Category: Gastronomy

How Breath Alcohol Analysis Works

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Alcohol shows up in the breath because it gets absorbed from the mouth, throat, stomach and intestines into the bloodstream. Alcohol­ is not digested upon absorption, nor chemically changed in the bloodstream. As blood circulates through the lungs, some of the alcohol moves across the membranes of the lung’s alveoli, into the air stored within the lungs. Because the alcohol concentration in the breath is related to the concentration in the blood, an approximate measurement can be identified when using a simple ratio formula of breath alcohol to blood alcohol which is 2100:1. This means that 2100 milliliters of alveolar air will contain the same amount of alcohol as 1 milliliter of blood

The Country With the Most Vegetarians Per Capita and the First Notation of Vegetarianism Within Western Literature

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The country with the most vegetarians per capita is India, with 39% of the country identifying as vegetarian and/or vegan, a value which equates to 276,000,000 (276 million) people. This is primarily due to the dominant religion within India which is Hinduism, a faith which 79.8% of the country subscribes to, and to a lesser extent, Sikhism, a faith which promotes vegetarianism and is subscribed to by 1.7% of the country. Mexico trails India for the second spot internationally with 19% of the country identifying as vegetarian and Brazil takes the third spot with 14% having adopted this diet. The first time vegetarianism is mentioned within recorded western history is by the Ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras around 500 BC, however it is unclear if this is the first recorded text worldwide

The Reason it is Impossible to Store, Purchase, and/or Sell Live Tuna

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It is virtually impossible to store, purchase, and/or sell tuna fish live as tuna die shortly after capture. This is due to the fact that tuna breathe using ram-gill ventilation, which means that they must constantly stay in motion to have water pass over their gills and feed their body with oxygen. Motion is required continuously, exerted during both hours spent awake and time spent asleep. As the tuna is in motion, water flows into its mouth and over its gills and gill filaments, diffusing oxygen into the tunas bloodstream while simultaneously releasing carbon dioxide. This function is performed equally well at both slow and high rates of speed as long as consistent motion is achieved

The Reasons Public Bathroom Stalls Do Not Touch the Ground

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The reason commercial and industrial buildings have bathroom stalls which do not reach the floor is multifaceted. The design of doors which do not touch the ground provides a myriad of benefits including being easier to clean for custodial staff (e.g. reaching all areas with mop and bucket or pressure washer etc.), providing emergency access for first responders (e.g. elderly person who is unfamiliar and becomes confused thus falling down, an unconscious person who has suffered a health issue, wanted person hiding from law enforcement etc.), acting as a deterrent for unintended uses (e.g. using illicit drugs, consuming alcohol underage, sexual intercourse etc.), providing better air circulation between stalls so that odors do not linger, and limiting the spread of bacteria which reside upon the floor. In addition to these main reasons, it is additionally more cost effective as less material is used and the same door size fits and can be used for virtually all establishments, it is easier to escape from if a lock jams occurs, and toilet paper can be shared between stalls

The Fashion Police of North Korea

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In North Korea, music that is not state approved is illegal, international telephone calls are illegal, smiling in public upon the anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s death is illegal, and perhaps most bizarre, leather coats are illegal, with this last law passed in December of 2021 to dissuade North Korean citizens from imitating Kim Jong Un who wore a black cow hide coat in public on numerous occasions. This style of black leather coat became massively popular after Kim wore it in news media coverage in 2019 and because of this, imitation coats have become more readily available in North Korea. Surprisingly, fashion police are employed by the North Korean state to patrol and search for anyone wearing this style of garment as well as to search and help take down companies found manufacturing the coat

The Ancient Roman Torture Method of the Roman Candle

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The term “Roman Candle”, most commonly used within the fireworks industry, is in reference to a horrible execution method used most commonly by the Roman Emperor Nero. Nero would instruct his soldiers to forcibly coat the bodies of enemies and victims within pitch, oil, wax, and other flammable materials before lighting the feet of these victims to be used as human candles during formal parties, purposeful in its design to create the most prolonged and agonizing torture possible

 

The Ecologically Destructive Technique of Blast Fishing and Cyanide Fishing

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Blast fishing was introduced in Southeast Asia post World War II, by American soldiers who threw grenades into bodies of water to yield a large cache of fish, a technique which is used  during the modern day to produce fish as a food resource in local markets. Dynamite is often used but any explosive will perform the task effectively, even improvised devices which utilize an explosive chemical within a glass drinking bottle with an improvised wick lit by a cigarette. Cyanide fishing is an ecologically destructive method of catching fish in which a diver takes bottled cyanide and pumps it into reef areas where fish reside, stunning the fish and making them easier to catch, so that they can be extracted for the pet and live fish trades. These techniques result in coral reefs losing their color and ultimately dying, eliminating a major food source for marine life within the region. Both methods are extremely damaging to the ecosystem and left unchecked, can decimate entire ecosystems within a few short years. Portions of and entire coral reefs which have slowly built over thousands of years can be destroyed in a matter of seconds by using either of these harmful techniques. Fortunately, both methods of fishing are illegal in most of Southeast Asia

The First Civilization to Domesticate the Horse

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The first images and reliefs carved of human beings riding horses or horse drawn chariots appear 1500 years after the Botai people in 2000 B.C., specifically in Egypt. Supplementary evidence of the Botai being the first horse herders does exist, including evidence of cooking and smoking large quantities of horse meat as well as possessing large deposits of horse dung and holes dug specifically for fence posts, which indicate the Botai kept horses within corrals. The Botai most likely kept corrals to have meat readily available on demand, eliminating the need to venture into the forest, to stalk and hunt a horse, then carry it back to a settlement. Perhaps the strongest evidence of horse domestication by the Botai is the keeping of horse milk, as it is highly unlikely that hunters consistently milked wild horses

The Renewable Resource of Urine Powered Electronics

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Urine is rich in minerals and it is believed that this resource will be able to be harnessed and extracted efficiently and cost effectively at some point in the future to produce electrical energy. At the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the U.K., urine is being studied as a potential energy resource for residential use within the near future (e.g. used to charge a smartphone etc.). Charging a smartphone with urine requires battery like fuel cells with Professor Ioannis Leropoulos (pronounced “yan-iss lee-raw-po-lis”) having developed a system capable of meeting this requirement. The application itself is referred to as “microbial fuel cell” technology, a system which leverages live bacteria to generate electrical current. Urine contains carbon, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, magnesium, and creatinine, all elements which microbes require to continue living and growing which is why this technology functions as it does. The microbial fuel cell’s central tube is porous ceramic, allowing urine to permeate the tube and microbes to colonize it. As the elements of urine are consumed, electrons generated by the microbes are picked up by the cells of opposing wire coils, creating a battery. Not just any microbe will suffice however, as specific microbes are required for this process to be effective. To source the correct microbes, scientists leverage a plethora of microbes available within the natural environment (e.g. lake, pond, river sediment etc.). Each fuel cell produces 1.5 volts of electrical current, and when linked together in series, output can be increased to a level which is useful for daily activities. The system is able to be scaled so that it can be built into future homes, allowing for individuals and families to recycle urine as a means of generating electrical energy. Leropoulos’ work has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as by the European Commission among others and is close to becoming commercially available as of 2020. For this system to benefit users, separate urinals would be installed but with redirected plumbing to funnel urine away from becoming mixed with common sewage and into a collection container, providing an on demand resource which can be utilized when needed