Things you might like to know.

I've been all around the world in my relatively short 37 years and I still think I live in the most beautiful place on Earth. Garden of the Gods in Fall:

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ElderGnome said:
One more:

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But, but… where's the ocean? And the rain? And the snow tipped mountains…eh… those seem to be there.

Really nice pictures, BTW.

pibbur who suspects that the temperature is above 20 degrees Celcius, and therefore not meant for human habitation.
 
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Washing clothes releases thousands of microplastic particles into environment
More than 700,000 microscopic fibres could be released into waste water during each use of a domestic washing machine, with many of them likely to pass through sewage treatment and into the environment, according to new research.
A study by Plymouth University examined the mass, abundance and size of fibres present in waste effluent following washes of synthetic fabrics at standard temperatures of 30˚C and 40˚C.

[…]

The research found that laundering an average washing load of 6kg could release an estimated 137,951 fibres from polyester-cotton blend fabric, 496,030 fibres from polyester and 728,789 from acrylic. The polyester-cotton blend was consistently found to shed fewer fibres than both the other fabric types, regardless of the differing treatments, however the addition of bio-detergents or conditioners tended to release more fibres.
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You'd expect that in order to save the environment a ban on polyester, acrylic and other microplastic clothes was suggested, (besides, cotton, silk, wool and leather regulate sweat and temperature better than most synthetic fabrics) but no:

Professor Thompson, who leads the International Marine Litter Research Unit at Plymouth University, recently gave both written and oral evidence to the microplastics inquiry held by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, which led to recommendations for a ban on the use of microbeads in cosmetics. He said:

“Clearly, what we are not advocating that this research should trigger something similar to the recently announced ban on microbeads. In that case, one of the considerations guiding policy intervention was the lack of clear societal benefit from incorporating microplastic particles into the cosmetics, coupled with concerns about environmental impacts. The societal benefits of textiles are without question and so any voluntary or policy intervention should be directed toward reducing emissions either via changes in textile design or filtration of effluent, or both.”
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"Societal benefits", what on earth is he talking about? We are already consuming plastics by taking honey, milk, mineral water and beer (has been mentioned in European media). And now even the deep sea (think food chain) is not safe anymore:

Plastic microfibre ingestion by deep sea organisms:
Microfibres inside deep-sea organisms were found from 334–1783 m depth in the equitorial mid-Atlantic and 954–1062 m in the SW Indian Ocean (Fig. 3). Previous studies have found microfibres in sediments down to 2000 m in the subpolar North Atlantic, 2200 m in the NE Atlantic, 3500 m in the Mediterranean and 5768 m in the West Pacific35.
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Great. I would not mind man's self-destruction, but why must he affect/destroy life on this beautiful planet for centuries to come.

We are creating things without having a clue of the consequences, and when having some idea: without caring about them: "this could last as long as I do, after me, the deluge".
 
Seems to be quite good for narcissts : They can make believe themselves to be "wanted". :p
 
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Plastic fibres found in tap water around the world, study reveals

The Guardian: Plastic fibres found in tap water around the world, study reveals.

Scores of tap water samples from more than a dozen nations were analysed by scientists for an investigation by Orb Media, who shared the findings with the Guardian. Overall, 83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibres.

The US had the highest contamination rate, at 94%, with plastic fibres found in tap water sampled at sites including Congress buildings, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters, and Trump Tower in New York. Lebanon and India had the next highest rates.

European nations including the UK, Germany and France had the lowest contamination rate, but this was still 72%. The average number of fibres found in each 500ml sample ranged from 4.8 in the US to 1.9 in Europe.
[…]
The scale of global microplastic contamination is only starting to become clear, with studies in Germany finding fibres and fragments in all of the 24 beer brands they tested, as well as in honey and sugar. In Paris in 2015, researchers discovered microplastic falling from the air, which they estimated deposits three to 10 tonnes of fibres on the city each year, and that it was also present in the air in people’s homes.
[…]
Bottled water may not provide a microplastic-free alternative to tapwater, as the they were also found in a few samples of commercial bottled water tested in the US for Orb.
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@Eye; - the level of plastic contamination is frightening - seen quite a few doccies on it. I use some re-usable fabric bags for my groceries when I go shopping - but of course much of the stuff i buy is contained in plastic and who knows where it ends after after its removed by garbage collection? I would happily use glass containers instead of plastic, but very few products still come in glass if plastic is available - just costs less so manufacturers don't bother. I stopped buying honey contained in plastic after I squeezed a soft plastic bottle and a "plastic" smell puffed out... Just seems that its everywhere, and driven by our desire for cheap everything.
 
