October 14, 2006
March 9, 2004
Another Light-Producing Strip Update
I experimented with Curad bandages, to see if their pull-apart wrappers would make light, and found to my disappointment that they exhibited none of the ability to do this. Maybe Curad doesn't use latex to seal their wrappers. Or maybe it's just not a fluorescent type of latex.
March 3, 2004
Update On The Light-Producing Breathe Right Strip Packaging!!
I emailed the makers of Breathe Right yesterday about this phenomenom, and got a reply this morning (that's amazing in and of itself!). Here's their response:
"Dear Mr. Boswell,
Thank you for your recent purchase of Breathe RightŪ nasal strips. We appreciate the time you took to contact us regarding the blue glow you saw when opening the nasal strip wrappers.
What you are seeing is a process similar to static electricity. Static electricity is the electric charge generated when there is friction between two materials or substances, like clothes tumbling in your dryer. Static electricity is what causes the sparks when you comb your hair or touch a metal object, like a doorknob, after walking across a carpet on a cold, dry day (especially during winter).
This is a common occurrence for latex based cold seal packaging. The adhesive joining the two sides of the wrapper together is actually a fine layer of latex. Energy is released in the form of static electricity when the nasal strip wrapper is pulled apart to expose the nasal strip. This presents no hazard to our typical consumer. "
Maybe they need to add a warning label:
"WARNING - DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES OPEN THIS HERE BREATHE RIGHT STRIP IF YOU'RE IN A ROOM FILLED UP WITH GAS OR OTHER EXPLOSIVE STUFF!!!! ALTHOUGH UF YOU'RE IN A ROOM FILLED WITH GAS, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BREATHE RIGHT BETTER ANYWAY???"
March 2, 2004
Fun with Breathe Right Strips!!
You know those Breathe Right strips? They come in a little paper sleeve. If you turn out all the lights, and pull that sleeve apart, as the sleeve separates, there is a flash of light at the moment the two sides are pulled apart! I thought I was imagining this last night, so I pressed the sleeve back together and tried it again. Light!! This morning, I made my wife get under the covers with me (yes, it took some convincing) and had her watch while I pulled the sleeve apart again. Light!!
February 27, 2004
About that asteroid near-miss
Phil Plaitt's Bad Astronomy Pages has a good article on what really happened (no, they didn't almost call the President). Phil's site is a good place to see how the movies and television has represented astronomical topics; he also debunks the loonies like Nancy, Zetans, and the Planet X nonsense.
February 25, 2004
Spongmonkey business
These guys have been made famous, or infamous, but the Quiznos ad. Now you can read more about them at Slate or at their creator's website at rathergood.com). That's a slow-loading site, however, so be warned aforehand. But I can see further adventures for these little guys. Appearances on Letterman. Spongmonkeys hosting SNL. "Spongmonkeys Sing Barry Manilow" CDs. Truly, art at this level should not be allowed to wither away.
February 23, 2004
Nader
Dave says Nader is a "self-aggrandizing ass who's obsessed with running for President". (OK, Dave says he's probably an ass, he allows that it's possible Nader just lives in a fantasy world). I think he's only partly right - Nader is a pompous fool dressed as a self-aggrandizing ass, living in a fantasy world. I'm convinced Nader threw the 2000 election to Bush. Think of it this way: Nader got 97,000 votes in Florida. If instead, 70% of those voters had just stayed home, and 51% of the remaining 30% voted for Gore, Al Gore would have won Florida and the election, or at least forced the Jebbites to get more creative. And it was obvious in the weeks before the election that it was going to be close enough that a continued Nader candidacy could result in something like that. Reports the next day quoted Nader voters in some places saying "what have I done?" This election shapes up as another very close one; and with the results of four years of GWB evident - ignoring the Iraq thing, and just focusing on the environmental policy changes, the health care changes, the continuing weak job market - Ralph Nader decides that what we need is a replay.
Dave also says what the Democrats need as a counter is a Kerry-Dean ticket, to keep the Deaniacs in the party. That might keep them in - but how much national appeal will there be in a ticket featuring a Massachusetts senator and a Vermont governor? Yes, you'll keep those who are going to vote Democrat regardless. But that won't pull in many independents. And it certainly isn't going to garner much enthusiasm in the South, Midwest and West. That's a high price to pay for a candidate who's finished third or worse in the primaries since New Hampshire, where he was a distant second. The Democrats owe Howard Dean, but not that much. And they owe Ralph Nader nothing. He's lost his credibility, what he had left, with his announcement yesterday.
