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Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

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Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#311

Post by nommm-nommm »

dmix wrote: post #203
RealityVoid wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"possible unfolding of latent mental conditions" Interesting, can you expand on this? First time I hear this. I know someone that told me of a friend of his that hid some LSD at a border crossing close to the body and as a result of the trip, the guy got severe permanent psychatric damage in that he's currently residing in an institution. I thought he was full of shit, but if what you're saying is true, he might not…

That sounds like the typical word of mouth story FUD that spreads about LSD. I'd be curious to hear more evidence of this "uncovering latent mental illness" as well.

So a good friend of mine got LSD induced psychosis. It wasn't permanent but for about a month he was exhibiting symptoms and he was totally off the deep end for about a week or so. Friends had to bring him to the hospital days later and they kept him in the psych ward for a while.

It was incredibly scary that it lasted so long and I was so worried he'd never be the same again.

Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#312

Post by nommm-nommm »

SonicPenguin wrote: post #40
Clanan wrote: post #16

"A chance discovery occurred when one of the scientific team, Federica Bertocchini, an amateur beekeeper, was removing the parasitic pests from the honeycombs in her hives. The worms were temporarily kept in a typical plastic shopping bag that became riddled with holes." What a great accident.

Five years ago my balcony was invaded by fly larvae (maggots i guess) because my flatmate left some raw meat in the trash bin. While trying to contain the invasion, i put some of them in two or three nested plastic bags, but they ALWAYS found their way through the plastic after some minutes. They were literally making holes in them. I thought this was normal and well-known!

Well if you put me in a plastic bag I would also be able to get out by tearing a hole in the plastic bag. That fact doesn't say anything about my ability to metabolize plastic though. I would never even consider the worms were doing anything else but mechanically chewing the plastic.

Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#313

Post by greenshackle2 »

animal531 wrote: post #304
greenshackle2 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see how it comes across that way but I'm fascinated that OP does not kill flies, I was genuinely curious if it extended to farm animals too. I would have bet they are vegetarian. The question is worth considering, I wrote up a detailed answer on why I don't care about insects in a sibling thread. EDIT: I'm not well placed to argue from hypocrisy, I'm like 90% vegetarian but I still eat meat. Meateaters love tak…

That's because there's no such thing as 90% vegetarian, it's a binary option which you've re-purposed into a scale. I eat meat at every opportunity, but if I were to calculate a number such as yours then I'd be say "65% vegetarian" just due to the volume difference between meat and the rest. People taking a swing at you is most likely just because you describe yourself as a vegetarian to them even though you're still…

What I mean is that I eat 90% less meat than I used to as an average omnivore. A can of sardines or tuna per week and beef once in a long while is far from 10% of my diet, in terms of calories or mass or whatever metric you choose.

> I eat meat at every opportunity, but if I were to calculate a number such as yours then I'd be say "65% vegetarian" just due to the volume difference between meat and the rest.

Most people, who don't try to take my words in the least charitable way possible as you are here, understand just fine what 'mostly vegetarian' means.

I don't describe myself as vegetarian (without qualifiers).

> That's because there's no such thing as 90% vegetarian, it's a binary option which you've re-purposed into a scale.

Words are meant for communicating. Arguing by definition is a losers' game.

Note that meateaters give me more crap than full on vegetarians/vegans. If the issue was really that I'm coopting the word, you'd think it'd be the opposite.

My experience is that, at least among my circles, vegetarians can appreciate that reduced meat consumption = reduced animal suffering and environmental impact, even if you're not 100% pure; it's meateaters, who feel you are trying to take a moral high ground, who will try to take you down.

Actually my problem is probably that I did use to be strictly vegetarian, vegan at one point, for a few years, and slipped back for various reasons. I don't claim it anymore but it's not like I made a public announcement that I am no longer strictly vegetarian.

Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#314

Post by kwhitefoot »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #227
freeflight wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yeah, I just have to worry about higher beings justifying the termination of my primitive nervous system "for science". They might as well just terminate your primitive nervous system for their own nutritional needs or out of mere hunting instinct. Plenty of animals do this all the time, nature isn't romantic idealistic, it's ruthless and unforgiving.

Or alternatively, beautifully efficient.

Efficient at what? Efficiency is always relative to a particular goal, what did you have in mind?

Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#316

Post by sctb »

notpresident wrote: post #126
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try not to kill flies, no. The only exception is for multiple flies that won't go away. Ditto for ants. It's a bit strange that violence toward insects is fine, but violence towards dogs is not. Ever killed a dog because it annoyed you? That said, doing it for science at least has a justification.

Tangentially related and I expect a 50% chance to be punished for this but it is really interesting and I think it deserves some thought: It always surprises me how a number of HNers worries about killing insects, even for science - all while supporting the killing of unborn children.

> Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#318

Post by DrScump »

sounds wrote: post #122
Cyph0n wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are advanced cities even allowed to have landfills in a residential area?

Mountain View (in the area nearest the bay) is a former landfill. http://www.mountainview.gov/depts/pw/landfill.asp I only mean to point out that although it may not be "allowed in the present," these problems last a lot longer than it takes for humans to move in to the area, or write new laws.

The misnamed Shoreline Amphitheater and the golf course are built on the old landfill site.

Events early in Shoreline's history had a problem with the lawn catching fire due to the uncontrolled seepage of methane from under the lawn (as a decay biproduct). Sort of the "everybody-hold-up-your-lighter-for-mood" effect, but uncontrolled.

Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#319

Post by DrScump »

riskable wrote: post #193
rmason wrote: post #173

There's already a much better solution to deal with plastic pollution, a naturally degradable material made from corn. We heavily subsidize both wind power and solar. We even still subsidize gasohol even though it doesn't produce the environmental benefits we first thought that it did. But we don't subsidize degradable plastic made from corn which isn't used widely because it costs a few cents more than plastic made…

You are grossly oversimplifying the issues. You're referring to Polylactic Acid (PLA) which is made from corn and biodegradable. Except it only biodegrades when eaten by bacteria that only lives in soil . Meaning: If plastic made from PLA ends up in waterways, the oceans, etc it won't degrade there and actually just breaks down into smaller parts creating the exact same sort of problem as microbeads (except PLA doesn…

There is active research toward turning corn husks into a promising, new clothing fiber:

https://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2014/03/25/farm-waste-fashionista...

Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

#320

Post by mark-r »

greglindahl wrote: post #267
prodikl wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pretty sure we could come up with another type of liner

It'd be an unusual landfill to start with, because caterpillars generally don't like anaerobic conditions. More like a compost pile that's kept well-aerated.

It seemed like there was a desire to mass produce the chemical that the caterpillar uses to dissolve the plastic, not to use actual caterpillars.
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