Using electricity and other energy in a smart and conscientious way can help lower your utility bill by up to 25%. Here are some of my tricks to save money on my electric bill.
Read more HERE
Sunday, April 29, 2012
How I Reduce Electricity Use by Up to 25% and Lower My Energy Bill
Using electricity and other energy in a smart and conscientious way can help lower your utility bill by up to 25%. Here are some of my tricks to save money on my electric bill.
Read more HERE
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
USDA Should Clean American Beef Industry to Eradicate Mad Cow Disease
On April 24, USDA confirmed that a fourth case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease, has been discovered. It is the first case of mad cow disease in the United States since 2006. BSE is a fatal brain wasting disease amongst cows that can be transmitted to humans who eat infected beef. The human version, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which has not been reported, is also fatal.
USDA stated that a single cow, already dead and waiting to be pulverized at a rendering plant in central California, had tested positive for a mutant strain of the brain wasting BSE. The mad cow was never meant to be eaten, USDA's press release seemed to reassure Americans, and the particular strain of BSE isn't linked to contaminated feed (some strains of mad cow can appear spontaneously in older cows instead of being transmitted). But the only convincing reassurance that I read "as the epidemiological investigation progresses," was that milk, even from BSE cows, is safe.
Read more HERE...
It really is time for USDA to clean up American beef. Take a tougher stance against bovine growth hormone. No pink slime, no non-vegetarian cows eating soybean meal laced with blood, chicken and pigs! The same applies to our nation's cannibal poultry and pork. While yesterday's mad cow may be the only one, it is time for USDA to make some dramatic changes to our meat industry.
Related news: USDA Confirms Single Mad Cow Disease Case in California
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| Photo courtesy: Marijnvb, sxc.hu |
Read more HERE...
It really is time for USDA to clean up American beef. Take a tougher stance against bovine growth hormone. No pink slime, no non-vegetarian cows eating soybean meal laced with blood, chicken and pigs! The same applies to our nation's cannibal poultry and pork. While yesterday's mad cow may be the only one, it is time for USDA to make some dramatic changes to our meat industry.
Related news: USDA Confirms Single Mad Cow Disease Case in California
Jamie Oliver Discusses Pink Slime in US Ground Beef
Prepare to be grossed out. Here on the Season Premiere of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution filmed in Los Angeles and aired on April 12, 2011, Jamie Oliver showed how 70% of America's ground beef contains leftover cow parts containing e.coli and salmonella that has been treated with ammonia. Yup, PINK SLIME containing window cleaner!
USDA Confirms Single Mad Cow Disease Case in California
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
confirmed on April 24 America's fourth case of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE) in a dairy cow from central California. According
to the USDA, the carcass of the animal is being held under state
authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed.
Rendering, which dates to the early Egyptians, is a polite term used to describe the business of disposing of dead animals. According to the National Renderers Association, more than 205 rendering facilities in the United States and Canada pick up 59 billion pounds of inedible animal by-products annually from slaughterhouses, restaurants, farms, even shelters, which are then steam cooked. Products from the resulting brew is used as lubricants, polish, wax, as well as lipstick, gel capsules, and soap. They are also used in livestock feed and animal food, possibly resulting in cannibalistic practices. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency details the rendering process in this document.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been linked to tainted livestock feed containing brain and spinal matter. Humans eating infected beef can develop vCJD (Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), a fatal brain wasting disease with unusually long incubation periods measured in years. According to the CDC, the median age of age for vCJD patients was 28 years.
As of October 26, 2009, a regulation issued by FDA in April 2009 came into effect establishing an enhanced BSE-related feed ban in the United States. This enhanced ban will further harmonize BSE feed control measures in the U.S. with those in Canada (see below). In addition, FDA continues to enforce its important 1997 mammalian-to-ruminant feed ban through its BSE inspection and BSE feed testing programs.
FDA has published two rules to protect animals and consumers against BSE by prohibiting the use of most mammalian protein in the manufacture of animals feeds given to ruminant animals (no cannibalism) and by removing specified risk materials (SRM), primarily brain and spinal tissue of aged animals, from all animal feed. These rules were published in 1997 and 2008. Canada has similar rules for safeguarding against BSE.
