A comment usually heard uttered from those seen enjoying their 12^th vodka Red-Bull. Sorry to shatter fantasies, but there’s a much more sensible explanation for the origins of taurine – the causative agent of that neurological buzz you feel after downing a couple of metallic, bull-adorned cans.

First of all, far form being made from bull sperm, taurine is derived from cysteine, an amino acid. While you’ll find taurine in bull sperm (if you try hard enough), you can also find the stuff in human bodies and in the majority of meats, seafoods, and milks. However, any taurine that you’ll find in your common energy drinks is, perhaps disappointingly, synthetically manufactured.

The rumor above is true in the sense that taurine really was outlawed from French Red-Bulls when the drink was released in 2003; but this was merely a precautionary decision, since the effects of taurine weren’t sufficiently known yet. For a few years Red-Bull contained arginine instead, until 2008 when they switched to good old taurine, since no noxious effects had been spotted. Since then, taurine has been a gregarious molecule, being added to plenty of sweet, awesome cans of concentrated alertness worldwide.

Here my opinion strikes up an opposition with the mother-blog to this blog, Culture Generale (I’m a mere translator and sponge of their delicious French knowledge) which states that Red-Bull is a pretty vile thing to drink; it probably approaches minor ecstasy for me, as far as food goes. I’ll pass on the warning not to chug barrels of the stuff, though.

The common factor being, of course, that all of these watches display a time of about 10:09.

So why 10:09? Simply, because of this:

The time 10:09 represents a smile. A rounded face (the ‘face’ of the watch) with a gleaming mouth (two oblique ‘hands’ of the watch) will presumably make you feel more like buying the watch than if it displayed any other random time (or worse, if it showed 3:40- an unpleasant grimace). In general, the ‘seconds’ hand will then be somewhere between 5 and 7 to finish off the symmetry.

Digital watches marketed towards men have the tendency to instead display 13:38; straight, pointy lines compose rigid looking digits,  assuring the male mind of the solidity of the product, in theory.

Another neat detail: the little hole in the body of said Bic pen assures the same pressure both within and outside, helping avoid leaks and mistakes and similar catastrophes.

Source : BicWorld

While we’re talking about pens, have you noticed that once pens give up on life, you simply have to furiously write (as much as it is possible to furiously write) on a shoe sole and it’ll wondrously start again? It’s a phenomemon that’s caused by the friction of the rubber tread, which helps to dislodge any dried ink. This liberates the oppressed pen of the obstruction, letting it joyously get back to its function.

This international legend dates back to the 16th century, an epoch during which Parisians disposed of their household wastes by nonchalantly hurling it out of their windows, not really bothering to forewarn the unsuspecting pedestrians strolling below.

Furthermore, the court of Versailles was notorious for its deplorable hygiene; nobles practically bathed in perfume to sufficiently mask the naeuseating odors.

The stereotype persists in modern day society, and actually, it’s not entirely unwarranted. The French consume, on average, about half of the soap of their English and German confreres, and less than 1 in 2 frenchmen opt to wash themselves daily.

Source: Article appearing in the newspaper Ca m’intéresse.

This said, lets get back to our bubbles: ‘normal’ soap is composed of a mixture of two ingredients: salts (namely potassium and sodium) and fatty acids. Soap molecules are peculiar in the sense that they are paradoxically both hydrophilic and pydrophobic. Their heads, so to speak, consists of a salt atom, and their long tail is of course the fatty acid chain; the salt part is attracted to other polar substances, like water, (its hydroPHILIC) and the tail is the converse case. On using soap, the heads of many of these molecules surround whatever dirty things you are trying to rub out*, trapping it, and fan their fatty tails outward, creating a sort of contained transport vessel for the dirt. And now theres an emulsion of these conglomerations floating about in whatever aqueous solution you’re washing this stuff in.

Anyway, soap BUBBLES is the topic you’re all enraptured with. Right, well, a soap bubble, contrary to the name, isn’t composed solely of soap, but also of fat and water. This water-soap-fat concoction is what forms the envelope of the bubbles, though this is not to say that it’s a stratified bubble- there is no soap layer, then fat layer after that, etc. Rather, the soap molecules serves as an intermediary for the binding together of the three substances, like a plate of cheese snacks bringing two party guests of opposing extremist sects painlessly, and deliciously, together.  When a soap bubble is created, the air pressure inside is slightly higher than normal room pressure. The soap, by its coherent properties, forms the envelop that conserves this difference of pressure, this potential. The envelope takes a spherical form in order to minimise the amount of surface this pressure difference can affect, as well as to minimise the effort needed to keep this difference stable. Stable the bubble might be,  its charming existence is nevertheless inexorably and dramatically ephemeral.

