Jim Paull

If you’ve been holding out upgrading your bed, Amazon’s pair of Gold Boxes can help.

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People are freaking out about a recent story where a man who ate sushi ended up with a stomach parasite. While acquiring a gut buddy is a real possibility whenever you eat something raw, it’s also fairly uncommon and easy to avoid.

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KUALA LUMPUR: UMW Oil & Gas Corporation Bhd (UMW-OG) has received two contracts from Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd worth US$34.81mil or RM151.07mil to provide services to its firm and optional wells.

Banana bread is a great use of overripe bananas, but what if you want to turn bananas into an Instagram-worthy dessert or an everyday treat instead of breakfast fare? This brown sugar-glazed, cinnamon-scented banana upside-down cake is the most delicious way to bring bananas to brunch or an after-dinner dessert. Using our one-bowl vanilla cake recipe, we can turn everyday bananas into a sumptuous treat.

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From Apartment Therapy → Back in Fashion: 5 Old Kitchen Design Trends that are Making a Comeback

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IPOH: Motorists travelling north along the North-South Expressway were caught in an eight-hour traffic crawl caused by an overturned trailer near Tapah.

KUALA TERENGGANU: He may have been made fun of and labelled “Mat Jambu”, or girly, for wanting to be a nurse.

But the taunts did not discourage Mohd Aswardi Mat Zin, 32, who went on to achieve his ambition.

An anaesthetist nurse at Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital (HSNZ) for the past four years now, he uses his skill in the operating room.

“I had the opportunity to assist surgeons when they perform surgeries for various diseases, including treating damaged internal organs and brain surgery.

“What was most nerve-racking and challenging for me then was assisting them to perform brain surgery, particularly involving accident victims.

“But I overcame and eventually got used to every situation,” he told reporters in conjunction with International Nurses Day celebration on May 12.

His most memorable experience to date was being able to save the life of a patient who became critical after undergoing intestinal surgery last year.

“The operation went smoothly, but suddenly the patient became critical and I, with five other nurses, took turns to provide CPR, and we saved the patient,” said the father of two, who has a nursing diploma from Kolej Islam dan Sains Teknologi.

His wife, Norashikin Che Musa, 28, is also a nurse at the same hospital based at the maternity ward.

“We understand our respective careers and this facilitates our tasks, particularly in regard to night shifts. We also appreciate the support of the family on both sides which is a great help to us,” he said.

Another male nurse, Mohd Hazarul Imam Hamzah, 29, said he had always been interested in the medical field and aspired to be a doctor.

“But to be a doctor is not easy, requiring a great deal of sacrifice to achieve excellent results in every examination.

“I was a bit disappointed, but I still chose to study at Kolej Kejururawatan Alor Setar, Kedah, so that I could serve in the nursing profession which is still within the scope of the career I love,” he said.

After completing his studies at the college, he was posted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sabah, where he served for three years before being transferred to HSNZ.

“Alhamdulillah, despite being away from home and unable to be with my parents during Ramadan and Aidilfitri, I can still work with a smile.

“There is no such thing as being lonely and bored at work because there are so many patients who need my attention. They need to be assisted, especially the bedridden ones who require help to move around.

“When I was in Sabah, I did not lose heart because of the huge distance that separated me from my family in Manir, near Kuala Terengganu. On the contrary, because of the moral support given by my family, my resolve to serve the patients became stronger,” he said.

On public perception about male nurses, Hazarul who is currently based at the orthopaedic ward of the hospital, said people did appreciate their role, particularly in assisting patients in the male ward.

“Male patients prefer male nurses to assist them; furthermore, it is quite a challenge for female nurses to handle male patients. I hope more men would become nurses because there is a demand for it,” he said.

That’s according to a new survey by take-out service Grubhub, which analyzed the volume of its take-out orders to extract conclusions on American diet habits.

Compared to 2015, online and mobile orders of Paleo foods increased 370 percent in 2016 across the US, says Grubhub, outpacing the raw diet, juice cleanse, veganism and gluten-free diets which round out the top five eating plans.

For the uninitiated, the Paleolithic diet — also known as the Caveman or Stone Age Diet — replicates the kinds of foods that would only have been available to Paleolithic humans. That means fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, nuts and seeds are allowed, but dairy, legumes, cereals and sugars are not.

For the survey, analysts looked at a combination of dietary tags and specific eating plans in order data from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2016.

