POLITICS: NEW FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT

So, the senate has voted on a new Food Safety Act.

Here's the breakdown:

->The FDA would have recall power on tainted goods, but would not be able to sue individual producers for knowingly selling contaminated goods.

->Food producers would have to write safety plans for the government's records, in the case of an outbreak. (I wonder if the FDA will ask for a safety plan before or after a recall...)

Apparently, though, if producers sell directly to the people, they don't have to write a safety plan, because the consumer knows where the products are coming from. 

->The Secretary of Health and Human Services would be required to create a tracing system to identify and stop foodborne illnesses from spreading as efficiently and swiftly as possible.

-> Importers would have to verify goods with U.S. food safety standards.

Do you think the government should have that much foothold in the food industry? Does this affect Taco Bell in anyway? Lol

Kingfold & The Folding Bike!

Courtesy of Habitat.com

It's not the first, but it's the first that's this aesthetically pleasing. Featured in Wallpaper Magazine, this bike folds perfectly into a stylish bag! The bike is going for a ridiculous international rate...the bike is going for £2,450 and the bag by Nivaldo de Lima of COAT designs is another £2,500. Yes. The bag is more expensive than the bike. SMH. 

We Might Not Need To Test On Animals Anymore...

Harvard's Wyss Institute has done it...they've designed a chip that BREATHES like the Human Lung!! Now instead of testing on animals, they've created a chip to test chemicals on... "It’s a laboratory-generated, breathing human lung-on-a-chip that mimics the way a real lung allows pathogens to enter the bloodstream..." according to Habitat.com, and its the new alternative to animal testing. Way to go Harvard. Do you see where evolution is going, though? To read more...check out this article at Habitat.com

INHABITAT: MIT Developing Body Heat-Powered Electronics

 "It’s a lot easier to change the batteries in a flashlight than to switch out the batteries in, say, a biomedical monitor. But eventually, such batteries might never have to be changed thanks to a new breed of heat-harvesting electronics developed by researchers at MIT..." CHECK OUT the FULL article at inhabitat.com

Swine Flu Season's Over According to Harvard Poll

Most Americans do not intend to get the swine flu vaccine, assume the pandemic is over and think the flu threat was overblown, according to a poll released Friday by the Harvard School of Public Health.

As of the end of January, only about a fifth of all Americans had had swine flu shots, according to that poll and data released separately by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Read the FULL article from the New York Times).