Natalie

How to deal with an explosion of spoiled milk in the refrigerator?

I get milk delivered from a local dairy in reusable glass bottles. The milk in one of the bottles spoiled and broke the glass. Pieces of glass and most of the half-gallon of milk filled my refrigerator. It smells terrible and is quite the mess with milk everywhere, including for example trapped between the edges of the doors and the rubber seals.

So far I have:
- taken everything out of the refrigerator.
- wiped down, rinsed, and disinfected everything in the refrigerator that I can reach.
- thrown out all the food that wasn't in a sealed container.
- washed the sealed containers of food (jars, tupperware, unopened sealed bags of food) and put that back in the fridge.
- retched repeatedly from the terrible smell.
- put a box of baking soda in the fridge.

Has anyone here dealt with something like this before?

Does it seem reasonable to keep the food that was in sealed containers and not in direct contact with the milk?

Should I be thinking about replacing the refrigerator? Milk definitely got into parts of it that I can't reach, and I don't know if I can ever get the smell out. Even after all the cleaning it smells awful.

The Go-Go's perform "We Got the Beat" live for The Today Show, September 2020. (SLYT) (The Go-Go's previously)

I'm a huge fan of this clip, but especially Jane Wiedlin's haircut.

We want to move the wall outlet where the internet cable comes out to a different wall in the same room. Is this an electrician? Our internet service provider? Someone else?

We want to put bookshelves against the wall where the modem currently is, and move the modem to a wall over to the right where our tv is. (The internet cable is thick and inflexible and protrudes in such a way that we couldn't push a bookshelf flush up against it.) I have no idea who we would call to have this done. When I think about fishing around for wiring in the walls I assume electrician, but since it's actually internet wiring, I don't know if it would be somebody else? The internet is being weirdly unhelpful on this front but I'm having a hard time zeroing in on the right terms to Google. Our internet is through Wave Broadband, and they're notoriously unhelpful about many things, and their website is silent on the issue.

Nicole Cliffe's request: "If you normalized something (non-awful) because your family did it and then realized it was not, in fact, normal or remotely common, I would love to hear about it." "i didn't realized until i spent thanksgiving with a boyfriend's family that other families do not, in fact, head outside after the meal to throw pumpkins off the roof and watch them explode." An amusing Twitter thread on non-awful things families normalize, which are, in retrospect, uncommon.

I have an envelope full of covid in the flower bed. Maybe?

My youngest sister sews; we asked her to make us some masks several weeks ago. She was finishing up the school year and slow to get to it (which was fine, she was doing us a favor). In the meantime, she was feeling crappy, her GP ordered a covid test, and sure enough, she was positive.

She's been feeling better (thankfully!) and isn't symptomatic now. However, she keeps testing positive (not surprisingly). She finished up our masks and mailed them to us. They got here yesterday, and I... have no idea what to do with them. (To be fair, she gave us the chance to opt out and we felt ungrateful saying "no, please keep these masks we asked you to make"; we should have just said "thanks, but we'll pass.")

Logically, I know the we're finding out that the odds of surface transfer are pretty low; our household hasn't been quarantining groceries or packages, we've just been washing anything that seemed dodgy. But I'm having a lot more trouble with something that came from someone I know has tested positive. Should we watch the masks on our sanitation cycle? Boil them? Put them in the garden shed and hoping she doesn't want pictures? We both work on a college campus and are eventually going to have to go back to work in person, so the extra masks would be handy, but we're both feeling (hopefully understandably) reluctant.

(This is not a question I ever expected to be using on the green...)

American Academy of Pediatrics Says Some Common Food Additives May Pose Health Risks to Children. According to the statement in the August 2018 Pediatrics, "Food Additives and Child Health" (DOI link; published online July 23), some currently allowed chemicals may best be avoided--especially for children. The technical report can be read here (DOI link).

Per AAP's policy statement, chemicals of increasing concern include the following:

• bisphenols, which are used in the lining of metal cans to prevent corrosion;
• phthalates, which are esters of diphthalic acid that are often used in adhesives, lubricants, and plasticizers during the manufacturing process;
• nonpersistent pesticides, which have been addressed in a previous policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics and, thus, will not be discussed in this statement;
• perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), which are used in grease-proof paper and packaging; and
• perchlorate, an antistatic agent used for plastic packaging in contact with dry foods with surfaces that do not contain free fat or oil and also present as a degradation product of bleach used to clean food manufacturing equipment.

