#typical municipal water

[bumblebeeappletree]

You can grow tanks, rather than buy them, and they'll have a lot more water-harvesting capacity.

This video is about how living sponges (rain gardens) have far greater capacity than non-living manufactured water tanks, in that they utilize and infiltrate water during and immediately after rains to quickly make more room or capacity for the next rain - even if that rain comes just a few hours after the first rain.

Thus rain gardens (in this case, a water-harvesting, traffic-calming chicane or pull out) typically have much more potential for flood-control, groundwater-recharge, bioremediation (natural filtration of toxins), and heat-island abatement (due to the shading/cooling vegetation they grow and the cooling effect of the water transpiring through these "living pumps").

This works in any climate, but the vegetation changes as you change bioregions. The easiest path to success is to use plants native or indigenous to your area and site's microclimate. Go further, and select native plants that also produce food, medicine, craft/building materials, etc so you grow living pantries, pharmacies, craft suppliers, etc.

At minimum, make sure your tanks overflow to rain gardens, so that overflow is used as a resource. And place those rain gardens and their vegetation where you most need that vegetation, such as trees on the east and west sides of buildings to shade out the morning and afternoon summer sun for free, passive cooling.

The ideal, is that once this rain garden vegetation has become established the only irrigation water it will require is the freely harvested on-site water, so no importing/extracting of groundwater, municipal water, or other is needed. This way we can infiltrate more water into the living system than we take out - thereby enabling the recharge of groundwater, springs, and rivers; instead of their depletion and dehydration.

Get more info on how to do this and harvest many other free, on-site waters at:

https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

where you can buy Brad's award-winning books, "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" at deep discount direct from Brad at:

https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/s...

For more info on the community water harvesting and native food forestry work check out:

https://dunbarspringneighborhoodfores...

For more videos that expand on this one subscribe to this channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Harvestin...

#rainwater

#waterharvesting

#permaculture

#rainwaterharvesting

[hedgehog-moss]

I love hearing your stories and I wanted to send you well wishes, with the ongoing drought in Europe. I don't know how much it's affecting you but I hope you're doing well.

Thank you! Sending my own well wishes to anyone struggling this summer from heat waves or lack of rain or destructive floods... :(

We were supposed to have three or four days of rain this week and disappointingly the weather forecast changed its mind; we only had some rain yesterday which was better than nothing, but still, it's crazy. One day of rain in the entire summer. Everything looks burnt and sounds crackly when the typical summer landscape around here is one of lush green pastures and wildflowers everywhere...

Someone was saying at the library the other day that the headlines this summer felt rather dystopian as far as we're concerned, like "cheese production halted", "walking in the woods now illegal"... (Amongst the requirements to produce an 'AOC' cheese, the cows need to have a diet of at least 75% natural, non-fertilised pasture grass and, well, there’s no grass right now. And some municipalities have made it temporarily illegal to go in the woods at all, for fear of someone starting a fire)

But yes it's not nearly as bad here as in the regions affected by the massive fires. I have a friend in the South-West who owns some land and spent her free time in July helping to evacuate people's horses from affected areas to her land and hoping the fires wouldn't reach her. My mum was in Brittany recently and told me the forest of Brocéliande was burning, which sounds apocalyptic because the #1 source of jokes about Brittany is its perpetually wet weather, so, no one is safe... (They’re finally getting some rain, though!)

I'm really, really grateful for my spring. All the water I use at home + the water for the animals comes from that one spring, there are twelve of us depending on it + my vegetable garden and it has continued giving us the exact same amount of water as usual all summer; both troughs in the pasture are full and overflowing. I've been hearing about major rivers all over Europe that had an incredibly reduced flow rate and looking at my valiant little spring like, what's your secret...? When all the waterfalls in the woods have disappeared and for miles around you see nothing but fried yellow grass and even the older fruit trees are struggling and reluctantly producing a handful of cherry-sized plums and you sit by a water trough that just keeps cheerfully overflowing all day long, it feels a bit witchy.

[leiascully]

X-Files OctoberFicFest Day 15: Hollow

This year, I'm using the October 2022 prompts from @artpromptcal.

TW: canon typical discussion of death/post-mortem

For an office job, it's surprising how much time they spend in the woods. She supposes that they mostly leave the bodies in dumpsters and abandoned buildings to municipal authorities, which is part of it. The mysterious corpses are all in the woods, decomposing under leaf litter and tangled in roots. She's learned to prefer the open air. It makes the flies more bearable. Predation is a fact of death - she knows that - but crows and foxes seem a more dignified option than rats.

There are less sinister reasons to venture into the forest, too: reports of strange creatures and lights that can't be explained. That's what they're chasing today.

"The Ozark Howler," Mulder explains again as they hike. "A wolf-sized creature with the muzzle of a dog and the shape of a cat, Scully. You might think that would be strange enough, but you'd be wrong."

Scully steps over a fallen branch. "Of course I would."

He grins. "In addition to those anomalies, it has red eyes and horns."

"Astonishing," she says, crunching through the leaves. There's a nip in the air that chills the tip of her nose. It's apple weather. Firepit weather. The mountains around them are red and orange and yellow, stippled with dark green pines. Sunlight sifts through the leaves when the wind sighs.

Scully doesn't believe any legendary creature would appear in the daylight - too easy to document, for starters - but a day like this is impossible to argue with. They deserve an easy case once in a while. Besides, something is killing chickens. She suspects a mountain lion or coyotes, but the reports are incongruous. There are bears in these woods too, somewhere. Any of those things would have the power to turn chickens into the smears of blood and feathers in the photographs in Mulder's files.

Mulder isn't finished. "The first reported sighting was in the 1800s by none other than Daniel Boone."

"I've heard of him."

"Reports differ on whether he was able to shoot one, but multiple sources have described seeing Howlers over the years, even up to present day."

"Mmhmm." Scully sips from her water bottle. "How did we get called in for chicken murder? That isn't a federal crime, or we'd be arresting Colonel Sanders."

"Someone from the local field office tipped me off to this one," Mulder said. "Chicken's big here. Anyway, this thing could be crossing state lines. The Ozarks Highlands span a four-state area."

"I see."

The trail in front of them crests the hill and descends into a hollow lined with a bonfire array of maples. At the bottom, a sturdy wooden bridge spans a chuckling creek whose progress down the slope is punctuated by tiny waterfalls. The trail is cut into stone steps just a bit too high for Scully's stride. Mulder wordlessly puts out a hand to steady her as she climbs down. His grip is warm and strong. She savors the moment.

They stop on the bridge. Scully pulls two apples out of her bag. Locally grown, the sign said. She and Mulder lean on the railing and eat the crisp fruit. It takes her a moment to realize that the woods are loud around them in a way that's so different from the city: birds and water and rustling leaves instead of traffic and people. Peace steals over her. There are bones in these woods, to be sure. These mountains are old, worn down nearly to hills. There are always bones in a place like this. But they're hunting a beast instead of a human murderer. It's old-fashioned, almost sweet. If these woods are haunted, it's by ghosts that belong here.

