amusements, beliefs, current affairs, science

Mythbusters

The latest (March 2010) issue of the BBC’s popular science magazine Focus contains an article busting some of the world’s most common myths.  For example:

Goldfish have short memories. 
False; they have memories which last at least a week according to experiments.

Sugar makes kids hyperactive. 
Experimentally proven to be false.  But that’ll be about as popular a result as the finding that MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism.

Men with big feet have big penises. 
Sorry girls, also false, according to just about every survey ever conducted.  There is no reliable way to determine the size of a guy’s lingam without seeing it.  Enjoy!

At the end of the article they add a few new myths suggested by readers, including the following with rather zen qualities …

In the era of black and white films,the world was black and white.
According to which logic the world didn’t exist before films were invented.  Interesting idea for a thriller story though!

When you jump up, the world moves forwards a bit before you land, so you touch down in a slightly different place.
This is an old one and I’ll get into trouble with the science community here but I reckon this is actually true.  When you jump the world moves on, but so do you as you have angular momentum (essentially forward motion) from when you were attached to earth.  However you will, I suggest, be slowed very marginally by friction with (resistance from) the air and thus will land in a subtly different spot from where you jumped.  But this effect will be so tiny it will be unmeasurable even after a huge number of jumps.  So for all practical purposes this is also false.

People with outie belly buttons are more attracted to people with innie belly buttons because they fit together: like a jigsaw
Would that life were so simple.  But if it were around 80% of us would be single as outies make up only around 10% of the population.  And no-one knows why.

Every zebra, when scanned by a barcode reader, comes up as ‘frozen peas’.
Unless there is some strange default barcode which defaults to “frozen peas” (very unlikely) this can’t be true as a zebra’s stripes do not conform to the coding of thick and thin lines which make up a barcode.  But I love the zen quality of the idea.  Another good plot-line for a short story?

Anyone got any other new myths?

memes, photography

Thing-a-Day #8 : Study in Construction

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Study in Construction, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This is part of the roadworks by Pett’s Hill railway bridge not far from my home. This work has been ongoing for over two years as they have had to rebuild the railway bridge and at the same time reconstruct the roadways; and then there are delays because the railway line is the boundary between London Boroughs of Ealing and Harrow, so there are three organisations (Network Rail being the third) providing funding and trying to agree what should be done! An interesting conglomeration of the usual construction site mess.

food+drink, memes, photography

Thing-a-Day #5 : Cheese & Onion Muffins

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Thing-a-Day #5 : Cheese & Onion Muffins, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Today I made muffins, which are incredibly easy as well as hugely versatile. And you don’t have to stick to the omnipresent blueberry or chocolate chip varieties as this shows.

The recipe is adapted from “Savoury Cheese Muffins” in Muffins Fast and Fantastic by Susan Reimer.

This is what I did, but it is almost infinitely adaptable for other savoury ingredients including broccoli, peppers, chilli, mushroom, courgette, cherry tomatoes, ham.

Ingredients
9 oz (255 g) plain flour
2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
½ tsp (2.5 ml) bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp (1.2 ml) salt
2 oz (60 g) grated strong cheddar cheese, plus a bit for topping
1 egg
2 tbsp (30 ml) fine white granulated sugar
½ large red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used fresh tarragon)
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tbsp sesame seeds
4 fl oz (120 ml) plain yogurt
6 fl oz (180 ml) milk
3 fl oz (90 ml) good olive oil (vegetable oil is OK)

Method
1. Prepare muffin tins. These tend to stick to paper liners so just using a well greased non-stick tin is probably better.
2. Preheat oven to 200°C for a conventional oven, or 180°C for a fan assisted oven.
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Stir in grated cheese, sesame seed and onion.
4. In another bowl, beat egg with a fork. Stir in sugar, yoghurt, milk, oil, garlic paste and fresh herbs.
5. Add all wet mixture to dry mixture and, with a metal spoon, mix ingredients together with a minimum of stirring. The batter will have a “thick dropping” consistency.
6. Fill muffin cups three-quarters full. Sprinkle tops with extra cheese.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes until tops are browned and spring back when pressed gently. (Mine could have done with an extra couple of minutes.)
8. Cool for several minutes to make removal easier.

Best eaten fresh and slightly warm.