Additional compounds of concern discussed in the accompanying technical report include artificial food colors (AFCs; "Elimination of AFCs from the diet may provide benefits to children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder"), nitrates and nitrites ("There has been longstanding concern regarding the use of nitrates and nitrites as preservatives in cured and processed meats, fish, and cheese").

It is difficult to know how to reduce exposures to many of these chemicals, but some recommendations are cited here. Insofar as these modifications can pose additional costs, barriers may exist for low-income families to reduce their exposure to food additives of concern. Pediatricians may wish to tailor guidance in the context of practicality, especially because food insecurity remains a substantial child health concern.

• Prioritize consumption of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables when possible, and support that effort by developing a list of low-cost sources for fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Avoid processed meats, especially maternal consumption during pregnancy.
• Avoid microwaving food or beverages (including infant formula and pumped human milk) in plastic, if possible.
• Avoid placing plastics in the dishwasher.
• Use alternatives to plastic, such as glass or stainless steel, when possible.
• Look at the recycling code on the bottom of products to find the plastic type, and avoid plastics with recycling codes 3 (phthalates), 6 (styrene), and 7 (bisphenols) unless plastics are labeled as "biobased" or "greenware," indicating that they are made from corn and do not contain bisphenols.
• Encourage hand-washing before handling foods and/or drinks, and wash all fruits and vegetables that cannot be peeled.

Pediatricians also can advocate for modernization of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), which is of unique importance for low-income populations who may not be as readily able to reduce exposure to food additives.

"The good news is there are safe and simple steps people can take right now to limit exposures, and they don't have to break the bank," said Dr. Leonardo Trasande, the lead author of the statement and chief of the division of environmental pediatrics at New York University's School of Medicine.

"Avoiding canned food is a great way to reduce your bisphenol exposure in general, and avoiding packaged and processed food is a good way to avoid phthalates exposures," Dr. Trasande said. He also suggested wrapping foods in wax paper in lieu of plastic wrap.

Jonathan Corley, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, a trade association, said: "Chemicals are critical to protecting the quality and integrity of food, help in the safe transportation and storage of food." He said that many of the chemicals referred to in the A.A.P. statement did not act as endocrine disrupters "in typical uses and at typical exposure levels," but did not provide scientific references to support that contention.

In a separate development, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, who used a novel method for scanning blood said they had found dozens of chemicals called environmental organic acids, or E.O.A.s, in pregnant women.

(Quoting from the New York Times coverage, with a bonus link to the UCSF study)



Seven-year-old Jordan Bascombe-Ralph became an internet sensation with his amazing contribution to the #MBakuChallenge, in which he impersonated M’Baku, Zuri, T’Challa and more in the challenge scene from Black Panther. (We actually featured him on TWS back on March 6, 2018, and you can see his performance below.)

OH JESUS I AM LITERALLY SCREAMING !!! #MBakuChallenge #BlackPanther pic.twitter.com/WvL0K4LaVt

— Lady M’Baku 🦍💍 (@itsAlexJordan) March 6, 2018

Good Morning America invited him and his mother Brittni Rae Bascombe on the show to chat. “As soon as we watched it, he wanted to go back and see it again,” says Brittni Rae. “He normally doesn’t even stay awake through two-and-a-half-hour movies, so I knew that something was different about this movie.”

“I want to know how many tubes of your lipstick it took to make him into M’Baku,” George Stephanopoulos asks.

She laughs. “About five.”

While Jordan is adorably shy during the interview, he lights up when they surprise him with a message from Winston Duke, who played M’Baku in the movie. “I, M’Baku, leader of the Jabari, wish to make you an honorary member of my tribe,” Duke says. “Thank you for killing the M’Baku Challenge. You are amazing. I love you. You’re amazing. Thank you for participating. Thank you for making such an amazing video. I couldn’t have done it better myself. You did Forrest. You did everyone’s voice. So cool. Thank you, thank your family. You guys are awesome.”

Thousands of viewers recognized the importance of Black Panther when it comes to representation for young black kids. Initiatives like the #BlackPantherChallenge raised money for kids to see the film for free, and the movie has inspired some amazing art projects—from kids posing as Black Panther characters to posters that reimagine black leads in other science fiction and fantasy media. The actors in the film were also keenly aware of what their roles represented, whether for women of color in STEM or black men growing up in America. And as Jordan’s videos make clear, Black Panther lets kids see themselves as heroes in a really meaningful (and adorable!) way.

