Floating Wetland Demonstration Project | Port of Seattle

What a clever idea, to make floating platforms full of riparian vegetation that replaces the plant life formerly growing along industrialized waterfront areas - it helps absorb nitrogen and phosphorus (which decreases toxic algal blooms) and filters the water, and provides marine habitat.  And, they make the containers out of floating logs that have been removed because they were a marine navigation hazard - so they know the logs will continue to float even when they're waterlogged. 

https://www.portseattle.org/projects/floating-wetland

Good Podcast on sleep

One big takeaway was to not allow your brain to associate your bed with being unable to fall asleep - if you wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep, it's important to get up and go somewhere else in your home and do something soothing like reading, then return to bed once you get sleepy. Otherwise your brain too easily associates bed with not sleeping.

Avoid caffeine after 10 am.

It's extremely rare to need less than 7 1/2 hours sleep - you may feel you can function ok, but a broad spectrum of health measures will reveal deleterious effects. 

Sleep latency is normally 20 minutes or so - less than that may mean that you're sleep-deprived. That is, it's not a good thing if you fall asleep immediately. 

Counting sheep, or even looking at the advancing time on a clock, is proven to worsen your chances of getting good sleep. Better to imagine a familiar journey and walk yourself through that journey, to soothe your mind into sleep with a distracting prolonged thought. 

https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/matthew-walker/

Dust hazard from Owens (Dry) Lake, California

I didn't realize the health hazards of the place we stayed last night. 

How much dust blows off this dehydrated lake bed? You'd be surprised. 

"Nearly all of the available surface water has already been claimed and diverted for human use, and ground water is now tapped for new water supplies. As surface and ground water diversion increases, arid-land surfaces that were previously wet or stabilized by vegetation are increasingly susceptible to...desertification and dust storms...

The dry bed of Owens Lake has produced enormous amounts of windblown dust since the desiccation of the lake...pervasive, unusually fine-grained, alkaline dust that infiltrates the smallest cracks and contaminates residences. The lake bed is probably the largest single source of PM10 dust (aerosol particles smaller than 10 microns in aerodynamic diameter) in the United States; by one estimate, 900,000-8,000,000 metric tons per year"

"'When we see the white cloud headed down through the pass, the ER and doctors' offices fill up with people who suddenly get worse. It's a pretty straightforward cause and effect,' said Dr. Bruce Parker...Aerosols sampled from Owens dust storms commonly contains significant amounts of arsenic concentrated in the <10 micron fraction. Arsenic levels can be as high as 400 ng/m3 in air samples" 

https://geochange.er.usgs.gov/sw/impacts/geology/owens/

Owens Lake map

Dust can also be beneficial - in this episode, essential nutrients for the Amazon rainforest emanate from a continent away in dry African lake beds. 

https://www.netflix.com/title/81031737

The Great Salt Lake in Utah suffers the same problems of increasing toxic dust release:

https://youtu.be/k6oSNLkIBEg

NYTimes: How "Long Covid" Exhausts the Body

How Long Covid Exhausts the Body https://nyti.ms/3oWAFJO

-Possible long-term neurological problems from Covid constitute "a major public health crisis,"

"impaired concentration, headache, sensory disturbances, depression, and even psychosis may persist for months after infection."

[I've been saying this for months - people are all too eager to dispense with wearing masks, but they're ignoring this threat that will plague hundreds of thousands of people.]

Seattle's $54 billion New Light Rail

https://youtu.be/ct4bwWsP3iE

7:41 "when were faced with this huge economic, environmental, and social equity crisis, transit is a huge element at addressing all 3 of those things. 
Only a very small portion of costs are covered by transit fares.

Mary King podcast

My favorite "Moth story hour" episode ever, also the first one I every heard, about a young scientist who overcomes the most traumatic week of her life, gets random help from a celebrity, and goes on to do groundbreaking life-saving cancer research. 

https://player.themoth.org/#/?actionType=ADD_AND_PLAY&storyId=769

https://themoth.org/storytellers/mary-claire-king

Amazon Drone Delivery failed but Zipline found a niche (& the Gartner Hype Cycle)

https://youtu.be/J-M98KLgaUU

14:16 the Gartner Hype Cycle: new technology enjoys a "honeymoon" period of hype but reality sets in as substantial drawbacks are identified - public interest fades just as solutions are found and the technology matures and rises to productivity. 

