posted 12-28-2005 10:59 PM                    

quote: Brad Miller

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I actually spray my trash bags with a squirt of FG when putting them out at the street for pickup the next morning. It has completely stopped the neighborhood dogs from tearing into them and spreading the garbage all over the yard.

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A 5# bag of dry dog food soaked in a gallon of automobile antifreeze will do the same trick but you'll only ever have to do it once!

What?!! The bottle FELL and dumped all over that bag of dog food! I was just throwing it away with the rest of the garbage!
Honest!!

posted 12-28-2005 11:23 PM                    

quote:

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A 5# bag of dry dog food soaked in a gallon of automobile antifreeze will do the same trick but you'll only ever have to do it once!

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I seem to recall reading that you could just toss a Hershey chocolate bar over the fence for the same effect.

posted 12-29-2005 08:42 AM                    

quote: Randy Stankey

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It would have to be baking chocolate. Regular chocolate doesn't have enough theobromine in it. (Theorbromine is the substance in chocolate that people mistake for caffeine. Caffeine doesn't usually occur naturally in chocolate.)

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Thanks Randy for that Chemistry lesson!! Now I can make fun of all my Mormon friends that say they don't "do" chocolate because of the caffene it contains. I just may have T-Shirts printed up for them to wear around and help quell that bit of lore.... Oddly... there are more chocolate candy factories here than anywhere else I've been to .

Mark

[ 12-29-2005, 10:51 AM: Message edited by: Mark Gulbrandsen ]

posted 12-29-2005 11:16 AM                    

quote:

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Theobromine is a bitter alkaloid of the methylxanthine family, which also includes the similar compounds theophylline and caffeine. Despite its name, the compound contains no bromine — theobromine is derived from Theobroma, the genus of the cacao tree, which is composed of the Greek roots theo ("God") and broma ("food"), meaning "food of the gods".

It is the primary alkaloid found in cocoa and chocolate, and is one of the causes for chocolate's mood-elevating effects. The amount found in chocolate is small enough that chocolate can be safely consumed by humans in large quantities, but animals that metabolize theobromine more slowly, such as cats and dogs, can easily consume enough chocolate to cause chocolate poisoning.

Theobromine is a stimulant frequently confused with caffeine. Theobromine has very different effects on the human body from caffeine; it is a mild, lasting stimulant with a mood improving effect, whereas caffeine has a strong, immediate effect and increases stress.

In medicine, it is used as a diuretic, vasodilator, and myocardial stimulant. Scientists have recently discovered that theobromine has an antitussive effect superior to codeine by suppressing vagus nerve activity.[1]

Theobromine is known to induce gene mutations in lower eukaryotes and bacteria. At the time of a 1997 report by the IARC, mutations had not been found in higher eukaryotes, such as humans,[2] but in 1999 the SAX dangerous properties and environmental fate handbook reported human mutations. Theobromine is used as an experimental teratogen in mice and rabbits.[3]

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