Heavy metals in Nigerian spices, 2016

Some of these will affect Europeans and Americans. I have made bold the things that might affect products in America or Europe.

Abstract:

BACKGROUND:
Natural spices are commonly used by the people in Nigeria. They may be easily contaminated with heavy metals when they are dried and then pose a health risk for the consumers.

OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study was to determine the levels of heavy metals in some commonly consumed natural spices namely Prosopis Africana, Xylopia aethiopica, Piper gineense, Monodora myristica, Monodora tenuifolia and Capsicum frutescens sold in the local markets of Awka, Anambra state, South East Nigeria to estimate the potential health risk.

RESULTS:
The range of heavy metal concentration was in the order: Zn (14.09 - 161.04) > Fe (28.15 - 134.59) > Pb (2.61 - 8.97) > Cr (0.001 - 3.81) > Co (0.28 - 3.07) > Ni (0.34 - 2.89). Pb, Fe and Zn exceeded the maximum allowable concentrations for spices. The Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) of the spices varied from 0.06-0.5. Estimated daily intakes (EDI) were all below the tolerable daily intake (TDI). The lead levels in Prosopis africana, Xylopia aethiopica (Grains of Selim), Piper gineense (aka West African pepper, Ashanti pepper, Benin pepper, false cubeb, Guinea cubeb, uziza pepper), Monodora myristica (Calabash nutmeg) and Capsicum frutescens (aka Piri Piri, Kambuzi pepper, Malagueta pepper, Tabasco pepper, Siling labuyo) which are 8-30 times higher than the WHO/FAO permissible limit of 0.3 mg/kg.

Source
"Heavy Metals Hazards from Nigerian Spices." 2016. NIH website.

50 US Gymnastics coaches banned for abusing girls

List here.

At first a girl named McCabe filed abuse complaints against her coach, and the complaint was simply filed away and ignored. Later a list of coaches who were abusing girls, and banned from the US Gymnastics team, was found.

Some coaches were even left off the sexual abuser list.

Story here.

The Coke Sharing Can Splits in Two

The Coke Sharing Can, which fits regular vending machines, splits into 2 pieces to share with a friend.

Ice Cream Lock Secures Your Treat

Ice Cream Lock keeps your favorite flavor under high security. I have no idea how this works since cardboard ice cream containers are very flexible.

Heavy metals in bottled water

Abstract:

New regulations regarding the presence of contaminants in bottled water went into effect in California in January 2009. These requirements include testing, reporting, and notification to regulate the presence of heavy metals in bottled natural spring water sold in California. In the study described in this article, six sources of bottled natural spring water were purchased and analyzed for silver, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, lead, antimony, selenium, thallium, vanadium, and zinc. All of these metals except beryllium, mercury, and thallium were detected in at least one of the bottled natural spring water sources. No concentrations were above either federal or California maximum contaminant levels but arsenic concentrations exceeded California public health goals in all six sources. Improving the California notification requirements for bottled water contaminants would result in a process more similar to the notification process for tap water and would result in better-informed consumers.

So, the rumors are true. California is doing something good. 


Source
"Heavy Metals in Bottled Water". 2011. Study on NIH website.

5TB external USB drive for $130, on Amazon

Prices for storage are coming down quickly. See here. But you will probably have to partition this drive into multiple logical drives for this to work on your OS.

Edit Nov 6, 2016: now $130usd!!

Max partition sizes for 32-bit OS: Microsoft KB.

1. A 32-bit OS supports disk partitions up to 2TB. If your hardware is 64-bit but your OS is 32-bit the 2TB limit still applies. 
2. A 64-bit OS supports a (theoretical) 9.4 billion TB disk partition. But the OS is not the only thing that matters, the file system type also matters. 
3. The newer GUID Partition Table supports more disk partitions. MS KB article.

A physical hard drive can be divided into partitions, or "logical drives". The number of partitions depends on your OS. The max size of partitions also depends on your OS. The max file size depends on what type of partition it is.


Types of partitions (file systems)

1. FAT32: Max file size: 2GB (this is not big enough for many movies especially in HD). Max partition size is 8TB. Techsupport.com. Wikipedia. Filesystem limits from Wikipedia.
2. exFat: Max file size: 16Eib. Max partition size: 64ZiB.

If any of this is incorrect please leave a comment with a link to the correct information.

New: book on relationships released

I've just released my book on relationships, and how to find the right person for you. 30+ years of study, and multiple models crammed into one book. $2-4usd, your choice, with 45 day money back guarantee. Free sample available in PDF, EPUB or MOBI formats.

Seriously, there isn't another book like this out there with all this on one p lace. It's finding that perfect person, using science.

Go here for "Relationship Magic". But it's just science that looks like magic. 

Firefly population dying

The firefly population appears to be decreasing in 13 countries, as reported in a 2010 report. Urban lights confuse the insects, leading to reduced reproduction, and increased use of pesticides of many types helps kill them off.

To get involved and report filefly sightings, go to Museum of Science, Firefly Watch. Fireflies can glow in yellow, orange, green, even blue!

Source: Accuweather.
See more at Firefly dot org.

Neat map of wind, rain, clouds, pressure, or temperatue

Windyty is a website which can show a heatmap of temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure, snow, cloud cover or waves.

It also comes as an app for Android.

I'll never sleep through another tornado again (true story).

Try it!