical effort and, therefore, they must be lazy and obese.

This ranking is based on five years (2004-2008) of state-level data evaluating the average leisure time engaged in sedentary activities: sleeping, watching television, surfing the Internet, playing board games, relaxing, thinking, and socializing.

And then, here it comes, the obese southerner.
After all with the the sedentary lifestyle and all that fabulous Louisiana’s cuisine, there must be a price to pay, right?
They figure, with the lack of physical activity there just has to be higher obesity rates.
It's bad enough that the people in Louisiana are lazy and obese it’s that they too stupid to do anything about it.

Once again, the thoughts of the the elitist are higher than our thoughts.
But what does it matter?
Maybe we're just too lazy to really care.

Fruit Mutations and Other Delights

Watermelons joined at the hip are about as common as (Siamese) twins.
But China, it's happened twice in the last few years, most recently it happened again this month when Xiong Wei, from Wuhan in central China (photo above) grew a conjoined watermelon in a field near his home.
“It’s the first time for me to see such a weird shaped watermelon,” Wei said.

Mutations can be triggered by cold weather, temperature fluctuations or insect damage.

Ken Morrish picked an apple off a tree in his garden and there it was, the colors were split; one side red and the other green. (see photo)

Experts say that the odds of finding an apple with such a perfect line between the green and the red are more than a million to one. (better chance than winning the lottery)

At least no one is saying any of the fruit looks like Jesus.

Remember this one?

"What the Great Ate" - Part Two

The food curiosities continue from the new book What the Great Ate, by brothers Matthew and Mark Jacob.

They are convinced that the eating habits of the famous offer an insight into their character.

Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, ate butterflies, while Actor Jackie Gleason liked his pot roast with a scoop of ice cream on top.

Mark Jacob (above photo) talked to the Star about what the great ate:

Q: First, let’s clear up something: Eve didn’t offer Adam an apple?

A: Well it might have been an apple, but more likely a different fruit. Some think an apricot, pomegranate, even a fig. One theory is that the apple tale came later when Christian missionaries shared Bible stories with Teutonic tribes, who had a strong attachment to the apple as a symbol of their Earth mother.

Q: Another surprise: Buddha was skinny?

A: He frequently fasted. One of his meals consisted of one sesame seed, one grain of rice, one jujube, one pulse pod, one kidney bean and one mungo bean. He’s even said to have described his own gaunt ribs. This is ancient legend. We were unable to interview Buddha to confirm the details.

Q: Who among the greats were the greatest gluttons?

A: You gotta say Elvis Presley. He grew up poor, eating fried squirrel. When he became rich, he embraced everything, especially food. He had a closed-circuit television trained on his kitchen and a 24-hour cook staff at Graceland. He wouldn’t eat a piece of pie; he’d eat the whole pie. The Pepsi truck would deliver to grocery stores and to Graceland, an official stop.

He once flew more than 800 miles just to eat a sandwich. He mentioned to two friends about a sandwich he’d once had outside Denver and one of them said he’d like to try it. So Elvis had his private jet fuelled up, and someone called ahead to the restaurant. Elvis and his friends flew to Denver, where the sandwiches were delivered to the hangar. The sandwich was called Fool’s Gold. It was an entire loaf of Italian bread, hollowed out, and filled with peanut butter, grape jelly and an entire pound of bacon.

Q: How much did Elvis eat a day?

A: My brother and I tried to debunk myths in the book. We’d read that Elvis’s daily caloric intake equaled that of an Asian elephant, which would be about 65,000 calories a day. We checked with a nutritional expert who said no way he ate that much. The expert estimated that Elvis ate not more than 10,000 – 12,000 calories a day. (The recommended intake for an average adult male is 2,500 calories a day.)

Q: How do the eating eccentricities of the famous and infamous give us insight about them?

A: For example, George Washington, after being inaugurated president, had lunch by himself. While he was greatly admired, he was a solitary figure, not a fun guy.

Dwight Eisenhower, after hearing of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, went to his kitchen and made vegetable soup. I think that says a lot about Ike’s deliberative process. He liked to mull over things, not make rash decisions.

I love the Paul Newman story. The actor was on a date with his wife-to-be Joanne Woodward. When the salad was delivered to the table, he hated the way the oil was on it. He snuck the salad into the men’s room and washed it. He then asked the waiter for vinegar and oil and made his own salad dressing at the table. We know that he later devised his own salad dressing and sold it. But I think it also says a lot about his perfectionism, how he wanted to get it just right.

