Your Salad Is Killing Leather And Other Facts
Salad Is Killing Leather
There's no hiding it, leather comes from cows — specifically dead cows.1 And with fewer people eating red meat due to high prices and diet fads, fewer cows are being slaughtered. This is great news for cows, but bad news for tanners, who now have to pay a premium for what leather is available. While luxury leather goods makers couldn't care less, the outfits that supply low-margin apparel — like leather laces — are hurting right now. So, this weekend, go ahead and grill a fat porterhouse, the future of the small tannery is at stake.
Your Clothes Are Worth A Decent Amount Of Money, Maybe
There's less goodwill involved in the contemporary vein of thrift stores such as Beacon's Closet and Buffalo Exchange. The secondhand clothes economy has grown to a $16 billion industry. Part of that is due to the discerning eyes and tastes of store owners, who end up discarding most used clothing to the donating bin, and offering donators a small payday for the few items that are in vogue.
The Hottest Place On Earth Is A Heated Debate
Like a group of friends trying to decide on what kind of wings they should order, scientists are largely divided on the definition of "hot." As such, there is no single place on the planet that is widely agreed-upon as The Hottest Place On Earth. Just like there are wing sauces with a sudden, intense burst of heat and others that leave a lingering, slow-rolling inferno in your palate, there are places on the planet that are capable of singularly-high temperatures, and others with climates that are unrelentingly hot. So, like a group of people who can't decide on a single wing sauce, the solution is to just include them all.
No Really, Never Ever Use Water To Put Out A Grease Fire
You've probably heard "Don't throw water on a grease fire" dozens of times from dozens of people who — despite also hearing it dozens of times from dozens of people — have thrown water on a grease fire. But: Don't throw water on a grease fire. Even if you like, dump an entire 5-gallon bucket of water, the water will not overpower the grease fire. Oil and water are, as the saying goes, oil and water.
There Was Floating Feces During The Apollo 10 Mission
No matter how far humanity's grasp extends into the cosmos, we will still need to poop, and that poop needs to go somewhere. During the Apollo 10 mission, brave astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene A. Cernan orbited around the Moon with poop bags attached to their butts. At one point, those bags failed, forcing the astronauts to deal with floating craps.2
You're Cooking Your Rice Wrong
You need two ingredients to cook rice: water and heat. But what should be a simple process is complicated by the pot you're cooking it in, the level of heat you apply, and the amount of water you add. The directions on the back of your rice bag do not take these into consideration. So, like most things in cooking: Experiment. Find what works for you and your pots.
The Machines Will Eventually Destroy Us
Modern debate amongst singularity buffs does not deal with the question of if super-intelligent machines will eradicate the human race, but rather how super-intelligent machines will eradicate the human race. To do this, they employ the popular Paperclip Maximizer thought experiment. Take a machine that only cares about producing the most amount of paperclips possible. Perhaps it will eliminate humanity outright, because humanity has no purpose in the production of paperclips. Or maybe it'll try and work with humans, enslaving them in the quest for more paperclips. Who knows! The only constant is that our species' greatest achievement will be our undoing.
