Ludicrously bad fails. Surely AI language instruction is better than this with AI - were these developers trying to save money on compute and had poor models?
Monday, November 2, 2026
Tunnel warfare in Ukraine
https://youtu.be/iGyuC3xHPiA?is=MfHqQ0IKd1N9V3Vh
There are many aspects of this war that are dishearteningly tough on soldiers, but this is a particularly difficult one.
Solar panels over irrigation canals
https://youtu.be/89uDjx32BQY?is=M-rMxokXz-u-ptZ5
Putting solar panels over irrigation canals is a win-win: covering the canals prevents huge evaporative losses, and the underlying water keeps solar panels cooler so they're more efficient.
But, a simple sensible idea turns out to be difficult to carry out in real life as multiple governmental agencies have to sign off on it.
Using meta glasses to recognize strangers
The creators emphasized they did not release the code or software to the public. Their primary goal was to raise awareness about accessibility of public data using consumer hardware and off-the-shelf AI tools, acting as a "warning shot" regarding privacy risks.
The user wore the Meta glasses and streamed live video to a private Instagram account.
Facial Recognition: A computer program monitored the live stream, detected faces, and sent cropped photos of target individuals to reverse image search tools (such as PimEyes or FaceCheck.id). Once a matching image or name was found on public web pages, news articles, or social media, the software queried public data broker databases (like FastPeopleSearch). An LLM parsed the returned search results to extract key details—including the person's full name, home address, phone number, work history, and names of relatives—and pushed this "dossier" directly to the wearer's phone via an app within seconds.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
Do microplastics or plasticizers cause autism/ADHD
This may be no more than a conspiracy theory at this point, because there's no causal link between the two. But it struck me that increases in autism and ADHD are coincident with the increase in plastics in the environment. Here's what I found.
There is currently no direct causal evidence proving that microplastics cause autism or ADHD in humans, though emerging animal and observational studies suggest that plastic particles and associated chemical additives may act as environmental risk factors. Scientific focus has been on chemical plasticizers and additives that leach from plastics rather than the solid plastic particles themselves.
"Studies on exposure to microplastics indicate an increase in oxidative stress and inflammation as well as a decline in attention and memory...no evidence [yet] for a causal relationship between microplastic particles and ASD [though it may be an] environmental factor influencing neurodevelopment" ref
Nanoplastics can cross biological barriers—including the blood-brain barrier—potentially inducing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.
Mouse models show prenatal exposure to synthetic plastics like polyethylene can trigger gut microbiome shifts, brain metabolite changes, and autism-like behavioral traits.
Children with ASD or ADHD often show reduced efficiency in detoxifying common plastic chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) through a liver clearance process called glucuronidation. ref
Observational human studies (such as infant cohort analyses) have linked prenatal exposure to plasticizers like DEHP or BPA with higher rates of autism- and ADHD-related traits or altered epigenetic markers (DNA methylation) in early childhood.
Is the timing of the rise in ADHD and autism closely correlate in the rise of plastic production and use around the world?
Proponents of this view argue that the parallel timeline isn't a coincidence. The sheer volume of global plastic production means that children born over the last 25 years have experienced unprecedented, continuous, in-utero and early-life exposure to microplastics and leached endocrine-disrupting chemicals (like BPA, phthalates, and DEHP). Because these chemicals actively disrupt fetal neurodevelopment and hormone pathways, the massive surge in plastic production is viewed as a highly probable environmental driver fueling a genuine increase in these conditions. ref
However, a confiunding factor here is the broader definition and recognition of these disorders within the same timeframe as the rise of plastics.
The medical definitions of both autism and ADHD were fundamentally rewritten during this timeline, most notably in 1994. Conditions like Asperger’s and milder sensory or behavioral traits were folded under the broader "Autism Spectrum Disorder" umbrella, instantly capturing millions of children who wouldn’t have qualified for a diagnosis in the 1970s. Decades ago, mild or moderate neurodivergence went entirely unnoticed or unlabeled.
Exploding Head Syndrome
What is Exploding Head Syndrome?
• An internal sound: Despite the terrifying name, EHS is a harmless type of parasomnia (an unusual sensory experience during sleep transitions). The noise is an internal auditory hallucination—no actual sound or explosion is happening in the room.
