Cheers to the unexpected

Brain vs. Alcohol: How fast does a pint of beer hit the spot?

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How quickly does the human body react to alcohol? What's the most popular drink in the world? And can animals get drunk? You might think you know everything about your favorite cocktail, but alcohol is actually full of fun facts that may surprise you; join us to discover them!

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Alcohol begins affecting your brain even before you've finished your first glass. Although you might not notice it right away, alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine. It then goes to the brain, and within 5 to 6 minutes of drinking, it starts affecting your neurotransmitters, promoting relaxation, slowing brain activity, and contributing to that typical feeling of de-inhibition.

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It seems that bees not only communicate with each other to form colonies with amazing structures and hierarchies, but they also get drunk! Though not like humans, and not for the same reasons.

Bees carry nectar from flowers to the hive to produce honey. If that nectar has fermented, the bees can get drunk as a result. Believe it or not, bees have been seen flying or walking slower than usual, and sometimes they even bump into things!

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Beer is really popular. In fact, it's one of the most popular beverages of choice for summer weekends. But one beer stands out from the rest, not just for its taste but also for its effects.

Brewmeister Snake Venom is a beer from Scotland that is famous for its extremely high alcohol content. For comparison, a regular beer has around 4.5% alcohol content. What about Brewmeister Snake Venom? It has 67.5%! Quite intimidating, isn't it?

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It can happen to anyone after a night of partying: waking up on Sunday with a headache, thirst, and a blank spot in your memory. Well, it turns out you didn't "forget" last night's crazy dances; it's something else.

Actually, it's not that your brain "erased" what you did while you were tipsy; it's that it never recorded it in the first place. Why? Alcohol affects the hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for creating new memories.

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If, for some reason, you can't put that smelly shirt in the washing machine yet, this tip will be very helpful. Since vodka contains alcohol, it's ideal for removing strong odors from fabrics, as it kills the bacteria causing the smells.

Spraying a small amount of vodka on the affected areas of your clothes or your sneakers can temporarily solve the problem. But be careful to use just a little!

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As we know, grapes are not only delicious fruits but also the key ingredient in one of the oldest alcoholic beverages: wine. But how many grapes are needed to produce a standard 750-milliliter bottle of red wine?

According to experts, between 600 and 800 individual grapes are used for each bottle of red wine. Of course, the amount of grapes needed will depend on the variety of wine, the region, and the techniques used in production.

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Okay, we've already mentioned that beer is popular, but do we know how popular? According to several sources, it's the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world! And we understand why: Not only does it have a great, refreshing taste, but it's also produced and sold in most countries at relatively affordable prices. Additionally, the variety available makes it easy for everyone to find their favorite!

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When you're about to pop that champagne bottle at Christmas dinner, make sure to point it upwards and away from the table. You know why: That cork can turn into a projectile!

That happens because of the high pressure inside a champagne bottle, which is generally about 5 to 6 atmospheres (atm), or 75 to 90 pounds per square inch (psi). This is about 3 times the pressure found in your car tires!

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Although we all enjoy a glass of wine equally, research shows that alcohol has slightly different effects on men and women.

If two people of different genders drink the same amount of alcohol, it will generally have a stronger and longer-lasting effect on the woman. That is due to women having a higher percentage of body fat and a slower metabolism compared to men.

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If you're really cold, it's best to skip that drink. Although that glass of wine may give the feeling of warmth, it doesn't raise your body temperature. What actually happens is that alcohol causes your blood vessels to dilate, creating a superficial sensation of warmth. However, in reality, this leads to your body losing heat.

In short, alcohol doesn't warm you up; in fact, it lowers your body temperature!

Figments of the imagination

Abandon ship! 12 mysterious islands in fiction

Image: Jad Limcaco

Whether idyllic or dangerous, mapped or mysterious, fictional islands make us want to get on a boat and become castaways. Cinema, television, and literature have allowed us to discover countless exotic lands that, despite being invented, are still fascinating. From Atlantis to Neverland, discover 12 fictional islands that, although they never existed, have earned a well-deserved place on the maps of world culture.

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The legendary island of Atlantis is arguably the inspiration for many of the other islands listed in this article. It first appeared in Plato’s writings and was described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world. Since then, Atlantis has become an allegory for lost civilizations and has been depicted in literature, films, and television shows many times.

Although nowadays everyone agrees on the story's fictional nature, there is still a debate on whether a real place influenced Plato. The search for it has attracted the attention of fictional heroes, but many real-life archaeologists and explorers have also devoted much time and effort to the quest.

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A tale of pirates and treasures buried in the sand, Robert Louis Stevenson's novel laid the groundwork for the Caribbean island archetype —beautiful, exotic, and deeply wild— that other writers and screenwriters would later replicate for decades.

