Deadspin Watch This Wiener Dog Escape His People and Run Forever and Ever and Ever
This is pure exhilaration. This is pure life. This, if Taylor Swift were writing about it, would just have the words "squad goals" written over and over again with a few emoji and hashtags thrown in. This dog is living your best life and you didn't even know it.
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We usually freeze food to hold and preserve it for another day, and it's a great way to reduce food waste. While some foods don't change much with a stint in the freezer, there are some that don't fare so well.
But what if I told you there was a food that actually benefited from going into the freezer first? Let's talk about the magic that happens when tofu is frozen.
Mets first baseman Daniel Murphy and pitcher Carlos Torres teamed up for the unusual 1-3-1 groundout in Thursday night’s game against the Phillies. And it all started with a Jeff Francoeur ground ball.
Meet the latest Amiibo: Shovel Knight. An indie game character! Nice move, Nintendo.
First a story about a guy possibly losing a hand, now one about a young girl gaining one. Everything is a cycle. This is a video of 8-year old Isabella unboxing and trying out her new 3-D printed e-NABLE prosthetic arm and hand. She is very excited about it, and rightfully so. Sweet color combination. If you're interested in helping children like Isabella, check out E-NABLE's website, they're about to hold their second annual convention and want to build over 1,000 arms to give away to kids who need them. AND YOU CAN HELP. Come on -- help make a difference for a change. You don't just want to be some jerk on the internet forever, do you? I'm sorry, I feel like I'm projecting. Dammit, did I just put all these fingers on backwards?! Keep going for the heartwarming video.Sent with Reeder
If you are looking for a special theme for your wedding, how about Metal Gear Solid cardboard boxes like in this PlayStation ad?
Rocket League is coming to SteamOS, and it’s free if you buy a Steam Machine, Steam Link, or Steam Controller. The car soccer sensation is great fun in split screen, so the pairing makes perfect sense. Also, it’s sold one million copies on Steam alone. I get the impression that maybe people like it a little.
The worst food poisoning I ever had was a few days after returning from a weekend vacation with friends. When I finally dragged myself out of the bathroom after 24 hours of hell, an email from one of my besties was waiting for me: “Is everybody else feeling okay? I know our dinner together was a few days ago so I’m sure it’s not that, but I just wanted to check.”
We never found out what food was the culprit, but there was only one meal we all shared and every adult there came down with vomiting and diarrhea about two days later. That’s classic food poisoning. But sometimes the situation is less clear. How do you know when you have food poisoning versus a run-of-the-mill stomach bug, and what should you do about it?
The truth is, there’s no medical difference between “food poisoning” and other diarrheal illnesses. The same germs that cause food poisoning are also common causes of stomach flu or traveler’s diarrhea.
In all of these cases, some virus or bacterium, or perhaps even a parasite, took the fecal-oral route from (sorry) somebody’s butt into your mouth. From the germ’s point of view, it’s a wonderful way to travel: you get eaten, trigger the person’s body to spew from either or both ends, then do your best to stick to surfaces that they or somebody else might touch.
Norovirus is a master at this game: in 2009, a passenger threw up on an airplane, and a flight attendant immediately cleaned up the mess. Over the next week, half of the flight attendants who worked on that plane got sick. In another case, members of a soccer team ate snacks from sealed bags that had been in the bathroom with a sick teammate. Investigators think that droplets containing the virus settled on the bags, and the other players got the virus onto their hands while eating. Call it food poisoning or a stomach bug—either way, they got sick.
Other organisms follow a similar route, but usually not with such ruthless efficiency. Maybe some fecal bacteria from the farm (say, E. coli) got onto some beef and into a grinder, and from there spread to several packages of hamburger meat. You leave the meat out too long—maybe in a cooler at a picnic that wasn’t as cool as it should have been—and the bacteria multiply. Then you cook the burger, but not all the way since you like them rare. Your immune system kills off most of the bacteria, but not quite enough. The bacteria make a toxin that makes you sick. Mission completed.
If you ate with friends and all of you come down with vomiting or diarrhea at the same time, there’s a good chance there was something wrong with that meal. But sometimes you can’t track it down so neatly and it’s hard to know where exactly the culprit came from.
