Coozer-Bits.

Yipes: Jellyfish invade FL beach, sting 1600 people!

WTF: 12 arrested for feeding the homeless in Orlando.

Lame: Woman-hating Santorum says abortion exception to protect mother's health is "phony."

PSA: Citibank confirms hacking attack.

Science: Periodic table adds two new superheavy elements.

Celery kills 4.

From CNN:

Authorities have shut down a Texas food processing plant, saying it was contaminated by bacteria linked to the deaths of four people, state health officials said.

The Texas Department of State Health Services on Wednesday ordered Sangar Produce and Processing to immediately stop processing food and recall all products shipped from its San Antonio plant since January. This comes after state laboratory results showed Listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria that can cause severe illness, in chopped celery at the plant.

Four people died after contracting listeriosis after consuming celery that had been processed at the Sangar plant, said Carrie Williams, a department spokeswoman. State health authorities came to this determination while investigating 10 cases in which people with serious underlying health problems contracted listeriosis over an 8-month period.

Six of those cases -- in Bexar, Travis and Hidalgo counties -- were linked to chopped celery processed at the SanGar plant, the state health services department said. Four of those people died, as did one other person who authorities believe got listeriosis from another source not connected with Sangar products.

What to do when body parts fall off.

Weird but interesting article from CNN. Also includes tips like "don't push your eyeballs back in" and "suck off the dirt" from fallen teeth.

[...] Beaty had sawed nearly all the way through his index finger, and he'd entirely cut off the top inch of his middle finger. Before they went out the door to the doctor's office, Beaty and his wife decided to put his fingertip in a Tupperware container with ice.

"That was probably the biggest mistake we made," Beaty says now.

Emergency room physicians say people often don't know what to do with a body part that's become derailed, whether it's a toe, finger, tooth or an eye that's popped out of its socket. Here's some advice:

Fingers and toes: Keep cold, not icy

A nurse at Swedish Medical Center admonished Beaty and his wife when she saw his finger lying in ice.

"This is not how to do it," Beaty's wife, Linda Carlson, recalls the nurse saying. Then, a little more tactfully the nurse added, "You probably don't plan to do this again."

The nurse informed the couple that although they were right to keep the finger cold, direct contact with ice could give the vessels freezer burn and make reattachment difficult.

Here's a better approach.

The first thing you do when a body part becomes detached is control the bleeding. Put direct pressure on the wound and elevate it higher than the heart, advises Dr. Dave Manthey, professor of emergency medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Then rinse off the severed finger or toe (or part thereof).

"You are trying to decrease the bacteria," Manthey explains. "But don't scrub it. If you scrub, you're causing blunt force damage."

Now get a clean cloth or piece of sterile gauze, dampen it with cold water and wrap the finger or toe in it. Then put the wrapped appendage into a plastic bag and put the bag in cold (preferably iced) water.

Finally, notes Manthey, keep the body part with you. For example, don't give it to a spouse, who might end up getting separated from you on the way to the hospital.

Despite the mistake with the ice, surgeons did manage to reattach Beaty's finger, and he now has full use of it, although he's lost some sensation, and it's shorter than his other middle finger.

Untreatable superbug hits UK.

From Orange:

A 'superbug' that is resistant to the most powerful antibiotics has reached the UK.

Scientists are warning the bug, an enzyme called New Delhi-Metallo-1 (NDM-1), could spread across the world as nothing is being developed to treat it.

There has been 37 reported cases in the UK, mainly among patients who travelled to areas of Asia for cosmetic surgery, transplants and cancer treatment.

The bug can exist inside different bacteria, like E.coli, and cause infections in other parts of the body.

It can also move from one bacterium to another and experts are concerned it may attach itself to more dangerous diseases and cause them to become resistant to antibiotics.

The scientists, writing in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, said: "It has an alarming potential to spread and diversify."

Dr David Livermore, one of the researchers and who works for the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA), said: "The NDM-1 problem is likely to get progressively worse in the foreseeable future.

"The potential for wider international spread and for NDM-1 to become endemic worldwide are clear and frightening."

