May 17, 2005

• Have you visited about.com? Try a search, they might surprise you.
• Just FYI: New York Times Buys About.com. So caveat emptor.
• Well, you could try the Straight Dope, which caters to questions of the sort. Honestly, I haven't paid much attention to it in recent years, but there was a pretty active community in the Usenet days, and I suspect it's still there. As another way to look at the frozen salt water situation, the freezing point of salt water is well below the freezing point of pure water, so it will take more of the water's heat to melt the ice. If you're presuming the same amount of salt-ice and salt water as you had ice and salt water, well....probably, but I don't know that it would be a noticable amount. After all, the idea is that you're getting the benefit of below water-freezing temperature with a substance as molecularly active as water. So, if the salt-ice cube salt water temperature is significantly lower than the normal situation, then yes, it likely would. However, since the salt in the salt-ice cubes are locked up pretty tight in a non-moving configuration, I think it would take a while to melt distribute in a useful way. Your drink probably wouldn't cool to the target, drinkable temperature in enough time. That being said, I suspect if you used crushed salt-ice, you could shave off some time for the cooling process. The best way to find out is to give it a try, though. A fun weekend project, that's what I say.
• Wondir looks like a site where you can post questions and hope that joe public answers, and that he does so without too much sarcasm. Likewise you can answer questions that are already posted. I don't think that's really what you're looking for though, is it? I found that site by asking Jeeves. I know that's cheating but I don't care
• How Stuff Works is great for explaining, um, how stuff works.
• how about using dry ice? your local grocery store, like Ralphs or Vons, sells it for almost nothing. great for halloween effects too. i know this is not answering your primary question, but this is what popped in my head.
• Warning: Do not taste dry ice. It will stick to your tongue and cause alot of pain getting it off. I kid you not.
• Hehe, no, do not use dry ice.
• 7Just FYI: New York Times Buys About.com. does this mean poseurs will be logging onto about.com in Starbuck's, even if their own city has a superior local search engine?
• The Straight Dope Message Boards will be faster. Pretty active.
• Corrected link.
• How about trying the New Scientist magazine section about stange and silly questions (with answers)known as the LastWord ?
• Corrected Link (must be something that I caught from Gyan!!)
• If your questions is with respect to urban legends (and the veracity of same), you can't get much better than snopes.com.
• Yes, that's a good warning, but now someone needs to tell me what dry ice tastes like. I really must know. It's eating me up not to know. Tell me someone. You there! With the blue tongue, can you tell me what dry ice tastes like?
• dry ice IN the ice bucket for the bottle of champagne, NOT in the drink itself. however, if someone with a blue tongue can enlighten BlueHorse (and me), please...
• There's also Notes&Queries, and, of course, AskMeFi.
• It feels like burnination on bare hands. And it's -78.5 degrees Centigrade, so if you left liquid in there long enough it would freeze. (Water expands as it freezes... any chance of 'sploding beer bottles and I chicken out.)
• If you make Halloween punch and put dry ice in, it makes spooky fog. /my knowledge of dry ice behavior
• AskWhoFi?
• Sort of seconding Sandspider: try crushing the ice? Or maybe adding some water to the bucket (an ice-water bath instead of just ice)?