Thursday, November 03, 2005

Eat Lead!

I wonder what the lead content of my old lunch pale was:

Chicago health officials issued a warning today about high levels of lead in children's vinyl lunch boxes, urging parents instead to use hard plastic boxes, reusable cloth bags or brown paper bags, CLTV reported.

The interior plastic linings for three of 23 soft vinyl containers recently tested by the Department of Public Health were found to contain lead levels 6 to 12 times greater than that allowed in children's products. Tests also detected some lead dust inside the containers, CLTV reported.

The legal limit for lead in kids' products is 600 parts per million (ppm), officials said. But the city found lead in concentrations of 7,700 ppm for a "Sub-Zero" lunch box, 4,500 ppm for a "Hello Kitty" lunch box, and 4,100 ppm for a "Spider-Man" lunch box.

I used to rock a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lunchbox. It was pretty sweet. In fact, my mom still has it in her room. She uses it to hold her sowing stuff. In conclusion, the lunchbox is in pretty good shpe.

Gin or Vodka?

Many of you who know me, know a couple things:
1. I love my swimming
2. I love my vodka
3. I really love my vodka

The Chicago Tribune pits two amazing drinks against each other:

Gin martinis are like a good gray flannel suit.

A vodka martini is cool and clean and crisp.

James Bond and my self are fans of the vodka martini. I always wondered why:

A traditional martini is made with gin and dry vermouth, served with either an olive or a thin slice of lemon peel. It's stirred with ice in a mixing glass before being poured. Bond drinks vodka martinis – the same as an ordinary martini with gin substituted for vodka.

The reason 007 likes his shaken is to improve the taste and texture of his tipple. The shaking process causes tiny bubbles. This means that a well-shaken martini is cloudy and therefore less oily than the stirred version, which in turn has an effect on the taste of the drink.

Scientists at the University of Western Ontario in Canada also found that shaking a martini increases the antioxidant activity in the drink, thereby reducing the risk of cataracts, strokes and cardiovascular diseases. This, however, doesn't matter to the actors since all martinis on set are made from pure water.

I don't get Science, but i do understand Mixology!

Join Cross

The first time I ever heard the word blog came from my older sister Erin. Erin had just graduated from Miami University of Ohio with a degree in Political Science and was annoying my mom. Her best friend helped her out. She was working as an intern for the House Republican Organization and every morning she got to work (at least for a little while) there was this random guy raving about the blogosphere and how great blogs are. She sent me an instant message one day telling me to check out this web address. The address was Joincross.com. She One day while I was home from school during thanksgiving break I asked her if i could go with her to work and help her out for a day. This was the first "Blog" that i ever read on a regular basis. I thought the author who I only knew as Chris Rhodes. I finally met the crazy one, his name was Jake Parrillo. I wish i could remeber the first thing he ever said to me, but i'm almost positive that it had something to do with blogs. I told him that liked the blog and asked where Chirs Rhodes was. I was informed that Rhodes left for the day.(Yeah, go figure. He lied right to my face the first time i met him) was interesting. To be honest, Rhodes seemed like a stalker. I always wondered what would happen if Rhodes met Wilco. (Now that I know who he is, i know what happen) While not the same blog that is, the cast of characters remains the same. Lance Stevens, always good at making fun of this lowly cubs fan. Marc Camp, where has he gone. and Chris Rhodes, he is gone now, started using his real name. I learned alot from that blog and hope that it continues to be there.

The Web Address is www.Joincrossblog.com. Visit it often!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Fire, Police, Metra, Drugs, Tests

A company responsible for physical exams and drug tests of 15,000 Chicago police officers, firefighters and other city workers has falsified some tests, city officials alleged Tuesday as they announced plans for thousands of re-examinations.
Hi everybody! Welcome to a new segment here at Petruck and Friends called How did they get caught? The segment will focus on news stories which seem that either the State of Illinois or the City of Chicago caught somebody ripping them off. This might not be a daily feature but it will be up as much as the stories come out. With that being said today's story comes from the Chicago Tribune:

"On a regular basis" U.S. Occupational Health Inc. and its president, Dr. Barry Fischer, created documents to make it appear that a specialist had reviewed pulmonary, cardiac and radiological tests when one had not, according to a federal court filing in the case.

On one occasion, a former employee has alleged that Fischer lost a urine sample from a firefighter candidate and used a sample provided by one of the company's medical assistants, according to the filing by FBI Special Agent Loan Bermudez.

"The health of our city employees and the safety of the public is of paramount importance to us," Ron Huberman, Daley's chief of staff, said at a news conference announcing the city is filing a civil lawsuit over the allegations. "These tests were performed for a reason: to determine whether our employees could perform their assignments without endangering their health or the health of the public."

Read the entire story, its good for the both the City and State to catch these measures. Keep up the good work!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Sphere Run

Hey everybody!! For the next couple of weeks I am going to attempt to give a review of other blogs which I like and do not like. I've also got a Con Law Test on Tuesday(Started studying on Sunday), a paper in my Does this Land Belong to Israel class(Starting date: 11/1), and a test in Issues in Global Politics, so please be patient with me.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Halloween

The David Dring Costume was a sucess. Oh I can't wait to put up the pics!!


Site Counters