Intuition is bad at helping us track down the source of food poisoning. People who get sick are likely to think back to their last meal or two, especially if it came from a sketchy restaurant. In truth, our biases probably influence where we point the finger. For example, see this informal analysis of Yelp reviews that found ethnic restaurants were more likely to be blamed for food poisoning. A bout of illness can come from something as simple as a sick worker who didn’t wash their hands, explaining why restaurants with poor food-safety scores aren’t necessarily more likely to make people sick: not all of the factors that make sickness likely are measured by inspection reports.
So if you can’t always blame your last meal, who should you blame? It turns out there’s a pretty big window of opportunity, depending on what exactly made you sick. Norovirus will live in your body for 1 to 3 days before you show symptoms; that time is known as the incubation period. Campylobacter, common in poultry, takes 2-5 days. Clostridium perfringens may strike the same day, within 8-16 hours. E. coli takes up to three days, although the nastier forms may take as long as a week. Salmonella is another quick one, striking in as little as 6 hours or up to 2 days. And then Listeria (which is mild in adults but can cause miscarriage or stillbirth if a pregnant woman contracts it) will cause stomach-bug symptoms within the first few days but show its more serious complications weeks later. The FDA has a handy chart here.
To keep from perpetuating that fecal-oral route, be aware of the germs you’re probably spraying all over your bathroom. If you can isolate yourself from family or roommates, do that—for example, now would be a good time for your kid to spend the night at Grandma’s.
In the meantime, wipe up any stray bodily fluids, wash your hands (and make sure anyone remaining in the house washes their hands if they’ve been near you or things you’ve touched), and as soon as you’re feeling up to it, clean up any potentially contaminated surfaces with bleach.
One of the common complications from food poisoning is dehydration, so drink water and consider other liquids when you’re ready, like Gatorade or ginger ale or soup. It’s normal to not feel like eating for a day or two. You may want to ease back into eating with simple, bland foods like crackers.
You don’t need to call the doctor for vomiting or diarrhea that goes away in a few days, but anything severe or unusual is probably worth a call; occasionally, serious complications can develop. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms to watch out for include:
Treatment is likely to consist of IV fluids to counter dehydration, and if your food poisoning came from a bacterial source, you may be given antibiotics. It’s important to seek help if you’re at high risk of complications. This includes pregnant women (because of the risks from Listeria, among others), small children (who are more prone to kidney damage from E. coli), or anyone who is elderly or has a condition that weakens their immune system.
If you end up going to the hospital with suspected food poisoning, your provider will probably report the case to the local health department, where investigators can piece together reports to figure out if a particular restaurant or store was the source of an outbreak. But what if you’re just puking on your own? I asked Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University:
I think it’s a good idea to contact your local health department, especially if you think others could possibly have gotten it too. If it was a party, picnic, or similar event, then the affected people may well have been talking to each other and may know whether more than one person in the group is sick. These investigations are pretty routine for larger health departments, and usually one-time events (the spoiled potato salad, for example), but health departments often like to know about them just in case they are part of a larger issue (for example, Salmonella in a batch of a commercial product). Even more important if you think it was from a restaurant, that should definitely be checked out by the health department. Health departments are generally very careful and discreet about restaurant investigations, but they want to know because it may mean to expect more cases, and (depending on the source) might be able to prevent future cases.
There is a list of health departments by state here, but you’re better off starting with your city or county’s health department (Google it). In some cases, it’s hard for individuals to report their own illness, because the health department is expecting reports from hospitals and labs. Still, it’s worth looking up; many departments encourage individuals to make reports, especially if you can trace back your illness to a particular restaurant.
If you think you got sick from a packaged product, check the lists of recalls and alerts from the FDA, and consider reporting the product if it’s not already on the list. The agency moves at a glacial pace—yesterday they recalled a bad batch of frozen vegetables produced a year and a half ago. But still, better than nothing.
It’s impossible to fully protect yourself from food poisoning, but you can improve your chances by cooking and handling food properly. Spoiled leftovers may not always taste or smell bad, so the rule there is “When in doubt, throw it out.” Still Tasty is a good go-to database for figuring out how long is too long for something to be left in the fridge. (You may even be pleasantly surprised—some condiments are good for months.)
Cook food properly. Temperature is a better gauge than color when you’re working with meat. Keep raw meats separate from cooked foods, and don’t let anything sit in the “danger zone” for more than two hours. That’s the temperature range in between fridge temperature and piping hot. Fully cooking food will kill bacteria and inactivate many bacterial toxins, so it’s a good rule of thumb for making sure food is safe to eat—but if you suspect a food has gone bad already, reheating it won’t guarantee it’s safe. That’s because a few toxins, like the ones from Staphylococcus aureus, can survive cooking. Read up on proper food handling, and stay safe.
