Newslog #18

Skippy Peanut Butter Not the First to Carry Salmonella 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110308/lf_ac/8013826_skippy_peanut_butter_not_the_first_to_carry_salmonella_1

Within the past few years, peanut butter has had many recalls for salmonella poisoning. Salmonella can appear on peanuts during their growing stage, collecting, or storage and turns up in low-moisture, high fat areas. Usually, hot processing temperatures are not enough to kill the salmonella bacteria and even if it was killed during manufacturing, the bacteria could still be lingering in the building and get into the products. The first case was in August 2006, when the company, Peter Pan, recalled 15 types of their products. Between then and May 2007, over 600 people in 47 states were affected. The next company to have tainted products was the King Nut Company, who in January 2009, issued a recall. The King Nut Company does not manufacture the product; it only distributes to seven states. One of the states is Minnesota, which is where the salmonella outbreak occurred. These cases all led to the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia in February 2009. By this time, more than 700 people became sick and nine people died. The FDA found that there was more than salmonella contamination in the PCA's buildings. There were cockroaches, equipment that wasn't cleaned properly, and a leaky roof. The PCA was also guilty of tainting pet food and over 200 companies had to recall almost 4,000 products because of this.

The most recent peanut butter salmonella case was just this week, when Skippy stated that their Reduced Fat Creamy and Chunky Peanut Butter Spreads might be tainted. 16 states are affected. However, there have been no illnesses stated yet.

I think food manufacturers need to take better care of their buildings. Their food is being sent to millions of people and producing this food in unsanitary conditions can in the long run, cause the company millions of dollars (in possible law suits). I think food companies should have stricter building and equipment codes and regulations so that another outbreak like this does not occur.

Newslog #17

With government shutdown looming, New York landmarks will be closed for business

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_localnyc/with-government-shutdown-looming-new-york-landmarks-will-be-closed-for-business

The Statue of Liberty is one of the many places that will shut down on Friday because Congress cannot agree on a budget for this year. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have not come up with a plan with how much money can be spent in 2011. Because of this, many parks and monuments, like Liberty Island, will be closing and over 8 million federal tax returns will be delayed. In addition to this, passport and visa requests and cleanup work at toxic sites will be halted and social security checks will be frozen because its shop will be closed for 3 weeks. These actions are causing New York State a whopping $100 million per day, according to a study by Bruce Yandle, a George Mason University professor. Because visas are not being processed, the 3.2 million tourists who visit New York City every year won't be able to come, which will result in restaurants, hotels, and tourist attractions to lose money.

I think it's awful that just because a group of people cannot agree on a budget, many monuments that are enjoyed by innocent people will be shut down. People do not deserve to have their favorite sites taken away from them and hard-working business owners do not deserve to lose money because of one-sided politicians. The United States has become so divided due to politics and in my eyes, is no longer a "united" nation. These biased politicians need to come up with an agreement soon because in the mean time,  New York City will be losing important money.

Newslog #16

Firefighter Refused Call to Giffords Shooting

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/17/firefighter-refused-call-to-giffords-shooting/

In the Tucson, Arizona shooting last month, a firefighter refused to respond to a call because he believed that "political bantering" would get in the way of Senator Gabby Giffords' condition. The firefighter, Mark Ekstrum, and his team are especially trained to handle extensive medical emergencies. They didn't go to the crime scene until 90 minutes after the shooting occured. Ekstrum's boss said that his actions delayed the team and that they could have gotten more accomplished if they had just gotten there on time. In result, Ekstrum retired two days after the shooting, yet his bosses were still pondering on how to punish him. The boss, Williams, had stated that Ekstrum had started to say something about how he had a different political viewpoint than the rest of him team and was worried about what would happen at the crime scene. Ekstrum replied by saying that that statement was false and that he actually had voted for Giffords in the last election.

Whether or not Ekstrum had different political viewpoints than Giffords and his team is no excuse to not perform his duty. He should have put his differences aside to help save peoples' lives. Granted, he did feel guilty about his actions, because he "retired" two days after. But if I ever found out that a firefighter didn't help save me because they had different viewpoints than me, I would be furious.

