jonsinger: The Never-Ending Fight for Truth, Justice, and Oleoresin Capsicum

Jon Singer (

jonsinger) wrote,
@ 2005-09-15 01:02:00

The Never-Ending Fight for Truth, Justice, and Oleoresin Capsicum
It came to me, some time ago, that Tecnu™ (a commercial item that dissolves urushiol and is intended for use against poison oak and poison ivy) should also be effective against capsaicin. I have never heard of anyone else trying this, but I will confess that I haven’t looked very hard.

I decided that it would be much more fun to do it myself than to google on it.

Cheers —
jon

(I may decide to cross-post this to

food_porn.)

(Post a new comment)

	debbiethedogged 2005-09-15 05:22 am UTC (link)
	Jon, my man, you are absolutely brilliant. So glad I found you here! (In real life I'm the Debbie who used to hang with you and Scott and Brandon and the others at the teahouse and dim sum etc). (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jonsinger 2005-09-15 05:44 am UTC (link)
	Hi hi hi — Thanks! I actually thought up the idea many months ago, but I put it aside for some stupid reason, and didn't get around to doing it until tonight. It's very good to see you here!! I b'lieve I have added you to my friends list. If not, I will. Cheers — jon (Reply to this) (Parent)

	dragon_spirit 2005-09-15 05:27 am UTC (link)
	“Yes, there’s gas in the car” falls off chair laughing (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jonsinger 2005-09-15 05:46 am UTC (link)
	Ahhhh. You know, there's this thing about jokes... Every once in a while, something is just right, and you fall over in hysterics. I love having this happen to me, and I only rarely get to do it to anyone else, so it is a special pleasure to know that somebody gets one the way I do. (I 'bout fell outta my chair when I thought of the caption.) Thank you!! jon (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

dragon_spirit
2005-09-15 05:55 am UTC (link)

Ah no, thank you! I needed a good laugh. 8)

I know what you mean in regard to jokes. I actually got a job once because I made a joke on my application that wasn't that great, but the recruiter thought it was so funny at that precise moment that he spent over a minute laughing before he could even talk.

Incidentally, the thing he found so funny was in response to the question, "Why do you want to work at X coffee shop?" I replied, "Because God's two greatest gifts to mankind are coffee and Katherine Hepburn, and Kate doesn't make very good coffee and she wouldn't give me a job."

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	jonsinger 2005-09-15 06:00 am UTC (link)
	A) My pleasure. B) That actually is pretty good, especially considering the circumstances. You're a lot faster on your feet than I am! Cheers -- jon (Reply to this) (Parent)

	corivax 2005-09-15 05:43 am UTC (link)
	The eye bit might be the single craziest thing I've seen on livejournal. And that's impressive. (Reply to this) (Thread)

The Eye --

jonsinger
2005-09-15 05:52 am UTC (link)

It was the key test, and the thing would have been a copout if I had omitted it, so I just hadda do it.

Have you read about the vet who gave himself ear mites, so he would know what cats go through? I think that's far worse than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and the idiot apparently did it THREE TIMES because he had to be sure.

I'm sure after 1 time that Tecnu works, and I'm going to leave verification to others. (I will confess that it was a bit scary, but it's pointful to note that I'd already done a tongue test, so I had a pretty good idea of how mild it would be.)

Anyway, cheers!
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	von_krag 2005-09-15 05:43 am UTC (link)
	I have some "Liquid Hell" in a 50 million Scovole(?) heat I use for large batch food production. This is good news because using this stuff means a full face mask and above wrist nitrile gloves. (Reply to this) (Thread)

jonsinger
2005-09-15 05:56 am UTC (link)

Ghood Ghrief!! (It's actually “Scoville”, btw. He was a real person.) I think that pure capsaicin is on the order of 1 million Scoville Units Equivalent, so they may be exaggerating when they rate it at 50, but it's still nothing you wanna mess around with, and it's vastly more than I care to get anywhere near. Habaneros and Rocotillos are quite enough for me.

Yeesh.
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	von_krag 2005-09-15 06:17 am UTC (link)
	I'm looking at the glass jar now and it states 50 mill alright but then the listing of stuff in it is very vague. I do know it will cause 2nd degree like blisters on skin. As I said it's flavoring for large batch cooking IE; 1/2 oz to 200 gallon. Thanks for the spelling info, I'm lazy and didn't want to Google, grin. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	jonsinger 2005-09-15 03:47 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, vague ingredient listings plus slightly inflated claims about strength kinda worry me, but hey: if it works the way you want it to, that's the bottom line. My pleasure about the spelling. I'm a compulsive proofreader, can't help it, might as well get some use out of it. Cheers! jon (Reply to this) (Parent)

	abostick59 2005-09-15 05:49 am UTC (link)
	It must be one of them coincidences, that your research was published so soon on the heels of the appearance of this. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jonsinger 2005-09-15 05:58 am UTC (link)
	As you might gather, actually one of them noncoincidences. “That” was what reminded me of the Tecnu idea, which I originally had either at the beginning of this summer or some time last summer, I can't really recall which. Hope all's well with you and yours. Hugs — jon (Reply to this) (Parent)

