Bad precedent. Don't these guys realize that settling a suit such as this is like throwing a bloody steak into a pool of sharks?

McDonald's has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over artery-clogging trans fats in its cooking oils, the company said Friday.

(link) [CNN]

Sat, 12 Feb 2005 00:00 /Politics | 0 writebacks | permanent link

Well, this should make everybody feel better about turning engineers loose on life forms... when I was a kid in the fifties and sixties, I was convinced that the world would end in a nuclear fireball. Forty years later I'm convinced that it won't - it'll be biology that'll be our undoing, not physics.

In a commentary titled 'Genetic engineering for better suburbia', Vincent Barnes says, 'Cures for diseases and feeding the world with genetically modified foods is well and good but the real money is in solving the problems of homeowners, the vast silent majority of Americans who toil away every spring and summer fighting pests and every fall injuring their backs and falling off ladders.' Should Monsanto bring us designer maples that don't shed leaves? Would you buy designer grass that grows two inches and stops? Even if you won't eat GM food?"

Sat, 12 Feb 2005 00:00 /Agriculture | 0 writebacks | permanent link

This is insane:

In the 1980's, on scientists' advice, the industry replaced saturated fats like coconut oil and butter with oil containing trans fat. Now nutritionists have changed their edict.

Now, I'm not a big fan of any processed ("engineered") food: I like food that's natural. Which is why I was appalled at the original ban on natural oils and their (practically) mandated replacement with trans-fats back in the early 80's.

I figure that, since humans are part of the natural world, we should stick as close as possible to eating what that world designed us to eat. We don't have to constantly one-up Mother Nature. As the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" This tale is the perfect example of what happens when you try to fix things that aren't broken.

Studies show artificial fat has the same heart-clogging properties as saturated fat, and it also reduces the good cholesterol that can clear arteries.

Sat, 12 Feb 2005 00:00 /Agriculture | 0 writebacks | permanent link

Reports of Apple's demise were greatly exaggerated.

Shares near all-time high price

Sat, 12 Feb 2005 00:00 /Technology | 0 writebacks | permanent link