Well all the recent news you cannot possibly use…..
If it is Sunday then worthless news is all the rage.
Pythagoras it seems may have liberated some of his stuff from ancient Babylon….
Babylon was the city where some of the most influential empires of the ancient world ruled. For a long time, it was the capital of the Babylonian Empire, and was considered to be the global centre of commerce, art and learning, and is even estimated to have been the largest early city in the world — perhaps the first to reach a population of more than 200,000 people. Today, it resembles more of an archaeological excavation site in progress, and has only several thousand residents and a few villages within its boundaries.
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At the time, researchers did not realise how important the tablet was, and it was not until 1945 that experts realised it contained Pythagorean triples
Next we have news from the GMO front…..
Genetically modified foods are still available in grocery stores, but the process of identifying them has changed. Shoppers will no longer see labels marked “genetically engineered” or “genetically modified organisms.” Instead of “GMO” or “GE,” products will be marked “bioengineered” or include a QR code, website, or phone number for shoppers looking for more information, the Washington Post reports. The Department of Agriculture said the change is in the name of consistency, to eliminate “a patchwork of state labeling regulations.” Food safety advocates and others see confusion ahead.
“The worst part of this law is the use of the term ‘bioengineered’ because that’s not a term most consumers are familiar with,” said Gregory Jaffe, director of the biotechnology project for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. He suspects a main driver of the change is the fact that “GMO” has become pejorative to many people. Even supporters are baffled by the timing. Consumer Brands Association asked the agency to delay the new rules until the pandemic and supply chain crises are over. “We believe the government must take a ‘do no harm’ position right now that allows companies to focus on delivering essential products to consumers,” an official said.
The rules burden consumers further at a difficult time, too. The Center for Food Safety points out that more than 100 million Americans don’t have the smartphones or cell service needed to scan QR codes. Bioengineered foods aren’t a health risk, but advocates say that people who want to avoid eating them will have a tougher time deciphering labels and that the rules have loopholes. Markings such as “USDA Organic” and “NON-GMO Project Verified” still will be allowed. The USDA said it won’t conduct spot checks on the labels in stores but will act on written consumer complaints, per WLS. The Post has a primer on the changes here.
No changes to prevent the crap that passes for food thanx to GMOs….but rather just a way to confuse the consumer.
There is an alternative to burial…it is called cremation and now there is an alternative for that as well…..
On Boxing Day 2021, the world lost one of the greatest activists in its history: Desmond Tutu. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning South African theologian earned global attention for his unrivaled role in highlighting the iniquities of apartheid, continuing his work in conflict resolution right up to his 79th birthday. In one final generous gesture to the wellbeing of humanity, Tutu chose aquamation for his funeral: an eco-friendly alternative to cremation that uses liquid instead of fire to dispose of a body.
“The Archbishop was very clear on his wishes for his funeral,” News24 reports the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said. “He wanted no ostentatiousness or lavish spending. He asked that the coffin be the cheapest available and that a bouquet of carnations from his family be the only flowers in the cathedral.”
What is aquamation?
Aquamation – also known as biocremation, resomation, flameless cremation, and water cremation – uses alkaline hydrolysis to dispose of human or animal remains. Touted as an eco-friendly alternative to cremation, it uses a heated alkaline solution to break down the body, leaving behind only the skeleton.
During aquamation, the body is placed inside a pressurized vessel filled with a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide (lye) and heated to around 90 – 150 °C (200 – 300 °F). As the container is pressurized, the solution doesn’t boil and instead gently gets to work breaking down the organic matter over several hours.
Aquamation vs cremation
Cremation is often considered an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional burial practices that involve costly wooden coffins and embalming chemicals. Around 1 million acres (404,685 hectares) of land in the US is dedicated to human burial, with caskets stripping around 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of forest each year.
While cremation does away with some of this habitat degradation and destruction, it requires immense energy to fuel the fire and pumps out millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually. Among its emission is the pollutant PM10, which has been linked to depression and suicide; and PM2.5, which is associated with poorer heart and lung health plus chronic illness and birth complications.
Aquamation requires roughly one-seventh of the energy used in cremation, and produces none of the emissions. The liquid left behind after aquamation is a sterile mix of organic compounds including salts and amino acids that can either be used as a fertilizer or neutralized and safely released into waterways.
The color of the ashes also varies between aquamation and cremation, with the former resulting in around 32 percent more remains that are then dried and pulverized into a white powder.
Alternatively, you could always consider becoming compost.
In Saner Thought 