food expiration dates

Every house has food in the pantry that has been there for weeks if not months, but according to food experts, you may want to think twice before throwing those items out. Many common food products last far longer than you might think.

"We throw out tons of food each year in this country because people don't understand how long they can keep things," said Jo-Ann Heslin, a certified nutritionist and author of The Complete Food Counter.

As Heslin and other nutritionists explain, consumers generally assume that foods should not be eaten after the use-by date on the package, but in reality, this date simply indicates the period of time when the food tastes best, not the date when it will suddenly make you sick.

The general recipe for longevity, according to these experts, is for the food to be low in liquids, sugar and oil, all of which have the potential to mold and spoil the food, or to have "lots and lots" of preservatives, which keep the food fresh longer.

So if you're looking for groceries to buy in bulk and store in your pantry, these products are your best bet.

Canned food, by definition, lasts longer than most products in the grocery store because it has been specially processed in air-tight cans. In general, canned items can stay good for 12-18 months, according to Gans, but some last even longer. Canned products like beans and vegetables, which are low in acid, can actually last for as long as two to five years. The only exception is if the can is dented or rusty, as that indicates the can has been punctured at some point, which speeds up the spoilage process.

the common house gecko: friend to all

The common house gecko arrived in Hawaii from Asia during World War II, according to Bishop Museum zoologist Allen Allison, and it’s been a friend to all - gobbling up roaches, mosquitoes and other annoying tropical bugs right and left, entertaining nightly with its song and dance on our window screens, selling beer, children’s stories, insurance, whatevahs.

Sherwood Schwartz

LOS ANGELES >> Sherwood Schwartz, writer-creator of two of the best-remembered TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," has died at age 94.

Sherwood Schwartz and his brother, Al, started as a writing team in TV's famed 1950s "golden age," said Douglas Schwartz, the late Al Schwartz's son.

"They helped shape television in its early days," Douglas Schwartz said. "Sherwood is an American classic, creating 'Brady Bunch' and 'Gilligan's Island,' iconic shows that are still popular today. He continued to produce all the way up into his 90s."

Success was the hallmark of Sherwood Schwartz's own career. Neither "Gilligan" nor "Brady" pleased the critics, but both managed to reverberate in viewers' heads through the years as few such series did, lingering in the language and inspiring parodies, spinoffs and countless standup comedy jokes.

Schwartz had given up a career in medical science to write jokes for Bob Hope's radio show. He went on to write for other radio and TV shows, including "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet."

He dreamed up "Gilligan's Island" in 1964. It was a Robinson Crusoe story about seven disparate travelers who are marooned on a deserted Pacific Island after their small boat wrecks in a storm. The cast: Alan Hale Jr., as Skipper Jonas Grumby; Bob Denver, as his klutzy assistant Gilligan; Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer, the rich snobs Thurston and Lovey Howell; Tina Louise, the bosomy movie star Ginger Grant; Russell Johnson, egghead science professor Roy Hinkley Jr.; and Dawn Wells, sweet-natured farm girl Mary Ann Summers.

TV critics hooted at "Gilligan's Island" as gag-ridden corn. Audiences adored its far-out comedy. Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."

Super Friends meet at Sun Valley

It's that time of the year again.

Titans of the media, tech, and finance world are swarming Sun Valley, Idaho for the annual Allen and Company conference.

This year they'll be treated to Bill Gates interviewing Mark Zuckerberg, a talk with Oprah, panels on doing business in China, and more.

The Sun Valley conference is famous for facilitating big media deals since all the major companies are represented.

We expect Hulu will be sold this week at Sun Valley since all of its owners and any potential buyers will be gathered together. (If not sold, at least big progress on the sale will be made.)

So who made it out to Sun Valley?

Among many:
Bill Gates
Mark Zuckerberg
Oprah
Charlie Rose
Tom Brokaw
Candice Bergen
Michael Eisner
Terry Semel
Barry Diller
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Warren Buffett
Salma Hayek
Diane von Furstenberg
Bob Iger
Rupert Murdoch
Jeff Wilpon

more...
David Stern
Jeff Bezos
Lou Simpson
Michael Bloomberg

The Art of Manliness

Going through my deleted email (before really deleting it!) and came across the website called The Art of Manliness. (It was the site that hosted an article on Resiliency that wreck_of_m_deare shared with chucks_angels on 3/5/10.)

Your Skin is a Wall

Residents of ancient cities built defensive walls to ward off invaders. The city wall acted both as a bulwark to stop the enemy and as a rampart from which defenders could protect the city. Your body is likewise endowed with a protective "wall"—your skin. How does your skin protect you from intruders?

The surface of your skin teems with bacteria and other microorganisms, some of which can cause infection and disease. Your skin apparently does more than act as a passive barrier. It also seems to ward off invaders by producing antimicrobial proteins, or peptides, that act as defenders. Some of these are on duty constantly. Others line up when the skin is damaged.

The first two groups of antimicrobial peptides discovered, called defensins and cathelicidins, proved to be defenders on call. Both groups are secreted by cells in the upper skin in response to injuries or inflammation. They kill invaders by punching holes in their cell membranes.

In 2001 a team of researchers at the University of Tübingen, Germany, found another type of germ-fighting protein, called dermicidin, which is active all the time. Unlike the other two groups, dermicidin is produced by healthy skin, in the sweat glands. How this protein works is yet unknown. But the fact that perspiration helps ward off disease might explain why people who wash excessively are more prone to skin infections and eczema.

-- Awake! January 8, 2004