How to Chew Betel Nut in Papua New Guinea

If you ever go to Papua New Guinea, the first thing you will notice is the brilliant red-stained teeth and lips of the local men and women. Betel nut, or what the locals call buai [boo-eye] is the cause. Green betel nut is a nut that grows in the tropical climates of South East Asia and is popular in the South Pacific Islands. It can be found on every street corner in Papua New Guinea and is chewed as part of social occasions or as a part of everyday life. Betel nut has a mild stimulant effect and in addition to reasons of tradition local people chew it for stress reduction, heightened awareness, and suppression of hunger.

Many foreign visitors try betel nut as a way to experience a part of the local Papua New Guinea culture. In addition, if a visitor arrives at a local person’s house for dinner, the visitor will most likely be given betel nut as a welcome offering. If you would like to learn how to chew betel nut, follow these steps.
[edit] Steps

1.
Gather the ingredients needed to chew betel nut. You will need the green betel nut (buai), a jar or bag of lime powder (kambang) and a bean-like green called mustard (daka). These can be bought on any street corner for about one Kina (30 cents).
2.
Break the betel nut open by cracking the shell with your teeth. Take the meaty center out of the shell and start chewing it. Do not swallow the fibrous residue of the nut as it is said to cause stomach aches.
3.
Chew the betel nut for 2-5 minutes or until it forms a wad in your mouth.
4.
Slightly moisten the mustard seed with your mouth and dip it into the jar/bag of lime powder.
5.
Move the betel nut wad to the side of your mouth and then bite off the piece of mustard seed that has the lime powder on it. Make sure to not put the lime directly on your mouth or gums as they will feel a burning sensation. Instead try to bite the mustard seed directly into the betel nut wad. As you chew the mixture together, they will form a chemical reaction that will make your teeth and lips red and provide a mild high.
6. Know that as you chew, spit out the fibrous residue of the nut as needed. Most people just spit on the street so there is often red splattering of betel nut all along the street and sidewalks.
7. Keep chewing until there is no more betel nut left. You may have a mild euphoric feeling because of betel nuts’ mild stimulant effects.


Warnings

* The Betel Nut is a proven carcinogen. While relatively uncommon in other countries, oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is the most common malignant cancer in Papua New Guinea, with an average 47% mortality within 5 years of diagnosis. One study shows chewing Betel Nut increases the risk of oral cancer 28-fold.
* Do not chew Betel Nut if you are a minor. Betel Nut is a drug and can become very addictive.
* Betel nut will make your teeth and lips very red, sometimes permanently if chewed a lot. When chewed over long periods of time it can also lead to gum and teeth disease.
* Betel nut is often compared to tobacco. It can be very addictive and habit forming. In many places in PNG you will find “no betel nut” signs that are similar to “no smoking signs.”

Childproof Your Home Theater System [Household]

Keep your toddler from stuffing a peanut butter sandwich into your DVD player with a few kid-proofing home theater system tips from Wired's How-To Wiki. They recommend using an enclosed cabinet for your gear, stowing power cords as out of reach as possible, and actually using the safety strap to anchor that big TV to the table top.

If your TV or piece of furniture did not include one of these, go out and buy one. Most hardware stores carry them and they are inexpensive insurance. If a five dollar piece of nylon, two screws and five minutes of your time can prevent junior from pulling over your two thousand dollar flat screen, shattering it into a gazillion pieces and quite possibly injuring himself in the process, wouldn't you go for it?

Yes, I think you would. How do you keep the expensive home theater system as childproof as possible?

Remove Permanent Marker from Any Surface [How To]

Toothpaste with baking soda can do wonders when a permanent marker runs amok in your home, according to the Public Reality Blog. Your mileage will likely vary depending on the color and type of surface you're removing the marker from, but a quick dance with lady Google shows that the same method has worked for others as well. If baking soda toothpaste works even half as well as our favorite method for removing permanent marker from a dry erase board, we'll be impressed.
How to remove permanent marker from anything...

How Do They Do It: Cameron Balloons

Specialty hot air balloons that are not of the classic teardrop shape. From Discovery Science.

How to Tell if an Egg is Bad

Food poisoning is one of the worst experiences a person can go through, and it can even be lethal. Eggs can be the source of some superb meals, but they can also be the source of food poisoning if they are eaten when they've gone bad. How do you tell when an egg is fresh or if it has gone off, without cracking it open to find out?

Steps

1. Place the egg into a bowl of water. The water level should be deeper than the egg is long.
2. Observe what the egg does.

* Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom of the bowl and lie on their sides.
* Slightly older eggs (about one week) will lie on the bottom but bob slightly.
* If the egg balances on its small end, with the large end reaching for the sky, it's probably around three weeks old.
* Eggs that float at the surface are bad and should not be consumed.

3. Crack the egg open and look carefully.

*
Blood spots (also referred to as "meat" spots) don't signify a bad or fertilized egg. It's caused by a ruptured blood vessel during the formation of the egg. Since blood spots are diluted as the egg ages, their presence actually means you have a fresh egg. You can eat it safely, or remove the blood spot with the tip of a knife, if it makes you feel better.[1]
*
Stringy, rope-like strands of egg white are chalazae which are present in every egg to keep the yolk centered. They're not a sign that the egg is bad or fertilized, and they can be consumed safely or removed.[1]
* An egg white that is cloudy or has a yellow or greenish cast to it is caused by carbon dioxide not having had enough time to escape from the shell and is especially common in fresh eggs.[1]
4. Smell the egg. With time, bacteria break down the proteins in the whites of the egg and create a gas. This gas is hydrogen sulphide, better known as "rotten egg gas."


Tips

* The floating test works because the air pocket inside the egg gets bigger with time as the egg contents lose both moisture and carbon dioxide. As the air pocket gets bigger, the egg is more likely to float.
* When a recipe calls for a lot of yolks or whites, separate the eggs in a different bowl then dump the contents with the rest of the egg yolks (or whites). There's nothing more wasteful than cracking open egg number 14 in a 15 yolk recipe and finding out that it is a bad egg. You could also test all the eggs for freshness using the floating technique.
* If you're worried about the egg being fertilized, keep in mind that most eggs come from large-scale operations where laying hens are never exposed to a rooster. If the eggs come from a smaller farm where roosters are present, there is a chance they might be fertilized, but the only way to tell is by candling (holding a light up to the egg in a dark room and looking for blood vessels, movement, and chick development). That being said, fertilized eggs are no more or less nutritious than unfertilized eggs and both are safe to eat.

How to Close a Bag without Using A Bag Clip

Survive an Avalanche

Survive an Avalanche
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Your odds of outrunning the snow? Not so good. An avalanche can accelerate to 80 mph in seconds. But if you follow these tips, you might just walk away from it.


1. Grab a tree. The more snow that slides past you, the less likely you'll be buried alive. Hang on for dear life until the force knocks you off.

2. Paddle hard. You are three times denser than dry snow, so if you're not swimming, you'll sink.

3. Create space. Once the snow stops, it'll set like concrete. As it slows, inhale to reserve room for the expansion of your chest, and cup a hand around your mouth to leave an air pocket.

4. Raise a hand. Before the flow ceases, get a limb to the surface to help rescuers find you. Between 15 minutes and 45 minutes under the snow, your odds of survival fall from 90 percent to 30.

5. Breathe slowly. To delay carbon dioxide poisoning, stay calm and don't bother yelling until rescuers are on top of you. Your fate is now in their hands.