Scully unearths a bag of trail mix. She suspects that Mulder's hunger is greater than apple-sized. Mulder leans his shoulder gently against hers. She doesn't shift away. There's no one to see them here. They can exist in their most natural state: so close that the clouds of their breath mingle and their fingers brush as they reach for GORP.

"Imagine the Howler in a place like this," he says, and she can almost see it: a wild thing, crouching to lap from the stream, watchful red eyes and graceful horns and a tail that lashes.

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 13

I was looking forward to this, because it was a Ritsuko episode, but it kind of falls flat. At least she's nice to look at.

Let's get this part out of the way. The Eva pilot kids are participating in some weird experiment where they have to sit in simulations of their Eva units and they gotta be butt-ass naked the entire time. Ritsuko says some bullshit about how they're trying to eliminate any interference in their bodies' connection to the user-interface. So they had to get super-clean and I guess even wearing the plugsuits would introduce unknown variables to the experiment.

I mean, the real reason is to do another gag where the kids are made to feel uncomfortable for the audience's amusement. It's also to write them out of the story, because they'll spend the whole episode stuck inside their entry plugs, unable to leave because of an evacuation order and their nudity.

However, the experiment has to be aborted when some sort of unknown corrosion occurs and contaminants enter the purified water that the Eva simulators are soaking in. All efforts to remove the contamination fail, and when Ritsuko tries to burn it off the simulators, its protected by an AT field, which means...

It's an Angel. I'm not clear on whether it's been inside the NERV base for a long time, and it's only now just making its move, or whether it just got here. But check this out first.

While Admiral Clownshoes gets the report from Ritsuko, Gendo Ikari just rises up from the floor like Cody Rhodes on his magic stage elevator.

Except it looks like his lower body has been cropped off. I think he's supposed to be sitting at a desk that's rising up with him, but it's the same color as the wall, so it looks really, really bad.

Gendo immediately orders that the Evas should be launched. The real ones, not the simulators. His staff point out that they'll need the Evas to defeat the Angel that's infiltrated their base, but Gendo is worried that the Evas might be compromised by the contamination. At least this way, if they lose the base, the Evas will be safe outside.

As for the pilots, they were already ejected from the simulators when the crisis began. Here, let me skip to the end real quick.

Those are their entry plugs, which are just... floating in a lake for some reason? The kids spend the rest of the episode here. I guess they could climb out and swim to shore, but...

... they're nude, and also they have no idea what's going on, or that their Evas are also outside the base. I guess in theory they could mount up and fight the Angel as usual, but this isn't your typical Angel.

It's more like a microbial infection, or an algal bloom. Somehow, it's evolving, becoming hardier and more powerful as it makes its way through the base. Briefly, the gang notice that it might have an aversion to the ozone they use to sterilize the water, so they pump more ozone into try to kill it. That works... for a little while, until the Angel suddenly recovers and flourishes in the ozone-rich environment. It adapted to its new conditions.

I think when it made contact with Rei's Eva simulator, it learned... computers? I don't know a more sophisticated way to say that. Anyway, once that happened, the Angel started moving through NERV's... computer... stuff. Eventually it got into the MAGI.

All right, let's talk about the MAGI. These are a trio of supercomputers that run all of Tokyo-3. In particular, the MAGI function as the main OS for the NERV base, but they also serve as the de facto municipal government of the city. They have elections and human officials, but that's just a dog and pony show. The real decisions are made by AI.

When the Angel infects one of the three MAGI, Melchior, it attempts to trigger a self-destruct command, but the other two MAGI overrule it. So the Angel infects a second MAGI, Belshazzar, and Ritsuko manages to halt its advance by... well, I don't actually know how she does it.

This gives them two hours to figure out how to deal with this. Misato proposes destroying the MAGI before it's too late, but Ritsuko objects, since that would mean destroying their entire base. I don't know if she means that literally or metaphorically. I mean, the Angel is trying to destroy the base literally, so it sounds like Misato's plan would just be giving the Angel what it wants.

The problem is that the Angel keeps evolving to cope with any threat, so if they can't destroy the MAGI, then the only other alternative is to accelerate its evolution until it reaches a dead end. Uh, okay?

Eventually, the Angel might "choose to co-exist with the MAGI system", if its only alternative is to stagnate and die. I feel like we're making a lot of assumptions about what the Angel is and what its motivations are.

I just assumed these things are sentient life forms, an their attacks on NERV were deliberate acts against an enemy. This particular Angel infiltrated their base and immediately went into the heart of their operation--the computer that controls everything-- and tried to activate a self-destruct mechanism. It's not trying to communicate, and it's not an emergent consciousness. It seems to know exactly what's its doing, and it's trying to kill them, just like the last several Angels that made a beeline for this base.

My point here is that I don't think it has a strong survival instinct beyond completing its mission. Given the choice between co-existing with the MAGI and mutually assured destruction, I think the Angel would choose the latter. But maybe I've been misreading these things all along.

Ritsuko's proposal is to reprogram the third MAGI, Casper to... I don't even know. She's going to do something to it. Then they'll allow the Angel to contaminate that MAGI as well, and whichever one is faster will win. If the Angel can take control of all three MAGI, it can trigger the self-destruct, so unless Casper wins, they all die.

So Ritsuko crawls inside of Casper's... uh... computer junk, to make the necessary changes to its program. Inside, they find a bunch of handwritten developer notes, which supposedly will help them reprogram this thing even faster. Wouldn't these notes have been more helpful on the outside of the computer? I get that they were going for a particular visual here, but I'm really having a hard time keeping up.

While Ritsuko works, Misato asks her about the MAGI, which... okay, this is a huge pet peeve of mine, where I'm trying to fix some complicated piece of equipment, and someone tries to make idle conversation while I need to concentrate on what I'm doing. And this is a hundred times worse than that, because Ritsuko's on the clock, and when the clock runs out, they all die.

But Ritsuko plays along, so either she's just that good at multi-tasking, or she's too polite to object. Anyway, her mother was the one who invented the MAGI technology, and she imprinted her own personality into its systems. Ritsuko says her mom set them up to represent three aspects of her personality: Scientists, mother, and woman. Ritsuko always respected her mother as a scientist, and she could never relate to her as a mother, but she hated her as a woman. Okay?

Basically, Ritsuko didn't like her mom much, but she feels a special connection with the MAGI anyway, because they carry her mother's personality and legacy. It's a lot like the deal with Misato and her dad, or Shinji with his dad. Is this a theme, or did the writers just only have the one idea?

It's a good thing Ritsuko is so hot, or this episode would be a total mess. She does whatever she does, and it works, but with less than a second to spare. The Angel is... gone? They don't really get into that, but it doesn't explode like all the others, and the contamination is eliminated, so I don't know what exactly happened to it. Maybe it really is co-existing with the MAGI system.

Oh, wow, I'm out of episode. This was the pits.

