In other news, seven potato mashers in Surrey were arrested for the brutal murder of the Potato Head family. Potential potato witnesses, who although had plenty of eyes, lacked mouths to testify. For now, the bail set for these potato mashers is the perfect potato gratin recipe. The judge claimed to have no personal interests in setting this bail.

Sweat

This is what I've been doing all summer.

Tissues

Sick? Smell a liquorice stick! Now you can, with Niffy Chip's Scented Tissue! Each pack comes with a food of your choice! Each pack is individually crafted! Being ill has never been more brill!

Picky Eater

"I hate it when my sandwich has things in it! Why can't you have a good ol' sandwich nowadays, huh?"

What is Pyro?

I want Pyro to be female.

For those who don't get it, Pyro is a character in Team Fortress 2 (game). We don't know whether Pyro is a male or female (or a robot) yet. The line "Am I a man...or am I a Muppet?" comes from the Muppet movie, in which the two main characters sing about whether they are a man or a Muppet, because they can each only choose one.

I do not own Pyro from Team Fortress 2. I also do not own the Muppets. I do pass off this idea and piece of art as my own work, but I do not own anything else.

Soda

Don't get the joke? Well, here's a simple explanation! Tonic water contains quinine, commonly known as a compound that treats malaria. Everyone thinks that quinine tastes bitter, but the bitterness is detected only by the people with at least one copy of a specific bitter taste receptor allele. Others, who have two copies of a different allele, don't taste quinine because quinine doesn't activate the receptors.*

In easy terms: Let's say you have a velcro shirt. Well, cotton balls are going to stick to you. Your roommate, however, has a silk shirt, so cotton balls just fall off. If you have only half a velcro shirt, the number of cotton scraps on your shirt will vary, but they may still there. Therefore, if you've been tampering with you roommate's cotton balls, we'll see the evidence on your shirt!

In my comic, the roommate mixed some tonic water with his soda, since he doesn't taste the bitterness of quinine. His roommate, however, DOES have the allele that detects bitterness!

You can try this experiment among your friends (the larger the group, the better)! Buy 1L of tonic water (It's less than a dollar in the US). Nowadays, supermarket tonic water has a lots of sugar/HFCS, some citric acid, and only a minute amount of quinine, but people can still detect the quinine. Ask everyone to take a sip of the tonic water. Those who detect quinine will pucker up, exclaim "This is dis-GUS-ting!", while others will mumble "I don't get it... it tastes like [lemon-lime soda] to me..."

* The perception of quinine taste intensity is associated with common genetic variants in a bitterreceptor cluster on chromosome 12.

Reed DR, Zhu G, Breslin PA, Duke FF, Henders AK, Campbell MJ, Montgomery GW, Medland SE, Martin NG, Wright MJ.

I'm research bitter taste receptors under one of these scientists, actually!

The Norm

This is what happens when female clothing lacks pockets. Adaptation...in a way.
A few weeks ago, I was walking down 36th, between Ludlow and Market, and I saw a woman with a giant rectangle sticking out of her white tank top. I could not stop staring. I stared at that area for longer than a 15 year-old boy.
Yesterday, when I was in Center City, I saw ANOTHER woman with said phone in her tank top. This is just a bit bizarre for me. So instead, I make skirts with pockets...

Also, it turns out that my camera captures fluorescent highlighter yellow as...yellow.

Pancakes

Girls love pancakes. Everyone loves pancakes!

"Pretty"

Look at that healthy glow coming from all that tanning! What's that? Your daughter have wrinkles from all this tanning and she's only 6? Better use some anti-wrinkle ointment before you make her put on foundation and concealer and blush and eye shadow and eyeliner and lip plumper and lipstick!

Glow in the Dark

At a Track meet in 2007/8, I was wearing a shirt with glow in the dark fabric paint below the collar, and my friend decided to see whether it really glowed in the dark, by cupping her hands around...you know. We were so caught up in the moment of verification that we only later realised that it looked weird to everyone else.

Humpty Dumpty

An alternative ending would be the hen saying "My baby!", but we will never know whether the egg was actually fertilised.

Lunch

Just a co-worker at my summer internship last year.
That internship made me realize that I could probably eat a whole pizza if I were in the mood.

You Stole My Food!!

"Oh and you know what else? There was GLUTEN IN THAT FLOUR! There goes your gluten-free diet! We all know you don't have Celiac disease!"

TCBFSS

My sister's frozen yoghurt cup was the size of a pudding basin (for the pudding basin haircut I've wanted her to get for years).

Knock Knock

Orange you glad I didn't make the cliche joke?

Lashes

"The longer the lashes, the more I get paid. All those mascara advertisements? Yup, all me."
I've always wanted longer eyelashes (Both my brother and sister have beautiful and long mini-eyeball daggers).

He's Boiling With Rage!

Man, that broth is boiling with rage!

I'm back, and I actually passed Organic Chemistry II! Hooray!

Hershey's

"Oh yeah, the shapes of the Hershey's Kisses and Hugs are rather peculiar too!! Objectifying women, now, aren't you?!"

Trivium

Trivium: one of my favourite bands. I went to see them (my first rock concert) in January at the Trocadero in Philadelphia and it was brilliant! I stood in the first row and got a guitar pick :D

Organic Chem II

If only.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Nowadays with factory farming, lambs are born year-round. Also, I actually love the winter.

Organic Chemistry I

I have an organic chemistry exam on Wednesday. I really dislike organic chemistry. I respect the subject and all the good and bad things that have been produced thanks to organic chemistry. However, attempting to learn organic chemistry makes me cry and has ruined by GPA substantially. I know that even if this exact example appears on the exam, I'm still going to get 0 points for it because I'm going to misread it and have the OH- attack a C instead of a H.

To explain this comic (to the best of my understanding, which is... little):

Usually, OH- is not a good leaving group. However, in the case of resonance stabilised enolates, when OH- leaves, the resulting conjugated system (2 double bonds, conjugated) is stable and the reaction is exothermic.

In terms that I can understand: Usually, OH- doesn't like to detach from a compound. This is an exception to the rule because when OH- detaches from the compound, the compound can make another double bond. Compounds like double bonds (especially conjugated ones) because it makes them stable. These exceptions upset me.

Note: None of this stuff is to scale/has correct bond angles/bond lengths and I probably even messed up here regarding the chemistry (which is, well, sad). R represents the R group of your choice.

NASA

Hey Kids