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Yes, I know what you mean, the less I get in my body and in the environment, the better.
I was shocked learning about honey, milk and beer containing plastics at the time. It made me change some things in my routine.

I take my own shopping bag with me nowadays.
I buy food in glass containers, not plastic, when that is an option. (But I don't buy products in tin cans either because of its lousy interior.)
When I am going away for (part of) a day, I fill my own water bottles of firm glass, with some sort of tight rubber(?) around it. They look a bit like the Ello Pure BPA free water bottles:
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I have learned that re-using plastic water bottles is bad, the plastic deteriorates every time you use it, making sure plastic particles dissolve in the water.

Leftovers I'll freeze/cool in special glass containers, they can be put from freezer into the microwave as well. They are Canadian, iirc, they can withstand the coldest winters.

After having learned clothes can release plastic particles when they are in the washing machine, I don't wear fleece as often.

I have been looking for alternatives of clingfilm (bees wax? iirc) once but those alternatives were far from ideal - and clingfilm is so wonderful. :)
 
On Twitter:

Ben Stephens@stephens_ben

Fascinating little life hack, for doing percentages:

x% of y = y% of x

So, for example, if you needed to work out 4% of 75 in your head, just flip it and and do 75% of 4, which is easier.
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18% of 50…. :S
50% of 18: 9!
So 18% of 50: 9! :)
 
You're still stuffed if you want 37% of 43!
 
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Little tricky formulas like those are how I got through university, to be honest. Anything above algebra II was guaranteed to give me a headache.
 
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Dracula.

Which TV/Film version is most faithful to the book?

With the recent sudden reveal of Bloodlines 2 I thought this vid might interest some people here:



Probably the best vid I've seen from the nerd for a while & a huge amount of work went into this.
 
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I'll say Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992 was best version that followed the book. For the best modern version I'd say Dracula Untold though it was a box office bomb.

A TV version called Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula wasn't bad either.
 
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I don't want to give any spoilers, so I shall refrain from commenting on the results of your selection but in terms of enjoyment factor I always liked anything where Christopher Lee played Drac. Not that they were ever great movies, it was just that whole Christopher Lee screen presence thing.
 
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Fucking beetroots.

Every time I've eaten beetroots I completely forget that I've eaten beetroots, then, inevitably, a few hours later I go for a pee and find myself staring at the result contemplating whether this is the end and I need to call a doctor asap, convinced that my urine does indeed look like it contains vast quantities of blood.

Then, after a brief panic attack, remember, oh yeah, I had beetroot earlier…

Does beetroot make your urine red?

Urine appears red or pink after eating beetroot or foods and juices containing extracts or pigments of beetroot. The extent of discoloration varies from person to person and depends on what you ingested. For example, raw beet juice can cause dark red or dark pink urine.
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7 reasons why Sweden should host the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

Or…things you might want to know about Sweden, which are absolutely not true.

Supposedly we are ice skating to work (big lol on that one), and we're also drinking Glögg (its a hot wine with spices) in the sauna. Uh, no, we most definitely are not. Glögg is a Christmas beverage, why they hell would anyone drink glögg in the sauna, a cold beer perhaps, who on earth would want a hot beverage in a sauna, madness!)

"they have over 50 words for snow" We do? Let's count; 1) Snö.

"[…]is instead financed privately". Yeah right. Like anyone would believe that everything that involves this big event would be financed privately. Police (just one example out of 100 others) is not privately funded..

I'm very happy we didn't get it, gratz (lol) Italy…
 
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