The Canadian Medicine blog obviously has it in for donairs, those awful shawarma-like things that are sold mostly in Nova Scotia, made from spiced meat, tomatoes and onions all in a wrap, and slathered in a bizarre sauce only devotees can love.
So the blog was delighted when a federal agency sent up a warning about the health risks involved. But it didn't have much respect for the government agency either :
"Ever frustrated by the excesses of government bureaucracies and the frivolity of much of what passes for public policy?
"Then wrap your head around this: Canada's Federal/Provincial/Territorial Donair Working Group recently issued recommendations on how to prepare the popular Haligonian shaved meat sandwiches.
"The name of the project undertaken by the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Donair Working Group? Why, it was nothing less than the eminently self-serious title, A Consultation with Stakeholders on the Recommended Guidelines for Management of the Risks Related to the Consumption of Donairs and Similar Products (Gyros, Kebabs, Chawarmas and Shawarmas).
"Yes, it sounds ridiculous. ... But suppress your laughter — and perhaps your appetite, as well.
"That Orwellian donair bureaucracy recently issued a dire health warning about the spiced meat, tomato and onion snack -- a warning so drastic that it was accompanied by a recommendation to the provinces to overhaul the regulation of the rattled Canadian donair industry.
"Once in the freezer, twice on the fire: That's how the Halifax Chronicle-Herald's Chris Lambie describes the new recommendations officially adopted by the government of Nova Scotia earlier this month. Essentially: meat must be cooked after it is sliced from the large rotating cone, and at day's end the cone must be chopped up and frozen -- not reused.
"If all this government nitpicking about the preparation of sandwiches strikes you as phenomenally micromanaging, that's because it is. But keep in mind that there have been three large outbreaks of E coli as a result of donairs since 2004, infecting around 100 Canadians.
"...The question that nobody seems to be asking is whether some E coli might be a fair trade-off for a nosh that the government hasn't stuck its fingers into."
Robert Scoble was a little put off by the reactions he read about the arrival of the new COUIL search engine, most of which were positive. He says it's because journalists want there to be another search engine, and so he launched a tirade on why journalists act like PR guys :
"On Sunday night a ton of blog posts all went up. Most of which were pretty congratulatory and hopeful that there was a 'Google competitor.' Tech journalists desperately want there to be a competitor to Google. Why? Monopolies are boring to cover. The best tool a story teller has is when there's conflict. I like to tell people this world is just like high school. Think back to high school.
"In your high school, did anyone talk about the geeky kid who stayed after school to build a science fair project? In my school, which had lots of geeky kids, no, not usually. But if there was a fight in the quad would everyone talk about the fight for days afterward? Yes.
"Journalists thrive off of [sic] conflict. That's why we want a competitor to Google so badly and why we play up every startup that comes along that even attempts to compete with Google."
Over at Techcrunch, Erick Schonfeld didn't hesitate to offer the kind of journalism Scoble was asking for. In trying out the new version of Scrabulous, now called Wordscraper and given a makeover, he writes :
"Yesterday, one day after taking down Scrabulous in the U.S. and Canada in response to a lawsuit from Hasbro, the Indian brothers behind Scrabulous, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, released a brand new crossword-like game on Facebook called Wordscraper.
"... The brothers have even foregone the familiar square tiles for circles. Quite frankly, I don't like this. It hurts my eyes. (Call me a traditionalist). It all blends together and makes it hard to grok the board at a single glance."
