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Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

polygon.com

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Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#221

Post by yeetaccount4 »

exmadscientist wrote: post #204
martyvis wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except 100% ethanol would be considered a poison too. 100ml (4 ounces) could likely kill a 5 year old child. https://www.alcohol.org.nz/alcohol-its-effects/health-effect...

Absolute alcohol (200 proof ethanol) has a number of ways to kill you. It's slightly poisonous on its own. It's a massively powerful dessicator, so it can turn tissue into leather. And, if you've got industrial quantities of the stuff, it's probably not quite pure: turns out you can't just distill it past 190 proof due to water and ethanol forming an azeotrope. To push past that limit requires azeotropic distillation…

I read a WWII book about wartime pilots doing crazy shit. At one point the wings freeze over and the alcohol spritzers for de-icing are all plugged up, so somehow it vents into the cabin and gets the pilots drunk from the fumes. I think they ended up landing on a glacier in the fog, thinking they were about to hit water.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#222

Post by selectodude »

nfriedly wrote: post #210
vimacs2 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is giving 5 year olds 100% pure ethanol or ethanol at all for that matter?

Nobody gives it to them. 5-year-olds have sufficient intelligence and dexterity to get into all kinds of things, but don't necessarily know not to eat/drink/play with it, etc.

I'm somewhat of a lush and the idea of drinking two shots of 190 proof ethanol sounds like an excellent way to purge my stomach. I'd be impressed by any baby who could keep that down even if they got past the rank stench. Any baby that extreme would almost certainly survive.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#223

Post by naniwaduni »

xyzzyz wrote: post #160
andai wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More toxic than what? I assumed you meant than methanol (which is added to ethanol-based cleaning products in the Netherlands), but then I read this on the Wikipedia page for isopropyl alcohol: >Isopropyl alcohol, via its metabolites, is somewhat more toxic than ethanol, but considerably less toxic than ethylene glycol or methanol. (Can't link link to the page due to mysterious iOS bug...)

Than ethanol (or denaturated ethanol).

"Even more toxic" is not usually the preferred phrasing for comparing with ethanol; it implies you're comparing with something that's already quite toxic, and ethanol, while indeed toxic, is not normally considered quite toxic enough that we don't need to go out of our way to stop people from drinking it.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#224

Post by [deleted] »

lilyball wrote: post #135

I cannot taste "bitter" (it's a genetic thing), though bittering agents used in food/drinks do taste very unpleasant to me (I don't know what it is I'm tasting in those or why it's so unpleasant). I have not tried licking a Switch cartridge. Does anyone know if Denatonium Benzoate will still taste bad to me, or is the badness entirely contained in the "bitter" that I cannot taste? I could experiment myself but I've r…

[deleted]

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#225

Post by totetsu »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #126
chrisshroba wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Alcohol is extremely useful for many things but some people will drink it if they find it. So they add denatonium to it to discourage that. Alcohols that are meant for people to drink are taxed more heavily, so adding denatonium puts it into a completely different category of product thereby avoiding all those taxes. Just like the way Sony avoided taxes by adding Linux support to the PS2 and PS3 which caused it to be…

Did sony pay that tax when they removed linux support?

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#226

Post by [deleted] »

badlucklottery wrote: post #27
MBCook wrote: post #3

I know this isn’t new but I still love that Nintendo did this. It’s such a Nintendo thing. They’re a toy company and think like one. Did Sony do this with the Vita cartridges? I don’t remember hearing so (and never thought to taste them?). Heh.

>Did Sony do this with the Vita cartridges? Well, wonder no longer. I just licked a PS Vita copy of World of Final Fantasy and it only tastes faintly of plastic.

[deleted]

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#227

Post by selectodude »

spiderice wrote: post #168
toast0 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's easy, UUIDs are unique, so it's easy to tell them apart, although it's hard to group them. Much better than deciding what the heck 'new iPad' means or if you want a new old 3ds or a used new 3ds, or if updating iOS means your phone or your router.

Just because Apple has had some bad names doesn't make Sony's names better. Don't compare Sony's naming conventions with iPad, compare them with iPhone, which is significantly easier. Q: Which iPhone do you have A: iPhone 12 Pro Max (I choose this one because it's one of the longer iPhone names) vs Q: Which Sony headphones do you have A: MX 4 or something like that. Let me check my Amazon order history. Oh yeah, here…

My favorite new naming scheme they've decided on is the new Xperia phones. Apparently they're now on the Xperia 1 III.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#228

Post by d110af5ccf »

exmadscientist wrote: post #204
martyvis wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except 100% ethanol would be considered a poison too. 100ml (4 ounces) could likely kill a 5 year old child. https://www.alcohol.org.nz/alcohol-its-effects/health-effect...

Absolute alcohol (200 proof ethanol) has a number of ways to kill you. It's slightly poisonous on its own. It's a massively powerful dessicator, so it can turn tissue into leather. And, if you've got industrial quantities of the stuff, it's probably not quite pure: turns out you can't just distill it past 190 proof due to water and ethanol forming an azeotrope. To push past that limit requires azeotropic distillation…

You left out pressure-swing distillation which doesn't require any "fun" substances to break the azeotrope. I'm not sure if it's used commercially for ethanol though? I believe it's more expensive.

Also the really high purity stuff (for HPLC and the like) has the "fun" chemicals removed from it and a chemical analysis printed on the side of the jug. Benzene content can be well below safe drinking water standards depending on the product. Pretty sure you'd be paying more at that point than just buying taxed vodka though.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#229

Post by jugg1es »

This is an incredibly timely repost. Last weekend, my 8 month-old third kid was on the floor next to me while I was talking to my other kid when she started screaming. She had found a Mario Party switch cartridge under the couch and had it in her hand. I thought she had bit it too hard on her toothless gums because it had some saliva on it. She was more upset than I would have expected, and this has to be why. Thanks for reposting!

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#230

Post by exmadscientist »

Shared404 wrote: post #217
exmadscientist wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No disagreement from me. I'm just saying there is a technical reason to use methanol denaturants sometimes.

> exmadscientist Username checks out, any fun stories to share? I find most people who've worked in lab's have at least one.

Not as many as I'd like. Or maybe I just need to become a better storyteller.
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