As Brittni Rae said above, “It’s more than a movie. It’s a movement.”

(Featured image: screengrab)

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I'm looking for aesthetically appealing, or at least not-terribly-ugly, ways to prevent birdies from flying into the windows of my craftsman bungalow. Help?!

Last week I moved into my first house. Probably my favorite thing about it is the living room, which has tons of light thanks to two big picture windows. Yesterday I found a dead bird on my front stoop, and a little investigation suggests that it flew straight into my big, beautiful picture window and broke its tiny birdy neck. I have a feeling this is going to happen a lot, and I would like to prevent a bird massacre, both because I don't like killing defenseless creatures and because picking up dead birds is traumatic. But I also don't want to ruin the aesthetics of my living room. Does anyone have any ideas for non-ugly ways to deter birds from flying into my windows?

I've looked online, and most of the places that discuss this seem to be very interested in the well-being of birds and not that interested in aesthetics. A lot of solutions block natural light, which I would like to avoid, and others are just kind of ugly. I would like something that was in keeping with the basic aesthetic of the room, which is simple and in harmony with nature. So far, my best bets seem to be these string things, which aren't lovely but are at least relatively unobtrusive, and this also-pretty-unobtrusive dotted tape. Does anyone have any other ideas for me?

Because of Reasons, I find myself needing to prepare frequent low-salt high-calorie meals/snacks for a family member. I'm fairly short on time so simple ideas are better. Not aiming for completely salt-free, but no cheese or sausage or added salt; assume bread is OK. Many thanks for any ideas!

We all know weddings can be crazy expensive. And while small stuff like decorations or favors can add up, there are a few main factors that will determine your wedding’s price tag more than anything.

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Whether you are at home or away, video-camera-equipped doorbells can alert you when visitors arrive or packages are delivered, and can even record suspicious activity around your door and entryway. We spent 20 hours testing the three most popular models to find the best one for most users. Our top pick is the SkyBell HD, a doorbell camera that offers high-quality video, an easy-to use app, and a good response time between event (detecting motion or a press of the doorbell button) and notification. And SkyBell doesn’t charge you for cloud storage of your videos.

Every clock at New York's Grand Central Station runs one minute fast by design. It's not an uncommon psychological trick: an informal poll of the Straight Dope message board turns up dozens of people who set their clocks 1, 15, or 30 minutes ahead to encourage punctuality and "create" more time. "The problem with this" (points out Crooked Timber) "is that if you're half-way rational, you'll correct for the error, making it useless. So the solution is to have a probabilistic clock, where the clock is fast, but you aren't sure how fast it is within a given and relatively short time range."

(Some of the javascript in the last linked page seems to have broken down over the years, so here's a direct link to David Seah's online implementation of the procrastinator's clock.)

You ever wonder how cats fall in love? Or, should I perhaps ask, have you ever wondered if cats fall in love? Some cat behavior experts at Cats Protection in the UK might have an answer for you, and they’ve partnered up with the animator behind Simon’s Cat to share it with you.

Short answer: kinda. Cats don’t exactly mate for life, and they’re not fussy or picky about who they mate with. That’s some real “survival for the species” stuff right there, I think.

This video is part of a series of shorts called Simon’s Cat Logic, a collaboration between Simon Tofield (creator of Simon’s Cat) and Cats Protection. It was created to shed some light on those mysterious, adorable jerks we call cats. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the whys and wherefores of your cat, then you should check the series out.

(via Laughing Squid)

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I'm working on creating a 2 hour class that focuses on cooking and nutrition for wilderness guides. These folks are generally 23-33, and they mostly have some of the basics down. What are your greatest tips and hacks that make you a good cook? What are your best recipes that can be cooked over a one burner camp stove? What nutrition science is true and not just a fad?

We carry a pretty good kitchen with us, generally a pot, a frying pan, a lid, knife, spatula. We carry rice, pasta, flour, yeast, lots of dried veggies and beans, etc and an extensive spice kit. Generally no fresh stuff (too heavy) but sometimes we can forage for greens. As long as it is shelf stable, there's a good chance we could bring it with us.

There's so many possibilities that I know it will be hard to find a good flow in a two hour class, but I want to cast my net wide so that it's not just coming from my personal experience. Thanks.

