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Prometeaus
Finding the origin of humanity (such as it is) | |
Whilst accidentally sloshing boiling water onto my left hand this morning, I wondered why humans have the ability to withstand hot water for short periods of time.? It's not a usual environmental hazard, so why is there this adaptation? And why is there so much frikkin' tea?
I foresee a film in which
one of the characters, makes the same mistake a realises that humanity has been genetically engineered to provide hot drinks for our now-vanished overlords.
Once that realisation is made it's not long before he makes the connection with pyramid teabags, being obviously some race memory of the time of the overlords.
He then takes off in a star-ship with Noomi Rapace (bastard!) and they attempt to find out what happened. Was it a leaky samovar that brought down the alien's ships...or a lack of scones? Dodgy sequel already in the planning...
Peeps
http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/
It's an Easter tradition. The site may burn out your eye sockets, though. [RayfordSteele, Jul 31 2012]
Slightly less hard on the eyes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps
[RayfordSteele, Jul 31 2012]
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// why humans have the ability to withstand hot water for
short periods of time // |
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Because it takes a little while for the water in our skin
cells to heat up, which is why people can walk on hot coals
and wave their fingers through a candle flame. I used to
perform a very foolish trick in which I would heat a small
piece of metal (such as a hex nut) with a torch until it was
glowing, then toss it from hand to hand until it
cooled. This is a little more challenging than fire-walking,
as it requires excellent manual dexterity, very thick
calluses, and a certain degree of stupidity. |
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Prome(tea)us. it's all about the tea...or is this a laps(ang souchong) of my usual standard? |
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Ah. But now I have to ask, are you drinking tea or smoking it? |
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No, but I do snort Ovaltine from time to time. |
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/then toss it from hand to hand until it cooled./ |
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video please. Of your first attempts after 32 years of not practicing. I think back and forth five times then into a wine glass 1/3 full of gasoline. |
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I may provide a video at some point, time and bandwidth
allowing, though the trick has
been banned by spousal mandate because it was a foolish
act of pointless machismo and occasionally resulted in
small 2nd-degree burns. |
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Also, the word 'tossing' was not the most apt term I could
have used, since it implies catching the object. 'Batting it
from hand to hand'
would have been a better description. The point, really, is
that
bare skin can survive brief contact with very hot things
because it contains a lot of water. |
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I have to tell you, I think you're just playing with fire there. |
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A good example for this is placing a paper plate full of water in a campfire. The plate will not burn until the water has boiled away. If you keep adding new water then the paper won't burn at all. |
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<shades of elephant man> I am not a paper plate... |
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Not playing with fire. Playing with a very hot piece of
steel. Do try to keep up... |
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Look, when my back heals and I get my shop set up again,
I'll tape a finalé performance and upload it from
somewhere that has high-speed internet. 'Kay? |
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[Alterother] Tossing a small piece of metal from one hand to another is very different from walking on hot coals. Metal has a high specific heat capacity and most metals are good thermal conductors, so tossing the piece of metal from hand to hand works because the metal is in contact with your hands for a very short amount of time. Coals, on the other hand, have a relatively low heat capacity and are poor conductors. So they may be at a very high temperature but they don't contain much heat energy and are poor at transferring that heat into your feet when you walk across them.
You can withstand hot water for a very short amount of time because it takes a finite time for the water to conduct heat into your skin. Hot water is dangerous because it has a very high heat capacity - i.e. it stores a lot of heat energy. Even more dangerous are liquids like boiling sugar which have a high heat capacity, are at a higher temperature than boiling water and stick to your skin, allowing them ideal conditions to transfer heat energy into your skin. |
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'<shades of elephant man>'... elephants are grey... 50 shades of grey... 50 shades of elephant man... Some trains of thought really should be derailed. |
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[hippo]: I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you for your
point, as I seem to have missed it. I'm well aware of the
difference between the two, having performed both
(walked across the shorter bed of coals at Glastonbury
Pagan Festival, too chicken for the long one, which was
really long!), but I'm reasonably certain they involve the
same principles. Yes, the metal is in contact with my skin
for much less time, but it is much, much hotter. If I were
to miss and it hit the thinner, more tender skin of my
wrist, I'd get a nasty burn. |
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Please correct me if I am wrong. |
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No, you're absolutely right: the metal is 'hot' (i.e. contains lots of heat energy) is at a high temperature, and is a good conductor, so you can only touch it for a short time. Coals are at a similarly high temperature but contain much less heat energy and are much less conductive, so you can have your foot on them for much longer. |
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Brilliant! Please pardon my partial indignance. |
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[Hippo], that reminds me of an incident with Peeps
substituting for campfire marshmallows, one I advise
nobody to repeat... unless you like molten bird
stuffing burns. |
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What in god's name is a Peep? |
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It's a vaguely bird-shaped marshmallow covered with
colored sugar, typically only sold around easter. T.G.F.J. is
a fiend for them. I would imagine the burn quite nicely. |
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Those dioramas are truly disturbing. |
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