Infections have already been passed from patient to patient in UK hospitals.

Researchers say the way to stop NDM-1 is to identify and isolate any patients who are infected.

PSA: Ancient monster whale MIGHT KILL YOU!

From New Scientist:

The fossilised skull of a colossal whale with a killer bite has been uncovered by a team who reckon the monster shared the Miocene oceans with a giant shark.

The bones, dated to 12 to 13 million years ago, were spotted by Klaas Post of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in Peru's Ica desert. In homage to Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the beast has been named Leviathan melvillei.

The skull is a huge 3 metres long, says team member Olivier Lambert at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The team estimates the whale would have been between 13 and 18 metres long, like a modern sperm whale.

What really surprised the researchers was the size of the whale's teeth. "Some of the biggest ones are 36 centimetres long and 12 centimetres wide, and are probably the biggest predatory teeth ever discovered," Lambert says.

PSA: Eco-friendly reusable bags MIGHT KILL YOU!

From Daily Mail:

Reusable shopping bags harbour potentially deadly bugs and could threaten public health, say scientists.

Tests on shoppers' bags revealed that half contained traces of the lethal toxin E.coli, which killed 26 people in Scotland in 1996 in one of the world's worst food-poisoning outbreaks.

The scientists also found many bags were contaminated with salmonella.

They say reusable bags must be washed regularly at high temperature to kill bugs left by the packaging from raw meat.

The level of bacteria they found was high enough to 'cause a wide range of serious health problems and even death', particularly to children.

PSA: Common food dyes MIGHT KILL YOU!

From CNN:

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says food dyes pose a number of risks to the American public and is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban three of the most commonly used dyes: Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. A new CSPI report says those dyes contain known carcinogens and contaminants that unnecessarily increase the risks of cancer, hyperactivity in children and allergic reactions.

"These synthetic chemicals do absolutely nothing to improve the nutritional quality or safety of foods, but trigger behavior problems in children and, possibly, cancer in anybody," said CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson, co-author of the report. "The Food and Drug Administration should ban dyes, which would force industry to color foods with real food ingredients, not toxic petrochemicals."

The FDA has not read the report yet an agency spokesperson said. "We appreciate the report from CSPI and look forward to reviewing it. We take our commitment to protecting children seriously".

According to the report, tests done on lab animals found contaminants that raised health concerns about several of the nine dyes currently approved for market. The approved dyes are Blue 1 & 2, Citrus Red 2, Green 3, Orange B, Red 3 & 40 and Yellow 5 & 6. And every year, about 15 million pounds of these dyes wind up in our food, with alot of it ending up in things like candy, fruit drinks and cereals.

70,000 mozzarella cheese balls confiscated.

The blue cheese shroud of Turin... From HuffPo:

ROME (AP)-- Italian police confiscated some 70,000 balls of mozzarella in Turin after consumers noticed the milky-white cheese quickly developed a bluish tint when the package was opened, authorities said Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Galan ordered ministry laboratories to investigate what he called a "disturbing" development.

State TV said a woman in Turin called police after noticing that the mozzarella, made in Germany for an Italian company, turned blue after contact with air, and that several merchants in Turin had received similar complaints. Later in the day another consumer, in Trento, a city 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the east in northern Italy, made a similar discovery, authorities said.

Samples were sent to laboratories that normally deal with anti-doping testing in sport to see if they could detect any foreign substances.

Results were expected in a few days.

Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio alerted German authorities and the European Commission to the apparently tainted mozzarella, the health ministry said.

No cases of illness were immediately reported.

Coozer-Bits.

List: Top 10 worst film & tv characters.

Eats: Guidelines created and to be enforced on what makes olive oil "extra virgin."

PSA: McDonalds recalls 12 million Shrek glasses for containing toxic cadmium.

Awesome: California to expand plastic bag ban.

Awesome: It's National Doughnut Day!

PSA: "Sack tapping" game may result in loss of testicles.

It's all fun and games until someone loses a testicle. From News.com.au:

A Minnesota teenager had to have his testicle amputated after being punched in the groin by a classmate.