Q: Okay. How about Hitler?

A: Before he rose to power, some fellow activists gave him a birthday party. When the cake came out, Hitler refused to eat it. He said the apartment’s landlord was Jewish and he thought he might get poisoned. That goes to Hitler’s paranoia.

Stalin was a dictator and cruel tyrant at the dinner table. He’d invite people to dine and then order the waiter to put more pepper into one person’s food. He put a tomato on someone’s chair so when that person sat down it would make a rude noise. One Communist official said that when you went to dine with Stalin you didn’t know if you’d leave or be led away. He liked to create fear and discomfort in people.

Q: Any shocking revelations?

A: When Joe Louis was preparing for a boxing match, his trainer took him to the Chicago stockyards and had him drink blood from the slaughterhouse to toughen him up.

Q: Because of digestion problems, you say, oil tycoon J.D. Rockefeller in his later years relied on breast milk. How did that work?

A: He got it from wet nurses that he kept on staff. We were unable to discover the precise procedure involved.

Many famous American tycoons were rather crazy. Henry Ford thought that granulated sugar would cut up his stomach.

Q: If you were going to have investment guru Warren Buffett over for a meal, what would you serve him?

A: He’s obsessed with Cherry Coke. He once said it’s amazing what Cherry Coke and hamburgers will do for a fellow.

Q: Among Hollywood celebrities, Angelina Jolie has some odd tastes.

A: She’s a world traveler who likes to do what the locals do. In Cambodia, she ate cockroaches. She said it was a high-protein food. She also tried bee larva, but didn’t like it. She has very discriminating tastes: No to bee larva, yes to cockroach.

Q: You’ve ruined Clark Gable for me. He had onion breath?

A: Yeah. Same thing with Spencer Tracey. Years ago a lot of people ate onions alone or in sandwiches. Gable ate raw onions on bread and by themselves. Female co-stars occasionally complained about his breath. That takes a little romance out, doesn’t it?

"What the Great Ate: A Curious History of Food and Fame"

Angelina Jolie eats cockroaches and spiders as protein snacks, Elvis Presley never cut up his own food, and Ernest Hemingway once ate a porcupine, according to a new book about the eating habits of the rich and famous.
There are stories of how Hollywood star Gary Cooper scarfed down a whole can of sauerkraut every morning, and Bette Davis was called Spuds because of her love of potatoes.

The authors of a new book, "What the Great Ate: A Curious History of Food and Fame", Matthew Jacob, and his brother Mark, spent two years searching through records to find out what actors, singers, and politicians devoured throughout history.
The book tells us how Napoleon was one of the first people to enjoy banana fritters soaked in rum, while Alexander the Great banned his soldiers from chewing mint leaves in case they became too sensually excited to fight.
The authors did the math, figuring out that Luciano Pavarotti, the late Italian tenor, lost and gained a total of 5,000 pounds during his career.

Matthew Jacob said: "As food obsessed as our culture is, you pick up the typical biography and find very little about the eating habits of a famous person. We knew they were there and wanted to dig."Famous people can be incredibly pedantic about food, even though you would think they have bigger fish to fry."
Kurt Cobain was picky about what he ate, yet, he loved macaroni and cheese, but it always had to be the Kraft brand.

Matthew Jacob recalls 1965 when NASA astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich into space aboard the Gemini 3 flight.
Once in orbit he produced the sandwich and gave it to fellow space voyager Gus Grissom, horrifying technical experts on the ground.
They were afraid the crumbs would mess up delicate instruments and cause a catastrophe.
Grissom said he greatly enjoyed the snack but "after the flight our superiors at NASA let us know in no uncertain terms that corned beef sandwiches were out for future space missions."

Mark Jacob said: "there is a story about Paul Newman, the actor, going on a date with Joanne Woodward and he took his salad into the bathroom to wash off the salad dressing, then he came back and made his own. We all know what happened next."

Elvis Presley wanted all his meals be overcooked. When he said "That's burnt," it was considered a compliment to the chef.

Errol Flynn described eating a crocodile as "delicious, like a young tender lobster or crayfish."

