emanations

sufi said:

2. When you fart on a cold day, is there a little cloud of steam? Why/why not?

Click to expand...

In fact, if it's cold enough, -40 or below, a fart can result in 'Siberian Tinkle' ('сибирские колокола') or 'Arctic Bells' where the flatulem freezes on contact with the air before falling to Earth like a gherkin-sized miasmic zeppelin, shattering quietly as it hits the ground.

sufi said:

1. Halitosis. Like they say about other aspects of personal hygiene. Would mouth odour normalise itself if you never brushed your teeth? Has anyone tried? Give me historical sources.

Click to expand...

This is, unfortunately, one of the instances where 'the system' is absolutely correct, and anarcho-primitivists need to shut their reeking traps and embrace the minty squidge of Mentadent P (or Colgate if you're Irish).

martin said:

(or Colgate if you're Irish).

Click to expand...

*gColgeáit

Mr. Tea said:

*gColgeáit

Click to expand...

Thank you for this useful post!

I think that the historical record will show that people's teeth used to fall out a lot more, presumably because of bacteria, which I would guess is one cause of halitosis (that, and having a cursed soul).

Presumably it was more socially acceptable to have stink breath in those days though.

john eden said:

I think that the historical record will show that people's teeth used to fall out a lot more, presumably because of bacteria, which I would guess is one cause of halitosis (that, and having a cursed soul).

Presumably it was more socially acceptable to have stink breath in those days though.

Click to expand...

Consider the Eskimo

"I brought about 100 skulls of Eskimos, who had died before Europeans came in, to the American Museum of Natural History, New York. These have been examined by many students, but no sign of tooth decay has yet been discovered. It seemed at one time that the record of the Museum's collection would have to be degraded from its hundred per cent rating; for Dr. M. A. Pleasure examined there 283 skulls said to be Eskimo of pre-European date and found a small cavity in one tooth. But when the records were checked it turned out that the collector, the Rev. J. W. Chapman of the Episcopal Board of Missions, New York City, had sent that skull to the Museum as one of an Athapasca Indian, not of an Eskimo.

The Eskimo record is, therefore, clean to date. Not a sign of tooth decay has yet been discovered among that one of all peoples which most completely avoids the foods, the precepts, and the practices favored for dental health by the New York Commissioner of Health, the average dentist, the toothbrush drillmaster of the schools, and the dentifrice publicists."
THE FAT OF THE LAND by Vilhjalmur Stefansson


Tooth decay appears to a disease of the modern diet enjoyed by agricultural civilisations. Populations that consumed minimal carbohydrates did not suffer from it.

This is an excellent contribution.

I nominate Sufi to experiment with a fish-based diet and eskimo lifestyle to see what effect it has on the state of his mouth.