The Latest Thing to Fear

When attending a food service sanitation course, I was told that there is shit on everything. EVERYTHING. All of the produce you buy in the store (which is why you should wash it before eating it), there's shit in the sink in your kitchen, and even more disgustingly, on drinking fountains.

There is a bottled water ban at North Bend Middle School in Eugene, Oregon. The school says that kids are smuggling alcohol in those bottles, and while I'm sure that a kid or two has done that, most probably have not. I remember a girl bringing booze in a water bottle when I was in junior high, and the moment she opened it up in the classroom (which was a big, lecture type one) you could smell it across the room. But that's the exception, hardly the rule.

Kyleray Katherman (EDIT: I forgot to mention...Kyleray is an 8th grader) had a hunch that the drinking fountains weren't clean. He tested four drinking fountains around the school and a toilet, using cotton swabs and growing cultures in the science lab, presenting his findings to the school board with a Powerpoint presentation. Guess which one was the cleanest.

The toilet.

The school replaced parts of the fountains to clean them up, but still won't let kids bring bottled water to class. But I bet that kid gets a good job out of this. Jut as soon as he's old enough to work.

The Latest Thing to Fear

(AP) A dozen riders on an Arkansas roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down — 150 feet above the ground — after a power outage shut down the attraction.

The Latest Thing to Fear

"He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.

"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.""

He's talking about sodium benzoate. It's added to many, many sodas to prevent mold. A scientist at Sheffield University has been studying it, and has found some alarming results.

In addition:

Apparently when mixed with vitamin C (as it is in some beverages), it creates benzene, which is a carcinogin.

Scary. Another reason not to drink pop.