Preflight_Tomato @ Preflight_Tomato @lemm.ee

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Joined

2 yr. ago

Ultimately, the question is: "What is the dollar a unit of?". The answer is roughly "energy" in the physical sense, or effort/labor in more human language.

What I think is interesting is that then, the social and physical definitions of the word "power" collapse into the same thing; one with more "power" is able to expend more "energy", the labor of others, in a shorter time.

If you're really interested in the topic, read the book "Energy and Civilization: A History" by Vaclav Smil, published in 2017. It covers the efficiencies of tool use and how innovations in technologies that caused increased labor efficiency have catalyzed societal changes and revolutions, even going so far as to discuss GDP in units of Joules.

I've resolved to find and cut the antenna(s) when I have to buy a new car for this reason.

An equally valid interpretation. 😊

Indeed. I serve the God of Comedy, bringer of Big HaHa 🫡.

Thanks, you've given some great suggestions!

I think that being informed can help dilute the worry. Here’s what I’ve learned:

Most microplastics found inside humans come from synthetic clothing followed by car tires. Theres a great Veritasium video on this. Plastic cookware is also a consideration.

Food & Cookware

Don’t buy dishwasher pods, they're worse for the environment (plastic waste) and worse for your wallet than just a regular fluid container. Both fluid container and pod container are plastic so theres not much improvement to be had there.

My friend with a Chemical Engineering degree tells me that the plastics are stable chemically, and insufficient evidence exists to deem them harmful when left alone in cool temperatures. HOWEVER, unreacted precursor chemicals and thermosets are highly reactive, and new plastics come still coated with this. New car smell? Thats unreacted precursor, and it’s very harmful. Additionally, plastic cookware also gets hot, breaking it down slowly, and potentially making it harmful.

Avoid plastics and “non-stick” coatings in cookware.

Clothing

First thought is to avoid synthetic clothing, but theres a catch… Synthetic clothing is significantly better at blocking harmful UV light from the sun. For example, polyester & Nylon UPF is about 30-50+, whereas cotton is around 5. UPF = SPF generally. For this, I prefer wool (UPF ~40) or denim (UPF 1000+ off the chart). However, thats hot, so using some tight knit polyester shirts is a must in warm climates. Many shirts from retailers like REI have this stuff. So far, the ones I own have never shed noticeably, though that may change.

Why am I talking about sun protection? Remember, the goal is your health, not fearful avoidance of one harm that subjects you to another.

For all fabrics that aren't expected to protect from the sun, natural fibers are preferred. Included is bedding, towels, bathrobe, pajamas, casual clothing, socks, etc.

Other thoughts

For all of this, my friend says that I probably don't need to worry, and I have never seen convincing evidence that microplastics are harmful inside the body. Yet, I operate as if it were proven, because I don't want to risk reading that I’ve been poisoning myself ten years from now.

Password Entropy = length * log₂(possible_chars). So this would actually add 7*log₂(10) => 23 bits of entropy, assuming the attacker knew that this section was numeric, or ~45 bits if they didn't.

For anyone curious: Current best practice is a minimum of 100 bits, or 16 characters assuming only letters, numbers, and special characters. The recommended minimum bits increases every year with computing power.