Let's Scream All Together!

Q: Dear 100 Hour Board,

What is the most popular ice cream in the United States?

Brain & Freeze

A: Dear Cookies N Creme,

As my grandfather says. "They should make a statue to the man who invented ice cream. Think about how much happiness he has brought to the world." Ah, yes. But what flavor should it be?

There are sooo many flavors out there. It is tough to decide (unless you are presented with trout ice cream, as made in Iron Chef America). We for one are ready to punt those little kids aside so that we can get to the front of the ice cream truck line.

The answer is simple: vanilla. Let's show you with a little more information. (Data from the International Ice Cream Association in Washington DC).

The first pie chart (a good choice with a big scoop of ice cream!) shows all the favorite flavors. (Ours is in the 'other' category).

The second pie chart (this one rhubarb and strawberry) shows the generic categories. Both show vanilla as king!

Now, as this was an easy answer - anyone who's dropped a delicious scoop of vanilla into cold root beer understands - we offer you some more interesting facts.

The leaders in ice cream consumption: 1 US 2 New Zealand 3 Denmark 4 Australia (per capita).

In the US the mid-northern states eat the most ~42 quarts / person / year. (Average is 23.2 quarts). With Portland, St. Louis and Seattle being the winners (nothing better to do).

Ages 2 through 12 and over 45 eat the most. And 98% of homes buy ice cream.

Some odd flavors are out there, so watch out. Although most of these are in Asia and a single store in Venezuela (500+ flavors). Some include: a whole variety of fish flavors (shark, eel, squid, etc.), corn, chicken wing (if it was buffalo w/ blue cheese swirls I'm game), viagra (just what we need, fat old excited men), garlic, bacon and spaghetti bolognese. 101 found here.

But Ben & Jerry's - a truly loved ice cream provider (or as we say, a packager of love) - gives you a tool to make your own ice cream. With 4 steps and many options the varietes are endless (actually there are exactly 155,999,692,800 varieties).

And one last fact. Sorbets and ices have been around for a while, some believe Marco Polo brought it along from China (along with pasta). But true 'ice cream' showed up in the US around 1715. Is it any wonder that the US has been around as long as ice cream. We at the 100 Hour Board suggest that the Constitution, the Revolution and the United States democracy all came because of the creation of ice cream. Jefferson and Madison loved it. I think you can even see a chocolate ice cream stain on the Declaration of Independence. And why did the British really loose? Brain Freeze. Some call it Divine guidance. We call it Delicious goodness.

100 Hour Board

PS - Some 100HB favorites: basil ice cream w/ virgin olive oil, sorbets of all sorts, spaghetti ice cream (vanilla 'noodles' w/ strawberry sauce and coconut shavings), Graeters!, peanut butter in almost any way.

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Licking the Salt Stone

Q: Dear 100 Hour Board,

Why does watermelon taste sweeter when you put salt on it?

Georgia Inquisitive

A: Dear Peachy Keen on an Answer,

People do a lot of things with their watermelon. Some better than others. They eat it. Pickle the rinds. Cut into wedges, squares, balls and strips. Juice it. Salt it. Some even (so we've heard) drill a hole in it and pour libations therein. (The 100 Hour Board loves to shave it in thin slices and serve with cucumber slices with prosciutto and lemon olive oil. But we digress). We've even seen pictures of little kids with watermelon that is worn rather than eaten.

But why salt it?

The 100 Hour Board - in our infinite wisdom - will tell you the reasons, both the simple, the most likely and the probable. So sit back with a slice of pink and green, pull up a can for spittin' seeds and enjoy. (Just don't spill on the keyboard. IBM doesn't like the sticky keys.)

The short answer - salt doesn't make your watermelon sweeter, just seem that way. It works too with all sorts of fruits, especially: tomatoes, melons, pineapple, mangoes, papayas and even wine (again - so we hear). We'll give you the top three reason this works.

1. Seasoning. Salt is the ultimate season. (that's as seasoning not spring or fall) As a primary taste (along with sweet, bitter, sour and umami - the newly found one) it adds depth to things we eat. For a long time it was thought we had individual taste buds for each taste type. But currently, "electrophysiological evidence indicates that although some cells are especially responsive to specific types of stimulus, they also respond to other taste stimuli to varying degrees as well." To quote a recent cartoon rat. Think of taste like music, with each taste a layer that works in harmony to make a symphony. Salt is like a major bass note - supports a whole lot to make things tasty. Add a little salt, and things taste better. A little more and the full flavors come really out. A little more and it begins to get salty. Balance is the key. So a little salt on that melon will enhance the flavor as it plucks the strings of your taste bud.