The results were also broken down by city to reveal some interesting trends.

For example, Seattle emerged the most health-conscious, most finicky city in the US, with more residents placing special dietary orders for their takeout meal than any other city: Seattleites order 309 percent more foods related to eating plans and diets compared to the rest of the country.

The most popular eating plan in that city? Gluten-free foods.

Elsewhere, you’re more likely to find vegans in cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Chicago, while New Yorkers, Bostonians and residents in San Francisco are more likely to order low-fat meals.

The Paleo diet is particularly popular in Texas, with Dallas, Houston and Austin, where locals favor the caveman’s diet.

Here are the most popular eating plans across the US:

Paleo: 370 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Raw: 92 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Juice cleanse: 89 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Vegan: 58 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Gluten-free: 35 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Low-fat: 21 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Mediterranean: 7 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Keto: 5 percent increase in orders in 2016 vs. the year prior

Here are five of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

KUALA LUMPUR: After abandoning a deal to create one of the largest oil and gas services providers in Malaysia, UMW Oil & Gas Corp. expects to return to profit next year with the return of full utilization of its drilling rigs.

PETALING JAYA: Two activists for the disabled have called on the government to provide training for employers on how to communicate with workers who are disabled.

Speaking to FMT, V Murugeswaran and Anthony Thanasayan said it was apparent to them that some employers didn’t understand the needs of the disabled.

They were commenting on a video uploaded to the internet which showed three disabled persons being assaulted, allegedly by the owner of the restaurant they were employed at.

“They hire OKUs (disabled persons), but do not understand what their needs and shortcomings are,” said Murugeswaran, who is the president of the Damai Disabled People Association.

He also said companies should not employ disabled workers just to “show off” that they had done their part in corporate social responsibility.

“It is the responsibility of the employers to ensure the disabled workers are protected,” he said. “If they cannot do so, then do not employ us. The disabled can find other jobs to do.”

Thanasayan, who is the president of Petpositive (Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association), said the Welfare Department (JKM) must provide support groups for disabled workers to help them cope with work problems.

“It is JKM’s job to provide help to OKUs,” he said. “But I do not see them doing anything about this.”

In an interview with Sin Chew Daily on Wednesday, the three disabled persons shown in the video of the assault claimed they were treated worse than foreign workers.

Two of the them apparently have learning disabilities and the other one has difficulty moving around.

They told Sin Chew they could only keep silent and continue working despite being abused as they felt they could not get another job.

They also alleged that their employer did not contribute to their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Sosco) accounts.

On Wednesday, Kajang police chief Othman Nanyan said the restaurant owner and his nephew had been remanded for four days. The case is being investigated under Section 323 of the Penal Code for assault and Section 506 for criminal intimidation.

Murugeswaran and Thanasayan congratulated the police for their swift action.

While mall staples and department stores continue to close their doors this year, one subset within the retail industry is enjoying higher sales and decent foot traffic: beauty products. But it’s not the traditional makeup counter inside your local department store that’s become a hot spot for customers, it’s the tech-heavy, try-before-you-buy beauty-specific stores like Sephora and Ulta. 

The New York Times reports that while prestige beauty sales in the United States rose 6% in the last year, that doesn’t mean every company selling cosmetics is doing well.

Sephora and Ulta — as well as a wealth of online beauty tutorials — have helped cut into the department store beauty market by luring away shoppers who now seem to be living by a more-is-more mantra: more technology, more brands, more options.

And that’s what stores like Sephora, which is owned by French conglomerate LVMH, offer with rows of brands and colorful palettes, not to mention the technology that allows customers to virtually try on everything from eyelashes to lipsticks.

Analysts say new technology and the demise of brand loyalty has turned stores like Sephora into a makeup lover’s candy store.

“For the older consumer it can be confusing,” Karen Grant, the global beauty industry analyst at the NPD Group, tells the Times. “But for the younger consumer, it’s like, ‘Wheeeee! Look at that! Look at that!’ It’s all about play. And the more time you stay in the store or online, the more money you are likely to spend.”

It’s a shift that Sephora has enjoyed. The company operates more than 2,300 locations in 33 countries.

The company says it’s working to embrace customers changing expectations. With thousands of beauty tutorials appearing on sties like YouTube, there’s less need for makeup artists, but more space for product options.