A huge chunk of this one was just technobabble, which works pretty well on a show like Star Trek: The Next Generation, but not on an anime like this, which relies on flashy visuals instead of live actors. The problem is fairly simple: An Angel got in their base and tried to hack the supercomputer. But the solution is utter gobbledygook. I have no idea what they did to fix it, or even whether the Angel was alive or dead afterward.

I'm reminded a lot of the TNG episode "Final Mission". It's about Wesley Crusher's last day on the Enterprise before he goes to Starfleet Academy, and he, Captain Picard, and a dirtbag shuttle pilot get marooned on a desert planet. Picard is injured and the pilot gets killed, so it's up to Wesley to save Picard from some weird energy sentry that's preventing them from getting fresh water. Wesley figures it out, but the climax of the episode is just him tapping buttons on his tricorder until the sentry finally just... goes away.

It's a real letdown, because the rest of the episode was really good. The problem is that normally when they solve a problem on Star Trek, you have one of the crew explain the solution to the others, and they mull it over and eventually agree to a plan. But in "Final Mission", Wesley's got no one to talk to. Picard's unconscious and Dirgo's dead, and the Enterprise hasn't found them yet. So he's stuck in the unfortunate position of having to come up with this clever solution with his tricorder, but never getting the chance to tell anyone how he did it.

A good counterexample to this is "The Enemy", where Geordi La Forge is marooned on a planet with a hostile Romulan, and they have to work together to track a homing beacon to escape. It's much more effective, because it's two characters in a collaboration, so they have to explain what they're doing. Geordi has a tricorder and his VISOR, but the planet's environment has messed up his brain to where he can't use the VISOR, and his tricorder isn't sensitive to the beacon. So the Romulan suggests he connect them together. Good idea, but Geordi can't do it because he can't see, so the Romulan does it while Geordi talks him through the procedure.

That's not what we get in NGE 13. The Angel contaminates the base, and you have a lot of panicky dialogue and characters giving status updates and issuing orders, but none of it means anything.

"Reroute the main server into the backup neurohub!" "Disengage Pipe #6!" "It's entered the Matthew vinculum! Heading for Mark, now Luke! Isolate the John vinculum, quickly!" "Execute protocols A, F, and 37." "Shut off the frammistat and bring the Longius Introspection online." "But sir...!" "To hell with the safety checks, there's no time!"

You can kind of get away with this stuff, but there has to be a balance. Technobabble is for aesthetic purposes, to establish that it's science fiction. At some point you gotta come up for air and fill in your audience on the stakes. Let them know what the problem is and what obstacles the characters need to overcome to fix it. Otherwise you're just showing people typing on computers until the alarms switch off.

The biggest gripe I have with this episode is that Ritsuko's plan worked perfectly. There was zero tension or conflict to any of it. The alternative--destroying the MAGI, as Misato proposed-- was apparently so unthinkable that it barely got any traction. So Ritsuko's plan was the only option. Ritsuko herself had no problem implementing the plan. It would have been nice if she felt some sort of inner turmoil over this. Like, maybe she could have been worried that she wasn't good enough to pull this off. Maybe she had some unpleasant memory of her mother inside Casper's inner workings, so she just has an aversion to crawling back inside. Anything, as long as it's more than just sitting inside a computer and typing on another computer.

Well, at least she looks good doing it.

[littleholmes]

There’s so many things about this society with quirks and while so far in the manga we’ve slightly touched on the perceptions of good quirks and bad quirks, quirk marriages, the darkness of the HPSC, disability and quirk loss, hero worshiping and the negative impacts that have come from the heroes vs villains dichotomy/wanting to be a hero/wanting to be the top hero, heroes in it for money and fame vs wanting to actually do good, and more…we haven’t really gotten into how this society treats people with quirks that alter their appearance and how those quirks are perceived in smaller/larger prefectures and municipalities and the bigotry that comes from having a quirk that impacts your appearance and other people’s perceptions of your humanity.

We started to get an idea of what’s happened to those with non-human features with Spinner’s backstory and commentary a while back but now we’re getting more information and this is yet another larger issue in this quirk society. The difference in people’s quirk presentation such a significant issue that it’s led to awful events (6.6 incident and the Great Jeda Purge, which !!! yikes that there’s notable incidents). And now Koda and Shoji are considered traitors to their kind for not being on the side of Spinner and everyone else who grew up in this society without human-typical faces thanks to their quirks and encountered discrimination because of it

idk I’m rambling but this is something I briefly wondered about since we first met Tokoyami and other characters whose quirks impact their appearance and, the social commentary in bnha always interests me, and while Spinner’s story offered a tip of of this iceberg, this chapter gave even more history and showed the whole mass of ice under the water’s surface and just…whew.

[magicaltrash]

It's time for the 5th annual Magical Trash Year-in-Review, where we take a look at trash cans at the Disney theme parks and resorts worldwide. Yes, it's a weird idea, but you are going to keep reading, right? (View previous Year-in-Reviews) Some may note that it's been a somewhat rocky year for the Mouse, but trash can activity has been strong. As we've seen in previous years, this year's additions were primarily driven by attraction openings, including Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disneyland, the opening of the World of Frozen in Hong Kong, and the arrival of the Zootopia in Shanghai. Unfortunately, we also saw the fastest introduction-to-removal can timeline with the closing of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser - which had opened just a year earlier at Walt Disney World. Over the past year, MagicalTrash.com celebrated the 1,000 trash can photo milestone (only took 14 years!), while adding over 100 new entries. This was complimented by 1,600+ posts across social media networks, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky. Posts were also added to Twitter/X, but frankly it's hard to continue supporting that platform due to its overall decline on many fronts (and I say that as someone who works in corporate social media professionally!). For 2023, Magical Trash tracked 16 substantial trash can design changes, a 14% increase vs. 2022's 14 tracked changes:

Added: 14

Historical Cans Added: 4

Updated: 0

Endangered: 0

Removed: 2

The US-based parks saw the most activity, with Disneyland Resort experiencing 6 changes, while Walt Disney World recorded 4 changes. Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris Resort both recorded 2 updates, and Shanghai Disney Resort saw 1 new addition. No notable changes were recorded for Tokyo Disney Resort or Disney Cruise Line.

Here's a detailed breakdown of updates:

ADDED New trash can designs that debuted in Disney theme parks over the past year

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (El CapiTOON Theater) - NEW Disneyland, Mickey’s Toontown With a movie theater setting, iconography is anchored by a popcorn bucket image with large “EC” letters.  

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (M.A.G.I.C.) - NEW Disneyland, Mickey’s Toontown Outside the attraction are cans associated with M.A.G.I.C. - short for the Municipal Agency of Garbage Identification and Collection. Now that's a group we want to join!  

World of Frozen (Arendelle Crest) - NEW - NEW Hong Kong Disneyland, World of Frozen The official crest of Arendelle features a crocus - a multi-color flowering bulb that typically blooms in the spring - and seen throughout the Frozen franchise.  

World of Frozen (Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs) - NEW Hong Kong Disneyland, World of Frozen Furthering the rugged forest theme of the family coaster, decorative Scandinavian folk art patterns are found throughout queue, with geometric shapes highlighted in red, green, and orange hues.  

