Pepsi replaces sugar with mystery ingredient -

Pepsi replaces sugar with mystery ingredient - 


So what exactly is this magic ingredient that will be appearing in a new version of Pepsi, and how is it made? Unfortunately, those questions are hard to answer. Senomyx… refers to them only as ‘enhancers’ or ‘ingredients’… The products work by triggering receptors on the tongue and tricking your taste buds into sensing sweetness — or saltiness or coolness, in the case of the company’s other programs…

So are Senomyx’s covert ingredients safe? That, too, is anyone’s guess… many of its enhancers have ‘been granted ‘GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status, but all that means is that the company did its own assessment and then concluded everything was fine. We don’t know whether Senomyx did any testing since the company isn’t required to submit anything to the FDA.14         

There’s no reason to think that Senomyx’s products will cause harm, but until or unless Pepsi decides to share details about how exactly it’s achieving a 60 percent reduction in sugar while keeping the taste the same, customers will be drinking their ‘scientifically advantaged’ sodas completely in the dark.”

The lack of labeling requirements is particularly troublesome and will probably become an issue in the future. Since these compounds (whatever they are) are used in such minute quantities, they don’t have to be listed on the label. They’ll simply fall under the generic category of artificial and/or natural flavors. What this means is that the product will appear to be much “healthier” than it might otherwise be, were a flavor enhancer not used.

According to a 2010 CBS report,15 Senomyx’s flavor enhancers were already being sold outside the US at that time. For example, Nestle was by 2010 using an MSG flavor enhancer in its Maggi brand soups, sauces, condiments and instant noodles, and Ajinomoto was also using a similar ingredient in products for the Chinese market. This means less of the artificial sweetener is needed to create the same sweet taste as before, but while one could argue that this is a good thing, I suspect we will ultimately learn that this flavor enhancement method has multiple unforeseen adverse consequences — metabolically, and biologically.

Read more - 

http://the-tap.blogspot.ca/2013/03/pepsi-replaces-sugar-with-mystery.html

ATMs drained as bailout tax triggers run on bank deposits -

ATMs drained as bailout tax triggers run on bank deposits - 


In a move that could set off new fears of contagion across the eurozone, anxious depositors drained cash from ATMs in Cyprus on Saturday, hours after European officials in Brussels required that part of a new €10 billion ($12.6 billion) bailout must be paid for directly from the bank accounts of savers.
The move - a first in the three-year-old European financial crisis - raised questions over whether bank runs could be set off elsewhere.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the group of euro-area ministers, on Saturday declined to rule out taxes on depositors in countries beyond Cyprus, although he said such a measure was not currently being considered. Although banks placed withdrawal limits of €400 on ATMs, most of them had run out of cash by early evening. People around the country reacted with disbelief and anger.

''This is a clear-cut robbery,'' said Andreas Moyseos, a former electrician who is a pensioner in Nicosia, the capital. Iliana Andreadakis, a book critic, added: ''This issue doesn't only affect the people's deposits, but also the prospect of the Cyprus economy. The EU has diminished its credibility.''
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In Nicosia, about 150 demonstrators massed in front of the presidential palace late in the afternoon after calls went out on social media to protest the decision, which came with almost no warning at the beginning of a three-day religious holiday.
Under an emergency deal reached early on Saturday in Brussels, a one-time tax of 9.9 per cent is to be levied on Cypriot bank deposits of more than €100,000 effective on Tuesday, hitting wealthy depositors - mostly Russians who have put vast sums into Cyprus's banks in recent years. But even deposits under that amount would be taxed at 6.75 per cent, meaning that Cyprus's creditors will be confiscating money directly from pensioners, workers and regular depositors to pay off the bailout tab.
Cyprus's newly elected President Nicos Anastasiades said taxing depositors would allow Cyprus to avoid implementing harsher austerity measures, including pension cuts and tax increases, of the type that has wreaked havoc in neighbouring Greece. That thinking appealed to some Cypriots, including Stala Georgoudi, 56. ''A one-time thing would be better than worse measures,'' she said.
But Sharon Bowles, a British member of the European parliament who is the head of the body's economic and monetary affairs committee, said the accord amounted to a ''grabbing of ordinary depositors' money'' billed as a tax.
The surprise policy by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission is the first to take money from ordinary savers.


Read more: -

http://www.theage.com.au/world/atms-drained-as-bailout-tax-triggers-run-on-bank-deposits-20130317-2g8rx.html

United Airlines Mistakenly Sends Phoenix-Bound Dog From Newark To Ireland -

United Airlines Mistakenly Sends Phoenix-Bound Dog From Newark To Ireland - 


Right ticket, wrong destination — by 5,000 miles!

A dog that was supposed to fly from Newark Liberty International Airport to Arizona ended up in Ireland.

But why?

Six-year-old Springer Spaniel “Hendrix,” who was named after the jet-setting rock star, endured a long journey. Like his legendary namesake Jimi, the dog is now an international traveler, but was not supposed to be.

“I was not happy,” the dog’s owner, Edith Alback, told CBS 2′s Dave Carlin.

United Airlines is now in the dog house with Alback. She paid $408 for Hendrix to fly, plus $160 for the crate, while fully expecting safe transportation for the dog to Phoenix, Ariz.

But instead, the pooch wound up in lush, green Ireland.

At home last night in the Great Kills section of Staten Island, Alback was thinking her dog would land in Arizona any minute.

However, that changed when a United Airlines representative contacted her.

“Somebody called me and told me that there was something wrong with the dog, and that the dog was on its way to Ireland instead of to Phoenix,” Alback said.

In a 24-hour period, Hendrix took not one, but three flights.

One from from Newark to Shannon, Ireland that took seven hours. He then spent two hours on the ground there. Then the dog headed back from Shannon to Newark and finally from Newark to Phoenix on a five-hour flight.

“So this dog’s been in a crate since last night,” Alback said.

The airline is giving the family a refund.

Read more -

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/15/united-airlines-mistakenly-sends-phoenix-bound-dog-from-newark-to-ireland/