# Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=154 [Latest](https://boards.straightdope.com/latest.md) · [Categories](https://boards.straightdope.com/categories.md) · [Tags](https://boards.straightdope.com/tags.md) **Page:** 155 --- ## [Beyond Peak Oil](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-peak-oil/345882)
**Author:** [@Snag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snag)\ **Replies:** 60\ **Last updated:** [March 29, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-peak-oil/345882 "2006-03-29T01:41:33Z")
Reading the column on peak oil, it occurs to me that homo-something-or-other has been in existence for 2 million years, give or take. Assume that we don’t nuke humankind into extinction or create some other such human ma… --- ## [Great Britain](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain/349902)
**Author:** [@deepspacecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deepspacecat)\ **Replies:** 8\ **Last updated:** [March 28, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain/349902 "2006-03-28T20:59:39Z")
Hi Great Britain is the larger of the the two islands that make up the British Isles. Great Britain is the bit that contains England, Scotland and Wales. Lesser Britain is the smaller island that contains the Republic… --- ## [Are people living near graveyards at increased risk of exposure to biohazards?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-living-near-graveyards-at-increased-risk-of-exposure-to-biohazards/349748)
**Author:** [@lowkey\_but\_high\_locks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowkey_but_high_locks)\ **Replies:** 7\ **Last updated:** [March 28, 2006, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-living-near-graveyards-at-increased-risk-of-exposure-to-biohazards/349748 "2006-03-28T12:29:39Z")
I knew it I knew it. In a town I used to live in, and as result used it’s water supply, the water works is right by the cemetery, like within 50 yards. Excuse me I need to go throw up now. Maybe make documentary about i… --- ## [What's the deal with Dungeons and Dragons?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-dungeons-and-dragons/350140)
**Author:** [@dovy6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dovy6)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [March 27, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-dungeons-and-dragons/350140 "2006-03-27T21:51:20Z")
What’s the deal with Dungeons and Dragons? whats the deal with this? on the top of the page it says and than on the bottom of the page it says i didnt know they had a pentiom back than! --- ## [Illegal to deface currency?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-deface-currency/348872)
**Author:** [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Replies:** 11\ **Last updated:** [March 27, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-deface-currency/348872 "2006-03-27T18:03:12Z")
In this column, Cecil lays to rest the myth that it’s illegal to deface coins, as long as one is not doing so ‘fraudulently’: My question: is it illegal to deface paper money similarly – say, by writing ‘Happy Birthday… --- ## [No Purchase Required](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-purchase-required/349310)
**Author:** [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Replies:** 7\ **Last updated:** [March 25, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-purchase-required/349310 "2006-03-25T15:31:28Z")
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpurchasetoenter.html. Great report Rico. --- ## [HFSC is Bad contray to what you posted](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hfsc-is-bad-contray-to-what-you-posted/348960)
**Author:** [@magnusfl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusfl)\ **Replies:** 11\ **Last updated:** [March 24, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hfsc-is-bad-contray-to-what-you-posted/348960 "2006-03-24T21:49:37Z")
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040910.html the truch is coming out even thought the corn industy and some goverment agencys who are cueless and listen to the corn industry keeps trying to say it perfectly safe an… --- ## [fighting ignorance?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance/348177)
**Author:** [@screwball321](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screwball321)\ **Replies:** 50\ **Last updated:** [March 24, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance/348177 "2006-03-24T18:46:45Z")
i have read a couple of your articles and they are pretty dumb,i recently read the one about uri geller. lets look at this from my point of view: you discredit a person on something that they do when it is not proven to … --- ## [Ice Harvesting](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-harvesting/348739)
**Author:** [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Replies:** 12\ **Last updated:** [March 22, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-harvesting/348739 "2006-03-22T21:31:41Z")
I think there’s a typo (since it couldn’t be an error) in Cecil’s article about ice harvesting/sale. Describing ice houses: The problem is that latent heat is the heat/energy required to convert 0 ºC ice to 0 ºC water… --- ## [ufo](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo/348598)
**Author:** [@icst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icst)\ **Replies:** 13\ **Last updated:** [March 21, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo/348598 "2006-03-21T20:57:47Z")
Look, I know you think it is all bs. However, I personally with witness have encountered a ufo(s) 3 times in my life. The first was in 1984 in upstate NY. I was at sleep-away camp. Me and a friend left a dance at the… --- ## [Nuclear and solar are not petroleum substitutes](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-and-solar-are-not-petroleum-substitutes/346170)
