This is disappointing and despicable. I hate to see stuff like this, on Women’s Day 2018, or any other day. There are some bad dudes out there.
A man who was upset that his co-worker rejected his romantic advances allegedly urinated in the women’s water bottle as revenge.
Conrrado Cruz Perez, 47, is facing two counts of adulterating a substance with bodily fluids, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Pioneer Press.
Deputies responded to a Perkins restaurant in Vadnais Heights, Minn., last October after an employee claimed she was being harassed by a co-worker who was a baker at the eatery, the outlet reports.
CaliBurger has a new chef, but he won’t be needing a bathroom break. Or a smoking break. Or any breaks. The “chef” is Flippy, an industrial robotic arm manufactured by Fanuc and brought to life by Miso Robotics‘ cloud-connected artificial intelligence platform. The automated kitchen assistant begins work this week at the Pasadena restaurant, and the technology is on track to be expanded to all 10 U.S.-based CaliBurger locations by the end of the year. CaliBurger has another drive-through location in the Bakersfield area, and a Santa Clarita restaurant is opening soon. How it works David Zito, co-founder and CEO of Pasadena-based Miso Robotics, explained how the technology works: “This combines thermal vision, 3D and computer vision data, and we use machine-learning algorithms,” he said. “It’s really a deep-learning technique where we can take all of that data and train Flippy to see what’s happening on the grill. He can react to it to make sure he’s cooking the burgers consistently every time.” When a kitchen worker arranges patties on the grill, Flippy can detect where they are. The robot knows the temperature of the grill as well as the temperature of each patty, so he can turn them over at the right time and remove them from the grill when they are properly cooked, Zito said. That lets the kitchen staff know when to place cheese on top or when to dress the burgers. The technology also enables Flippy to switch from using one spatula for raw meat to another for cooked meat. The robot can also clean spatulas while cooking and wipe the surface of the grill with a scraper, Zito said. The process is precise, efficient, food-safe — and above all, consistent, he said. The mind of a grill chef “Over time, we can train Flippy to have the mind of a grill chef,” Zito said. “John has had struggles to staff the grill, and that’s an important role when you’re making the CaliBurger, their signature dish,” he said, referring to John Miller, chain chairman and CEO of the chain and related companies. “But this is not about labor replacement. It’s about augmenting the staff that’s in the kitchen,” he added. The robotic arms sell for $60,000 to $100,000, depending on the specific tasks a restaurant needs it to perform. Miso also charges a 20 percent fee per year for the use of its cloud-connected learning platform. “It continually learns,” Zito said. “It gets better over time.”
And it’s not every day your baby gets written up by The Washington Post.
I envision Tom Hanks and Meryl Strep arguing about when to go public about the latest foodborne illness gripping the country.
The reality is me sitting on my couch at 3 a.m. in Brisbane, cranking stuff out because I love it.
barfblog.com has become a labour of love, in that I haven’t been paid to do it since Dec. 2016. Every time I try to get out, I get pulled back in.
But I need a paycheck.
Rather than go through the Byzantine Australian system of having third-parties post jobs, and then only hiring internally to meet some union rule, I figured it’s time to throw myself out there after 3 broken ribs.
Everyone loves food safety, as long as it’s free.
I am an Australian citizen (and Canadian and American), I have a full driver’s license, and like long walks on the beach.
You want to set up a food safety/public health policy center, I’m your person.
I don’t care if it’s academic, government or labourer (anyone who thinks there is a difference is seriously into the British caste system – we’re not, me, Amy, Ben, all public school right through to PhDs).
I made the commitment with Amy to move to Brisbane in 2011, and have been a bit grumpy since 2013 when Kansas State decided I had retired my full professoring position because of poor attendance.
I’m working on a book, but making money on that is similar to me playing goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I love the immediacy of barfblog.com.
Erin Blakemore of The Washington Post (who did not talk with me or Chapman) writes barfblog.comis run by a group of food-safety experts who are fascinated by outbreaks, infestations and, yes, vomit.
It’s not all about the gross-out, though. Each entry brings evidence-based perspective to issues that are often misunderstood, such as the safety of raw-milk cheese and how norovirus spreads.
The blog updates pretty frequently, and every week or so it puts out Food Safety Talk, a wide-ranging podcast that tackles the issues of the day. The blog also offers information on big outbreaks and food recalls, and it gives helpful tips on how to avoid gastrointestinal disaster.