Zootopia - NEW Shanghai Disneyland, Zootopia A surprising entry to Shanghai's bland trash can scene, green trash cans with zebra-like stripes on the lower portion combine with a city emblem.  

San Fransokyo Square - NEW Disney California Adventure, San Fransokyo Square The shoehorned Big Hero 6 retheme of DCA's Pacific Wharf gave us new cans that looked a lot like the old cans - but with bonus "SFS" branding. Ho hum.  

Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana - NEW Walt Disney World, Epcot, World Nature You can tell this is a modern Disney attraction because the name is an IP-laden paragraph. Lots of storytelling to explain "scenery."  

Parkside Market - NEW Disneyland Resort, Downtown Disney Probably one of the more visually-stunning additions in 2023, Mickey Mouse + mid-century design. Simple concept, well-executed.  

The Villas at Disneyland Hotel - NEW Disneyland Resort, The Villas at Disneyland Hotel New DVC borrows much of its design from Aulani. Not ugly, but also not magical. Were these picked out of a catalog?  

Pixar Place Hotel - NEW Disneyland Resort, Pixar Place Hotel The retime of Disneyland's Paradise Pier Hotel features trash cans very similar in design to those implemented at The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. Maybe they got a 2-for-1 deal?  

Disneyland Paris Reusable Tableware Cans - NEW Disneyland Paris, Adventureland France's Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law is focused on phasing out improper disposal of waste. Food service at the French parks has implemented reusable table settings, which has impacted trash can design.  

"Fantasyland 2" Backstage - NEW Disneyland Paris, Fantasyland A backstage can makes an appearance onstage as a support trash can from the “Fantasyland 2” zone, parked where everyone can see.  

Pym Test Kitchen Food Waste - NEW Disney California Adventure, Avengers Campus After debuting combination food waste trash cans in Tomorrowland around 2021, Disneyland expanded the practice to the Avengers Campus at DCA.  

Jollywood Nights Temporary Media Can - NEW Disney's Hollywood Studios, Grand Avenue Throw a sticker on an existing trash can and it's something new! Temporarily rethemed can at Disney's Hollywood Studios during a media event for Jollywood Nights holiday entertainment.  

HISTORICAL CANS ADDED Retro trash can designs that were unearthed by new research this year, but are no longer in use

MK Main Street (1974) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Magic Kingdom, Main Street U.S.A. Early years of the Magic Kingdom featured very detailed trash cans on Main Street U.S.A, often in multiple colors. Quite a contrast from the undecorated brown cans used in the 2000s.  

Farmer's Market (Late-1980s/Early-1990s) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Epcot, Future World, The Land The famed umbrella tables at The Land found their shapes emulated via the trash cans, which were primarily brown with light tan arches represented on all sides.  

River Country (2010) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Walt Disney World, Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground 9 years after the water park closed, remnants of the ‘Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole’ could still be spotted at Fort Wilderness.  

Mulholland Madness (2007) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Disney's California Adventure, Paradise Pier Tacky theme was on-point for DCA 1.0. This green can with road sign decal found a home in Paradise Pier.  

UPDATED Existing trash can designs that have been modified or revised in the past year

None for 2023  

ENDANGERED Trash can designs that still exist, but will most likely disappear in the future

None for 2023  

REMOVED Trash can designs that have been eliminated from use at Disney theme parks

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (Interior) - REMOVED Walt Disney World, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser The in-wall trash cans for the 100-cabin Corellian MPO-1400 model Galactic Starcruiser were in use for just 579 days.  

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (Terminal) - REMOVED Walt Disney World, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser You won't be needing to dispose of your garbage before boarding the MPO-1400 Star Cruiser Halcyon, as these cans will probably have a longer life than the hotel ever had.  

One massive disappointment in 2023 was Walt Disney World's opening of TRON Lightcycle / Run in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. Generic silver cans, thus reinforcing WDW's continual cheapening out on themed trash can design. Paul Pressler called and even he thinks you can do better.

Here at Magical Trash we celebrated our 14-year anniversary covering the world of Disney trash cans, which included keeping up with various salt shaker merchandise releases that showcase the iconic can shape. 6 new designs were released during festivals: The Dude with the Food (DCA Food & Wine 2023), Amazingly Sweet (DCA Food & Wine 2023), Groovy Garden Orange Bird (Epcot Flower & Garden 2023), Stuck on Imagination Figment (Epcot Flower & Garden 2023), Chef Mickey (Epcot Food & Wine 2023), and Spaceship Earth (Epcot Food & Wine 2023).

If you happened to be at Tokyo Disneyland, you could have picked up a mini figure version of a Tomorrowland trash can or a TDS trash can toy. In the U.S. you could pick up a shirt or water bottle with a recycling can image proclaiming that you "Love Our Disney Parks" -- Disneyland or WDW-specific versions. There was plenty of trash can auction action as well.

Thanks to everyone who contributed photos, visited MagicalTrash.com, and interacted with this weird hobby over the past year. You've put a smile on my face as we all follow this goofy passion. As it's impossible to be omnipresent at 12 theme parks and numerous resorts around the world, let us know what we've missed! Thanks for an interesting year, CanFans! - Steve Tanner, your Magical Trash host

[All photos used by permission.]

[hutquo]

Initial tips before buying your prefabricated house

If your intention is to make a good prospecting on the Internet to find the company that makes the cheapest prefabricated steel Quonset hut home, here are a few tips so you can compare prices on equal terms.

The System The first decisive element when it comes to establishing the price is the construction system of your prefabricated house. Normally from cheapest to most expensive the systems are ordered as follows: 1º WOOD structure

2º STEEL structure

3º CONCRETE structure

Ready-made models It is common to find prices of already designed models. These are designs with studied forms that minimize the cost. Normally they are very square or rectangular so that the repercussion of the price of the facade does not shoot up the price. They include a whole series of qualities of finishes and standard equipment, and, in some cases, even have 2 or 3 of different level.

Typically, in the price of the models is not included:

The foundation, and the excavation necessary to make it.

The connection to the sewage, electricity and municipal water networks.

Transportation (if modular)

Per diem for the workers for the work on the site

All these items vary for each plot and depend on the shape and location.

Apart from ready-made models, you will also find companies that offer customized designs with a price €/m2. In order to compare prices, you must take into account what is included and what is not included.

The following is an overview of the points that a prefabricated house should have in order to be ready to move in.

Structure

Facades

Roof

Partition walls

Carpentries (exterior windows, interior doors and entrance door)

[naturalrights-retard]

Water is the driving force of all nature.”

In this blog, we’re going to cover places you can find water after a disaster that many will simply overlook.  These are places you can find in a typical urban, suburban environment and with a little knowledge and a few tools, they will provide water that can be easily processed giving you a precious gallon or two to ensure your survival.

This blog is a stand-alone video in collaboration with several other fantastic YouTube preparedness channels as part of the 30 Days of Preparedness Collaboration and National Preparedness Month.  I will link to these channels in the comments below that are involved in this project.

