If you’re cheap and/or lazy and use only water as your windshield wiper fluid, you could increase your risk of contracting Legionnaire’s disease and pneumonia, according to a new study. That’s right, treat your car poorly and it will try to kill you. [More]
health
Johnson & Johnson Hired Fake Shoppers To Buy Up Bad Motrin, Avoid Public Recall
By 6.14.10
Ever since the FDA and Congress started asking Johnson & Johnson to explain why it keeps recalling medicine, there have been references to an unpublicized “recall” that happened in November 2008. Last month, at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a J&J executive swore that the company didn’t mean to mislead anyone. It turns out that wasn’t exactly accurate: Bloomberg has obtained emails from J&J’s company, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, that show executives knew the secret recall would trigger an FDA reaction if the agency got wind of its full scope. [More]
Gamers Have Reactions Of Fighter Pilots, Bodies Of 60-Year Old Chain Smokers
By 6.8.10
To see if gamers count as athletes, a British researcher subjected a whole bunch of professional gamers to a battery of tests. He found that while mentally, in terms of reflexes and reaction time they were on par with world-class athletes, physically, they were slothbags. [More]
This Subway Meatball Isn't For Kids!
By 6.7.10
It’s great that everyone’s concerned about keeping kids healthy and all, but Jay says the woman working at his local Subway put her foot down on his request for a meatball sandwich for his kid. He says she told him, “You can get ham or turkey but no meatball.” Kids don’t need meatballs! [More]
New Study Says Regular Coffee Drinking Doesn't Make You More Alert
By 6.3.10
Drink coffee every morning? Love how it makes you more alert? Well apparently you’re just about as alert as you would be if you weren’t regularly drinking coffee. You see, not drinking coffee once you’re used to it actually makes you less alert than a normal person. So you’re just drinking coffee to make yourself feel normal. [More]
Save On Drugs By Making Your Pharmacy Price-Match
By 6.2.10
What made Jules sicker than her strep throat was the price Kroger wanted to charge her for a 6-pack of generic Azithromycin. $38.72! “That’s highway robbery!” she told the them. Then Jules stumbled onto something most people don’t know that could save them serious money on prescription medication: you can price-match your pills. [More]
American Cigarettes Packed With Extra Cancer Chemicals
By 6.2.10
The Centers for Disease Control have announced the results of a study that shows that people who smoke certain U.S. cigarette brands have higher levels of “cancer-causing tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs),” (which are apparently the major carcinogens and cancer-causing agents in tobacco products) than people who smoke some foreign cigarette brands. [More]
Eat More Salt Or Your Food Will Taste Like Damp Dog Hair
By 5.30.10
With everyone from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to First Lady Michelle Obama pushing foodmakers to cut the salt in their products, the salt industry is fighting back. And they warn that without enough salt, processed meats start to taste like cardboard or “damp dog hair.” Yum! [More]
Hospital Cleared After Patient Catches Cancer From Kidney Transplant
By 5.29.10
A NY hospital has been cleared in a lawsuit after a kidney transplant patient developed cancer and died after receiving an organ from someone who had the disease but had not yet been diagnosed. [More]
Get 20% Off At Coldstone Creamery
By 5.26.10
It’s been blazin’ in New York all day. I’ve got two Vornados on me, a minimal amount of clothing, and I’m wearing a coldpack on my head. So, in the spirit of temperature abatement, I am delighted to share this printable 20% off anything coupon for Cold Stone Creamery, which I would totally use if everything on their menu didn’t have a gazillion calories. [via Dealnews] [More]
Why Paying More For Brand Name Drugs Is Folly
By 5.26.10
There are some people out there who just don’t get how much crazy money you can save with buying generic drugs. For those folks, this infographic was crafted by Mint.com. To illustrate the cost-savings possible, they took a look at Advil. For the same 200 mg of isobutylpropanoicphenolic acid, people are willing to pay over $8 more per box. Those pretty graphics aren’t going to chase away your headache any faster, honey. Let’s take a look: [More]
Want More Lead Or Pesticide In Your Body? Try Dietary Supplements
By 5.26.10
Lead has a deservedly bad reputation when it comes to human health and development, but because it’s classified as a heavy metal it will always be kind of awesome. Well, to me. Pesticide, not so much. If you dislike ingesting either type of toxin, you might be interested in a new study being released today by the Government Accountability Office that found trace amounts of “lead and other contaminants” in every sample of 40 health supplements tested. [More]
Man Spends 24 Hours Inside A Starbucks As A Sick Experiment
By 5.25.10
Zug.com’s Bayan Rabbani is a glutton for punishment. Having spent 24 hours inside a Walmart in the name of comedy journalism, he thought he was ready to spend 24 hours inside a Starbucks. He was wrong. [More]
Does Your City Spend A Lot On Eating?
By 5.24.10
When it comes to spending on munching and swigging, how do you think your city stacks up? Bundle crunched the numbers and turned it into a plump and juicy infographic, served up piping hot inside… [More]
Some Skin Lightening Creams Are Full Of Banned Mercury
By 5.22.10
The Chicago Tribune bought 50 creams used to lighten skin and fade age spots and had them sent to an outside lab for testing — and got troubling results. Six of the creams were found to contain amounts of mercury banned by federal law. Five of the creams had enough of the toxic metal to cause kidney damage over time, the Tribune reports. [More]
The 100-Layer Lasagna
By 5.19.10
This is Garfield’s version of heaven on earth, New York restaurant Del Posto’s 100-layer lasagna. It’s 50 sheets of pasta with 50 layers of sauce, requires three kitchen stations, and is served with a unique spatula. To try it you’ll have to order their $500 Collezione grand tasting menu, but then the chef comes and carves it at your table. Yes, carves the lasagna.After all, if we’re going to have an obesity epidemic, the least we can do is be creative about it. (See the monstrosity for real here)
Behind the Menu: Deconstructing the Hundred-Layer Lasagne [New York via thekitchn]
Lettuce-Borne E.Coli Outbreak Hits Fourth State
By 5.13.10
Infected romaine lettuce from a single processing facility has been linked to the sickening of at least 23 people in four different states, NY, MI, TN, and OH, says the Center for Disease Control (CDC). [More]
Marijuana Dispensaries In Montana Firebombed
By 5.11.10
Some residents of Billings, Montana are pretty upset at the burgeoning medical marijuana industry there–CNN says the town of 100,000 has had about 90 applications for storefronts since the state legalized it in 2004, and that the businesses operate with little regulation. On consecutive mornings this past weekend, someone spraypainted “Not in our town” on the sides of two establishments, then threw rocks through the front doors followed by Molotov cocktails. And then they probably chilled out for a while. [More]
