‘Hmmm, sooo shiny, sooo nice’ – but why?

“Human beings are attracted to glossy objects. Shimmering lipsticks, gleaming cars, dazzling diamonds and sequined gowns […]” Given its prevalence, it’s perhaps surprising that motives for humans to seek out glossy, shiny, smooth things have, until now, gone largely underinvestigated in the scholarly world. A(n) hypothesis is presented, however, by doctoral student Katrien Meert of […]

A Drink Can Be Too Cool: The Lethal Liquid Nitrogen Cocktail

Cocktails can be ultra-chilling. This medical report provides evidence to that effect: “A lethal cocktail: gastric perforation following liquid nitrogen ingestion,” James Scott Pollard, Joanne Elizabeth Simpson, Moatasiem Idris Bukhari, BMJ Case Reports, 2013;10.1136/bcr-2012-007769. The authors, at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary [pictured below], Lancaster, UK, write: “We report a case of gastric perforation in an […]

Verdi’s Gastromusicology

The Bibliore blog reports: In opera, eating and drinking function largely as they do in society—they define social relationships…. [Some] gastromusicological laws may be deduced from Verdi’s operas: A meal is never sad. Hunger is never happy. A shared meal or drink is a socially cohesive event. The presence of food or drink precludes immediate catastrophe (unless poison is involved)…. […]