March 28, 2024April 22, 2024 ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

Food Disgust Test

what is your food disgust level? as a bonus, tag the field with your highest disgust score

I never (or rarely) accept food from strangers.

… how would I know, who out here handing out food?

i have never seen an entire pig on a spit and do not know where other people are observing this

Tags:

#64% #I was expecting it to be higher #but then some of the questions were like ”do you eat exclusively underripe bananas” #(on the other hand‚ some other questions were like ”do you refrain from doing things that will literally give you mycotoxin poisoning”) #category breakdown: #very-high-but-not-quite-maximally-high human contaminants #(I think it was dragged down by my being less than maximally squicked by hair in my food) #(like‚ if it’s my *own* hair that’s fine) #high mold and hygiene #medium-high insect contamination (I’m fine with cricket flour) #((or‚ I mean‚ I’m not grossed out by cricket flour: I did not like the flavour‚ too earthy)) #moderate animal flesh #medium-low fruit/vegetables/fish #(I don’t want to *touch* raw fish but I actively like the smell) #tag rambles #food #surveys #poison cw #unsanitary cw

January 6, 2024February 5, 2024 ~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

mamoru:

you know how all those applesauce packets were recalled for lead?

well. it turns out the cinnamon used in them may have been laced with lead on purpose.

Lead contamination in applesauce pouches may have been intentional, FDA says

fun times in the united states food industry right now am I right folks

ferrosparrow:

In case you’re a buffoon (like me) and thought someone was out here meticulously hand-poisoning applesauce:

An FDA spokesperson said that one of the agency’s theories for the WanaBana cinnamon applesauce contamination was “economically motivated adulteration.” (…)

Economically motivated adulteration, or “food fraud,” can occur when a cheaper ingredient is added to a product to enhance it or bulk it up, but is not disclosed, according to the FDA. One example, the agency said, is when lead-based dyes are added to spices to give the product a certain color.

We love cutting corners to maximize profit at the expense of our consumers

mamoru:

hand-poisoning applesauce would be too tedious. these applesauces were poisoned in bulk for maximum efficiency

pazithigallifreya:

Turmeric is also frequently affected by this. A lead compound with a bright yellow color can be used.

I’m not gonna dox myself by saying precisely what I do for a living, but I am involved in public environmental health, and in the past have conducted home investigations in child lead poisoning cases. For years, foreign spices have been a problem, particularly for immigrant families who visit relatives overseas and bring spices back from south asia in particular.

During and immediately after covid, however, we started finding domestically sold spices coming back from lab testing with high lead results. Sam’s club, wal-mart, etc. We used to tell families to buy domestically instead of bringing things back from India, Pakistan, etc, but even that isn’t safe anymore.

You might – might – be safer with higher end organic products but I really just don’t trust anything anymore. This isn’t a new issue, but it’s definitely becoming more widespread.

mamoru:

is there a reliable way to test spices for lead at home?

propelledbydisaster:

if the spice you’re using is water-soluble, you can mix it with water and then use a water testing kit. they sell water-testing kits at the hardware store; ones that you send off to a lab are more reliable (but also more expensive).

you can also buy lead-testing swabs on the Internet. some of these are not reliable, so I’d recommend testing the lead-testing swabs. use a swab on something that you know is lead (a fishing sinker, a car battery, etc) and another swab on something that you know is lead-free (most things in your home, hopefully) and make sure you get the expected results.

note that lead-testing kits are not food-safe, so you should not just put pipettes / test swabs / etc into your spice jar. spoon out a small amount (onto a plate or whatever), test that small amount, and then throw that small amount away. (and then wash the plate.)

alugard:

gonna add this consumer reports investigation from a couple of years back that made the rounds. they looked into a bunch of american spice brands and found that this is a huge problem across brands, regardless of whether or not it’s organic (exact quote: “CR’s tests could not determine whether one brand was consistently better or worse than any other. And organic products did not have consistently lower levels than conventionally grown ones”).

mamoru:

summary of the results, which tested for things like lead, arsenic, and cadmium beyond safe limits:

there was no safe oregano or thyme among their tests

for basil and ginger, only one brand was found to be safe in each

for paprika and cumin, half of the products were unsafe

a few of the spices they tested were considered “high concern” as in, their highest level of danger on this scale

consumer reports recommends growing your own herbs when possible because herbs and spices can be so dangerous to buy

fun!

fire-fira:

I highly recommend reading through the article @alugard linked because it gives a lot of good information.

