131–140 of 147 posts
The coating is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids. How can you use water to clean it if it repels water?
How do you wash your teflon pans?
The lack of understanding about possible cancerous effects of nano materials worries me, especially with stuff like this and "nanocosmetic" materials. I'd just hate to find out 20 years down the road that all of our miracle materials were slowly killing us.
The lack of understanding about possible cancerous effects of wifi worries me, especially with stuff like this and "cellular" phones. The lack of understanding about possible cancerous effects of CRT screens worries me, especially with stuff like this and "digital" displays. The lack of understanding about possible cancerous effects of GMO food worries me... The lack of understanding about possible cancerous effects…
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I'm going to start a pool. Buy in is $200 equivalent[1] per square. The board will be a 3 dimensional matrix, whose axis are: 1. The amount of time from now the collapse occurs. (most likely a logrithmic scale) 2. How far civilization falls, e.g. "back to the 19th century" or "back to the stone age"[2]. 3. How "wierd" this makes the world, e.g. are there 40 degree temperature shifts in the afternoon in San Diego and…
What happens if you are killed or decide to steal the contents of the cache?
The short of it is you have no guarantee that I will not steal cache, other than my personal beliefs and ethics prevent me from doing so.
As for me dying before your winnings can be distributed: I understand this concern. I assure you I will actively do anything in my power to prevent this. However, in apocalyptic situations this is frequently not enough :(. Of course in an apocalypse a chance at a surviving cache is still better than not having the chance, so consider it a 5th condition on the pool:
Will sophacles survive in the apocalypse to hand out the prize. If you choose yes, sign up. If you choose no, don't sign up :P.
tl; dr -- ignore that paper on my desk that says "how to fund an apocalypse stockpile without spending a dime"
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I'm actually far less alarmed about the material. It sounds pretty great. What worries me is this fixation we seem to have with eliminating bacteria... Isn't there a downside to this? If we spread it around as much as this article describes it seems to me like we'd greatly sanitize our environment... What happens if we greatly reduce the amount of bacteria we're exposed to daily due to some sort of invention like nan…
First bacteria that figures out how to stick to this will have nice place to live and develop, plenty of human associated food and no competition.
Whenever they claim that something will revolutionize everything, it ends up in disappointment. The things that actually do revolutionize everything are usually pooh-poohed at the beginning ("Another search engine?")
Remember when Dean Kamen claimed that the Segway would change the way we built cities? Most hilarious product launch ever.
Imagine that regular glass had not yet been invented, and someone came up with it today. I suppose people here would be questioning its safety.
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There are some places you'd prefer not to have bacteria, though. In dealing with the sick and in preparing food come to mind. I wouldn't mind it for electronics either.
Like scotty79 said, we'll just end up in another 'antibiotic-resistant bacteria'-type situation. Some bacteria will find a way to thrive on those surfaces, and we'll have little defense against it. By that time we'll be largely dependent on those types of surfaces and it won't be easy to change everything out.
Imagine that regular glass had not yet been invented, and someone came up with it today. I suppose people here would be questioning its safety.
2) There's a higher potential harm from new processes and materials that are used everywhere by consumers, versus being used by specialists in exposure-controlled environments.
Because of (1) and (2), if there's anything wrong with this material, the harm will be multiplied.
For example a possibly toxic material used in low-rate specialty manufacturing by protected workers is different from a possibly toxic material that's distributed in fun inhalers inside of cereal boxes.
These concerns are not at all irrational, and are in fact more empirical than reflexive anti-questioning snarkery.
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No. The spray can will just be shaped like a volcano.
So is this the beginning influx of reddit jokes on HN?