February 18, 2004
Potted Meat Food Research
I said I didn't really want to know about this stuff. Just the name is enough to make a vegan out of you. But I couldn't help myself. First, there was Jeff Lee's Potted Meat Food Product Tribute Page. But Jeff wasn't content to just make a tribute page to PMFP. No, he also wrote a song. And then, there's the Potted Meat Food Museum. Venturing further into the digital hinterlands, there's this blog entry from The Sneeze, which contains an actual picture of an opened can of PMFP. And this site gives a history of Armour PMFP ingredients. PMFP seems like really nasty stuff. I cannot imagine how much worse imitation PMFP, or IPMFP, would be.
February 17, 2004
A PMFP Update!!
This isn't about the imitation, it's about the Real Thing!! Dave Barry has written about PMFP!!! See the story here!!
February 16, 2004
RBIPMFP
Many years ago, in my junior year of high school. I worked in a grocery store (ironically, it was in the same building that my current employer occupies). One night while I was sweeping the aisles, I happened to glance at the shelf, and saw:
Red Bird Imitation Potted Meat Food Product
This was right next to the potted meat, the Spam(tm), the vienna sausages. Real quality protein, indeed. But this wasn't vienna sausages, or Spam(tm), or even potted meat. It was imitation potted meat food product. I didn't know, and I still don't know, what potted meat is. I could guess, but I think it's better that I don't go there. But whatever potted meat is, I would suspect that potted meat food product is worse. And whatever potted meat food product is, I strongly suspect that imitation potted meat food product is worse than that. What possible reason could there be to have such a product? Was there a shortage of spare parts left over after the steaks and roasts and ground beef and other identifiable portions had been carved and packaged, so that they had to perhaps go find other things from other entities and package those? I don't know if this - stuff - is still sold; I haven't looked in many, many years. I don't think I want to know. I know I don't ever want to actually eat any of this - stuff.
January 6, 2004
Bad Cars of the 80s
Bemusement Zone has posted another entry in his Bad Cars of the 80s list. I would take minor issue with his categorization of the old Ford Falcon as "non-wonderful" - while it wasn't the greatest car made, my 1960 Falcon was nice enough, as all first cars are. And I'm waiting for him to include the 1984 Dodge Daytona on his list. The worst, worst, worst car-buying mistake I ever made.
The Man Against The Sky
By Edwin Arlington Robinson. For some reason this poem has been lingering at the edges of my conciousness for weeks, like some wild creature that keeps showing up at the edge of the woods to watch while you work in your garden.
"Between me and the sunset, like a dome
Against the glory of a world on fire,
Now burned a sudden hill,
Bleak, round, and high, by flame-lit height made higher,
With nothing on it for the flame to kill
Save one who moved and was alone up there
To loom before the chaos and the glare.....
Where was he going, this man against the sky?
You know not, nor do I.
But this we know, if we know anything:
That we may laugh and fight and sing
And of our transience here make offering
To an orient Word that will not be erased....
If after all that we have lived and thought,
All comes to Nought, --
If there be nothing after Now,
And we be nothing anyhow,
And we know that, -- why live?
'Twere sure but weaklings' vain distress
To suffer dungeons where so many doors
Will open on the cold eternal shores
That look sheer down
To the dark tideless floods of Nothingness
Where all who know may drown. "
January 5, 2004
Leaf Day
Spent 5 hours Saturday cleaning up the leaves in the front. With the second-largest red oak in Mississippi hanging over part of my yard, I decided long ago there was no point in messing with leaves until it was finished for the year. Much leaf mulch for the garden.
August 18, 2003
Image from the blackout
It's been so long since many people actually saw the night sky, they must have forgotten what it's like. We flood our skies with streetlights, floodlights, porchlights, building spotlights, neon signs, all the while thinking we're safer, I guess. But then a blackout comes along, and not only does crime not increase despite the loss of all those lights, but we see things that not too long ago people took for granted. This site has a great example, from a town north of Toronto. Enjoy.
July 2, 2003
Garden pictures
I was out in the front garden early this morning and took a few pictures. No vegetable garden at all so far this year, the pool construction would have destroyed anything I would have planted anyway. So I've been concentrating on getting the front yard into shape. I like the area, it's a nice place to sit in the evening. With the picket fence along the street, and some chairs under the Bradford pear, it's like an outdoor room.