Also, close to the bottom, it gives a rundown of the spices that were tested with a helpful visual graphic for which brands and which spices were more concerning or less concerning, starting with this disclaimer and table:

[Text description: A screenshot with the header in larger bold text that says “CR’s Herb and Spice Test Results”. Below it in smaller text is a paragraph that reads, “CONSUMER REPORTS tested 126 herbs and spices from 38 brands for arsenic, cadmium, and lead. (We did not test spices that tend to be used in baking, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.) We tested two or three samples from different lots of each product. Our findings are a spot check of the market and cannot be used to draw definitive conclusions about brands. The products are organized alphabetically by type. Within each group, the products are listed according to the degree of concern. Regularly consuming ¾ teaspoon or more daily of a product in one of the concerning categories could, over time, pose a health risk to children as a result of the combined levels of the three heavy metals. Unless noted, they could also pose a risk to adults. The more red boxes next to a product, the higher the concern.” Below the paragraph is a graphic of four categories: a green circle with a white checkmark in it, labeled ‘No Concern’; a single red circle labeled ‘Some Concern’; two red circles next to each other labeled ‘Moderate Concern’; and three red circles next to each other labeled ‘High Concern’. /end text description]

Whiiiich is definitely helpful if you’d like to be more careful with what spices you use based on the information available. (That said, they only tested 38 brands, and there are a lot more out there than that. Again, I highly recommend reading the article.)

Tags:

#here’s the other thing I was referring to re: turmeric #food #home of the brave #PSA #poison cw #what’s the warning tag for brain damage‚ I feel like that should have a specific tag

January 6, 2024February 5, 2024 ~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

how could you like the colour yellow

see a therapist immediately

raspbrrytea:

raspbrrytea:

teaboot:

I actually used to hate it! Like, actually despise it! Yellow was too bright, too loud, discordant, unruly, and clashed with everything. Nothing like what I wanted in my life, nothing I wanted to be.

When I first moved away from home, everything I owned was black. Jet back. As black as I could get. Smooth, cool, sleek, discrete, calm, unassuming. Flexible, cohesive, agreeable black. Fashionable black.

I had a really, really bad time. Unrelated to the decor. It was my first year out of a toxic place I’d grown used to my whole life, my first year acknowledging a mental illness I’d believed to be normal, my first year fending for myself with very little money or sleep or companionship.

I’d grown up on instant white rice and unseasoned ground beef. One day I realized that everything I’d been raised on tasted like cardboard. While out on an assignment, I passed a tent with a woman selling spices, and bought myself some turmeric. I went home and tried making curry with it. It was so yellow.

Another time, my professor took us out to a modern art gallery. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but when we got there, the whole building had been painted bright sunshine yellow.

The artist’s theme was “happiness”.

What it is. How we make it. How to share it.

All bright, lovely yellow.

The house I grew up in was beige. The walls were white. The appliances were post 9/11 stainless steel. My job was to be quiet, compliant, presentable and agreeable.

Black goes with everything. Black is neutral. Black is quiet, reserved, elegant and mysterious.

Yellow is warm. Yellow does what it wants. Yellow tastes sweet and spicy and hot and cool, like a summer breeze, like sunflower petals, powdery like dust on a long dirt road and soothing like well-worn linen.

I still like the look of black. I like the look of most colors. But I like the way that Yellow makes me feel.

Do you understand?

