The Straight Dope 06/20/2003

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 06/20/2003

Dear Cecil:

I engage in some modest activism on behalf of the 
environment and a few other causes and I am sensitive
about having my facts straight. I keep coming across
the following provocative statement: "Today we added
265,000 babies, lost 7,500 acres of rain forest, 
added 46,000 acres of desert, lost 71 million tons
of topsoil, added 15 million tons of carbon dioxide
to the air, lost about 70 species--and we get to do
it again tomorrow." Certain of the numbers given seem
plausible; others seem possibly inflated. What's the
straight dope here? --R.T. Gabbert, Skokie, Illinois

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Cecil replies:

As a rule, R.T., you want to distrust any statement
printed on a T-shirt, which is where you'll usually
find this one. (Principal exception: "I'm with
stupid.") But this stuff isn't as off-the-wall as most
wash-and-wear propaganda--in fact, if you allow for
the inherent imprecision of global environmental
statistics, many of the numbers correspond reasonably
well with current scientific consensus.

The statement you keep seeing is a paraphrase of the
opening lines of Ecological Literacy: Education and
the Transition to a Postmodern World by David W. Orr
(1992). Orr, who's more of a philosopher than a
scientist, provides no cites for his statistics, but I
was able to track them down.  

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030620.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

There is a very cool thing I want to do before I die.
Years ago, David Letterman used to heave vegetables
off the roof of a three story building with an effect
I can only describe as satisfying. I would love to
pop open the bay doors of the shuttle and lob
God-knows-what earthward and watch it burn. From what
I've read, shooting stars are no larger than a grain
of sand flaming through the atmosphere, yet look at
how bright they are as they incinerate. Imagine how
pretty a handful of all bearings chucked at the globe
would look! Or a bowling ball? I can't believe no
astronauts has tried this yet. "Well, Houston, looks
like the satellite is fixed. Guess we won't need this
wrench anymore, so . . . [heave] Whoa! Look at her
BURN!!" This idea has pay-per-view written all over
it. How do I get the ball rolling? --Tim. 

Dear Straight Dope:

I understand that the International Space Station is
in orbit around the earth, and thus in a state of
constant free fall. If the astronauts took a box of
baseballs out side the station on EVA, could they
throw them down to earth? If so, how long would they
take to get here based on a 93 MPH fast pitch? How
many additional rotations around the earth would
they make on the trip down? And finally, as I'm
standing in my backyard gazing at the night sky
would I see the baseballs burn up in the atmosphere
or are they too small to cause any "shooting stars"?
--Bert

SDSTAFF Chronos replies:

First of all, Tim, take a good, long look at Bert's
letter. Notice anything? That's right, he actually
asks questions. Makes it much easier to answer,
you know.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at orbital
dynamics. You can't actually throw anything out of
orbit; all you can do is throw it from one orbit to
another.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/morbitthrow.html


STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 08/23/1974

Dear Cecil: 

I'm afraid for my life. All these years I've been
eating the seeds of fruit, such as apples, oranges,
apricots, peaches, plums, etc. I started when I began
living with my grandfather, a dentist, about 10 years
ago. He said they were good for the teeth because of
the minerals they contained. Over the years I've
cultivated a taste for them, and was extremely delighted
when I found I could buy them in quantities of a pound
or more at health food stores. Recently, however, a 
friend told me that all fruit seeds contained cyanide,
and that he had read an item in a newspaper once about
someone who had died from eating apple seeds! I am
especially concerned about apricot kernels, my favorite.
What's a lethal dose? Can any be eaten safely? If so,
about how many? I really like them and would be loath
to give them up, but on the other hand I really don't
want to be slowly poisoning myself and my guests and
roommates. --John T., Phoenix

Dear John:

You've got good reason to be afraid, pal. Fruits of the
rose family--including cherries, apples, plums, almonds,
peaches, apricots, and crabapples--contain in their
seeds substances known as cyanogenetic glycosides,
which on ingestion release hydrogen cyanide gas through
an enzymatic reaction. They can most certainly do you
in. Since 1957, Turkey--a big apricot country--has
reported nine cases of lethal poisoning from apricot
seeds. Unfortunately, victims of such poisonings have a
habit of kicking the bucket before doctors have a chance
to ask them how many seeds they've eaten; in addition,
the amount of amygdalin--the most important cyanogenetic
glycoside--varies from species to species, and since
the poisoning does not involve a direct transfer of
cyanide from one place to another, "lethal dosages" of
these various seeds are hard to pin down.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_212.html

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