You Can't Break Uncooked Spaghetti In Half, And Other Facts
Welcome to What We Learned This Week, a digest of the most curiously important facts from the past few days. This week: Machines can crack spaghetti in half but humans still can't, Rogaine really messes with your head and you can access the infinite knowledge of the angels for $37 a month.
It's Possible To Break Spaghetti In Half, But You Shouldn't
For years, the answer to one simple question has evaded even the most brilliant minds of this planet: Why the heck won't spaghetti break cleanly in half? Finally, in the year 2018, maybe the weirdest of all years, researchers have finally discovered how to perfectly break a piece of dry spaghetti in twain.
You see, when you bend a piece of spaghetti in half, the force of it breaking sends waves shooting through the piece of dried pasta, and thus creates a small compound break in the middle, resulting in tiny bits of pasta wasted.
The trick, they've found, is that you must twist the ends of the pasta. Apply enough torque to the spaghetti strand and it will neatly break into two pieces. But good freaking look trying to do this yourself. Apparently, the MIT researchers who had the extreme fortune of securing a grant for this research, needed to fashion a machine to produce enough torque to even break a single strand of spaghetti.
The good news is that you should never need to do this. No one needs to break their spaghetti in half. If you can't fit the pasta in your pot, get a bigger pot. A pot that will fit your spaghetti in which you love so much. If you refuse to get a bigger pot, then I don't know what to say. Try rigatoni?
Rogaine Kind Of Stinks To Use
Perhaps you already know this, but for my fellow young folks out there reading Josh Sky's personal account of using Rogaine to fend off hair loss is an uncomfortable account of chemicals and insecurity.
I mean, who knew that covering your scalp in something that was found to inadvertently cause hair growth on mice would result in splitting, throbbing headaches that might leave you bed-ridden. I sure didn't, but I probably should have!
Fortunately, I am not a position to consider potential hair-loss solutions, but after reading Sky's experience, I think when I am forced to confront my aging body and my thinning scalp I'll do the thing that everyone says they're going to do: just buzz it.
[Mel]
The Archangels Are Real, They Want To Help Us, But You Gotta Pay $37
Apologies if you are a Loyal Digg User and have already seen Zoë Beery's incredible profile of Melanie Beckler. If you haven't, well, have you heard about this person Melanie Beckler? She says she can channel the archangels, pass along their wisdom and encouragement to you, and all you have to do is pay $37 a month. Currently, Beckler has some million followers and thousands of subscribers.
Now, I know it looks bad. Here is a person who is clearly doing the ancient swindle of selling hope. But the more you read about Beckler, the more you realize that she's less Theresa Caputo, and more Susan Miller. You get the sense that Beckler — who has had her own crisis of faith — truly believes in the angel therapy she's selling.
In some form or another, we all spend our money on our own forms of angel therapy. Maybe it's video games or cooking or binge-watching "Vanderpump Rules." Beckler might be advocating something completely fictional as real, but for $37 a month it's certainly cheaper than most forms of actual therapy. And if that helps a decent amount of folks get through life, well, it's probably what the angels would have wanted.
[Digg]
