Sunday, April 30, 2023
New Rotary Engine BREAKS Records
UBC water treatment zaps ‘forever chemicals’ for good | UBC Engineering
Perfluoroalkyl compounds are thousands of man-made and persistent chemicals polluting the environment, used in "raingear, non-stick cookware, stain repellents and firefighting foam" ref
Selectively trapping them with an adsorbent, and breaking them down is major news.
Electrochemical degradation using electrodes in sulfate solutions employs special "boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes...due to their fast charge-transfer kinetics, weak adsorption properties, and electrochemical stability" under conditions of "high current density and stirrer speed...Acidic condition, high temperature, and low initial concentration of PFOA [which] accelerated the degradation kinetic." ref
I presume the end products are similar to those from plasma degradation, which were "perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS), and perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS) were also found to be byproducts from PFOS degradation. Significant concentrations of fluoride ions, inorganic carbon, and smaller organic acids (trifluoroacetic acid, acetic acid, and formic acid) were also identified" ref
which I assume are less toxic/persistent in the environment.
Thursday, April 27, 2023
NYTimes: The Meat-Lover’s Guide to Eating Less Meat
The Meat-Lover's Guide to Eating Less Meat https://nyti.ms/36fex1E
...our current food system is contributing to climate change...Meat and dairy production alone account for 14.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — as much each year as from all cars, trucks, airplanes and ships combined.
sourdough bread slathered with tahini and homemade marmalade, mushroom Bourguignon over a mound of noodles...
“People are very concerned about protein, but it’s a nonissue,” she said. “It’s in grains, it’s in vegetables, it’s everywhere. It will find you.”
focused more on chicken, pork and local seafood (especially mollusks), which are generally less taxing to the environment than beef and lamb...
avocado toast, salted cashews and popcorn covered with coconut oil and nutritional yeast ...
quinoa, kamut, teff, millet, wild rice, buckwheat, cornmeal...
pair tofu, which has a relatively neutral taste, with ingredients with pizazz — the more umami-intense, the better. Miso, soy sauce, mushrooms, hot sauce and fermented black beans...mix in a small amount of meat — ground chicken or pork, or a little bacon — to add a large amount of flavor...
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Elephant Cleverly Steals Sugar Cane off a Truck in Thailand
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Carving marble
3:29 if you hit the marble too hard, you can crush the crystals which is called a bruise or a stun mark which is below the surface
Not the type of person you'd expect to carve stone. 4:56 She's incredibly focused, and describes her mind racing the entire time she's carving.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
How Robots Could Help Retailers Save Billions
Why Public Bathrooms Suck in North America: Uytae Lee's Stories About Here
Friday, April 21, 2023
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Explaining privilege to children through a race | The School That Tried To End Racism
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Daisy Jones and the Six
"She walked away from you?"
"Well, sometimes the back of somebody is the best way to find out who they are."
S1E2
Saturday, April 15, 2023
The Corn Slime That Could Change The World
Self-fertilizing corn:
2:24 nitrogen is essential to all plants
2:50 "grains make up 50% of the world diet, [but grains can't extract nitrogen from the air and need expensive nitrogen fertilizer applied, 50% of which runs off the field into waterways, polluting them]"
4:42 "the slime contains nitrogen-fixing bacteria usually found in the soil. The gel [excludes oxygen] allowing the bacterium to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form that the plant can use."
3:46 If this attribute could be transferred to other grain plants, there would be advantages in scientific, ecological, and financial realms.
6:28 The video goes on to explain how the company researching this phenomenon is giving back profits to the small Mexican town where this unique species was discovered.
Monday, April 10, 2023
Sunday, April 9, 2023
Saturday, April 8, 2023
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Meet the man who shoots at birds all day.
I've seen this abandoned mine in Butte, Montana that is the largest EPA cleanup site ever. You can see how large the pit is compared to the city blocks at the bottom of the photo.
7:00 "Nearly 1/3 of North America's bird population has disappeared since 1970."
Logistics Of Tesla's Global Supply Chain
How vertical integration worked in Tesla's favor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)