Yosemite to Rename Several Iconic Places - "The National Park Service said today it will rename many well-known spots in Yosemite, as part of an ongoing legal dispute with an outgoing concessionaire that has trademarked many names in the world-famous park."

Bolt and Keel, the back-packing cats. This past July, two tiny kitties were found, alone in the forest, in British Columbia. They were rescued, and now travel along on their human's outdoor adventures. Christened Bolt and Keel, for their new companion's passion for kayaking and rock climbing, they have their own Instagram account.

Pixar movies are amazing, because they not only appeal to children, but they are also intelligent and emotional enough to appeal to adults. Inside Out: Outside Edition illustrates this, as it allows us to see Riley’s journey through the film with nothing but the emotions floating across her face to guide us. Check it out above.

This edit by Jordan Hanzon is pretty brilliant, editing together all of the “outside” portions of the film into a coherent, 15-minute narrative that works really well on its own. Watching it, I found myself not really missing the emotions and their adorable zaniness. That’s how good the folks at Pixar are at telling stories. Props to RickRoy37 for giving Hanzon the idea. It’s kinda one of the best female-centric films I’ve seen in a long time.

What do you think? Does Inside Out: Outside Edition stand up on its own?

(via Uproxx; Image via screengrab)

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17 surprisingly useful diagrams for narrowing down your wedding dress shopping Buzzfeed - where else?

I'm looking for books about outdoor leadership. Bear Grylls in book form, but not his actual books. Suggestions?

I'm a Girl Scout leader and I like to take my troop outside. I'm looking for secular books that will inspire and encourage me.

I like Bear Grylls' enthusiastic take on things, but the books of his I've seen at are aimed at the young men themselves, not their leaders.

Not just outdoorsy books, but specifically for people who want to encourage other people (preferably girls) to get outside. I've already got Outdoor Education in Girl Scouting. Imagine Lean Into Teaching Knots and Lashing or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pie-Iron Quantity Chefs.

"Mile... Mile & a Half" is the answer that hikers give when you ask 'How far from here to there?', according to this documentary: Five artists/friends left their daily lives behind to hike California's historic John Muir Trail, a 211-mile stretch from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney. The trip lasted 25 days and was funded by a successful kickstarter campaign a few years ago. The movie will wake the wanderlust feelings in you, and is available on the usual channels.

Under a blanket of stars, a man takes in the landscape of Yosemite National Park from the edge of the Diving Board, a rock formation at Glacier Point.

Fernandez’s image was recently featured in Your Shot’s Daily Dozen.

Many local breweries lend their skill and effort to charities, but it takes an nth-level degree of devotion to make a cause the crux of a brewing company’s entire identity. But that’s how deeply engrained Greg Littrell’s and Katie Earle’s shared love of rescuing dogs is. In fact, it’s how they met ten years ago when Littrell adopted dachshunds from Earle’s rescue. During that transaction, they discovered that they had more in common than canines, namely a love of beer and brewing. Fast-forward and the duo is in the process of opening a boutique operation called Barrel Rescue Brewing Company (8125 Ronson Road, Suite F, Kearny Mesa).

Last week, Littrell and Earle signed the lease on a 2,000-square-foot space in which to install a projected seven-barrel brewhouse which they intend to acquire from an existing local brewery looking to up its capacity, 300 oak barrels and a tasting room. Like the output of most of its beers, the tasting room will be very tiny—likely a mere 500 square feet (though an outdoor patio is planned to provide patrons extra space). If all goes as planned, the interior will feature canvas-wrap wall art of dogs available for adoption from various San Diego rescue groups.

Additionally, Barrel Rescue’s brews will be named after some of their four-legged friends. A Belgian golden ale built for barrel-aging will bear the name of Nellie, a dachshund Katie rescued from a puppy mill, and a blueberry sour will be called Rainbow Blueberry Frost after the first deaf dog she rescued. Additionally, there will be a line of Brettanomyces-fermented beers will be called the Goldilocks Series: Papa Brett, Mama Brett and Baby Brett (though they’ve never had pups named Goldilocks or Brett).

In reading that last paragraph, astute imbibers will notice that every beer mentioned falls in the sour or wild category. As the business’ name implies, this will be Barrel Rescue’s bailiwick. There will be year-round beers, but Littrell and Earle are all about crafting “true” barrel-aged sour beers aged at least a year before blending or fruiting. They aim to produce lambics, gueuzes and fruited sour ales. The latter will incorporate more typical fruits such as cherries, raspberries and apricots, as well as lesser utilized edibles such as apples and Meyer lemons.

