Monthly Archives: April 2014

GMOs, Food Safety, and Golden Rice

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We have written about the positives and negatives of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs), and the debate continues. An article titled “Eating Dangerously” by Jennifer Brown and Michael Booth in the March 12, 2014 Denver Post describes “…how 50 million Americans will get food poisoning this year…More than 100,000 will go to the hospital; 3,000 will die.” Federal authorities do not ban the sale of chicken contaminated with bacteria such as salmonella. They instead rely on consumers to cook the chicken to at least 165 degrees, which would kill the bacteria. However, there was a “Foster Farms chicken scare (in) 2013” that involved chicken contaminated with an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella that wasn’t killed by cooking to 165 degrees. Dozens of consumers were hospitalized.

The article focuses on the Colorado case of salmonella-contaminated cantaloupes that killed 33 people in 2011. Federal inspectors had never visited the farm that was the source of the cantaloupes prior to the outbreak. Continue reading →

Fooled by Randomness

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bookcvr_fooled by randomnessThis book written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb was recommended by a reader who has given many worthwhile suggestions. That track record kept me reading a book I found to be frustratingly difficult. I do not recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a fun and easy read. The book was written by a very smart person who has contempt for people who don’t understand his wisdom. The kindest description is that he has supreme self-confidence, although “arrogant” works also. I was frustrated with the frequent passages that said something was to be explained in more detail in a future chapter. I was also frustrated by his lengthy references to ancient philosophers and poets. Taleb wants the reader to be impressed by his scholarly intellect.  I write this understanding that the author describes those who write reviews that are not fawningly positive as “idiots.” Continue reading →

In a Pickle

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Both ecenglish.com and the Phrase Finder agree that the meaning of the expression is to find yourself in a difficult situation or that you have a problem that has no easy solution. They also agree that “The word ‘pickle’ comes from the Dutch word ‘pekel,’ meaning ‘something piquant’, and originally referred to spiced, salted vinegar that was used as a preservative.” Phrase Finder adds that, “The earliest pickles were spicy sauces made to accompany meat dishes.” Preserved vegetables came to be called pickles.

Another explanation is that the expression “…was an allusion to being as disoriented and mixed up as the stewed vegetables that made up pickles.” That is a gory reference to a mythical description of King Arthur’s diet. “He dines all season on seven rascal children, chopped, in a bowl of white silver, with pickle and precious spices.”

Right off the Bat

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Knowyourphrase.com explains the origin of this phrase is likely baseball and that the first published examples of its use were found in the 1880’s. I seldom disagree with sources, but the first explanation is that the batter makes a quick decision to run to first base after hitting the baseball. I have the opinion that it refers to a fielder moving immediately after the bat hits the ball to a place to make a catch. Regardless, the expression is used to do something immediately, in a hurry, or without delay.  The example sentence involves warning a person considering buying a home who is told “right off the bat” the house is infested with termites!

What Blooms Where You’re Planted?

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I was recently talking with a friend in Silver City, New Mexico who volunteers at the city’s visitors’ center. He relayed a story told him by a visiting tourist: that she had asked the clerk at a local convenience store what there is to do in Silver City and the clerk told her “There’s nothing to do here.”  Imagine the horror and frustration for someone who knows about the Billy the Kid house, the Gila National Forest, Silver City’s old town and gallery scene, every festival and event, and – well- all kinds of things.

It made me wonder why so many of us neglect our own back yards.  I grew up just two hours outside New York City but didn’t visit the Statue of Liberty until I was middle aged.  I appreciate my current home town of Silver City and have gotten involved in a number of events, but I have neighbors who don’t recognize the name of the main street through old town. (No, it’s not “Main Street”.  Come visit and find out. lol)

I guess part of the problem is that your local town is generally where you work, so for fun you go away.  Consider that, no matter where you live, there are likely to be people who come to your town to ‘get away’.

Every town has pluses and minuses, and it can be easy to be disheartened by traffic problems or a boarded-up store and focus on the negative.  Remember that it is still a beautiful world.  I hope you will visit their your own local attractions.  If I may paraphrase a quote I like, see what blooms where you’re planted.

Paradox of Iran

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Ayatollah Begs to DifferThe Ayatollah Begs to Differ
By Hooman Majd

On this blog, we have been making an effort to understand the Islamic world.  Majd says “my hope is that this book, through a combination of stories, history, and personal reflection, will provide the reader a glimpse of Iran and Iranians” and reveal paradoxes of the Iranian character that baffle Americans.  He succeeds.

Majd is the son of an Iranian diplomat raised in the West, and seems well situated to bridge the gap between the two peoples.

Iranians are Persians, not Arabs, and are 90% Shia, not Sunni, Muslim.  Shia believe in the twelfth Imam, who is not dead but hidden, and who will return as the Messiah in a way that reminds me of Christians’ faith in the return of Jesus Christ.  I’m not sure if this similarity will make the two peoples more or less sympathetic to each other, since discussing religion is dangerous outside of trusting relationships.

“Persia” had been “Iran” to Iranians since 226 CE; “Persia” came from the French.  In 1935 a Shah who embraced the Third Reich and fascism decreed that the nation should be called “Iran” which means “land of the Aryans”.  I found it alarming that today Farsi translations of Hitler’s Mein Kampf are prominent in book stores, though some Americans may appreciate that Marx and Communist are loathed by the theocracy.

Many Iranians (especially expats) view the word “Persian” as connoting their glorious past and they are annoyed that Westerners are ignorant of Iran’s history.  Iran was the equal of ancient Egypt, Rome, or Athens.  Westerners admire Alexander the Great, while Iranians view him as a barbarian for burning magnificent Iranian libraries.

“The Shia sense of the world [is] a dark and oppressive place” of “estrangement and woe”, “under a perpetual dark cloud” where “death and martyrdom are pillars of Shia Islam.”  The nation’s recent history reinforces this gloomy outlook: Muslims have suffered “five hundred years of Western hegemony,” and “for two or three hundred years Iran had been [under] Western powers – specifically Britain and then the United States when it took over the mantle of empire after World War II.” Continue reading →