Skepticism

Skepchick Quickies, 7.29

Jen

Jen is a writer and web designer/developer in Columbus, Ohio. She spends too much time on Twitter at @antiheroine.

Related Articles

27 Comments

  1. Holy smokes! That mouse looks like it belongs to Mr. Freeze! I’m half-expecting it to drop in on Batman and say “Batman! Can I offer you a piece of freeze? Ahahahaaaaa!!!!”

  2. Just because it’s cute doesn’t mean it’s a mouse. That’s a rat, and it’s adorable!

  3. I’m still not sure what the message in that Diesel Sweeties is. It starts out understandable, and then it confuses the heck out of me.

  4. Ok so I did the Mars name thing…. now though I am wondering, how do I know they will put it out there? And… what if my name were somehting like Ben Dover? Could I have put that my name was Oprah Sucks?

    Could we flood the NASA people with something skeptically witty?

  5. “See Mom, food dyes are not bad for you! Now I have to make up for all the candy I missed out on because you bought into Oprah’s “food dyes turns our kids into hyperactive monsters” episode! And just to let you know, if more kids were actually hyperactive they wouldn’t be so fat!”

    * Sits in corner, contemplating childhood candy-related trauma while eating M&Ms for a healthier spine*

  6. ANYtime something wants out of your body, keeping in is a terrifically bad idea.

    The sweat glands are an important part of the excretory system, which as Wikipedia says “is a biological system that removes excess, unnecessary or dangerous materials from an organism”

    And regardless of ethical implications, blue mice are neat.

  7. I love how the softer tissue allowed for such a saturation of dye that the rat’s previously red eyes are now nearly black.

  8. I was confused for a while why we started talking about antiperspirants. I guess that one Cracked link has a page 2.

    It’s true that the sweat glands are part of the excretory system, but there are sweat glands all over your body. The effect of blocking the pours i the underarms is negligible, since toxins will find some other way out. Anything blocked by antiperspirant will likely be washed away when you take your shower the next day.

    I mean most people do bathe every day or two, right? Theoretically?

    One ought to be careful what conclusions one draws from articles like that, least we find ourselves back in that hysteria a couple years ago when everyone thought antiperspirants caused cancer. It’s not that simple. The Snopes article has been updated since last I looked, but I’ve got a meeting in a few mins, so I’ll leave you to it.

  9. @Bookitty: Rats’ eyes aren’t really red (erm, that is to say, albino or ‘lab’ rats’ eyes aren’t really red) – they’re clear, like glass marbles. You’re seeing the blood vessels at the back of the eye, and it seems to be red. Or blue (or black) as the case may be.

    And, while on the surface that rat is pretty cute, bear in mind that it’s basically lying like that, head propped up, ’cause it’s been crippled in the name of science. I’m a rat owner and I loooove my rats, but I also understand the need for testing on rats (and other animals) for the common good (but not for stuff like cosmetics). So I’m not gonna go all PETA on everyone here. However, that rat that we’re all cooing over ’cause it looks cute is a rat that lying there sweetly ’cause it’s been deliberately given a spinal injury.

    Jus’ sayin’.

    Personally, I’d like to buy some of that dye (maybe in different colors) to give to healthy rats, to color them all groovy without the injury part.

  10. Thank you, Kaylia! I’m spreading the URL for the Name to Mars site far and wide.

    It’s probably the closest I’m going to get to space travel in my life. ;-)

  11. @Jen: You rock even more than I originally thought! :) Rats are my favorite pets! I’m trying to decide if I want to get more now. Basically, I’m trying to decide if I want to get my heart broken again – darn those short lifespans!

  12. Zoltan, Yeah, I was trying to skip over the “Wait, how did they get a rat to sit still?” question in my head. As a former rat owner (Good night, sweet Contessa Von Ratcula) it kinda creeped me out.

    I apologize for not making my description more clear, since I was aware of the actual eye color of white rats but “The previously reddish-appearing eyes” was a bit unwieldy.

  13. Paralyzed rats are,
    made in the name of science
    Immobile and blue

    this cried out for haiku

  14. I was just discussing the Cracked article with a coworker and we worked out that her Mary Kay Extra Emollient Night Cream ($5.00/oz) is essentially mineral oil ($0.20/oz), bees wax ($0.50/oz) and Vaseline ($0.10/oz).

  15. Last time I sent my name to mars the Polar Lander hit the surface big time.

    I rather spare them my bad luck this time.

  16. I make some of the body care products that I use, for just that reason. Instead of a commercial antiperspirant/deodorant I use a mixture of baking soda and cornstarch. Absorbs sweat and odor, and is dirt cheap. No complaints from those around me so far.

  17. @catfurniture: And the proportion of baking soda to cornstarch is…?

    Cheap-ass people with enquiring minds want to know… ;-)

  18. @QuestionAuthority:

    I do about 3:1 or 4:1–I’m not very precise. I’ve just got an old Altoids tin, I put in a few spoonfuls of baking soda, then 1 or 2 of cornstarch, then stir it up. I have a little powder puff-thingie that I use to apply the mixture. (It leaves little white powdery bits on the bathroom counter, so I just sweep them off onto the floor.)

    Oh, a word of caution–I’ve heard of some people experiencing “fire pits” when using this, but I’ve had no problem. It’s also been known to darken the armpit skin a bit–oh noes!!!

    I make my own household cleaning solutions as well.

    You say “cheap-ass,” I say “environmentally conscious.” ;-)

  19. @catfurniture: If you don’t mind sharing, I wouldn’t mind having your other recipes for cleaning as well.
    My personal e-mail is [email protected] in case you don’t want to clog up the thread. :-D

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button