"yahoo" news and stories

About a week ago, I came across a post on Yahoo's Shine blog called Why I hate a good potluck. In it, the author announces that she isn't a fan of potlucks and proceeds to detail the eight different kinds of potlucks that she's observed over the years and the reasons why she don't like them.

While I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion, I feel I must speak up in defense of the potluck. I have a deep appreciation for potlucks (or depending on your region of the country, covered dish or church suppers). I see them as opportunities to taste new foods, visit with friends and family, share recipes and generally enjoy the company of your fellow human beings. Sharing food and eating communally is one of the oldest practices known to humanity and too often these days, we isolate ourselves during mealtime, choosing the television or the newspaper over interaction with our fellow diners.

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Earlier today, my mom called me to say she had sent me a link to an article she thought was interesting and might make a good Slashfood post (she's always looking out for me, that mother of mine). When I got home, I checked my email and found a link to this article, published on January 2nd, that discusses a study in which people in 13 countries were asked whether they agreed or not with the statement, "I like the taste of fast food too much to give it up."

Forty-five percent of Britons agreed with the statement, just barely ahead of the 44 percent of Americans who agreed. Canadians are in third place, with 37 percent of them unable to give up their junk food. Only 19 percent of people from France thought that junk food was too tasty to give up (and who can blame them, food in France is amazing).

They also asked questions about how people from the different countries thought it was best to lose weight, how often they weighed themselves and how often they went to the gym.

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Why would a company CEO go on a financial web site and post about his company under a pseudonym?

That's what the Federal Trade Commission is investigating. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has admitted that it was he who posted under the name "Rahodeb" (an anagram of his wife's name) on Yahoo's financial boards. In fact, he didn't just post about finances and stocks in general, he specifically posted about rumors that Whole Foods might buy Wild Oats. This was in January of 2005. Whole Foods bought Wild Oats a few months ago for $565 million.

Or should I say, "might buy them." The FTC is trying to block the agreement and is using this new info for their case. Mackey insists he did nothing wrong since all of the stuff he talked about was public knowledge and harmless.

[via Boing Boing]

When I was pregnant and thinking about limiting my caffeine a bit, I learned a handy way to "decaffeinate" tea: just brew it once. The second steeping of tea has almost zero caffeine. As I typically use each tea bag twice, I thought to myself, that means two cups of tea equals one cup of caffeine. And then I proceeded to forget I'd ever heard that caffeine was bad for my unborn child.

Evidently, coffee is decaffeinated the very same way. Except that, just like my second steeping of tea, once the beans are soaked to removed the caffeine, the flavor isn't much to write home about. According toAsk Yahoo!, this is where the science comes in: "In one practice, the beans' post-soak water is mixed with a solvent that separates the caffeine from the liquid. Alternatively, the caffeinated water can be forced through activated charcoal or carbon filters, which also separates the caffeine from the solution. After either method, the coffee beans are re-submerged in the now-totally-caffeine-free watery extract where (hopefully) they reabsorb their flavor."

I don't drink decaf coffee much - especially now that I'm a mom of a baby, I need the caffeine. But I wonder: can you coffee nuts out there taste the difference? It's a pretty chemically-charged process, and it seems when chemicals enter the mix, flavor always loses.

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]

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