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The Voice of
Sanity
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE UPSTATE S.C. SECULAR HUMANISTS Visit our web-site for current and back-issues at:
e-mail: uscshgvl@yahoo.com |
CALENDAR
The September Brunch will be on September 10th, 10:30 a.m. at
Denny's restaurant, 2521 Wade Hampton Blvd. Join us!!!
SEPTEMBER
MEETING
NOTICE Our fourth Sunday meeting will be a change from the
usual. NOTICE
We will meet September 25th at 2:00 p.m. at the
Greenville County Library downtown main branch. We discussed at the August 28th
dinner about USCSH merging with the Greenville Non-Theist group. We are meeting
at the library to discuss this merger and what it will all mean. There will be
no food or drink. Please, if you have an interest in the future of Humanism in
the Upstate, plan to attend this meeting. The library does not open until 2:00
p.m. (the reason for the change in time from 1:30 p.m.) Plan to be at the
library door at 2:00 p.m. The meeting will be from 2:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.
There was a representative from the Greenville Non-theist at the
August 28th dinner meeting and he brings some excitement of some younger people
joining the merger. Mark the date: September 25th, 2011, 2:00 p.m -- Greenville
Main Library, 25 Heritage Green Place, Greenville, SC. There is ample parking
behind the library. See you there.
The ingredients listed on labels of various products we buy can cause us to scratch our heads and wonder what we are putting in of on our bodies. The following are items I have often wondered about.
The element titanium, has been recognized for its use in aerospace for a long time,. Titanium dioxide, a less glamorous compound is ubiquitous in many products on and in our homes. This is because it is such an effective whitening agent and is so opaque. Paint comes to mind, immediately as an application. However, the compound can be found in some unlikely places, too. Aside from being opaque, it has the ability to scatter ultraviolet light and consequently can be found in that sunscreen you liberally apply to avoid sunburn and skin cancer. Those extra strong paper towels you use may also contain TiO2 because it is added to paper products to increase their “wet strength”.
There is hope Ti02 will help in decreasing automobile pollution. Because of its reactions to sunlight, Mitsubishi is running an experimental program with “Noxer blocks”. These are paving blocks containing titanium dioxide. When the paving is exposed to sunlight, the compound within combines with exhaust fumes to form harmless particles that can be washed away by water.
Other uses are mostly due to its opacity. These are in cosmetics, toothpaste, and fillers for dietary supplements. Check the label on those calcium tablets.
Zinc oxide
Zinc oxide is an old fashioned remedy for skin rashes and is a main ingredient in calamine lotion for those of us who occasionally suffer from poison ivy. It is a powerful anti-oxidant. But it can also be used in paint and sun block because, like titanium dioxide, it is very opaque. Some of us have been acquainted with it in the dentist’s office when molds have to be taken of our teeth. Yes, that awful tasting stuff is a combination of zinc oxide and oil of clove called eugenol.
The National Eye Institute is conducting research on zinc oxide in the prevention of macular degeneration. Studies show that 80mg of zinc oxide can prevent the disease but side effects are too high to make it available to the public. Studies with 40mg are ongoing.
On the other hand zinc oxide is used in vulcanization (a process that makes rubber more elastic and stronger), and in a process to make concrete more water-resistant. If you check the label on those calcium tablets again you might find it in the list of ingredients because zinc is necessary for DNA synthesis. Breakfast cereals include it as a healthy additive, as well. Look for it on full nutrition cereals such as Smart Start.
Everyone by now should be familiar with carrageenan in ice cream and many of us also know that it is derived from seaweed. It can be found growing in its wild state off the coasts of Ireland and North America. Originally it was harvested from the wild environment for use as and additive. Now, since demand for the product is so high it is aqua farmed in Indonesia, especially the Philippines and shipped, worldwide at the rate of 150,000 tons a year.
It is a favorite as an additive in many dairy products because it functions as more than a thickening agent. It can also prevent water and sugar from crystallizing. Thus, almost any frozen dessert involving dairy products benefits from it. The meat industry uses it to bind water with the ingredients in canned meats both for human use and in pet food. It is also used to clarify beer.
Carrageenan’s common name is Irish moss.
These are both thickeners to food products
Xanthan gum is fermented corn sugar and is named after the bacterium (xanthomonus campestris) that creates it. When the bacterium eats the corn sugar a colorless slime is created that can be used as a thickener. This particular product is used to give a “creamy” feel to non-fat dairy products.
Guar gum, on the other hand, comes from a plant primarily grown in Pakistan and Northern India. The seeds are dried in the sun, shelled, and processed into a flour or powder sold to manufacturers all over the world. It has an advantage over xanthan gum because it is not only used as a thickener to make things creamier, but like carrageenan, prevents ice crystals. That makes it a double duty additive. It is used extensively in the manufacture of ice creams. Guar gum does have drawbacks. In the 1990s, it was banned as a diet aid by the Food and Drug Administration. True, it would combine with stomach fluids and swell giving a sense of fullness, but it would also cause dangerous intestinal and duodenal blockages.
Listerine was invented in the 19th century and used extensively as a surgical antiseptic. It was also used as a treatment for gonorrhea and as a floor cleaner and was popular as a disinfectant for wounds during World War II. In 1895 it was formulated for use as a mouthwash, but was not obtainable without a prescription until 1914. In the 1920s it was advertised on radio as a cure for halitosis. The advertising campaign was a success. Before the ads the company made $115,000 a year, but after eight years its receipts were $8 million a year.
