5 Interesting things

This week I thought I’d share some interesting things I found on the web. Here’s a little bit of something for everyone.

Tech

1.Some Viking News

Harald Gormsson, also know as Harald Bluetooth was king of Denmark and Norway from 959 - 985.

And would you believe it? Bluetooth on your phone is named after him. Based on the analogy that the technology would unite devices the way Harald united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. The bluetooth logo actually consist of his initials in Norse, overlapping each other.

The reason I bring this up is that a giant Viking hall possibly linked to Harald Bluetooth has just been unearthed in Denmark.

2.The Last man standing

Tom Persky is the founder of floppydisk.com, a company dedicated to the selling, recycling and data transfer of floppy disks. Over time the users of floppy disks have decreased as you would expect, but the suppliers have virtually disappeared. This provided an opportunity and Tom is the worldwide supplier of floppy disks. He has about half a million disks still in stock and surprisingly, he still gets clients.

3.The unanswered Lithium Battery question

As the world looks to electrify vehicles and store excess energy produced by renewables, the demand for batteries has never been this high. But what we often miss during these conversations is on what to do with these batteries once they are old. Unlike traditional lead-acid batteries, the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles cannot be recycled in the conventional way of shredding. Currently, it costs more to recycle a lithium battery than to mine the lithium required to make it. It is important to recycle these batteries as producing one tonne of lithium requires a staggering 2.2 million litres of water - along with the environmental concerns relating to mining. While EV’s reduce CO2 emissions, indirectly, the carbon footprint of batteries used in them are very high.

4.Take Action and save Ralph

Save Ralph is a short animated film about a bunny being interviewed for a documentary on his daily routine as a ‘tester’ in a lab. The film produced is part of Human Society International’s campaign to ban animal testing for cosmetics and highlights the cosmetics industry’s cruelty through the story of one bunny. The film is short (4 mins) yet powerful and is shortlisted for this year’s Oscar in the Best Animation Short category.

Take action and check before you buy to see if there is any animal testing done on your products.

5.Feel good Story

Phew, after that intense video I thought we’d better end off on a lighter note. How would you feel about giving a stranger your kidney? Well that’s what happened to this Uber driver when he went to pick up a client after he had his dialysis done. The two got chatting and the Uber driver was so moved after hearing his passenger’s story that he offered to donate him his kidney if they were a match. You can read the story here.

Which reminds me, I still haven’t done my good deed for today…

Let me know if you enjoyed this format of this week’s distraction and if you would like to see more of the same.

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