Reader Nora works at a restaurant where the new manager is too busy to mitigate the black slime growing in the ice machine, even though sometimes it plops into people’s drinks. At left is a picture she took with her cellphone of the mold colony. [More]
health
Junk Food Binges Acts Like Crack On Brain
By 10.19.10
Overdosing on junk food acts like heroin or crack on the brain, a new study finds. [More]
17,000 Docs, Some Who Had Sex With Patients, Scarf Big Pharma Payola
By 10.19.10
Big pharmaceutical companies say they only pick the saintliest docs to be “their boys,” getting paid into the six figures to “teach” fellow doctors about the companies’ latest wunder-pills. But a major investigation into disciplinary action against these docs on the take reveals that some of them have splotchy pasts, from having sex with patients, to criminal convictions, to research misconduct and revoked licenses. The history included: [More]
Laws Of Physics Say Cellphones Don't Cause Cancer
By 10.18.10
Cellphones don’t cause cancer because they don’t emit enough energy to break molecular bonds inside cells, reports Scientific American. “In fact, if the bonds holding the key molecules of life together could be broken at the energy levels of cell phones, there would be no life at all because the various natural sources of energy from the environment would prevent such bonds from ever forming in the first place.” [More]
63% Of Restaurant Workers Admit To Serving While Sick
By 10.15.10
Waiter! There’s a phlegm in my soup! And it’s yours! 63% of restaurant workers in a new survey said they had cooked and served food while sick, putting consumers at risk, and also being just gross. [More]
Mobile Devices Harbor More Germs Than A Men's Room Flush Handle
By 10.15.10
A new study finds that the mobile devices are excellent virus vectors, harboring 18% times more bacteria than a typical men’s bathroom flush handle. Furthermore, “If you put virus on a surface, like an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips,” said the study’s co-author. And, “a fair amount of it may go from your fingers to your eyes, mouth or nose.” Next time you borrow someone’s cellphone, you might want to bust out the rubber gloves and Lysol first. [More]
Biggest Medicare Fraud Scam Ever Busted
By 10.14.10
Authorities busted a ring of reputed Armenian gangsters who they allege perpetrated the most ginormous Medicare fraud of all time, racking up $163 million in fake claims. [More]
Boy Develops "Toasted Skin Syndrome" From Laptop
By 10.6.10
A 12 year-old-boy who played computer games a few hours a day for several months with his laptop on his legs developed permanent sponge-patterned discoloration on his left thigh. Though he knew it got hot, he didn’t adjust the laptop. [More]
What Mechanically Separated Chicken Looks Like
By 10.5.10
Mmm yummers, after the jump, here’s a picture of some mechanically separated poultry. We didn’t want to put it on the front page because it is so gross, so if you click through, that is your fault. [More]
Choose A Multivitamin
By 10.4.10
Multivitamins come in an array of packages like “Silver,” “Kids Chewables,” and “Schwarzenegger,” but it’s all marketing. Just buy the cheapest. They’re all the same, just in different colored boxes. That’s the advice Consumer Reports is dishing out after it tested 21 different kinds of multivitamins, and finding most were indistinguishable from one another, with two exceptions. [More]
Ben & Jerry's Dropping "All Natural" From Labels
By 9.28.10
After the Center for Science in the Public Interest complained last month that “all natural” doesn’t include things like alkalized cocoa and hydrogenated oil, Ben & Jerry’s announced yesterday that it will stop using the phrase on its ice cream cartons. [More]
FTC Says POM Wonderful Not So Great
By 9.28.10
The FTC wants to see some proof that the pomegranate ingredients in POM Wonderful’s products can actually treat heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction, which is what the company says in marketing and packaging materials. [More]
Children Can Now Stay On Parent's Health Care Policies Until Age 26, And 3 Other Health Care Reforms That Just Kicked In
By 9.27.10
Several of the provisions of the health care bill’s provisions went into effect on September 23rd, one of the most popular of them being the fact that kids can now stay on their parent’s health care policies until age 26, but there also three other important ones too! [More]
Image Order Tricks Minds To Think Cake Is Healthier Than Fruit Salad
By 9.23.10
Was Eisenstein into calorie counting? A new study finds that if you see a “bad for you” food item after seeing a “good for you” item, you will estimate the calories in it as being much higher than if you see two “bad for you” items back to back. [More]
Drug Rep Accidentally Emails Consumer Truth About Overpriced Pills
By 9.23.10
Reddit user TheKarateKid says he emailed a major drug company asking why their $500 version of a $10 generic is worth the $490 markup. The drug company rep accidentally emailed the customer back this message intended for her colleague. [More]
Is Obesity A Virus?
By 9.20.10
“Kachoo!” could be the sound of a kid getting fat. New research shows children were 50 lbs heavier on average if they had been exposed to adenovirus 36, a virus that causes the common cold and mild stomach upset. [More]
Man Runs Away From Being Fat, Loses 120 Lbs
By 9.20.10
Ben Davis was 348 lbs and depressed. At the bottom of his hole and sick of being single, he called up his brother and said, “I need to get my life together.” His brother said, “All right, I’m signing us up for a 5k. It’s in three weeks.” [More]
Shards O Glass Freezepops Recalled
By 9.17.10
Shards o Glass Freezepops has realized that “some of our products are addictive and deadly when used correctly” and is calling for an immediate recall of all their products. They’re shutting down the factories “until we can provide consumers with a safer line of glass-filled treats.” Maybe they don’t need to go to extremes, how about a light, narrower version? New menthol flavor? [More]