Listerine is claimed as a cure for dandruff and toenail fungus, but there is no clinical proof that it is effective. Many people like it mixed half and half in a spray bottle as a household disinfectant.
Trisodiumphosphate (TSP)
Many of us will remember the problems of eutrophication in our lakes and rivers due to excessive phosphorus in the 1960s and 70s. This was because most laundry detergents contained TSP. Its phosphates contributed to huge amounts of algal growth clogging waterways, killing other aquatic forms, and clogging filters in water treatment plants. Although freshwater scientists made the problem known to the public during the 60s, legislation to control it did not appear until 1985. Legislation was passed state by state, and even today laundry detergent makers add it to their product depending on which state allows it.
It is still retailed in some toilet bowl and dishwasher detergents. In South Carolina it can be found sold in powder form as a cleaner, degreaser, and preparation for paint. Oddly enough it also appears in processed food because it is a good thickening agent and emulsifier, able to mix liquids like oil and water. In certain drugs it is added as an acidity regulator or buffer. Look on the Lucky Charms and Kix boxes next time you’re in the grocery store. J. Bates
References:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/zinc_oxide_eugenol
www.weaweed.ie/uses general/carrageenans.htm/
www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-history-of-listerinereg.htm
www.ehow.com/_way_5149777_listerine_cure_toenail-fungus.html
www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p60-238.pdf
Experiments
in Human Behavior
A couple of months ago the Voice featured an article pointing up some of our shortcomings as beings at the top of the food chain. As a follow up to the previous piece I’d like to review highlights of Dan Ariely’s book “Predictably Irrational”. The work contains some thought provoking experiments in an investigation of how our behavior betrays our assumption of rationality.
The following scenario is a thought exercise and a description of how trust can be lost.
Three people are offered $10 apiece and told that if they secretly contribute all of their money to a common pot, that money will double in value and the resulting cash will be distributed evenly among them. Each one puts all his money ($10) in the common pot and the money doubles, and each one now has $20. In the second round, the same rules apply, but this time one of the three individuals, now seeing an advantage in anonymity puts only $8 in the pot instead of the his/her full amount of $20. The pot of $48 doubles to $96 and the proceeds are distributed. Each member receives $32. The two that put in the full $20 now only have $32, not a doubling of their money. But the one who put $8 in the pot received $32 and had $12 in hand for a total of $44.
The other two, realizing that someone is not putting in all their money, also opt for less on the third round and each puts in only $8. The third person puts in only $5. Now the total pot is $21, doubling to $42, with a return of $14. Now the two have $14 plus the $12 they held back for a total of $36, and the third one has $14 plus the $39 he/she held back for a total of $53. In the fourth round, the two with the $36, clearly seeing their disadvantage, put nothing in the pot. The third puts in $6. The pot now totals $6 doubling to $12, with a return of $4. The two now have $40 total and the third has $57. No one puts anything in the pot in the next round.
If trust had held for all four rounds the total for each individual would have been $160.
The following is an interesting experiment Ariely and his colleagues ran in a student center, the results of which point up one of our positive social behaviors. Unlike the thought exercise this experiment does not have such negative results.
In the first part of the experiment they set up a candy booth with a sign saying “Sunburst Fruit Chews for One Cent Each”. In the second part, the booth the sign said “Sunburst Fruit Chews for Free”. During an average one-cent hour approximately 58 students purchased candy, during an average free hour 207 students took candy. This makes sense because “free” is always more attractive. On further analysis the experimenters found that for the one-cent candy the average number of pieces bought per person was 3.5. For the free candy the number taken per person was 1.1.
The researchers tried this experiment several times with chocolate bars offered at different prices. They wanted to verify the second law of demand in economics, which states that people are willing to buy more as the price for an item falls. They found in their set-ups that this was true, except when the price was zero. True, the candy was attractive to more people when it was free, but each person consistently took much less.
Procrastination was the subject of a third experiment. Here the students in three classes were instructed to write three papers as part of their twelve-week semester grade. Students in the first class were ordered by the instructor to turn in their papers at the fourth, eighth, and twelfth week with penalties for not doing so. In the second class, students had to commit in writing to deadlines they personally set for themselves, knowing there would be penalties if they broke their own deadlines. The third class was told all papers had to be in by the twelfth week with no grade benefit for early submissions.
How did each class fair? The authoritarian class had the best grades; the class where there was no set deadline for any of the papers did the worst; and the class where individuals set their own deadlines came in between the two. No surprise here, but there is a corollary. When the students in the class where they set their own deadlines, was looked at more closely some interesting data appeared. The vast majority did in fact abide by their own set deadlines and these deadlines were spaced substantially. These students got grades equal to those in the authoritarian class. There were some students who did not space their deadlines well, and a few who did not space them at all. It was these students who pulled the grades of the rest down. J.Bates
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Below are some puns sent email to the editor.
1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round
table was Sir Cumference. He acquired
his size from too much pi.
2. I
thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an
optical Aleutian.
3.
She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class,
because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
6. A
dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
7. A
grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
8.
Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A
hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
10.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
And
last but not least:
11.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.