Category: Science & Nature

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Check out their Poop Chute!

Miami Zoo has a new exhibit… POOP! Everything you wanted to know about shit is here… check it while the smell is still fresh.

“You know what the whole exhibit is? It’s to have fun. It’s for kids to come in here and be able to talk about things with their parents. Even if it’s things that can be somewhat uncomfortable for parents, it’s a very important part of the process to get them to talk about it,” Zoo ambassador Ron Magill explains.

Miami Zoo Exhibit Gives Scoop On Poop – Exhibit Is Largest Of Kind Ever Assembled [Miami Metro Zoo]

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The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!

Living on the top floor of your building in New York has some great perks. Views of the city skyline, you can get sunlight and fresher air but disite the hight, noise seems to ricochet up through my windows with the same volume as on the streets. Living in preware buildings however, bring on the drawbacks… no ac or elevators. Then comes the issue, the walk up home.

The other day I came home to the building lobby smelling of smoke. Another tenant was getting his mail and out crashed the female tenant in apt 2 (being here two years I have yet to get the names of more than 3 people in the building, they don’t seem to care much that they know mine either). She was frantic and asked with a hightened tone, “what do I do, I think there’s a fire behind my apartment?!” Dude and I looked at each other and said “Call the fire department!”

Panting after the 6th floor run up, the woman was chilling on the couch, undisturbed by more sirens from the street below (a daily occurrence really in new york). “Where’s my food!”, we had ordered congee and it seams that food was more important than our personal possessions incinerating in a fire brewing below. Within minutes the boys from the fire department were here scoping out the alleys and behind the building trying to find the cause of what smelled like burnt newspaper. With my girl sitting comfortably eating and watching a Seinfeld rerun, I came back down stairs to find out the caused was a trash fire caused by probably a cigarette or match. Good news for the neighborhood, a “ho-hum” for the starving gf.

Then like many days, the sirens start filling the walls with their screeching sound, only this time they come and don’t go. After a few minutes, the night streets are lit with the red and yellow hues of a half dozen fire trucks. I head to the roof and immediately see the sky darkened by smoke billowing from the highrise a block away. Flames are rising and I start to see streams of water coming across the roof tops.

I’ve actually never seen a live building fire and I’m just as curious as the dozen of other bystanders gathering loosely around the firemen working to stop the blaze. I make it down to the street and watch them work on the blaze from several raised ladders. The six floor of a corner building is on fire and all I hear are sirens, breaking glass, the water spraying out of the nozzles of several hoses directed at the fires and the gasping conversations of the people watching around me.

With in 30 minutes the fire was contained but not before I took a few shots from the commotion. I was amazed at the quickness of the fire departments response and even more so at the quickness the fire spread around the floor of the building lit up requiring such a response. I should hope for any one involved in such an event, they get out of the way of siren leading vehicles as instructed and let these men get to the jobs they are trained to do, day in and day out. I hope everyone, even my hungry girlfriend, takes these events seriously.

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Scotchguard your life?

What an event. Finially I’ve found a couch for our pad that both fit in the room, and up the stairs…through the door and hallway. Oh and it fits a room motif for white accessories and accents. For over a year now, I’ve been irritably complaining about the uncomfortable bar bench we’ve been using for our communal “living” room comfort seating. Then with an ugly saag paneer color, and now the room is brightened with a white glow from our single arm rest lounger in the corner. The next fear is my first wine stain or chicken wing drop on the pillows…. So I went to 4 stores yesterday looking for the infamous Scotchguard. The master substance that will repel grim, spills and apparently unwanted dirty ex-girlfriends…

To no avail… Kmart, National Whole Saler, Duane Reade and even CVS do not carry it…

So I took to the internet only to find this:

3M and Scotchgard: “Heroes of Chemistry” or a 20-year coverup?

To summarize the link: “Consider 3M’s Scotchgard coatings, surely one of America’s best-known chemical industry brand names. It is universally recognized by consumers as the magical substance that repels water and stains from clothes, carpets and furniture. Hardly anyone knows Scotchgard has been used for years in the wrappings for an eye-opening list of packaged and fast foods. ”

Now what I found out: “Scotchgard ingredients belong to a large family of chemicals that degrade to form a chemical called PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonate…..

In the 50 years between the start of commercial production and the phaseout announcement, many millions of pounds of PFOS chemicals have entered the environment and now contaminate the blood of people and wildlife to an extraordinary extent.

Although research is still evolving, PFOS is known to damage the liver and to produce severe birth defects in lab animals, among other health effects.

And of course: 3M has manufactured PFOS commercially since 1948, and in 2000 was expected to produce more than 10 million pounds of the compound for use in Scotchgard products.

Quitely 3M on May 16, 2000, 3M announced with a vague, one-page press release that it would phase out of the PFOS market by the end of 2002 because of concerns over what the company said was new information–that the chemical had been “detected broadly at extremely low levels in the environment and in people.”

Great! So what other cancer causing substance can I pick up to protect my white couch from my dirty NYC blackend dogs…

UPDATE: Despite all my formal training as an Enviro Engineer and my own personal desire to do my part to concerve our environment, I spotted the Scotchgard at a small hardware store in the West Village – bought a can and used it on my couch – It said “New & Improved” although how something can be improved upon if its a new product is beyond me. I figured there was probably some policy for 3M to sell out of all the stock on the market anyway, and by not buying it, it doesn’t hinder 3M, just the small shops that have taken in all their stock. Can I say I’m doing some part by buying up the product and preventing someone else from getting cancer? Well, look out for my cancer blog in 2020 when I compare my $13 a can investment to the thousands in financial and physical pain I will suffer from use of the product in my home.