Reading

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the good and the bad; the wonder and the falling apart

Errant thought from June 13:
The world keeps seeming more and more dystopian. But it is really amazing to be able to ask a computer complex things in natural language, and get back coherent, valid responses in natural language too. My mind often glosses over that wonder because of everything else going on. And also because of knowing that wonderful achievement has its own associated dystopian aspects to it, which will just get worse and worse as they are exploited.

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Like this: The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel

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Kids growing up now and in the future may find it difficult to believe actual photos and movie footage from past atrocities, including the Holocaust. They will have no way to trust that the images are real and were not generated by AI. Perhaps if they looked through an old book with photos, and could trust that it was published in the year it said it was, before AI was capable of what it is now, perhaps that would be believable to them. But books are becoming rarer, especially old ones. Old books didn't have many photos. Were there many books with photos of atrocities? Encyclopedias would have perhaps a few photos for each topic. Certain magazines were more likely to have extensive photos. There may be digitized versions of the books and magazines available online, but then you get back to how can you trust that the digitized item you're looking at isn't a fake?

I'm already at that distrusting stage with much of what I see online. When you don't know what is trustworthy, you end up choosing to believe the things which align with your already-formed beliefs. "This aligns with my beliefs; I don't know if it is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was." "This doesn't align with my beliefs; why spend time and mental effort considering that it might be true when it very well might not be?"

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recycling

local recycling - spiral wound composite cans, frozen food boxes, gable-top cartons

The below statement (bolded by me) about composite cans was added in 2021, between July and October, per the internet archive.

Richland County, SC - Recycling

Cardboard, Chipboard, & Cereal Boxes
Corrugated cardboard is accepted for recycling - cut or fold so the cardboard fits into the roll cart. Flatten boxes and place them in your recycling roll cart. Spiral Wound Composite Cans (i.e. canned potato chips, nuts, raisins, coffee, etc.) are accepted for recycling. Wax or plastic coated cardboard is NOT accepted. Chipboard boxes such as cereal boxes must be clean and dry and only have stored dry, non-refrigerated foods. Pizza boxes are recyclable- the pizza is not! So make sure the pizza box is free of ALL food debris (and the extra cheese)

I'm surprised they accept the composite cans now, as the cardboard part usually has a film of metal and/or plastic foil attached. I've been in the habit of separating the metal from the rest, and peeling the foil off the cardboard when possible.

For "cardboard cans", the Recycling Wizard says to "Please put metal and plastic lids in garbage."

Per the above guidelines, I suppose I'm doing a bad thing when I put paperboard boxes from refrigerated and frozen items in the recycling bin. But they are clean boxes; the food contents usually are in plastic bags inside the boxes. And the cardboard tears the same easily as non-refrigerated boxes. So I have a hard time convincing myself that there's any difference; they don't *seem* to have a plastic coating.

[Trying to convince myself...]

Per this video from a different jurisdiction: Why Aren't Frozen Food Boxes
Recyclable?, "Frozen food boxes are sprayed with a polycoat to protect from freezer burn."

It makes sense that the cardboard would be coated. If the coating is thin enough, it probably doesn't inhibit you from being able to tear it. But wait, what about refrigerated (non-frozen) boxes? Would they be coated too? You don't get freezer burn in the refrigerator. But I think many things sold in the refrigerated section are kept frozen in transit and storage. So, maybe.

Per that video, the reason why gable-top cartons are an exception and are accepted is because the manufacturers buy them back to recycle them themselves. I hadn't heard of that before. In that case, I'm doing a bad thing by tearing open the cartons to more easily rinse and flatten them. Doing that makes them less distinguishable from other flattened paperboard, for purposes of separating them out.

For gable-top cartons, our waste wizard says "Empty and open to air dry. Discard caps in garbage." So I suppose it's still ok to break open the top part for purposes of cleaning them and tearing off the part with the plastic spout. Although maybe even that is wrong, because doing that makes the cartons more crushable, and then they are less distinguishable again.

I wish the wizard and guidelines had way more details. (The wizard doesn't even clearly say that some items are recyclable even when the guidelines do; but that's a separate issue.)

TO DO: Next time I am discarding a frozen box, tear a piece off and soak it in water, and do the same with a piece torn off a cereal box for comparison.

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a danger of having multiple supplements in liquid drop form

I put what I thought was 6 drops of Vitamin D on my spoon, put it in my mouth and started swallowing it. The taste was unexpected; strong and sweet instead of mild and oily. Realizing it was iodine drops instead of Vitamin D, I spit out as much as possible into the sink. I don't want to overdose on iodine. Per that article, 6 drops would still have been under the recommended upper limit, but it would have been half-way there.

I don't take either of those supplements on a frequent or regular basis; I also take chewable children's multivitamins. Both bottles are quite old; I suspect the D may have lost potency so I'm less worried about taking more of it. But iodine is a mineral which I imagine is less likely to lose potency, and its dosage is a single drop per day to get 100% of the recommended amount.

Most people don't need to supplement with iodine, but I had read that vegans often have low levels of it.

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soap and towels in olden day public restrooms

I have a memory from the 1980s of a certain semi-public restroom (like in restaurants, but this was a building with a big meeting room where one of my aunt's clubs had meetings and events) in Germany. The building itself was probably built in the preceding decades.

The soap dispenser was metal with a small crank-handle that you would turn. Inside must have been a block of bar soap. Turning the crank would grate off flakes of soap into your other waiting hand. I think the soap was pink.

The hand towel was a long length of fabric which presumably was rolled up at the top and bottom inside the device it was dispensed from. You would only see a section of the fabric at a time. To get a fresh part of the towel you would either pull on the fabric, or perhaps turn a knob on the side; I don't recall exactly. This would cause the fabric to unroll from the top and get rolled up into the bottom of the unit.

The towel was mostly white like the one in this photo, but I think it had colored stripes on both vertical edges instead of in the center.

This video shows the inside of a similar device:
Continuous Cloth Roll Towel Machine

The soap device was like this one:
GRUNELLA® -Seifenmühle
Soap for cranking

That wasn't the only restroom I encountered those devices in; they were common back then in many places. Similar devices can still be bought nowadays, and for your own bathroom too, from what I see.