• Common descriptions: People often compare the sound to a loud pop, a gunshot, a door slamming, a firework, or crashing waves.
• Painless: Episodes typically last less than a second and do not cause physical pain, though they frequently trigger a jolt of panic, a racing heart, or a sudden muscle spasm.
Why Does the Brain Do This?
• Sleep-transition glitch: As you drift off to sleep, different parts of the brain normally shut down in a coordinated sequence.
• Misfiring circuits: In EHS, a brief sensory or electrical misfire happens in the brain's auditory processing centers or the reticular activating system (the brainstem network managing wakefulness) as those systems try to power down.
Medications are considered if episodes are frequent and very distressing but there haven’t been any large clinical trials that can guide treatment. Some sufferers have benefited from medications such as such as clomipramine but the evidence is limited,
Friday, October 30, 2026
Innovative seed planting.
https://youtube.com/shorts/WlH1HVoWBrw?is=42pEwVCuCCzRYeFZ
Clever innovation to prevent over-seeding.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Beautifully captured flight
https://youtu.be/7fyZuJX3CbE?is=NarQBBDEbKoPugbO
Wow - the third pass is a beautiful display of its flying prowess, and expertly tracked by this wildlife photographer. I've seen his photos and videos before, but this was particularly good.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
How data centers are powered
https://youtu.be/Wh1zlJXKy1M?is=FGyYvg0mQOQRnWLv
Their point: AI companies investing heavily in the power infrastructure will in the end benefit everybody with a better power grid.
0:49 currently 70% of our power grid is over 25 years old.
2:07 days centers are building backup "behind the meter"
2:39 all of a sudden, days centers are using 2 orders of magnitude more power
6:24 "a shockingly large percentage of the costs of running an electricity grid are for the four hours a year [of maximal usage.]"
Argentina ant supercolonies
Argentine ants that escaped from native South America were small populations that are therefore generically identical, and don't fight with other neighboring colonies but instead form huge supercolonies.
- Southern Europe Supercolony: The largest recorded contiguous supercolony spans approximately 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, running from northern Italy through the south of France to Spain. It contains billions of worker ants and millions of individual, cooperating nests. [1, 2, 3]
- Melbourne, Australia Supercolony: Another major supercolony discovered there measured roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) across and later spread thousands of kilometers via jump-dispersal to other parts of Australia. [1, 2]
- Intercontinental Network: Genetic and behavioral studies suggest that some introduced Argentine ant supercolonies across the globe share a unified chemical identity, functioning as a massive intercontinental network. In their native South American habitats, however, colonies are much smaller and kept in check (typically 10 to 100 meters) by territorial rivals. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Structural carbon-fiber batteries for electric vehicles.
Recent advances in battery materials allow the battery to be formed into the shape of the vehicle structure, so that the battery contributes less weight to the vehicle (since the battery itself can be formd into the frame.)
At 24 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) it's roughly 20% of the capacity of a standard, dedicated lithium-ion battery by weight. So, it would take a lot of this product to provide adequate range.
A typical SUV has 200kg of frame and 300 kg of passenger cage structure, while a typical electric SUV needs a 450 to 700 kg battery pack; at 20% of the efficiency of lithium batteries, this 500kg would replace 100 kg of lithium batteries, so you wouldn't have enough structure weight in the entire vehicle to match the capacity of a typical battery pack. A vehicle made with this material would still need a regular battery pack to achieve a range expected by the market.
Jet engines run hotter than metal's melting point
How can a jet engine operate at temperatures higher than the melting point of the alloy parts?
Jet engines operate above the melting point of their alloy parts through a combination of active internal air cooling, ceramic thermal barrier coatings, and nickel-based superalloys.
Key Technologies Preventing Melt-Down
• Internal Blade Cooling: Cold air is bled from the engine's compressor (before fuel is added) and routed through a complex network of tiny internal channels inside each hollow turbine blade.
• Film Cooling: This compressed air escapes through microscopic holes on the surface of the blades, forming a thin, continuous cushion of cool air that insulates the metal from the hot combustion gases (similar to a "Baked Alaska" where insulation protects the inside).
• Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs): Blades are coated with a specialized ceramic layer that drops the actual temperature of the underlying metal by roughly 150°C to 450°C.