	You missed a step.... brooksmoses 2005-09-15 05:58 am UTC (link)
	Step 10: In which the Experimenter closes off and controls the renegade <a href="..."> tag (on the fourth image, I believe) which is attempting to eat his entire report. `:)` (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: You missed a step.... jonsinger 2005-09-15 06:04 am UTC (link)
	Uhhh, it was actually the “<IMG” tags ...all of them. Should be fixed now; if you are still having any trouble, PLEASE email me ASAP!! Thanks for the heads-up! jon PS: Safari displayed the thing perfectly even with the tags incomplete, which is why I didn't notice it myself. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: You missed a step.... brooksmoses 2005-09-15 06:26 am UTC (link)
	How weird; I hadn't realized img tags would do that! In any case, it does indeed appear to be fixed now, and I can click on the images and look at the high-res versions. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: You missed a step....

jonsinger
2005-09-15 06:50 am UTC (link)

Definitely weird; I hadn't realized that any browser would display correctly if an IMG tag was incomplete. (I had no trouble even with the larger versions of the ones I tried.)

If you want still higher resolution, btw, change ".8c" to ".22c" in the filename of the image. This gets you the original pixels. It works on all except the two images that are crops (the mouth and the eye); I think the mouth is .15c and the eye is .11c...

Cheers —
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)

scottscidmore
2005-09-15 07:12 am UTC (link)

Astute observers will note a tiny white spot at about 1:30 o’clock on the habanero, approximately halfway from the cap to the edge. “Do Not Stare Into Laser With Remaining Camera.”

What I want to know is why was the habanero staring into a laser while using a camera? I will agree that such actions may be grounds for sacrificing the little orange bugger, a form of Darwin Award, but what drove it to that?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

jonsinger
2005-09-15 03:49 pm UTC (link)

The haba was presumably looking into the laser in order to find out how to be hotter ("this light is hotter than the sun!"), and it was using the camera for the obvious reason that it hasn't got any eyes.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha.
jon

PS: You can probably see the actual shot where it happened, on my page about bringing the Molectron online, which I refer to in the "Dye Lasers for the Tragically Hippo" posting in this journal.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	yay! anitar 2005-09-15 01:18 pm UTC (link)
	This was grand; I've blogged it. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: yay! jonsinger 2005-09-15 03:50 pm UTC (link)
	Hot stuff -- thanks! Hey, I sent you a bowl, but it came back. Somebody at the Poct Offix got stupid, and decided there was no such number. I will send it again. Hugs -- jon (Reply to this) (Parent)

	5eh 2005-09-15 01:34 pm UTC (link)
	awesome, great job...I'm hoping you took proper emergency preparedness courses and remembered the fire extinguisher just in case your tongue caught on fire :-) (Reply to this) (Thread)

jonsinger
2005-09-15 03:54 pm UTC (link)

Y'know, I entered the building fully intending to include photos of bread and honey (I have this magnificent Hungarian acacia honey here), but completely forgot them in the headlong rush. Sigh. (ADHD is not my friend.)

Anyway, glad you liked it. There are some things you just can't pass up, and that was one of them -- I hadda do it. (If you noticed the comment from

abostick59, it dovetails into a discussion on Making Light.

Cheers —
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	5eh 2005-09-15 09:59 pm UTC (link)
	I have this magnificent Hungarian acacia honey here drools (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

jonsinger
2005-09-16 03:58 am UTC (link)

You got that right. It is smooth and floral and wonderful.

Are you a honey fan? For some reason I seem to have about 45 kinds, and the differences are quite surprisingly pronounced. Just acquired some longan honey the other day, in fact. Expectably bitter, and reasonably pleasant. (I already have lychee honey, which is why the bitterness was expectable — they're fairly closely related.)

Cheers —
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	redbird 2005-09-15 02:15 pm UTC (link)
	Gorgeous; the Steely Dan quote was a nice touch, though I admit I followed the footnote wondering what you had to say about it, already knowing the attribution. Joss Research Institute does support an eclectic range of work. (Reply to this) (Thread)

jonsinger
2005-09-15 04:06 pm UTC (link)

Hi hi hi.

Very pleased that you liked it.