2. Vacuoles. Plant cells contain little pockets inside that act as little storage depots. Some are temporary garbage dumps. In plants, they can be 90% of the volume in the cell. Plant vacuoles, especially in fruit cells designed to be tasty and enticing, are full of the sweet nectar we animals love. All those complex flavours, acids and the like fill those delicious bubbles. As we eat, these burst inside cells and fill our mouth with acids, sugars and other chemicals. The idea is that when we add salt, osmotic pressures (more salt on one side of the cell wall, can help lyse - break or drive out - the flavourful liquid. Thus the fruit is oozing with goodness sooner in the tasting process - before we need to chew it up. This is much like a fruit ripening and beginning to decompose to be tastier.


3. Balance. This is a little more touchy a reason - but important. We talked about strings on the taste chord. But balancing the sweet - sour, bitter - sweet, salty - acid, etc. balances are important. Fruits really need to get the sour/sweet thing right. In fact there is a lot of sour in unripe fruits to keep you away from them until they are ready. Then out comes the sweet big time. It seems that fruits with especially high sugar to acid ratios (a lot more sugar than acid) are well suited to salting. These include (with their ratio) grapes (80), melons (40-50), bananas (60), papaya (80) and even cactus pear (110). But there are exceptions: pineapple (6), strawberries (6) and grapefruit (8) which are served well by a salting - which may point to a different balance salt helps find. (Too much sugar or too little). Maybe that is why we typically leave apples (13), peaches (25) and plums (17) alone.

Odd mixes of chemicals really can bring out the best of tastes. Salt is just the beginning. So keep on eating melon with a shaker my friend. And open your melon mind to try it out on a couple other things. But don't be afraid of other things. Pure cocoa in a tomato sauce for example really helps bring out that non-acidic or sweet tomato flavour (umami! like glutamate).

A very hungry 100 Hour Board

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Don't Be Such a QWERTY!

Q: Dear 100HRB,

Is it true that you can mathematically type faster and more acurate using the Dvorak key configuration on the keyboard?

Sincerely,

Christopher Sholes

A: Dear Stuck in the QWERTY:

Your typical computer these days comes with a keyboard with a preconfigured key settings with the exception of a few keys that have been added for modern day use. Namely, your settings are the QWERT settings established in 1874.

Where does this name come from? Look down at your keyboard and you will see at the top left hand corner where the letters begin the sequence, QWERTY. This layout was designed to make it easier to find letters. If you look down at your keyboard right now you will see that FGHJKL are all together. This is the same sequence as the alphabet. This was supposedly "easier" for configuration of the type writer mechanics not the typist. If you have ever used an old type writer you know about those swinging arms that pull up and hit the paper to mark the letter. The problem was, how do you configure a keyboard to type without crossing those letter hamers on the typewriter? QWERTY solved that issue. But typewriters are no longer used and the mechanics issue was resolved through ribbon cartridge technology.

Thus there was a need for Dr. August Dvorak to make a name for himself by developing and testing a new keyboard configuration. According to Dvorak research he found that after 3 years of typing instruction prior to WWII using the QWERTY method typists could type 47 net words per minute (NWPM). In 1944 the US Navy let Dvorak do some research on 14 typists to see what results he could get. Three years wasn't a good turn around for the Navy. Dvorak could train in 52 hours with speeds that were 74 percent faster and 68 percent more accurate. However to this day there is speculation as to whether these findings were fabricated.

If you are so inclined to try the Dvorak keyboard layout you can go to Microsoft's Keyboard website and download different keyboard layouts for two handed or single handed typists. This is pretty cool stuff. I mean what if you lost a hand? Thankfully you can download a configuration that enables you to type one handed. You will see Dvorak layouts with tutorials as to how to select the layout. You can switch it off and on using XP. So it might be worth the try for you.

Once downloaded you can also run through some practice modules.

But I guess the question is why do we still use the QWERTY method? There is a theory that argues that market winners will only by the sheerest of coincidences be the best of the available alternatives. By this theory, the first technology that attracts development, the first standard that attracts adopters, or the first product that attracts consumers will tend to have an insurmountable advantage, even over superior rivals that happen to come along later. Hmmm, 100HRB has to give this theory more thought. It is very bright news for the groundbreakers. So if your self toothpaste dispensing toothbrush invention is sitting in the garage you might want to be first to market.