Littrell and Earle will both handle brewing, extending on four years spent brewing sour beers as a tandem. They started with two used barrels from San Marcos’ The Lost Abbey, followed by a quartet of oak receptacles from a local winery. From there, they entered some of their ales into local competitions, garnering awards and positive feedback. Earle also won an internal homebrewing contest while working at Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits (she now works at The Lost Abbey Confessional in Cardiff), which led to the commercial brewing of Home Brew Mart Homework Series #5, a hoppy Belgian-style pale ale. That beer recently took silver at last weekend’s San Diego International Beer Festival. Still, one of the most rewarding moments of their time on the tart side was when a friend of theirs took a bottle of their framboise to Belgium’s lambic mecca, Cantillon, and were told the brewer they shared it with refused to believe it was a homebrew creation.

A number of Barrel Rescue beers are already resting in oak. Littrell and Earle used homebrewer Jeff Swem‘s home brew system (which readers may have seen on the cover of the June issue of West Coaster) to brew the base beers. As soon as their brewhouse is installed, the duo plan to get to work immediately brewing up beers and transferring them to barrels to begin the aging process. Still, they report it will be at least a year before the business opens. Even when that happens, beer will be rather scarce. They liken it to a boutique winery producing very minute vintages. Once a year, they will offer up limited-release bottles of their barrel-aged stock and when they’re gone, they’re gone.

In selecting Kearny Mesa, not only did Littrell and Earle pick a community with a burgeoning beer scene and breweries they share the sour bug with, they also inherited built-in comrades who have already been exceptionally helpful to them, lending advice throughout the early stages of Barrel Rescue’s life. Among them are Douglas Constantiner and Travis Smith of Societe Brewing Company, Liz and Curtis Chism of Council Brewing Company, and Tom and Lindsey Nickel of O’Brien’s Pub. But who wouldn’t want to help an operation that will not only rescue dogs in need, but as Earle puts it, “rescue barrels from the horrible fate of becoming planters sold at Dixieline.”

Hiking from Death Valley to Mount Whitney - the Lowest to Highest Trail.

We've seen good ASL versions of Eminem before, but this one from Shelby Mitchusson takes it to another level. (SLASLYT)

A genetically modified yeast strain capable of synthesizing opiates from glucose.

Synthetic biology isn't as straightforward as popular science journalism can make it sound (previously on MeFi), but as scientists tease apart and reconstruct individual biochemical pathways in their entirety, the bioethics issues surrounding the field have begun moving from theoretical to applied questions. Case in point: published papers by three research groups in the past few months describe all the steps necessary to engineer a genetically modified yeast capable of producing opiates from sugar.

"In principle, anyone with access to the yeast strain and basic skills in fermentation would be able to grow morphine-producing yeast using a home-brew kit for beer-making. If the modified yeast strain produced 10 grams of morphine, users would need to drink only 1–2 millilitres of the liquid to obtain a standard prescribed dose.

"...Yeast-based production of opiates could provide an alternative system for current criminal networks, particularly in North America and Europe, where the drugs are in high demand. Because yeast is easy to conceal, grow and transport, criminal syndicates and law-enforcement agencies would have difficulty controlling the distribution of an opiate-producing yeast strain. All told, decentralized and localized production would almost certainly reduce the cost and increase the availability of illegal opiates — substantially worsening a worldwide problem."

This Nature editorial lays out a few recommendations, and sketches out the limited groundwork already in place for effective biocontainment of genetically engineered yeast strains.

A camera trap near Yellowstone National Park catches a grizzly bear stealing whitebark pine nuts from a squirrel’s cache. The nuts are an important food for the bears, a threatened species.

See more pictures from the April 2015 feature story “The Bug That’s Eating the Woods.” Photographer Drew Rush talks about the story behind the shot on our photography blog, Proof.

Like many of you, I use a chest freezer for chilling and serving kegs.  The big downside I’ve experienced is with that is… condensation.  Not just beads of water on the sides, I had pooling water in the bottom.  Not a good thing.  This varies by how often I’m in it and the weather, but […]

Meal subscription services like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and Plated deliver fresh ingredients to your door each week, saving you the time and hassle of meal planning and grocery shopping. But are they worth it? Here's a look at how these services work and compare to each other.

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