After the electricity goes out, the failure of the water system is probably second.  You are hopefully sitting on your stored water when it does. Still, you will need to continue to collect water and get it from other sources to maintain a supply of drinkable water and extend your chances of survival through a disaster.  The truth is, water is all around us, even in the desert.  I’ll structure a dozen or more locations working out from your home where you can find water after a disaster.  You just need to know where to look for it and how to extract it.  When others are desperate and fighting for every drop, you’ll be a couple of steps ahead of everyone armed with this knowledge.  Let’s dive in…

Let me be upfront and tell you that this isn’t a video about water storage, treatment, filtration, or purification.  When a prolonged disaster impacts an area, the municipal water supply can be rendered unsafe to drink.  So, have a plan to make your water drinkable.  And if you don’t have a water storage setup, I would encourage you to do so now as there is no better option.

So let’s look at some of the overlooked places where you can find water after a disaster starting in your home and moving outwards.

[coochiequeens]

The Miami-Dade County Corrections Department recognized a man for what he is.

Officials from the Miami-Dade County department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are refuting viral claims that a popular trans-identified YouTuber was held in a “men’s unit.”

Nikita Dragun, born Nguyen, was arrested on November 7 after causing a scene at The Goodtime Hotel in Miami Beach. Police officers were allegedly called to the hotel just after 6 p.m. 

When they arrived, hotel security told police officers that Dragun had been “causing a disturbance and being extremely disorderly,” including “walking around the pool area unclothed.” When hotel staff confronted him about his behavior, Dragun reportedly threw a glass of water at a hotel staffer. 

When police officers arrived at Dragun’s hotel room, he first attempted to barricade himself inside the room. He opened the door only to throw water on police before slamming the door once again. He was arrested after the incident and taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

The following day, Dragun appeared in bond court via video link. Dragun faces a felony charge of battery on a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, and a municipal ordinance violation of battery.

During the hearing, Dragun asked Judge Mindy Glazer whether he had to remain in a “men’s unit” in the jail.

“I don’t make the rules up there,” Glazer replied. Video of the exchange was posted on social media and quickly went viral as people expressed concerns for Dragun’s safety, and anger that his sex was recorded as male on the booking. 

Dragun’s bond was set at 

$2,000 and he has since been released. His publicist, Jack Ketsoyan, released a statement following his release. 

“The situation with Nikita, who is legally female, being placed in a men’s unit of a Florida jail is extremely disturbing and dangerous,” Ketsoyan wrote.

“This decision made by the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department directly violates their protocol, which mandates that transgender inmates are classified and housed based on safety needs and gender identity. Nikita has been released and is now safe. Thank you for respecting her privacy during this time.”

However, Miami-Dade County Corrections has come out and refuted the viral claims, asserting that Dragun “never made it beyond the booking process” prior to release.

“She was never placed in a men’s unit,” Miami-Dade Corrections spokesperson Juan Diasgranados said in a statement, using feminine pronouns to refer to Dragun. “All inmates undergoing our intake process remain in an open seating (open booking) area, in the presence of correctional staff.”

The open booking area Diasgranados is referring to is likely the Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) Lobby, where most inmate triage occurs at the Turner-Guilford Knight Correctional Center. The Lobby is an open area where numerous correctional staff are present and working in different capacities through processing inmates. The arresting officers typically remain with the inmates until they are booked.

In his statement, Diasgranados also said that Dragun was placed in a holding cell by himself due to his “high-profile status” before being released, and that he was escorted by an “LGBTQ officer” throughout his time there.

“Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department (MDCR) is committed to protecting the rights of the transgender community and of all LGBTQ people,” the statement continued.

“MDCR has procedures in place for the appropriate intake, housing, and medical needs of transgender inmates, and we are committed to ensuring that all inmates in our custody, including transgender persons, are treated appropriately throughout our intake, classification and placement process.”

Despite activist claims to the contrary, the Turner-Guilford Knight Correctional Center is a prison which houses both male and female inmates moving through various stages of the custody process. Local crime news out of Miami-Dade county shows there are female inmates currently incarcerated at the facility.

The news of Dragun’s custody went viral on social media this week after a number of accounts sympathetically repeated the claims Dragun had been incarcerated in a “men’s unit,” labeling it a “violation” of human rights.

“Nikita Dragun is one of the most well known trans women in the world; if this can happen to her, it can happen to any of us. Trans women are women and belong in women’s spaces. This is absolutely horrific and should be considered cruel and unusual punishment,” trans-identified male YouTuber Samantha Lux wrote.

One tweet condemning Dragun’s placement wracked up over 130,000 ‘likes’ on Twitter in just 48 hours.

While the statement from Miami-Dade County clarified that Dragun was not held in a “men’s unit,” prior to the release of that information, many women’s rights advocates on Twitter noted that Dragun is a biological male, and so his placement in a men’s unit would not have been out-of-line in the event it had occurred. 

A vicious debate broke out between trans activists and feminist on social media over the issue, with some transgender Twitter users declaring that “if you support trans women jailed with other men you support rape, full stop.”

While many correctional departments do not collect or release information on inmate gender identity, those which do consistently show that trans-identified male inmates are significantly more likely to be incarcerated for sexual offenses than their non-transgender counterparts. 

According to Keep Prisons Single Sex, an advocacy group for incarcerated women, almost 50% of male federal inmates who identify as transgender are in custody for sex offenses. This is compared to just 11% of the non-trans male inmate population.

In California, just over one-third of male inmates seeking transfer to women’s prisons on the basis of transgender identity are registered sex offenders.

Over the past year, there has been a notable wave of disturbing cases related to trans-identified male inmates with histories of extreme violence towards women and children being transferred to women’s correctional facilities across the United States.

In April, Reduxx reported that a male inmate serving a 50-year sentence for the brutal murder of an immigrant woman had been moved to New Jersey’s only women’s correctional facility, Edna Mahan, after declaring a transgender identity.

Perry Cerf, 39, was arrested for the rape and murder of 47-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant Flor Andrade in 2002. Cerf, who now goes by the name Michelle Hel-loki Angelina, boasted about beating Andrade to death, kicking her until her “head was on backwards.” He also stated he had drank the woman’s blood.

Cerf is not an isolated case in New Jersey. There are multiple violent trans-identified male inmates currently housed at Edna Mahan. Female inmates in the facility, especially those with a history of being victims of sexual abuse, have come forward to express fear and anxiety over being incarcerated with males.

In Washington, there are at least two trans-identified males who committed acts of femicide serving their sentences in the state’s female correctional facility. 

Donna Perry, a serial killer who murdered three prostituted women prior to identifying as transgender was recently transferred to the Washington Women’s Correctional Center, while Nonnie Lotusflower is serving a 10-year sentence at the same institution for the brutal rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl.

Despite trans activist claims to the contrary, the presence of trans-identified males in women’s correctional facilities has resulted in multiple cases of sexual violence against incarcerated women across the United States.

In April, a trans-identified male inmate on Rikers Island was convicted of raping a female prisoner while in the women’s section of the New York prison. One month later, a source at the Central California Women’s Facility exclusively reported to Reduxx that a transgender transfer had allegedly sexually assaulted an intoxicated female inmate before threatening other women with rape.