The press release from USDA stated "The United States has had longstanding interlocking safeguards to protect human and animal health against BSE. For public health, these measures include the USDA ban on specified risk materials, or SRMs, from the food supply. SRMs are parts of the animal that are most likely to contain the BSE agent if it is present in an animal. USDA also bans all non-ambulatory (sometimes called "downer") cattle from entering the human food chain. For animal health, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban on ruminant material in cattle feed prevents the spread of the disease in the cattle herd."
Samples from diseased cow were tested at USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. Results confirmed the cow was positive for atypical BSE, a very rare form of the disease not generally associated with an animal consuming infected feed and happens spontaneously. The laboratory results are being shared with international animal health reference laboratories in Canada and England, which will review our confirmation of this form of the disease. USDA will also be conducting a comprehensive epidemiological BSE investigation in conjunction with California animal and public health officials and the FDA.
Since vCJD is fatal in humans, cases of BSE often lead to panic among consumers and beef export bans. As a result, the USDA reiterated that the BSE infected animal was never presented for slaughter for human consumption. Additionally, USDA reminded consumers that cow milk does not transmit BSE.
Related news: First Person: Managing the Risk and Cost of Food Borne Illnesses in a World of Food Recalls
Also published on Yahoo Voices. Author retains copyright.
Rendering, which dates to the early Egyptians, is a polite term used to describe the business of disposing of dead animals. According to the National Renderers Association, more than 205 rendering facilities in the United States and Canada pick up 59 billion pounds of inedible animal by-products annually from slaughterhouses, restaurants, farms, even shelters, which are then steam cooked. Products from the resulting brew is used as lubricants, polish, wax, as well as lipstick, gel capsules, and soap. They are also used in livestock feed and animal food, possibly resulting in cannibalistic practices. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency details the rendering process in this document.
 |
| Courtesy: sxc.hu |
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been linked to tainted livestock feed containing brain and spinal matter. Humans eating infected beef can develop vCJD (Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), a fatal brain wasting disease with unusually long incubation periods measured in years. According to the CDC, the median age of age for vCJD patients was 28 years.
As of October 26, 2009, a regulation issued by FDA in April 2009 came into effect establishing an enhanced BSE-related feed ban in the United States. This enhanced ban will further harmonize BSE feed control measures in the U.S. with those in Canada (see below). In addition, FDA continues to enforce its important 1997 mammalian-to-ruminant feed ban through its BSE inspection and BSE feed testing programs.
FDA has published two rules to protect animals and consumers against BSE by prohibiting the use of most mammalian protein in the manufacture of animals feeds given to ruminant animals (no cannibalism) and by removing specified risk materials (SRM), primarily brain and spinal tissue of aged animals, from all animal feed. These rules were published in 1997 and 2008. Canada has similar rules for safeguarding against BSE.
The press release from USDA stated "The United States has had longstanding interlocking safeguards to protect human and animal health against BSE. For public health, these measures include the USDA ban on specified risk materials, or SRMs, from the food supply. SRMs are parts of the animal that are most likely to contain the BSE agent if it is present in an animal. USDA also bans all non-ambulatory (sometimes called "downer") cattle from entering the human food chain. For animal health, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban on ruminant material in cattle feed prevents the spread of the disease in the cattle herd."
Samples from diseased cow were tested at USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. Results confirmed the cow was positive for atypical BSE, a very rare form of the disease not generally associated with an animal consuming infected feed and happens spontaneously. The laboratory results are being shared with international animal health reference laboratories in Canada and England, which will review our confirmation of this form of the disease. USDA will also be conducting a comprehensive epidemiological BSE investigation in conjunction with California animal and public health officials and the FDA.
Since vCJD is fatal in humans, cases of BSE often lead to panic among consumers and beef export bans. As a result, the USDA reiterated that the BSE infected animal was never presented for slaughter for human consumption. Additionally, USDA reminded consumers that cow milk does not transmit BSE.
