Today I Learned

[kyphysics]

There is 'pressure treated' lumber available... would you be comfortable living in a poison-saturated box for the rest of you life?

p.s. The roofers get a fair amount of business ripping of complete roofs and replacing rafters that have been eaten by the critters.

Does pressure-treated always have to mean "toxic" (if that's what you meant by poison-saturated box)?

I ask, b/c I've been learning about woods types just this past week. Going to Home Depot and talking to a crawl space inspector. Most of the beams (the large blocks of wood) are pressure treated, because they support the structure of the house at the foundation/floor the most. Then the joints (smaller cuts of wood) are often untreated (and can rot more easily from moisture).

Roofers here get lots of work from storm damage. There really is no place on Earth, I suppose that is free from some kind of pest or natural weather disasters. I guess if you need a job, one can probably find one as a disaster restoration worker or a pest control guy/gal.

These fit the 3 D's that Americans want to avoid in a job: dirty; difficult; and dangerous.

Going inside a storm torn home with a falling apart ceiling, water up above your ankles, and walls plastered with mold and having to stay for days cleaning it up is not an ideal job to have to do month after month and year after year. A local guy I talked to who does mitigation & restoration says they cannot keep a tech at his company for more than just a few years. People don't like the work.

 

[kyphysics]

If I dealt with mold and/or termites daily for work, I'd be scared I might accidentally bring it home.

 

[Hornbein]

There is 'pressure treated' lumber available... would you be comfortable living in a poison-saturated box for the rest of you life?

As far as I know most wood is treated with arsenic, which as a heavy metal isn't volitile.

I live in Bali and there are termites everywhere. No one tents. Most homes are built out of concrete blocks. Mine is of ironwood. They still infest it but the density slows them down.

In Japan hot baths are a big deal during the winter. The room is sealed and is hot and humid the whole time. I never could understand how they didn't get mildew.

 

[BillTre]

From AAAS news:

From bacteria to blue whales, the number of cells in living things exceeds the estimated number of sand grains on Earth by a factor of a trillion. It’s 1 million times larger than all the stars in the universe. And the number of cells that have ever lived is 10 orders of magnitude larger still, according to new estimates researchers reported last week in Current Biology.

 

[Swamp Thing]

TIL that a major source of Vitamin-D for supplements is lanolin, the oil that sheep secrete from their skin. This oil is a by-product of the wool industry. After extraction the oil goes through a process that includes irradiation with UV light.

 

[Hornbein]

Today, I learned that the Parthenon was largely intact until the late 17th century. In 1687, during a military conflict between Venice and the Ottoman Empire, a Venetian mortar struck an Ottoman ammunition bunker inside, and the resulting explosion killed hundreds of Turkish soldiers and heavily damaged the structure.

 

[kyphysics]

I live in Bali and there are termites everywhere. No one tents. Most homes are built out of concrete blocks. Mine is of ironwood. They still infest it but the density slows them down.

In Japan hot baths are a big deal during the winter. The room is sealed and is hot and humid the whole time. I never could understand how they didn't get mildew.

Are you sure they didn't get mildew? Is it possible they just treat it frequently?

My uncle worked and lived in Singapore for several years (as an American) and said his office building constantly had mold problems. They had dehumidifiers and constantly sprayed the building. It just kept coming back and back. Singapore is oppressively humid. I've been once for vacation and it's miserable. Beautiful place to live on average, but just so sticky, hot, and humid.

Interesting Bali fact. What are the positives you like about it there?

 

[Hornbein]

Are you sure they didn't get mildew? Is it possible they just treat it frequently?

My uncle worked and lived in Singapore for several years (as an American) and said his office building constantly had mold problems. They had dehumidifiers and constantly sprayed the building. It just kept coming back and back. Singapore is oppressively humid. I've been once for vacation and it's miserable. Beautiful place to live on average, but just so sticky, hot, and humid.

Interesting Bali fact. What are the positives you like about it there?

No treatment. I don't understand it. It doesn't seem possible. There was some red stuff that would grow but it wasn't much.

I thought Singapore was OK. I guess it depends on the time of year. Taiwan on the other hand... But who knows, maybe it isn't always that way. Most humid place I ever lived was North Carolina. That was too much.

Bali : nice people, art everywhere, great climate, very religious, good music and dance, beautiful plants, mostly rural, you are never far from a rice paddy. Low cost doesn't hurt. I'm retired, but they welcome Westerners coming in to run a business. Lots of nordic Russians these past five years or so, mostly couples with young children.

I also like Tokyo, a very quiet and clean city which is a stone bargain. No one believes this. Possibly the best music in the world. Dance is great too.

 

[kyphysics]

I also like Tokyo, a very quiet and clean city which is a stone bargain. No one believes this. Possibly the best music in the world. Dance is great too.

Tokyo does seem great. But, in absolute terms (not relative to all you get), is it not super expensive to live there?

I agree North Carolina is very humid. I think the entire Southern U.S. is like that. Virginia is mid-Atlantic, so some consider it the South and others think it's not. It's humid here, nonetheless, and this causes problems (mold, fungus, and mildew). . . .At least we don't have alligators wandering into backyards like Florida, though.

 

[Hornbein]

Tokyo does seem great. But, in absolute terms (not relative to all you get), is it not super expensive to live there?

I agree North Carolina is very humid. I think the entire Southern U.S. is like that. Virginia is mid-Atlantic, so some consider it the South and others think it's not. It's humid here, nonetheless, and this causes problems (mold, fungus, and mildew). . . .At least we don't have alligators wandering into backyards like Florida, though.

Two years ago I found Tokyo slightly cheaper than rural Michigan. Since then the yen has plunged 30%(!) so it's very cheap now. Osaka is even less. Like I said, no one believes this, especially since in the arts Tokyo is in the same league as New York City, London, and Paris.

