The latest from the Web

There is an article in the Los Angeles Times that delves into the ethical dilemmas of food blogging, using a popular social networking food Web site in L.A. as the case study. In this particular instance, a site harshly critiqued a restaurant based upon an anonymous tip that the restaurant was passing off low quality food items as more expensive fare and ignoring health regulations. The allegations turned out to be false, but the damage was already done in the blogosphere.

The right of free speech comes with a burden of responsibility that was ignored in this case. Libel attorneys must be licking their chops waiting to squeeze every last bit of juice out of Eater L.A., and if they can estimate damages that include a closed restaurant caused by misinformation, it's an open and shut case that would result in a substantial windfall. I applaud the efforts of the food bloggers who created a Food Bloggers' Code of Ethics, but I'm curious as to how this toothless code with limited adherents would improve the quality or the nature of restaurant coverage. I'm curious if anybody else has any opinions on this, or if people see food blog ethics as a non-issue.

From the department of research that validates my world view comes the American Dietetic Association's findings that vegetarian diets are healthful and useful in preventing and treating certain types of disease. So your poor pleas that not eating meat would kill you will now fall on deaf, scientifically sound, healthy ears.

Factory Farms and the Flu

I read an interview with Dr. Michael Greger in which he defends the position that the modern factory farming system is culpable if not completely responsible for diseases like swine and avian flu as a human health threat. As a vegetarian, let me say I feel confident that I have done my part to save the world from pandemic influenza.

The 100% Organic, Macrobiotic News

It is official...there is an association between daily red meat consumption and dying prematurely according a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. According to my interpretation of the data, Ted Nugent actually died 40 years ago.

And earlier this week, the NYTimes published an article about the hopes of proponents of sustainable, local, organic agriculture related to the progressive White House. Although much of these aspirations are essentially pipe dreams, chefs like Alice Waters and authors such as Michael Pollen expect that new leadership can do more to take the quality of our food supply to another level. Ultimately, this change (or stasis) will be directed by Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture. It's an interesting set of competing concepts to ponder.

Hospitals cut meat

From The Guardian:

Hospitals will take meat off menus in bid to cut carbon

Way to go U.K.! Hospital food just got infinitely more palatable.

Watch where you eat

It's official--the sodium-laden, greasy crap people eat (a cuisine known to those in the nutrition field as the Western diet) is bad for your heart. According to recently published research, all that mass-produced, garbage food that America perfected makes people fat and keeps their heart unhealthy. Part of the problem is attributable to meat consumption according to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research study. The crazy part is that the negative effects of McDonald's dining are taking their toll worldwide. It sounds like it's time to put the donuts down and climb on the treadmill, tubby. Put the Big Mac down, copy this text, paste it into Babelfish and try eating something that hasn't been submersed in hydrogenated oil.

Factory Farming: As bad for the environment as it is for you

Don't take it from me. Listen to the experts who say that non-sustainable farming practices hurt public health, drain small communities, abuse animals and pollute the environment according to 2 and 1/2 years worth of research performed by Pew and Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

This report doesn't point out the notion that everybody should be vegetarian overnight. I can wait at least a few years before you join me on the dark side. What it does highlight is that you should have a better understanding of how the food you eat impacts everybody's health. It can impact species by creating drug-resistant bacteria strains. It can pollute the planet. It also can damage the soil.

The phrase goes, "Think globally; act locally," and nowhere is this rationale more appropriate than on your dinner plate. Just say no to the slop from the McCorparations. The impact extends beyond the quality of food in your kitchen and impacts the quality of life across the planet, from water and air quality to considerations of your karma after you have decided to eat an egg salad sandwich sourced from the above pictured torture den.

The factory farms that thrive today can't sell a product that nobody is buying. Take care in the manner in which you eat, because the law of unintended consequences says these seemingly innocuous decisions can lead to a disastrous conclusion. The impact from deciding to eat local items farmed by capable artisans producing veggies and (gasp) meat can indeed influence the quality of life for future generations. Click the links in the article to see what a bunch of people with far more education than myself think about the issue.

