Thursday, June 30, 2005

Dental Conspiracy!

Dentists have been warning of the adverse effects of soft drinks on people's teeth for years. The sugar and additives in cola will cause rot and strip the enamel right off your teeth, they warn. Meanwhile, doctors and dentists alike have been recommending people drink large amounts of water during the day. It's healthy, it won't damage your teeth, it's good for your body. Or so they claim.

I'm about to blow the lid off a fiendish coverup. My main concern is that the dental association may try to silence and/or discredit me. That's why I'm counting on you, my loyal readers, to spread the word far and wide across the country. The following are pictures of my nail in cola research project:

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Figure 1. The nail can be seen at the bottom of the jar, resting placidly and comfortably in Pepsi Cola. Notice the clarity of the liquid.

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Figure 2. The nail removed from the jar of Coca-Cola. Note the stunning cleanliness of the nail. It has been perfectly preserved; it may actually be even cleaner than when it was first placed in the cola.

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Figure 3. The nail placed in water is barely visible. It appears that particles have been stripped off the surface of the nail and have settled to the bottom of the jar.

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Figure 4. Here is a close-up of the nail that was in water. Three weeks had passed since it was first submerged. Note the high levels of rust (or "decay", to use the terminology of so-called dentists) on the nail's surface.

After viewing these stunning findings with my own eyes, I cannot in good faith recommend drinking water. I do however urge all of you to switch to drinking nothing but cola with every meal. For the good of your teeth. You may also want to consider switching to a different dentist, or stop going to dentists altogether. (Note: these recommendations apply only to those of you with metal teeth. More research must be carried out before coming to any conclusions about the effects of water and colas on enamel-covered teeth.)

Check back soon for the final installment of the Coke Nail experiment!

Monday, June 27, 2005

Drink Experiment: Rusty Nail part one

Hypothesis: Placing a metal nail in Coca-Cola will cause the nail to dissolve.

Methods: We took four identical nails, measured the width of the nails and placed them in four different glass mason jars. In one of the jars, we poured Coca-Cola. In the next jar, Pepsi. Jar number three, Life Brand Cola (rumour has it Life is identical to President's Choice.). In the final jar, plain unfiltered tap water. The water jar was our control jar--the level of disintegration in the other jars is to be compared with the baseline amount of disintegration of a nail in water.

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Still life with Coke Can, mason jar and nail.

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Içi la Cola du Pepsi.

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Choose Life! (in a soft drink sense anyway.)

Initial observations: Life Cola tastes better than both Coke and Pepsi. While it's a bit sweeter than I would like, Life has a more complex taste with hints of spice and fruit in addition to the cola flavouring.

Initial conclusions: I don't really like cola anymore.

Stay tuned for more findings!