Logistical Problems

As the title suggests, I've run into some logistical problems with this blog.  Now that I've taken the first steps at pursuing various methods of blog promotion, through blog directories and other such media, I've realized that a few things have to change.

No, I'm not going to stop writing about salt.

Rather, I realized some things that I had not considered when I created this blog.  For starters, the blog is called "F*** Salt," and the URL is http://effsalt.blogspot.com.  Now, I don't remember which pronunciation I had in mind when I started this thing, but I've since been pronouncing if in my head as the URL is spelled.

/ɛf sɒlt/

I also hadn't really considered how the phrase "F*** Salt" would be interpreted in a Google search.  It seems that asterisks have a weird effect on Google queries.  As of now, I can't find my blog by searching "F*** Salt," but if I search "F Salt" it comes up on the 8th page.  "Eff Salt" returns nothing, but "effsalt" as one word returns stuff related to me on the first few pages.

So it's confusing, and I should change it, right?  Unify it.  Cohesion is good.  The whole blog ought to be called "Eff Salt."  It's a bit more family-friendly anyway, as it encourages the one pronunciation over the other.  Sure, I'll have to update a few profiles around the web, but that's a minor inconvenience.  But am I missing something?  Are there any negative consequences to changing the name?

I'm already using a few different pseudonyms around the web.  "EffSaline" at Twitter, "EffIonicCompounds" on Youtube, but oh well.  They're recognizable.  I think they're sort of humorous spins.  They're just off-shoots of the blog anyway, chosen because "Eff Salt" was already taken.  (Not to mention the websites that allow spaces and those that require underscores...)

And this brings me to Google Authorship...

I think I set it up right.  Not that it matters right now, though, because when I do find my blog through Google, it doesn't link to a Google profile, and the little textual snippet is outdated anyway.

But oh well.  I'm a small-fry.  This is all in preparation for the growth that I hope to gradually achieve.  But there's another problem... my name.

 Get it? I hope the image is at least somewhat recognizable...

What was I thinking, putting an apostrophe in my name?!  Lot's Wife... didn't I realize that apostrophes wouldn't be allowed in like 90% of online profiles?  Not that it matters much on most websites; it's mostly blog directories.  But it mattered on a pretty important page: my Google profile.

Eff. 

Now, if Google Authorship does work, it's going to read "Eff Salt," like it does two pictures above, rather than "Lot's Wife."  The whole point of Authorship is to remind readers that there's a person behind the blog -- an author.  Now it's just a blog written by a blog.  And right now the names don't even match.  Yeesh.

So, in conclusion: my main question to everyone is...

Should I change the name of my blog to "Eff Salt"?  Why or why not?  God, I sound like a short answer question on a quiz...

It seems like an important decision to make before I go about promoting my blog in any serious sense.  It's also preventing me from making any real effort to create a nice looking blog header (or to enlist the aid of Dalf... wouldn't that be cool?)

I look forward to hearing everyone's input. Cheers!



Oh yeah, I changed my little profile image, because I was probably infringing on someone's copyright on quite a few websites.  It's probably not the last time it will change though... right now it's just a rudimentary picture that I whipped up in Graphic Converter.

And another thing: here's a code that I have to insert into a post for Technorati: HHATSMVT4T6C

Veruca Salt

Today's post is only nominally related to salt, but I think it still counts.

No doubt many of us are familiar with the world of Willy Wonka, be it from either of the films or from the classic Roald Dahl book.  Consequently, one of the more popular characters (in a love-to-hate sort of way) was the spoiled, bratty Veruca Salt.

In the 1971 film, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," Veruca is played by the young Julie Dawn Cole.  In the 2005 film, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which shares its name with the original novel, Veruca is played by Julia Winters.  I find it a sort of interesting coincidence that both actresses have essentially the same name, were both plucked from obscurity (Veruca Salt being their debut film role), and were both cast at the age of 12.

Julie Dawn Cole in Veruca's big scene. Warning: May Contain Spoilers!

Part of the character's nastiness comes from, in my opinion, an apparent self-awareness.  Particularly in the above scene we can see that she knows that she's a total b****, and that just makes it all the more so.

In the original novel, Veruca's inevitable demise (I'll try not to give too much away, for those who are unfamiliar with the story) is caused at the hands of a troop of angry squirrels.  In the 1971 film, the squirrels are changed to a few rather indifferent geese, and Veruca sort of causes her own downfall.  In the 2005 film, the squirrels are restored.

Now, I read the book when I was a kid, and I've seen the original film, but I've yet to see the 2005 movie.  Something about Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka seems more appealing to me than Johnny Depp.  It's not that I don't like Johnny Depp, but I've grown rather skeptical of Johnny Depp/Tim Burton pairings (Burton being the director of the 2005 version).

And no, I haven't seen "Edward Scissorhands." 

By the way, the name Veruca Salt (my only real connection to salt for this post, after all), has an interesting meaning: "Veruca" is a manipulated spelling of Verruca (from the Latin Verrūca), which is the sciencey term for "wart" (eg. Verruca Vulgaris, Veruca Plantaris).  The word "salt" also has some negative connotations that suggest anger, aggression, and piquancy.

To me, though, "salt" means "love."

Boiling Saltwater: Part Two!

I don't even know if the last post was that interesting, but it's got a second part now.  Oh well.

Another picture of water boiling (I don't know if there's salt in this one...).

So we know that adding salt to water increases its boiling point -- that is, the temperature at which water boils (which it cannot exceed in its liquid form).  Presumably, this would mean that raising the boiling point of water with salt would make it take longer to boil.

But this is not so!

Rather, salt water reaches a boil faster than an equal volume of regular water.  Oh, sweet counter-intuition.  Here's why:

There's this thing called specific heat, which is the amount of energy required to raise a certain amount of a certain substance by a certain temperature.  Typically it's one gram of something by one degree Celsius.  Water (H20) has a specific heat of 4.184 g/J*ºC, which means that it takes 4.184 Joules (a unit that measures energy) to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.  Water has an unusually high specific heat compared to other common substances.

Dissolved salt (that is, sodium and chlorine ions) has a negligible specific heat compared to water.  This means that all the sodium and chloride ions heat up really quickly -- so quickly, in fact, that we can basically ignore the energy that they absorb.  Therefore, salt water consisting of 70% water and 30% salt will heat up approximately 30% faster than 100% water.  Pretty awesome.*

 *If you think stuff like that is awesome, anyway...