Angelina Jolie's knows all about eating cockroaches: "There's this very pointy bit on their stomach you just can't eat. You have to kind of pop that off." Good to know.

When he was 13 Ernest Hemingway shot a porcupine, as punishment,his father made him cook and eat it.
Boxer Joe Louis drank blood straight from a slaughterhouse in Chicago to toughen himself up.
President George H W Bush banned broccoli from the White House, saying: "I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."

We would like to add another celebrity, Salma Hayek.
She was on the David Letterman show:

Man tries to trade drugs for cheeseburgers at McDonald's

Alexander Lemke (see photo shoot above) is 20 years old and really stupid.
He broke into a neighbor's home, then he stole their 2005 Toyota Solara.
From there he went to a McDonald's drive-through window, and that's when the police were called. That's because Lemke tried to trade marijuana and prescription drugs for cheeseburgers.
Lemke was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, driving with a suspended license, and eight drug-related charges including possession of clonazepam, oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam.

Iams Cat Food Recall

Procter & Gamble is voluntarily recalling two lots of Iams brand prescription renal dry cat food because it may be contaminated with salmonella. That's right, DRY cat food can carry salmonella. These products are available by prescription through veterinary clinics.
The FDA analysis identified positive results on two lots of Iams Veterinary Formulas Feline Renal 5.5 lbs: numbers 01384174B4 0 19014 21405 1 and 01384174B2 0 19014 21405 1.
Codes are found in the lower right corner on the back of the bag.
Anyone owning this food should throw it out because your cats can become infected, and you can become ill as well.
People handling even dry pet food can become infected with salmonella if they do not wash their hands.
Salmonella is just plain nasty, so be careful.
Customers seeking more information or a refund may call P&G at 877-894-4458.

The Gilroy Garlic Festival 2010

It's that time of year, yes, we are talking garlic.
The Gilroy garlic festival attracted thousands again this year, and why not, what's not to love?

Cooking with mushrooms, Chef Scott (see above photo) won the big prize of $5000 with mushrooms and garlic as Showdown champion.

Chef Scott was one of the Bay Area chefs who competed on the Garlic Festival Cook Off stage in the ultimate kitchen showdown. The teams were challenged to prepare a personal entrée featuring the day’s key ingredient: GARLIC and a secret ingredient, mushrooms.

If you haven't been to the Gilroy garlic festival before here's a little look at what all the excitement is about.

Mario Batali accused of cheating former employees out of tips

Chef Mario Batali has been accused of cheating two former employees at his New York City restaurant out of their tips.
A waitress and a kitchen runner, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Thursday against the former Batali and Babbo Ristorante Enoteca in Greenwich Village.

They claim Batali forced them to illegally share their tips with other workers who weren't entitled to get the money.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and class-action status.
As of right now, Babbo representative declined to comment and Batali's publicist didn't have much to say either.

110 proof beer, the world’s strongest - $762 a bottle

Imagine a 110 proof beer. It's true, the world’s strongest, has been launched by a British firm selling the tipple for $762 a bottle. The blond Belgian ale, named The End of History, is 55 percent alcohol by volume. Made by BrewDog, based in Scotland, the beer is infused with fresh juniper berries and was developed using an extreme freezing technique. Hundreds of pints of beer were used during the process, which was repeated dozens of times to produce just enough for a 330 milliliter bottle, that may explain the cost. James Watt, the company's co-founder, said: "This is the beer to end all beers." Twelve bottles of The End Of History ale have been made and placed inside seven dead stoats, four squirrels and one hare. A taxidermist was used on the animals, which were not killed for promoting the new beer. Animals include a kilt and a top hat. The brewer recommend the beer should be served in a shot or whisky glass ''to be enjoyed like a fine whiskey''.

James Watt added: ''In true BrewDog fashion, we've torn up convention, blurred distinctions and pushed brewing and beer packaging to its absolute limits." ''This is the beer to end all beers. It's an audacious blend of eccentricity, artistry and rebellion; changing the general perception of beer, one stuffed animal at a time"

The End of History from BrewDog on Vimeo.

The first two bottles off the production line were sold to a beer fan in Denmark.

Takeru Kobayashi, says he would have won if he competed

Hot dog-eating guy Takeru Kobayashi is being a bit of a weenie.
The six-time winner of July Fourth International Hot Dog Eating Contest, who didn't compete this year says he would have won if he had participated."I was ready to beat the world record,"
The only problem, he didn't compete, so talk comes cheap.

