NATIONAL CENTER for FAMILY LITERACY |
One in five American adults cannot read
well enough to understand this ad.
That’s why the National Center for
Family Literacy is currently behind literacy
programs for families in over 1,000
communities across America. But there is
much more we need to do.
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We urge you to write the National Center
for Family Literacy, Waterfront Plaza, Suite
200-B, 325 West Main Street, Louisville,
Kentucky 40202-4251, for information on
how to support family literacy. Or call
(502) 584-1133 ext. 33.
If we, as a nation, can achieve full
literacy, then we achieve anything.
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To 12 million adults this is an ad about a dog.
Actually, it’s an ad about literacy.
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WE ARE GRATEFUL TO THIS PUBLICATION FOR SUPPORT IN PRINTING THIS AD.
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nutritionnews
How many insects
are in your popcorn ?
The FDA says it’s okay to eat some insect fragments, a few rat hairs and
mammalian excreta along with your food by Maggie McComas
At last, a calm evening on your own. Nothing to do do but settle in with a bowl of munchies
and a favorite video. Yet despite the quiet, you are not alone. Little critters, probably so small as to remain
unseen, are with you. They may not actually be alive ¾ or even complete. We’re Popcorn Two rodent
hairs (or 20 gnawed grains) per poundFrozen broccoli 60 aphids per 3½ ouncesTomato juice 10 fly eggs (or
five fly eggs and one maggot) per3½ ouncesBrussels sprouts 30 aphids per 3½ ounces This means, folks,
that if there are 29 aphids per 3½ ounces of brussels sprouts, the FDA is willing to certify that they’re
talking insect body parts, and in some cases, related matter ¾ you know, ummm, body wastes.
Most of us are well aware of the possible lethal contamination that may lurk in raw oysters or undercooked chicken,
but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of other contaminants, or, as the bureaucrats would prefer to call
them, “defects,” in most processed foods. These little bits of grasshopper or excreta or rodent hair are so common, in
fact, that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates exactly how much of each is allowable. It sets ceilings, or
“action levels,” for these defects that appear to be amazingly arbitrary. Reading them you might think scientists had
determined that some foods are rendered inedible by just a few grasshopper parts while others are perfectly healthful in
spite of a few maggots. For example:
Popcorn Two rodent hairs (or 20 gnawed grains) per pound
Frozen broccoli 60 aphids per 3½ ounces
Tomato juice 10 fly eggs (or five fly eggs and one maggot) per 3½ ounces
Brussels sprouts 30 aphids per 3½ ounces
This means, folks, that if there are 29 aphids per 3½ ounces of brussels sprouts, the FDA is willing to certify that
they’re okay for you to eat. But 30 aphids are another matter. You say you never eat brussels sprouts anyway. Well, what
about fig bars? The FDA’s action level for fig paste stands at 13 insect heads per 3½ ounces. Does this mean that a
mere dozen little skulls may have rolled into each package of Fig Newtons you consume? Or take infested peanut
butter, please, which will sound the FDA alarm bells with 30 or more insect fragments per 3½ ounces. Since that
amount makes a nice thick peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, any serious peanut-butter addict might wind up
consuming thousands of fragments a year. What exactly is a fragment, anyway? Is the head of a grasshopper a
fragment? Perhaps the entire grasshopper body is a fragment. Why not switch to chocolate-covered ants as the snack
of choice? At least you’d know which fragment of what critter you are eating.
Self, June 1995
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THE BREWING OF THE KOBE EARTHQUAKE
The earthquake that devastated Kobe last January could have been predicted,
Japanese scientists say, by monitoring of one of the country’s most valued
resources: the clear mineral water used to brew the rice drink sake.
Two studies recently published in Science proposed that the clues lay in
chemical changes in the groundwater.
In one study, Urumu Tsunogai and Hiroshi Wakita of the University of Tokyo
analyzed 72 bottles of mineral water that had been collected near Kobe before the
earthquake, bottled and dated for use as drinking water and for brewing sake. The
scientists found that chlorides and sulfates in the water increased steadily
from August 1994 and peaked just before the earthquake. In another study,
George Igarishi of Hiroshima University and colleagues reported that the
concentrations of radon gas in a well being monitored near Kobe peaked nine days
before the earthquake at a level more than 10 times higher than they were in
October 1994.
According to the researchers, such fluctuations in the chemistry of
groundwater might reflect the buildup of stress in the crust. Thus they might
serve as predictors of a quake.
— Alexandra Witze
EARTH, October 1995
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