TSA Alert: US Bans Vegemite. Is it because this yeast extract
tastes bad? Do the
Marmite^ people have some sinister influence? Has Australia
offended our government somehow? How is it that a product that has been around for
80 years suddenly becomes forbidden? Who would ban a product that can help prevent
neural tube defects (e.g., spina bifida)?
Blame the FDA, whose has ruled that folate (
folic acid) "should be kept under 1 mg per day ... because higher intake may complicate the diagnosis of
pernicious anemia, one form of vitamin B12 deficiency, which especially affects older people." Of course pernicious anemia is rare (less than 10-20 cases/100,000 people per year in the US), as is the Vegemite market. But when has logic ever dictated policy. The
international fallout has already started:
"I am never going to America", vows Xochiquetal, while a commenter at Geelong blogger Bernie Slattery’s site foresees US regulators going even further down the road to absurdity, "Americans don’t know what they’re missing … they’ll be banning Tim Tams next."
If the government wanted to ban something Australian, the least they could have done is started
here.
posted by scblackman
on Oct 23, 2006 -
47 comments
This Must Be Designed By Idiots is an online art exhibit of three Amsterdam-based mixed media artists, where one of the media is taxidermy, and the other is some disturbing combination of fashion design, jewelry, glassblowing & handicrafts. The end result is
compellingly creepy, and my personal favorite is
this piece, a mouse permanently at rest inside the glass belly of a glass cat.
posted by jonson
on Sep 28, 2006 -
19 comments
My Quonah. "My name is David C and I am the biggest idiot on this planet! Every girl I've ever met has done nothing except want me for what I had to offer them, the amount of cash I could throw their way and not for the person I was. One day that all changed when I meet a lady called Quonah..." Should she call him?
posted by feelinglistless
on Sep 3, 2006 -
33 comments
Fool's World Map: "This is a project visualizing the world map which many fools in the world imagine. If you can see this map comfortably, you are definitely a fool." The creator
updates and reformats the malleable map based completely on capricious, erroneous geographical inconsistencies found within oblvious statements from his comment logs. Examples: (
095. Upper right side of Germany became Australia due to a posting by another stupid American thinking "Australia is beside Germany.") and
(001. Due to a Texan who thinks "Japan is accessible from Texas by car", Japan and Texas is land-attached."). He also has a
page of user-submitted maps, where he encourages you to create your own global eyesore and send it to him.
posted by naxosaxur
on Aug 3, 2004 -
26 comments