FDA’s latest recall and a real PTOO! moment

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So there I was, going home for lunch today. I made myself a nice roast beef and horseradish sandwich on wheat, some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos with Tabasco sauce, and a freezing cold bottle of Evian water. As an indulgence, I grabbed one macadamia nut cookie from an unopened Sam’s cookie box I got a few weeks ago.

I had finished lunch watching some stuff on the Tivo, and was nomming on my cookie when I started to open the mail. First up – a letter from Sam’s.

Cookie bite number four was in progress when I read…

“Dear Sam’s Club Member: Today we were notified that Countryside Backing Co Inc in conjunction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated a Recall of cookies made with Macadamia Nuts because the nuts may be contaminated with Salmonella. Our records reflect you may have purchased one of more of the following: Assorted 24ct Cookies (choc chunk, oatmeal, mac nut) Item # 68503 UPC #: 0022193700000”

PTOO! PTOO! PTOO!

Figures.

Here’s the actual letter with more detail…

Sams Cookie Recall

Sam's Cookie Recall

The bad thing is I took two of those cookie sets to a recent birthday party. Not funny.

It’s great and very commendable that Sam’s sent out this letter directly to its’ customers who made the actual purchase. Sam’s definitely stopped one possible infection. Well done ya’ll. But I still can’t find the official FDA notice about this tie-in with Sam’s.

So until the FDA notice comes out, take this letter as a basic guideline on the UPC codes. The items affected are Item # 68503 with UPC # 0022193700000, Item # 6850 with UPC # 0022193900000 and Item # 929830 with UPC # 0022201900000.

Facebook attack

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If you are a user of Facebook and get an email saying “your password has been reset” with a attachment to open, just delete the email. A new scam/trojan attack is making the rounds, and this one is specifically targeting users of Facebook.

According to the tech site Neowin, Facebook users may get an email saying… “their password has been reset, and that the attached zip archive contains their new password. Instead of a new password, users will find a trojan downloader.”

Once the trojan is opened, it will go out over the internet and grab more viruses and malware to download to the infected PC. The article says there are “around 735,000 of the phony Facebook messages since Monday”, so this thing is only getting bigger.

Make sure to update your antivirus definitions this weekend, and it would be a good idea to set your antivirus application to run a full scan while you are out for Halloween.

Free Quickbooks Simple Start Edition

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In a recent set of HP ink I got for a company printer, a small flier was enclosed that advertised a link to a free and legal copy of Quickbooks.

The promotional special with HP is for a free copy of Quickbooks Simple Start Free Edition 2010. While not as full featured as the “Pro” version, it does “keep track of money coming in and going out, track income and expenses (for up to 20 customers), track sales, expenses & sales taxes, [generate] professional-looking invoices & estimates and [also has] 14 Financial, sales & tax reports.”

That’s not too bad. Especially for free. It might be worth it to keep on a memory stick and use to set up someone new to paperless accounting. Or even for use as a very basic home accounting system.

You can download your free and legal copy at http://www.quickbooks.com/hpink4

Recall : Pop’s Bakery Tortillas

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Before you read too far, this recall only concerns Texans. The rest o’ ya’ll can mosey on by now.

A new recall by the FDA says Pop’s Bakery is recalling all tortillas… “marked by the following number codes: 110609, 110509, 110409, 110309, 110209, 110109, 103109, 103009, 102909, 102809, 102709, 102609, 102509, 102409, 102309, 102209, 102109, 102009, 101909, 101809, 101709, 101609, 101509, 101409, 101309, 101209, 101109, 101009, 100909, 100809, 100709. These products may contain undeclared whey (milk). People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to whey (milk) run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products. Flour tortillas were distributed only within the state of Texas, specifically to the West Texas region. The product was distributed to restaurants and retail grocery stores via direct delivery.”

This is a great recall notice, but I think a list of restaurants would be nice to have. Not to cause a panic, but to get the word out to restaurant chain owners and franchises that might not read their mail until the end of the week.

Here’s a link to the recall article.

And now for the cute side of the pandemic

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The US Department of Health and Human Services has a spinoff website called flu.gov with tips on how to stay healthy this flu season, downloads to business and school sickness plan-of-action sheets, and some good information about vaccinations. But what got my attention were the great Public Service Announcements (PSAs) they have.

Try watching this one and not smiling a little.


And in Spanish! Even better!



Gordon and Luis from Sesame Street also make an appearance in other PSAs, along with celebrities Marc Anthony, Amy Ryan and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. There’s also some good PSA winners from a recent video contest to round out the page.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has their own YouTube channel here if you want to see everything they have without going through their site. Who knew they had a sense of humor over there?

Rain delivery service

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First photo with the new FLICKR account upgrade.

Rain Delivery Service

Rain Delivery Service

The rain clouds started rolling in yesterday. The fast dirt-grey rain swirled out everything more than two feet away, and the ensuing flash flood rivaled anything a category 1 hurricane could offer.

And in just a few hours, it was gone. It’s back to 78 degrees today and 93 tomorrow.

FLICKR upgrade

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Just updated my FLICKR account.

Now you can see the original size of 3264 x 2448 on all photos and I won’t have a limit on my monthly photo postings.