Four female inmates in California are in the process of suing the state’s correctional body over abuses they suffered at the hands of trans-identified male transfers. One plaintiff in the suit, Krystal Gonzales, reported she had been sexually assaulted by a trans-identified male who had been placed in her cell.

By Shay Woulahan Shay is a writer and social media content creator for Reduxx. She is a proud lesbian activist and feminist who lives in Northern Ireland with her partner and their four-legged, fluffy friends.

[fleurcareil]

East Quebec: Quebec City and West Gaspesie

I left Mont-Tremblant reenergized and with a plan not to get so much bitten; so far 4 days later I've succeeded! :)

On my way to Quebec City, I paid a visit to my ex-colleague Allen and his wife who live since his retirement off the beaten track at the end of an unpaved road in the municipality of Gore, an hour northwest of Montreal. Winters are harsh in Quebec but with a floor-heated solarium surrounded by forest I can imagine it being the perfect retreat from busy life 😎.

After a long & boring drive to the city (I might have gotten a speed ticket?!?), I checked in at the HI hostel smack in Vieux Quebec. For those who don't know HI hostels, they provide quality accommodation (in my case a private bedroom with table & chair) with clean, shared washrooms in well-maintained and noise-free facilities... I've stayed there several times before as it's perfectly located, safe (with your personal entry card) and even includes breakfast at a fraction of a hotel cost. HI is more expensive than "backpacker" hostels (and without parties) so the typical guests are older long-term travellers or families as you can often cook dinner as well. 

It was very windy in Quebec so I only went to see my two favourites; the Fairmont terrace with view of the river, and the massive trompe l'oeil mural depicting famous Quebecois, near the oldest stone church in Canada (which is always closed when I'm there).

Despite the cold, I sat like many other tourists on a patio for dinner which was luckily worth it; delicious cheese fondue, rabbit and rhubarb pie... Quebecois (and I) know how to eat well! 😊 The next morning I went to another favourite; the Musee des Beaux Arts, which has among others a rooftop with mathematically designed sculptures that align with the nearby church spires, an exhibit of Quebec designers (anyone interested in the 1994 workstation capsule?), and a modern art exhibit where the wooden BMW on top of little grass blocks is a statement about the uselessness of consumerism.

Then off to the Gaspesie, which initially seems to be a very long road to nowhere, but once you get closer to the St Lawrence River it's pretty to look out over the water to the mountains on the north side. After having set up the tent at park du Bic, I go to possibly one of the strangest art installations you'll ever see; a group of over 100 concrete statues that are standing on the beach and on the rocks into the sea. "Le Grand Rassemblement" at the Centre D'art Marcel Gagnon is meant to represent the human condition of being alone with our individual emotions while still bonded to others as we all experience the same.

I came here first in 2010 at high tide so most figures were in the water then, whereas now it was low tide so I could walk out to them.  There's something poetic about these statues just standing there in the sea and I'm really impressed by it. I stayed for dinner (pear-shrimp appetizer was a great combo!) so by the time I was done, the tide had come up halfway and the sun started setting, which made it even more special. On the way back, I also stopped at the lighthouse at Rimouski, a rare, buttressed structure that at 28m high is one of the tallest in Canada. Driving along the sea with the red sun beside me was magical!

Having had the first cold night since I started the trip (wearing hat & mittens in my sleeping bag!), it was hard to get out of bed in the morning so it took me a while to get going. I try to cook most of dinner in the mornings (as I can't be bothered in the evening) so now made a couscous salad with merguez sausages so that I only had to add the spinach & fresh tomatoes later. First hike was at the Canyon des Portes de L'Enfer (the doors of hell) where the Rimouski river goes through a series of waterfalls. I tried to make a video which didn't work out, but the pic is still impressive. There's also a really high suspension bridge over the valley which made for great views, luckily I've never been afraid of heights 😁.

Drove back to the park du Bic in time to do one of the coolest hikes in my life; scrambling across rocks at low tide around the park's buff Cap d'Orginal. You need to start 2 hours before the low tide to leave enough time to make the entire loop before the water comes up again, and there's basically no path so it's up to you to find the way over the cliffs.

The first part was quite hard pulling yourself up & over the rocks, but luckily I was not the only one on the "trail" so I could look ahead at what others were doing. Mid-way was a long beach that is fully submerged at high tide and then there was more, but slightly less extreme scrambling. Being relieved that I had made it in one piece to the other side, I was less happy when I realized there was still another 3k to hike partially uphill through the forest to come back. I did see a fox on my return at the parking lot which made me smile 😍. Spent the evening eating dinner overlooking the bay at sunset, life is good!

Slept like a baby and woke up warm but wide awake at 4:30am so it made for a very long day, which was mostly spent driving from the Gaspesie north coast to the New Brunswick south coast near Saint John, 604 km away. Before taking off however, I first went to check the seals lookout in the park, which didn't deliver any seals (I had seen one the day before on my hike) however a quintet of great herons and many eider ducks, which are the largest sea-ducks in Canada. A quick stop at a beautiful viewpoint (at 9am Monday when everyone else starts working 😜) was all I needed to get in the car and say au revoir to Quebec and hello to New Brunswick! 

Wildlife: 1 turkey (along the road), 20+ eider duck, 1 seal, 1 fox, 5 great blue heron and 2 deer (all at du Bic)

SUPs: none

Hikes: two small ones at the canyon and a 9k one at du Bic

PS: I had wanted to post a few days earlier but did not have any internet... still trying to post every 3-4 days when I can!

[thepastisalreadywritten]

In Japan’s glittering cities, all hustle and light, they can be easy to miss.

With all that sensory assault, who thinks to look down and take notice of something as mundane as a manhole cover? But these are no ordinary bits of civic infrastructure.

In Japan, many manhole covers are works of urban art—elaborate, curious, distinctive, even colorful.

They have become a tourist destination unto themselves and attract a legion of dedicated manhole enthusiasts who travel the country to visit some of the thousands of unique designs.

Japan’s decorated manhole covers—broadly encompassing storm drain, domestic water supply, electrical and other utility access covers—initially took shape as a public relations campaign for sewers.

Beginning in the 1950s, the cast plates featured simple geometric patterns, such as the “Tokyo” and “Nagoya” designs.

Japanese civil servant Yasutake Kameda conceived of the intricate, artistic versions in 1985 to help warm a skeptical rural population to the idea of the costly but necessary modernization of the country’s sewer system.

From these humble and practical beginnings, manhole covers have become a cultural phenomenon.

Typically, “local manholes” or “design manholes” feature elements special to a particular location: a town emblem, landmark, event, or official bird or flower.

For instance, Takasaki, 60 miles northwest of Tokyo in mountainous Gunma Prefecture, has manhole covers that commemorate the city’s popular summer fireworks festival.

Local mascots (known as yurukyara, such as Fukaya City’s adorable rabbit-deer Fukkachan) and cartoon characters also appear.