**Author:** [@kjkolb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjkolb)\ **Replies:** 11\ **Last updated:** [March 17, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-and-solar-are-not-petroleum-substitutes/346170 "2006-03-17T13:10:47Z")
This is not necessarily a mistake. Cecil may have assumed that electric vehicles or vehicles using hydrogen, or some other energy storage medium, would be used in the future. In the article about oil production, nuclear… --- ## [Detox folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detox-folly/348605)
**Author:** [@johnnyboy\_808](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnnyboy_808)\ **Replies:** 3\ **Last updated:** [March 17, 2006, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detox-folly/348605 "2006-03-17T09:28:44Z")
Not only is this fasting silliness based on zero science and basically pointless, it might just possibly be harmful. There are numerous organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides present at some level in the environme… --- ## [Chicken and the egg.....](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-and-the-egg/346903)
**Author:** [@kbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbrown)\ **Replies:** 29\ **Last updated:** [March 16, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-and-the-egg/346903 "2006-03-16T15:30:41Z")
In the report titled “Do hens produce more poop than they do eggs?” on March 3, 2006, it is reported that a small profit can be made from raising egg producing hens. For the initial question, which concerned only one chi… --- ## [outhouse ? from 1987](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outhouse-from-1987/348530)
**Author:** [@pneight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pneight)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [March 16, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outhouse-from-1987/348530 "2006-03-16T01:56:04Z")
Hey there, The question was, why are there moons on outhouse doors, and you responded on gender terms, which makes sense. In my experience, outhouses with the sun on the door, were simply shacks with a hole in the groun… --- ## [Hearing radio through the teeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-radio-through-the-teeth/348165)
**Author:** [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Replies:** 7\ **Last updated:** [March 15, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-radio-through-the-teeth/348165 "2006-03-15T21:50:35Z")
In reference to this post . When I was a teen, complete with braces on my teeth, the hot rock radio station in Houston was KILT, 610 AM. I lived less than a mile from the studio and it was a great place to go hang out.… --- ## [Black Irish-Alabama](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-irish-alabama/346986)
**Author:** [@earthdreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/earthdreamer)\ **Replies:** 4\ **Last updated:** [March 15, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-irish-alabama/346986 "2006-03-15T18:58:20Z")
Many mixed blood (cherokee/Irish) here in the southeastern U.S. refer to ourselfs as “black Irish” or “black Dutch”. Out of fear of being sent west (trail of tears) our ancestors who had intermarried denied their rightf… --- ## [If body temperature is 98.6 F, why do we feel uncomfortable when it's 90?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-body-temperature-is-98-6-f-why-do-we-feel-uncomfortable-when-its-90/347708)
**Author:** [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Replies:** 10\ **Last updated:** [March 15, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-body-temperature-is-98-6-f-why-do-we-feel-uncomfortable-when-its-90/347708 "2006-03-15T18:44:02Z")
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_059.html “But even if you’re starkers there’s no way you’ll be happy when it’s 98 in the shade.” Actually 98 in the shade sounds pretty darn comfortable to me. Sitting on a loun… --- ## [how great thou art](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-great-thou-art/347579)
**Author:** [@tracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracker)\ **Replies:** 5\ **Last updated:** [March 15, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-great-thou-art/347579 "2006-03-15T16:44:50Z")
How do you concede to have the straight dope on any question? That in itself is a tell all that you you know nothing of things you cant explain. Castaneda worked on one thing \[communicating experience to different realit… --- ## [Ayurvedic Medecine](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ayurvedic-medecine/347819)
**Author:** [@CastleAnthrax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastleAnthrax)\ **Replies:** 13\ **Last updated:** [March 13, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ayurvedic-medecine/347819 "2006-03-13T17:22:01Z")
Link to Cecil on Detox by various methods The rest of this is okay, but the part about Ayurveda was clearly written with no research done. It’s not something Deepak Chopra pulled out of his sock drawer one morning. Th… --- ## [Nutrasweetened Soft Drinks produce more foam...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutrasweetened-soft-drinks-produce-more-foam/348110)
**Author:** [@supercalafrajalistic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supercalafrajalistic)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [March 13, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutrasweetened-soft-drinks-produce-more-foam/348110 "2006-03-13T07:06:34Z")
Cecil, had you considered that Nutrasweetened beverages may have produced more foam than the regular variety due to the chemical nature of Nutrasweet being amino acidic? --- ## [Earwax solutions, no roaches.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earwax-solutions-no-roaches/347629)