• Nickel Superalloys & Single-Crystal Structures: The parts are cast as a single crystal of nickel-based superalloy rather than standard polycrystalline metal, which eliminates grain boundaries and drastically increases resistance to high-temperature deformation (creep).
Jet engines operate above the melting point of their alloy parts through a combination of active internal air cooling, ceramic thermal barrier coatings, and nickel-based superalloys.
Key Technologies Preventing Melt-Down
• Internal Blade Cooling: Cold air is bled from the engine's compressor (before fuel is added) and routed through a complex network of tiny internal channels inside each hollow turbine blade.
• Film Cooling: This compressed air escapes through microscopic holes on the surface of the blades, forming a thin, continuous cushion of cool air that insulates the metal from the hot combustion gases (similar to a "Baked Alaska" where insulation protects the inside).
• Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs): Blades are coated with a specialized ceramic layer that drops the actual temperature of the underlying metal by roughly 150°C to 450°C.
• Nickel Superalloys & Single-Crystal Structures: The parts are cast as a single crystal of nickel-based superalloy rather than standard polycrystalline metal, which eliminates grain boundaries and drastically increases resistance to high-temperature deformation (creep).
Monday, October 26, 2026
Shoplifter arrest goes bad, very bad.
Watch this guy when he's first detained - "I didn't do anything. Why are you arresting me? I didn't do nothing!!" So chilling.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Catalog of every humanoid robot and parts' sources
https://youtu.be/r7U0rbkrBxQ?is=ThatdWy1YlIXjB-s
Am incredibly detailed index of parts, their origin, the origin of the raw materials, and an interactive display of how shortages affect manufacturing.
Making plastic panels from trash
https://youtu.be/KlWkAaP_sR8?is=SK6_bdJVE1XjWCny
I think you're gonna like this guy's ingenuity and persistence! And he's giving out the plans for free.
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Self-checkout may encourage theft
retail theft and overall inventory loss ("shrink*") are significantly greater at stores with self-checkout kiosks. "losses at self-checkout lanes can reach approximately 3.5% of sales, significantly higher than traditional cashier-operated checkout lanes."
stores with self-checkout experience merchandise losses averaging 33% higher than stores with traditional manned checkouts.
*"Shrink" is the retail industry's term for inventory loss, and it is not synonymous with theft. Accidental missed scans, incorrect product selections, and damaged goods all factor into the figure.
Staying alive on the front lines
https://youtu.be/DRV2LMdTwlE?is=5256kKbIab9qI9xU
Surviving under threat of constant drone attacks is a whole new strategy of war - running quickly between points of cover. Brave soldiers, brave journalists, and such a sad reality.
Friday, October 23, 2026
Fatal officer shooting
https://youtu.be/XCLiJ9JetSQ?is=hnLj4PRhI_cG8qEZ
What started as a routine shoplifter call quickly elevated to a legal gunfight when the suspect produced a concealed weapon.
In this tragic confrontation, the known felon has deadly accuracy with only a few bullets, and the police, one after another, fire many shots that missed. There are many regrettable tactical mistakes.
Key Tactical Mistakes:
Underestimating the Suspect's Threat Level.
Initial Assessment: The officers were responding to a report of a disturbance at a shopping center. While the suspect was known to be non-compliant, officers initially approached the situation as a routine property dispute rather than treating the individual as an immediately high-risk, armed felony suspect.
Lack of Early High-Risk Protocols: The approach lacked pre-contact staging or distance preservation before attempting physical control.
Proximity and Spatial Management (Tactical Isolation)
Closing Distance Too Quickly: The officers moved into immediate physical range to effect an arrest without establishing clear cover or controlling the suspect’s hands first.
Reactionary Gap: By closing the distance rapidly in an open parking lot environment, they eliminated their reactionary gap—leaving almost no time or space to react when the suspect unexpectedly drew a concealed firearm.
Inadequate Threat/Hand Identification Prior to Contact
Failure to Secure Hands: Standard law enforcement tactics emphasize securing or controlling a subject's hands before attempting physical restraint. The suspect managed to draw a concealed weapon from his waistband or clothing without warning and open fire at point-blank range.