Kobayashi, 32, "When I see the record of the top, I probably would have beat that."
But, by his own choosing, he watched this year's competition from the sidelines, because of a contract dispute with his sponsor.
His hot dog rival Joey Chestnut who has won every year of the hot dog battle since 2007, won again this year eating 54 dogs in 12 minutes.
But Kobayashi still found a way to be the center of attention, storming the stage in a "Free Kobi" shirt and landing himself in jail.
Chestnut has questioned Kobayashi's excuse for not competing this year, saying his rival dropped out because he was afraid of losing again.
Since Chestnut toppled Kobayashi four years ago, the two have battled it out and Kobayashi continues to finish second.
Chestnut wanted Kobayashi in the game this year. "If somebody there was a little bit closer pushing me, I would have definitely given blood to win," he said. "I have a lot of respect for him. He's a great eater."

Even though we don't really understand it, we'll end this post with words of wisdom by Takeru Kobayashi:

"You don't eat a lot because you can," he said. "You learn to eat so that you can eat a lot."

Donna Simpson declared the Fattest Woman to Have Given Birth

Remember Donna Simpson, the 600-pound New Jersey woman who wants to weigh 1000 pounds?
"I'd love to be 1,000lb," she said.
"It might be hard though. Running after my daughter keeps my weight down."
Well, it's official now, she has been declared the Fattest Woman to Have Given Birth by Guinness World Records. Donna gave birth in Akron, Ohio, 3 years ago when she weighed only 532 pounds, and now she will be officially named the record holder during a September ceremony in New York.

The 42-year-old mother chows down on 12,000 calories a day in an effort to reach her goal.

She insists she's healthy despite the fact that she cannot walk more than 20 feet independently.

The grocery bills are around $750 a week and Simpson supports her diet with money she earns from a website where people pay to watch her eat.

"I love eating and people love watching me eat,"she said, "It makes people happy, and I'm not harming anyone."

"There's a whole underground world of people who want to gain weight," Simpson said. "People don't know about it too much. But there's like a lot of women who are like 135 pounds and secretly want to be 400 pounds. But I'm a little extreme."
Simpson said thousands of people pay $15 a month to view photos and videos of her performing housework and eating in various states of undress down to her bra and panties.
"Sometimes I'm fully clothed," she said. "I'm never nude. If you can put that in there, I'd appreciate that."

Woman Shoves Sandwich In Her Pants

The nice lady with the lovely hair (above photo) in Spartanburg South Carolina caused a stir when McDonald’s employees said she bought a sandwich and shoved it down her pants, saying her order was missing a sandwich.
The woman, Lori Turner, bought two sandwiches and two small coffees, employees said.
They said the woman then took one of the sandwiches and stuffed it down her jeans, and demanded that the employees owed her a free one.
Employees said when Turner became belligerent, they called 911.
Police said they could hear Turner screaming obscenities at the cashier when he went into the McDonald’s.
The deputy asked Turner to step outside, and said he could see a large grease stain on the front of her pants.
Turner denied having the sandwich until a female officer arrived to search her.
At that point, Turner pulled the sandwich out of her pants and put it on the hood of the police car.
As Turner continued to shout profanities she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Food bank mistakenly hands out dog food

In Clearwater Florida a food bank handed out a can labeled as a "superfood" that turned out to be a can of dog food.
The lucky recipient, Frank Viscido made his way to the Religious Community Services Food Bank for free food, and he received a can labeled, "Senior Holistic Superfood" by a volunteer.
"You're a senior. This ought to be good for you,"the volunteer said.
The label proclaimed glucosamine, beta carotene, and anti-oxidants for "sharp vision, strong Immune System, joint health."And on the front of the can, "Healthy skin...and coat." "Superfoods every dog needs."