Crown John Daley's Ass

I was hoping that I could lead off today with the story of John Daly on top of the pack at the PGA Championship, but trained doofus Scott Verplank had to shoot 4 under to take a one stroke lead over the neatly chiseled specimen pictured above (as of press time). Nothing screams athlete like the Hooter's logo stretched over your man breast. What was Daly's secret to success in the oppressive heat? He recommends caffeine, cigarettes and a training regimen that involves slot machine gambling. Everybody roots for Daly because he makes the common man believe that no matter how much drinking, smoking, eating and lounging we do, we might be good enough at something to be crowned champion.

The stock market is rapidly turning to mush, with the credit issues in the United States causing economic unrest in Europe. Sounds like it's time to invest in Matthew Lesko's free government money plan before your stock portfolio turns to worthless paper.

After an angry rebuke from Washington, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf canceled his plan to declare a state of emergency in his country. Maybe somebody should explain to them the lesson learned by most children at some point or another: pretending something isn't there doesn't make it go away.

Salon details the lengths it is possible for the executive office to go in espionage efforts after Congress allowed the secretive spying to continue. Maybe you aren't so paranoid, schizoid...they really ARE watching you.

Slate continues the bad press for America's mayor, going over Giuliani's shortsighted plan for health care that benefits the diabolical insurance industry more than the American people who don't own the Blue Cross/Blue Shield corporation. Bad press this election has correlated strongly with successful Republican fundraising, meaning that after this past week, Rudy should be in front by a county mile. Just check my columns for the past week. Giuliani fictionalizes his experience with terrorism. His daughter is voting for Obama. Fred Thompson is going to have to start calling Giuliani "Daddy Warbucks" if Right Said Fred doesn't start hitting Mariska Hargitay up for some campaign contributions soon.

Speaking of bad press, Google is trying out a new feature that will allow subjects of news reports to write a reply to the coverage. Hopefully the public relations minions from Barry Bonds and Alberto Gonzales' camps don't catch wind of these developments. The landslide of complaining could deluge the Web.

According to a recent study, increased cigarette taxes have decreased smoking. In other news, I drive less because gas is more expensive and I don't spend all day in strip clubs because I actually have to pay money to be there.

According to a recent survey by Mayor Daley, there are only 24 homeless people living in Downtown Chicago. Apparently the last time I was on Ohio Street, the entire homeless population asked me for money, or a few others enjoyed the opportunities available in the Loop and commuted on the train from Des Plaines.

In closing (and also related to Chicago), Coors is planning to continue the ad campaign that features stupid clips of football coaches talking with the Coors Light crew with material from former Cardinals coach Dennis Green and his famous meltdown.

Stupid Guy: Coach, we had a six pack of widemouth Coors Light cans in the cooler, but my buddies drank them all.

Coach Green: We had them on the hook, and we let them get away!

Stupid Guy 2: Is Coors Light the best beer of all time?

Coach Green: If you want to crown them, just crown their ass!

Classic!

Grant Achatz is One Hell of a Chef

Culinary whiz kid Grant Achatz, 33, the guy in charge of the hyped temple of gastronomy Alinea, recently received a grim diagnosis of Stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth. The disease has a treatment that will come with a price. At the minimum, it may cost the chef his sense of taste. At the maximum, it could also cost him his life.

Achatz has received numerous accolades throughout his life that make this more interesting. In 2002, he was named one of the Best New Chefs in "Food and Wine" magazine when he was the executive chef at Trio in Evanston. "Gourmet" magazine rated his new restaurant Alinea as the best restaurant in the United States last year. He was named one of Chicago's sexiest singles in this year's Chicago magazine feature.

Two of the greatest meals I ever ate in my life were served at Achatz establishments. My birthday meal at Trio years ago was beyond words. The amuse bouche was a parmesan cheese ice cream sandwich. I also distinctly remember that he made a hot and cold coconut soup served on a glass sculpture that was divine in both contrast and flavor. Achatz made world class cuisine at Trio that impressed vegetarians and carnivores alike. The restaurant hasn't been the same since Achatz's departure.

