The Mpemba Affection

© Joselito Briones

I'm sure you've heard of it, the Mpemba effect I mean, smart as you are, but don't you think it odd?

I wonder if it applies to people. I mean, when you're excited about something, your sensors are all hyperactive, any negative input can be easily devastating and put you in the very bottom of depression. If, on the other hand, you're indifferent, preoccupied with something else, any input, negative or otherwise, is more likely to be ignored just as much, and you pretty much stay in the same emotional state. Just a thought.

The photo above has got nothing to do with it, of course. It's just my aluminum chair in the balcony. Except it's the same aluminum chair I was so looking forward to enjoy my ice-cold watermelon drink in during lunch (I've shredded the melon pulp, checked that there's plenty of ice cubes, and made syrup out of water, honey, and vanilla) had the Mpemba effect not decide to intrude.

If it's perfectly OK for these physicists to put hot things in their freezers in the name of science, shouldn't it be alright for me to do the same (put the still warm syrup in the freezer to cool it down faster) for the sake of having the simple pleasure of drinking a home-made version of one of my favorite childhood drinks? What do you think? Oh well.


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Whatever happened to Barbra Streisand's moustache?

Stephen Fry, of "Wilde" fame, asked this question last night in his tv show "QI". First thing I thought of was, "Ok, what DID happen to Barbra Streisand's moustache?". It didn't occur to me to question, "what moustache?". No, she didn't sport a moustache in "Yentl".

The answer was, btw, that she ate it and then excreted it. And she's not alone. Turns out everybody's done it. A week before a child is born, it eats up a lot of its body hair, including moustache, together with other things (bits of intestines!) and becomes the baby's poo first time outside the womb. Bet you didn't know that. The image on the left is an artist's impression of what she would've looked like had she not done the eating and excreting thing to it.

So, you might ask, why Barbra Streisand? Later on in the show, Stephen Fry also mentioned the myth that gay guys can't whistle. Then he attempted to whistle a tune. Needless to say, no sound came out.


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