European Union

Fanatics! Updates from D.C. and The Rites of Spring

RADIO BROADCAST #213 04-28-13 See also: Henry Rollins: Pride Getting the Best of Me Fanatics. Presently stationed in Washington DC. I will be here for a few weeks, working on a documentary series. Contractual obligations do not permit me to elaborate at this time but when I can, I will let you kno ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Punk Rock Straight from Washington DC

KCRW BROADCAST #204 02-23-13   See also: Henry Rollins: Embrace Your Homophobia, Boy Scouts of America Fanatics! Tonight is one of our concept shows and has everything to do with why I am in Washington DC tonight. I'm here presenting a documentary about a spray paint artist and cultural force in D ... More >>

Consumer Reports Study Finds Pork Teeming With Bacteria

Oh, you dirty swine. A new and alarming Consumer Reports study found that pork chops and ground pork are teeming with nasty bacteria that cause food poisoning, CBS News reports. Urvashi Rangan, Consumer Reports' director of consumer safety and sustainability, told CBS, "We found potentially harmfu ... More >>

Serious Drinking: Harvest 2012, in California Everywhere Else

Next week's Serious Drinking column is devoted to chardonnay, an often maligned but nonetheless wildly popular grape variety in California, the most ubiquitous in the state. Of course the grape originates in France, specifically Burgundy, where it was isolated and called Pineau Chardonnay, probably ... More >>

Porkocalypse: Will There Be A Pork Shortage Or Not?

Can it really have only been a couple of days ago? Yes, news of the porkocalypse began to spread just earlier this week after a British trade organization, the National Pig Assn., put out a press release stating that "A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable." The reason?

Pie I.Q.: A Brief Guide to Pizza Terminology

In our 2012 Summer Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A., we discussed how pizza in Los Angeles has changed over the past couple years. It's safe to say that things have gotten a bit more technical. If you're curious what those obscure pizza terms being tossed around actually mean, ... More >>

Campbell's to Phase Out BPA in Cans

Campbell's Soup Co. has announced that it soon will stop using the notorious chemical bisphenol-A, or BPA, in the linings of its cans, the Environmental Working Group reports. The move comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is poised to decide by March 31 whether to ban the chemical's use in ... More >>

Organic Food Deal Between U.S. and EU Signed

Officials from the United States and the European Union signed a deal today in Nuremburg, Germany, that will allow organic food products to be sold as such in both regions. As it stands now, food labeled as organic has to conform to different standards according to place of origin. The new regulatio ... More >>

Activists Call for Food Safety Czar's Ouster

Occupy cornfields! Support is growing for a petition calling for the ouster of Michael Taylor, a senior adviser for the FDA who formerly served as vice president of Monsanto, the controversial agricultural multinational at the forefront of genetically modified foods, the Washington Post reports. Pre ... More >>

BPA Found in Kid-Friendly Canned Foods

Campbell'sDisney princesses may contain toxic chemicals​ Disney princesses may be toxic, and not just for sociological reasons. New testing by the Breast Cancer Fund has found BPA (bisphenol-A) in six brands of canned foods marketed to children, with the highest level in Campbell's Disney Prin ... More >>

Hungary Destroys Genetically Modified Corn Crops

Flickr/stevendepolo​ Hungary has destroyed almost 1,000 acres of corn found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, which are illegal in the country, International Business Times reports. The corn was plowed under so that pollen would not contaminate other crops. The action came ... More >>

Updated: Church and State's Yassmin Sarmadi Going Into Former Royal Clayton's Space: Same Idea (Maybe), New Name

Anne FishbeinYassmin Sarmadi at Church & State​Correction: This post inaccurately describes Royal Clayton's as reopening under new ownership. As the co-owners of the British pub, Elizabeth Peterson-Gower and her husband Tony Gower, sold neither the name nor the concept, Royal Clayton's will no ... More >>

Megalobster & The Angry French Canadian: Food News from Around the Nation

--Your official Christmas miracle: Senate passes food safety bill. Slate --Lada Gaga's meat dress, anti-energy drinks, dousing yourself in ginger ale, megalobster and human milk make NY Times' annual Year In Ideas. --Chocolate bunnies free to roam EU, court says. Just-Food --After 20 years, Florid ... More >>

L.A.'s Simon Wiesenthal Center: 'Top 10 Anti-Semitic Slurs of 2010'

Mel, this list needs you.​TMZ called it (as usual): Mel Gibson didn't make the "Top 10 Anti-Semitic Slurs of 2010'' list? Surprising, innit? It's a whole new era in unenlightened Jew hating. And the L.A.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center has the list of fresh recruits. At the top, former Associa ... More >>

October 25th is World Pasta Day: Celebrate Responsibly

Patent and the Pantry/Flickr​ On October 25th, kids will still go to school.  Mail will arrive as it normally does.  Stores will remain open.  Although the state gives it little respect, World Pasta Day is coming on Monday, and people all over the world will celebrate--perhaps, we might sug ... More >>

