plasticwrap

Not Sunk, Dissolved

Whether or not it contributes to global warming, carbon dioxide is turning the oceans acidic, Britain's leading scientific organization warned yesterday.

"I think there are very serious issues to be addressed," the panel's chairman, Dr. John Raven of the University of Dundee in Scotland, said in an interview. "It will affect all organisms that have skeletons, shells, hard bits that are made of calcium carbonate." - nytimes.com

Scarier Than Heart Disease

Ads placed by urinals in pub toilets tell men, "Bad news. Smoking causes impotence. More bad news. These ads are in the ladies' too". - guardian.co.uk.
Read the rest of the article here.

Vested Interest

If tests conducted by the War Office in Egypt are any guide, the humble string vest - particularly the loose knit Sherpa version - may well be the greatest boon to mankind since the invention of air conditioning. - guardian.co.uk

The first air conditioner came into operation in 1902. - more...

The string vest goes back to the ancient Egyptians at least. Net-work, incorporating things like feathers, stones, beads and totems, shows up in most (if not all) early cultures we know of.

(The popular myth is that The string vest design was supposedly invented by a Norwegian army commander named Henrik Brun in 1933. Legend states that Brun sewed his first set of string underwear out of old fishermen' nets, and at the time it was an authentic and original idea.)

Since the Guardian seem to be going with the myth, though, the very least they could do is tone down the hyperbole. Nothing of note was invented between 1902 and 1933?
1903 - the first gas motored and manned airplane
1904 - teabags
1907 - color photography
1910 - the first talking motion picture
1913 - stainless steel
1922 - insulin
1927 - a complete electronic television system
1930 - the frozen food process
1931 - the electron microscope
1932 - Polaroid photography

Watch That Cellphone

Quick poll - how many people still wear watches? I don't, I just use my cellphone since the date and time are clearly displayed, even in standby mode. Telecom cellphones are particularly good because they find out their own time and date from the network, but I used my Vodafone cell as a watch too.

I know of 2 other people who use cellphones instead of wristwatches. What do you do?