Quickies

Quickies: NASA Deals with Bugs, Innovations in Dairy-Free Cheese, and Food Babe is Ridiculous

  • The “Food Babe” Blogger Is Full of Shit – “Hari’s superhero origin story is that she came down with appendicitis and didn’t accept the explanation that appendicitis just happens sometimes. So she quit her job as a consultant, attended Google University and transformed herself into an uncredentialed expert in everything she admittedly can’t pronounce. Slap the catchy moniker “Food Babe” on top, throw in a couple of trend stories and some appearances on the Dr. Oz show, and we have the new organic media darling. But reader beware. Here are some reasons why she’s the worst assault on science on the Internet.” And our very own Kavin got mentioned in the article!
  • Ex-Scientology Exec Thinks Church Tried to Frame Him Over Going Clear – “DeVocht’s theory—that someone working for the church had taken the photos and provided them to the police as a way to harass him—might seem desperate and paranoid if he were discussing any entity but Scientology, an organization with a rich and documented history of surveilling and harassing ex-members and other critics.”
  • When Wearing Shorts Was Taboo – “The city of Honesdale, Pa., for instance, banned the wearing of shorts in 1938, according to the Moberly Monitor-Index in Missouri. ‘Honesdale is a modest town, not a bathing beach,’ one city leader told the newspaper.”
  • NASA’s Awesomely Elaborate Plan to Deal with Splattered Bug Guts – “Bug guts on your windshield are an inevitable part of life and a reminder of your own fleeting mortality. But they’re also a major drag on the aerodynamics of a car or plane—reducing the fuel efficiency of airplanes as much as a whopping six percent, according to NASA.”
  • Things You Should Never Say to Women Working in Tech or Science – “Cate Burlington offers a list on the Toast of such things said to her by her male coworkers. Some of them are plainly insulting and condescending, while others are backhanded compliments.”
  • Hold The Mammal: Daring To Make Dairy-Free Cheese From Nuts – “It’s this basic culturing process that distinguishes the new wave of vegan cheeses from others that rely on long ingredient lists and heavy processing to mimic the taste and texture of dairy cheese. Many vegan cheese-like products are made with vegetable or coconut oil, tapioca starch, flavorings and preservatives. Sometimes yeast extract is used to provide a cheddar-like essence. One company, called Daiya, uses lactic acid to imitate the pungent spice of cheese. The product is flavorful, yet reminiscent of industrial blocks of cheddar.”
  • Setting Limits for Testing Brains – “With progress, though, comes a whole new set of ethical questions. Can drugs used to treat conditions like ADHD, for example, also be used to make healthy people into sharper, more focused versions of themselves—and should they? Can a person with Alzheimer’s truly consent to testing that may help scientists better understand their disease? Can brain scans submitted as courtroom evidence reveal anything about a defendant’s intent?”

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Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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5 Comments

  1. I’m so confused now.

    The Food Babe says I shouldn’t ingest any chemicals but then she said that my liver is releasing cancer-fighting chemicals.

    How do I make it stop?

      1. Harmonica music should harmonize nicely with your internal organs, because another name for harmonicas is “mouth organs”, and you eat food with your mouth, and harmonicas are made (partially) out of wood, which is organic because wood is made from carbo… carbo… carbohydrates! Arrgghh! Chemicals!!!! Be gone, I say. BE GONE!!!

        1. As an aside, a guy I know on Facebook is trying to lose weight. People started suggesting high-protein diets.

          Problem is, the guy has gout. Yeah, a high-protein diet could kill his kidneys.

  2. Gratz, Kavin! Yeah, Food Babe is the Jenny McCarthy of food.

    (And her treatment of India reminds me of how I sing Queen softly to troll people into thinking it’s ‘native wisdom’. “Prophets Song” works especially well for that. But while I’m just trolling and lolling with that, there are people who will genuinely exploit you. Such as Food Babe.)

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