A brief history of the toothpick. - By Henry Petroski - Slate Ma Charles Forster was a marketing genius who might have sold a side of beef to a vegetarian. He was born in 1826 in Charlestown, Mass., into an old and aristocratic New England family. While working for his uncle's import/export business in Brazil, he noticed that the natives had beautiful teeth, which he attributed to their use of handcrafted toothpicks. At a time when virtually everything was becoming mass produced, Forster vowed to make a fortune producing wooden toothpicks so cheaply by machine that he could export them to South America. Forster himself was not mechanically inclined, but he had the business savvy to acquire the rights to a patent that gave him a monopoly on a toothpick-making process. It was a byproduct of the work of Boston inventor Benjamin Franklin Sturtevant, whose own passion was making shoes by machine. The Yankee tradition was to whittle a toothpick on demand. He first targeted stationers, who dealt in small items.
ABC News: Cola Causes Bone Loss Too many cans of cola might mean bad news for your bones. Some women drink diet cola to help keep the weight off, but a new study suggests that drinking diet, regular and decaffeinated cola can actually lower bone density and put women at increased risk for osteoporosis. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, roughly 55 percent of Americans, mostly women, are at risk of developing the brittle-bone disease, which leaves bones dry, weak, and more likely to fracture. Cola drinks -- such as Pepsi-Cola or Coca-Cola -- seem to increase that risk, according to research published in today's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University looked at data from 2,500 men and women who were part of the Framingham Osteoporosis Study. Women who drank more cola had reduced bone mineral density at all three hip sites but not at the spine. Cola consumption did not affect men in the same way.
Heavy Editing Is Alleged In Climate Testimony - washingtonpost.c Testimony that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to give yesterday to a Senate committee about the impact of climate change on health was significantly edited by the White House, according to two sources familiar with the documents. Specific scientific references to potential health risks were removed after Julie L. Gerberding submitted a draft of her prepared remarks to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. Instead, Gerberding's prepared testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee included few details on what effects climate change could have on the spread of disease. A CDC official familiar with both versions said Gerberding's draft "was eviscerated," cut from 14 pages to four. CDC spokesman Tom Skinner sought to play down the White House changes. "What needed to be said, as far we're concerned, was said," Skinner said from Atlanta, where the CDC is based. Sen.
Roadside Art Online: The Gyros Project Take The Gyros Tour 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 Plus, The Gyros Experience: Why It Matters The Red Hot Taqueria Annex S.C. nuclear-waste landfill is closing -{ Hanttula.com }- -{ Presents: The Museum of Food Anomalies™ }- Title: “Pleasant Pickle Face” Media: Pickles. Pickle fluid. Pleasant demeanor... or something sinister? Submitted by: Leticia H. Title: “Walking Bird Fry” Media: Potato. Title: “Nutri-Grain E.T.” Title: “Watermelon Skull” Media: Watermelon. Title: “Heart Potato, Face Potato” Media: Potato. Title: “Banana… Jesus?” Title: “Pac-Man Chip” Media: Waka waka waka waka waka Submitted by: Cindy L. Title: “Suffocated Candy” Media: Candy. Title: “Oatmeal/Craisin Alien… Or, The Craisalien” Media: Oatmeal. Title: “Smiling Fry” Media: French Fry, Pleasant Demeanor, Hat of Ketchup Submitted by: Niels de G.
'Fiendish' Trojan pickpockets eBay users | The Registe High performance access to file storage Miscreants have unleashed a new strain of a sophisticated Trojan that targets eBay users by feeding them spoofed web pages containing fraudulent information about high-ticket purchases, The Register has learned. It has already contributed to an $8,600 loss by one eBay member. The Trojan installs a scaled-down webserver on an infected machine that masquerades as eBay and several third-party destinations frequently used to sniff out fraudulent offerings, including Carfax.com, Autocheck.com and Escrow.com. When a victim browses to one of these sites, the webserver creates a parallel universe of sorts, in which the victim sees counterfeit pages designed to counter fraud protection mechanisms offered by eBay and third-party sites. The malware was found on the machine of one eBay Motors user who recently lost $8,650 after trying to buy a 2005 Jeep Liberty advertised for 10 days on the site.
Oldest noodles unearthed in China The remains of the world's oldest noodles have been unearthed in China. The 50cm-long, yellow strands were found in a pot that had probably been buried during a catastrophic flood. Radiocarbon dating of the material taken from the Lajia archaeological site on the Yellow River indicates the food was about 4,000 years old. Scientists tell the journal Nature that the noodles were made using grains from millet grass - unlike modern noodles, which are made with wheat flour. The discovery goes a long way to settling the old argument over who first created the string-like food. Professor Houyuan Lu said: "Prior to the discovery of noodles at Lajia, the earliest written record of noodles is traced to a book written during the East Han Dynasty sometime between AD 25 and 220, although it remained a subject of debate whether the Chinese, the Italians, or the Arabs invented it first. The professor's team tells Nature that the ancient settlement at Lajia was hit by a sudden catastrophe.
World's most gullible supermarket chain falls victim to onl High performance access to file storage Red-faced accountants from one of the biggest supermarket chains in the US are frantically trying to regain control of more than $10m lost after falling victim to online fraudsters. Evidently, no one at Minnesota-based Supervalu bothered to confirm the authenticity of emails sent in late February. Purporting to come from two of the company's suppliers, the messages instructed Supervalu to wire all future payments to new bank accounts. The emails were phony, but within two days, Supervalu began moving money into the accounts. The sad tale was outlined in documents filed in US District Court in Idaho. The story was reported earlier by Computerworld.