Posts filed under ‘Despite Popular Belief’
Chewing Gum Digests Within a Few Days
By Chad Upton | Editor
An old wives tale states that gum stays in your stomach for up to seven years, but that is far from the truth.
Although it’s pretty sticky between your fingers, a single piece of gum doesn’t present a great challenge to your digestive enzymes — gum generally moves through your digestive system pretty quickly.
Food digests in as little as a few hours, and although gum can move at the same speed, it is sometimes slower than normal food, and it passes through our digestive system within a few days at the most.
The confusion comes from the fact that gum cannot be broken down. It’s the same as small coins, they cannot be broken down but they usually pass through within a couple of days. That earns gum the designation of “indigestible”, but that doesn’t mean it won’t pass through the digestive system, it just means it can’t be broken down into smaller pieces. I guess it goes in the same category as corn.
That means habitual swallowers can suffer from blockages and constipation if a large amount of gum builds up, especially children who swallow gum frequently. But, a single piece of gum usually passes without a problem.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: Scientific American, Snopes, How Stuff Works
The Swastika Was Once a Symbol of Good Luck
By Chad Upton | Editor
Today, the swastika is frequently associated with one of the most horrible and unfortunate times in human history — it was the symbol of Nazi Germany (1933-1945).
Because its recent history is awful, the swastika is nearly taboo in many cultures. But, the symbol has been around for thousands of years, most of those years as a very peaceful symbol.
The name “swastika” comes from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning “lucky” or “well being.” It is generally used on people and things to denote good luck or wish well being. It goes by many names in many different places: hook cross, crooked cross, angled cross, sun cross, sun wheel, hakenkreuz (German), among others.
The swastika can be traced back about 11,500 years, to the Neolithic period. It’s past and present are deeply rooted primarily in Eastern religions although there are many examples of it in other religions. Long before it had any negative connotation, it was popular in religions and cultures including: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese and Japanese art and many others.
Many people are unfamiliar with the swastika’s relationship to Christianity. They used it to symbolize Christ’s victory over death. Some cathedrals built during the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, including the tile floor of this Roman Catholic Church in France (Amiens Cathedral).
Matilde Moisant, the second woman to get her pilot’s license, wore a swastika pendant on her 1912 uniform for good luck. This was a common practice among early aviators and test pilots.
Although the swastika is generally associated with an awful time, its original meaning is still an important symbol in many cultures, so it’s important to understand that it was a positive symbol for most of its life.
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Sources: About, Wikipedia (Swastika, Matilde Moisant, Amiens Cathedral)
Hair and Nails Grow Faster in the Summer
By Chad Upton | Editor
Actually, your hair and nails grow faster in sunlight, and we generally have more daylight available and spend more time exposed to it in the summer.
This is because your body produces more vitamin D in daylight, which is important for nail growth. In fact, hair and nails are just a basic form of skin. The epidermis layer of skin is made up of a few types of cells, hair and nails are made from one of those types of cells: keratinocytes.
Fingernails also grow faster on your dominant hand, due to better blood flow. Also, on your dominant hand, the finger nail on your middle finger usually grows the fastest and slowest on your thumb. Fingernails grow about five times faster than toenails.
Despite popular belief, hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after death. As a dead body dehydrates, the skin retracts, which gives the appearance that the hair and nails have grown. But, even while you’re alive, hair and nails are made from dead cells, which is why it doesn’t hurt to cut them.
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Photo: Ibrahim Iujaz (cc)
Sources: Straight Dope, Wisegeek, KidsHealth, eHow, Wikipedia
Some Eggs Do Not Need Refrigeration
By Chad Upton | Editor
Eggs are incredibly versatile. They can be prepared many different ways and appear in thousands of recipes, from salad dressings to dessert puddings.
While eggs taste great, they can also be dangerous if not treated properly. In the United States, about 1 in 20,000 eggs may contain salmonella — a bacteria that can make people very sick and possibly lead to death. In fact, approximately 142,000 cases of salmonella poisoning are reported each year and approx 30 of those cases result in death.
In many countries, eggs lay on supermarket shelves completely unrefrigerated. In other countries, eggs must be refrigerated when they are shipped, stored and sold.