KARE11.com said David Gibbons, 14, was changing classes in his Crosby high school when he was attacked by another student playing a game called "sack tapping".

David’s mother, Christy Gibbons, said it wasn't until hours later that they realised something was wrong.

"One o'clock in the morning he woke me up and told me he was in excruciating pain," she said.

David was taken to St Joseph's Hospital in Brainerd, Minnesota where surgeons removed his right testicle.

And David is not the only student who has suffered the consequences of the "sack tapping" game.

"It's just gotten way out of control," said Dr Scott Wheeler, a urologist in Brainerd, Minnesota who says he performs three to four surgeries a year on boys with ruptured testicles and other complications as a result of "sack tapping".

"All parents, you need to have this talk with your kids not to do it. It's lost its humour. It's not a game anymore. People get hurt," he added.

Herbal supplements often contain lead, other contaminants.

From the NY Times:

Nearly all of the herbal dietary supplements tested in a Congressional investigation contained trace amounts of lead and other contaminants, and some supplement sellers made illegal claims that their products can cure cancer and other diseases, investigators found.

The levels of heavy metals — including mercury, cadmium and arsenic — did not exceed thresholds considered dangerous, the investigators found. However, 16 of the 40 supplements tested contained pesticide residues that appeared to exceed legal limits, the investigators found. In some cases, the government has not set allowable levels of these pesticides because of a paucity of scientific research.

Investigators found at least nine products that made apparently illegal health claims, including a product containing ginkgo biloba that was labeled as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and a product containing ginseng labeled as a treatment to prevent diabetes and cancer. They also described a salesperson at a supplement specialty store who claimed that a garlic supplement could be taken instead of blood pressure medication.

Any product that claims to treat, cure, prevent or mitigate a disease is considered a drug and must go through strict regulatory reviews.

Coozer-Bits.

Karaoke Kills: Jury deadlocked on NJ's "Karaoke Killer."

Duh: Woody Allen defends Roman Polanski.

Local: The Village Voice is releasing hundreds of hours of secret tapes of the NYPD behaving badly.

PSA: Army recalls 44,000 helmets.

Awesome: Butterfinger searching for 4th member of their Butterfinger Defense League (featuring Erik Estrada, Lou Ferrigno, and Charisma Carpenter).

Duh: Woman dies trying to reverse park.

Toyota recalls 3.8 million cars because of floor mats.

From Freep.com:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found no evidence of mechanical causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, which has resulted in fatalities and Toyota's largest-ever recall, one of the company's top marketing executives said Monday.

"NHTSA recently closed another study finding that the only cause of unintended acceleration was an out-of-position or inappropriate floor mat," said Bob Carter, Toyota division group vice president. "There simply is no evidence of any other cause."

Toyota, which is asking owners of 3.8 million of its Camry, Avalon, Prius, Tacoma and Tundra models to remove or replace the mats, also characterized the problem of floor mat interference as an industry safety issue.

NHTSA received reports of 102 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck on certain Toyotas. The agency has not said how many of those incidents involved crashes. But an August accident near San Diego killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three family members when the Lexus ES350 he was driving barreled out of control. In a 911 call, someone in the vehicle reported the accelerator was stuck and the driver couldn't stop the vehicle.

Coozer-Bits.

Aww: Scientist secretly working on time travel so he can meet his dad.

WTF: Crocodile causes helicopter crash.

Awesome: Kung fu master cracks four coconuts with finger.

Hot Cha Cha: North Carolina beach going for world's biggest skinny dip.

Biz: Philip Morris agrees to pay $200 million to settle Colombia tax evasion suit.

Yipes: Dad kills son during argument on Father's Day.

Hot Cha Cha: Top 10 sexiest PETA ads (borderline NSFW?).

Politics: In Colombia, 28 of 33 governors and 70% of mayors investigated for corruption. Sounds like the US.

PSA: Cruise lines don't often respond properly - and sometimes cover-up - rapes on cruises.

Clarcon skin products have high levels of disease-causing bacteria.

Risk of bacterial contamination has led the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to warn consumers to not use any products made by Clarcon Biological Chemistry Laboratory Inc.