In Tokyo’s Tama ward, home of the Sanrio Puroland amusement park, one can find covers featuring the ever-popular Hello Kitty.

Local sports franchises are also represented near the teams’ home arenas and stadiums—such as the well-known colorful depiction of the logo of the Hiroshima Carp baseball team.

While there is some logic to the placement of the covers, particularly those graced with color—usually near a landmark, theme park, or stadium—others appear to have been placed without rhyme or reason.

Indeed, it is not unusual to walk down an otherwise unremarkable side street and spot a special one underfoot.

The ornate manhole covers are initially carved from aluminum, which is used to make sand molds for casting.

The majority of the designs are selected by local municipalities, in conjunction with manufacturers.

In most cases, the design is just imprinted in the cover, but in some cases, the covers get another touch—colored resins flooded into voids like enamel on jewelry.

Today, an estimated 95 percent of Japan’s 1,718 municipalities across all 47 prefectures now host their own unique covers.

In Osaka, approximately 10 percent of the city’s 180,000 manhole covers feature ornate designs, of which roughly 1,900 get the color treatment.

Typically, a designed manhole cover, which weighs more than 80 pounds, excluding the frame, costs approximately $585—a five percent premium over the cost of a plain cover.

The color, however, is applied carefully by hand and nearly doubles the price of a manhole to more than $900.

Such is the popularity of these little urban treasures that they have a devout, organized following.

There is the industry-led Japan Ground Manhole Association and the fan-based Japanese Society of Manhole Covers, whose website features thousands of photographs submitted by users across Japan, who have snapped everything from large sewer covers to tiny local utility access panels.

“Manholers,” as they’re known, may travel to distant areas of the country just to photograph covers or collect pencil rubbings known as takuhon.

Trading cards featuring manhole designs are also popular collectors’ items and can command steep prices in online auctions.

One prominent fan is Kei Takebuchi, a popular Tokyo-based singer-songwriter.

Takebuchi traces her fascination with them to the covers of Nagoya, which feature a charming cartoon water strider insect, while she was on tour in 2015.

Since then, she has regularly tweeted photos of manhole covers to her nearly 200,000 followers on social media.

“Every manhole cover design has [a meaning] … it tells me that we can create art with almost anything,” she says, in an interview for this story.

Like many places, Japan is full of people with unusual hobbies or obsessions, but love for the country’s manhole covers has gone mainstream:

a “manhole festival” was held near a major train station in Tokyo last month, featuring trading cards, baked goods, and replica covers from around the country.

Retailer Tokyu Hands ran an extended campaign at its central Shinjuku location, with a range of manhole cover–related goods for sale.

The affinity for manhole covers also seems to tap in to Japan’s fondness for hobbies that involve lots of domestic travel.

Stamp rallies—featuring rubber stamps at train stations and other landmarks—encourage hobbyists to travel to overlooked or lesser-visited locales to add one more stamp to their collections.

“Rail-fans” similarly scour the country to document or experience a rare train carriage, an unusual station melody, or other rail-related minutia.

It is the same for manholers, with the occasionally far-flung or seemingly random placement of coveted covers—and directions of varying accuracy—adding to the sense of a scavenger hunt.

Indeed, Takebuchi recounts once spending three hours on a bitterly cold day in Kawagoe City in Saitama Prefecture to snap a photo of a particular manhole cover, beautifully designed with an images of Toki no Kane, a historic bell tower.

Similar stories are common currency in manholing circles.

Easy to overlook, but curious and rewarding, Japan’s unique manhole covers are a charming reminder that the mundane can be exciting and that you should never forget to look down.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Landslides in São Paulo, Brazil

On February 19, 2023, torrential rain pounded São Paulo, a state in southeast Brazil. The water saturated soils and led to deadly flooding and landslides in the region.

The coastal municipality of São Sebastião was among the hardest-hit areas. This image (right), acquired on February 26, 2023, with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows numerous landslides across the hilly landscape between São Sebastião’s beach communities of Jaqueí and Praia da Baleia. The other image (left), acquired with OLI-2 on Landsat 9, shows a more typical view of the same area several months before the storm.

“Areas with very dense concentrations of landsliding, as seen here, are quite unusual but not unprecedented,” said Robert Emberson, a landslide expert with NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences Disasters program area. He added that landslide events of this extent require extremely intense localized rainfall.

That’s what happened in São Paulo when a storm delivered a huge amount of rain in a short amount of time. According to news reports, parts of the state saw more than 680 millimeters (26 inches) in a single day, exceeding the 24-hour rainfall record in some of the affected areas.

Continue reading.

[beansnpeets]

So, a lot of the locals here have this conspiracy that Jon's family is trying to control the community, when in reality it's that nobody else wants to actually do anything around here so Jon's mum is the water plant operator, Jon's dad is fire chief, Jon is the town employee, and I'm animal control. We are the only ones that do fuck all in this town. Hardly anyone else actually wants to help. And Jon's mum was on council for the last 8 years.

She ran for reeve and lost and the guy that is our ward councillor now is a total dink. Our emergency services is based out of THIS town and yet when we got 2 feet of snow THIS town was the last place in the entire municipality to be plowed. An ambulance had gotten stuck and Jon had to do some emergency snow plowing, and then went around after the grader and cleaned up some intersections that the dude had made a mess of. Jon's since been told that he is NOT allowed to plow ANY snow until he has consulted with our councillor first. Jesus Christ. What would happen if we had 2 feet of unplowed snow on all the streets and there was a house fire? How is the fire truck supposed to get out of the fire hall and get to the fire?

Jon's dad is a heavy duty mechanic and runs a shop in town. He typically does a lot of work for the RM on their tractor or whatever. The town tractor, that they got a "good" deal on, is so fucked up. It's leaking in a dozen places and the heat in the cab doesn't work. They pulled it into the shop, had a look at it and made a list of all the work that needs to be done. The council decided to NOT approve the work needed on the tractor and the ward councillor has said he wants to personally inspect the tractor first. As if they think Jon's dad is trying to rip the municipality off or something by saying it needs work that it doesn't need. Which is bullshit.

Anyway, the tractor has been needing this work for MONTHS. and the councillor was supposed to come yesterday to look at it. He didn't. So today Jon and his dad are pushing the tractor out of the shop and going to leave it outside because they have other shit that needs to come into the shop and don't have room to leave the tractor inside if they can't do anything with it.

Jon is ready to walk away. I'm ready to walk away. Jon's mum is also ready to walk away. Once Jon's dad has decided he's retiring, which probably won't take much if this new councillor is gonna fuck us all around like this, we are all done and this community will have absolutely nobody to do anything anymore. They will have no water plant operator, no town employee, no fire chief, and no animal control. Nobody on the fire department wants to step up and take chief. It was pulling teeth just to get 2 of the guys to agree to be co-deputy chiefs (second in command).

This fucking community has no idea what is good for it. The people here are so fucking ungrateful and disrespectful and they are going to end up paying for it once we wash our hands of this place.

