Science! is back sort of, maybe, depending

Before I hit the one-year without updating point, I'll proactively post some updates to previous entries.  Will I resume updating Science!?  I dunno.

In this entry, I was talking about my National Geographic Wall Clock.  What you should know is, it was not all it was cracked up to be.  The original clock I got failed to update itself when Daylight Savings Time began last year, to my great disappointment.  I presumed this was due to its location in my house, buried on an interior wall fairly near the television, when the instructions said specifically it should be near a window facing the appropriate direction and not near electrical devices.  So I tried a few other things, like leaving it near a window, or even outside overnight, in the hopes that it would get word from the mother station that time had advanced without it.  No such luck.  Note, there is NO WAY to change the clock by hand.  Because it is advanced technology that will never break so you will never need to manually fix it, like Microsoft Windows. 

Then, a few weeks later, I get an e-mail from the clock manufacturer stating that my clock was recalled because it was faulty.  Apparently something about the new DST rules messed it up, and they were sending me a new one.  So, now I have two clocks: one which recognizes DST, one which denies its existence.  The latter must simply serve as wall decoration and will likely have to be banished upstairs until fall.

In this entry, I listed ingredients I found in a package of vending machine donuts.  Most of them turned out to be advanced emulsifiers, whose purpose is to maintain the integrity of a floury cake product for shipping, stacking, storing, and weeks of downtime until purchase and (regrettable) consumption.  I'm looking to read Twinkie Deconstructed at some point to learn more about industrially processed foods with the hope that I will inspire myself to avoid them forever.  I also want to note that one of the ingredients, xanthan gum, was also found in many lotions.

Posted at 05:10PM Mar 13, 2008 by WILSON, JOSHUA in Thought experiments  |