#solution manager

[reasonsforhope]

"As the world grows “smarter” through the adoption of smartphones, smart fridges, and entire smart houses, the carbon cost of that technology grows, too. 

In the last decade, electronic waste has become one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world. 

According to The World Counts, the globe generates about 50 million tons of e-waste every year. That’s the equivalent of 1,000 laptops being trashed every second. 

After they’re shipped off to landfills and incinerated, the trash releases toxic chemicals including lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and so much more, which can cause disastrous health effects on the populations that live near those trash sites. 

Fortunately, Franziska Kerber — a university student at ​​FH Joanneum in Graz, Austria — has dreamed up a solution that helps carve away at that behemoth problem: electronics made out of recyclable, dissolvable paper. 

On September 11, Kerber’s invention “Pape” — or Paper Electronics — earned global recognition when it was named a national winner of the 2024 James Dyson Awards. 

When she entered the scientific competition, Kerber demonstrated her invention with the creation of several small electronics made out of paper materials, including a fully-functional WiFi router and smoke detector. 

“Small electronic devices are especially prone to ending up in household waste due to unclear disposal systems and their small size, so there is significant potential to develop a more user-friendly end-of-life system,” Kerber wrote on the James Dyson Award website. 

“With this in mind, I aimed to move beyond a simple recycling solution to a circular one, ensuring long-term sustainability.” 

Kerber’s invention hinges on crafting a dissolvable and recyclable PCB board out of compressed “paper pulp.” 

A printed circuit board (PCB) is a board that can be found in nearly all modern electronic devices, like phones, tablets, and smartwatches.

But even companies that have started incorporating a “dissolution” step into the end life of their products require deconstruction to break down and recover the PCB board before it can be recycled. 

With Kerber’s PAPE products, users don’t need to take the device apart to recycle it.

“By implementing a user-friendly return option, manufacturers can efficiently dissolve all returned items, potentially reusing electronic components,” Kerber explained. 

“Rapidly advancing technology, which forms the core of many devices, becomes obsolete much faster than the structural elements, which are often made from plastics that can last thousands of years,” Kerber poses. 

PAPE, Kerber says, has a “designed end-of-life system” which anticipates obsolescence. 

“Does anyone want to use a thousand-year-old computer?” Kerber asks. “Of course not. … This ensures a sustainable and reliable system without hindering technological advancement.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, September 13, 2024

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

“We really kind of refer to this as our third aqueduct,” says John Bednarski, an interim assistant general manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — a powerful agency, as the largest wholesale provider of water in the nation and owner of the Colorado River Aqueduct. The “third aqueduct” Bednarski is referring to is not another man-made appendage stretching to the Colorado River Basin or into Northern California but rather a project that’s designed to stay local — and sustainable: Pure Water Southern California would recycle wastewater, treat it and produce 150 million gallons of water each day, accounting for about 10 percent of the agency’s local water demands, according to Bednarski. “So it’s going to be a major contributor,” he says. [...] The L.A. Department of Water and Power is pursuing a similar recycling project. And in 2022, 26 cities and wholesale water providers that pull from the Colorado River wrote a memorandum of understanding committing to focusing on water recycling and reuse. The signatories, including Metropolitan, often point to Las Vegas as a model for recycling wastewater to reduce its total Colorado River use and increase the amount of water available for use. Nevada has long faced scarcity; of all the states, it receives the smallest share of the river: just 1.8 percent of all the water rights. By treating and reusing nearly all of its indoor water, the Las Vegas water purveyor effectively uses the same water over and over, expanding its supply. Now Las Vegas officials, along with Arizona water managers, are looking to the Pure Water project to further shore up supplies on the Colorado River. Their thinking: If Metropolitan can reduce its Colorado River use, its unused water could flow to Nevada and Arizona, providing a needed boost in an era when there is little to spare.  In that way, water recycling projects in one area can have consequences across watersheds."

[vodid]

zero's pressure

[jeffertu]

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[sunlight-shunlight]

also i think it's kind of underrated that prior to dai, solas straight up murdered felassan mid-sentence, for just implying that his plan needed to change, despite them being Comrades In Rebellion for however many thousand years

but then in trespasser, he actually says "i would treasure the chance to be wrong, my friend" to a friendly inquisitor who says they're going to prove that he doesn't need to go through with his plan. even with a hostile inquisitor he's like "yeah whatever, i hate your ass but i'm not going to kill you 🙄" despite this being the most likely person to be able to interfere with his plans, and logically he should really take them out if he wants to guarantee success. that is Growth.

