Topic: Capsicum

Gavin McMahon shares a link to CyberSquirrel1.com, a site tracking animal-induced infrastructure outages. One host recounts a story from the era of T1 and ADSL competition where a company added capsicum to wire insulation to deter squirrels. The plan failed when the squirrels developed a taste for the spicy chemical and continued chewing the wires.

Adam Curry describes a cable cut at his house that required Time Warner trucks to visit at 1 a.m. This leads to an anecdote about squirrels chewing through telephone lines and a failed experiment using capsicum-infused plastic to deter them. Curry also recounts taking his wife to her first crawfish boil in Austin.

A culinary tip involves steeping cut chili peppers in apple cider vinegar to create a versatile condiment for meats and sauces. For those making habanero sauce, letting the mixture sit in the refrigerator for several days reportedly reduces the extreme heat by up to 60% while preserving the distinctive smoky flavor.

Research into the pepper spray used during the UC Davis Occupy protests reveals it is regulated by the EPA as a pesticide rather than a food product. The concentration of capsaicin in the spray used on students was reportedly 10% to 30%, significantly higher than the 1% to 2% concentration found in standard bear spray.