Thank you to everyone in the notes sharing why they love yellow!

Tags:

#art #fanart #comics #storytime #colourful #I love this #(…though I did not notice the fridge horror the first time I read it) #(even though I know I had read https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/09/they-got-the-lead-out-turmeric.html by then) #((possibly I hadn’t learned yet that even rich countries struggle with spice contamination to a significant extent)) #((even if not *as* much)) #(let us hope that the turmeric was‚ uh‚ not *too* yellow) #poison cw #this probably deserves some other warning tag but I am not sure what #this post was queued because my to-reblog list is too long and I didn’t want to dump it on you all at once

June 15, 2023July 6, 2023 ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

roach-works:

homunculus-argument:

Fae that keep uranium amulets, clothes made out of asbestos and bowls of lead-infused water around their residences as a human deterrent. They don’t know why humans loathe these items, but for as long as it makes them fuck off, these charms are useful.

you wake up and a fairy is snorting the line of salt you put on your windowsill like it’s coke.

‘doesn’t that shit kill you?’ you ask, deeply perturbed.

‘not very fast,’ the fairy says, and keeps snorting.

Tags:

#fae #story ideas I will never write #poison cw #drugs cw #death tw #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #this post was queued because my to-reblog list is too long and I didn’t want to dump it on you all at once

April 14, 2023April 25, 2023 ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

rustingbridges:

indeed Socrates is said to have proposed that his ‘penalty’ for his conviction should be that he be dined at private expense like an Olympic victor for the rest of his life.

yeah I would have voted to poison this mf too

comparativelysuperlative:

Same thing. You say poisoned, I say dined at public expense for the rest of his life.

Tags:

#death tw #poison cw #fun with loopholes #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #light a man on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life #this post was queued because my to-reblog list is too long and I didn’t want to dump it on you all at once

March 2, 2023March 4, 2023 ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

artbyblastweave:

One of my favorite gags from contemporary SCP was from this article about a pointlessly dangerous extradimensional convenience store with layer upon layer of fatal death traps installed at every stage in the shopping process, one of which is a pit full of poisonous snakes below the checkout line. And then there’s a footnote saying that rather than being a confusion of terms between “venomous” and “poisonous” the snakes themselves are actually fangless and completely docile but anyone who falls into the pit and sees the snakes comes under a compulsion to start stuffing the snakes in their mouth

Tags:

#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #overly literal interpretations #SCP Foundation #snakes #poison cw #death tw #this probably deserves some other warning tag but I am not sure what #this post was queued because my to-reblog list is too long and I didn’t want to dump it on you all at once

January 18, 2023January 26, 2023 ~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

humanfist:

moral-autism:

Me telling housemates about radon risks: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!
Me being asked to split radon detector costs: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

#*adds a radon testing unit to the List at position 17*

now I want to know about the rest of this list

Current edition of the List of Things to Save Up For (colloquially “the List”), redacted-and-annotated-for-public-display version.

(While I *remembered* the drywall repair, I noticed while annotating that I had not actually written it down, so now the radon testing unit is at position #18.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #oh look an original post #adventures in human capitalism #domesticity #poison cw

January 17, 2023January 26, 2023 ~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

moral-autism:

Me telling housemates about radon risks: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!
Me being asked to split radon detector costs: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

Tags:

#… #*reads a couple of governments’ websites on home radon exposure* #…man‚ the shit people don’t tell you about‚ huh #*sighs* #*adds a radon testing unit to the List at position 17* #(the test itself is only 50 CAD but the renovations to deal with a failure result are like $4k) #(and there seems little point in testing if I can’t afford to do anything with the result) #((also one of the things one does for this is sealing cracks in one’s basement)) #((which‚ uh‚ half our basement floor is crumbling concrete and the other half is crumbling brick)) #((there are multiple areas of the basement where you can see straight down into the soil below)) #((presumably this is Bad)) #(anyway‚ point being‚ I have placed it just below ”replace basement floor”) #PSA #poison cw #domesticity #adventures in human capitalism #tag rambles #(P.S. okay wait hang on apparently there is a subsidy program for low-income households) #((again I ask why the fuck this did not come up on any of my previous searches for low-income home-repair subsidies)) #(…aaaand we are once again disqualified because everyone thinks Brother ought to be contributing his entire income) #(and not reserving any to save up for a home of his own one day) #(well‚ I’ll make a note‚ maybe he’ll move out before we make it to 17 or something)