Of interest is that the term QWERTY is sometimes used to refer to designs, ideas, or practices that had a historic origin in a technological limitation, became established practice, and have persisted as an anachronism long past the time of their utility.

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Would You Like Fries with That?

Q: Dear 100HRB:

For being America's fast food restaurant...why doesn't McDonald's sell hot dogs?

Yours Truly,

Frankfurter

A: Dear Insoluble Inquirer:

In order to get your answer the 100HRB contacted McDonald's Corporation Customer Service located in Peoria, IL. Not too far from the corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, IL.

McD: I’ve got an answer for that… (you can hear Jackie typing in an inquiry to whatever form of Mc Google they use for questions) McDonald’s feels that their form of business in hamburgers & chicken and their wonderfully new salads provides a unique nutrition solution. (Wow- not only did the McD’s Google give me an answer it gave me a sales pitch for wonderfully new salads.)
100HRB: Are the new salads wonderful or are they just wonderfully new?
McD: What do you mean?
100HRB: I mean, are you not saying that it is just wonderful that they are new and in actuality taste like crap? Or are they wonderful to eat?
McD: Both.
100HRB: They taste like crap and and crap is wonderful to eat?!
McD: No, no (laughing). Are you doing this on purpose?
100HRB: What?
McD: Changing my words?
100HRB: I haven’t changed anything. I just want to know the answer.
McD: Well, they are wonderfully new and wonderfully delicious.
100HRB: Okay, if you say so. I’ll give you this one. (in order to be perceived as authoritative I make some keystrokes of my own and ensure that the McCorporate lady hears it) I guess my concern is that my question was on the premise that McDonald’s Corporation is the fast food king. Is McDonald’s new fascination with salads and healthy nutrition solutions a message to the world that McDonald’s is relinquishing its throne to…I don’t know say to Burger King.
McD: McDonald’s is proud of being the number one convenient food restaurant of choice by people around the world.
100HRB: Is the name Burger King a misnomer?
McD: Other chains have every right to claim their own name.
100HRB: But not the position of King in the…what did you call it? Convenient food market? Look, all I am saying is that this new focus kills any future of having an old fashion American hot dog. Tell me straight, is or is not Ronald McDonald afraid of Nathan’s?
McD: I am not sure what Nathan’s is.
100HRB: Oh, you are not sure are you? Nathan’s! It is a fast food chain that serves hotdogs, corn dogs and fries. You can get sauerkraut, mustard, olives, chili, relish anything you really want on top of a good old fashion dog. (obviously she deliberately stalled the 100HRB since as I am answering I can here the clickety clack of her keyboard) But they fail to provide me with the ever important question after ordering a hot dog, ‘Would you like fries with that?’. I just want to hear it at my local McDonald’s. What is wrong with that?
McD: Unless we are talking about one of our specialty stores like the ones in Walmart, McDonald’s has no future plans to add hot dogs to our menu selection.
100HRB: Ah, finally some answers from your secret vault. Tell me more about these so called, ‘specialty stores’.
McD: McDonald’s has partnered with Walmart and other local supermarket stores in offering McDonald’s food to customers who come to shop. At select stores we offer hot dogs.
100HRB: Boiled or baked?
McD: I believe they use a spit or something like you would see at a Seven Eleven.
100HRB: Is this in response to the Polish hotdogs that Costco offers?
McD: Our specialty locations are there to serve the customer in a convenient location with convenient choices.
100HRB: Is the hamburger not convenient enough?
McD: Hamburger’s our McDonald’s number one product.
100HRB: Enough about the hamburger; please stay on topic. Are these so called hot dogs you serve at the specialty locations polish dogs or more like Ballparks?
McD: I think they are just a regular hot dog.
100HRB: Is it not true that McDonald’s is afraid of the Polish? Or at least any form of Kraut?
(I can hear more typing on that insane computer! As though this question demands a McGoogle search.)
McD: We are happy to be located in Warsaw. For questions or comments regarding McDonald's outside the USA please feel free to contact our Global Trade Center in Warsaw at 48-22-874-4303.
100HRB: Oh, I will. Believe me, I will.

Anyone have a over seas phone plan?