Newslog #15

Diet soda tied to stroke risk, but reasons unclear
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_he_me/us_med_stroke_diet_soda;_ylt=Aoew1iCMRsqXs5KoUS0OlDKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpNjlnMWVjBHBvcwMzNwRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDZGlldHNvZGF0aWVk

A recent study has shown that those who drink diet soda everyday have been linked to stroke and heart attack compared to people who don't drink soda at all. However, there is no direct reason why this is happening. These symptoms might be because those who drink soda everyday might be those who don't exercise, are overweight, have high blood pressure, and smoke. Researchers looked into these reasons from 1993-2001 and even today, nothing has changed. Over that 8 year span, a Northern Manhattan study was put into effect that tracked the diets of 2,500 Hispanic and African-American people, whose ethnicities have been shown to have high rates of stroke. There were 116 daily diet soda drinkers and they were found to have a 48 percent higher risk of heart attack and stroke compared to the 901 people who didn't drink any soda at all. Of course, smoking, diabetes, and waistline sizes were also taken into account. Also, it was shown that even though most diet sodas don't have sugar in them, their corn sugar still makes people crave sweets instead of fruits, vegetables, and grains.


To be honest, I don't like drinking soda because I don't know most of the ingredients in it. I do have a can once in a while, but in order to be healthier, I drink water or juice instead. In addition, I was surprised to see that people crave sweets when drinking diet soda, especially because most of the time, there is no sugar in in.

Newslog #14

Rethinking the Yearbook


If you think about high school yearbooks, you'd probably assume that the "popular" people would make an appearance seven times, whereas the "less popular" people would only be shown once or twice. To avoid this, Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in New Jersey is making sure everyone is in their upcoming yearbook the same amount of times. The yearbook committee will try to get every student in the yearbook at least twice; the editor will make a tally of how many times a person has already appeared in the book to make sure they don't go over the limit. But some schools wonder if doing this reflects how much a specific student contributed to the school. In their defense, someone who was class president and captain of the soccer team might only be in two pictures and someone who was not social with other students nor was involved in any extra-curricular activities also might be in two pictures. According to San Diego State University professor Jean Twenge, Scotch Plain-Fanwood's approach has "...no real resemblance to real life."

I believe with Twenge, in which there cannot be the same number of pictures for a student highly involved in school activities and for a student who wasn't involved in any at all. However, I think the editors of the yearbook need to have a fair balance; there can't be seven pictures of one group of people and one picture of another; maybe five and three.

Newslog #13

Court fines hotel owners for refusing gay couple a room
http://www.gadling.com/2011/01/18/court-fines-hotel-owners-for-refusing-gay-couple-a-room/
In 2008, the Chymorvab Hotel in England refused a gay couple, Martyn Hall and Steven Priddy, to spend the night in their building. Owners of the hotel, Peter and Hazelmary Bullfor, claimed that they did this because they are Christian and will not give a room to an unmarried couple. But just recently, an English court sued the hotel and ruled that the Bullfor's discriminated against the couple and that the two men are civil partners with the same rights as married couples. Hall and Preddy received £1800 from the court.

I do not think it was right of the Bullfor's to deny Hall and Preddy a room. The two men were willing to pay and were not causing any harm to the hotel, which in my opinion, are the most important things to look for in customers, not their sexual orientation nor marital status.

Newslog #12

Who Knew?
http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?nc&vid=23751722

Many people nowadays find the urge post the most personal information about themselves on the Internet. It was reported last year that a computer can figure out about 8.5% of social security numbers of those born since 1989 thanks to social networking websites. The first three numbers of a person's SSN is from the area code where the SSN was issued, which usually means where the person lives. If a person posts their home town on their social networking page, it is easier for thieves to figure out the person's SSN. The next two numbers refer to where and when the person applied. The last four numbers are supposed to be random, but sometimes it has to do with the person (i.e. part of their birthday). Starting this year, the government is taking even stricter action and are going to make all the numbers issued completely random.

Before watching this video, I never knew how SSNs were made. I assumed that they were 9 random numbers that had nothing to do with any of my information. Currently, I do not have my hometown listed on my Facebook, even though I know all of my friends personally. People should take these precautions to make sure their identity is not stolen.