Some people are skeptical about biodegradable materials, but honestly, ten years ago nobody believed paper straws would catch on either. I think if we can turn leftover plant waste like grapevines into something useful, there's a real chance to start phasing out throwaway plastics in the kinds of products we only use once and forget.
You can buy reusable metal straws online or from a variety of retailers today, and you can remove (or refuse) the lid to a cup, at which point it can be used without a straw.
Another option would be to buy canned beverages rather than fountain drinks.
That's true, and as far as my quick research has gone, the plastic is burned off during the smelting process of aluminum recycling.
Because of the small amount of plastic in each can, and the high heat of the smelting process, odds are good the thin plastic liner will be almost fully combusted, which should greatly reduce the amount of microplastics.[1]
Totally agree. Calculators didn’t kill math. Cameras didn’t kill painting. Tools change the baseline, but people still push the edges. The ones who love the craft won’t stop just because it got easier for others.
If you want to slow cognitive decline or improve mental flexibility, then learning a second language, even if it's started later in life, does make sense, but expecting it to improve intelligence or memory overall is probably a beautiful but unrealistic fantasy.
'Second language' is a technical term meaning a foreign language learnt after early childhood. For example, if someone grows up speaking English and German natively and then learns French at school, French is a second language to them, even though you could say it's language #3.
What’s striking here isn’t just the spiders it’s the idea that living creatures can directly plug into chemical energy from the Earth without sunlight. That’s a whole ecosystem powered by methane instead of photosynthesis.
It reminded me of the last time I walked into a random little cafe in a strange city and heard some live jazz music. The whole atmosphere was quiet and relaxing. When you are not in a hurry, not thinking about taking pictures or posting on social media, you will really start to "see" the place.
It's a fascinating idea that gravity could be an emergent result of how information works in the universe. I feel like we still don't have that clear piece of evidence where this model predicts something different from general relativity. For now it is one of those theories that are fun to explore but still hard to fully accept.
My attitude towards AI is one of balance not overly dependent, but not completely rejecting either. After all, AI is already playing an important role in many fields, and I believe the future will be a world where humans and AI coexist and collaborate. There are many things humans cannot do, but AI can help us achieve them. We provide the ideas, and AI can turn those ideas into actions, helping us accomplish tasks.
I used to make these long to do lists and chase after big goals.
But honestly, most of them never got done.
What actually helped me were small limits, like not checking Slack after dinner or opening a new tab only after I finished the task at hand.
Sounds weird, but limits gave me more freedom.
Less chasing, more doing.
I also found that I was most likely to procrastinate when the goal was too vague and the task was too big. So now I will break the task into super small steps, such as "open a file" or "run a test." It sounds a bit silly, but it really works. Maybe sometimes the brain does not need a motivational speech, but just a gentle push.
To be honest, these "Bin Stores" are really a bit strange, like treasure hunting, but also like endless consumption. I went there once last weekend, and curiosity drove me in. To be honest, the feeling of rummaging through boxes and cabinets in the hope of finding good things is really exciting, like a modern version of "scavenger". I found an almost new coffee grinder for only 5 yuan (the original price may be 50), but I also saw a lot of plastic garbage, which looked like rummaging through a garbage dump.
Interestingly, some stores seem to deliberately mix some valuable things into the boxes. For example, I found a brand new mobile phone case in the pile of cables that time. It is probably this mentality of "maybe I will find treasure next time" that makes people go back again and again.