Here they come - "The fat letters"

Parents are really angry and somewhat dismayed over the public school policy sends "Fat Letters" home with “fat letters with students.
So, it has begun, schools across the state are sending Body Mass Index (BMI) reports and letters home with students in order to flag possible obesity concerns.
"To have a piece of paper like this come home in their backpack with them is very, very concerning to me," said mother Lori-Ann Sumner. Her nine-year-old daughter Shelby who just happens to be an active gymnast and athlete -- was determined to be “borderline overweight.”
Her BMI was 19.43, which brought her to 84.38 percent, and 85th percentile is considered overweight. (see video below)
Memorial Elementary decoration: in Medway, Mass., is required by law to calculate each student's BMI to determine healthy proportions.
Body mass index, or BMI, may be considered the standard for measuring the amount of fat in a person's body but may not be as accurate as originally thought, according to new research.
But schools sending home fat letters are controversial at any rate, and this may be just the beginning.

"Health Food Czar" What are they cooking up now?

President Obama's family chef, Sam Kass has been elevated to 'senior policy adviser," as "Health Food Czar."
The White House has named the Obamas' personal Chicago cook as 'Senior Policy Adviser for Healthy Food."
The Chicago chef made it up the latter fast, from City gourmet cook, paid by the Obamas to cook for them, all the way to White House adviser in a matter of months.
President Obama has is spending $400 million a year on "healthy foods" in low-income neighborhoods and will revise a federal plan to provide food to poor children in school.
These programs will be trusted to his senior policy adviser chef Kass, who is an expert in healthy cuisine.
Let's watch and see...

Taiwan and the jaw breaking burger

Taiwan has a dilemma.
They love fast food, just like China, and the Taiwanese just love to sink their teeth into those burgers, especially the really big ones.
As a result many Taiwanese have developed sore jaws and now they can't open their mouths. Professor Hsu Ming-lung of the School of Dentistry at National Yang-Ming University has decided it’s unnatural to open one’s mouth beyond four centimeters to eat.
We've eaten big burgers before, and we never needed advice from professor Hsu Ming-lung.
But some of these burgers are up to eight centimeters in height.
Let's see: there are 3.149606299 inches in 8 centimeters.
3.1 inches, that's it?
Hold on, then these giant Taiwan burgers look nothing like the picture above, they're more like the one you see below.
Sorry professor, that's the size of a regular burger.
Regardless, professor Hsu Ming-lung believes this 3.1 inch burger is causing jaw injuries.
As a result, dentists are fighting mad, they want burger places to either stop selling these gigantic burger monstrosities or put up signs warning people about the jaw injury.

Hey, professor, want to see a big burger?
The Heart Attack Grill has the Quadruple Bypass Burger (see below) with four slabs of beef weighing in at 2 pounds, bacon, three layers of cheese, lettuce and tomato.

Chicken or the Egg? They've cracked the mystery

British scientists have done it, they've cracked the mystery.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
After all this time the mystery may have been solved after discovering that the formation of eggs is possible only because of a protein found in chicken's ovaries.
This means eggs have to be formed in chickens first.
(but where did the first chicken come from?)
The protein -- called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) -- speeds up the development of the shell. The findings were laid out in the paper "Structural Control of Crystal Nuclei by an Eggshell Protein."
Dr Colin Freeman, from Sheffield University's Department of Engineering Materials, said "it had long been suspected that the egg came first, but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first."
(but where did the first chicken come from?)

The Fast Food Nation - China

The taste for fast food and the demand for fried chicken is in full swing in China.
Yum Brands, the parent company of KFC, declared that profits from its operations in China have skyrocketed 33% in the second quarter.
Yum opens one new KFC in mainland China almost every day.
That's not counting the 3,000 KFC's operating in 650 Chinese cities.
The company plans on eventually opening at least 20,000 fast food outlets in mainland China.

Meanwhile, executives with Yum Brands Inc. are suggesting that some KFC restaurants in the U.S. may close if that's what it takes to make the chicken chain more profitable overall.
Yum Chairman and CEO David C. Novak told industry analysts that the company will do whatever it takes to make the chain a fast-food leader.KFC's second-quarter revenue at KFCs in the U.S. that have been open at least a year fell 7 percent.
But in China, In the KFC is highly profitable and has become a dominant fast-food brand. Yum's China operations posted a 33 percent rise in operating profit in the second quarter, driven mostly by KFC sales.

Bananas have appeal in Japan

We have no idea who this guy in the above picture is, but he's definitely part of this Dole commercial:



And, we still don't get it.
Anyway, Dole Food Company is betting on banana vending machines in Japan.
Japan is no stranger to vending machines, with things like: cigarettes, drinks, snacks, eggs, fresh meat, live lobsters, tobacco, beer, umbrellas, vegetables and even used-schoolgirl-panties, bananas are a natural fit.