Lack of Immediate Cover in an Open Environment: The initial confrontation occurred in an open parking area where options for hard cover (engine blocks, structural pillars) were either not utilized or unavailable. When the gunman drew his weapon, both officers were completely exposed with no physical barrier to absorb fire.
Crossfire and Backstop Vulnerabilities
During the Initial Response:
Positioning: The officers' relative positioning during the attempt to grab or cuff the suspect made crossfire or mutual obstruction an issue during the sudden transition to lethal force.
For interest, here's what Claude AI said about the above conclusions.
Calling something a "mistake" after a fatal outcome is hindsight bias. Officers regularly make hands-on contacts like this, and nearly all end without a shooting. Most of what Gemini wrote isn't backed by anything I found, and it reads as confident hindsight rather than findings. [The claims that] they closed distance too quickly, that they failed to control his hands, or that they skipped cover. No published review, department statement or investigation says any of this. Gemini also doesn't cite a source.
Is an officer automatically put on administrative leave after they fire their gun?
If the officer returns fire or discharges their weapon—regardless of whether anyone was hit—standard department policies almost universally require taking the officer off active street duty immediately.
[Even if they did not fire their gun but were shot at,] The agency or officer may opt for a short period of administrative time off or psychological debriefing to process the trauma. However, removal from street duty is generally not mandatory.
Before returning to active field duty following a gunfire incident, officers typically go through:
Psychological Clearance / "Fitness-for-Duty" Evaluation: A licensed mental health professional evaluates the officer to ensure they are mentally and emotionally cleared to handle active policing.
Internal Review Clearance: Investigators verify that the officer’s actions complied with department use-of-force policies.
Do police officers who've been shot at have subsequent impaired judgement in use of lethal force?
Research in occupational psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and police science shows that exposure to life-threatening trauma impacts subsequent decision-making.
Officers who suffer PTSD often experience perceptual hypervigilance (Fewer Cues, Faster Escalation) and are more likely to misinterpret benign movements (e.g., reaching for a cell phone) as a draw of a weapon.
Studies evaluating shoot/don't-shoot decision-making show that officers [with] post-traumatic stress exhibit a lower threshold for perceiving a threat as imminent, which increases the likelihood of "false-positive" errors (shooting an unarmed subject).
Brain mechanism: they suppress activity in the prefrontal cortex—the region responsible for executive function, impulse control, and critical analysis—while activating the amygdala (the brain's threat-processing center).
The other extreme can also happen - Hesitation:
An officer traumatized by a previous shooting—or by the intense scrutiny, administrative stress, and potential legal fallout following an officer-involved shooting—may hesitate during a subsequent legitimate threat.
Mitigating these responses.
Modalities like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR*) and specialized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) are widely used to reduce hyperarousal and restore baseline cognitive function.
EMDR involves watching the therapists fingers waving slowly back and forth, similar to hypnotizing in popular culture, while retelling the event. I can just imagine how much officers would hate this "touchy-feely" treatment when they're trying to get back on duty.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Monday, October 19, 2026
Making tires from dandelions
Not your regular dandelion, but rather the Russian dandelion, which grows in temperate climates and marginal soils, whose roots contain 3% to 12% rubber by dry weight of high-molecular-weight cis-1,4-polyisoprene, making it chemically identical to traditional Hevea tree rubber.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Elevator micro-adjustment when people get on board
How much micro adjustment (in mm) is needed in a 50-storey building when a dozen people get in?
In a 50-story building, an elevator car sitting at the bottom floor will stretch by approximately 51 mm (about 2 inches) when a dozen people step inside. Therefore, the elevator's micro-leveling system must winch the car upward by that exact distance to bring it flush with the building floor again.
• Added Load (P): 8,829 N (12 people averaging 75 kg each = 900 kg total mass x gravity @ 9.81m/s²
• Cable Length (L): 175,000 mm (Assuming a standard 3.5 meters per story over 50 stories, measured when the car is at the lowest level to evaluate maximum possible stretch).
• Number of Cables (n): 6 cables (A typical configuration for heavy high-rise cars).
