re: If you left a pound of ground beef out all day to defrost..

I was an extra on the Man vs Food challenge in NOLA during the superbowl. It was a two day shoot. The food was all cooked on day one. The boudin balls and gator wings and stuff you see them eating in all the San Fransico fan shots was left outside uncovered, on the river for nearly 24 hours.

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Not for a medium rare burger, but I keep my house at 65, so my room temp is pretty cool.

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The temperature drops 20 degrees when you enter a room, woman.

I'd have made steak tartare with it. NO FEAR.

In reality, if it was sitting at room temperature for more than 2 or 3 hours, I'd toss it. It likely didn't sit at that temperature for anywhere near that long, though. It started frozen and had to thaw and warm up to 70 or so. Those temperatures aren't great for bacteria (90F, though, and you've got a friggin' microbiological orgy), but they will multiply in that range. At that point, it's a matter of how many cooties were on the meat to begin with and how long they had to party. The safe bet is to toss and defrost in the fridge next time, if possible. That's easier said than done, though. How often do you decide two days in advance that you want hamburgers and need to move the meat into the fridge to avoid an all expenses paid vacation to your bathroom?

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I have never been sick from bad food.

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Same here. At least none that I've cooked. I've eaten food that's been laying on the counter for days.

I've had food poisoning twice in my life, and both were from restaurants.

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I'm scared. What would you do?

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Give it to the dog. And don't tell me you don't have a dog because it's on your avatar.