the 5 sec rule

this may freak some people out..you know some people,( or is it most?) dont pick and eat food that has fallen off the plate and onto the kitchen countertop.

but there was this day earlier this year, we were having the most wonderful homemade durian ice cream and as i was scooping it, 'piak', one lump dropped on the kitchen floor. he looked at me and i looked at him. we must have the same thoughts. the parents weren't in. we didnt want to have the ice cream go to waste..there was no one else, so he quickly picked the lump up, turned on the tap, washed it and popped the ice cream in his mouth..

so yeah, that has to be the lowest we have ever been to eating something that has 'fallen'.

never knew about this 5 sec rule..but my thought was, what doesnt kill you will make you stronger..which makes perfect sense, since we need them germs to build up the immune system!

"The Ig Nobel prize in Public Health(2004) went to Jillian Clarke, now a student at Howard University in Washington, for testing the validity of the idea that dropped food is safe to eat if it has spent no more than five seconds on the floor.

In tests with floor tiles deliberately contaminated with E. coli, she found that gummy bears and fudge-striped cookies picked up the bacteria in less than five seconds. However, tests on real floors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she worked failed because they had no detectable bacterial contamination - suggesting the cleaning staff might deserve their own award. Other research suggests the question is far from closed."

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another interesting award from the Ig award last year has to be the award for Engineering:

Donald J Smith and his late father, Frank J Smith, for patenting the comb-over hairstyle for balding men (US Patent 4022227)