It was the sprouts!

Or was it? Does this statement make any sense?

“It was the sprouts,” Mr. Burger said.

He said investigators had examined 112 people, 19 of whom had been infected with E. coli during a group visit to a single restaurant, and had examined recipes for the food they had eaten, spoken to the chefs and even examined photographs they had taken of one another with their choices of food on the table.

The aim was “to discover exactly how each meal was prepared, which ingredients went into it,” Mr. Burger said. Customers who ate sprouts were found to be almost nine times as likely to be infected as other diners. It was this trail that led health inspectors to the organic farm where the sprouts originated.

See the NY Times for full story.

Of Nukes and Cucumbers

Germany has been impressing me lately with its lamentable public policy.

First, it announces the closure of several nuclear power plants and the future closure of all its nukes -- see here. This was on the basis of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, caused by an earthquake and tsunami.

How many people were killed by the Fukushima accident? None. How many earthquakes and tsunamis has Germany recorded in the last century?

Meanwhile, Germany has 16 deaths from an e. Coli outbreak, with the deaths being violent and quick. Some officials in Germany quickly blamed cucumbers from Spain -- see here-- which was most likely a mistake. Spanish agriculture is naturally devastated, which is the last thing that country needs.

I wonder if Germany will now phase out cucumbers and raw vegetables generally. Was, kein mehr Gurken??