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August 29, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness

Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated

JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 28, 2008

Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'

Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough

August 27, 2008

Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine

JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron

August 26, 2008

Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist

JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference

August 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes

JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient

Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?

JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 21, 2008

Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE

Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond

JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold

August 20, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 19, 2008

Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing

JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 18, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends

Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam

JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman

August 15, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine

Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man

JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 14, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit

Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game

JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders

August 13, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad

JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron

August 12, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us

Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators

JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 11, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing

Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza

JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman

August 7, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal

Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning

JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 6, 2008

David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents

Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies

JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 5, 2008

Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?

Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)

JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

August 4, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?

Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 1, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: We have the power to alter another's destiny — use it well

Caroline B. Glick: Why Olmert — finally — did it

JWisdom: Life By The (Book of) Numbers by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 31, 2008

This Week in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Ezra the Scribe returns from exile

Joan Verdon: Demure is in demand: More brides seek 'modest' gowns

JWisdom: You don't have to be ‘compatible’ to have a stable, happy relationship by Malka Shulman

July 30, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Does Israel need 'tough love'?

The Kosher Gourmet by Gail Borelli: Pickling captures the fleeting tastes of summer's fruits and vegetables

JWisdom: Serenity: It's Really Up to YOU! by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

July 29, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Good things happen

Dick Morris: How Israel's race could shift ours

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Equal but Not Jewish or Jewish but Not Human?

July 28, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: How and when to lie

Steven Emerson: More Perils of Interfaith Dialogue

JWisdom:: A TripTik for Your Spiritual Journey by Rabbi Dovid Gross

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review

How gum works

By Marshall Brain

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) The average American munches more than a pound of gum every year. So let's imagine for a moment that you are chewing a piece right now. You can chew and chew and chew and it never disappears. Have you ever wondered what it actually is that you are chewing? What is it that we put in our mouths when we chew a stick of gum?

The original chewing gum is a natural product. It is made from a rubbery compound called chicle that comes from the sapodilla tree. If you are an adventurous sort of person, you could fly down to Guatemala or Mexico, hike into the rainforest, find a sapodilla tree and cut into the bark. A rubbery sap would ooze out, and this is the base for natural chewing gum. In the same way that you could chew on a rubber band all day long without it disappearing, you can chew on chicle all day long. Chicle is a natural rubber.

In the late 1800s, people discovered that you can flavor chicle. You take a chunk of chicle, heat it up a bit to melt it, and then start mixing sugar and flavors into it. Peppermint extract is one common flavor. You can actually buy kits today that contain a bar of chicle rubber, a bag of powdered sugar and some flavoring. You heat up the chicle in the microwave oven and knead the sugar and flavor in to make your own gum. The whole process takes about half an hour.

A typical piece of chewing gum is more than half sugar. This is easy to prove if you have a scale that can measure grams. You take a piece of gum and weigh it. Then you chew it for 5 or 10 minutes until all the sweetness is gone. If you dry it off and weigh it again, the piece of gum will weigh half as much (or less) as it did to begin with. What is left is the rubbery gum base. Most people think this is totally gross, but you could actually save old gum and re-flavor it if you wanted to. It's totally re-usable. Like rubber bands or rubber tires, chicle lasts a long time.

If you think about chicle, though, it is a pretty interesting type of rubber. What makes it so interesting, and what makes it perfect for chewing, is that it is very temperature-sensitive. If you freeze chicle with ice, it gets hard. At room temperature it is still stiff - you can break it. At body heat it is soft and very stretchy. In boiling water it gets syrupy. It is one of those happy accidents that chicle is the perfect consistency for chewing at the natural body temperature of human beings.

This rubber has been used in lots of different ways. Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum got its start in 1893. Dentyne gum appeared in 1899. The name is a combination of "Dental" and "hygiene". The idea was to create a cinnamony gum to keep your breath fresh and your teeth clean. This, of course, predated the idea that sugar rots your teeth. Then in 1928 the big break came - bubble gum, invented by a man named Walter Deimer and sold as Double Bubble gum.

The only problem with chicle is that there isn't enough of it to go around. There aren't nearly enough sapodilla trees to supply the world with gum base. So, starting around World War II, science stepped in to solve the problem. Today just about every piece of chewing gum on the market contains an artificial gum base instead of chicle. The gum base is just like any other plastic or synthetic rubber in use today. It starts with some sort of petroleum product that gets modified through a series of chemical reactions. The goal is to create a tasteless, artificial rubber that has the same kind of temperature profile and consistency as natural chicle.

So why do people like gum so much? We've been chewing it for more than 100 years and Americans spend something like $2 billion a year buying gum. What is it about this stuff that is so appealing? It turns out that moving our jaws up and down actually makes people feel better. Since WWI the army has been giving gum to soldiers because it seems to ease stress. Truck drivers find that chewing gum can help them stay awake and be more alert. Studies in the last few years have shown that chewing gum may help memory recall. Before your next big test or assignment, you might want to pop a stick of gum in your mouth just in case!

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Previously:


How caffeine works
How Daylight Saving Time works
How a cruise missile works
How snow making works

© 2007, How Stuff Works Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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