**Author:** [@blimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blimey)\ **Replies:** 7\ **Last updated:** [March 13, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earwax-solutions-no-roaches/347629 "2006-03-13T03:17:19Z")
Cecil, just noticed an old column on earwax and roaches. Having my own problems of this sort, I thought I’d pass on a better method than any you listed: ear candles. These are hollow candles made (I guess) by wrapping… --- ## [Plane on a Treadmill, redux](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plane-on-a-treadmill-redux/346908)
**Author:** [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Replies:** 155\ **Last updated:** [March 12, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plane-on-a-treadmill-redux/346908 "2006-03-12T23:38:15Z")
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060303.html Why on earth hasn’t Cecil forced Little Ed or some other lackey into roller skates and onto a moving treadmill with a fire extinguisher? Or go to O’hare and get on a movi… --- ## [One hand clapping](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-clapping/348056)
**Author:** [@pika49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pika49)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [March 12, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hand-clapping/348056 "2006-03-12T19:52:13Z")
Most practitioners of the three majors schools of Zen Buddhism know that there is no emphasis on the “correct” answer to a koan. As a matter of fact, the Soto sect puts little stock in koan studies at all. Nonetheless, … --- ## [Is "mulatto" offensive?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mulatto-offensive/346857)
**Author:** [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Replies:** 12\ **Last updated:** [March 12, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mulatto-offensive/346857 "2006-03-12T07:06:42Z")
I was scolded for using the term a few years back, told by someone that it meant “donkey’s ass,” which I knew right then was clearly wrong (but, unaware of the real etymology, I kept silent). Now I refrain from using th… --- ## [Simple Method for Detox Challenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-method-for-detox-challenge/347875)
**Author:** [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Replies:** 2\ **Last updated:** [March 11, 2006, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-method-for-detox-challenge/347875 "2006-03-11T02:12:32Z")
(Cecil’s column on the validity of detoxing) I take Dilantin to control my grand mal seizures (which it does quite effectively), but my dad, a great follower of Dr. Richard Schultze and some other “master herbalist”, ha… --- ## [Dr. Death?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-death/347722)
**Author:** [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Replies:** 2\ **Last updated:** [March 10, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-death/347722 "2006-03-10T17:07:57Z")
From this column: …\[A\]ccording to a spokesman for the Texas Department of Corrections, which has carried out many executions by lethal injection, the technician (it’s never a doctor) is in fact supposed to swab the pri… --- ## [Swabbing the arm of prisoners about to be executed](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swabbing-the-arm-of-prisoners-about-to-be-executed/347540)
**Author:** [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Replies:** 11\ **Last updated:** [March 9, 2006, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swabbing-the-arm-of-prisoners-about-to-be-executed/347540 "2006-03-09T07:56:46Z")
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_056.html The final sentences of this column were a low blow - offensive and uncalled-for, IMHO. The Nazis killed people by the millions because of their religion, ethnicity, or p… --- ## [Route 66](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/route-66/345925)
**Author:** [@jvander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jvander)\ **Replies:** 20\ **Last updated:** [March 8, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/route-66/345925 "2006-03-08T02:14:58Z")
You missed Albuquerque NM in your list of cities that the old Route 66 passed through. The only place where Rt 66 crosses itself. For political reasons, the original path of Rt 66 took it to Sante Fe, the South through… --- ## [NASCAR. Extravagant Fuel and Oil wasting?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nascar-extravagant-fuel-and-oil-wasting/345965)
**Author:** [@richird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richird)\ **Replies:** 48\ **Last updated:** [March 7, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nascar-extravagant-fuel-and-oil-wasting/345965 "2006-03-07T03:16:38Z")
I remember the “Oil Shortage” of the early 70’s. I was 13 at the time and wondered why we still had “Car Races” (Demolition Derby, Dragstrips, Indy 500, etc.) if there was a shortage of oil. Now, 32 years later, again, … --- ## [Etymology of "bar" - a place that serves drinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-bar-a-place-that-serves-drinks/346843)
**Author:** [@Dwight\_Barlow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dwight_Barlow)\ **Replies:** 7\ **Last updated:** [March 6, 2006, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-bar-a-place-that-serves-drinks/346843 "2006-03-06T16:02:57Z")
The Oxford English DIctinary, 2nd Edition, the definitive resource for English etymologies and definitions, states: “28. a. A barrier or counter, over which drink (or food) is served out to customers, in an inn, hotel, … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=153) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=155)