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Thursday, October 31, 2013

7 Things to Never Eat or Drink While Traveling

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/7-things-never-eat-drink-while-traveling-150700926.html

7 Things to Never Eat or Drink While Traveling

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By John Mariani
Eating the kinds of bizarre foods TV omnivore Andrew Zimmern puts in his mouth each week was once the hapless lot - never the intent - of 19th century adventurers like SirRichard Burton, who while trekking from Zanzibar into the Congo would have given anything for some good British beef andYorkshire pudding
 Traveler's illnesses will lay low, even kill, guys who count themselves manly if they gulp down stinky tofu in Taipei or maggots in the Yucatan.Ernest Hemingway would have shot anyone on safari who suggested he drink the blood of awater buffalo. It's bad enough just dealing with unwashed lettuce in a salad in Madrid, much less shrimp pulled up from the putrid rivers of Phnom Penh. And you can just as easily come down with Delhi Belly in Mumbai as you can Montezuma's Revenge in Mexico City. 
You're never going to escape it entirely, not on the Champs Élysées or the Via Veneto, though you can take precautions by watching out for certain foods that have a greater chance of bringing you to your knees talking to Ralph on the big white phone.
 The basic problem is that if you grew up in the U.S., no matter how healthy your are, you haven't developed defenses against all exotic bacteria. And the stress of travel, the different schedules and missed routines can decrease your immune system so that you're ripe to pick up bacteria from something as innocent-looking as a stalk of celery. Even a cold, uncooked soup like gazpacho can mean trouble. And because it's impossible to know what the animal you intend to eat was eating before it got to you, odd species like snake and rats are not to be trifled with. 
The next problem is how the food was handled, even in the finest restaurants. Hell, 67 out of 78 people dining at Noma in Copenhagen, considered by some the best restaurant in the world, got food poisoning in one night. But the odds stacked against really mount in street foods, when running water is rarely available.
 Processed foods out of China and Thailand have become so problematic - sometimes what the package says, like beef, isn't even what's inside - that many Chinese markets and restaurants in America refuse to buy ingredients from Asia and proclaim that on their menus. 
Still, there are specific foods that are in varying degrees risky. Here are a few I (mostly) stay away from in foreign countries. Manly man that I am, I can live without ever eating Mexican monkey's brains or Malaysian ants. And probably live longer.
SHELLFISH
However proud an Osaka sushi chef is of the pristine quality of his raw seafood, shellfish, which are bottom feeders, pick up a lot of nasty bacteria, and if uncooked, they can easily be transferred to you. Cooking should kill most of them off, and the fish used for sashimi is pretty safe. But eating raw oysters or mussels anywhere can be hazardous. I know: I ate a bad oyster in New Orleans and was never so sick in my life. Oyster-causing hepatitis can be a killer that destroys your liver (and thereby your ability to drink alcohol). You can also get a tapeworm from eating contaminated raw meat.
Game
 Next time you enjoy a nice haunch of venison at a restaurant in the U.S., rest assured it came - by law - from an inspected game farm. Wild game, even trout from crystalline Alaskan rivers, may contain badass bacteria, and before you eat what you kill in the wild, you'd better be damn sure the animal was healthy. If you do see "wild game" on a menu, then it was most probably venison or grouse that was shot in Scotland and approved for sale by a game inspector. One of the best, most reliable sources for wild game is D'Artagnan Foods, which imports inspected foods including Scottish pheasant, redlegged partridge, grouse and wood pigeon. 
PRODUCE
Every guidebook to a foreign country stresses not eating unwashed, uncooked vegetables and fruits. And too many people have done so anyway at their peril and ended up sick as a dog from salmonella, cyclospora, campylobacter, and more. You can wash and scrub and peel raw fruits and vegetables and remove the outer bacteria, but that won't kill what's inside. Boiling and cooking is more advisable. And watch out for desserts, too, that may have raw fruit in or around them. Order a nice slice of apple pie instead.
PORK
 Some Americans still harbor an irrational fear about eating pork that has not been cooked to shoe leather supposedly to kill off the trichinosis larvae. The fact is, there are fewer than a dozen reported cases of trichinosis in the U.S. each year, and all of them come from eating wild game, including a wild hog. Hog production in the U.S. is extremely hygienic, so cooking your pig till pink is just fine. But in the rest of the world, particularly in developing countries, such hygiene is not standard practice, so only eat pork there that has been thoroughly cooked through to 160 degrees F.
EGGS
Bet you didn't know that half of all egg-related illnesses, mainly salmonella, are picked up in restaurants, including in the U.S. The problem is in the chicken that lays them, not the shell itself, though this should be thoroughly washed, something that cannot be counted on abroad, where a freshly laid egg is cherished. That means no Caesar salads abroad and no steak tartar with a raw egg in it. Forget the raw steak too.
WATER
 It used to be a rubric when traveling abroad not to drink the water, even in Europe. But this has largely become irrelevant if you're staying in a city like Paris, Stockholm, or Tokyo, where the better hotels filter their water. Nevertheless, unless you ask, you won't know that, and even brushing your teeth with contaminated water is going to be bad news. Bottled water is crucial when traveling, and the more familiar the label on the bottle, the better off you'll be. Drinking from a fountain is very stupid. A friend of mine recently spent three weeks in spasmodic pain just because he caught a wave of river water in his mouth while sailing through Bangkok. 
SPIT
If you're taking a pleasant cruise down the Amazon with a reputable outfitter, you probably don't need to be told about chicha. But just in case you are invited by some local tribesmen anywhere in the Amazon Basin to knock back a tot of chicha, do anything to avoid it. Chicha comes in many forms, but it always involves saliva. In some cases the cassava root is chewed by the tribeswomen and the juice spat into a bowl that is left to ferment into alcohol. The honor of drinking chicha is one that may follow you home for the next several months. Fortunately I have not been so honored; unfortunately, I do not know the etiquette for turning down the chief's offer to take a swig. Maybe tell him your doctor put you on antibiotics and said you can't drink alcohol
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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Deep Space Objects


