MSG - monosodium glutamate

Good article about MSG at The Observer.

I remember living in res with a food scientist who talked about if the manufacturer wanted to remove MSG from the ingredient list they would just add parmesan cheese.
And here's the table, wow, parmesan is 1.2% G of MSG (the MS would just be the salt).

Free glutamate content of foods (mg per 100g)
roquefort cheese 1280
parmesan cheese 1200
soy sauce 1090
walnuts 658
fresh tomato juice 260
grape juice 258
peas 200
mushrooms 180
broccoli 176
tomatoes 140
mushrooms 140
oysters 137
corn 130
potatoes 102
chicken 44
mackerel 36
beef 33
eggs 23
human milk 22

Foo Fighters don't believe in AIDS

So I found this interesting article about AIDS denial and there in one of the first paragraphs was the Foo Fighters supporting a group that denies HIV as the causative agent of AIDS. I guess rock stars can not only have concerts that support ending poverty and the like but support scientific quackery as well. Hmm, just like the creationists it seems everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, they like to pretend they are being silenced by the mainstream scientists and they like to say science is just a religion like every other one based on faith. Too bad unlike evolution a lot of people can die from this. The article talks about a main AIDS denier who had two children while refusing to take treatment and even breastfed one and one of the children died from AIDS complications.

Almost a Unicorn Chaser

In the spirit of Boingboing and their Unicorn chasers after a disturbing image I am posting something from cuteoverload because every time I open my blog I see the really disturbing bunny picture and it creeps me out.

Creepy Bunny

So on Monday night I watched Donnie Darko and while it was ... good it was really really creepy. I truly regretted watching it before going to bed, especially considering I'm pretty chicken for scary movies. As I tried to sleep I felt a hint of the fear I remember as a kid and how I could freak myself in the dark. When I was a kid I was terrified of the devil dogs from Ghostbusters and had nightmares for weeks after watching it. What really terrified me was the 'key' being dragged away while the restaurant people watched with little interest. Anyway, this time it was Frank, the freaky 6 foot bunny of Donnie Darko that kept me up at night (though nothing compared to the terror of Ghostbusters or reading about Poltergeist). And if you don't think a 6 foot bunny could ever be really scary then I suggest you check out the film.

Life in Vancouver

I just had an adventure; some van driver was pissed when he tried to jump the queue for the gas pump but my friend was there. He then waited for us to finish and chased us in his van (us on our motorbikes) through a few roads and up an alleyway before we made it back to the gas station and he drove on. Holy crap what a waste of his time! He was burning rubber in angry squeals but its not like we've learned some lesson about not getting in front of him at the gas station; all he did was take miles off his tires. Too bad we couldn't get the license plate.

On another note, I haven't watched tv commercials in a very long time. I do watch tv (Buffy!) but on DVD's that I either own or borrow. I now have two channels and was watching the Fifth Estate but the commercials really caught my attention. I saw a lot of commercials about dangerous bacteria that are everywhere in your house. They coat your dishes (even if they look clean) and your toilet bowl is full of them! Dirt is scary! Danger! Danger! It was all women doing the cleaning but then again, the commercials aren't out to reassign gender roles, just sell cleaning products through paranoia.