All posts tagged: raw

‘We don’t disappear after 30’: the Old Lesbians telling a century’s worth of raw, revealing stories | LGBTQ+ rights

‘We don’t disappear after 30’: the Old Lesbians telling a century’s worth of raw, revealing stories | LGBTQ+ rights

Published by skeptic

Two women who met as teenagers, fell in love, and stayed together for 69 years – spending all but the last decade of their relationship in the closet. A woman who, in her 70s, finally decided to come out to two friendly lesbian strangers she saw together at the grocery store. One woman, born in 1918, who found herself in a lesbian bar one day, not knowing such a thing existed, and finally felt at home. These are all stories pulled from the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (OLOHP), a catalogue of more than 900 interviews with lesbian seniors in the US. Arden Eversmeyer, a retired Houston schoolteacher who devoted her retired years to campaigning for visibility for older lesbians, who she felt were missing from the cultural discussion, began interviewing women in 1998. She grew a team of interviewers – all of them also old lesbians, as they call themselves – to travel around the country speaking to women. These transcripts, audio recordings, and photos of the subjects live in an archive at Smith …

Cats died from bird flu ‘after consuming raw milk from infected cows’

Cats died from bird flu ‘after consuming raw milk from infected cows’

Published by skeptic

Scientists are rushing to understand the devastating impact H5N1 is having on the brains and lungs of US farmyard cats. Bird flu has now affected 39 herds of dairy cattle across nine US states. Whilst it causes a mild infection in most cows, the effects in cats are severe.  Out of 24 cats known to have contracted H5N1 on a single Texas dairy farm last month, twelve of them died. Postmortem examinations revealed signs of “severe systemic infection” in the dead animals’ bodies – including lesions on their hearts, brains, eyes, and lungs.  The cats are thought to have become infected after consuming the sick cows’ raw milk. Those that did not die experienced blindness, neurological disorders, bloody diarrhoea, and difficulty breathing, according to a study published by the US Centers for Disease Control.  The US Department of Agriculture said it had received numerous reports of death and neurological disease in cats on other affected dairy farms, but hasn’t released figures on how many of the animals have been affected. The department did however update …

It’s now illegal to sell (some) raw chicken products with Salmonella

It’s now illegal to sell (some) raw chicken products with Salmonella

Published by skeptic

Occasionally, I stumble across food safety headlines that make me do a double-take because they are lauding a measure that seems like it should have been standardized long ago. For instance, last week, the United States Department of Agriculture announced that they would declare Salmonella an adulterant in some raw chicken products, thus making those products illegal to sell — a decision about which the National Chicken Council has already been critical.  The build-up to the landmark decision began in earnest in 2022 when the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released a proposed regulatory framework for a new strategy to control Salmonella contamination in poultry products and reduce foodborne illnesses attributed to these products. “We know that Salmonella in poultry is a complex problem with no single solution,” said USDA Deputy Under Secretary Sandra Eskin at the time. “However, we have identified a series of strategic actions FSIS could take that are likely to drive down Salmonella infections linked to poultry products consumption, and we are presenting those in this proposed framework.” The …

‘We handed out raw fish to clubbers’: the mind-bending acid house tour of London | Dance music

‘We handed out raw fish to clubbers’: the mind-bending acid house tour of London | Dance music

Published by skeptic

‘I remember this street being covered with hundreds of these all over the floor,” says George Georgiou, handing me an original smiley-face flyer he designed for the acid house club night Shoom. “I wish I’d picked them up because now they sell for up to a grand.” The doorway we’re standing outside in London Bridge is one of many locations we’ll visit today, as Georgiou places acid house heritage plaques outside buildings that were once home to clubs such as Shoom, Raw and Sin. These locations are then tagged on an interactive acid house map on his website. We kick off the day 15 minutes’ walk away on Tooley Street, where the Special Branch club began life in 1984. It was here that resident DJs Nicky Holloway and Pete Tong lured suburban soul boys and Soho trendies to an old pub to get sweaty, while Gilles Peterson kept the footworkers busy by spinning jazz-funk in the other room. At the Natural History Museum, we put strobes under a dinosaur In the 80s and 90s, Georgiou …

FDA Update on Bird Flu Traces in Milk: What to Know About Pasteurized and Raw Milk

FDA Update on Bird Flu Traces in Milk: What to Know About Pasteurized and Raw Milk

Published by skeptic

Fragments of the virus that causes bird flu, H5N1, were found in one in five pasteurized milk samples across the US, the US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday. A day later, the agency posted an update with good news, confirming that additional testing of the samples didn’t turn up active or infectious virus, which is what experts have said would be the case since pasteurization is expected to kill or inactivate bird flu virus, as it does other potentially harmful bacteria and viruses.  The FDA says the milk supply remains safe; pasteurization is a requirement for commercial milk, making up the vast majority of milk found on store shelves (though not all, depending on local laws around raw milk sales).  Still, the announcement about evidence of virus in pasteurized milk was jarring because since bird flu was first reported in US dairy cows, evidence of it had only previously been reported in unpasteurized product, which hasn’t gone through the process of heating milk to get rid of viruses and bacteria like pasteurized products have. It also suggested …

Taylor Swift reacts to raw new album making history with unseen casual photos: ‘Are you actually serious?’