Related news: First Person: Managing the Risk and Cost of Food Borne Illnesses in a World of Food Recalls
Also published on Yahoo Voices. Author retains copyright.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Colbert Report: Starbucks Used Cochineal Bug Based Coloring
Here is Colbert's Tuesday, April 17, 2012 "Thought for Food" report, where he discusses Starbucks' pink frappucinos colored with cochineal, or crushed beetles. Video courtesy: Colbertnation.com
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Thought for Food - Bug Food Coloring, Hot-Dog-Stuffed Crust & Drugged Poultry | ||||
| ||||
Facebook and Friend Microsoft Handshake over AOL Patents
Microsoft and Facebook announced on Monday, April 23, 2012, that Facebook is acquiring 650 patents from Microsoft, that the latter acquired earlier this month from AOL, for $550 million in cash. As part of this transaction, Facebook will obtain a license to the other AOL patents and patent applications being acquired by Microsoft and will grant Microsoft a license to the AOL patents and patent applications that it acquires. Bloomberg reported last week that Facebook had initially bid on the AOL patents but later lost out to Microsoft.
Microsoft had "Friended" Facebook years ago. First there was an ad revenue sharing agreement and then Bing started indexing public Facebook posts. Bing also became the go to search engine on Facebook. In October 2007, Microsoft reportedly edged out rivals such as Google to buy a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 million. It was a major vote of confidence and a valuation that at the time was called "astronomical" by the New York Times. At the time, Facebook trailed in size behind Myspace, and had revenue of only $150 million annually. Microsoft's stake is now valued at an estimated $1 billion plus.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, like Bill Gates, dropped out of Harvard to found his company. In 2010, Zuckerberg joined Microsoft's Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in signing the "Giving Pledge," a commitment to give away a majority of his fortune.
ZDNet's Emil Protalinski's been following the Microsoft Facebook friendship for some time now.
But the AOL patents deal may be about rivals, even though it is among friends. For example, PC World suggested the reason Microsoft paid a rich premium valuation for the AOL patents in the first place was to go on the offensive with Google for the 265 patents that were of strategic importance to it. Although patent research firm Envision IP calculated that only 29 of the AOL patents related to social media, Facebook, which is currently in a bitter public patent dispute with Yahoo ahead of its IPO, may have gone on the offensive to strengthen its intellectual property (IP) fortress.Yahoo responded to Facebook's AOL patent acquisition with its own take, which ZD Net published.
According to TechCrunch, which is owned by AOL, Facebook started 2012 with only 56 patents. Since then, it has acquired 750 patents from IBM for $83 million (according to its amended registration statement), patents related to the Instagram acquisition, and now 650 patents from AOL for $550 million. This brings the total patents owned by Facebook to 1400, and it has another 600 patents pending globally.
Related news: Facebook May Have Bid on AOL Patents
Friday, April 20, 2012
Did Spat with Yahoo Prompt Facebook to Bid on AOL patents?
What might have prompted Facebook, which filed to go public in February, to make an unsolicited bid for the AOL patent portfolio? AOL's 29 patents that could be applied to social networking systems?
Co-incidentally on March 12, Yahoo! filed lawsuit against Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging "Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo's patented social networking technology." New York Times reported that Yahoo! has threatened Facebook with “10 to 20″ of its patents, purportedly related to “Facebook’s ads, privacy controls, news feeds and messaging service.” Facebook countersued Yahoo! on April 3 in a the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Less than a week later, after it reportedly lost out on the AOL patent bid, and on the same day Microsoft unveiled the AOL deal, Facebook, said it is buying Instagram photo-sharing for $1 billion.
If Microsoft intends to sell most of the non-core patents it acquired from AOL, and Facebook is still interested, the second time might be the charm for Facebook's bid at AOL's patents.
More on Yahoo! News here: Facebook May Have Bid on AOL Patents
Co-incidentally on March 12, Yahoo! filed lawsuit against Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging "Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo's patented social networking technology." New York Times reported that Yahoo! has threatened Facebook with “10 to 20″ of its patents, purportedly related to “Facebook’s ads, privacy controls, news feeds and messaging service.” Facebook countersued Yahoo! on April 3 in a the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Less than a week later, after it reportedly lost out on the AOL patent bid, and on the same day Microsoft unveiled the AOL deal, Facebook, said it is buying Instagram photo-sharing for $1 billion.
If Microsoft intends to sell most of the non-core patents it acquired from AOL, and Facebook is still interested, the second time might be the charm for Facebook's bid at AOL's patents.
More on Yahoo! News here: Facebook May Have Bid on AOL Patents
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Starbucks Drops Beetle Derived Red Cochineal Extract
Outrage had broken out in late March and early April, when Starbucks confirmed it was using boiled and crushed beetle scales, called carmine or cochineal natural food coloring to color its strawberry frappucinos pink.
