05 Jan 2007
White House uses secret memo to fight court order

I guess we'll never know who Dubya had overnight in the Lincoln bedroom now, eh? Just try to imagine the hue and cry that would've been raised had Clinton tried this.

The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.

(link) [CNN.com]

19:43 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Wal-Mart's new software schedules just-in-time employees

Well, I guess Wal-Mart won't be able to fire anybody after this: slaves can't be fired, they have to be sold!

According to an article Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart Stores in 2007 will create unconventional shifts for its 1.3 million employees using a new software system. "The move promises greater productivity and customer satisfaction for the huge retailer but could be a major headache for employees," the Journal reports.

(link) [CNET News.com]

19:23 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Why Your Oil Became Partially Hydrogenated

Well, most of the truth at last comes out. They neglect to mention the government's role in this mess, of course, but that's to be expected.

What I didn't know is the "solution" the food industry has come up with: how to do get rid of partially hydrogenated oils without going back to lard?

Many of the new margarines that are free of trans fat mix completely hydrogenated oil, which is very solid, with unsaturated oil, a liquid, to achieve a desirable consistency without making the oil form the trans configuration. Experts say that the new oils and margarines should be more healthful. Of course, experts also once thought that about partially hydrogenated oil.

So go ahead and enjoy that 0 grams of trans fat margarine made from totally hydrogenated soybean oil. I'll be sticking to real butter, myself.

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, the current villain of the food industry, was once considered a shining achievement for reducing saturated fat intake. "A lot of people have demonized partially hydrogenated soybean oil, but they forget how it came about," says Mark Matlock, senior vice president of research at Archer Daniels Midland. "If you go back 15 or 30 years, french fries were fried in beef fat, and the effort at the time was to remove the saturated fats that it contained." It also helped that partially hydrogenated oil was cheap to produce and lasted considerably longer than regular oil.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

19:21 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link