News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:If I fits I sits: illusory contour susceptibility in dome... by perl4ever on Saturday May 08, 2021 @11:23PM (#27092956)
You know, this is something people mention a lot on the internet since forever, and it reminds me of the assumption that mouthwash which is 20-25% alcohol must be for the purpose of killing germs.

However, I recently read something that claimed to debunk this, saying that even 50 proof is not effective at all at sterilizing things and it is merely a solvent for the active ingredients.

The reason I stumbled on it was because I'd been worrying about whether the alcohol free variants are effective, vs. alcohol potentially being a carcinogen.

So I think it's less obvious what effect 1% alcohol has than at first glance.

Re:If I fits I sits: illusory contour susceptibility in dome... by datameta on Saturday May 08, 2021 @11:54PM (#27093088)
I did consider not posting that factoid. I had been a while since I double checked it. You're right, now that I think about it more. I'm inclined to no longer believe that statement to be true but I wonder if a single digit percentage of alcohol could be enough to stave off more advanced stages of exponential growth of bacteria for a meaningful amount of time like, say, a day.

Nevertheless: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer

Re:If I fits I sits: illusory contour susceptibility in dome... by dylan604 on Saturday May 08, 2021 @11:34PM (#27093002)
I always thought they were watering the beer down so you could drink it in place of water so you wouldn't be inebriated after breakfast.