Mockazine

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Hostess Bakery is Closed

Hang on to your Ding-Dongs and hide your Ho-Ho's in a closet because Hostess Bakeries are closed.  The famous maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread announced it's closure today after filing for bankruptcy at the beginning of the year.  Facing a culture that increasingly values healthy food choices as well as an uncertain economy, Hostess had negotiated an 8% pay cut with their employees to keep the company in business, but unions fought against the cuts and initiated a strike.  The massive nationwide strike was too much for the struggling bakery to overcome and the proverbial cake has fallen flat.

According to Becker, most of the company's employees had approved an 8 percent pay cut for the coming year, but the members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union had voted against the reduction and a change in the pension plan.

Becker stressed that lingering pension obligations and other expenses felled the company, and not demand for its products.

via The Chicago Tribune

The unions, of course, blame Wall Street greed for years of mismanagement, but it was union greed that led to the demise in the last act of this play. At some point, unions have to be willing to make concessions to keep a company alive.  Allowing the company to close and lay off over 18,000 workers in this economy was the wrong decision no matter how strongly they believe in their principles.

Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day

I waited until 2 pm to visit the local Chick-fil-a for my lunch.  I can't say I was suprised to see that the parking lot was completely full.  I got in line at the drive through behind 20 other cars; nevertheless, the staff served us all within 15 minutes.

I think the success of the appreciation day and the failure of the liberal boycott is because most people don't mix politics with their food and we don't like to see anyone get bullied for being themselves.  I do admit; however, some may have gone to Chick-fil-a unaware like this young lady:

Time to Ween?

Let me be clear up front: Mockazine respects a mother's right to decide when she wants to ween her baby.  Mockazine also respects the notion that private things should remain private.

That said, Time Magazine took an intensly intimate and personal activity and turned it into a salacious magazine cover.  Bad move for Time, good move for Mockazine.  I foresee a very popular meme featuring little Sucklebert attached to all kinds of strange objects.

Kraft Crafts Adult-Only Vending Machine: It's Not What You Think

Of all the jobs we thought couldn’t be threatened by technology, we never thought we’d see those women who hand out free samples in the grocery store replaced by a machine. Guess we were wrong. As USA Today reports, Kraft Foods has teamed up with Intel to unveil a new high-tech vending machine that doles out free samples of Jell-O Temptations desserts — but only if you’re an adult.

The sci-fi gizmo uses a camera and (creepy-sounding) “Anonymous Video Analytics technology” to determine, among other things, a customer’s age — baby faces will be asked to back away from the machine.

Sorry, kiddies, your pudding will have to be purchased.

Read the rest of story at: www.recipe.com

 

Amish Popcorn: Not for Microwave Ovens

True confession:  I was in World Market the other day when I saw Amish popcorn.  This is regular popping corn, not microwavable.  Of course, you would not expect the Amish to use a microwave to pop popcorn anyway, but I thought they should make a point of it on the lable--so I added it for them.  Ironically, they do have a website:  Amishcountrypopcorn.com.  I wonder how that works?

Don't get me wrong, I have much respect for the high quality craftmanship you get from an Amish shop and I admire their strong faith.  I am sure their popcorn is very good too.

Test-Tube Burger

Where's the beef? The answer to that classic question may soon be, "It's growing in a test tube."

Dutch scientists estimate that they are about one year away from developing the world's first "test-tube hamburger" made with ground beef grown from stem cells — and they're looking for someone to try it.

"We are trying prove to the world we can make a product out of this, and we need a courageous person who is willing to be the first to taste it," Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University, who is spearheading the project, told the Daily Mail. "If no one comes forward then it might be me."

Post, who has previously grown pork in the lab, says this kind of scientifically-engineered meat, referred to as in vitro meat, will be essential to satisfy demand as the world's population increases and puts more pressure on existing farming and ranching practices. Global meat consumption is expected to double by 2050.

"I think [in vitro meat] will be the only choice left,” Post told Scientific American. "I'm very bold about this. I don't see any way you could still rely on old-fashioned livestock in the coming decades."

To grow the bionic burger, scientists will extract approximately 10,000 stem cells from the tissue of a healthy cow. These cells will then grow in the lab, multiplying by more than a billion times, eventually producing muscle tissue similar to the sample taken from the original cow. The tissue will then be ground and pressed into hamburger patties.

One of the challenges is to create meat that resembles what today's consumers are accustomed to eating. Post's previous attempts at growing pork yielded a texture that he compared to a squishy scallop, the result of its having less protein content than naturally raised meat.

via www.delish.com