The only things that are expensive are taxicabs and music, and I didn't use taxicabs.

 

[pinball1970]

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nasa-voyager-team-focuses-software.html

NASA attempting some patch up work on Voyager1&2

 

[pinball1970]

Voyager was launched in 1977 so this is a long study that is still yielding data.

The biology equivalent? A long term experiment still giving results? Lenski came to mind, his study of E. coli evolution began in 1988. That is pretty long.

A quick google however (TIL) there are some pretty strange, longstanding experiments with clocks, Bells and pitch to name a few.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...tar-pitch-longest-running-experiments-science

 

[Borg]

Not exactly an experiment but very long lived - Centennial Light.

The world's longest burning light bulb is located right here in Livermore! It was first installed at the fire department hose cart house on L Street in 1901.

The Centennial Light is the world's longest-lasting light bulb, burning since 1901, and almost never turned off. It is located at 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California, and maintained by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department.

 

[PeterDonis]

I agree North Carolina is very humid. I think the entire Southern U.S. is like that.

The southeastern US is humid, but the southwestern US is not, it's arid. In the summer it gets pretty humid even in the Northeastern US; I have been in Boston in the summer and it's not much different from northern Virginia where I grew up.

Virginia is mid-Atlantic, so some consider it the South and others think it's not.

It depends on what part of Virginia. Northern Virginia isn't, but parts of southern and southwestern Virginia certainly seem like it. Climatically it's basically humid if you're not in or close to the mountains.

At least we don't have alligators wandering into backyards like Florida, though.

That's not all of Florida, only certain parts.

 

[gmax137]

It depends on what part of Virginia. Northern Virginia isn't

My family moved to Fairfax City in 1965. It was still pretty southern then, there were cowpastures within the city limits, most of the businesses were in old wooden buildings. The 'natives' still outnumbered the transplants moving in to work in DC or at the pentagon. The city council had recently re-named Sherman Road to Pickett Road; I guess this fit better with Lee Highway (and Old Lee Highway). Plenty of southern attitude, both the good and the bad.

My brother still lives in the area. I'm always shocked when I visit, northern Va is unrecognizable.

 

[BWV]

Lost cities in the Amazon
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...the-amazon-discovered-from-the-air-180980142/

must have been a much more habitable place before Europeans introduced malaria

 

[PeterDonis]

My family moved to Fairfax City in 1965.

Mine did in 1969, and then to Greenbriar in 1970. We moved to Pax River in Maryland in 1971, then to Long Island in 1974, then back to Reston, Virginia in 1977. Even in those six years or so between Greenbriar and Reston, the changes were significant (and included, I think, a significant reduction in the southern attitude you mention, as more and more of the people became transplants--the latter of course included my family). And of course between then and now the changes have been huge. Much of the population of Northern Virginia now lives on land that was farms or woods when I was a kid.

 

[gmax137]

Reston, Virginia in 1977

Ha ha, I was working summers for an outfit building houses in Reston, '75 through '77. Maybe I carried the lumber for the framers building your house. Or the appliances, one summer all I did was carry them into the (almost finished) kitchens. Avocado or Harvest Gold.

 

[berkeman]

Or the appliances, one summer all I did was carry them into the (almost finished) kitchens. Avocado or Harvest Gold.

And they are likely still working just fine...

 

[PeterDonis]

Ha ha, I was working summers for an outfit building houses in Reston, '75 through '77. Maybe I carried the lumber for the framers building your house.

My parents weren't the first owners of the house we moved into in 1977; it was built in 1971. But some nearby neighborhoods were built in between; they weren't there when we lived in Greenbriar but they had been built by the time we moved to Reston. So we no doubt saw plenty of houses that had your handiwork in them.

 

[kyphysics]

I used to drive to Reston area every week for LSAT prep classes (never went to law school, but at one point was interested). It's very nice. If I could afford to live there, I would.

 

[Borg]

I didn't realize that I had so many neighbors on PF.

 

[berkeman]

I didn't realize that I had so many neighbors on PF.

Well, we have been known to organize regional reunions. Just sayin'.

 

[BillTre]

I grew up in Bethesda.
The property trends and weather seem to be pretty similar there also.
There were big changes in a lot of things in Bethesda when the subway was finished.
So say my parents. I had moved away by then.

 

[kyphysics]

I grew up in Bethesda.
The property trends and weather seem to be pretty similar there also.
There were big changes in a lot of things in Bethesda when the subway was finished.
So say my parents. I had moved away by then.

Good gracious. Are we ALL mid-Atlantic residents here? lol

I think the job market overall is better in NOVA vs. Maryland, but housing may be more affordable.

 

[gmax137]

Good gracious. Are we ALL mid-Atlantic residents here? lol

Not anymore. I left around 1980. Currently in northern Nevada.

 

[kyphysics]

Well, your roots are still here.

I think of all the places I've lived, mid-Atlantic has felt the best mix (weather, population size, economy, local attractions, quality of life, etc.). I feel like having LOTS of government jobs and agencies gives a kind of permanent stability to this region.

Government isn't going anywhere. Military isn't going anywhere. It's not a narrowly focused private sector economy region like Detroit's automobile industry was. There's just a different pace and culture to life here. Stability is the word I'd use more than anything.

 

[PeterDonis]

Are we ALL mid-Atlantic residents here?

I was, but am not now. I now live in Florida. (But not in an area that has alligators coming into backyards...)

 

[pinball1970]

T.I.L. A little bit about "Squeezing" https://phys.org/news/2023-10-ligo-surpasses-quantum-limit.html

 

[BWV]

There is only one video of John von Neumann, a teen Q&A show on NBC in the mid 50s