Tag Archives: science

How to test a toilet using the Bristol Stool Scale



With all of today’s technology, one common household feature can also be one of the most frustrating.

Yes, we’re talking about the toilet. More specifically, your toilet’s flushing ability.

(Did you know that there are seven different types of poop?   We’ll get back to this in a moment…)

One thing that Web Watch always makes note of when we’re staying at hotels across the country is whether the hotel’s engineering staff “get it” in terms of providing adequate flushing power for their guests.  We were so impressed at the flushing prowess at one hotel that we went so far as to take a look in the tank to see what magic flushing mechanism was inside (in that case, it was a professional pressurized unit – all the more likely to not break by curious guests like ourselves).

Worse is when we have to report to the hotel’s front desk about the poor toilet situation in our room.  We often wonder is it an isolated situation in our room, or is it something that’s more common across the whole floor or entire hotel.  Sadly, we never do get the chance to get the answer to this.

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Dogs understand people more than you think



How well do you know your dog?

More importantly, how well does your dog know you?

Have you ever noticed that your dog does really well with sensory clues around them to react to?  Web Watch remembers a former pet we had that would sleep in the corner all night long… but the one time that we knowingly get up to go to the refrigerator for a snack, they would wake right up and follow us to the kitchen.

Every.  Single.  Time.

It’s like they knew something, sensed something about what we were doing – and acted upon it.

Turns out, our observation isn’t that far from the truth discovered by scientists.

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There are 4 different cinnamons, 3 of them are fake, and tasters can’t tell the difference



A few years ago, Web Watch wrote about how ARTIFICIAL VANILLA CONTAINS COAL TAR.

It ends up that there are many different artificial food products that contain ingredients that we may or may not know about.

Take, for example, the simple cinnamon stick.

Did you know that there really are three different products that are commonly sold as “cinnamon sticks”?

Did you know that only one of them is actually really considered “cinnamon”?

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How dirty is your hotel room?



A few years ago, Web Watch was visiting Las Vegas with some friends.  As is the case when traveling with a large group of people – especially in Vegas – we all found ourselves staying in different hotels.

And as is the case with different Las Vegas hotels, cleanliness standards can be a bit different from hotel to hotel, company to company.

So while Web Watch was enjoying our crisp, clean sheets, one member of our brigade found herself being transferred from one dirty hotel room to another until she ultimately asked to be checked into a different hotel across the way.

Apparently, maid service doesn’t always check to clear the room of used.. (ahem) … from underneath the bed.

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Most people can’t tell the difference between a $5 and $50 bottle of wine



Web Watch learned the hard way how to appreciate wine.

For years, we avoided wine like the plague – preferring vodka, beer, or other alcoholic alternatives to all types of wine.  We just didn’t enjoy it as much as we were told we should.

Then one day, we received a $125 bottle of wine as a gift.

That is when our opinion on wine changed dramatically.

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Men like to check out other men’s junk. Women don’t.



In advertising and when designing websites, lots of research goes into determining exactly how to place specific items onto the page, photo, advertisement in order to determine the best layout.

Stores do this physically, by putting high-demand items (such as milk or perishables) towards the back of the store.  Walt Disney did this when he decided that his new theme park needed a “weenie” in the center of the park to act as a magnet, ultimately drawing visitors towards the Castle that’s become a centerpiece of each of the Disney parks to date.

So while it’s easy to determine traffic patterns when people are walking around, how to businesses determine what makes a good print or online layout?

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Didn’t see this coming: Psychic ability doesn’t really exist



Some people are naturally really really good at guessing.

Some are so good at this type of analysis, that their “guesses” can come across as an emphatic psychic power.

Web Watch recalls an experiment that we did once, where we had to read the mind of someone across the room and determine what figure had been drawn on piece of paper.

The first one was easy:  a circle.  Anybody would have a 50-50 chance at coming up with that one. 

The next one was also easy (although we forget whether it was a square, triangle, or other geometric shape), and we got that one correct as well.

It was the third one that cemented in our minds that there can be such a talent as being a mind-reader:

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How big is the universe?



Do you remember a few years ago when Web Watch showed you a REAL-WORLD COMPARISON OF GERM SIZES?