[beardedmrbean]

A New Jersey state senator has proposed a bill that would ban the sale of non-flushable baby wipes throughout the state -- and would punish anyone who violates the ban with a fine of as much as $20,000.

Earlier this week, Democratic lawmaker Joseph Cryan, introduced the bill, which notes that non-flushable baby wipes can mistakenly get flushed down a toilet leading to problems for municipal septic systems.

"Non-flushable disposable wipes are typically made of synthetic materials that do not break down or disintegrate when submerged in water, even over a long period of time," the legislation reads. "This results in significant harm to sewage and septic systems, causing pipes, pumps, and water treatment systems to get clogged and require costly repairs."

If the bill is approved, anyone who sells non-flushable baby wipes in New Jersey could face a $10,000 on first offense and a $20,000 fine on any subsequent offenses.

The bill has been introduced and is headed to the state's senate commerce committee for review.

[websubmission]

Sewage Treatment Plant Manufacturer in India

Sewage Treatment Plant Manufacturer

  The sewage treatment plant is a critical component of the sanitation system. It removes harmful materials from our wastewater before it can enter the environment. The process of treatment typically includes three stages: primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary treatment removes solids and floating materials from the wastewater by screening or skimming, followed by gravity settling to remove lighter particles. Secondary treatment uses microorganisms to break down organic matter in a series of tanks called activated sludge units (ASUs).

Tertiary treatment involves removing any residual chemicals or microorganisms that could harm the environment with additional chemical treatments or chlorination before releasing it into the environment.

A sewage treatment plant is the foundation of a healthy community. It reduces the risk of infectious diseases and protects our water supply. But the sewage treatment industry is not without its challenges - like how to keep up with increasing population growth, climate change, and stricter regulations.

Sewage Treatment Plant Manufacturers are companies that provide solutions to the problem of waste water treatment. They make sure that the sewage is treated in a safe, efficient and cost-effective way.

A sewage treatment plant manufacturer supplier is an important part of any community because they provide a solution to a major problem. The wastewater from homes and businesses go to the plant where it undergoes a series of treatments before it's discharged back into the environment or used for irrigation or other purposes.

Sewage Treatment Plant Manufacturers are responsible for making sure that all of this takes place in an environmentally friendly manner, which means they have to use some form of renewable energy.

The sewage treatment plant manufacturer is the company that manufactures and installs sewage treatment plants. These plants are used in the municipal water treatment process to clean raw sewage before it is released into rivers and streams.

A STP manufacturer can be a private company or a government agency, such as a municipality, county, or state. The plant may be owned by a public utility or operated by a private company under contract to the government.

The sewage treatment plant manufacturer needs to comply with all applicable federal, state, and local regulations governing the design and operation of wastewater systems.

  Thanks & Regards

Advance Equipment & Project Pvt Ltd .

[davissepticdesign]

Residential Septic Tank Design: Essential Considerations for Efficient and Reliable Systems

A residential septic tank is a crucial component of homes not connected to municipal sewage systems. Proper design ensures efficient waste management, protects environmental health, and maintains property value. This article explores essential considerations in residential septic tank design, including sizing, materials, placement, maintenance, and regulatory requirements.

 

Understanding Septic Systems

Septic systems are decentralized wastewater treatment systems commonly used in rural and suburban areas. They consist of two main parts: the septic tank and the drainfield (or leachfield). The septic tank receives wastewater from household plumbing fixtures, separates solids from liquids, and allows anaerobic digestion of organic matter. The effluent flows into the drainfield where it undergoes further treatment as it percolates through soil layers.

 

Key Factors in Residential Septic Tank Design

1. Sizing Requirements:

Household Size and Usage: The size of the septic tank depends on the number of bedrooms in the house and daily water usage. Typically, a larger household or one with heavy water usage (e.g., laundry, dishwashing) requires a larger tank.

Regulatory Standards: Local health departments or environmental agencies have guidelines for septic tank sizing based on property size, soil type, and water table depth.

2. Tank Materials:

Concrete: Durable and commonly used, concrete tanks withstand ground pressure and provide long-term stability.

Fiberglass: Lightweight and resistant to corrosion, fiberglass tanks are suitable for areas with high groundwater levels.

Plastic: Cost-effective and easy to install, plastic tanks are ideal for smaller households with limited space.

3. Design Considerations:

Inlet and Outlet Structure: Positioned to promote settling of solids and prevent effluent turbulence.

Baffles and Dividers: Ensure proper flow patterns within the tank, preventing solids from exiting and reducing scum accumulation.

4. Placement and Installation:

Distance from Property: Septic tanks should be located away from wells, property boundaries, and water bodies to avoid contamination.

Depth: Tanks are typically buried underground at a depth that prevents freezing and facilitates maintenance access.

Ventilation: Adequate ventilation prevents buildup of gases like methane and hydrogen sulfide, ensuring safety and odor control.

5. Maintenance and Inspection:

Pumping Schedule: Regular pumping removes accumulated solids, preventing tank overflow and drainfield clogging.

Inspection Ports: Accessible ports allow inspection of tank conditions and facilitate maintenance tasks.

Annual Inspections: Check for leaks, structural integrity, and proper function of inlet and outlet components.

6. Drainfield Design:

Size and Configuration: Calculated based on soil percolation rates, ensuring proper absorption of effluent.

Distance from Tank: Adequate distance prevents hydraulic overload and ensures effluent treatment through soil filtration.

Soil Composition: Soil permeability affects drainage efficiency; soil tests determine suitability for drainfield installation.

 

Regulatory Compliance and Permits

Local health departments or environmental agencies regulate residential septic systems to protect groundwater and public health. Permits are required for new installations or modifications to ensure compliance with design standards, setback distances, and environmental impact assessments. Homeowners should obtain permits and adhere to regulatory guidelines to avoid fines and environmental harm.

 

Common Design Challenges and Solutions

1. High Water Table:

Solution: Use elevated drainfields or alternative treatment technologies (e.g., mound systems) to prevent groundwater contamination.

2. Small Property Size:

Solution: Install compact, high-capacity tanks or consider alternative systems like aerobic treatment units (ATUs) or recirculating sand filters.

3. Poor Soil Permeability:

Solution: Treat effluent with advanced technologies (e.g., drip irrigation systems) or enhance soil drainage through additives or mounding.

 

Environmental and Economic Benefits

Properly designed and maintained septic systems provide several benefits:

Groundwater Protection: Efficient treatment prevents contamination of groundwater sources, preserving water quality.

Cost-Effective: Initial installation costs and ongoing maintenance are generally lower than connecting to municipal sewage systems.

Property Value: Well-maintained septic systems enhance property value and appeal to prospective buyers.

 

Conclusion

Residential septic tank design plays a critical role in ensuring effective wastewater treatment, protecting environmental health, and complying with regulatory standards. By considering factors such as sizing, materials, placement, and maintenance, homeowners can install reliable septic systems that function efficiently for years. Consulting with septic system professionals and local authorities ensures compliance with regulations and promotes sustainable wastewater management practices. Investing in a well-designed septic system not only benefits individual households but also contributes to community and environmental well-being.