Title photo by Anton Brand (Shutterstock).
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Amazon offers big Kindle sales almost weekly, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many bestselling books marked down at the same time. Smash hits like The Martian, The Girl on the Train, Ready Player One, Gone Girl, and Game of Thrones are all marked down to $2 each, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg, so be sure to check out the full list. [Kindle Sale]
Anker makes some of the most popular charging gear in the world, and they’ve put several of their most popular items on sale today, including their brand new (and ridiculously powerful) PowerCore charger.
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This 8.1 channel sound bar is easily one of the best looking I’ve ever seen, and judging by its review average, it’s one of the best sounding models out there too. Today’s $240 price tag on Amazon is by far the best deal we’ve ever seen. [Samsung HW-H7501 8.1 Channel 320 Watt Wireless Audio Soundbar, $240]http://ift.tt/1Kn0Teq...
It’s 2015; your headphones don’t need stupid cords anymore. These highly-rated Skullcandy Hesh over ears are down to $60 on Amazon as part of a Gold Box deal today. That’s an all-time low, but be sure to grab a pair before they sell out. [Skullcandy Hesh 2 Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless Headphones with Mic, $60]http://ift.tt/1Kn0Tel...
If you have to use a USB hub with your computer, it might as well be a nice looking one. [Etekcity USB 3.0 High Speed 4 Port Portable Aluminum Hub, $13 with code 4POUH3FF]http://ift.tt/1TVE1sr...
Deals on truly portable, USB-powered hard drives have mostly been limited to 2TB capacities and smaller, but today you can save $20 on the 3TB WD My Passport Ultra in the color of your choice. On a price-per-gigabyte basis, you could do better with a 5TB desktop hard drive, but if you don’t want to deal with an AC power supply, this is a fantastic deal. [3TB WD My Passport Ultra, $130]http://ift.tt/1JyC8Xq...
Not only will this handlebar mount keep your phone safely strapped to the front of your bike, its built-in 6,000mAh power bank can also recharge while you ride. If you go on long treks to remote areas, that extra juice could be essential, especially if you use your phone as a GPS. [Bike Mount Phone Holder Charger- 6000Mah Power Bank, $55 with code NZGTPCL7]
The Mario Maker hype train is picking up steam, and if any of the recent teasers have convinced you to buy it, Prime members can still save $10 on their preorder. Just note that your discount won’t be shown until checkout. [Preorder Super Mario Maker, $50 for Prime members only]http://ift.tt/1HS6x5n...http://ift.tt/1LDkcBP...
If your home wireless network has a few dead spots, the cheapest option to extend your connectivity may be a powerline adapter.
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I was a longtime user of the iOttie One Touch dash mount, which you voted as your favorite over on Kinja Co-Op, but I recently experimented with a magnetic alternative, and I have to say, I love the thing.
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Unlike traditional suction cup-based mounts, this Mpow Grip ($5 today with code SUZXGDUN) won’t obscure your view of the road, and when your phone is mounted to it, it’s in fact completely invisible. A big worry about these things is that they’ll cover up a valuable vent during the hottest and coldest times of the year, but I’ve found that you can stick the mount on the very top of the vent, and the magnetic plate against the very bottom of you phone, and only block a small fraction of your airflow.
The big caveat is that you’ll probably only want to buy this if use a phone case, since your two mounting options are either placing a magnetic plate between the phone and the case, or attaching a non-removable magnetic sticker directly to the phone. As long as that’s not an issue though, this is certainly worth a try at $5. [Mpow Grip Smartphone Car Mount, $5 with code SUZXGDUN]http://ift.tt/1c2r5VL...
If your favorite (out of market) baseball team is still in the hunt for the playoffs, you can purchase a subscription to MLB.TV Premium for the rest of the regular season for just $10 today. For context, a monthly subscription normally costs $25, and there’s actually slightly more than a month left in the season. [MLB.TV]
Walmart just unveiled one of the best PS4 bundle deals we’ve seen to date. You’ll still pay the usual $400, but you’ll get everything below:
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KMASHI’s ultra-cheap USB battery packs are some of the best-selling items we’ve ever posted, and you can choose from deals on two high capacity models today. http://ift.tt/1I6hTpG...
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