The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Diana is celebrity many Americans would bring back to life, says poll Posted: 05 Sep 2013 12:08 AM PDT The majority of Americans questioned in the "60 Minutes"/Vanity Fair poll said they would die for their children, but fewer were prepared to give up their life for their country or religion. Thirty-five percent of people said Princess Diana, who died in a car accident in Paris 16 years ago, is the celebrity they would pick to bring back to life, compared to 14 percent for Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs and 11 percent for pop stars Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. Seventy percent of men in the poll of 1,005 adults said they would prefer their wives to outlive them, while 46 percent of women said they would want to die first. When asked what they would be most willing to die for, 55 percent of people said their children, followed by 12 percent for their spouse, 10 percent for their parents or religion and 5 percent for their country. Only 24 percent of people said they would opt for cryonic preservation, even if it were free, but the number rose to 39 percent among 18- to 34-year-olds. With cryonics, a body is preserved at low temperatures in the hope it can be revived and healed later. A bar or a shopping mall was deemed the worst place to have one's ashes spread and 84 percent of people said they would prefer their passing to be marked "with laughter, food and drink" rather than something more solemn. The nationwide telephone poll, which will appear in the October issue of Vanity Fair, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was conducted from July 17-21. - Reuters, September 5, 2013. |
| Deadly bug in spices, study warns Posted: 04 Sep 2013 11:29 PM PDT According to a report in the New York Times last week, a study of more than 20,000 food shipments found that spices contained about twice the average salmonella contamination of all other imported foods. Plus certain spices had higher rates of contamination - some 15 percent of coriander and 12 percent of oregano and basil shipments were contaminated. Other high levels were found in sesame seeds, curry powder, and cumin. Ground and cracked spices were slightly more likely to be contaminated than whole spices. The research was published in the June issue of the journal Food Microbiology. National Public Radio (NPR) followed the report, citing that you wouldn't need to eat a lot of contaminated spices to get sick. Unfortunately, the microbe can go into hibernation while dry and reactivate in contact with water, perhaps in your stomach, NPR wrote. But cooking can kill salmonella, as long as you use high heat. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says you can kill salmonella at temperatures of 160 degrees F or 71 degrees C. At this point, there is no requirement that spices be labeled as treated, at least in the US, meaning they've either being pasteurised or treated with ethylene oxide, NPR writes. Even though spice exporters such as India have been trying to improve practices, NPR adds that it might not be enough. "You're not going to change what happens in a farm in India or in the Spice Islands," Theodore LaBuza, a professor of food safety at the University of Minnesota, told the website. "They just don't have the technology for that." After becoming aware of the salmonella risk, he stopped putting rosemary on his salads and opts to use spices in cooking instead. - AFP/Relaxnews, September 5, 2013. |
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