Dole is selling bananas for just ¥130 ($1.50 USD) each or ¥390 ($4.50 USD) for six.
They’ll be kept at 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit / 13 degrees Celsius,which is the “ideal temperature” for bananas.
It's interesting that many office workers and students depend on vending machines as their breakfast and lunch sustenance.
But, Japanese etiquette considers it in bad taste to eat in public.


So, workers and students will perhaps have to carry their their banana back to work or school before eating it.
Bad taste or not, a prototype banana vending machine has already proved successful at the Shibuya station in Tokyo, which attracts approximately 2.4 million commuters per day.

Tiny, toxic mushroom brings death to China

For years, especially during the rainy season, villagers of all ages in southwestern China suddenly die of cardiac arrest.
This Sudden Death Syndrome which has claimed the lives of 400 has most likely been identified.
It's an innocuous-looking small mushroom known as Little White.
The investigation began in 2005 and Robert Fontaine, (above photo) an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention zeroed in on mushrooms, because the deaths were closely aligned with the harvesting season.
More than 90 percent of the deaths occurred in July or August.
Yunnan province is legendary for its wide variety of wild mushrooms, many of which are exported at high prices.
Entire families go out to hunt for them during the summer months.
The hunt of the Little White has proven to be deadly.

Salsa and Guacamole are big sources of foodborne illness

Two of our favorite things to eat, salsa and guacamole, they are also big sources of foodborne illness.

We would like to think really hot peppers would kill the bacteria bugs dead, but we are afraid it just isn't so.

An analysis of foodborne outbreaks reported that salsa or guacamole or both are big time culprits.

Between 1998 and 2008 the salsa and guacamole outbreaks sickened some 5,560 people, sent 145 people to hospital and contributed to three deaths, the researchers found.

When salsa or guacamole aren't kept at the proper temperature (40 degrees) contaminating microbes become like a crazy bacteria factory.

The problems in the summer is salmonella and norovirus hits hard during the winter months.

German fans want grilled oracle of octopus

Many Germans have had enough of "that" octopus.
In fact, they are calling for a public roasting of "that" octopus, who correctly picked the winner of all six of their national soccer team's Cup matches including a bitter defeat to Spain.
Paul, the two-year-old octopus who resides in a German aquarium has the ability to predict the winners.
But the popular sentiment now?
"Nothing beats grilled octopus," said Dolores Lusch, a Germany fan who works on a "Cut him up in thin slices and grill him on all sides with a dash of lemon juice, olive oil and garlic on it. Delicious!"Paul became a national traitor when he picked Spain to win after the German wins over Argentina, England, Ghana and Australia.German newspapers and websites offered recipe suggestions regarding Paul, "Throw him in the frying pan."

Below is Paul in happier days, predicting Germany over England.

Australian vegetables poisoned - sabotage?

There is an investigation going on in Australia.
It's about the poisoning of seven million vegetable seedlings, including tomatoes, aubergines and melons.
Police detectives believe a herbicide was injected into the irrigation system at a nursery in northern Queensland.
The Australian farm minister is calling it "sabotage".
This sabotage is going to cost around AUS $23.5m (£19.7m; $20.3m US), said Denise Kreymborg of the regional growers' association.
Police are trying to figure out if there is a connection to other poisonings in the region,which produces most of Australia's vegetables during the winter months.
"It could be a grudge, it could be competition-based... or it could be an act of vandalism," said Dave Miles, police inspector."I don't think it's just a local vandal," Denise Kreymborg said. "Obviously they knew what they were doing, as it was a pretty technical act they've done.
But we don't want to contaminate the investigation by pointing fingers."The bulk of the poisoned plants - around four million - were tomato seedlings.
Some of them had already been transplanted on farms. The poisoning is expected take away $50m out of the local economy, which relies heavily on agriculture during the winter months. Carl Walker, the Bowen District Growers Association (BDGA) spokesman, said that 350 hectares of production land had been lost as a result of the poisoning. "That's the view of the police - that it's been deliberately sabotaged," he said.
"We don't like to think that someone inside the industry has done this deliberately to try manipulate the price.
"Anything could be possible, police are chasing every single lead they can at the moment..." Locals are careful discussing their theories, even police and the growers' association become a little nervous when asked who they think is responsible. But rumors do exist, and the word is, it may have been a local ''sicko'', or a tactical act of sabotage by a rival growing region or, possibly an act by wholesalers or retailers to artificially inflate prices?