Deborah Yeh, Sephora’s senior vice president for marketing and branding, tells the Times that the company is currently working to cut through the confusion created by so many voices in the beauty industry.

While Sephora’s closest competition is Ulta, which focuses on both high-end and drug store beauty products, as well as salon services, that doesn’t mean department store chains are giving up on their beauty offerings.

The Times reports that at Macy’s beauty sales people have begun shilling all brands not just one counter. Additionally, the company bought beauty boutique Bluemercury in 2015 and has begun incorporating those products at stores, while opening stand alone locations. 

Others are embracing the standalone beauty retailers. JCPenney, for instance, already operates dozens of store-within-a-store Sephora locations. Last month, the company announced it would expand that partnership adding more in-store locations, bringing the total Sephora presence in JCPenney stores to 650 locations.

If you have a sweet tooth, blondies always hit the spot. But these blondies are a bit more special than your average recipe. With ingredients like brown butter, walnuts, miso, and dark chocolate, I can guaruntee you've never had blondies quite like these.

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Your dreams of getting a good buzz in the Green Mountain State have moved one step closer to reality, as Vermont is on the verge of becoming the first state to enact legislation legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

Yes, several states have legalized non-medical pot in recent years, but none of them have done so through the legislative process. Instead, the people of those states have approved legalization through public referendums.

Today, the Vermont House of Representatives voted 79-66 to concur with the Senate’s amendment to S. 22, which incorporates an earlier House bill H.170 [PDF].

The amended bill is a compromise between the House and Senate: It would eliminate all penalties for adults’ possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, two or fewer mature plants, and four or fewer immature plants.

Unlike other states that have legalized pot, the Vermont law does not include any immediate timeline for allowing the sale of retail marijuana in the state. Rather, it would establish a 9-member commission tasked with developing separate legislation for regulating and taxing cannabis in Vermont.

“The administration will be at the table, along with the attorney general and others,” Rep. Maxine Grad, one of the bill’s sponsors and chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee told the Burlington Free Press before the vote. “With Massachusetts and Maine starting up in 2018, I think we need to continue this conversation.”

Hold your horses before you go setting up a grow operation, however, as the law would not take effect until July 1, 2018.

Marijuana advocates applauded the vote.

“The Legislature has taken a crucial step toward ending the failed policy of marijuana prohibition,” said Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “There is no rational reason to continue punishing adults for consuming a substance that is safer than alcohol.”

The bill now goes to Gov. Phil Scott, who has not yet indicated his intention to sign or veto the legislation. Scott could also do nothing and allow the bill to become law without his signature.

ELDA ROSE of Shah Alam.

Hummus is my go-to snack in the afternoon when I'm feeling a little peckish. It's filling and wholesome (especially when I dunk crudité in it instead of chips!), and it doesn't ruin my appetite for dinner. But eating the same ol' hummus day in and day out can get boring quickly, which is why I like to switch it up now and then. This lemon-artichoke hummus fits the bill perfectly — it doesn't stray too far from a classic hummus recipe, but it has a few upgrades that really elevate it.

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If you're inviting friends over who may be on the fence about feta, make them this dip. It's guaranteed to make a feta believer out of anyone. Instead of the cheese being in its usual crumbled state, it's whipped in a food processor with Greek yogurt into a gloriously creamy, tangy dip. A heaping spoonful of basil pesto drizzled over top seals the deal, making this a flavorful appetizer you can make for around five bucks. If you've got a crisp $20 on hand, use the rest to pick up a bottle of wine — we've got the perfect pairing.

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KUALA LUMPUR: RAM Ratings expects UMW Holdings Bhd to emerge stronger after it exits the loss making oil and gas (O&G) sector but cautions that any delays will erode its retained earnings.

Fascinated by the sound of your own voice? Wish you could hear your significant other whisper “turn left here” into your ear while on the road? Well, now you can with Waze on Android.

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Whistleblowing is in the news this week: Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates is preparing to testify in front of a Senate panel on May 8th, and CNN reports that she will say she warned the White House about Michael Flynn’s connections with Russia almost three weeks before Flynn was fired.

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If successful, the experimental project could produce up to 10 times more energy than an existing conventional gas or oil well, by generating electricity from the heat stored inside the earth: in this case, volcanic areas.

Launched in August last year, the drilling was completed on January 25, reaching a record-breaking depth of 4,659 metres (nearly 3 miles).