Office layout furniture design over the decades

33:38 "work can ooze into all of the different crevices of our lives." [e.g....checking emails after hours.]

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/reaction-offices-and-the-future-of-work/

Iberico Ham pigs fed only, or mostly, acorns

https://youtu.be/1xcqXBGv5DM

Maximum 1-2 pigs per hectare for the official designation. 

Geoguessing: geography Guesses from Streetview images

https://youtu.be/SYXg-tzs2VI

Incredibly good at picking up small clues from photos to guess their location. I really believe he's doing this by clues and intuition, although it would be easy to concoct a staged video. 

How Pfizer made a COVID pill

the fastest any drug company has ever moved from a synthesizing a new chemical to proving that it safely treats a disease. 

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/04/1044714/pfizer-covid-pill-paxlovid-pandemic/

It’s a Terrible Idea to Deny Medical Care to Unvaccinated People - The Atlantic

Useful article about how doctors are called (and mandated) to treat the sick as they find them... regardless of the choices they have made. 

It's easy to forget how fundamental the ethics are of treating everyone regardless of the choices they've made. 

""We don't use the medical-care system as a way of meting out justice. We don't use it to punish people for their social choices."... "We have an ethical obligation to provide care for people regardless of the choices they made, and that stands true for our unvaccinated patients."

"People whose actions endangered themselves, like smokers with lung cancer or drivers who crash while not wearing a seatbelt, still get treated. Those whose actions endangered others, like drunk drivers or terrorists, also get treated. "We are all sinners," ... a fundamental principle of modern medicine that "everyone has an equal claim to relief from suffering, no matter what they've done or haven't done,"

[The reasons someone is unvaccinated may be more practical than philisophical or political - the article goes on to say - ]

"people who live in poor neighborhoods might not have a local pharmacy, or public transport that would take them to one, or internet access that would allow them to book an appointment. People who earn hourly wages might not have time for a vaccination appointment, or paid sick leave for weathering any [vaccine] side effects.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/unvaccinated-medical-care-hospitals-omicron/621299/

Avants car club: advice on getting rid of mold in car

1. I've had very good luck with tuff stuff. Buy it at O'Rileys. Friend that used to detail recommended it to me for mold. Spray on. Let it foam and sit. Wipe with microfiber. Can vacuum carpets and such after. 

2. Go to Costco and buy the biggest and cheapest bottle of vodka. Using a spray bottle, spray the moldy parts liberally with vodka. It kills the mold, leaves no residue or smell. Wipe it all off and then use generally detailing methods on the surfaces. 

3. I bought an ozone generator recently and used it to get the musty smell out of my truck (due to bad weatherstripping). As long as you get rid of the source of the odor, it definitely works to kill any lingering smells.

Buy an Ozone machine. It kills mold spores and eliminates underlying odors

4. Don't forget to wear your PPE. Gloves and a face mask with HEPA filters.

5. I've learned a ton about detailing techniques and products from Pan the Organizer's YouTube channel. https://youtube.com/c/PanTheOrganizer

https://youtu.be/sqQYVjxFqK0

"99% invisible" podcast about Alphabetizing

I love how much detail these guys include and how far they go to get expert opinion. (So many podcasts are just talkers bloviating their best guesses without fact checking.)

In the Alphabetizing episode, I loved the "coda" at 21:05 about how much she hated Dewey and how heinous Dewey was. To be banned from his job in his day because he was antisemitic and misogynist, you had to be pretty bad. And he was.  

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/alphabetical-order/

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9CcWJzeFZmTw/episode/Yzk2MWU1ODItZGU1Yy00YTdlLTgwNDUtNWVkODkyNjI2YzA2?ep=14

Paint-mixing digital simulation

Very cool advances in digital paint-mixing realism. He mentions the software program "Rebelle 5" at 4:35 that uses this already.  

https://youtu.be/b2D_5G_npVI