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environment, ramblings

On Paper Tissues

Having had a filthy cold twice in recent weeks (no, not Covid, either time) I fell to thinking about the resilience of paper tissues and their propensity (or not) to fall apart when wet.

Tissue-type paper (the sort that’s designed for personal use) that we generally encounter seems to come in four basic qualities:

  • Paper Hand Towels (as in many communal toilets)
  • Kitchen Roll
  • Tissues (eg. your bog standard Kleenex)
  • Toilet Roll

Their robustness when wet depends on the quality of the paper, and the length of the fibres from which they’re made. The longer the fibres, the more robust the final product.

While paper can be recycled up to seven times, it can’t be recycled infinitely. Eventually the fibres become too short to cling together and just have to be composted. The shortest fibres go into packaging like corrugated cardboard, egg boxes and toilet roll. Remember, the shorter the fibres the less robust the paper.

You can demonstrate this for yourself next time you have a runny nose. Wipe your nose on a paper hand towel and observe how well it survives – and that this is the same as when you use it to dry your hands. Repeat this in turn with kitchen paper, ordinary tissues and then toilet roll. Observe how when wet each is progressively less robust than those preceding.

paper strength experiment

You can actually do this more scientifically, as shown here and above. Yes, that site is advertising a particular brand, but you can use the method with any papers you choose. It’s a good experiment to do with kids.

This varying strength is deliberate design. You want the hand towel and kitchen paper to hold up: they’re intended for mopping up spills. Tissues a bit less so. Toilet paper, on the other hand is designed to fall apart when wet – if it didn’t the drains would pretty quickly get clogged. By the time your piece of toilet paper is 50 meters down the sewer it is nothing but mush, so it flows easily with the rest of the liquid. Also think about why a sheet of corrugated card packaging left in the road in the rain disintegrates so quickly.

This is why we are always told not to put paper hand towels etc. down the loo: they don’t break down quickly so they cause blockages.

There’s far more goes into paper production than we often realise. Just think of all the different types of paper you come across: from high-end glossy magazines, though artists’ drawing paper and copier paper, right down to egg boxes and loo paper. It is all deliberately designed to have particular characteristics for specific jobs.

arts, beliefs, environment, food+drink, history, links, medical, memes, science

Monthly Links

Well then … Here we go with another collection of links to items you didn’t know you didn’t want to miss.

Science, Technology, Natural World

In the latest of the grand space projects, NASA has retrieved a couple of hundred grams of an asteroid and dropped it back to Earth.

Now we’re coming down to the top of a 22,000-foot volcano where Earth’s highest-dwelling vertebrates have been found

Japan has a new island thanks to an underwater volcanic eruption.

Still on the fiery nature of Earth, there’s been a swarm of earthquakes happening in Iceland, which likely precedes a volcanic eruption.

Still on earthquakes, a researcher, at the Vatican Library, has found a 500-year-old Hebrew note which reveals an unknown earthquake swarm in Italy.

Now to the natural world …

Serotine bats (above) have surprised scientists by being the first known mammal to have procreative sex without penetration.

Staying with rodents … experiments suggest that rats may have the power of imagination.

In the Amazon there’s a somewhat horrifying parasitic wasp (below) with a huge head, and it is just one of over 100 newly discovered species.

This is somewhat bizarre … it seems that starfish are just a large, flattened head, with no body. [££££]

Health, Medicine

Scientists seem to have worked out why some people get headaches from drinking red wine.

And now we have three items for the female population …

In the first, OB/GYN Dr Jen Gunter tries to once and for all explode the myth of menstrual synchronization.

Dr Gunter then looks at the sense in poking garlic up your vagina.

Finally academic sex researcher Dr Kate Lister tests oral probiotics for vaginal health. [££££]

Sexuality

And now on to actual sexuality … in which Dr Emily Nagoski looks at some approaches to sex for the disabled.

Expert sex therapists suggest the usual 20 ways to revive your flagging libido.

Environment

On the interaction between wild pigs and golf courses.

Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics

Why is there this assumption British voters become more Conservative with age – and is it true?