Finally, The Calorie Breath Weight-Loss Program

It's finally here!
The ‘Calorie Breath’ weight loss program is designed to be used for five minutes everyday, which is something like 30 inhales and exhales, and your stomach will shrink from all this effort, and you will lose weight.

As you can see by the lovely package, there is this woman who is still large, but on on the ‘Calorie Breath’ weight-loss program.

Maybe she hasn't completed all 30 inhale/exhale repetitions yet.

Who needs scientific evidence to prove the company’s claim and credibility when you can be the first one on your block to have one?

The Calorie Breath weight-loss program is available online for only $3.68 each (5 minimum) at AliExpress.

The Oysters Are All Dead

As we continue to follow this disaster we understand the implications a little more each day.
The damage done will affect the gulf for many years to come.
We are afraid this is just the tip of the damage.
More to come, stay tuned.

Many Britons turn to alcohol when stressed

The number of people in Briton who drink alcohol when they feel stressed has risen over the past several years.
The report says as many as five million people in the country are completely stressed out and a third of the work force is so stressed out by their job that their sleep is affected.
As a result, many find resolve in drinking so they can relax.
Sadly, the UK is one of the most stressed nations in all of Europe.
Money, family pressures, and long hours at work are all part of the problem as to why half of the British population say that they feel more stress than they did 5 years ago.
A survey of over 3,000 employees discovered that many feel so stressed before they even start work and six percent say they feel stressed all the time.
A third claimed to have called in sick because they were feeling stressed and 12 percent said they had quit a job altogether.
57 percent also said they had the need for a beer or a glass of wine when they got home to relax and get over their day.
A spokesperson for Medicash, which commissioned the study, said: "Worryingly, a third of Britons admitted in the survey to having deliberately drunk too much in a bid to relax and escape work stress."

Oil finds its way into Lake Pontchartrain

The oil from the ruptured well is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain, threatening another environmental area once more.
The Louisana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries have issued precautionary fishing closures in parts of Lake Pontchartrain and in Lake Borgne, Lake St. Catherine, the passes and surrounding areas. The state's Department of Health also closed all oyster harvesting areas east of the Mississippi River, which includes Lake Borgne.



For whatever it's worth, the oil spill can now be seen from space. (photo below)

SILENCE of the COMMENTS

We don't know what's going on with Google but all your comments have been silenced, temporally.
There seems to be some technical reason your comments aren't being posted.
Google is aware of the problem.
The Google team says: "Thanks everyone for the reports on this; we're investigating the problem and will post an update as soon as we have one."
As soon as this is resolved all of your witty comments will be posted, for everyone to read.

The Voodoo Kitchen

Jam Made From Diana's Hair On Sale Now

The preserve is called "Occult Jam," it's part of an art show at London's Barbican Art Gallery.
"We thought about it and the most mundane food of all is jam. So we made it a surreal object," said Sam Bompas, founder of catering company Bompas and Parr.
The £5-a-jar of jam is both art and food and is made by infusing a tiny speck of the late Princess of Wales' hair with gin.

It is then mixed with milk and sugar to create a product with a taste a lot like condensed milk.
The chef said he decided to make the "Occult Jam" to encourage people to think about food marketing and how language enhances the everyday eating experience.
The hair was first bought on eBay for $10 from a US dealer who collects celebrity hair and sells it in extremely tiny parts.

Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi arrested at Nathan's hot dog contest

UPDATE: We can't believe this has become the center of so much attention but Takeru Kobayashi, arrested at Nathan's July Fourth hot dog-eating contest, was freed Monday after a night in jail, looking tired and saying he was hungry.
He was wearing the black T-shirt with the message "Free Kobi" in green letters, was freed by a Brooklyn judge after he pleaded not guilty. The 32-year-old said he consumed only a sandwich and some milk in jail.
Even though a contract dispute had kept Kobayashi out of Sunday's annual Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, but he showed up anyway.
"I was there as a spectator, just to cheer on my buddies," he said through an interpreter outside court Monday. Fans chanted for him, and "in the heat of it, I jumped on the stage, hoping they would let me eat."