If you’re revolted by talk of poo and puke, you might steer away. Better to go elsewhere if you’re offended by the occasional curse word, too.
That said, there’s no more informative way to keep up to speed on the way illness can spread from farm to fork — even if you can’t stomach some of the subject matter.
Family Guy crooner Seth MacFarlane tweeted about the Academy Awards, which just ended, that until a movie like “Bridesmaids” or “Airplane!” gets a Best Picture win or even a nomination, it’s all conspicuously incomplete. “Get Out” is a breath of fresh air to be sure, but it’s the exception.
I retweeted that I responded to an inquiry today about Salmonella in eggs, wrote that pasteurized eggs are available, and don’t call me Shirley.
(Get Out was a fairly great movie. Airplane! still stands up to repeat viewing).
In honour of Airplane!, CNN is reporting that after making it through a tough patch of turbulence as a plane headed toward Washington Dulles International Airport, the pilot sent a report to the Aviation Weather Center.
The center, which is run by the National Weather Service, swiftly relayed the message to its Twitter followers. It was a report from a pilot that no passenger wants to hear. “Pretty much everyone on the plane threw up,” the tweet said.
The pilot of the flight, which took off in Charlottesville, Virginia, was able to send the message as soon as it got close enough to the ground, said Clinton Wallace, the center’s deputy director.
Later Friday, United Airlines, which operated the flight, offered a slightly less drastic account of what had occurred.
“Air Wisconsin Flight 3833 operating as United Express from Charlottesville, Va. to Washington Dulles International encountered turbulence because of high winds,” United said in a statement. “A few customers onboard the regional jet became ill as the aircraft was preparing to land. The aircraft landed safely and taxied to its gate. No customers required medical attention because of the turbulence.”
According to Air Wisconsin’s website, the aircraft was a Bombardier CRJ200 with a passenger capacity of 50 and a crew of three. It was not clear how many passengers were on the flight.
A Russian native from Brooklyn has, according to USA Today, been accused of poisoning her look-alike with a cheesecake and then stealing her identity and other property.
Forty-two-year-old Viktoria Nasyrova was arraigned Tuesday on attempted murder, burglary, assault and other charges. She was arrested in March last year. Her lawyer declined to comment.
Prosecutors say Nasyrova visited the Queens home of the fellow Russian speaking victim in 2016 bearing a cheesecake tainted with a tranquilizer.
They say the 35-year-old victim ate the cheesecake, fell ill and passed out. She was found the next day on her bed unconscious with pills scattered about as if she tried to kill herself.
The victim later realized her passport, employment card, a gold ring and cash were missing.
Nasyrova faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
We talked oysters, sprouts, raw milk and undercooked beef for a few minutes. I got my plug in for using a thermometer (although I think I erroneously said meat instead of beef).
I tried not to look too goofy (not sure I accomplished that).
My face isn’t always washed out but I ended up doing the interview via Skype from my home office (with an antique Hespeler hockey stick in the background), in direct afternoon sunlight, instead of my planned location of a campus office. The locale change was due to the 5” of snow that hit Raleigh the day before. I wasn’t driving anywhere with the NC snow-excited drivers.
I’m also not the creator of Barf Blog. I just happen to host the barfblog collective. And contribute to it sometimes.
Oh well, can’t get it all right, but food safety made it into a couple of million homes this afternoon.
But there’s no way the segment was as impactful as the one previous to mine – it was about farting at the gym.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control there are at least 350 languages spoken in U.S. homes (2009-2013 data).
People who have limited English proficiency can be found in all 50 states (2014 data).
About 65,00 people in the U.S. who have limited English proficiency speak Navajo or another native North American Language (2009-2013 data).
Effective communication during an emergency can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. This is true whether communicating with those whose primary language is English or with people who have limited English proficiency. People who are limited English proficient (LEP) are those who “do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English” (https://www.lep.gov/faqs/faqs.html#OneQ1).
People who are LEP can be found throughout the United States and when it comes to planning for, responding to, and recovering from disasters, considering their needs can help ensure a better emergency response. Below are some tips from our colleagues at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for reaching LEP communities in emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
Establish policies and procedures that include language access in your emergency plan.
Identify the language groups in your area.
Ensure LEP individuals can access your programs and services.
Conduct outreach efforts.
Include LEP individuals and language access issues in training,
Provide notifications, warnings, and other information in the languages of the affected communities.