I was very giggly when I thought up the Steely Dan quote as the caption for that photo. Figured I had best give the attribution, as there are many folks who will not have heard the thing... it's nice to be on the Web, because all I have to do is give the title. Anybody can google on that, and find out as much as they care to know about it. (I know, I probably should have provided links to many things, but hey.)

Agents of the Galaxy
Feckless dodecapods
I know you're out there
With rage in your sensors, and Ansibles
Saying 'All is forgiven
Mad dog surrender'
How can I answer?
A system my size can't say anything...

Cho: I'm a main sequence sun
I don't want to flare no-one
(etc.)

(A bit harder to find the original song from that, but a determined searcher can do it.)

Hugs —
j

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	almeda 2005-09-15 03:58 pm UTC (link)
	It seems to me that Plokta is probably the obvious peer-reviewed journal for eventual publication. :-> (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jonsinger 2005-09-15 04:10 pm UTC (link)
	An intriguing thought. I had some vague notion about AIR, but they might not want to take something that's already out in public on the Web. Well, we shall see. Plokta is a perfectly fine candidate, if the article is suitable. Cheers — jon (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	almeda 2005-09-16 02:55 am UTC (link)
	Well, they printed this. Though yours might need a few more words to pad it out from 'webpage' to 'article'. Or maybe not. Ask the cabal. They all have livejournals. :-> (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

jonsinger
2005-09-16 04:03 am UTC (link)

Ahh, wickedness. The poor teapot never stood a chance. (I'd have performed a second trial, overnight, using cold water in a fresh teapot. Maybe I should do that and send them the results... wonder where the hell I would find a chocolate teapot — don't think there's a Sainsbury in the immediate neighborhood.)

I b'lieve I'm on friendly terms with all of them; just hope it stays that way.

Thanks, in any case, for suggesting them --
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	almeda 2005-09-16 02:39 pm UTC (link)
	What earthly use is tea made with cold water? :-> (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Tea made with cold water --

jonsinger
2005-09-18 11:43 pm UTC (link)

Well, to be fully serious, it's nice for iced tea because it doesn't dilute itself as badly. Also, the flavor is slightly different, and some people like that — they make “sun tea” at rm temp or slightly above, for example; and I seem to recall a commercially available teamaking machine that just sits overnight and drips very slowly (though I may be misremembering, and it could be a coffee-concentrate maker — haven't seen anything about it for a long time, so I'm kinda hazy on it).

Cheers —
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	*giggle* kightp 2005-09-15 05:50 pm UTC (link)
	Tecnu was invented and is manufactured right here in little old Albany, Oregon. I have some slight acquaintance with the guy who owns the company. I am sorely tempted to send him the link to your experimental page. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: giggle jonsinger 2005-09-15 05:59 pm UTC (link)
	Too cool. I have added links on my posting here and the actual page. PLEASE do send him the link! I was going to call, but it's probably better if he gets it from someone he knows. (I have, btw, sent it to AIR, to see whether they want to include it in their page of links.) Thanks (!) -- jon (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: giggle kightp 2005-09-15 06:21 pm UTC (link)
	Done. (-: (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: giggle jonsinger 2005-09-20 03:59 am UTC (link)
	Thank you! Hope all's well with you. I continue to rush about headlessly... as usual, I guess. (Argh.) Cheers — jon (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: giggle kightp 2005-09-20 05:28 am UTC (link)
	Heh. Where I live this week, that would be "Arrrrr..." (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: My next posting, actually -- jonsinger 2005-09-20 03:53 pm UTC (link)
	Hi, Pat. Because I screened the craziness you were replying to, I have also screened your reply to it. Otherwise, it would look like you were saying, "Err, what?" to my posting. Hope that's cool w/you. Hugs — jon (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: My next posting, actually -- kightp 2005-09-20 04:37 pm UTC (link)
	No problem. That guy trolled a bunch of journals; not sure why he chose yours ... (Reply to this) (Parent)

chaoticmoose
2005-09-15 10:35 pm UTC (link)

Hey Jon,

This is Tena (I worked with Jax for a while last year). I found your LJ through

circuitjump, and I was very glad I did.

The price of gas has drastically reduced my traveling ability, so I haven't been able to make it up to laurel for a while. Luckily for me, the internet has now provided me the opportunity to be able to still see your different glazes (which are looking great by the way!) and other projects/experiments. so Yay for the internet!

btw, I absolutely love Fig. 5. great pic. :)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

jonsinger
2005-09-16 04:07 am UTC (link)

Hi howdy!

Ain't the Net a fine thing?

Glad you like the glazes. I have a new item in the wings, as I think I mentioned, but I wanna do a bit more work on it before I go blathering about it.

Also glad you like Fig. 5. I actually did have a bit of trouble holding the camera steady for that one — it was only ~15 seconds after I touched the thing, and I think the heat was just about maxed out.

Cheers —
jon

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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