• Metallic Cross-Sectional Area (A): ~60 mm² per cable (Based on a standard 13 mm / 0.5-inch elevator wire rope. Because cables are braided strands wrapped around a core, the actual solid metal area is roughly 45% of a solid cylinder's area): Ï€(13/2)² x 45% = 60mm²
• Modulus of Elasticity (E): 85,000 N/mm²
AI-intensive Alpha schools
https://youtu.be/SC69VqCjRoQ?is=nR_vQN2pa-z5EpkI
Ridiculously high tuition averages $52000 a year.
AI teaching specifically tailored to the student's individual interests, tracks their engagement and alters methods accordingly
Very few teachers on site - mostly tech grads and life coaches staffing the schools
Intensive student monitoring and recording even at home and when sleeping
Large donations by the founders to politicians who control school vouchers which funnel public funding to private schools
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Save massive energy finally with straighter larger tubing in municipal systems
Here's the short version:
• About half of the world's electricity runs electric motors, and half of that motor torque drives fans and pumps.
• Friction Reduction: Narrow, twisting pipes create massive fluid friction. Straight, wide-diameter pipes cut friction by 86% or more.
• Downsized Equipment: When friction drops, the pumps and motors pushing the fluid can be shrunk significantly (often by 80–90%).
• Lower Costs: Redesigning the whole loop frequently lowers total capital costs (because smaller pumps and motors cost less) while paying for itself in under a year or instantaneously on new builds.
Weather forecasting keeps getting better
Overall, weather predictions have come a long way in recent decades.
Forecasting skill increases by roughly one extra day of accuracy per decade.
A 5-day forecast today is roughly as accurate as a 1-day forecast was in the early 1980s, and a 3-day prediction of a tropical storm or hurricane track today is more precise than a 24-hour forecast was 40 years ago.
I've often wondered how much forecasting has improved. This video emphasizes how granular or hyper-regional current predictions are getting using AI and massive amounts of data.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Avoid car break-ins
Minimize, and hide valuables in spare tire compartment.
Leave the glovebox open, turn any bags inside out to show they're empty, make it obvious you have no electronics in the car, and *put the rear seat in the flooded-down position so they can see the trunk is empty.
World's largest electric aircraft just flew
14:27 of we can [build an airplane] that is lower emissions, lower cost, better quality of life — we should do it.
3:10 jet engines are inefficient at taxiing, takeoff, and landing. For a short flight, [a jet] can burn 10% of it's fuel [load] taxiing.
3:25 the segment [of aviation] of regional flights is really badly served by the technology we have today.
3:32 half of all flights [flown today] are under 2 hours.
5:49 if you're a founder... every time you need more capital, there needs to be something material, something [one] can touch, that you've made.
8:10 [built-in redundancy] everything has to work, even if everything goes wrong
9:40 1 in 1000 flights gets diverted to another airport...you need 45 minutes of "loiter" and then [another 100 miles of range.]
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Sunday, October 11, 2026
How actors show emotion, and what directors do with masked actors do instead.
https://youtu.be/-gitexWSLlg?is=_yBEGNsI8OqIPW2Z
Excellent video with the perfect excerpt to illustrate each point. Clearly very well researched by someone knowledgeable.
3:05 the Kuleshov effect - context imparts emotion to an identically neutral face
Saturday, October 10, 2026
AI can remove pixelation pretty well
I took the first screenshot, and asked Gemini to remove pixelation. The end result was pretty close to the person's actual appearance earlier in the video. https://youtube.com/shorts/-C_WWTHN4_0?is=CrUl393CjtuviUhk
Building 4000 drones a day in Ukraine
https://youtu.be/VfzBaUPwfDQ?is=yuvIEgcA1LoDS1Ux
4:21 making 4000 a day
4:04 a waterproof drone that can take off in water
Wow - Amazon knows it's not "made in the USA" despite the label.
https://youtube.com/shorts/whHypuaLmTU?is=8pa63DNi7hObMjTR
Wow - Amazon's own AI system admits to fraud about labeling products as made in the USA.
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Powerful long-range drones for military supply shipments
https://youtu.be/mXLGGZM_b50?is=XNbxlP_mYYRIqoOA
The capability of these military drones is growing in leaps and bounds, and the race is being fueled by the remarkably lower cost than moving goods by helicopter. And, 1:29 "according to the Navy, over 90% of logistics deliveries are under 50 pounds," so sending a helicopter is a huge waste.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
How to respond when someone has cancer
https://www.hiddenbrain.org/podcast/when-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/
Kate Bowler categorizes the harmful or unhelpful responses people give when faced with terrible news into the archetypes of "Teachers," "Solvers," and "Optimizers."