http://news.yahoo.com/photos/deep-space-objects-1382961572-slideshow/

Deep Space Objects

Deep Space Objects
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Amateur astronomer Bill Snyder has been involved with astrophotography since 2007. Once he takes his pictures with a camera and a telescope, the data must be processed to produce the colorful images seen in this slide show. He recently acquired a Apogee U8300 CCD camera, an Orion Atlas EQG computerized mount and a TMB SS 130mm telescope which has been installed in his home observatory in Pittsburgh, Pa. Snyder also works with Martin Pugh at Heavens Mirror Observatory at the Sierra Remote Observatory complex in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. (Yahoo News)
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Monday, October 28, 2013

As Virginia goes, so goes the nation?


http://theweek.com/article/index/251822/as-virginia-goes-so-goes-the-nation

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As Virginia goes, so goes the nation?

OCTOBER 28, 2013, AT 8:48 PM
It's easy to overstate the impact of one race for governor but, as Mark Murray points out, Virginia is a state that increasingly looks very much like the United States as a whole.

"In the last two presidential contests, the state's popular vote (Obama 53-46 percent in '08; Obama 51-47 percent in '12) exactly matched the national popular vote... And Virginia, demographically, looks like the country at large — whites near 70 percent of the population, African Americans in the double digits, Latinos at 8 percent, Asian Americans at 6 percent. It also has a fairly even mixture of urban, suburban, and rural areas."

If this is true, then Republicans are in big, big trouble.

A new Washington Post poll shows Terry McAuliffe (D) leading Ken Cuccinelli (R) in the Virginia governor’s race by 12 points. But it’s the Democrat's whopping 24-point lead among women that should really worry Republicans. Their party is unappealing to the vast majority of women.

Some Republicans may point to New Jersey as proof their party has nothing to worry about. After all, if polls there are correct, Gov. Chris Christie (R) is headed for a landslide win in a blue state that voted for Obama in the last two presidential elections.

But there's a key difference: New Jersey polls don't also show the collapse of the Democratic party. In Virginia, the Republican party is reeling and their nominee for governor is losing to an otherwise very weak Democratic nominee.

There’s little doubt that Christie would be a strong national candidate if he were to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. But most analysts agree that winning that nomination would be incredible tough with a GOP veering further and further to the right.
Virginia is additional proof that the task would be very hard.
---Taegan D. Goddard is the founder ofPolitical Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political websites. He also runsWonk Wire and the Political Dictionary. Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and COO of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. senator and governor. Goddard is also co-author of You Won — Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including The Washington PostUSA Today,Boston GlobeSan Francisco Chronicle,Chicago TribunePhiladelphia Inquirer andChristian Science Monitor. Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.



Running amok


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Francis,

I'm sick of Republicans running amok in Washington. We can put a stop to this, and 2014 is the year to do it.

But it's only possible if we put our full weight behind the Democratic women who are running to take crucial House seats out of the hands of the reckless GOP.

That means we make sure our women aren't outspent by the GOP's bottomless pockets. Which is why it's so important we meet our monthly goal of 25,000 grassroots donations -- and as of today we are only 4,900 away. I know our EMILY's List community can make this happen.

Help EMILY's List reach our October goal and do what it takes to send these Democratic women to Washington and take back the House in 2014. We've got just four more days so contribute right now!

We've seen firsthand just how important it is for Democratic women to have a seat at the table -- breaking through stalemates and getting things done.

This is the year we take back the House. This is the year we send reinforcements to the Democratic women fighting for us every day. 

Eloise Gomez Reyes in California. Gwen Graham in Florida. Martha Robertson in New York. These pro-choice Democratic women are the ones we know will protect us from the irresponsible GOP.

Next November, make sure that you did your part to take back the House. With four days left in October, let's put a major dent in the GOP's chance to rescue its image.

Do your part for the pro-choice Democratic women running to protect you and your family. Donate right now.

Let's go.

Melissa Ryan
Digital Director, EMILY's List

Help us fight back!








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CEO of JPMorgan Chase: No tax breaks for Wall Street crime.  
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