The Roy, Utah, firm voluntarily recalled some skin sanitizers and skin protectants sold under a variety of brand names after a recent FDA inspection found that the products contained high levels of disease-causing bacteria.

List of products can be found here.

Coozer-Bits.

Lame: Drunk Morgan Stanley trader goes on $10m trading frenzy.

Hero: 6-year-old takes wheel after dad passes out in car.

Creepy: Californian morgue overrun by maggots.

Sad: Younger elephant sad over death of friend.

PSA: 96,000 pounds of ground beef recalled.

Yipes: Angry customer bites off electrician's ear.

Duh: Virgin Mary shows up in a cup of coffee.

Recall: Pistachio nuts.

These recalls are getting out of hand. From Newsday:

The FDA Monday advised consumers to avoid pistachios and products containing them in the wake of a massive recall involving at least 1 million pounds of the nuts.

Four different strains of salmonella were identified on roasted pistachios shipped nationwide for processing in a variety of products, officials said.

The pistachios are being voluntarily recalled by Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc., in Terra Bella, Calif. The company is an affiliate of Setton International Foods Inc., in Commack, where officials declined to comment. A public relations representative in Washington, D.C., said the two divisions are legally separate entities.

The recall was announced in a news briefing by officials from the U.S. Food and Drug and Administration and the state of California. Consumers are being advised not to eat pistachios until investigators conclude the probe. For those who have already purchased roasted pistachios, the FDA advises consumers to hold on to the products until it is determined whether they are salmonella-free.

Coozer-Bits.

Film & TV: Cool interview with Nick Frost.

Rush: Neil Peart appears on some dude's album!

Sad: Crabs feel pain. Maybe we shouldn't boil them alive...

Sad: Thousands of toads killed... y'know, for the kids!

Games: Shoot em up video games improve eyesight.

Robot Uprising Watch: Fire-breathing giant robot attacks Tokyo in Roppongi art project gone amok!

Creepy: Bill O'Reilly & His Loofah Brigade stalking, harassing, and intimidating bloggers.

PSA: Want to help stop the O'Reilly harassment machine?

Recall: Ball Park franks.

I'm pretty sure there are worse things in ballpark franks than cheese. From the Chicago Tribune:

Sara Lee Corp. said Thursday it's voluntarily recalling 1,728 pounds of its Ball Park brand hot dogs due to a packaging error.

A partial production run of Ball Park Cheese Franks was inadvertently packaged as Ball Park Beef Franks. Thus, some Ball Park Beef Franks may contain cheese, a potential risk to people allergic to milk, as well as poultry and pork.

The recall covers Ball Park Beef Franks with the UPC Code 5450010002, and packaging that says "USE BUY May 08 09 P8740A."

Sara Lee declined to say where the recalled hot dogs were primarily sold, though a spokesperson said they weren't sold in the Chicago area. The company has received no reports of illness.

PSA: Keep poisons away from your pets!

Some great info here. Here's just an excerpt:

COMMON PEOPLE FOODS THAT ARE POISON TO PETS INCLUDE:
•Chocolate, Coffee, and Caffeine. Cocoa and caffeine contain the stimulant theobromine, which can be deadly to pets, especially dogs.
•Avocado - avocados contain Persin, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea in dogs.
•Grapes and raisins - the toxic substance in grapes and raisins is not known, however, these fruits can cause kidney failure in dogs.
•Raw yeast dough - can cause an animal's stomach or intestines to rupture from gas accumulation.
•Xylitol - an artificial sweetener used in sugarfree gum, candy, baked goods, and toothpaste. Xylitol causes insulin levels to rise, which can be fatal.
•Onions, garlic, and chives in large quantities can cause gastrointestinal irritation and could possibly lead to red blood cell damage. The small quantities found in pet treats and foods are safe.
•Cooked bones - cooked bones can splinter and puncture an animals stomach or intestines. Raw foods and bones are becoming more popular as we look to more natural diets for our pets. Some of these are safe and beneficial for your pet. However, before feeding any raw food items to your pets, you should consult your veterinarian for breed specific information on giving your pet this type of food.