The Death By Caffeine Calculator: Or, How Many Espressos Are Just Too Many

The next time you're sitting at the beautiful caffeine lab that is Intelligentsia, your MacBook open, your dog at your feet, your hands shaking as you happily knock back your fifth double espresso, consider this hilarious Death By Caffeine calculator. Energy Fiend is a site that allows you to calcul ... More >>

Lebanon vs. Israel: World Record Set For Bowl Of Hummus

CNNworld record hummus​ It seems as if Lebanon and Israel have moved the battlefield to the kitchen. This past Saturday Lebanon set the world record for the largest bowl of hummus in the village of al-Fanar, near Beirut, surpassing the previous record set four months ago by Israel in the Arab ... More >>

George F. Will Compares City Of L.A.'s Economic Situation To That Of Greece

Newsweek​Fiscal conservative and widely read author George F. Will is comparing the city of Los Angeles' economic situation to that of Greece, the debt-ridden European Union nation that many believed touched off last week's roller-coaster stock-market ride. Will makes his comments in a piece f ... More >>

O.M.G.! Dubstepper Rusko Drops New Album Today

O.M.G.! Dubstepper Rusko Drops New Album Today

Ash Cloud Over Europe Disrupts Travelers and Fish Industry

The airplanes over Europe may be lifting along with the volcanic ash cloud -- although perhaps not for long -- but the jammed airways have meant that not only travelers have been held up, but many products as well. Exports of Norwegian salmon and Icelandic fresh fish have been curtailed or halted, c ... More >>

Don't Mix Tequila With Irish Stout

Sugar Shortage, Yes. Crisis? Not So Much.

On August 7th, some of the country's largest food processors, including Mars, Hershey's, General Mills and Kraft, sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stating that the country was on the verge of a massive sugar shortage and that, without raising the quotas on the amount of tariff-free ... More >>

World Tea Expo Report: Like Tea for Chocolate -- Laurie Nienhaus's Chocolate-and-Tea Workshop Makes Your Tongue Work Harder

Gendy AlimurungYou see, I HAVE to eat all this chocolate and drink this tea -- this is serious work, people! I attended "tea playwright" Laurie Nienhaus's Chocolate & Tea workshop at the World Tea Expo this weekend in Las Vegas. (Watch Squid Ink for more tea dispatches.) "Chocolate and tea," Nien ... More >>

Rated "G" For Globalization

As earlier noted, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival opened with a Hollywood movie (The International), directed by Germany's own Tom Tykwer and filmed in a half-dozen countries around the world, then continued with a French movie (In the Electric Mist) made in the U.S.A. with dialogue spoken in regional ... More >>

Berlin Film Festival: Rated "G" For Globalization

As earlier noted, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival opened with a Hollywood movie (The International), directed by Germany's own Tom Tykwer and filmed in a half-dozen countries around the world, then continued with a French movie (In the Electric Mist) made in the U.S.A. with dialogue spoken in regional ... More >>

Euro Bulletin: Guinness to Remain in Pints

Time, gentlemen!Drinkers in the British Isles and Ireland breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday when the European Parliament voted, after years-long debate, to allow pubs to continue pouring beer in pints -- and not to have to conform to the Continental metrics of half liters. Ever since Britain joined ... More >>

Movie Reviews: The Edge of Heaven, The Foot Fist Way, The Strangers

Also, Blindsight, Hollywood Chinese and more

UCLA's Manoel de Oliveira Retrospective Enters Final Week

99-year-old Portuguese director translates the mystery

Out of the Frying Pan

Democrats may well win this November, but they can’t deliver like they used to

Things to Do Before You Get Pregnant

Take folic acid. Buy a new house. Get your mercury tested.

The Greening of Ships

Can California stop air pollution out at sea?

L’Étranger in a Strange Land

Michel Houellebecq’s Weekend in L.A.

The French Revolt

Rejection of a corporate Europe

Posuer Nation

Does counterculture = consumer culture?

Letters

Oliver Stone Apologizes to Turkey

And Billy Hayes, author of Midnight Express, reacts

The American Nightmare

Will we be eclipsed by the European Union?

Hari Kerry

A dialogue on Kerry and Edwards

Spain Flips Off W.

Rejection of the politics of lies starts abroad

The Stray Cats of Tblisi

Can an impoverished former Soviet republic afford the luxury of kindness to animals?

The Reanimators

28 Days Later’s Alex Garland and Danny Boyle

The Ultimate Reality Show

Scenes from the first days of war coverage

As the World Turns

Not your regular news

Why Johannesburg Matters

Two emerging world governing systems -- one corporate, one basically democratic -- fight for control of your world

Hitting the Streets

The top six demands of anti-globalization protesters

The Battle in Seattle

World-class protest at trade summit may be turning point in fight against right-wing economics

Reinventing the World

Seattle summit brings 134 governments and tens of thousands of protesters together — to disagree on the rules of the global economy

Meanings of Kosovo

The consequences of the war

October Demise

Sailing to Byzantium