Plan for language access needs as part of survivor care.
Do not rely upon children as interpreters and translators.
In the summer of 1985, I was working in a cool lab, and about to enter the final year of my undergraduate degree in molecular biology and genetics.
And I was living with a girl.
In Aug. 1985, we got tickets to go see Neil Young and the International Harvesters at the CNE (the Canadian National Exhibition, or the Ex) and I fell ridiculously ill.
I was in bed for two weeks, barfing, and in agony – a great way to start a new relationship that would bear four beautiful daughters.
I made it out of bed to see Neil and the Harvesters.
The next day I went home to Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
I was really, really sick, my eye really, really hurt, and my parents suggested I go see the eye doctor.
Within 5 minutes, he diagnosed eye Herpes, prescribed a retroviral cream, and I was quickly cured.
Yeah, science.
I have been exceedingly public about this story in the fantastical hope that others may be spared some of the pain, or at least have it contained.
Sarah Zhang of The Atlantic writes – 33 years later – that Herpes simplex virus type 1 is best known as the culprit behind cold sores. When it’s not causing itchy, crusty sores on the mouth, it hides in the bundle of nerves that run through the face. And it’s super common. An estimated 50 to 90 percent of people harbor lifelong infections of HSV-1—largely without incident.
But in some cases, HSV-1 can run through that bundles of nerves in the face and erupt in the eye. Or maybe it gets into the eye from the outside. No one is really sure. In any case, HSV-1 can definitely infect the eye. (In case you’re wondering: HSV-1 can also cause genital infections, though it’s herpes simplex virus type 2 that is more commonly associated with genital herpes.)
Herpes in the eye is as bad as it sounds. The virus infects the cornea, forming tree-like branching ulcers across the eye. It can cause irritation, pain, sensitivity to light, and ultimately blindness if untreated. Herpes in the eye is a leading cause of blindness in the world. The cornea, after all, is a transparent layer of tissue at the front of the eye, whose job is essentially to let in as much light as possible. Infection can turn the cornea cloudy—permanently.
In most cases, herpes infections in the eye can be treated with antiviral drugs like Zovirax, but the herpes viruses are becoming increasingly resistant to these drugs. Scarred corneas can also be replaced with a transplant, but past infection makes the eye more likely to reject the new tissue. Plus, once you get herpes in the eye, it can keep coming back—just like cold sores. “For some patients that experience this, there’s absolutely nothing we do,” says Dan Carr, an HSV-1 researcher at the University of Oklahoma. “Essentially they’re going to go blind if something else doesn’t happen”—if new treatments don’t become available.
Enter now a surprising new study about herpes. Deepak Shukla, a virologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues have identified a molecule called BX795 that clears HSV-1 infections in human cells and in mice—with few side effects, it seems.
It’s a surprise because Shukla’s team originally threw BX795 onto HSV-1-infected cells thinking it would make the viruses grow better in the lab. (They were trying to study the virus’s basic functions.) That’s because BX795 is known to inhibit a enzyme called TBK1 that turns on the human immune response. Dampen the immune response, and you should get more viruses, right?
“We saw the opposite,” says Shukla. BX795 appears to play another role in yet another human enzyme that viruses hijack to synthesize their own viral proteins. Shukla’s team tested BX795 in cultured human cells, human corneas, and mice with herpes eye infections. It worked to suppress the herpes virus in all those cases—and often at lower concentrations than existing antiviral drugs.
Most exciting of all, BX795 could represent an entirely new class of drugs for herpes. Existing drugs generally work by inhibiting the virus’s DNA (or RNA) replication, blocking it from making more copies of itself. Since the drugs work in such similar ways, it’s easy for the virus to evolve resistance to all of them. “A second class is almost nonexistent. That’s where I think our discovery is really important,” says Shukla. BX795, remember, prevents protein synthesis instead. Shukla is now testing it to see if BX795 offers broad protection against other related viruses like those causing chicken pox and mono.
I spent the weekends of 1979 bagging rock, and while I thought I was just really bored, I had mono.
Although common in animals, eye-worm infections in humans are extremely rare. And, if caught and treated early, they don’t cause any permanent damage to the eye.
“This is only the 11th time a person has been infected by eye worms in North America,” lead author Richard Bradbury, who heads the CDC’s Parasite Diagnostics and Biology Laboratory, told CNN. “But what was really exciting it that it is a new species that has never infected people before. It’s a cattle worm that somehow jumped into a human.”
