C’mon, we’re making a dry ice run!
I do so love science night with the nephew’s scout den.
Category: Science
There’s Gold in Them There…Sewage?
Sewage sludge contains traces of gold, silver and platinum at levels that would be seen as commercially viable by traditional prospectors. “The gold we found was at the level of a minimal mineral deposit,†said Kathleen Smith, of the US Geological Survey.
Smith and her colleagues argue that extracting metals from waste could also help limit the release of harmful metals, such as lead, into the environment in fertilisers and reduce the amount of toxic sewage that has to be buried or burnt.
Bad jokes aside, this is actually an interesting concept. It also reinforces the concept that as the price for a commodity rises, human ingenuity will come up with new ways to access those commodities.
In this case, the commode. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself).
Friday Quote – Kevin Folta
It’s easy to stand against a technology with a full belly and 20/20 vision.
Kevin Folta
Friday Quote – Margaret Thatcher
From my experience let me say this: in today’s world it is no bad thing for a politician to have had the benefit of a scientific background. And not only politicians. Those who work in industry, in commerce, in investment. Indeed, so important has it become that I believe we are right to make science a compulsory subject for all schoolchildren.
Margaret Thatcher
Navy Put Their New Big Gun on Display
And this one actually seems to work as advertised. Cough, LCS. Cough, F-35.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=o4ZqfEJTGzw
Were Surefire Engineers Watching Too Much Voyager?
Listening to the Gun Nation podcast, and this was brought up:
From Surefire,home of the $1400, 2400 lumen flashlight.
Anyways, all I could think about was this:
Proving once again:
Physics Gives Lazy People Another Reason To Be Late
Unintended side effect:
But this new clock has run into a big problem: This thing we call time doesn’t tick at the same rate everywhere in the universe. Or even on our planet.
If you took two of these clocks and put one higher even a few inches, the two clocks would start reading time differently. Not much, but that difference would build up.
Why? Gravity. In fact, one of the proposed uses of this kind of device is to measure gravity to help get a better picture of the make-up of the planet.
Science is cool.
Expiration Dates of Meds
Over on the Survival Blog is an article on keeping meds past their expiration date. Good read.
Basically, if it’s pills or capsules, those suckers can last for years past the date on the bottle. Liquid meds are another issue.
So, yeah, get that big bottle of pills from Sam’s/Costco/Amazon.
H/t Unc
Friday Quote- Brian Cox
The problem with the world today is that everyone believes they have the right to express an opinion AND have others listen to it.
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to express an opinion, but crucially, that opinion may be roundly ignored, even be made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably NONSENSE.
Friday Quote – Neil deGrasse Tyson
I’m optimistic. I see no longer people accepting fuzzy thinking in the world. The change is not that people aren’t still saying under-informed things. The change is that if you’re in power and you say something under-informed, there are people out there with a voice who will take you to task for saying so.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The marketplace of ideas is truly a wonderful thing.