Truth is that Dick and Mac McDonald's Restaurant, in San Bernardino, California was the first McDonald's. And it DID offer hotdogs. To make a long story short...in 1954 Ray Croc came around and began selling franchises across the nation and ripped* Dick and Mac off. In Ray Croc's desire to streamline everything hotdogs were taken off the menu. It is obvious that the question brings up a shady history of aggressive business practices that McDonald's Corporation would like to cover up. The hotdog can lead to the smoking gun that is known as Ray Croc.


*Ray Croc bought the McDonald's franchise from Dick and Mac. Ray even opened a McDonald's across the street from the original McDonald's in San Bernardino. Then Ray had the nerve to sue Dick and Mac for name infringement. The court ruled that since McDonald's was Dick and Mac's given name they had a right to use it. Four years later, Ray's McDonald's in San Bernardino competed so hard that it forced Dick and Mac to close shop for good.

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Come On Do the Locomotion with Me!

Q: Dear 100 Hour Board:

Why can't particular bugs go backwards?

Pain in the Thorax

A: Dear Phylum Arthropoda:

Terrestrial locomotion has come a long way...at least for most of us. Humans and many other animals can readily walk forward or backward. In insects, the nervous system changes the effects of sense organs that signal forces on a leg when the direction of walking is reversed. The short answer is that insects can walk backward if given the correct signal to their little brains.

In legged locomotor systems, sensory input signaling leg displacement and force or strain to central neuronal networks is pivotal for generating functional walking motor outputs.

The cockroach has a set of pattern generators that control the motion of each leg, which are coupled together to produce the alternating motion of left and right legs. For the animal to walk, however, these interconnected central pattern generators (CPGs as those bug nut cases like to term them) must be modulated to allow different stride lengths in each leg, different swing heights to step over obstacles, and so on. It takes a complex system of modulating CPGs to enable a cockroach to walk backward.

Poor insects have 3 things against them in terms of successful backward walking:

1. In proper/Inefficient sensory input signals to the leg- too many modulating CPGs to process
2. Exoskeletons- flexibility, stride and gate are all dependent on the exoskeletal structure
3. More than two legs- each leg has it's own CPG thus multiplying the processing required to walk.

These factors contribute to the difficulty of insects walking backwards. But it can be done. Scientists have influenced the sensory input signals in insects to modify their walking behavior. For instance, scientist who had nothing better to do with their time apparently successfully had a stick insect walk backwards by simply grabbing the insects antennae (Segment Specificity of Load Signal Processing Depends on Walking Direction in the Stick Insect Leg Muscle Control System, Journal of Neuroscience).

But even cooler (oh no, I am becoming an insect freak) is that specific to cockroaches, when in a fight or flight situation they always choose flight and in order to escape with speed the cockroach will run on their hind legs. Putting aside the human evolution implications of this fact, this demonstrates that the in order for the cockroach to run with a specific velocity it must reduce the number of CPGs to process- thus using only two legs rather than all legs. Suddenly, the evolution of Insect Ranger doesn't seem so rediculous.

This type of evolution is not just specific to insects. Believe it or not Michael Jackson's famed 1983 "moonwalk" proves that human evolution still exists to this day! That's right friend, in terms of terrestrial walking Michael is the one to beat. The moonwalk is a highly adapted stepping pattern. His ability to give a convincing impression of forward walking, while actually moving backward, apparently took many hundreds of hours of practice, and shows that the basic kinematic pattern of leg movements can be almost completely inverted, generating ground forces with the bent leg, while sliding the apparently supporting leg over the ground. So lesson learned- if you want to get the girl (in Michael's case I think it is a little boy) you must learn and apply physics in your gate. But this also proves that we as humans have not entirely discovered all that we can do with just our walk alone. And that is exhilarating!

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You Can Say That Again...You Can Say That Again

Q: Dear 100 Hour Board:

Why do "identical" twins have different finger prints?- Not so identical are they?

Irish Twin

A: Dear Celtic Brother,

Having an identical twin certainly does have its benefits: a free friend, an automatic transplant organ source, and a diabolical crime partner. Imagine you rob a bank, or knock-off somebody, and can blame it on your twin. The jury would never know who really committed the crime - and given just DNA evidence - either would Grissolm or the CSI team (no matter how much Prada they wear)! But if you left a fingerprint, it is true, the coppers could tell you apart from your twin. (Or if you have an identifiable tattoo that leads an eyewitness to correctly pick you apart).

