news for the day: big industry still doesn't care about your health and vivienne tam likes HP

♠ BPA or Bisphenol A, a common hard plastic ingredient used in baby bottles and food containers, is associated for the first time through primate research (though research on rats has shown the same results for decades and been dismissed by government as well as industry) with brain problems: learning impairment, Alzheimer's, depression and schizophrenia are possible links. It blocks the formation of some types of synapses in the brain - synapses considered crucial for remembering thoughts and experiences, impairments in which are common in sufferers of depression.

The researchers were able to cause the harmful effects with a daily dose of 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight - the human-exposure limit currently considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. [...] Bisphenol A is mired in controversy because the manmade chemical is able to mimic the hormone estrogen in living things, and has been found in dozens of laboratory animal and test tube experiments to be biologically active at small doses. [...] Last month, researchers at the University of Cincinnati linked BPA to heart attacks and adult onset diabetes through its ability to suppress the production in human fat tissue of a key hormone that protects people against these conditions.

Health Effects in the BPA article at Wikipedia, which is not yet updated with the primate-related findings. This has been reportedly controversial for decades, but apparently not widely enough: I'd never heard about it, which isn't to say I'm exceptionally well-informed or a maven of such issues, but it strikes me as the sort of thing that ought to be common knowledge, if you're feeding it to babies and it's been known to cause all kinds of health defects, even if they were only suspected and not known to apply in humans as well as rats.


♠ Aaaaaaaaand in a dramatic change of subj: Mini-notebook PC in fire engine-red spotted on the catwalk at fashion week, rebranded as a "digital clutch" - via my new favourite blog, eeepcnet. Too bad it's an HP though, because if there's one word inextricably linked with HP it's "sucky". Then again, if you buy an actual fire-engine-red clutch it can break by the end of the season, too, since it probably won't be in next year [plz note sarcasm - I doubt I would ever buy a clutch in any colour, for any length of time]. Still: for my red mini-notebook needs I will be turning to some brand with a slightly better track record, thank you.

Lara would go DOWN (before Serena Williams*)

cim: OK, this is kind of hot, but what kind of HIGHLY ATHLETIC SPORT requires you to wear a SKIRT? WTF, tennis? This is the 21st century.
perhael: LOL, inorite! I think women are actually allowed to wear shorts now, in tennis - since like... last year or something.
cim: You can stop pretending you are all dancing out onto the lawn at some Gosford Park house party!
cim: Yeah, usually... but my impression from pictures is that at the big games they usually don't because it's like, shocking or...
perhael: Yeah. LOL omg how shocking, a girl in shorts!
cim: My impression is that it's sort of like wearing pants to a wedding.
cim: But considering they're professional athletes and NOT AT GOSFORD PARK, y'know? It is not a ladylike genteel upperclass British pursuit! She's a highly muscled American and she could probably beat up Lara Croft!
perhael: Srsly, Lara would go DOWN
perhael: ...Mmmm, tennis in Lara Croft outfits
cim: mmmm Lara Croft's outfit
cim: LOL jinx.
perhael: Lol! It's true though.

*And okay, that's not where my mind was originally with the title, but it's not a bad place...

Nordic foodz

( How to make a proper American cinnamon roll using a Finnish cinnamon roll! )

caramel corn recipe?

I've never made caramel corn but, thanks to perhael, I'm craving it like mad (actually, I'm craving crackerjacks, but I assume I can just add some salted peanuts at the caramel stage)! Anyone who doesn't buy their snackfood ready-made want to recommend a recipe, or provide a tip?