I also got an opportunity to eat at Alinea, his palace of fine dining that is as distinctive as something you would expect to experience on an alien planet. Exploding coconut butter orbs in celery juice. Foamed cheese and herbs served beside grilled watermelon (pictured above). Even the bread and butters were out of this world. A peeled piece of tomato with every manner of taste and texture present in the dish was as exciting to eat as it was to view. The wine, which included a glass of Remezieres Hermitage Cuvee Emile, was perfect.

Apparently, his very talented pastry chef left one week after I ate there. The desserts at the meal that night were other worldly. His culinary flair is matched by the quality of his service, which is as impressive as it gets. Dining at Alinea was easily one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in my life, eating or otherwise. I wish Grant nothing but the best. Hopefully diners had a chance to experience his magic touch, and hopefully Achatz will come out and be able to continue in his inimitable style so you can taste his passion for food once in your life.

I was especially touched by his reference to Beethoven composing one of his greatest works after falling deaf. Achatz compared this story to the idea of a master chef like himself losing his sense of taste, looking optimistically at the future. However he comes out, he changed the way that I think about food. Achatz opened doors for me that I would never have known about otherwise. If Achatz doesn't survive, his legacy will shine on. If he sticks around, the world (and my stomach) will be a better place.

Block News for 12 March

Your national story of the day is the continuing Walter Reed hospital public relations fiasco. Today the highest ranking medical officer General Kevin C. Kiley resigned. He is the third person to resign in this scandal that combines politics with medical ethics for a story that ends badly for all involved.

However, in terms medical coverage about other hospitals, I am convinced that no medium covers medicine in a more interesting fashion than the Los Angeles Times. In terms of the importance of the stories that the Times has covered, today's story might not even be the best. But their tenacity is fantastic.

This article tries to link a drug overdose to shortsightedness by military hospital personnel in Los Angeles in a similar backdrop to the Walter Reed story that involves a recovering drug addict. Some of these ethical dilemmas make for great theater. March 2 they ran an article about a doctor who deliberately overdosed a patient with sedatives and pain killers while six staff members watched and did not intervene. The doctor was a transplant surgeon, and used the drugs to hasten the death of an organ donor.

This is another in a long line of stories the L.A. Times has run about transplant centers gone awry, as each of the links in this sentence will demonstrate. The names that seem to come up for reporting the stories is Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein. Hopefully the medical community will applaud your efforts. These are great stories.

On other pages of the L.A. Times (namely the front page), the fallback plan for Iraq was detailed. The plan is based upon the pullout from El Salvador in 1980s. It is good to see that Plan G is in place if the troop surge Plan F doesn't work. Plan F is naturally the good natured but problematic follow up to the failed Plans E,D,C,B and A. Glad to see some planning and scheming going on behind the scenes.

Sports news involves one topic and one topic only today. Go March Madness or go home. It's that simple. Every commentator on the planet is crying about who could've, should've, would've been in the tournament. I can't decide who to put in my pool final four. This year, I'm going front runner with two one-seeds and two two-seeds in my Final Four. I'm traveling through the pool with a Salt Lake City conservative approach.

Of course, criminality and sports keep boiling in the background. Chris Simon got suspended for teeing off on Ryan Hollweg's face with a hockey stick. In the WWE, that might get him a title belt. In the NHL, it gets him a 25 game suspension.







Also, former North Hill basketball player O.J. Mayo was arrested for marijuana possession. The 6' 4 point guard is the highest (no pun intended) rated player in high school basketball. He is projected to go from one year of NCAA basketball to the NBA fast lane. Mayo, who committed to USC, is a Cincinnati area youth. He was apparently strongly influenced by the behavior of his hometown football team the Cincinnati Bengals.

Lastly, in entertainment, the House of Representatives subcommittee on telecommunications and the internet is having a hearing tomorrow with video archive of the discussi0n available. This is an important issue involving music, radio and Web communication. Stay tuned and make sure this ends well.