At this depth, engineers hope to access hot liquids under extreme pressure and at temperatures of 427 degrees C (800 F), creating steam that turns a turbine to generate clean electricity.

Iceland’s decision to harness the heat inside the earth in a process known as geothermal energy dates back to the 1970s and the oil crisis.

But the new geothermal well is expected to generate far more energy, as the extreme heat and pressure at that depth makes the water take the form of a “supercritical” fluid, which is neither gas nor liquid.

“We expect to get five to 10 times more power from the well than a conventional well today,” said Albert Albertsson, an engineer at the Icelandic energy company HS Orka, involved in the drilling project.

To supply electricity and hot water to a city like Reykjavik with 212,000 inhabitants, “we would need 30-35 conventional high temperature wells” compared to only three or five supercritical wells, says Albertsson. The cost would be much less.

Scientists and the team working on the “Thor” drill project have two years to determine its success and the economic feasibility of the experiment, which is called the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP).

Situated not far from the Blue Lagoon, whose steaming blue waters attracted more than one million tourists last year, the IDDP overlooks craters formed by the last volcanic eruption 700 years ago that covered this part of the Reykjanes peninsula with a sea of lava.

The peninsula’s moon-like landscape also attracted NASA training missions in 1965 and 1967, aiming to prepare astronauts for unknown landscapes they might encounter on the moon.

CO2 emissions rising

A Nordic island nation, rich in geysers with fountainlike jets of water and steam, hot springs and breathtaking volcanoes, Iceland is currently the only country in the world with 100 percent renewable electricity. Geothermal accounts for 25 percent, while the rest comes from hydroelectric dams.

But is Iceland a model for clean energy?

The answer is complex, according to Martin Norman, a Norwegian sustainable finance specialist at Greenpeace.

Although geothermal energy is still preferable to gas, coal and oil, it’s not “completely renewable and without problems,” he said.

“As soon as you start drilling you have issues to it, such as sulphur pollution and CO2 emission and they need to find solutions to deal with it,” he added.

Albertsson agreed but said geothermal emissions were only “a fraction” compared to those produced by oil and natural gas. He added that recycling methods are progressing rapidly.

Iceland prides itself on being at the forefront of renewable energy, yet “it is far from meeting the international objectives in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Norman said.

The Institute of Economic Studies at the University of Iceland said in a February report that the country will not be able to abide by the COP21 climate change agreement signed in Paris in 2015.

Greenhouse gas emissions are rising in all sectors of the economy, except in fisheries and agriculture, it said.

And they are predicted to rise by between 53 and 99 percent by 2030 from 1999 levels, a far cry from the island nation’s COP21 summit pledge to slash carbon pollution by 40 percent compared to the same benchmark.

‘Costa del Reykjavik’

Iceland’s heavy and energy-intensive — aluminium, silicon — industries and booming tourism are some of the causes.

The land of ice and fire, with a population of 338,000, expects to welcome more than two million foreign visitors this year.

With the frequent landing of charter planes, coaches weaving through the interior of the country, quads and powerful 4×4 driving over the black lava landscape and hotels sprouting up in the capital, the growing volume of holidaymakers is taking a toll on Iceland’s environment.

Norman, of Greenpeace, fears the capital will turn into “a Costa del Reykjavik” due to the lure of the profits to be made and result in Icelanders giving up the country’s unique nature.

In an interview with AFP, Icelandic Environment Minister Bjort Olafsdottir said she hopes her nation will find the political will to reach its COP21 goals.

“If we do nothing, if we don’t take strong actions, we won’t reach the Paris agreement goals. But that’s not the plan,” she said.

The current government has doubled taxes on CO2 emissions and financial incentives for polluting industries have been removed, she argued.

“It is the first step, probably it is not enough. We have to do it with the help of the industry,” she said.

Iceland’s long-term goal is to reduce the country’s dependence on hydrocarbons by having all cars run on electric power.

It’s gruesome, but could help investigations Might this deer have a taste for human flesh? U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Warning: the photos below may be disturbing for some people. Forensic scientists have to do a lot of weird things in order to solve crimes and identify bodies. Sometimes that...

LANGKAWI: The increasing number of university students willing to accept or offer bribes as revealed in a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) study is worrying, says chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad.

He said the Corruption Prevention Action Effectiveness Perception Study conducted last year showed 16% of 1,000 university students responded that they were willing to accept a bribe if they had the opportunity or power.