Eggs have a natural protective layer on the outside of them which preserves the egg for a long period of time without refrigeration. Unfortunately, eggs can become contaminated with salmonella. This happens by contacting feces or other environmental contaminants during production. It can also be caused by the ovaries of an infected hen.
Because of this risk, countries such as the US and Canada insist that eggs be washed before they are sold. The advantage of this is that potential bacteria is removed from the outside of the egg. The disadvantage: the natural protective coating will also be removed, which requires that eggs be refrigerated to mitigate the risk of other contamination.
Although rare, there is also a risk that the egg yolk is infected. Refrigerating eggs prevents the potential bacteria from multiplying further, which reduces the risk of illness if a contaminated egg is consumed.
Typical egg care varies by country. If you buy eggs that are refrigerated, you should refrigerate them at home. If the eggs are not refrigerated at the time of purchase, you may optionally refrigerate them at home to extend the shelf life.
Room temperature eggs are recommended for hard boiling, experts say the shell is easier to remove because the outer membrane (just inside the shell) is weaker.
Many chefs suggest that refrigerated eggs should be at room temperature before they are mixed for baking, salad dressings and mayonnaise. The yolk in a cold egg is more firm, so they mix better at room temperature. Therefore, cold eggs are ideal for poaching or frying, reducing the chance that the yolk will break open during preparation.
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Sources: USDA, Chow, Banderas, Ochef, Wikipedia (Salmonella)
Photo: chizang (cc)
Sherlock Holmes’ Famous Saying Wasn’t Part of the Original Works
By Kaye Nemec
The fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, was brought to life in 1887 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who authored 56 short stories and 4 novels about Holmes. The majority of the stories, all but 4, were narrated by Holmes’ fictional friend, Dr. Watson. The stories were hugely popular and the last one was published in 1927, they were and even still are adapted to stage and screen.
Even if you haven’t read any Sherlock Holmes stories, you’ve probably heard people quote Holmes’ popular phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” Although this quotation is synonymous with Sherlock Holmes, it was not written by Sherlock Holmes author Conan Doyle.
The phrase was written by P. G. Woodhouse in his novel, Psmith Journalist in 1915. Its next known use was at the end of the film The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929) which was the first Sherlock Holmes film with sound. The phrase grew in popularity from there, through various radio, screen and stage shows.
Not once in any of the 60 Sherlock Holmes’ stories written by Conan Doyle does Holmes say the exact words, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” He often refers to his more logical conclusions as “elementary” and, once in a while, he does refer to Dr. Watson as “my dear Watson” but he never used them together.
David Shore, creator of the popular TV medical drama House, pays homage to Sherlock Holmes throughout the series. For example, Sherlock Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street and the main character in the show, Dr. Gregory House, lives in apartment 221B. Holmes occasionally used cocaine; House was addicted to Vicodin until season 6. Shore also says he chose the name House because it was a play on the name Holmes. In addition, both Holmes and House have only one true friend. Holmes has Dr. Watson and House has Dr. Wilson.
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Sources: Wikipedia (Sherlock Holmes), Wikipedia (Gregory House), Wikipedia (PSmith, Journalist), FactsMonk.com
Tires Do Not Protect You During a Vehicle Lightning Strike
By Chad Upton
I’ve always heard that a car is one of the safest places to be during a lightning strike and that is true.
The tires usually get all the credit. As the story goes, tires are rubber and rubber is an insulator, so you don’t get electrocuted in the car because you’re isolated from the ground like a bird on a wire.
It’s a pretty believable story, but it’s not the truth.
If you think about it, the lightning travels thousands of feet through thin air to reach the car — it could easily continue to travel through thin air to get around a few inches of rubber tires. Compared to the power of lightning, tires don’t really provide any protection.
Trains are struck by lightning and the people inside are fine, even though trains have metal wheels, which are great conductors.
Airplanes are regularly struck by lightning in the air. In fact, the FAA estimates that each plane gets struck about once per year.
So why are people safe in these cases?
It’s all because of a principle discovered by Michael Faraday in 1836.
Faraday demonstrated that an electrical charge exists only on the exterior of a hollow conductor and not the interior. He built a wire cage, that is now know as a Faraday cage, to demonstrate that an electrical current flowing through the cage did not produce an electrical current inside the cage. When you’re in a vehicle, with a conductive exterior shell, you’re inside a Faraday cage and the electrical charge is carried around you.