* -_-

These enzymes, like the tricky rascals they are, transform the sulfoxydes into a third scoundrel on contact with air -highly unstable sulfenic acid. In turn, this summarily converts to a fourth substance called  (take a deep breath) propanethial-S-oxyde. This is actually a delightful mélange of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfuric acid, and it propagates through the air around your dutiful culinary head and evokes the familiar tear reflex. This reaction is simply an involuntary defense mechanism which attempts to dilute and flush out the malevolant cocktail now aggregating on your eyeball.

There are a few techniques you can employ to minimise this odious occurence. Chopping an onion underwater deprives it of the oxygen needed to complete its devious eye-hating conversions; chilling or cooking the onion makes the process more agreeable as well. You can also turn on a fan to physically blow away the contemptible fumes. Or, if you’re intense enough, you could perhaps keep a pair of anti-onion fume goggles in the kitchen to form an air-tight and virtually impermeable optical sanctuary.

This fact isn’t too difficult to except, seeing as how these fellows spend an overwhelming majority of their time sleeping (20 hours per day) and feed exclusively on leaves sorely destitute of nutritional value. So sloths aren’t horribly lively; indeed, they move at the catatonic pace of around 12 meters an hour! It would take the finest specimen of sloth 83 hours to travel 1 kilometer. For this reason, you will most likely only ever encounter an upside-down, tree-suspended sloth, as their slow speed necessitates that they seek out the shelter of lofty trees markedly lacking in predators, which predominately prefer to meander about on the ground.

Your average sloth will only descend from his leafy home around every 10 days to defecate.

Sources :

• http://dinosoria.com/paresseux.htm
• http://pagesperso-orange.fr/redris/HTML/prevoteau150.html

As for Europe, the importation and consumption of coffee commenced around the 16th century.

There are about 60 types of coffee; however, only two of these are regularly cultivated as ingredients in the ambrosial drink, those being the Arabica and the Robusta (Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora). Arabica is a small and extremely fragile plant whose fine, complex aroma is enhanced in proportion with the altitude at which its grown; fields of Arabica plants are scattered throughout South America and oriental Africa. The Robusta is a relatively stalwart and resistant plant and is capable of maturing in both tropical regions and at comparitively low altitudes.

A good coffee generally consists of 90 to 95% Arabica bean and 5 to 10% Robusta. The sensuous texture and musty fragrance of the latter allow for a thicker cream and a more striking and acute taste, making it an ideal ingredient for espressos and ristrettos. But note well, coffee blending is a fervently contentious domain, with its own sets of zealous purists (usually advocates of 100% Arabica cuppa’s) and visionary avante-garde experimenters.

Sources : Revue Nespresso, Wikipédia.
Image : La lène

“Oh please, rain is simply water, which has absolutely no odor to speak of”, you say. Indeed you’re right! But it’s not the rain that smells rainy, but rather the soil;  more precisely, that beloved characteristic smell is  attributed to an organic compound named geosmin, produced by the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor (how I adore biology and its poetic monikers!).

What’s more, the human nose is ultra sensitive to this molecule- the infinitesimal amount of a few nanogams is sufficiently strong for our olfactive apparatus to register.

This discovery is due to six years of research by a team of chemists at Brown University. You might suppose that knowing that geosmin is responsible for that musky smell wouldn’t really advance humanity; au contraire, finding easier and more efficient ways of detecting the molecule has lead to the development of quicker ways of rendering water potable.

And that’s already much more scientific than your grandfather’s prescient rhumatism foreseeing the falling of rain.

Ear piercing: The story goes that sailors would don a golden earing so that they might sell it to finance their rescue in the event of a shipwreck. It’s also said that holes in the ear stimulate an acupunctural point thought to ameliorate vision, but this hasn’t been verified.

Nostril piercing has originated principally in India where it was reserved for the superior castes, particularly fiancés. In this case, the prenuptial couple would wear a small chain linking the nose piercing to an earring worn on the same side. This getup would be summarily taken off after the marriage ceremony.

Mayan and Aztec stories were already recounting tales of priests who would pierce their tongues to facilitate better communication with the gods. The origin of piercing the lips also comes from these two illustrious civilizations, who would adorn their fissured lips with jewels. In Central and South America, certain tribes pierce their lower lips and then largen the hole so that it might comfortably fit a decorative wooden plate display.

Piercing of the central strip of cartilage in the nose comes from New Guinea where the Papuans decorate this prized aperture with an ornament made of bone or wood.

Navel piercing seems to come from Egypt; only the pharoah and the royal family were permitted to wear it.

Piercing the nipple became popular thanks to Roman centurions. The guard closest to Ceasar bore a ring through his nipple fissure, a symbol of virility and great courage.