5 ms·

I got this or something like it to try and discourage pets from chewing on power cables around the house It didn't work, or you might say it worked too well.

I got this or something like it to try and discourage pets from chewing on power cables around the house It didn't work, or you might say it worked too well. It managed to spread to pretty much every surface in the house. Cable touches floor, floor touches toy, toy touches hand, hand touches food, food is incredibly bitter I'd expect to lose an order of magnitude of bitterness at each jump, but somehow it took over and lingered for about a year

Waterluvian 4y ago
I wonder if something can be so bitter that even if it loses orders of magnitude on its journey, it still maxes out your taste buds dynamic range.
- WXLCKNO 4y ago
  Never though about my taste buds in terms of dynamic range but I will never think of them any other way again. Reducing salt from your diet is like loudness management.
  - Waterluvian 4y ago
    I began using this analogy after my brother spent years not eating anything sweet, and then found that chocolate below 90% cacao was overwhelmingly too sweet. Lower the noise floor on taste and suddenly all kinds of subtle notes emerge.
    - WXLCKNO 4y ago
      That's even better lol.
    - jiggawatts 4y ago
      Some fad diets like the "potato diet" are based on this principle, that if you reset your tasetbuds then foods with added sugar will taste too sweet, and you'll avoid them. I experienced this with the Keto diet, which is low-carb and hence very low on sweeteners like sugar. It was about a year afterwards that I could eat normal chocolate, candy, or cake.
    - sph 4y ago
      Same with coffee or tea. After a decade of drinking them without sugar or honey, I can't imagine drinking them any other way. Sugar would just ruin their taste. Anyone that cries "I can't drink coffee black, it's too bitter!" they just haven't tried for more than a week, how long it takes to adjust. Unless you drink instant coffee, which tastes very bitter and like battery acid. I'd rather have water than granulated instant coffee.
      - XorNot 4y ago
        Weirdly enough I love instant black but don't have so much love of espresso. I think I've come to associate it with comfort in rough times: it's bad, but we have hot water and instant coffee so the break is great.
      - devilbunny 4y ago
        FWIW, people who say that are usually drinking burnt coffee that has sat on a heater for too long. Sugar doesn't take bitterness away; a tiny sprinkle of salt, however, does. Really. Some salt is absolutely crucial to flavor. A little bit makes almost everything taste better.
  - adql 4y ago
    It is, and it makes so many fast foods feel too salty
dheera 4y ago
> discourage pets from chewing on power cables around the house Apparently rodents eat some car cables. The cables should be coated in some kind of solidified bitter hot sauce. Bittrex and ghost peppers, perhaps.
- mc32 4y ago
  I think birds for example don't register capsaicin. Point being, not all animals taste things the same or are affected negatively by the same things.
  - flangola7 4y ago
    Do they still suffer the inflammation and other effects? Our eyeballs don't have taste buds but habanero juices will still disable you if they come into contact.
    - fjkdlsjflkds 4y ago
      The burning sensation of "spicy" things is not mediated by "taste buds". For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemesthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemesthesis
  - FreeFull 4y ago
    On the other hand, I wouldn't usually expect birds to gnaw on car cables, and all mammals do register capsaicin. Capsaicin is used semi-frequently to help against rodents gnawing on cables.
    - throwanem 4y ago
      It's also used to produce suet cakes that squirrels and raccoons won't steal. Those things have a lot of it, too, enough so I wear nitrile gloves to handle them - worse even than mincing a handful of habaneros, you just can't wash the stuff off.
wellthisisgreat 4y ago
Sorry but this is good sitcom-grade hilarity
- lame-robot-hoax 4y ago
  Like the Seinfeld episode with the odor ridden car, but Bitrex and your house.
Centigonal 4y ago
They put this stuff in computer duster cans to discourage inhalant abuse, and it has caused me the same grief. Dust the keyboard, type on the keyboard, eat some food with my fingers - boom, gross.
- userbinator 4y ago
  You can get cans without the bitterant, but at slightly higher prices... which incidentally makes a great refrigerant too.
  - Centigonal 4y ago
    good to know! I ended up buying a ryobi battery-powered "high volume power inflator." I think it's meant for air mattresses, but it does a great job at dusting electronics.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Most dusters literally are 134a refrigerant.
    - userbinator 4y ago
      They used to be (and thus a cheap way to recharge car A/C) but I believe they're mostly R152a now --- which is quite close in pressure/temperature characteristics to the old CFC R12.
      - kube-system 4y ago
        Ah, my brain was out of date, you are right. And in fact the can at my desk says difluoroethane.
- calvinmorrison 4y ago
  Like denatured alcohol. It's just ethanol plus poison so you can't drink it and avoid paying taxes. "the Anti-Saloon League persisted, arguing that legal alcohol had killed many more in its day than denatured alcohol would kill during the transition to a teetotaling world. “The Government is under no obligation to furnish the people with alcohol that is drinkable when the Constitution prohibits it,” said advocate Wayne B. Wheeler. “The person who drinks this industrial alcohol is a deliberate suicide… To root out a bad habit costs many lives and long years of effort…”"
Hamuko 4y ago
I noticed that after I moved from Nintendo Switch cartridges from a travel case back to their original cases that I really shouldn't lick my fingers.
washadjeffmad 4y ago
Years ago, we used canned air as freeze spray in the lab for preparing certain cultures. I picked up a new case on my way in one day, and probably 20 minutes into using it, someone said "do you taste that?" We ended up evacuating and later discovered the cause was an undisclosed bitterant added to the product. I sent 3M an invoice for the lab cleaning (they politely declined to pay), but the next time I saw the bottles, they had a big warning on them.