You were able to zoom in from the size of a sheet of paper down to the size of a carbon atom.  Along the way, you could see and compare the sizes of different germs when compared to common, everyday objects.

Yeah, not too shabby, and kinda cool.

But what if we wanted to take the same concept, and compare the sizes of pretty much everything in the entire universe to, well, the entire universe?

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The Ultimate Secret to winning WORDS WITH FRIENDS



Are a WORDS WITH FRIENDS junkie?

Do you have multiple games going at one time, and fantasize about playing the exact same word on all the boards at the same time?

Do you have all the LEGAL 2-LETTER WORDS memorized, regardless of whether you actually know the definitions of those words or not?  Do you know the exact number of letters that are available in the baggie, or know the difference between REGULAR SCRABBLE RULES and TOURNAMENT SCRABBLE RULES?

Yeah, you’re a word game competitor, and you’re always looking for an edge.  Something to really carry your gameplay to the next level, because you’re sick and tired of losing out on that Triple Word Score because you couldn’t come up with a more creative way to use that “P” in your rack.

Web Watch has something for you.  We can help you win.

All all you have to do is one simple thing…

So what is the ULTIMATE SECRET TO WINNING “WORDS WITH FRIENDS”, Scrabble, or any other popular word game?

 

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What is the definition of “Life”?



What do you consider to be “life”?

Everybody seems to have their own opinion of when life starts, and are generally accepting of the same definition of when life ends, but that’s not really the question that Web Watch is asking here.

Regardless of when you believe life begins, there’s still the fundamental question remaining of what “life” actually is for you.

We can pretty much all agree that inanimate objects, such as an iPhone – even with Siri – do not represent “life” at all.

So what is life?

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Now your poop can be like art, with all the colors of the rainbow



Girls Don't Poop
Girls Don’t Poop

Web Watch told you about Dr Stool a few years ago, where you can get all your poop questions that you never knew you had answered.

And if Dr Stool wasn’t enough, you could always head over to SMELLY POOP, an educational website that that answers the question, “What other colors of poop are possible?”

And according to them, you can get red, white, brown, yellow… even blue poop!  Yup, you really are what you eat, and any good physician will tell you that all they need to really diagnose any health issue that you may have it to analyze a stool sample.

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It’s true: Men can tell when a woman is having her period, just by listening to her



Period.: A Girl's Guide
Period.: A Girl’s Guide

If there’s one thing that men have learned over the years, it’s that women can be moody once in a while.

And we all know what one of those causes of mood swings can be, don’t we?  Yes, yes we do.

But there is something that scientists have discovered that can help men avoid being in the line of fire when that moody time comes around… and it’s not nearly as complicated as keeping a diary of their own to document those moments.

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How many gallons of gas does it take to charge an iPhone?



Solar iPhone/Cell phone charger
Solar iPhone/Cell phone charger

It’s a fair question.

Web Watch often hears Luddites talk about how battery-operated devices still need to get their energy from somewhere, so we’re not actually saving energy by driving around in our hybrid cars or otherwise relying on battery packs to get us what we need.

Take the iPhone for instance.  It needs energy to recharge its battery so that you can listen to tunes or play Angry Birds.

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Hate your body? Try a HUMAN UPGRADE



Upgrade Me: Our Amazing Journey to Human 2.0
Upgrade Me: Our Amazing Journey to Human 2.0

Do you remember the classic TV show, MAN FROM ATLANTIS?

It featured an actor with webbed fingers and toes, able to swim deep into the ocean to solve crimes.  Our recollection is that he had gills and could breath underwater like Aquaman, but there’s been a lot of alcohol in our system since then so we may be confusing two different characters.

But the webbed fingers and toes?  Those were real.

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Looking for gluten-free beer? Your choices may be more limited than you think



Gluten-Free Baking Classics
Gluten-Free Baking Classics

If you are one of the millions of people who suffer from gluten allergy (also known as celiac disease), or just want to limit the amount of gluten that you ingest on a daily basis to something a bit more tolerable for your body, then you may want to read a recent study that came out that did some analysis on one item that almost requires gluten to exist in the first place:

Beer.

Yes, there are many gluten-free beers on the market today, but how many of them are labeled correctly with the term “gluten-free” if they actually contain gluten?

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