
Hey folx! It’s time for the next edition of 5 Interesting Things. It’s a short round up of things I’ve found that are: potentially actionable, inspiring, thought-provoking. Let’s gooo!
The Future Forest Company – A lot of us live urban lives these days, so we might not have much, if any room to plant a tree. If that’s the case, you can use this organization or others like it to get trees planted where there is room. You’ll be helping to reduce CO2 loads, providing habitat for animals and insects, and generally making things cooler and greener.
Male Fertility – The press has devoted a lot of ink and pixels to the idea of a male fertility crisis. This article suggests that there really isn’t one. If nothing else, this piece demonstrates why continued study of an issue is important to refining our understanding of complicated subjects.
Piddling Concerns – Although this is possibly too much information, an adult on a typical Western diet urinates about 500 liters a year, enough to fill three standard bathtubs. Urine is also full of full of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which plants need to grow. Rather than flush all that away, researchers are looking at ways to safely recycle your piddle into fertilizer. It would save farmers input costs, and cut sewage treatment plant use down.
Volcano Snails – Yes, you read that right, volcano snails. Apparently, these things live around hydrothermal vents in the Indian ocean, and have ā get this ā iron shells.
5G and the IoT – The subject of a lot of really stupid conspiracy theories, the 5G technology being rolled out this year is going to make things very interesting in the next decade. It will enable a lot of what we’re calling the “Internet of Things.” That is, objects connected to the Internet and exchanging data. One use case would be sensors embedded in bridges, which would enable us to check their condition remotely and address structural issues before fail like this one did. If you have never heard of the IoT, now is the time to brush up, as it will be affecting your life very soon.