Waterluvian 4y ago

I wonder if something can be so bitter that even if it loses orders of magnitude on its journey, it still maxes out your taste buds dynamic range.

WXLCKNO 4y ago
Never though about my taste buds in terms of dynamic range but I will never think of them any other way again. Reducing salt from your diet is like loudness management.
- Waterluvian 4y ago
  I began using this analogy after my brother spent years not eating anything sweet, and then found that chocolate below 90% cacao was overwhelmingly too sweet. Lower the noise floor on taste and suddenly all kinds of subtle notes emerge.
  - WXLCKNO 4y ago
    That's even better lol.
  - jiggawatts 4y ago
    Some fad diets like the "potato diet" are based on this principle, that if you reset your tasetbuds then foods with added sugar will taste too sweet, and you'll avoid them. I experienced this with the Keto diet, which is low-carb and hence very low on sweeteners like sugar. It was about a year afterwards that I could eat normal chocolate, candy, or cake.
  - sph 4y ago
    Same with coffee or tea. After a decade of drinking them without sugar or honey, I can't imagine drinking them any other way. Sugar would just ruin their taste. Anyone that cries "I can't drink coffee black, it's too bitter!" they just haven't tried for more than a week, how long it takes to adjust. Unless you drink instant coffee, which tastes very bitter and like battery acid. I'd rather have water than granulated instant coffee.
    - XorNot 4y ago
      Weirdly enough I love instant black but don't have so much love of espresso. I think I've come to associate it with comfort in rough times: it's bad, but we have hot water and instant coffee so the break is great.
    - devilbunny 4y ago
      FWIW, people who say that are usually drinking burnt coffee that has sat on a heater for too long. Sugar doesn't take bitterness away; a tiny sprinkle of salt, however, does. Really. Some salt is absolutely crucial to flavor. A little bit makes almost everything taste better.
- adql 4y ago
  It is, and it makes so many fast foods feel too salty

dheera 4y ago

> discourage pets from chewing on power cables around the house Apparently rodents eat some car cables. The cables should be coated in some kind of solidified bitter hot sauce. Bittrex and ghost peppers, perhaps.

mc32 4y ago
I think birds for example don't register capsaicin. Point being, not all animals taste things the same or are affected negatively by the same things.
- flangola7 4y ago
  Do they still suffer the inflammation and other effects? Our eyeballs don't have taste buds but habanero juices will still disable you if they come into contact.
  - fjkdlsjflkds 4y ago
    The burning sensation of "spicy" things is not mediated by "taste buds". For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemesthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemesthesis
- FreeFull 4y ago
  On the other hand, I wouldn't usually expect birds to gnaw on car cables, and all mammals do register capsaicin. Capsaicin is used semi-frequently to help against rodents gnawing on cables.
  - throwanem 4y ago
    It's also used to produce suet cakes that squirrels and raccoons won't steal. Those things have a lot of it, too, enough so I wear nitrile gloves to handle them - worse even than mincing a handful of habaneros, you just can't wash the stuff off.

wellthisisgreat 4y ago

Sorry but this is good sitcom-grade hilarity

lame-robot-hoax 4y ago
Like the Seinfeld episode with the odor ridden car, but Bitrex and your house.

Centigonal 4y ago

They put this stuff in computer duster cans to discourage inhalant abuse, and it has caused me the same grief. Dust the keyboard, type on the keyboard, eat some food with my fingers - boom, gross.

userbinator 4y ago
You can get cans without the bitterant, but at slightly higher prices... which incidentally makes a great refrigerant too.
- Centigonal 4y ago
  good to know! I ended up buying a ryobi battery-powered "high volume power inflator." I think it's meant for air mattresses, but it does a great job at dusting electronics.
- kube-system 4y ago
  Most dusters literally are 134a refrigerant.
  - userbinator 4y ago
    They used to be (and thus a cheap way to recharge car A/C) but I believe they're mostly R152a now --- which is quite close in pressure/temperature characteristics to the old CFC R12.
    - kube-system 4y ago
      Ah, my brain was out of date, you are right. And in fact the can at my desk says difluoroethane.
calvinmorrison 4y ago
Like denatured alcohol. It's just ethanol plus poison so you can't drink it and avoid paying taxes. "the Anti-Saloon League persisted, arguing that legal alcohol had killed many more in its day than denatured alcohol would kill during the transition to a teetotaling world. “The Government is under no obligation to furnish the people with alcohol that is drinkable when the Constitution prohibits it,” said advocate Wayne B. Wheeler. “The person who drinks this industrial alcohol is a deliberate suicide… To root out a bad habit costs many lives and long years of effort…”"

Hamuko 4y ago

I noticed that after I moved from Nintendo Switch cartridges from a travel case back to their original cases that I really shouldn't lick my fingers.

washadjeffmad 4y ago

Years ago, we used canned air as freeze spray in the lab for preparing certain cultures. I picked up a new case on my way in one day, and probably 20 minutes into using it, someone said "do you taste that?" We ended up evacuating and later discovered the cause was an undisclosed bitterant added to the product. I sent 3M an invoice for the lab cleaning (they politely declined to pay), but the next time I saw the bottles, they had a big warning on them.