Faraday cages can also be used to shield against electromagnetic radiation. Coaxial cables are common in most households for carrying TV signals. These cables are design with what amounts to be a built in Faraday cage to protect the inner copper wire from electrical noise.
Microwave ovens are also a good example of a Faraday cage. This principle protects you from exposure to microwaves by turning the inside of the oven into a Faraday cage. The mesh you see on the inside of the door is part of that cage and explains why the glass isn’t perfectly transparent.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: Wikipedia (Ground, Faraday Cage), Weather Imagery (Cars, Airplanes), Faraday Cage
Photo: jonathan mcintosh (cc)
The Real Reason Cell Phones are Banned on Planes
I should start by saying that smartphones and simple cell phones are not banned on planes everywhere. Air France started allowing passengers to use their cell phones in 2008. Since then, a few Eastern airlines have followed suit.
These airlines use an in flight system that mimics cell phone towers found on the ground. The system relays the call/text/email to a satellite and back to the ground from there. Similar systems have been on cruise ships for years. On cruise ships, they use these systems because there aren’t any ground based cell phone towers in the middle of the ocean.
When you drive in a car, your cell phone call may jump from tower to tower as you travel out of range from one tower and into range of another. These jumps used to cause an echo with early cell phone networks, but it is pretty seamless today. Well, at least in your car it is. Airplanes move much more quickly and the network cannot pass your call from tower to tower at that speed. That’s why airplane systems typically bounce your call off a satellite, which it can easily maintain a connection to.
An unintended benefit of having the cellular connection on the plane is that the cell phone doesn’t require a lot of power to connect the call, so your battery will last longer and there will be less electromagnetic radiation in the plane. If you phone was attempting to connect to ground based towers it would have to amplify the signal much more and that consumes more battery power.
So, the technology exists. Why don’t most airlines allow it?
Firstly, there is the myth that cell phones cause interference with navigational equipment. Most people aren’t going to try to test it either, no phone call is important enough to take that risk. But, if you fly a lot then chances are good that you’ve realize mid-flight that you forgot to turn your phone off. It doesn’t appear that there have been any equipment problems. You seem to be flying in the right direction and you haven’t heard any complaints from the cockpit.
I asked an airline insider about this and they checked with some pilots and filled me in on the details. They said that old analog cell phones may have caused problems, but there is no evidence that digital phones cause any problems. Like I said before, Air France has been doing it for two years now without incident and there have been a number of studies that failed to find any incompatibilities between aircraft systems and cell phones. In fact, the problems are more likely with the ground based systems as they scramble to route your call to the nearest tower as you pass a new tower every few seconds in an airplane.
Here’s where it gets really interesting, many planes already have equipment to route in-flight cell phone calls without going to ground based towers (similar to what Air France uses to properly route cell phones through satellites). This equipment is often part of the system that planes use to offer in-flight wifi. Many US carriers currently offer that service and much of that equipment has cellular capability, it’s just not enabled right now.
If it was truly a problem with airplane systems, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) would surely support the ban of cell phones. Instead, the FAA blames the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) for the in-flight cell phone ban.
The FCC regulates all electronics that are sold in the United States and they readily admit they’re cautious about changing the rules on this issue. Their main goal is to prevent electronics from interfering and causing problems with each other, especially with emergency and government systems. They say that limited information is available on the safety of using cell phones on airplanes. They also note that consumers don’t want cell phones on planes.
They’re probably right about cell phone calls on the plane, although I’m not sure if that is their decision to make. I could see a war between airlines who adopt the technology and those who promote their flights as cell phone free.
The interesting thing about the technology is that the airlines can control which services the passengers can use. They can disable calls, but allow text messages and emails/data to be transferred. Disabling calls would maintain a flight environment similar to what we have now and that would ensure that screaming babies retain their exclusive right to prevent you from sleeping on red-eye flights.
As more airlines install the equipment for in-flight wifi, they’ll be itching to generate revenue from in-flight cell phone usage too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the airlines lobbying the FCC for the right to offer these services. When they do, sign me up for the deluxe service package: 1 piece of luggage, cellular usage, 1 meal, 1 life vest during an emergency and 1 bathroom break — not necessarily in that order.