Taylor Swift reacts to raw new album making history with unseen casual photos: ‘Are you actually serious?’

Published by skeptic

Taylor Swift officially has another number one album to her name – as per Billboard’s latest report, The Tortured Poets Department has become her newest chart-topper. The album made a historic debut atop the charts and helped Taylor break a slew of records while also tying some as well, thanks to the major hype surrounding its release and the 31-song deluxe version. The album arrived at number one with a whopping 891 million in streams, thereby becoming the largest streaming week for an album in Billboard history since the charts began including streaming figures in late 2014. You may also likeTaylor Swift announcing her album at the Grammy Awards It reached the top with 2.6 million equivalent units sold in its first week (which comprises a combination of primarily traditional sales like CDs and digital copies, plus streaming figures through platforms like Spotify and Apple Music). 1.9 million of those were traditional sales alone. The figure is the second-largest ever since Billboard began using equivalent units to measure sales, following Adele’s 25 in 2015, which …

Process raw materials in Africa, urges top environmentalist | Africa

Process raw materials in Africa, urges top environmentalist | Africa

Published by skeptic

Africa must take greater control in the industries it supplies with raw materials to lift its people from poverty and seize its own destiny in a low-carbon world, one of the continent’s leading environmentalists has urged. Wanjira Mathai, the managing director for Africa and global partnerships at the World Resources Institute thinktank, said much more of what the continent produced must be processed and made use of close to where it is produced, if the world is to shift to a low-carbon footing. Africa’s vast resources are vital to the global economy, in sectors spanning agriculture, forestry and fisheries to minerals and metals. But most of these are extracted to be processed and turned into finished products elsewhere, sometimes with dire environmental consequences. Products such as cobalt, copper and gold are used in increasing quantities in renewable energy production and low-carbon technology such as electric vehicles. But if the processing is nearly all done overseas, few of the economic and social benefits will come to Africans themselves, said Mathai. “How do we activate value chains …

Stephen review – fact blurs with fiction in powerfully raw study of addiction | Film

Stephen review – fact blurs with fiction in powerfully raw study of addiction | Film

Published by skeptic

The line between fact and fiction is thin to vanishing in this Liverpool-set experimental docudrama, a study of addiction and how it rumbles down through generations. It’s directed by visual artist Melanie Manchot and is being shown as a multiscreen installation in Cornwall as well as screening in cinemas. Manchot worked with a Liverpool recovery group, hiring members, with lived experience, as actors. At its worst the result has a bit of a workshop feel, stilted and a bit studied; there’s also expressionist dancing. But at its best, this is a painful, raw study of addiction, with a powerful, committed performance by Stephen Giddings. Giddings plays himself (or a version of himself), a recovering alcoholic and aspiring actor up for the lead in a film; the character is called Tom, a bank cashier who had problems in the past with gambling. Tom has made a fresh start with girlfriend Sarah, who’s pregnant, and together they’re buying a flat – but Tom has started betting again, and alarmingly, he’s dipping into the bank funds at work. …

Kibbeh Nayeh (Lebanese raw lamb) recipe

Kibbeh Nayeh (Lebanese raw lamb) recipe

Published by skeptic

This is basically a Middle Eastern lamb tartare and, just as with steak tartare or carpaccio, the lamb needs to be as fresh as possible. I like to serve it as a starter with a minty salsa or as pre-dinner snacks on little pieces of lightly toasted Moroccan flatbread. A few delicious salted Cambodian Kampot peppercorns on top (something I tried recently from stonygroves.co.uk) are a nice touch. Timings Prep time: 15 minutes  Cook time: 5 minutes (if serving with flatbreads) Serves 4 as a snack or starter Ingredients 4 tbsp finely chopped parsley 2 tbsp finely chopped mint 1 medium red or green chilli, finely chopped, seeds and all 3 tbsp olive oil 1 lemon 400g fresh lamb fillet from the best end or rump, trimmed of sinew and finely chopped 6 spring onions, finely chopped 1 tsp smoked or unsmoked paprika 1 tsp ground cumin 30g bulgur wheat, pre-soaked in boiling water for an hour, then drained To serve flatbreads (optional) about 20 salted Kampot peppercorns (optional) Method Mix together 1 tsp each …

How to prevent food poisoning: Raw shellfish, sashimi, runny eggs, fried rice

How to prevent food poisoning: Raw shellfish, sashimi, runny eggs, fried rice

Published by skeptic

Not everyone enjoys their morning eggs the way we do. It was evident in the comments on a US-based vlogger’s post about the classic Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs. “Explosive diarrhoea”, “disgusting” and “snotty” were some of the words used by international netizens to describe the eggs. They do have a point in that salmonella is a very real problem in eggs and is a “leading cause of food-borne illnesses worldwide”, according to the SFA. This is why eggs in other countries are cooked thoroughly before eating.  In order for you to enjoy onsen and poached eggs with ease of mind, the SFA ensures that imported eggs come from “approved sources in accredited countries and regions that meet Singapore’s food safety and animal health standards”. Local egg farms must also demonstrate “good farm management practices and strong biosecurity measures” to prevent salmonella contamination, said the SFA, which means removing soiled and/or cracked eggs, and regularly testing their hens for salmonella. “If salmonella is detected through our tests, the farm will be suspended until the contamination …