It all started when iCaspar wrote a post on this and I just had to ask what his response was mainly out of curiosity to such a brilliant question posed by his kid.
He then followed up with a post and explained it all with physics and Newton’s law of cooling:
Pee is mostly just water with a little urea, a trace of salt and even smaller traces of other stuff. Both urea and salt cause the freezing point of water to be depressed. Since most of the 5% of pee that’s not water is urea, let’s assume (hey, I’m was a physics major, we make assumptions. You’ve heard the one about the square chicken, right?) the urea concentration is a little less than 4%. Or, better yet, since we can find an actual experimental result for it here, let’s say a molar concentration (formular weight of solute per 1000 grams of solution) of 3.389. At that concentration, the freezing point compared to pure water is depressed by 5.594°C.
So the ordinary freezing point of pee is around -5.6°C (21ºF).
This makes sense. If you put pee in your freezer next to the bottle of vodka (I’m not recommending that you actually try this at home, just that you could) it freezes way before your vodka does.
21º isn’t all that cold of course, but to freeze in mid-air, it would have to be a lot colder. For one thing, your body temperature is 98.6°F (37°C), which means your pee needs to cool by 76.6ºF (42.6ºC) in a very short time.
Let’s assume that you’re out with your Boy Scout troop at winter camp. Let’s say you and your friends decide to try mid-air pee freezing and you can manage to pee upward high enough to give your pee a generous 1.5 seconds from “exit” to ground. The cooling rate would need to be 28.4ºC/sec.
Newton’s Law of cooling tells us that:
Now, Newton’s very logical law of cooling went right over my head, but iCaspar’s detailed and very animated explanation made it all very interesting to read further. I thought he did a brilliant job explaining physics in a very human term.
The final answer to if and when pee freezes in mid-air? Well, you gotta head over to his blog and read all about it here.
It would be interesting to try to explain it to Squirt when he gets to that age if we ever move to a freakishly cold country. Who would have thought a question on freezing pee would be so interesting!
When the husband cooks, unlike me who tend to mix and match and modify stuff, he cooks it by following the recipe to a T. And I really mean to THE T.
Not that I’m complaining; in fact , it’s a welcome break for me when he decides to take over the kitchen and do chef’s duty every once in a while. He is after all, not a bad cook, and he does desserts better than I do.
Silver Bullet has been doing more Asian-inspired dishes of late, and recently he attempted to make a chicken dish in mild curry known as korma – a dish quite popular within the Malay community. It’s a recipe he attempted taken from RotinRice.
20 oz (565g) boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
Salt
3 small potatoes, cubed
10 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
½ cup (115g) plain yogurt
½ cup (60g) roasted cashew nuts
Spice Paste
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp ground fennel (jintan manis)
½ tsp ground cumin (jintan putih)
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground chili
¼ tsp ground pepper
10 raw cashew nuts, ground to a paste
Instructions
Combine all spice paste ingredients in a bowl with 3 tablespoons of water to form a paste.
In a medium sized pot, heat vegetable oil. Fry cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and cloves for 1 to 2 minutes or until spices start to pop. Add onion, garlic, and ginger and fry for another 2 minutes. Then add spice paste and continue to cook for 4 to 5 minutes over medium heat. Stir constantly so that the spices do not burn.
Now, add chicken and continue to cook for another 4 to 5 minutes.
Pour in ½ cup (120ml) water, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow it to simmer for 10 minutes.
Season with salt to taste. Add potatoes and continue to cook for 10 minutes.
Finally, add tomatoes and stir in yogurt. Allow it to simmer for about 3 minutes.
Turn off heat and let korma sit for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle roasted cashew nuts on the top and served with steamed basmati rice.
Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/
My verdict: Not to shabby at all. Not too shabby!
His only gripe was that he cut-up the potatoes too small, and they all crumbled like hash brown after cooking it for a while, disappearing into the curry. Otherwise, this is a great recipe to experiment. #FoodieFriDIYs
There was something about the hilariously tacky-sounding title of this post when I saw it coming through my email that compelled me to want to read up further as my mind went “what the hell is mustache you?!” And, it turns out, Yuliya, from Tiny Expats had tagged me to answer some questions in this ‘mustacheing’ event.
So, in the name of fun, here’s my response to the questions which are done in fours. Don’t forget to check out her blog for expat-related stories!
Four Names People Call Me Other Than My Real Name?
Ann
Babes
Mama
Imp
Four Jobs I’ve Had?
Executive Director
Public Relations Officer (I hated the job)
Media Buyer/Planner
Boutique Assistant
Four Movies I would/have watched more than once?
Trainspotting
Inception
La Vita è Bella
Reservoir Dogs
Four books I’d Recommend?
(It’s been a while since I read, but these really are some of my favourites!)
