What I've been doing:
1) Trying to stop chewing my mouth insides : A very bad habit I've had since many years. Recently read somewhere that it may cause oral cancer so want to get rid of it.
2) Trying to find lead-free kohl: I love kohl! One of my new sudden passions is applying kohl. My mom busted my little balloon of happiness by telling me that kohl has lead. When in doubt, google.
I found out the brands that make lead-free kohl, if kajal pencils are equally good (they are), their prices, smudged vs non-smudged, where I'll buy it from. Then came today morn. Mom herself had a kajal pencil. Grr.. (But my money is saved :)
3) 
Does chewing gum get rid of tears while chopping onions? :
Ok here's the setup. One Wrigley's Doublemint Extra Strong chewing gum, one pink onion, one knife and me. And then I proceeded to chop. Conclusion: It helps. About 50% less crying.
Btw, RNA interference has been used to create tear-free onions. Very intriguing.
""By shutting down the lachrymatory factor synthase gene, we have stopped valuable sulphur compounds being converted to the tearing agent, and instead made them available for redirection into compounds, some of which are known for their flavour and health properties.""
Here's more.
4) Is chewing gum biodegradable?: No it isn't.
Chewing Gum has become one of most offensive non-recoverable items of litter in public places and now presents one of the UK's biggest public cleansing problems.
From Grist.com:
Every commercial gum has a gum base, just like every trophy has a trophy base, and in some cases the two are disturbingly similar. The base makes up a percentage of the gum; the remaining ingredients are flavor and sugar. Gum bases are the part that we chew and chew and chew long after the flavor is just a memory.The bottom line: Don't spit your gum out in the compost or on the sidewalk, and don't stick it under the table; put it in the trash. Contrary to persistent urban legends, you can also swallow your gum. It'll eventually pass right on through, undigested. Yum.
I'm planning another list of things you don't know about me. Let's see.
Have a Nice day!
Auf Wiedersehen!
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Wassup
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8 comments:
Cool (if random) thoughts. Does chewing the insides of your mouth cause oral cancer? Where did you read it? Why would it cause that?
So it's called "kohl" in English. Hmm...
About cutting onions and chewing gum... I read somewhere that it was a myth. Don't remember where, although if I google for a few hours I *might* find it. lol...
About non-biodegradable chewing gums... in my defense, I rarely chew gum. ;)
Nice post. :)
Even if you swallow your chewing gum, it would eventually have to be disposed of, no? Well, waiting for more little-known facts about you.
@Anonick: It doesn't cause oral cancer exactly, but it may make you more prone to it. And how can it be a myth if it worked. And Nikita says it worked for her too.
@Banno: Yes, it would have to eventually have to be disposed. I didn't mean to indicate that swallowing could circumvent the non-biodegradable problem.
Thanks for the comments!
Well, if you see why onions make you cry, you'll realise that chewing gum has nothing to do with it. :)
"When you cut an onion, you break cells, releasing their contents. Amino acid sulfoxides form sulfenic acids. Enzymes that were kept separate now are free to mix with the sulfenic acids to produce propanethiol S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound that wafts upward toward your eyes. This gas reacts with the water in your tears to form sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid burns, stimulating your eyes to release more tears to wash the irritant away. "]
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryfaqs/f/onionscry.htm
So, what has chewing gum got to do with it? I've read that keeping the onion in cold water does work, though.
The chewing gum has menthol. It has a cooling effect which may be able to counteract the sulphuric acid effect.
Don't be like Aristotle.
If the experiment works, the theory has to be modified.
I'm not being like aristotle... I'm just trying to reason according to what is the available knowledge. You and Niki found it worked, and others have found it doesnt. (here)
Menthol counteracting sulphuric acid? How exactly? You read it, the fumes dissolve in the water of the eye to become sulphuric acid, which gives a burning sensation. How would menthol reduce this?
I couldn't find a real study of this chewing-gum effect on the net, so what I' doing is weighing the evidence. Personal observations are really useless in such cases, you need a large sample size and correction for placebos. :)
As anonick said regarding onion experiment, 'increase the N'.
My defence: This isn't a medical experiment where you take a medicine, wait for effects and there's time for the nervous system to kick in a placebo effect. This is simply an observation. It's like asking 50 people to check if the bus looks red. There's no possibility of a placebo.
Secondly, I did NOT say it stops stinging. I said it reduces. So all the people who claim it doesn't stop stinging are right.
But okay if there's so much fuss, let's have more people.
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