News Stories

[Shadow Kira01]

Nestlé Recall Leaves A Mystery in Its Wake

It seems that there is nothing wrong with eatting chocolate chip cookies as long as you don't attempt to eat the cookie dough raw or sample it during the preparation process. Honestly, I cannot simply comprehend why 65 people in 29 states would eat raw cookie dough. Is it delicious?

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

Nestlé Recall Leaves A Mystery in Its Wake

It seems that there is nothing wrong with eatting chocolate chip cookies as long as you don't attempt to eat the cookie dough raw or sample it during the preparation process. Honestly, I cannot simply comprehend why 65 people in 29 states would eat raw cookie dough. Is it delicious?

It's good with ice cream. There's even a flavor in the US at least called chocolate chip cookie dough. It's basicly vanilla with cookie dough bits and chocolate chips, and sometimes some caramel flavoring added, depending on who makes it. The ice cream store I used to work at added the caramel at least. That was one of the biggest sellers. On it's own raw cookie dough a bit much though.

[Dilla]

I'm guilty of eating a minimal amount of it when making cookies on habit, but it's only good in moderation tastewise imo. It's so sweet that it feels like your teeth will fall out right there.

I went through a cookie dough ice cream phrase in my early teen years. I couldn't get enough of the stuff. Haven't had it in years though, and have moved on to cookie 'n' cream or plain vanilla.

I'm sure plenty of people eat it raw, so I'm not surprised at all. There are even cookie dough recipes available that is not made with raw egg specifically made to be eaten straight.

The e-coli thing is strange, if there is a worry from eating raw cookie dough, it's the possible salmonella.

[Shadow Kira01]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

It's good with ice cream. There's even a flavor in the US at least called chocolate chip cookie dough. It's basicly vanilla with cookie dough bits and chocolate chips, and sometimes some caramel flavoring added, depending on who makes it. The ice cream store I used to work at added the caramel at least. That was one of the biggest sellers. On it's own raw cookie dough a bit much though.

So, generally.. The raw cookie dough tastes sweet with some good flavors and that some ice cream stores actually add raw cookie dough to their ice cream as a specialty choice. Can't they bake it first before adding it their ice cream as that the taste should change much after getting cooked. Sorry if I am not understanding things here, I have never tasted raw cookie dough or baked cookie dough before.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

So, generally.. The raw cookie dough tastes sweet with some good flavors and that some ice cream stores actually add raw cookie dough to their ice cream as a specialty choice. Can't they bake it first before adding it their ice cream as that the taste should change much after getting cooked. Sorry if I am not understanding things here, I have never tasted raw cookie dough or baked cookie dough before.

Yup, pretty much. They could bake it first, but it changes the texture. The cookie dough is chewy even when frozen in the ice cream, while once baked it gets hard and crumbly. I don't know if it'd taste any different though. I think it's a special formula of cookie dough made especially for ice cream, but I never did get around to taking some of the dough home and sticking it in the oven to see how well it'd bake. I think it'd be sweeter raw, but I'm not sure.

[Dilla]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

I don't know if it'd taste any different though. I think it's a special formula of cookie dough made especially for ice cream, but I never did get around to taking some of the dough home and sticking it in the oven to see how well it'd bake. I think it'd be sweeter raw, but I'm not sure.

It won't work, most of it is made without egg. It's definately sweeter to me as dough than when it's baked.

[Xellos-_^]

The Gramps strike Back

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6565206.ece

A group of well-to-do pensioners who lost their savings in the credit crunch staged an arthritic revenge attack and held their terrified financial adviser to ransom, prosecutors said yesterday.
The alleged kidnapping is the latest example of what is being dubbed “silver crime” — the violent backlash of pensioners who feel cheated by the world.
“As I was letting myself into my front door I was assaulted from behind and hit hard,” the financial adviser James Amburn, a 56-year-old German-American, said. “Then they bound me with masking tape until I looked like a mummy. I thought I was a dead man.”

Can't say i blame the gramps, I detest investment advisors who target the elderly. They promise sky high returns on high risk investment while selling it as safe as bank cds.

[Kaioshin Sama]

When the governor of your state disappears off the face of the Earth for almost a week you really can't have to wonder why people would express alarm.

Apparently Sanford is just completely taken aback at the fact that people were paying attention to the fact that for all intents and purposes nobody was running the state of South Carolina from June 18th-today. What if there was an emergency. Heck never mind an emergency, if he's needed people should be able to know where to find him. What the heck, this is just too bizarre and makes you wonder just how fit this guy is to govern. I won't be surprised if he's called before the South Carolina senate and house to answer some questions within the next week.

