This lead to some great headlines as the Switch was launching:
> Sure, Breath of the Wild is fun; but how does it taste?
Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
141–150 of 284 posts
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whether it's reasonable to use poison as a disincentive needs to depend on how often people consume it, accidentally or purposefully. If it's extremely rare, then this is a reasonable use case, even if we don't think poisoning is a reasonable punishment for tax avoidance (because, indeed, the poison is not intended to be a punishment). Likewise, we put up physical barriers like metal posts and concrete walls to dissu…
Your situations are not comparable. It's impossible for a human to tell the difference between methanol and ethanol using our readily available senses. Once the methylated spirit is removed from its container there's nothing to warn someone the alcohol is poison that will probably intoxicate, then kill or blind them. Methylated sprits substantially increase the risk of death for no other advantage than to prevent tax…
> It's the equivalent of deciding the punishment for tax evasion is to execute one in every hundred tax evaders.
And no doubt causing permanent blindness in an even higher number of survivors.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC1771266/
> During summertime, the patient had earned his living by fire eating at different Spanish locations.
> According to the patient, a sudden episode of hiccough during fire eating caused accidental ingestion of denatured alcohol containing methanol.
> Our patient demonstrates that accidental ingestion of even small amounts of denatured alcohol containing methanol can cause irreversible blindness with intracerebral lesions.
> As a clear, colourless, volatile liquid with a weak odour, methanol is difficult to differentiate from other forms of alcohols such as ethanol.
> Methanol is rapidly absorbed not only after oral ingestion but by inhalation or after cutaneous exposure and becomes oxidised in the liver to formaldehyde and to formic acid, metabolites which are more toxic than methanol itself
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#143This sounds similar to what is now done to button cell batteries to deter kids from putting them in their mouths.
I’ve never tried tasting either but I wonder if the process is the same?
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#144Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is ta…
> there's no technical reason to use poison
Yes, there is. Methanol and ethanol are very chemically similar and small amounts of methanol in your ethanol is usually acceptable from a chemical standpoint. But denatonium benzoate is not like ethanol, and can be a contaminant that destroys the process.
To get around this, you either have to find old-fashioned methylated spirits in very high purity, pay the alcohol taxes (which are stratospheric on 200 proof...), or file a crapton of paperwork to buy ethanol tax-free because you're doing chemistry things with it, not drinking it. The latter is what big operations do, but it's a giant pain in the ass if you are not a big operation and you just need moderate volumes of high purity alcohol for your critical cleaning operations....
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#145Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is ta…
I'm sorry for my ignorance, but could someone give more context on this? I don't understand what "denatured alcohol" is, how it relates to tax avoidance, or what illegal use people are finding for it?
Many countries levy a tax on alcohol in beverages. One way around that is to put something in it that makes anyone who drinks it sick. If you have an industrial process that can use denatured alcohol, then you don't have to pay the alcohol tax.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given my friend's dog licked up a bunch of antifreeze a couple months ago, I'd say it doesn't work very well.
It's the most bitter compound know to humans, with a detectability down to 0.05 ppm, and average aversion dosing around 10ppm. Lab tests show that some animals require 100,000 times the dose before detection. This discrepancy is leveraged for another application - making rat poison repulsive to children without reducing its efficacy. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00319...
I take small pride in the idea there’s something I can taste better than my dog. All I ever hear is how their senses are orders more heightened than our own. Do you know if there are any smells that humans can detect better than dogs?
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've got a pile of Switch cartridges next to me. They're bitter all over. Trust me.
Fair enough, I just remember that I couldn't figure out the fuss until someone told me to lick the sticker.
It could be that way on some of them, or maybe even the earlier ones, but all the ones I've tested are nasty tasting on the plastic as well.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a fond memory of camping outside a Target from ~10:00p to 6:00a when the Wii was launched. We hung out with a group of strangers in camping chairs, talked about our favorite games, and tried to keep warm. When the Starbucks bakery delivery came a few hours before the store opened the driver gave us all free pastries. The Wii ended up being a very disappointing launch experience IMO but we had a fun time waitin…
The early 2000s were like the peak of tech. Video games are kinda just OK now. The actual experience was always like 70% set and setting. The game companies put a lot of effort into the games themselves but where are the LAN parties and release events? Where is.... any other aspect of gaming except the games? Esports youtubers don't really replace split screen multiplayer.
Videogames are just getting started. The Breath and depth of games is growing, and like with novels and moving pictures not all games are great.
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#149This is the same chemical (denatonium benzoate) that's used in fingernail-biting-prevention aids like nail polishes; it's very bitter, but non-toxic.
My daughter was sucking her thumb even on the first ultrasound. When she was a baby, thumb sucking was cute and she never needed a pacifier. However as she got to be a toddler it became a problem in terms of hygiene (her thumb was often not clean). Plus her thumb was pushing her front teeth out of line, which was affecting her speech.
We pleaded with her to stop.
We bribed her.
We got special pretty thumb covers for her to wear at night. She always pulled them off.
Finally we got the special nail polish containing the bad taste agent and put it on her thumbnails. One application was enough. The first try tasted so bad it put her off thumb sucking for life. It's been years now and she is cured. Thanks, denatonium benzoate!
Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get the Sony:Apple comparison at all. If anything, Sony is Japan's Microsoft: Do a gazillion things, many of them poorly, to such a unfocused extent that some of your divisions actually end up competition with each other. Like in Sony's case, how they've had internal battles for decades between the device side (that wants to make devices that are useful) and the content side (that wants DRM out the ass on eve…
Sony is older than Apple and was one of Steve Jobs' main inspirations. He even wanted to make everyone wear uniforms (which Sony and Nintendo still did then) - that's where his same outfit every day habit came from. They weren't focused back then, but neither was Apple.
Sony is older than Apple...
Unrelated to your point, but Nintendo is older than Sony and Apple combined.
Apple 45 years
Sony 75 years
Nintendo 132 years