Assorted Links
- Does Robert Greenwald have a subtle sense of humor? See for yourself. Ted Sorenson, one of the interviewees, is widely thought to have ghostwritten Profiles in Courage. He denied it, but later told American Experience: “The author is the man who stands behind what is there on the printed page.”
- Researchers fail to grasp that a spoof is a spoof. For instance, a case report involving a cartoon character was taken seriously. A Science News writer made this sort of mistake several years ago. I wrote to the magazine pointing it out. The editor who replied didn’t agree with me but said that the person who had written that piece was no longer working there.
- “The mature product”. The truth about expiration dates.
- Participatory science: “He drew the line at eating stewed mole.”
Thanks to Tyler Cowen and Ben CasnochaÂ
February 24th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
That’s an interesting article about the expiration dates printed on food packages, but I think that this section needs to be explained better: “we should focus our efforts on what really matters to our health—not spoilage bacteria, which are fairly docile, but their malevolent counterparts: disease-causing pathogens like salmonella and Listeria, which infect the food we eat not because it’s old but as a result of unsanitary conditions at factories or elsewhere along the supply chain.”
Are there no spoilage-associated bacteria which are harmful? Is it possible that very low levels of disease-causing pathogens can grow exponentially over time and rise to the level where they are dangerous?
February 24th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Alex, I’m not worried about spoilage-related bacteria because I believe that bacteria that prosper in one environment (old food) are going to die in a much different environment (inside my body). I throw away spoiled food, sure, but not because I’m afraid of it. I’m much more afraid of bacteria that have grown successfully in someone else’s body.
February 25th, 2010 at 4:28 am
Seth,
Like you, I’ve never been one to worry about expiration dates, and I’ve been known to eat leftovers that I found in the back of the ‘fridge and that were well past their prime. In fact, this is a frequent subject of conflict with my wife, who won’t eat any leftovers that are more than a few days old and who is quite diligent about checking expiration dates.
That having been said, a few months ago I had a pretty serious bout of gastrointestinal illness that I suspect was food poisoning and not the flu. I never figured out where I got it. I’m not suggesting that I had botulism, but Clostridium botuinum doesn’t grow in someone else’s body and yet is quite dangerous if ingested (or, at least its toxin is dangerous). So I wonder if it’s at least possible that under certain conditions, with certain foods, that spoilage in an of itself, can make the food harmful. Is there a clinical microbiologist in the house?
February 25th, 2010 at 6:05 am
Alex, yeah, that’s a good point. The bacteria is dangerous not because it grows in your body but because of its byproducts. Perhaps that’s why we seem to have a built-in aversion to spoiled food. As I said, I throw it away even though I’m not afraid of it. (I agree with you, I should be afraid of it.)