[Autumn Demon]

Sanford wasn't just out hiking in Argentina, he was there for an affair.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...oMo0gD99178484

Shocking that this is revealed just a week after the Jon Ensign scandal. But i don't think this has much influence on politicians' futures: just look at John McCain.

[james0246]

82nd Academy Awards® to Feature 10 Best Picture Nominees:

“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same – one Best Picture winner – but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”

After many years of complaints, and multiple petitions, the governor's in charge of the nomination process have finally acknowledged the need for...well, acknowledgement. After last years nominations in which many of the years favourite films were not nominated for the top spot ("Dark Knight" and "WALL-E" most notably), the governor's seem to have finally realized that the Academy Awards are more liked when popular films are nominated. This is great news for all film critics, film buffs, and just all around film lovers.

[Dilla]

Yeah, it's pretty annoying when there are one or two films nominated for top dawg which three-fourths of the nation never heard of or just don't care for. Movies with limited theatrical release tend to have that effect.

[Shadow Kira01]

Sayonara, mobsters; neighbors oust Japanese gangs

TOKYO (AP) -- Having one Japanese gang headquartered in their neighborhood was bad enough. When a rival mob tried to move in, the neighbors did something that was once almost unthinkable.

They organized, called the cops, went to court to evict the newcomers, and won.

Japanese gangsters, known as yakuza, once operated from well-marked offices, often with signs out front and symbols of their trade such as lanterns and samurai swords visible through the windows. Yakuza - the word means good-for-nothing - were even romanticized as noble outlaws with a code of honor.

That mystique is evaporating, however.

"Civil action is growing across the country," said Yasushi Murakami, a lawyer for 160 residents of Tokyo's Akasaka district who, after a months-long battle, won a court-mediated settlement in April to keep out the 4,800-member Inagawa-kai syndicate. "People are refusing to tolerate gangsters."

The battle in Akasaka, an upscale business and entertainment district, underscores a sea change in the way Japanese regard the underworld. For decades, gangs were allowed a certain amount of swagger in exchange for cooperating with police to keep turf wars in check and away from the public.

One reason for the public's change of attitude is a spate of gang violence, underscored by the shooting of Iccho Ito, 61-year-old mayor of Nagasaki, as he campaigned for re-election outside a train station in April 2007. The killer, a Yamaguchi-gumi gunman with a grievance against the city, is now under sentence of death.

The murder was seen by many as an attack on Japanese democracy. A month later a policeman was killed in a shooting rampage in central Japan, and last July came the fatal shooting of a loan company official outside his house in Fukuoka.

"What we worry about most is our children," said Akasaka resident Takako Takemura. "We just do not want gangsters in our neighborhood."

In response to the violence, the government has tightened its gun and racketeering laws, and last year, police held anti-gang seminars and provided protection to residents as part of their assistance in more than 50 lawsuits by neighborhoods seeking to keep out gangs.

The Akasaka settlement effectively bars the Inagawa-kai, Japan's third largest crime syndicate, from owning and moving into a three-story building a few blocks from the headquarters of the rival Sumiyoshi-kai, the second largest group.

But the larger gang may also be on the way out, because Minato ward's assembly, which oversees Akasaka, has resolved to rid the neighborhood of all gangs, and has disqualified gang members from renting public housing there.

Another sign of ebbing tolerance for gangs comes from Japanese companies, some of which have adopted rules against paying protection money.

In Sendai, northern Japan, nearly 500 residents are seeking a court injunction against an affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest gang.

In the south, a court upheld demands by 100 residents to ban the yakuza from using an apartment building, and hundreds of people in the town of Chikushino helped run a gang out of a two-story house that is now a police station.

"It was possible because we stood up together against gangsters," said Masanori Hoashi, a Chikushino official. "Many people feel more strongly about guarding their community against organized crime."

The yakuza's typical rackets are extortion, gambling, prostitution, gunrunning, drug-trafficking and construction kickback schemes.

Police identify 22 groups nationwide as crime syndicates and estimate membership at 80,000. Their activities are restricted but not banned, because forming a group isn't illegal.

The lawsuits may be getting the gangsters out of the neighborhoods, but apparently not out of crime. The gangster population has remained largely unchanged and arrests have fallen - 26,061 last year, down from 1,108 a year earlier, according to Hideaki Aihara of the nonprofit Japan Crime Prevention Association.

