Warm weather brings on the seasonal meat favorites that are barbecued, grilled, broiled or fried. That also means more potential exposure to carcinogenic compounds known as heterocyclic amines (HCAs). There’s a way to reduce the risk significantly by just adding some spices – rosemary extracts or Thai spices. ‘Just one of the spices would work, said J. Scott Smith, a Kansas State University food chemistry professor who researched the issue for the Food Safety Consortium. ‘Rosemary would be fine or one of the Thai spices would be fine. The numbers from Smith’s research tell the story. Some commercial rosemary extracts can inhibit the formation of HCAs in cooked beef patties by 61 to 79 percent. Thai spices can inhibit the formation by about 40 to 43 percent. The key is the level of antioxidants present in each, and Thai spices have lower levels than rosemary. A discerning consumer wondering which to use need rely only on personal taste. ‘What it boils down to in a lot of the cases is preference as far as the flavor, Smith said. ‘For example, cinnamon is also very good but some people don’t like it. Some people don’t like rosemary. […]
Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has always answered his detractors by claiming that history will one day judge him kindly. But as he waits for that day, a new group of critics-his administration peers-are suddenly speaking out for the first time. What they’re saying? It isn’t pretty By Robert Draper on the morning of Thursday, April 10, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon prepared a top-secret briefing for George W. Bush. This document, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, was a daily digest of critical military intelligence so classified that it circulated among only a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president; Rumsfeld himself often delivered it, by hand, to the White House. The briefing’s cover sheet generally featured triumphant, color images from the previous days’ war efforts: On this particular morning, it showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in Firdos Square, a grateful Iraqi child kissing an American soldier, and jubilant crowds thronging the streets of newly liberated Baghdad. And above these images, and just below the headline secretary of defense, was a quote that may have raised some eyebrows. It came from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: ‘Behold, the eye of the Lord is […]
BEIJING — China’s official foreign exchange manager is still buying record amounts of US government bonds, despite Beijing’s increasingly vocal fear of a dollar collapse, according to officials and analysts. In recent months, senior Chinese officials, including Premier Wen Jiabao, have repeatedly signalled their concern that US policies could lead to a collapse in the dollar and global inflation. But Chinese and western officials in Beijing say China is caught in a ‘dollar trap’ and has little choice but to keep pouring the bulk of its growing reserves into the US Treasury, which remains the only market big enough and liquid enough to support its huge purchases. In March alone, China’s direct holdings of US Treasury securities rose by $23.7bn (£14.9bn) to reach a new record high of $768bn, according to preliminary US data, allowing China to retain its title as the biggest creditor of the US government. ‘Because of the sheer size of its reserves Safe [China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange] will immediately disrupt any other market it tries to shift into in a big way and could also collapse the value of its existing reserves if it sold too many dollars,’ said a […]
North Korean military honour guard standing to attention at Pyongyang’s airport during a diplomatic visit. Photograph: Stephen Shaver/AFP/Getty Images North Korea today risked further international isolation after it claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The test comes less than two months after the North enraged the US and its allies by test firing a long-range ballistic missile. The KNCA news agency, the regime’s official mouthpiece, said: ‘We have successfully conducted another nuclear test on 25 May as part of the republic’s measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.’ Officials in South Korea said they had detected a tremor consistent with those caused by an underground nuclear explosion. The country’s Yonhap news agency reported that the North had test-fired three short-range missiles from a base on the east coast immediately after the nuclear test. The underground atomic explosion, at 9.54am local time (0154 BST), created an earthquake measuring magnitude 4.5 in Kilju county in the country’s north-east, reports said. President Barack Obama called the test a matter of grave concern to all countries. ‘North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community,’ he said […]
The U.S. Congress is preparing to overhaul the United States’ troubled healthcare system and President Barack Obama hopes to sign legislation before the end of the year. Here are some facts about healthcare in the United States: * U.S. government economists predict that public and private health spending will hit $2.5 trillion this year, taking up a 17.6 percent share of gross domestic product. * Americans spend more per capita on healthcare than any other country at $7,421 per person, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports. Yet studies suggest Americans get poorer care than people in other industrialized countries that have national healthcare plans. * Private insurance pays 35 percent of this; Medicare, the federal health plan for the elderly and disabled, pays 19 percent; Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program pays 15 percent; 12 percent comes from other public funds; 7 percent from other private sources, and 12 percent is paid out-of-pocket by patients. * The U.S. Census Bureau says 46 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, have no health insurance. * About 63 percent of U.S. employers offer health benefits to workers, according to the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