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Japanese competitive eater Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi was arrested on Sunday at Nathan's hot dog contest in New York.
"He was taken in custody for disrupting the Nathan's hot dog eating contest," a New York Police Department spokeswoman said.
Takeru Kobayashi was arrested Sunday after storming the stage at the annual Coney Island competition.
Kobayashi did not take part in this year's event because of contract disputes with the sport's governing body, Major League Eating, but he was there and watched from the audience.
After Joyey Chestnut won and was crowned winner, Kobayashi jumped on stage and was grabbed by police officers.
Witnesses say he tried to hold onto the barricades as police took him into custody.
"I'm standing right there and then somebody in a 'Free Kobayashi' t-shirt runs up onto the stage and I notice that it's actually Kobayashi, he leans down and shakes someone's hand, and the cop comes up from behind and grabs him and starts dragging him off, and he doesn't want to go so he's grabbing onto the rail, then two other cops come and they try to pull him off the rail and he's struggling, and then everybody starts chanting 'Let him eat! Let him eat! Let him eat!' And then they just took him away," said one witness.
Earlier in the week the 32-year-old told Japan's Kyodo News that he still hoped to take part in the competition, because "holds a very special place in my heart."
But he objected to an exclusivity clause stipulated by the organizer that would have prevented him from participating in future competitive eating events without its permission.
"If he was a real man he would be on the stage," Chestnut said after inhaling 54 dogs.
The Nathan's hot dog eating contest requires contestants to eat as many hot dogs, buns included, in 10 minutes without vomiting.

Oil found in Gulf crabs creates food chain concerns

The first signs that oil is entering the Gulf seafood chain have been discovered in crab larvae.
(see above photo)
"So many things feed on larvae, that's the disturbing part," says Darryl Felder of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. But Felder and others say it's too soon to predict what the larger effects on the ecosystem might be.
Scientists have been looking for changes in abundance of tiny crab larvae as they swim along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
One team, led by population ecologist Caroline Taylor of Tulane University in New Orleans, first found droplets  while collecting blue crab larvae off Grand Isle, Louisiana. "We didn't expect to find anything like this inside them," Taylor says.
Subsequent surveys by Taylor's team have turned up droplets in larvae in several genera of crabs in sites including Pensacola, Florida, and Galveston, Texas. In some places, up to 100% of larvae contain these droplets.
Experts warn the effect on fisheries could last “years, probably not a matter of months” and affect many species.
Droplets of oil in the larvae of blue crabs and fiddler crabs sampled from Louisiana to Pensacola, Fla.
"I think we will see this enter the food chain in a lot of ways, for plankton feeders, like menhaden, they are going to just actively take it in," said Harriet Perry, director of the Center for Fisheries Research and Development at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. "Fish are going to feed on (crab larvae). We have also just started seeing it on the fins of small, larval fish — their fins were encased in oil. That limits their mobility, so that makes them easy prey for other species. The oil's going to get into the food chain in a lot of ways."Perry also said the oil found in the crab larvae appears to be trapped between the hard outer shell and the inner skin. Perry said, “Shrimp, crab and oysters have a tough time with hydrocarbon metabolism.” She said fish that eat these smaller species can metabolize the oil, but their bodies also accumulate it with continued exposure and they can suffer reproductive problems “added to a long list of other problems.”

The general feeling about all this is how it has changed everybody’s life.
As someone was quoted, "it’s just overwhelming. I think a hurricane is easy compared to this."
Here's a sample of what's happening:

North Korea and it's mind-expanding, brain juice

The government of North Korea has declared the creation of a mind-expanding, brain juice called the ‘Super Drink,’ that will multiply brain hells and stop skin aging.
How great this must be for the regime, producing an anti-oxidation drink that “protects skin from wrinkles and black spots, and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral hemorrhage and brain infarction.
This concoction contains 60 types of “microelements” extracted from over 30 species of plants. This particular combination supposedly improves mental acuity and retention by “multiplying brain cells.”
No one has really explained how the juice does all of these wonderful things, but we don't just have to take North Korea's word on this.
Apparently the juice was well received by Chinese, German and other businessmen at a trade fair in Pyongyang last month. Plus they quoted company manager, Jong Song Ho, who testified that the juice “proved efficacious among workers of such industrial establishments as thermal power station and smeltery and at medical institutions.”