The woman, 28-year-old Abby Beckley, was working on a salmon boat in Alaska two summers ago when her left eye became irritated and inflamed. A week later, when the symptoms didn’t go away, she decided to investigate.
BuzzFeed reporter Nidhi Subbaraman, who interviewed Beckley, describes what happened next:
Standing at the mirror in the galley, [Beckley] plucked at her eyeball, as if extracting a contact lens.
“I put my fingers in there in kind of a picking motion and I pulled out a worm,” Beckley [said]. “I looked at my finger and it was moving and I was shocked.”
Beckley said she woke up her bunkmate to show her the worm, a piece of tangled white fluff wriggling at the end of her index finger. “She confirmed I wasn’t crazy,” Beckley said.
Over the course of the next few days she pulled out about a half dozen more worms. “I was living with these things, and I’d just keep pulling them out when I’d feel them,” Beckley said.
Beckley flew home and went to see specialists at the Oregon Science and Health Laboratory in Portland. They extracted two more worms, and sent one to the CDC for analysis. It was identified as being the nematode Thelazia gulosa, which commonly infects the eyes of cattle, but had never been found in humans.
Nine years ago I had my most memorable bout with foodborne illness. I had Campylobacter and it was terrible. It all started with a trip to visit Doug in Kansas.
I gave a somewhat incoherent talk to an undergraduate food microbiology class while sweating; slept most of my visit away; went to a football game; left the football game at halftime; spent two nights rushing to the bathroom every hour to evacuate my intestines.
I wanted to blame Doug.
He brings out the best in people.
After a feverish trip home (diarrhea on a plane sucks) and crashing for the remainder of the weekend I went to my doctor to get things checked out. I described my symptoms, had a rectal exam (fun) and was given the materials needed for a stool sample.
The idea of stool sample harvesting was way more fun than the actual act.
It’s amazing any foodborne illnesses are confirmed with stool samples because the process is a bit nuts. It took some thinking to figure out how to catch the sample without contaminating it with water or urine. The final decision was to use the bucket from our cleaned and sanitized salad spinner – which has since been retired – and place it in the toilet bowl.
I took the poop harvest and filled three vials to fill (one for C. difficile, one for parasites and another for other pathogens), and a bonus margarine-like tub for “other things.” The vials were easy, they came with their own spoons. After ten swipes across the base of the former salad spinner I was able to messily get the rest of the sample collected in the tub. Then came the clean-up. This whole episode took me about 45 minutes.
I proudly returned to the doctor’s office with samples in hand. I asked her what percentage of stool sample kits come back filled with poop. She said about 10%.
That’s the problem with clinical confirmation of foodborne illness pathogens.
Patrick Quade and the iwaspoisoned.com group is trying to add to the toolbox of public health foodborne illness investigations, because not a lot of samples make it to public health so cases can be confirmed.
According to the New York Times, this is the era of internet-assisted consumer revenge, and as scorned customers in industries from dentistry to dog-walking have used digital platforms to broadcast their displeasure, the balance of power has tipped considerably in the buyer’s favor. This is especially true of IWasPoisoned, which has collected about 89,000 reports since it opened in 2009.
Consumers use the site to decide which restaurants to avoid, and public health departments and food industry groups routinely monitor its submissions, hoping to identify outbreaks before they spread. The site has even begun to tilt stocks, as traders on Wall Street see the value of knowing which national restaurant chain might soon have a food-safety crisis on its hands.
Not everyone is happy about the added transparency. Restaurant executives have criticized IWasPoisoned for allowing anonymous and unverified submissions, which they say leads to false reports and irresponsible fear-mongering. Some public health officials have objected on the grounds that food poisoning victims can’t be trusted to correctly identify what made them sick.
“It’s not helping food safety,” said Martin Wiedmann, a professor of food safety at Cornell University. “If you want to trace food-borne illness, it needs to be done by public health departments, and it needs to include food history.”
I dunno. Maybe it will help as a supplemental data set. There are folks in local and state health departments subscribing to alerts that can lead to earlier and more focused investigations.
The end of my story is that I was diagnosed with campylobacteriosis. I became a statistic. I was administered a food history questionnaire. No answers on a source ever came back. New tools to crowdsource public health information can act as a an early warning system for outbreak and illness investigators.