In addition to the numerous film and television adaptations, the characters, setting, and events of this novel have greatly influenced modern imagery of pirate fiction, including schooners, treasure maps marked with an "x," and one-legged sailors with parrots on their shoulders.

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Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna are two islands supposedly located west of Costa Rica in the Pacific Ocean that serve as the main setting in the novels and film adaptations of Jurassic Park. However, for the film version, Steven Spielberg used the Hawaiian island of Kauai as a stand-in for the fictional islands.

On Isla Nublar lies the zoo that houses the genetically engineered dinosaurs created by John Hammond and the InGen Corporation. On Sorna, on the other hand, the dinosaurs are on the loose. Fun fact: Isla Nublar is perhaps the only island people can actually visit —so to speak— since there’s a replica at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida.

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Odysseus visits countless islands during his great journey back home: the island of the nymph Calypso and the beautiful sorceress Circe, the island of the Lotophages, the island of the Cyclops, and the island of the gigantic Lestrygonians, among many others. However, the one that stands out the most in the work of the Greek poet Homer is Ithaca, home to his beloved Penelope and his son Telemachus.

Although there is an island of the same name in Greece, Homer's Ithaca is a figment of his imagination. The author describes it as a rocky island, unsuitable for horse breeding but rich in wheat, vineyards, and pastures.

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Skull Island is a fictional island lost in the Indian Ocean, somewhere off the coast of Sumatra. In the center of the island stands a huge rock that resembles the shape of a human skull, from which it gets its name.

Skull Island is the home of King Kong, several other prehistoric species of creatures, and a primitive human society. It's the main setting of three major films and a pseudo-documentary about the island's animal life.

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This idyllic island lost in the middle of the ocean appears in the works of Thomas More. Utopia is an example of the perfect state where its inhabitants enjoy physical and moral well-being. Utopia literally translates as "no place", coming from the Greek οὐ ("not") and τόπος ("place").

Inspired by the fantastic narratives of the New World, More imagined an island created by the people, a crescent-shaped belt of land, housing 54 city-states all of equal size where religious freedom is celebrated and private property is condemned.

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"The Island" is the major setting of the popular six-season-long television show Lost. This particular fictional island is not only a remote and mysterious place, it also serves as a character.

The Island has mysterious powers that can go beyond its geographic location. It is difficult to find and can apparently "move" through an unknown process. This place is so incredible that it features time travel, slave ships, supernatural monsters, large deadly animals, hidden treasures, scary scientists, supervillains, references to antiquity, and more. In short, a combination of various aspects of the other islands on this list rolled into one.

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Deserted islands are often a metaphor for human isolation. This thesis is more than proven in Life of Pi, a best seller and famous film about a boy who must survive a journey back to civilization accompanied by a Bengal tiger.

The island in Life of Pi is hauntingly beautiful at first glance, with jungles, meerkats, food, and drink. However, it soon reveals itself to be carnivorous, feeding on its own inhabitants and reminding Pi that excessive comfort can also be dangerous.

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The book The Mysterious Island was a sequel to Jules Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways. In this story, five men, Northern prisoners during the American Civil War, find a way to escape thanks to a hot air balloon. After several days suspended in the air due to a hurricane, they finally land on an island they name Lincoln, in honor of Abraham Lincoln.

While on the island, thanks to the protagonist's knowledge in the fields of physics, agriculture, and chemistry the group are able to sustain themselves. When they find a message in a bottle a whole host of adventures ensue.

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Neverland is a fictional island described in J. M. Barrie's fantasy play and novel Peter Pan. Remote and exotic, on this island children don’t grow up and live without rules or responsibilities, spending most of their time having fun and living adventures.

Neverland is home to the Lost Boys, fairies, fearsome pirates, Indians, mermaids, and other fantastic creatures that inhabit the jungles and deep waters. According to the legend, if you want to reach Neverland, you must fly to the top of the sky and turn to the second star on the right, flying until sunrise.

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While some islands offer sun, beaches, and a warm climate, not many can boast a community of wild human-beasts created by a mad scientist. The island of Doctor Moreau, or Noble Isle, as described in the original book by H.G. Wells, is an isolated piece of land populated by animal-human hybrids trying to find a balance between their social principles and their animal nature.

Multiple film adaptations of this story, and the whole notion of animal experimentation by a mad scientist, serve as a definite precursor to Jurassic Park, and probably a few of the storylines in Lost.

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Mr. Roarke, an enigmatic host at a luxury resort on a mysterious island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean receives people who arrive by seaplane, upon payment of US$50,000, to make their most extravagant dreams and fantasies come true.

Although not fully described in the television series aired from 1977 to 1984, on this island some fantasies have to do with the real world and others have mythological elements. Whatever the case, there is always some mystery, illusion, and wizardry involved in the plots.