Month: January 2003

Natural Flavors

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I was recently given an interesting article that ran in The Atlantic Monthly a few years ago, discussing additives that provide flavor and scent to processed foods.
Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good
Most processed foods don’t actually have much flavor or taste until they are artificially added. And the difference between “natural flavors” and “artificial flavors” is found more in perception on the part of consumers than in anything related to health or safety.
I especially liked this description of a popular “natural” additive:

Cochineal extract (also known as carmine or carminic acid) is made from the desiccated bodies of female Dactylopius coccus Costa, a small insect harvested mainly in Peru and the Canary Islands. The bug feeds on red cactus berries, and color from the berries accumulates in the females and their unhatched larvae. The insects are collected, dried, and ground into a pigment. It takes about 70,000 of them to produce a pound of carmine, which is used to make processed foods look pink, red, or purple. Dannon strawberry yogurt gets its color from carmine, and so do many frozen fruit bars, candies, and fruit fillings, and Ocean Spray pink-grapefruit juice drink.

A good read. The article is an excerpt from Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser.

A Fork In The Road

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Alice came to a fork in the road.
“Which road do I take?” she asked.
“Where do you want to go?” responded the Cheshire cat.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”
— Lewis Carroll
(thanks, Kir)

Spam Fighting Tip

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Apple has posted an AppleCare Knowledge Base document discussing how rendering an HTML email message might lead to more spam. It explains why you should have your email program configured to deny network access when displaying HTML messages.
To change these preferences in Microsoft’s Entourage or Outlook Express for the Mac, choose Edit >> Preferences >> Mail & News, then select the Read tab so you see the screen below. (Sorry, no examples for other programs/platforms at this time, but the procedure should be reasonably similar).
entourage.gif
The most important option to leave turned off is the “Allow network access when displaying complex HTML.” Keeping this option unchecked prevents the techniques used to gather valid email addresses (yours!).
I always keep HTML rendering turned off, as well. Relevant information is still easily found when the HTML email is from a trusted source (Amazon or Ofoto, for example). And you can always turn rendering (and only rendering, not network access) back on temporarily to read a message that’s unintelligible.
Continue reading to see examples of messages with the “Display complex HTML in messages” option turned on and off.

Continue reading “Spam Fighting Tip” →

Intersex Passport

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A person from Australia has been issued a passport with an X in the gender section, rather than F or M.
X marks the spot for intersex Alex
It appears to be the first such passport acknowledging that some people are of indeterminate gender.
Authorities in Australia initially told Alex that an M or F choice would be required because their computers couldn’t handle anything else. In the end, though, more enlightened heads prevailed and an appropriate passport was provided. One can only hope that other governments will start to follow suit.
It will be interesting to see the response in America when this issue comes up. The same groups who are worried about the “breakdown” of the family will likely be just as apoplectic about the breakdown on the sexes. After all, they will say, there was only Adam and Eve — no Alex.
One thing to notice as you read the article linked above: The author had to do some thinking outside the box in order to write the piece without once using the third person singular to refer to the subject. “Him” and “her” aren’t applicable, and “it” is definitely not appropriate. Should there be a new personal pronoun for those who are androgynous?
(found via one.point.zero)

A Good Night

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Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) is on TV, and The West Wing will be on next. Then I’m off for some midnight sledding in the heaps of new snow we got today. I’m happy.

Yuki

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Big, heavy, wet flakes of snow are falling. It’s so damp that it looks more like rain coming down rather than the lazy, gentle descent of light snow.
We had almost a foot of snow yesterday morning. It came down quickly, starting around 7:30am and then tapering off around noon. I rode my bike to the gym before work, and had trouble seeing through the thick flakes flying into my eyes. When I headed to work, legions of people were out shoveling snow. Little old ladies hardly taller than the shovels they wielded were clearing snow from in front of their houses.
It’s just after midnight now and the snow started to come down again about 45 minutes ago, covering once again the recently-cleared streets and paths.

Japanese Clone?

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The Raelian cult recently announced the impending arrival of yet another cloned baby, this one a Japanese boy.
Raelians’ latest claim: Japanese clone is next
Japan Times Online
Neither the Raelians nor Clonaid — their scientific partner — has offered any proof of this or the two previous cloned baby claims.
The Japanese baby is supposedly a clone of a boy who died 18 months ago in a traffic accident.
Although the baby will be born outside of Japan to a surrogate mother, the soon-to-be parents say they plan to live in Japan. This raises some interesting questions, to say the least.
Human cloning brings such an overwhelming raft of questions and quandaries — ethical, moral and practical. The first thing that came to mind when I read about this latest claim was the relatively pedestrian question of citizenship.
What will be the baby’s citizenship? He comes from a deceased Japanese citizen, and will be born outside Japan to a non-Japanese surrogate mother. What kind of paperwork will the parents have to show when they bring the child to Japan? There’s no way they’re going to be able to sneak him back into the country considering the advance warning. And then the Japanese media will be all over this like… well, like the Japanese media.
Human cloning is banned in Japan. But there is no law covering cloning of or for Japanese citizens outside of Japan.
What kind of birth papers are created when a cloned baby is born? Are the Raelians resorting to forged documents to make the baby appear to have come into existence through traditional means? Or will there be some kind of special birth records for cloned babies, whether they were born legally or not?
If these claims turn out to be true, it’s going to be the beginning of a very strange and fascinating time. It will be interesting to watch the attempts to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. It’s going to become more and more difficult to control science through law, for better or worse.