this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Time to move to the glorious nation of Kazakhstan, the top producer of potassium, to get some of those magic minerals to protect my countless buildings.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Very Nice!!!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (6 children)

my garage, the old fence, and a good chunk of my house is asbestos.

They've been standing 60 years and you wouldn't know it.

Damn shame we can't use the material. Proof god hates us.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Aw fuck, I knew I remembered that shit from childhood.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago

Something something you may be entitled to compensation

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

One assumes eventually.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Probably because symptoms of mesothelioma take decades to develop, and I only encountered that stuff around a few holiday seasons in my earliest memories.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Also known as cancer in a box

[–] [email protected] 191 points 3 days ago (17 children)

It is a fantastically useful material, except for all the mesothelioma.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 3 days ago (16 children)

Seriously, except for the horrific issues with the stuff, it would be an essential material for various applications.

Its resistance to fire, heat transfer, etc would do wonders for insulation and construction.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Doesn't burn, really hard to wear out, you can just dig it out of the ground, easy to shape and repair.

Except it kills people, and it hurts the whole time they're dying.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 days ago (3 children)

They're going to say the same about plastic

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Plastic is not very reactive. This property makes it generally not directly harmful to organic health, but also notoriously slow to decompose, causing huge amounts of pollution. I think it's misleading to compare it to asbestos.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (3 children)

From what I gather, asbestos is also very stable and not reactive. Asbestosis is caused by tiny fibers physically tearing your lungs.

It's unlikely that plastic is as dangerous (we'd seen it by now) but its buildup can likewise cause some condition.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

To be clear, asbestos is less reactive than plastic (particularly most thermoplastics) by a wide margin. One burns, the other will not. Asbestos is closer to glass. It requires incredibly high temperatures to turn it into glass as a matter of fact, as that's about the only way to dispose of it permanently.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 119 points 3 days ago (8 children)

I had to reinsulate my attic a few years ago and I found about five different types of insulation up there (I have an old house) ... I had to do a bunch of research on this stuff and figure out what I had ... thankfully I was ok but I found this in my search online

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Our house is about 150 years old and we dug down to the dirt floor in one of the downstairs rooms. We found suspicious white bits, and had to send a sample off. Luckily it came back clear. It was unlikely anyway, as asbestos wasn't in widespread use here in the 19th century.

However, we do have corrugated asbestos roofing on our "scullery" but it's in one piece so can be left until we renovate that part, then disposed of safely. It's pretty common to find it on sheds and outbuildings here.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago

magic population control

[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 days ago (1 children)

God: "I'll make a wonder material. Fire proof. Strong. Insulating. Just dig it up from the ground. Common a fuck. Waterproof."

"Then they can all get cancer the cunts"

"Okay I'm done shit posting for now. Where's that big tittie blonde gone"

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Treat your taste kindly with KENT, the cigarette with the NEW Micronite filter!

^^Micronite ^^is ^^asbestos.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (9 children)

Oh oh, I've got one too. It's not containing Asbestos but Thorium (or Radium respectively) tho.

"Doramad radioactive toothpaste"

"Creates natural freshness in the mouth!"

"Special biological healing effects by radium rays. A thousand times medically prescribed and recommended."

"What does Doramad do? Through its radioactivity, it increases the defenses of teeth and gums. The cells are charged with a new vigorous life energy, which inhibits bacteria in their destructive ability. Hence the exquisite prevention and healing effect on gum diseases. Polishes enamel to the softest shiny white. Prevents tartar approach. Good foam, new taste, pleasant, mild and refreshing. Use extensively."

Quick disclaimer: The last two quotes can be found on Wikipedia but they are not backed up with sources.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's because of that kind of thing that I'm always skeptical of startups bringing new and shiny things, that weren't properly studied or tested, and promising to revolutionize something.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

You know what, their claim about odour being caused by bacteria, and bacteria being damaged by radiation is on point.

I'm sure you'll have some odour when your mouth turns into a giant weeping sore though

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

turbocancer sticks!

now with better flavour!

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My dad was a contractor and he had a big sheet of it in the garage that was leftover from some job. It looked kind of like a sheet of drywall, but was grey and rougher. I used to take it into the back yard with a little blow torch and and lay on it while I melted metal things. I was probably ten to twelve at the time.

It was a different time.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 days ago (10 children)

I'm pretty sure we could go back to using it, with more precautions in place, better binders, etc. Hell, it's still used in many parts of the world, and it occurs naturally all over the fucking place. But, alas, lawyers would have to stop salivating at every mention of the word.

In geoscience, we started using the word asbestoform to describe minerals with fibrous habits so we don't get lawyers showing up to destroy all of our rock samples and turn every geoscience facility into a superfund site.

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