"If gangsters move out of one building, it's not the end of the story," Aihara said. "They're still around, making trouble somewhere else."

80,000 estimated members plus foreign groups and their allies may actually be quite a huge number. The fact almost indicates that danger is actually everywhere. Usually, people wouldn't want to involve ones they care about into dealing with such an ordeal. However, it appears that these guys over in the Akasaka district actually pulled off something unthinkable and won the battle surprisingly!

Nonetheless, just because they won a court battle to prevent the gangsters of one region to move to their neighborhood doesn't actually imply that they are safe as that gangsters do travel all over the places. In fact, this very move they made had end up involving their loved ones as that the mobsters they managed to keep away will most likely know who did it. And the fact that these gangsters are still alive generally implies that the ones who prevented them from moving are now in danger.

The best feasible solution to dealing with problematic people as these guys would actually be: do not involve yourself!!

[ClockWorkAngel]

The problem is that people can and will get in the cross fire of gangster activities.

Whose going to stop the gangsters from selling drugs in your neighbourhood if you don't involve yourself?

Sometimes senseless violence can just occur, shootings, robbery etc.

You can't just not involve yourself, if you do so you basically allow yourself to be used and dominated. The way you deal with organizations is with other organizations.

In all honestly Japan needs something like the October Crisis like we in Canada had, the only problem is if the JDSF doesn't have any ability to do anything.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

Sanford wasn't just out hiking in Argentina, he was there for an affair.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...oMo0gD99178484

Shocking that this is revealed just a week after the Jon Ensign scandal. But i don't think this has much influence on politicians' futures: just look at John McCain.

Heard about that tonight. With the way things are going with Republican politicians I can't say I'm surprised. The parties supposed "family values" are taking a huge beatins lately and just starting to come across as pure rhetoric. I'm amazed it's even still in existence. Our own Canadian Progressive Conservative party crumbled under way less then what the Republicans are revealing themselves to be as of late. Poor Lincoln, he most be rolling in his grave along with Eisenhower and Teddy Roosevelt.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

Sayonara, mobsters; neighbors oust Japanese gangs



80,000 estimated members plus foreign groups and their allies may actually be quite a huge number. The fact almost indicates that danger is actually everywhere. Usually, people wouldn't want to involve ones they care about into dealing with such an ordeal. However, it appears that these guys over in the Akasaka district actually pulled off something unthinkable and won the battle surprisingly!

Nonetheless, just because they won a court battle to prevent the gangsters of one region to move to their neighborhood doesn't actually imply that they are safe as that gangsters do travel all over the places. In fact, this very move they made had end up involving their loved ones as that the mobsters they managed to keep away will most likely know who did it. And the fact that these gangsters are still alive generally implies that the ones who prevented them from moving are now in danger.

The best feasible solution to dealing with problematic people as these guys would actually be: do not involve yourself!!

I have a feeling that it is actually the rival gang Sumiyoshi-Kai which allows them to win the court case. I pity the judge / lawyer who fought in the case, they are as good as targets.

[bladeofdarkness]

Michael Jackson is dead

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Musi...son/index.html

Entertainer Michael Jackson has died after being taken to a hospital on Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports including the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.

wow
speechless

[Knight Hawk]

Farrah Fawcett dies at 62

LOS ANGELES – A winsome smile, tousled hair and unfettered sensuality were Farrah Fawcett's trademarks as a sex symbol and 1970s TV star in "Charlie's Angels." But as her life drew to a close, she captivated the public in a far different way: as a cancer patient who fought for, then surrendered, her treasured privacy to document her struggle with the disease and inspire others.

Fawcett, 62, died Thursday morning at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, nearly three years after being diagnosed with anal cancer. Ryan O'Neal, the longtime companion who returned to her side when she became ill, was with her.

'Tonight' sidekick Ed McMahon dies in LA at 86

LOS ANGELES – Ed McMahon, the loyal "Tonight" show sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding "H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!" for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86. McMahon died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman.

[Akazgea]

An unexpected followed by an expected. A sad day for the entertainment world.

[CrossoverManiac]

About 2:36 into the video, we can hear Barney Frank talking out of his rear end about cutting NASA's budget yet again for universal health care. For someone who runs a business (and when I mean business, I meant a prostitution ring out of his apartment), 'Einstein' here can't seem to do math. Even if NASA was abolished and all of the money giving to social welfare, it wouldn't even pay the paperwork to run the bureaucracy let alone the whole program.

[C.A.]

If NASA is gone, the human race will be doomed. Unless China's space program will develop planetary immigration programs.