Incoherent ramblings of an overworked computer geek who rarely has the sense to keep his mouth shut!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
The Hard Science of Double Dipping
Every Seinfeld fan knows about the double dip. Now a real study.
Just in time, a scientific report has some new findings that may cause football fans to take a second look at that communal bowl of dip.
The study, to be published later this year in the Journal of Food Safety, is the only one I’ve ever seen to proclaim that it was inspired by an episode of “Seinfeld.” It was conducted as part of a Clemson University program designed to get undergraduate students involved in scientific research. Prof. Paul L. Dawson, a food microbiologist, proposed it after he saw a rerun of a 1993 “Seinfeld” show in which George Costanza is confronted at a funeral reception by Timmy, his girlfriend’s brother, after dipping the same chip twice. ..... On average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip.
Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.
Well that really doesn't seem too surprising. I'm no clean freak so it won't stop me from eating dip at parties. As for being the culprit well I can say I'm not. It's easy enough to just break break large items in half and dip the untouched parts in the dip. And assuming you're partying with friends why would you embarrass anyone who double dips? Just sanitize yourself with a copious quantity of alcohol.
More controversy about what to do with Hwy 58 and the dead end at Real Road.
This isn't new, others have had pretty much the same idea. It solves both Hwy 178 and 58. Instead of tearing up Westpark and part of the California corridor it goes through depressed areas on the eastside that could in fact use some improvements. Leave the western end of both freeways where they are as connectors. Getting the railroad to cooperate won't be easy but they could move their yard west of town and that would help solve another problem, noise. No it won't be cheap, much of it would be elevated through downtown. It needs doing now while the area behind the downtown center remains undeveloped and the area at the westend, where the old power plant exists, are mostly unbuilt.
They should listen to me, I have all the answers. HA!
The poster boy in the Abercrombie & Fitch window looks like Huck Finn, if Huck were genetically engineered with "Say howdy!" nipples and perfectly symmetrical, squared-off pecs. In "300," last year's cartoonish gladiator epic, the actors looked so exaggerated, so cyborg-like in their soccer-star thighs, ripped abs and shield-like chests, that they all seemed airbrushed. ..... More and more often, when men don't achieve results through weightlifting and exercise, they compensate with cosmetic surgery. Pectoral implants, although still a niche product, are growing in popularity: 409 procedures were performed in 2006, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a 99 percent increase over the year before. There's a stigma attached to them - the feeling that men who go that route are lazy or excessively vain - but those who buy the implants contend that the psychological benefits are substantial.
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) - It is one thing to dangle fuzzy dice from a rear view mirror, but decorating a truck's trailer hitch with a large pair of rubber testicles might be a bit much in Virginia. State lawmaker Lionel Spruill introduced a bill Tuesday to ban displaying rubber replicas of male genitalia on vehicles, ..... He said the idea came from a constituent whose young daughter spotted an example of the trail hitch adornment and asked her father to explain it. «'I didn't know what to tell her,»' Spruill said the constituent told him before Spruill vowed to stop such displays. «I said, 'Sir, I'm going to be a laughingstock, but I'm going to do it,»' he said. The Virginia General Assembly has some experience with offbeat bills. Three years ago, it drew widespread attention with an unsuccessful effort to outlaw baggy pants worn so low they expose underwear.
The Iowa Circuses come to an end today. None too soon. Why a bunch of pig and corn farmers should make any real difference just because they are the first to vote is totally beyond any kind of reason.