Thanks to Gina for suggesting this secret!
Related: Why Airlines Dim the Lights Before Night Landings
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
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Sources: Live Science, ABC, OnAir
Photo: lrargerich
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Cats Cannot Taste Sweetness in Food
My favorite classic science fair exhibit is the taste buds booth.
It’s like going to the electronics department in Costco — you eat free food samples while some kid tells you stuff you’ll never remember because all you’re thinking about is how you can get away from the booth without it looking like you just came over for the free food samples.
Taste has been studied for a long time. In 1901, Harvard professor Edwin G. Boring published a paper that stated different taste receptors can be found on different parts of the human tongue. His last name was Boring, but his work was not. In fact, his work is slightly controversial since all areas of the tongue are sensitive to all tastes; however, some areas are more sensitive than others.
Some wine and beer glasses are shaped to encourage the liquid to hit certain parts of your tongue first, this is supposed to deliver the ideal taste sensation for that drink.
There are five generally accepted taste sensations:
- Sweet
- Bitter
- Savory
- Salty
- Sour
Most mammals can experience all of these sensations. There are some exceptions, particularly with sweetness. New world monkeys do not perceive aspartame as sweet. Humans, apes and old world monkeys do. Cats cannot taste sweetness at all.
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
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Sources: Wikipedia (taste buds, sweetness, wine glass), Scientific American
Altitude Does Not Increase the Effect of Alcohol
By Chad Upton | Editor
Whether you’re in a plane, at the top of a ski hill or reading this in the mile high city, your body will metabolize alcohol exactly the same in all cases.
It is a common myth that you get drunk at high altitude much faster than at lower altitudes. In fact, I set out to research why this is the case, only to find out it’s not the truth.
As you can probably imagine, they didn’t have any trouble finding volunteers to help them get to the bottom of this — it has been studied and studied and studied and studied (PDF).
Even without alcohol, high altitudes can induce high-altitude sickness, which happens because there is less oxygen in the air. Because the symptoms are much the same as a hangover (headache, nausea, vomiting…etc), the effects of alcohol are often confused with high-altitude sickness. In fact, there is a study that shows Alcohol can impede the initial stages of adapting to high altitude; therefore, it is recommended that people do not drink for the first couple days while their body acclimatizes to the lower oxygen levels of high altitudes.
A study with alpine skiers in Austria tested blood-alcohol content at sea-level and at 10,000 feet. After drinking a liter of beer, their blood-alcohol levels were the same regardless of altitude.
An FAA study (PDF) found that both alcohol and altitude affect pilot performance, but there was no interaction between the two. Altitude does affect your ability to perform tasks, but that effect is present with or without alcohol. Another US government funded study found the same thing, concluding, “there was no synergistic interactive effect of alcohol and altitude on either breathalyzer readings or performance scores.”
From my observations, college loans are another popular way to get government money to study the effects of alcohol.
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Sources: Pub Med, High Altitude, Annals, FAA (PDF), AHA
Photo: evilmidori (cc)
Relevant:
Professionals should always supervise detox from alcohol and other drugs to prevent any untoward medical mishaps.
Arial is Not a Font
Arial is a typeface (aka “font family”). In fact, what many people refer to as “fonts” are actually “typefaces.”
The meaning of the word “font” has been butchered since the introduction of desktop publishing in the mid 1980s.
What is the true meaning? Directly from Wikipedia, “… a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface.”
In other words, a font is a specific version of a typeface. Arial is a typeface, and 12-point Arial Italic is a font. 14-point Arial Italic is a different font in the Arial font family.
Changing the size of text on a computer is not a significant amount of work, so it might seem silly to think that you’re actually changing the font when you do this. Especially since we think of the font as just the typeface and not its size or style. But, this terminology made a lot of sense before desktop publishing.
The first printing presses used characters that were carved from wood and arranged in order to form a complete sentence, although they were glyphs rather than Latin characters.
This evolved into more modern systems that used metal characters that were more durable. At that time, changing the size of a typeface was a lot of work — it meant you had to pull all of the letters out and reassemble the words with a different set of metal pieces. (more…)