Now, if you're being that nitty-gritty about it, identical twins don't exactly have the same DNA. They start out with the same zygoate (single fertilized egg) that splits: so on Day 1 they have the same genetics. But over time the environment inside the womb - and eventually outside - will change the DNA. Even naturally occurring mistakes in gene translation will cause differences. But things like different temperatures, blood flow, food, nutrients, position, etc in the womb can change the genes. Heck, DNA isn't even the same in all parts of your body. (Dr Starr, Stanford U)

Fingerprints are an amplified piece of this puzzle. The pattern of whorls, arches, loops are dermal ridges which are at first determined by genetic code in the baby. Around the 13th week of pregnancy the baby develops these, however immediately they are changed and influenced by the surroundings - ie. mother. Touching the amniotic sac, their face, what they eat, etc. changes the patterns slightly. But the changes are dramatically amplified in the patterns we see and therefore offer a distinguishing feature between twins.

Identical twins, similarly, aren't that identical when born. Their other features and genetics have the same influence of environment. This is all referred to as phenotype - the way we or species look. Genotype (DNA) + environment + random variables = Phenotype.

So yes. That extra helping of General Zhaos chicken when you are preggo could make your kid's fingerprints randomly closer to a mass murderer. You never know.

100 Hour Board

Oh and PS: Chance of having twins 1:40, identical twins 1:240, spontaneous fraternal twins 1:60, two sets of fraternal twins 1:5

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Dirty Power Done Cheep

Q: Dear 100hrb

Why and how is European electricy different than US?

Regards,

Frazzled Expatriot

A: Dear Electric Slide Fanatic:

So you’re in Europe stuck on the highway to hell with no outlet to charge your iPod? Maybe Angus or Malcolm Young can help you out. Their “High Voltage” music can spark the energy into anyone, including that maniac Bon Scott. And that is where AC/DC come from. Alternating assaults of the Young brother’s guitars and the direct hard-living, hard-loving, hard-playing wild-eyed rabble-rousing singer, Bon Scott. Electricity can flow continuously in one direction (direct current, DC) or it can be reversed on a regular basis (alternating current, AC).

Just remind your self that AC is the schoolboy-in-knickers, Angus Young. Respectable and American (well not quite but use your imagination).

DC is your half dressed wild-eyed Scotsman Bon Scott. Euro trash.

Easy to understand the difference now? Good. Now let’s see if we can distinguish why you can’t plug that iPod in. Converting European electricity so that it can be used in your American appliances is a significant nuisance but it can be done.

Lighting it up in America
Your local utility company provides your household in the United States with 110 to 120 volts (force of electricity) and 60 Hz (frequency per second that the AC current reverses direction). This considered safer. It is lower voltage with a higher frequency of hertz. But America took it a step further and backed up fuses that are prone to being blown out with circuit breakers. A circuit breaker switch automatically opens when too much power is being used. When the switch opens the flow of electricity is shut of. Thus your 1,000 watt hair dryer may only shut off while using it. When the cause of the excessive power is resolved the circuit breaker will reset. Thus you can turn that hair dryer back on until the circuit breaker turns it off again.

Exploding in Europe
Europeans who are so tired of Americans being better at everything have decided that they will show America up when it comes to voltage. Electricity in Europe is supplied at 230 volts and 50 Hz. This means more power with less alternating currents. Danger Will Robinson! So it only makes sense that when you decide to use that 1,000 watt (electrical power used) hair dryer the lights will start to flicker and if not shut off it will blow a fuse. After all you are driving a lot of energy toward that one appliance with high voltage and low hertz. To top it off there are no circuit breakers within the electrical infrastructure in Europe. That means your hair dryer will fry or worse you will get electrocuted prior to you even knowing that you were using excessive power. But Europe hopes to combat these dangers with what you ask…well heaven forbid they use circuit breakers…no they want to build more, smaller grids to serve communities and shut down when excessive power exists. In truth it is like a circuit breaker just for the community not in your house. To read more go to http://www.smartgrids.eu/documents/vision.pdf-.

That is the difference- so get a 50 watt transformer for low wattage devices (iPod) and a small converter for high power appliances (television). Finally, don’t even bother hooking up an American electric clock in Europe. Generally, these clocks run on AC motors and will run at 5/6 the speed since the speed is determined by electric frequency. In other words if you set an American clock up in Europe and set it to 6 PM when you go check it in the morning it may read 4 AM when in actuality it is 6 AM.

For those about to rock we solute you, keep a stiff upper lip and continue those dirty deeds. Other wise if you want to know the power of electricity...go fly a kite!

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