[battenthecrosshatches]

What do you mean I have to make more bad stuff before I can make good stuff?? Clearly you haven’t heard that I need to be perfect. 🙄

[deusvervewrites]

Hustle and Bust x Engineered Solutions x Manager Toga:

They're dating and they all have the goal of getting as filthy rich as possible.

Good for them!

[liyrical]

getting a diagnosis for adhd as a #woman gotta be like pulling teeth

[whyamiherewhosummonedme]

how are you alive

this isn't hate btw I'm just looking at the fact that you drank pure virus

I'm just cackling that my virus-drinking chaos has been noticed by people outside my immediate friend group. I reiterate that it was a bacteriophage - these viruses are specialized to infect bacteria, and animal cells - ie human - are simply so different that bacteriophages don't even recognize them as targets. In fact, it's a hot topic of study to weaponize bacteriophages for the sake of combatting bacterial infections. Already there have been numerous studies and trials regarding injecting a bunch of viruses into people who are sick to cure them - there was a huge case study in 2017, and interest has exploded since then especially.

What I'm saying is that my impulsive decision was actually a scientific breakthrough I promise. Please let me into your laboratory please please please

[hoboblaidd]

@keepslore asked: At first, the Vir'abelasan had been a constant stream of whispers, echoing at the base of her skull, enough to make sleep a distant dream these last two days. A dream as distant as he is, quietly fuming and working away at his most recent fresco, depicting that choice of hers—as if she really had one. What was she meant to have done? Let Morrigan take it? Morrigan, who had spent the previous few hours butchering Elvhen lore and speaking over the First of Clan Lavellan to do so? Bad enough that Dhavihal had turned her mischievous nature on her. Only for the Witch to have the audacity to claim she alone had the necessary knowledge to make good use of the Well? No, certainly not. — Dhavi hadn't wanted it. Whatever price Mythal demands for this wisdom, she wishes she hadn't been made to pay it. But there was nothing else to be done; they needed it, and no one else worthy of it would pay the price. So she did. She always would. Solas stands before his completed fresco, seemingly watching the pigment dry, and Dhavihal approaches quietly. She keeps her distance, but sighs to let her presence be known. If he's not ready to talk yet, she'll just come back later. And then again after that, if need be. Until he's ready.

His frescoes were usually careful, considered. Solas would spend days sketching them out, even longer tracing the outline into the immutable canvas before putting it at last to paint and plaster.

Not this one. It flowed like water, like blood, and he didn’t care that it was not perfect. He worked feverishly, endlessly, having foregone sleep himself these last two days. Painting and repainting and carving the lines so deep into the plaster that he hit stone.

Solas stood now in its center, hands stained with blackened pigment clenched into fists at his side. The harsh, dark lines of the sentinels loomed almost as large as the uneven slope of the eluvian’s silhouette. The high vaulted walls of rusted gold and chipped jade towered over them all like a veil, and in the heart, a brilliant, burning sun. Mythal.

She had always asked for more, she had always taken more. And now, even in death, she would not be satisfied until she had taken everything.

He heard Dhavi approach, he always did, no matter how quiet her steps. It had never failed to bring him comfort and ease the line of tension in his shoulders. Until today, that line tightened and the shadow over his brow grew. 

“I begged you not to drink from the Well!” he snapped, and his voice echoed throughout the empty rotunda. “You have no idea what you have done - what you have given.”

Solas finally turned, but he could only face her for a moment. She stood with a slave marking etched into her face and unseen runes of command and obeisance seared into her soul. He couldn’t bear it. Not her.

“Why could you not have listened?” 

[x-enocyon]

in all his yippee-ki-yay glory.

additional outfits under the cut

[lorelune]

i have moved!!!

[bookshelfdreams]

Hold Fast by hoc_voluerunt / @cuddlytogas

Stede Bonnet is free at last, and on his way back to his love. As "Captain Thomas Edwards", he'll learn a lot about sailing and emotional availability, and perhaps even make a name for himself as the man either brave or foolish enough to hunt the legendary Blackbeard. But rumour has it that Blackbeard may be the opposite of welcoming, if and when he ever catches up... Obligatory overly-long post-season 1 reunion fix-it fic, feat. slow burn reconciliation, more historical accuracy than you wanted, and plenty of piratical action.

[buckynats]

I'm so tired of feeling so terrified and stressed out that I'm constantly sick to my stomach I don't know what else I'm even supposed to do at this point

[mwolf0epsilon]

Me: Man I should really finish all 13 of these artwork WIPS, get to writing that Spencer origins fic I've been wanting to share, edit that one silly Henry dream retelling into a proper fic, and maybe work on some proper refs for my TTTE OCs... Brain: You need to draw Mimic Scotsman like that one post about dogs when their eye-whites show... Me: Brain: You gotta.