We here at Wizbang pride ourselves in keeping you abreast of the important issues that impact your life. And what is more impactful than unpopped popcorn?
Mystery of unpopped popcorn solved
INDIANAPOLIS — Eat your way to the bottom of almost any bag of popcorn and there they are: the rock-hard, jaw-rattling unpopped kernels known as old maids.
The nuisance kernels have kept many a dentist busy, but their days could be numbered: Scientists say they now know why some popcorn kernels resist popping into puffy white globes.
It’s long been known that popcorn kernels must have a precise moisture level in their starchy center — about 15 percent — to explode. But Purdue University researchers found the key to a kernel’s explosive success lies in the composition of its hull.
Unpopped kernels, it turns out, have leaky hulls that prevent the moisture pressure buildup needed for them to pop and lack the optimal hull structure that allows most kernels to explode.
And because we at Wizbang offer the daily news with our no-holds-barred editorial comment, I’ll take a firm position on this issue:
As a popcorn fan (and avid boater,) I’m against leaky hulls of all kinds.
Perhaps the government will decide to mandate the use of double hulls on all popcorn meant for consumption within the territorial boundaries of the US.
So if White Star Line and Orville Reddenbacher had merged some time ago we may have never know the meaning of old maid?
If only the technology to fully study this field had been around in 1912. We would have never had to suffer a Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet scene where they sway to Celine Dion music playing in the background.
I’m glad to see scientists working on something worthwhile. Now we might take less of a beatdown from Paul 😉
Conversation overheard at Cheers…
Norm: “I wonder why all the kernels of corn do not pop when you make popcorn?”
Cliff: “Well you see Normy…kernels of corn must have a precise moisture content of 15 percent to explode. Those kernels that do not explode posess a weak hull structure that prevents the proper pressure from building up and causing an explosion or what is commonly referred to as a pop. Hence the name pop-corn.”
I happen to think that this type of research is a crime against humanity. Those little unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bowl are little drops of tasty goodness sent directly from heaven by the good Lord himself. They are, by far, the best part of any popcorn feeding frenzy. I am disgusted by any attempted to remove these from my bag of popcorn and I will do anything I can to prevent it. Fight the power!
Of course if we don’t get busy right now and implement the double-hull solution for every bag of popcorn, the terrorists will have won.
Insert some Paul-hater “you’re so damn wrong and stupid and wrong and ignorant and stupid and wrong I can’t believe how wrong you are see you misrepresented what popcorn does IT’S WRONG!” comment here.
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Just goes to prove my theory. People from Purdue are smart.
Now when are they going to explain why chewing gum loses its flavor on the bedpost overnight?
McGehee:
I wasn’t aware that whether chewing gum loses its flavor on the bedpost overnight was a settled question. Must be falling behind on my tracking of government-funded research…
(if tin whistles are made of tin, what are foghorns made of?)
Thanks Sue… I was starting to feel lonely.
P
Good question about foghorns. I’m also curious about this: you wear a ski vest when you go skiing, and a smoking jacket if you’re going to smoke.
When, then, does one wear a windbreaker?
Should those “reforms” suggested here ever be considered through to forcing policy within the Church, I’d say that then you’d have the Democratic minority.
And, “working within” the Church (by those who don’t believe in the principles upon which the Church is based) suggests corrupting the Church. Been tried by the homosexual community, among others (and by that very process you suggest, Jay) for a while now and look what they accomplished: increased human tragedy.
My apologies (*^^), wrong thread!
I think it fits in rather well, -S-. 😉
Mark, try these.