Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat. In that book, I review research on the “funding effect,” the strong correlations between who pays for food and nutrition research and its outcome. Industry-funded research tends to produce results favorable to the funder’s interests (otherwise it wouldn’t be funded). But recipients of […]
Source: Food Inflation: The Price Spikes of Beef, Coffee, Eggs, and Dairy – https://wolfstreet.com/2025/10/24/food-inflation-the-price-spikes-of-beef-coffee-eggs-and-dairy/ I decided I would try to collect data online from the largest supermarkets in the country, and I pretty soon realized that the numbers I was getting were two or three times higher than the official numbers for inflation. Alberto Cavallo, […]
Over the study period, 1,131 cases of type 2 diabetes were identified among the 108,723 participants. Compared with people who consumed the lowest levels of preservatives, those with higher intake showed a markedly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Overall preservative consumption was linked to a 47% higher risk. Non-antioxidant preservatives were associated with […]
garyskitchen.net is a personal WordPress.com blog (also referred to as a “food memoir”) authored by Gary, the same individual who runs lifeunderwriter.net under the handle SupremeCmdr. The site’s tagline/subtitle is: “A food memoir of weight loss, family recipes, digital cookbook and nutrition information for family and friends”. Key aspects include: Overall, it’s a niche, opinionated […]
Thinking about making black eyed peas for good luck? Me too. As 2025 comes to a close I once again searched my blog for the number of Badass versions I have. Badass Black Eyed Peas Black Eyed Peas – Pandemic Version 2021 Vegetarian Badass Black Eyed Peas – 2022 (don’t ask what happened in 2023) and 2024 Badass […]
lifeunderwriter.net 
What were the lessons we should have learned from Y2K?
The husband of my closest friend here knows COBOL. He is 74 years old, and the place where he works won’t let him retire, since he is the only one in the area who can work with their older computer systems.
The Y2K bug was a computer flaw, or bug, that may have caused problems when dealing with dates beyond December 31, 1999. Years were designated with 2 digits. So there was a scramble for COBOL programmers to fix systems. Lessons 1.) Upgrade and migrate old mainframe systems to client-server systems OR 2.) train younger employees in COBOL. Many companies did neither.
FUBAR is right!
And another question is, why do you have to know COBOL to process unemployment claims? Are they working with half century year old computers?
The place where my friend’s husband works is in the process of transitioning to all modern computer systems. But until the transition is complete they need him to continue working.
You don’t need to know programming but you do have to develop a comfort level working with old mainframe interfaces (think old MS-DOS). It’s just different and nowadays you have workers who know nothing except punching icons on a phone. Yes, a lot of businesses still operate on half century old systems.
Yes, my friend’ husband‘s business still operates part of their system on old mainframes.
It’s funny with my friend’s husband, he can do the COBOL and MS-DOS, try to get him to work a smart phone or set up Alexa, his wife does that.
Perfect pair! (tech wise)
Unfortunately, I don’t think this couple is following social distancing guidelines. They had planned to drive down to Central Florida to visit friends that they go on cruises with. Instead the friends drove up to here see them. They are spending a four-day weekend together at my friend’s house. Her house is about 1500 ft.². That does not seem to me like a good idea. Of the four people, three are in their 70s and one is in his 80s. Two have had cancer and chemotherapy within the last couple years. One has diabetes, and the 85-year-old has COPD. They invited me and my dog over for a play date. I declined.
The risk is if one is an asymptomatic carrier and all participants are in a high risk group. At this point in time in the state of Florida I would stay home with my dog too (if I had one).
Do you think I need to worry about my cat? He does stay indoors. And I’ve been washing my hands before I touch him.
https://icatcare.org/covid-19-advice-for-cat-owners/ Your cat might be susceptible to C-19 but there’s just one example in Belgium we know of. If he’s an indoor cat he should be fine.
That’s a relief. He has so many comorbidities. He is 19 years old.
No wonder he doesn’t go out anymore.
He does love to go out in the backyard, but now I only allow him in the pool screened in enclosure. The previous owners declawed him so he cannot defend himself.