Instead of meeting suffering with simple presence, people in these categories try to manage their own discomfort by attempting to fix, explain, or improve the situation.
1. The Teachers
The Teachers look at someone else's tragedy and immediately try to find a lesson, blueprint, or a "silver lining" to explain why it happened.
• The Response: They offer platitudes like "Everything happens for a reason," "God is testing you," or "Think of what you are learning about yourself through this."
• The Reality: Bowler notes that this response forces a false sense of order onto chaos. It attempts to wrap a tragic situation in an educational bow, which ultimately minimizes the raw reality of the person's grief and makes them feel like their pain is just a homework assignment they need to master.
2. The Solvers (or Fixers)
The Solvers treat a person's crisis or illness like a practical puzzle that can be cracked with enough effort or information.
• The Response: They offer unsolicited medical, spiritual, or lifestyle advice: "Have you tried cutting out sugar, or eating more vegetables?" "You should look into this alternative treatment," or "If you just pray harder, things will change."
• The Reality: This response is driven by the fear that tragedy is random. By insisting there is a solution, the Solver protects their own illusion of control. The underlying—and damaging—message to the sufferer is that if they just try harder, they can fix their own tragedy, subtly placing the blame on them if things go wrong.
3. The Optimizers (and "Purpose Monsters")
The Optimizers are products of modern self-help and productivity culture, treating human beings like assembly lines that can be continuously upgraded.
• The Response: When hit with bad news, they immediately pivot toward tracking metrics, relentless self-improvement, or toxic positivity. They want to optimize your mindset, your morning routine, your step counts, or your macros to "outrun" the pain.
• The Reality: Bowler argues that optimization is a joy blocker. The culture of optimization insists that human agency is unlimited and that any physical or emotional limitation is a personal failure. In reality, human beings are breakable and dependent. Trying to "optimize" your way through a tragedy forces you to hoard positive vibes while running away from the necessary, messy work of feeling the pain all the way through.
What to Do Instead: True Presence
Bowler's work emphasizes that life is beautiful and terrible, and there is no cure for being human. When someone receives bad news, they do not need a lesson, a 5-step optimization plan, or an amateur solution. What they actually need is presence and love—people who are brave enough to sit with them in the muck of unpredictable reality without trying to clean it up.
What to say to someone falling with terrible news.
At 39 minutes: "I will keep pace with your hope. I will hold your hope when you can't any longer. I won't turn away from the difficulty you're facing — to hold possibility but not be blind to reality."
39:45 Optimism - the hope that there are still beautiful things ahead for the person. Hold on to a sense of self-continuity. (Vs blind optimism or toxic positivity that "You will be ok no matter what," which leads to not listening to your doctor, or leads to avoiding negative words that might create reality.)
"Remain porous" - Charles Taylor (open to God, open to despair, open to reality.) More beautiful will come your way, and you'll spare yourself the delusion of having control over it.
Modern "self" seals itself off from reality, trying to make meaning out of everything. Every dark chapter needs to be improved, to be a self-improvement project.
This is why vitamin D deficiency is prevalent
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18iL33gAiJ/
See the video that shows, through winter, the latitude above which the sun can't provide you any vitamin D.
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Toxic tire dust is also a huge source of microplastics.
Today I learned that vehicle tires produce toxic dust that enters the air, rivers, and oceans spreading massive amounts of toxicity and is the largest source of ocean microplastics.
One specific tire-rubber additive called 6PPD turns out to be uniquely toxic even at remarkably low levels in Coho salmon, specifically.
It's the breakdown product of 6PPD into its quinone derivative when altered by ozone that is specifically toxic to Coho salmon at very low concentrations; Coho are about 800 times more sensitive than Chinook salmon.
Several non-toxic replacements are being evaluated, and are mandated to replace the toxic compound before 2035. In the meantime, environmental agencies are relying on stormwater solutions like rain gardens and bioretention soils to trap tire particles before they reach salmon streams.
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