Recall : Dove Caramel Pecan Perfection ice cream

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Today, “Mars Snackfood US announced a voluntary recall of its Dove Caramel Pecan Perfection ice cream with the lot number 931AB5YN07 because it may contain undeclared peanuts. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to peanuts run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products. No related illnesses have been reported to date.  For consumers who do not suffer from a peanut allergy or sensitivity, this product is safe to eat. The lot number is found on the bottom of the containers. This voluntary recall is limited to this specific lot number (931AB5YN07) and was distributed only in the United States, and specifically to the following states: AL, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, NC, OH, OR, TX, UT, WA and WI.”

I recently found that I have a very specific and very nasty “visit your local ER for a week” food allergy, so I really know how important it is to avoid certain foods that you’re allergic to.

Here’s a link to the official FDA recall notice.

$5 fishy fee

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I was at Petco this weekend, picking up more cute fuzzy squeaky things for my cute fuzzy squeaky dog.

I was crossing through the aquarium section when I saw this in the Betta (Siamese fighting fish) isle.

$5 Betta Water - front

$5 Betta Water - front

$5 Water specifically made for Betta fish.

I’ve had 3 Bettas in my life so far. Each was a joy to have and lived around 4-5 years each. I never, ever used anything but tap water for any of them.

Out of curiosity, I turned the bottle on its’ side. The label read… “Pure and Healthy Betta Water is environmentally friendly and makes for simpler water changes. Directions for use: For best results, Betta Water is to be used as the water for your pet. For water changes empty and wash bowl with clean water. Do one final rinse with Betta Water before refilling. Change Betta Water every 7-10 days as needed.”

Betta Water - Side

Betta Water - Side

No ingredients. And nothing else was on the other side of the label.

In the very best case, based on the description and labeling, this might be nothing but a bottle of distilled water. The same kind of distilled water they sell for $1 a gallon at just about every grocery store. But you’re not supposed to use distilled water for Bettas! Plain old tap water is the recommended environment for all Bettas.

So then no matter what this $5 bottle is, it’s criminally overpriced, bad for Bettas, and only sold at Petco.

And the really sad thing is that this was the last one left.

Rip. Off.

News stories the mainstream media missed 10/24/09

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Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* Young college graduates are having hell finding a job now. And if they can’t get employed now at a entry level job, chances are they won’t be employed even when the economy recovers later because everyone else who was unemployed before will be trying for the new jobs too. The media is already calling the new graduates “the lost generation”. Highly educated very motivated young graduates with massive debt and no job prospects? That’s going to come back with some sharp teeth soon. [BUSINESSWEEK]

* If anybody in the Army was stop-lossed between September 11, 2001 to September 30, 2009, they may be eligible for retroactive pay of $500 for each month of additional service paid in a lump sum. My question is why is this an application process? Doesn’t the Army know who served them? Can’t they just direct deposit the money today? Or even mail out the checks? [ARMY TIMES]

* COOL (Country Of Origin Labeling) is a new initiative in labeling proposed by senators in Wisconsin that would say where your dairy products come from. The idea is that on the front of most dairy products, a sticker would say this cheese is from Wisconsin, this milk is from Oklahoma, etc. Well, as Gomer Pyle would say, SUH-PRIZE, SUH-PRIZE, SUH-PRIZE! Jerry Slominski, senior vice-president of legislative affairs and economic policy for the International Dairy Foods Association, says “This legislation is misguided, because it would do nothing to help America’s dairy farmers.” Yeah. Well Jerry, I’m thinking it might have something to do with the fact that most Americans ain’t gonna buy their skim milk if they find out it’s from a processing plant in downtown Detroit. Or their swiss cheese from a warehouse in Rochester. [FOOD BUSINESS NEWS]

* Do you have a child that is going to get or has already got the H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine?  Whatever you do, don’t give them Tylenol or aspirin after the shot. It greatly reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine. Oh, and after getting the vaccine, most kids get a real bad fever. I would put this little tidbit somewhere between “good to know” and “why the flaming hell isn’t this front page news by now?”. [BLOOMBERG]

* Speaking of H1N1 (Swine Flu), the FDA is going after online hustlers that are selling “preventative medicine” for this disease. The FDA specifically popped drweil.com for “Unapproved/Uncleared/Unauthorized Products Related to the H1N1 Flu Virus; and Notice of Potential Illegal Marketing of Products to Prevent, Treat or Cure the H1N1 Virus.” Isn’t there an old proverb about not trusting people with beards? [FDA]

* And speaking of a lack of trust, the US Department of Justice recently busted “e-meditech”, which was owned by Joseph Egbe. Egbe was asking for and getting a lot of prescription drugs from other charitable organizations, saying he was going to ship them to Africa and other impoverished countries. But instead, he tore the labels off the donated drugs and resold them to local pharmacies for profit. Nice. Hopefully a little prison time will help adjust his conscience. [US DOJ]

* That new creature “Darwinius” that scientists were saying was the link to all links of humans and primates a few weeks ago? Uh… not so much now. A little research and wouldn’t you know this little creature was off by just 10 million years. And they have no living descendants. I thought scientists did a little of this “research” stuff I keep hearing about before having a press conference. [SCIENCEBLOG]