“The figure is worrying as the same study in 2015 showed only 10.7% while in 2014 it was 11.3%,” he said when delivering a keynote address at the Holistic Graduate Seminar organised by Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Higher Education Ministry and the MACC here.

According to the study, 18.2% of the students surveyed were prepared to offer bribes so that they would not have to face (legal) action compared to 17.4% in 2015.

Meanwhile in KUALA LUMPUR, Dzulkifli in a media statement said the younger generation, especially university students, should stand firm with the MACC to stamp out corruption in the country.

“University students should join forces with the MACC to protect the people especially the poor from being oppressed,” he said.

He added that 2,000 MACC officers would be going to the ground throughout the country under the Anti-Corruption Revolution Movement to meet and spread the message of the movement. The programme will be officially launched on Monday.

“The MACC will be the moving agent to the revolution movement to fight abuse of power and corruption as the number one agenda of the country,” he said.

JAKARTA/BANGKOK: The Indonesian government is suing Thailand's state-owned PTT and PTT Exploration and Production for around $2 billion for alleged damage to the environment from an oil spill in the Timor Sea eight years ago.

From Apartment Therapy → Organization Orgasms: 21 Well-Designed Pantries You'd Love to Have in Your Kitchen

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I don’t mean to alarm you, but you’re probably pooping all wrong. Luckily, there’s an easy solution: Squatty Potty, marked down to $20 today, from its usual $25.

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COPENHAGEN: A Danish brewery is drawing on 50,000 litres of urine collected from the largest music festival in northern Europe to produce a novelty beer aimed at the more adventurous drinker.

The beer named “Pisner” – a wordplay combining pilsner with local slang for urine – contains no human waste, but is produced from fields of malting barley fertilised with human urine rather than traditional animal manure or factory-made plant nutrients.

“When the news that we had started brewing the Pisner came out, a lot of people thought we were filtering the urine to put it directly in the beer and we had a good laugh about that,” said Henrik Vang, chief executive of brewer Norrebro Bryghus.

Using human waste as fertiliser on such a scale is a novelty, said Denmark’s Agriculture and Food Council, which came up with the idea for what could be the ultimate sustainable hipster beer and has already named the concept “beercycling”.

“If it had tasted even a bit like urine, I would put it down, but you don’t even notice,” said Anders Sjögren, who attended Roskilde Music Festival in 2015.

The 50,000 litres collected from that festival resulted in enough malting barley to brew around 60,000 bottles of Pisner beer.

JAKARTA: Indonesia said Friday it has filed a US$2 billion lawsuit against an energy company over an oil spill off Australia that it claims caused environmental damage in the archipelago’s waters.

The civil suit was filed Wednesday in a Jakarta court against PTTEP Australasia, which was operating the rig in the Timor Sea where the accident happened, and its parent company, Thailand’s state-owned PTT Exploration and Production.

The spill in the Montara field, north of Australia, took place in August 2009. Thousands of barrels of oil leaked for close to 10 weeks following a blowout at the rig, in Australia’s worst ever offshore drilling accident.

Indonesia is seeking about 27.4 trillion rupiah (around US$2 billion) in damages, including for damage caused to the environment, after the oil spread into its waters, said Arif Havas Oegroseno, deputy minister for maritime affairs.

The government is also seeking to freeze the firm’s assets in Indonesia and overseas, he said.

“This is an effort to seek justice for the PTTEP oil spill,” Oegroseno said.

Oegroseno said the oil spill killed and damaged a huge area of coral reefs, seagrass meadows and mangroves in Indonesia.

Over the years, Indonesia had tried to negotiate with the company to come to a resolution but was not satisfied with their response, Oegroseno said.

“We feel that they are not serious in handling this issue,” he said.

An independent commission which included the former Indonesian and Thailand foreign ministers did not manage to resolve the issue when PTTEP failed to show up for the signing of an agreement over the oil spill in late 2012, the deputy minister said.

Oegroseno said the company’s failure to show up was a “clear signal” that the company was not taking the case seriously.

There was no immediate comment from the energy company.

PTTEP has previously said comprehensive studies clearly showed “no lasting impact on the highly sensitive and biodiverse ecosystems in the areas closest to Indonesian waters”.

In August last year about 13,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers launched a AUS$200 million (US$150 million) class action against PTTEP Australasia in Sydney, claiming the accident devastated their livelihoods.

Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.