First Test-Tube Hamburger Ready This Fall
The world’s first “test-tube” meat, a hamburger made from a cow’s stem cells, will be produced this fall, Dutch scientist Mark Post told a major science conference on Sunday.
Post’s aim is to invent an efficient way to produce skeletal muscle tissue in a laboratory that exactly mimics meat, and eventually replace the entire meat-animal industry.
Who wants to chomp on those cells?
Seriously, though this is kind of a big deal. Know that big problem we have? You know, the one involving a crapload of used plastic hanging around in landfills with nowhere to biodegrade for a couple million years? Well, Jonathan Russell might’ve solved that problem. See, Russell and his fellow Yale students went to Ecuador, where they found a new kind of fungus they’re calling Pestalotiopsis microspora. Big deal, you’re thinking. Anyone can find fungus anywhere! Well, something his fellow students found out after the fact is that this fungus can live on a diet of polyurethane alone — and even crazier, it doesn’t even need air to do so! In other words, we could potentially put it at the bottom of a landfill and cover it with plastic, and it would do the rest of the work. This might be game-changing if it works as advertised. (photo via Flickr user dbutt; EDIT: Updated with link to research abstract) source
![reuters:
“Romney makes it rain snack chips.” -@BuzzFeedBen
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney tosses bags of chips to members of the press on his campaign plane in Jacksonville, Florida January 30, 2012. [REUTERS/Brian Snyder]
POP CHIPS PIMP](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lymtc0IXue1qmaoalo1_500.jpg)
“Romney makes it rain snack chips.” -@BuzzFeedBen
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney tosses bags of chips to members of the press on his campaign plane in Jacksonville, Florida January 30, 2012. [REUTERS/Brian Snyder]
It seems the department still considers the potato a second-class vegetable.A spokesman for the National Potato Council, irked that — despite a failed USDA attempt to limit potato use in new school lunch guidelines — potatoes are still passed over in favor of greener, leafier vegetables. (via bencrair)
TRUTH
Glad to see Hostess can stay so optimistic considering the day’s news. The reason they’re going bankrupt probably involves too many snack parties.
Too many employees, too much debt: Hostess, the company that makes Twinkies, HoHos, Ding Dongs, Zingers and other amusingly-named foods (including Wonder bread), says that it has too many legacy payments. With 12 unions making up 83 percent of its 19,000 employees, the company says it ”is not competitive, primarily due to legacy pension and medical benefit obligations and restrictive work rules.” The company, which is still negotiating with its unions, will stay in business thanks to $75 million in financing from lenders. (photo by Like_the_Grand_Canyon on Flickr) source
If a funeral takes place during the day and the burial is performed that evening, the grave may be dug open and the body stolen before morning. Such incidents happen often. The stolen body is cut into pieces and sold on the black market…the dead bodies lose freshness overnight, which makes it difficult to market them.A North Korean refugee, regarding the sale of human flesh in his country. North Korea is a hellhole for most of its (non-enlisted) citizens, thanks to Kim Jon-Il and his late father, Kim Il-Sung. Practices such as the one described above take place in amongst North Korea’s “lucky” citizens—that is, those who have managed to avoid being locked up in forced labor camps, a topic we’ll have more on later. More on North Korean cannibalism here.
Pizza can continue to be the meal of choice: In a bit of a setback for the Obama administration, the USDA’s efforts to push for schools to provide healthier lunches ran into a wall of starchy special interests after members of Congress, in coordination with the food industry, added an unhealthy amendment to a spending bill. The amendment limits how much the government can regulate starchy vegetables like potatoes, as well as tomato paste (the fundamental ingredient of pizza), in school lunches. Why? Congress says it’ll be more expensive, due in part to vegetable prices. If the spending bill passes, we can blame kids’ unhealthy lunches on Congress. We love pizza too, but really now. (photo via USDA’s Flickr page) source
So many amazing things going on here.
Get ready to be happy, internet
Reblogging for image alone.
From NPR’s Kitchen Window: Confessions of a Sriracha Fanatic
In case anyone was wondering, Sriracha is the official condiment of ShortFormBlog. It’s the perfect complement for falafel.
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
Exclusive: How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the...
A 36-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly broke into singer Celine Dion’s home near Montreal, raided the fridge and even took the time to pour himself a bath, police said Tuesday.An AP lede for the ages. Our hearts will go on for this story. It’s the power of love: It’s all coming back to us now. And that’s the way it is.
» Are food companies are pulling a fast one on us? According to the study, they’ve been adding extra salt to food to trick us into eating more. “They train your taste buds — the more salt you eat, the less salt you taste, the more salt you want, to get that saltiness,” notes Professor Francisco Cappucio of the University of Warwick, one of the authors of the study. He notes that this extra salt makes us want to eat more, leading to higher food industry profits. By cutting salt intake worldwide, we could save thousands of lives each year in the U.S. alone, the study notes — and 8.5 million lives in the next decade. The study suggests that the UN get involved.
Please note the disclaimer, “Ingredient not normally found in mayonnaise,” then note that this disclaimer appears in an ingredient list for mayonnaise.
I once checked the ingredients label for a tub of watermelon slices, and all it said was: “Ingredient: Watermelon.” This is kind of the opposite of that.
My first-ever article for The Daily: You may not know this, but occasionally I write things, and sometimes they get published in places. And in this case, The Daily took a chance on a young rapscallion with a bunch of numbers in his bag and wild facts about hot dogs on his mind, and turned it into this piece of magic. You’ll have to have The Daily’s full iPad interface to read the whole thing (99 cents a week, less than a case of Ball Park Franks!), but you can get most of it over here. Check it out! — Ernie @ SFB
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