And on the topic of Cary Elwes… (Iocane Powder in The Princess Bride)

January 16, 2023January 26, 2023 ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

greenekangaroo:

endreal:

endreal:

Remember that scene in The Princess Bride where Westley challenges Vizzini to a battle of the wits—you know, the one with the iocane powder?

The last few times I watched the movie, something about that scene didn’t set quite right with me, and I’ve been developing a theory about what’s really going on.

Westley was involved in a battle of wits against Vizzini, a battle which, necessarily, involves a certain amount of deception. I think that Westley was deceiving Vizzini about his use of the iocane powder.

Westley describes iocane powder to Vizzini as being “odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid, and is among the more deadly poisons known to man.”

When presenting the poison to Vizzini, Westley also gives him the explicit instructions “Inhale this, but do not touch.”

While I believe Westley may truthfully have spent several years building up a resistance to the effects of iocane powder, I propose that rather than poisoning both goblets as he claimed to have done, Westley didn’t pour the iocane powder into either cup of wine!

Especially since the iocane was in powder form, I suspect that rather than being an ingested poison, it was an inhalation poison!

Vizzini wasn’t poisoned when Westley poured (or didn’t pour) iocane powder into the wine goblets, but when Westley told him to waft the vial of iocane powder. Since iocane powder is odorless, Vizzini wouldn’t have noticed that trace amounts of one of the “more deadly poisons known to man” had been introduced into his system…trace amounts that were still enough to kill a man within minutes.

And since iocane powder came from Australia, and it’s well documented that Australia is home to some of the most venomous species of plants and animals on earth, there’s no reason not to believe that such a small quantity iocane powder could have killed a man of Vizzini’s stature.

Westley had already won the battle of wits before it had begun, and was simply stalling for time until the poison took it’s effect.

All quotes from the script accessed from this site: [X]

This is, in all likelihood, the most important post I’ve ever made on this blue-bordered website.

holy shit.

Tags:

#interesting #Princess Bride #meta #poison cw #death tw?

November 11, 2022November 28, 2022 ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ultraviolet-divergence:

As of November 9th 2022, the CDC is telling anyone with a weakened immune system, over 65, or who is pregnant to not eat any meat or cheese from deli counters anywhere in the country.

CDC: Listeria Outbreak Linked to Deli Meat and Cheese

You are at higher risk for severe Listeria illness if you are pregnant, aged 65 or older, or have a weakened immune system due to certain medical conditions or treatments. If you are in any of these groups, do not eat meat or cheese from any deli counter, unless it is reheated to an internal temperature of 165°F or until steaming hot.

There have been 16 illnesses traced so far- 13 hospitalizations, 1 death. Illnesses have been clustered around New York State but have also appeared in California and Illinois. As always the true number of illnesses is certainly much larger.

Note that bit about “unless it is reheated to an internal temperature of 165°F”. Basically, treat deli meat as if it were raw: be careful what it touches until it’s been thoroughly cooked.

And, frankly, that goes for all risk groups: if you’re in a low-risk demographic listeria is unlikely to *kill* you (or even require you to navigate an already overwhelmed hospital system), but food poisoning is still well worth avoiding.

Tags:

#PSA #home of the brave #food #poison cw #illness tw #death tw? #reply via reblog #(that’s not even counting the possibility that you might not *be* in a low-risk demographic anymore) #(I suspect there’s a lot of people out there with COVID-sequela immune dysregulation who don’t realise it yet)