Dr. Bill Blog Archives

1998–2001

• (07/01/01) Canadian Bacon. A caller last night wanted to know why the ham you get on a pizza or eggs Benedict is called “Canadian Bacon”, when the Canadians don’t call it that (their term is “back bacon”. I found the answer, and you can blame the Brits for this name. The dictionary says it originated around 1935 and is simply sliced pork loin that has been cured and smoked. WholeHealthMD has great descriptions of various cured pork cuts that provides more detail.
• (12/31/00) Apple juice vs. cider. You may be interested to note that Martinellis makes four varieties (not counting the sparkling variants): apple juice, unfiltered apple juice, apple cider, and organic apple juice—and I can verify that at least the juice and cider taste distinctly different. Various opinions on the subject can be found from the Processed Apples Institute and the Star Orchard. I also found a wealth of information at the Wittenham Hill Cider Portal, a site created by an amateur UK cider maker.
• (7/10/99) A former LLNL researcher faked data related to his research of EMF effects on cells. Articles from the Tennessean, SF Chronicle.
• It took Claire’s Broccoli Salad for Bill to enjoy broccoli.
• (8/8/99) One of the first callers referred Bill to an article about the Quincy Library Group Plan in the July 1999 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine.
• (8/8/99) Someone asked Bill why the CCRADIO excels at receiving AM radio signals. This is no ordinary radio. Its speaker is tuned to accurately reproduce the frequencies of the human voice; its audio circuits also filter the signal to favor the frequencies in the human voice; its case was designed to shunt extraneous signals to ground; and according to the C. Crane Company, the radio also uses a digital tuner instead of an analog one, enabling a stronger lock on stations.
• (8/8/99) A caller asked how the memory chips in digital answering machines work. Some are made by Information Storage Devices, and are specially designed for audio storage. According to the company, its ChipCorder line “utilize ISD’s proprietary multilevel storage” methodology in which one of more than 250 distinct voltage levels is precisely stored per memory cell…enabling voice and audio signals to be stored directly, in analog or digital form, into EEPROM and FLASH memory cells, providing up to eight times more storage space for any given memory. Similar chips are made by Invox. Invox’s chips store analog audio directly, without digitizing it.
• (7/29/99) A caller recently asked about bees being used for land mine detection. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is experimenting with gluing RF tags to bees, tracking the direction of flight from the hive, and then testing them upon return for traces of TNT. (A short item is in the August 1999 issue of Popular Science, p. 26. One of the researchers is from the University of Montana, where he is conducting other bee research with instrumented hives, among other research.
• (7/18/99) A young caller recently asked Bill about “flicker lights” and how they worked. Bill’s answer described how blinking lights work, but flicker lights are something entirely different.
• (7/4/99) A young caller called in with an answer to his question about soap bubbles from last week. Good explanations could once be found at the Super Computer Research Institute at Florida State University (the site the caller found, now gone, but Lary Dennis
  was the author), along with a Microscopic Soap Bubble Gallery, J. May Home Inspections (bubbles related to boiling water), and at the Exploratorium (including soap bubble formulae and lots of bubble links). Also visit this bubbles resource
• (5/30/99) A caller recommended a science web site: www.explorescience.com.
• (3/16/98) A few callers have recently asked about the Lawrence Livermore report on leaking underground fuel tanks: Recommendations To Improve the Cleanup Procedures for California’s Leaking Underground Fuel Tanks. This report brought to light a billion-dollar fraud that is still being perpetrated, and will force many independent gas stations to close their doors this year, resulting in even less competition and higher gasoline prices.
• (2/28/99) A caller wanted to know how to get an AM radio signal into a steel building. C. Crane sells an FM radio transmitter that can be used for this purpose (FM signals aren’t blocked as easily by steel buildings).
• (2/28/99) A caller recently asked about a glass-enclosed device with black and silver vanes. It is called a radiometer, and the C. Crane company sells a fancy one for $49.95.
• (10/31/98) Educational geographic web site mentioned by one of the callers: www.internetcameras.com.
• (10/31/98) Need to remove a broken light bulb from a socket? Use the Socket Surgeon (possibly available from Silvo Home: 1-800-331-1261) to do it safely, without risk of electrocution or cutting yourself on broken glass. This non-conductive plastic tool comes in three sizes to fit all common household bulbs. The set of three sells for about $10, which is cheap for something that can save your life.
• (5/7/98) What emergency alerts on the radio and television are: The Emergency Alert System. This system is responsible for those high-pitched tones you occasionally hear when stations are testing the system.
• (timeless) Quotes from actual performance appraisals that Bill read during the show.
• (1/10/98) A caller was interested in a voice-operated TV for a bedridden friend. Wattenburg mentioned that such devices existed, and I too recall seeing a voice remote control advertised, but upon searching for it on the Web, I’ve found that the product was called VCR Voice, from Voice Powered Technology, and does not appear on their current list of products. Unfortunately, the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and hasn’t been manufactured since 1993. The company is unaware of any other similar product. You can reach them at 1-800-255-2310.
• (1/10/98) A caller wanted to know why a car’s starter motor and alternator couldn’t be combined. The answer is they can, and Continental AG is working on a flywheel system that would perform both of these functions and also as a power-storage device for acceleration. Two big advantages are a 20-pound weight savings, a 30% fuel savings if used as part of an automatic start/stop system, and far less noise when starting the engine. There is a short blurb in the February 1998 issue of Popular Mechanics (p. 24).
• (4/12/98) Coal-fired power plants are radioactive! According to a report by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they spew 2,000 tons of radioactive uranium and thorium into the atmosphere each year.
• (timeless) Coal fires in China are putting out 3% of all worldwide emissions of CO₂ (the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences).
• (timeless) The Story of Andy the Cowboy. This is a 15-minute recording from Bill’s show with a pair of calls from a Nevada rancher who had fallen for a woman that lived in LA and happened to come across him while roaming the countryside mulling over a failed romance. One of the best love stories I’ve heard.

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