On Thursday, April 19, Starbuck's U.S. president, Cliff Burrows, said that "after a thorough, yet fastidious, evaluation, I am pleased to report that we are reformulating the affected products to assure the highest quality possible," using a tomato-based extract called lycopene.
However, the company needs two months to "fully transition" to the new products across the U.S., meaning your favorite fraps won't be bug juice free until the end of June. A brief article appeared on the Wall Street Journal, citing the change.
Burrows disclosed on the Starbucks blog that drinks that used cochineal beetle scales included Strawberries and Crème Frappuccino® blended beverage, and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. In addition, cochineal extract was used food offerings such as Raspberry Swirl Cake, Birthday Cake Pop, Mini Donut with pink icing, and Red Velvet Whoopie Pie.
So now your milk-based strawberry frap will don a tomato cape and fight prostrate cancer! PR brownie points?
If past is any indication, Starbucks may have a lawsuit brewing. McDonald's Corp. agreed to donate $10 million to Hindu and other groups to settle lawsuits filed in 2001 against the chain for mislabeling french fries and hash browns as vegetarian, when in fact it had been cooking them in beef extract.
Here is my earlier blog on the subject:
Say No to Foods Laced with Carmine (Beetle Juice)!
http://moneymatters-dalia.blogspot.com/2012/03/say-no-to-foods-laced-with-carmine.html
On Thursday, April 19, Starbuck's U.S. president, Cliff Burrows, said that "after a thorough, yet fastidious, evaluation, I am pleased to report that we are reformulating the affected products to assure the highest quality possible," using a tomato-based extract called lycopene.
However, the company needs two months to "fully transition" to the new products across the U.S., meaning your favorite fraps won't be bug juice free until the end of June. A brief article appeared on the Wall Street Journal, citing the change.
Burrows disclosed on the Starbucks blog that drinks that used cochineal beetle scales included Strawberries and Crème Frappuccino® blended beverage, and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. In addition, cochineal extract was used food offerings such as Raspberry Swirl Cake, Birthday Cake Pop, Mini Donut with pink icing, and Red Velvet Whoopie Pie.
So now your milk-based strawberry frap will don a tomato cape and fight prostrate cancer! PR brownie points?
If past is any indication, Starbucks may have a lawsuit brewing. McDonald's Corp. agreed to donate $10 million to Hindu and other groups to settle lawsuits filed in 2001 against the chain for mislabeling french fries and hash browns as vegetarian, when in fact it had been cooking them in beef extract.
Here is my earlier blog on the subject:
Say No to Foods Laced with Carmine (Beetle Juice)!
http://moneymatters-dalia.blogspot.com/2012/03/say-no-to-foods-laced-with-carmine.html
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish - When the Urge to Save Goes Too Far
Sometimes an attempt to squeeze pennies in savings goes a bit too far and instead becomes a waste of time and money. Here are some cautionary tales.Thursday, April 12, 2012
I Saved Almost $6,100 a Year by Not Owning a Car
$4 gas making you cringe? Me too. Here I recall the days I did not have a car. By not owning or driving a car, and by using a combination of public transportation and taxicabs, I saved almost $6,100 annually. A breakdown of my savings by cost of ownership, parking and operating an automobile. Read the story here...
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Best Credit Card for Foreign Travel
If you are planning international travel, give this article a read! Packing the right credit card for foreign travel saved me a bundle. Read more here...
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
How to reduce risk of fraud and other credit card lessons I have learned
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| courtesy: sxc.hu/lotushead |
Monday, April 2, 2012
How I Save on Prescription and OTC Medications
Americans incur out-of-pocket medical costs averaging nearly $4,400 per year. Even for those without chronic conditions, cost of medications for even minor ailments such as cough, cold, heartburn and allergies can add up. Here are some ways I save 10-33% on prescription and OTC medication costs. Read more HERE...
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| Copyright: personalfx/sxc.hu |
Sunday, April 1, 2012
A Bit of Crayon Cost us $1527!
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| Courtesy: SXC.HU |
It is no April Fool's joke!
Unexpected medical costs can strike anytime. Even a little bit of crayon can blow your budget and cause financial strain, in addition to mental and physical trauma. In our case, it cost $1527 in unexpected medical costs, for us and our insurance company. Read more here...
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