
Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994) - tarboreus
http://www.pmichaud.com/toast/
======
Shebanator
"At this point, the researchers also realized that the heat could
inadvertently melt the adhesive cellophane and cause the flaming SPTs to
suddenly eject from the toaster. Unfortunately, this did not occur."

QOTD!

~~~
bgongfu
Reminds me of the stinkymeat project [0] for some reason.

Sweet memories from a more playful online experience, and probably part of the
reason I turned vegan.

[0]
[http://www.stinkymeat.net/stinkymeat/day1/](http://www.stinkymeat.net/stinkymeat/day1/)

~~~
noxToken
If the site layouts and design weren't clue enough on how old this is, the
high res photo links are 640x480 pixels!

~~~
TeMPOraL
Surprisingly, in this context, it's a _good thing_. I'm not sure I would be
able to stand those photos in >1 megapixel size.

------
toomanybeersies
On a related note, you can make a thermal lance [1] that can cut steel out of
bacon:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9dskxN10N0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9dskxN10N0)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_lance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_lance)

------
sv123
This is also a classic, grapes in the microwave:
[http://pmichaud.com/grape/](http://pmichaud.com/grape/)

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osrec
I love how well written, yet utterly inane this piece is!

The toaster disposal picture really got me chuckling... Just the fact that
they felt the need to evidence it lying by the side of a trash can. And how
observant neighbours probably would have eventually connected the black smoke
with the defunct appliance.

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cpeterso
In the "Figure 5. Extinguising the SPT" photo, you can see in the toaster
reflection that the experimenter appears to be barefoot! Not recommended when
playing with fire.

[http://www.pmichaud.com/toast/toast-5a.gif](http://www.pmichaud.com/toast/toast-5a.gif)

~~~
npongratz
Luckily the regulators were on the case. The researchers received a stern
warning for their OSHA violation:

[http://www.pmichaud.com/toast/follow2.html](http://www.pmichaud.com/toast/follow2.html)

~~~
KineticLensman
From Al von Ruff of the Dangerous Projects Team

------
bdcravens
> The response to my Strawberry Pop Tart article has been overwhelming. In
> October 1994 alone it's been accessed more than 2000 times.

The web was a much different place in 1994 :-)

~~~
wwweston
And yet, note the clean typography, responsive design, semantic markup, and
fast page load times. ;)

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mrbill
I used this as an example for my public speaking class in college in '94\. I
also passed out a Pop-Tart (in a baggie) to every person in the class. Wow,
memories.

------
EvanAnderson
It fills me with happiness that this remains on the Internet.

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autarch
Fun fact. The author of this was also one of the primary developers and
architects behind Perl 6 for many years. He's a really great guy.

------
js2
Tying together two recent HN submissions. This one, and the submission on Ali
Wong wherein someone linked to Seinfeld explaining how he developed his Pop-
Tart joke:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itWxXyCfW5s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itWxXyCfW5s)

~~~
jerezzprime
"to waste this much time on something that stupid, that felt good to me"

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AdmiralAsshat
Did he repeat the experiment to see if it applies to all Pop-Tarts, or is it
unique to the composition of the Strawberry variety?

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tedmiston
Here's the original article by Dave Barry from 2013 mentioned in the linked
article.

[https://www.davebarry.com/misccol/poptarts.htm](https://www.davebarry.com/misccol/poptarts.htm)

~~~
sbierwagen
(1993)

~~~
tedmiston
Whoops — thank you.

------
United857
Shouldn't the heating element of the toaster shut off after the cycle
regardless of the ability to eject? And/or have some thermal cutoff?
Otherwise, seems like a major safety flaw, Pop Tart or not.

~~~
paulmd
The handle is a switch to the heating element. If the lever is jammed, the
poptart won't eject and the toaster keeps running.

Not good defensive engineering, but normally you don't jam the lever either.

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nickthemagicman
That's science baby!

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draw_down
Man, take me back to when the internet meant squeezing ~a dozen paragraphs out
of setting some food on fire. Those were really the days.

------
jwilk
(1994)

~~~
tarboreus
Sorry, forgot about that convention.

