Fuck me.

We’re currently in a “plastic age” where we make a lot of plastic for various needs1. It’s predicted that by 2050, we’ll be producing more than 34,000 million metric tons of plastic2. Miserably, only 9% of the plastic we use gets recycled, 12% is burned, and the rest, a whopping 79%, ends up buried in the ground3. In 2020, Asia, North America, and Europe accounted for 49%, 19%, and 15% of the world’s plastic, respectively. Asia, North America, and Europe each contributed 49%, 19%, and 15%, respectively, of the world’s plastics output in 2020, which is close to 370 million Metric Tons (Mt)4. On an individual level, each person makes over 130 kg of plastic waste every year5. The problem is that a lot of this plastic waste ends up in the soil, where it breaks down into tiny pieces like fragments, fibers, and pellets6. We call these tiny pieces Microplastics (MPs).

God that hurts to read.

It’s usually to do with precision.

150mm means 150mm, but 15cm means between 145mm and 155mm.

What even is the story?

I was in a place and a thing creaked and I ran away with some assistance.

Amazing. Loser.

Again, not the topic being discussed here.

Plants don’t absorb microplastics from the soil, or at least that’s my assumption.

Therefore, if you live near a road, washing your veggies should remove the microplastics that have accumulated in the leaves

No, we don’t actually.

We live on the south coast so the small flies are only around for a few weeks, and the bigger ones never get too problematic.

Spiders don’t really control flies. Plenty of flies in the bush. A couple of flies a week is ample sustenance even for a large spider.

I don’t think that has anything to do with what we’re talking about.

Are microplastics “a toxin”?

The amount from traffic one residential street would be infinitesimal I imagine.

I don’t know anything about biology but that’s not how I imagined that would work.

Settle down mate, there’s no need to be a cunt about it.

You’re conflating residential use with agricultural use. Bifenthrin is not “banned throughout the EU”, it’s restricted from agricultural use.

The studies you’re referring to talk about dosages starting from 0.01 mg/kg per day. That’s something like 1ml a week for a toddler. They’re not going to “catch autism” from playing near the fence I sprayed with bifenthrin a month ago.

I live in Western Australia.

I don’t believe it’s really possible in practice to actually die from a spider bite in my area, although we do have spiders here which are considered “deadly” and there’s plenty of these around. Our kids are 3 year old twins. They love being outside but have no awareness of friendly vs deadly bugs.

You can buy poison / repellent stuff from the hardware store. Don’t mess around with a pressurised can. Get the 3 or 4L bottle of something bifenthrin based. Mix & pour into one of those big pump spray bottle things, you want one with a wand.

Then spray the places around the outside of your house, fences, and garage where spiders would like to be. Do this twice a year. I do it once after the end of the rain season, and again 6 months later.

It’s quicker and easier than mowing the lawn, and it avoids having webs everywhere outside, and huntsman-surprise inside.

I think everyone wants to “enact change”.

The problem is, the people with the requisite skills can earn much more than $60k doing something else.

Salary will have unintended consequences.

Why would anyone choose that job unless they were already very wealthy?

Wait, is my GrapheneOS phone unlikely to be hackable by Cellbrite? That’s kind of amazing, I had no idea.

This would be great. Definitely one of the few missing features.

I bought a second hand pixel 8 pro.

I get the vibe there’s not much intention to expand compatibility.

This was my first thought as well.

The vast majority of users couldn’t care less about “the algorithm”, and probably think it’s a good thing.

The people who need this aren’t interested.

I don’t mean to be dismissive, but most of what you’ve described is present elsewhere to varying degrees.

Australia seems comparable on all points, although our pension / super system is not great but not terrible.

Our real estate market is shit, with most people priced out of the market over the last decade.

No way.

Cunts just need to invest the bare minimum of effort required in order to be a member of society and return their trolley to the bay.

The coin lock thingy is shit.

Actually marinas like the one pictured or “canal estates” often create environments that become “infested” with pests and predators. Some of which for example contain bull sharks in plague proportions. Yes sharks live in the ocean but anyone living next to a canal teaming with them would conclude that there is an “investation”.

Bull sharks are unique in that they can somehow retain salt from ocean / salt / brackish water which allows them to operate in fresh water. They’re also more aggressive than other species, or perhaps just more likely to grab at movement in murky river water.

I remember watching a documentary suggesting that bull shark attacks might have been the inspiration for the Jaws series, after a spate of attacks in estuaries in the US in the years prior.

Jeremy Wade on River Monsters TV series also had an episode about them.

You seem to be 18 hours late.