Let’s obscure the players’ genders and then see how men’s and women’s soccer compare.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Archaeological finds are revealing that art is much older than our species. [LONG READ] [££££]

There’s a boom in people taking up life drawing.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Near China’s “Terracotta Army” archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 2000-year-old sheep-drawn chariot.

Moving west, a large number of clay stamps used to seal Roman documents (above) have been discovered in Turkey.

Meanwhile off the coast of Sardinia divers have discovered around 50,000 Roman coins.

A cartographer has created a London Underground style map of Britain’s Roman Roads.

Excavations around Sutton Hoo in Suffolk continue to turn up suprises. One latest find is the remains of what might be an early 7th-century temple.

Coming gradually up to date … A hoard of medieval pennies dating from the reign of King Stephen has been found in Norfolk.

In Germany they’ve found a centuries old grave containing a skeleton with four prosthetic fingers.

Dr Eleanor Janega takes reveals the real story behind the killing of Joan of Arc.

Forensic research proves that the Ancient Ram Inn in Wotton-under-Edge (above) is old, but not as old as is made out. [LONG READ]

London

Here’s a look at the life of Wenceslaus Hollar who is best known for his panoramic views of 17th-century London (below).

Food, Drink

The convoluted story of the sandwich called Gua Bao. [LONG READ]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Mathematician Kit Yates looks at whether the time has come to stop changing the clocks twice a year.

Cheese-rolling, straw bears and weird rituals: one man has made it his life’s work to record the whole of British folklore, and he now has a massive collection.

There’s a collection of walks around the UK’s strange and sacred sites.

Returning to sex researcher Dr Kate Lister, she’s written about growing out her pubic hair for the first time in 20 years. [££££]

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally, in a surprise revelation it has been discovered that a supposed Yeti hair actually belonged to a horse.

memes, music, personal

Ten Albums

A friend over on Facebook has been tasked with choosing ten albums that greatly influenced his taste in music; one a day for ten days; no explanation; no reviews; just album covers.

I’ve been meaning to do this myself for quite a while, so I thought I’d play along, but as always I’ll eviscerate the rules: I’m posting them all at once and here, rather than on Facebook.

So here are my ten albums – well no, actually some are just works (large or small) as there’s a large representation of classical as opposed to pop. They’re here all at once, in no particular order. Oh, and only one item per group or composer.

Monteverdi; 1610 Vespers
(John Eliot Gardner)
Byrd; Gradualia
(broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1970s)
Carl Orff; Carmina Burana
(André Previn)
Beatles; Abbey Road
Bach; Toccata & Fugue in D Minor
(Peter Hurford)
Pink Floyd; Dark Side of the Moon
Caravan; Land of Grey & Pink
Louis-Claude d’Aquin; Noël Étranger
(Noël VIII) (Michel Chapuis)
Yes; Close to the Edge
Handel; Messiah
(this is the score of the Prout edition we sang in the school choir)

I’m not nominating people to pick up the thread, but do join in if you wish.

arts, history, ramblings

Christmas Stamps

Royal Mail have released this year’s Christmas stamps, and yet again we’ve managed to create a perfectly horrible, ever more nauseatingly religious, set of designs – which isn’t helped by this ubiquitous barcode.

UK 2023 Christmas Stamps
This year’s British Christmas stamps
[Click the image for a larger view]

Royal Mail had (at least until recently) a policy of alternating religious and secular themes year-by-year. This seems to have gone by the board as the last five years’ designs have all been religious.

Yes, I know Christmas is supposed to be a religious festival, and this is a nominally Christian country. However it would be really good to (a) have some stamps celebrating the pagan Yule – or Roman Saturnalia which provided much of the Christian festivity – and (b) some decent, simple designs.

We’ve had special Christmas stamps every year since 1966 (thanks to the then Postmaster General, Tony Benn, whose idea it was). But to my mind there have been few really good designs. From all the years, perhaps the one I like best – for their clean simplicity – are the ones from 1980.

UK 1980 Christmas Stamps
1980

With 1969, 1973 and 1993 following on (not necessarily in that order).

UK 1969 Christmas Stamps
1969
UK 1973 Christmas Stamps
1973
UK 1993 Christmas Stamps
1993

As for the rest, they span the range from merely OK to abominably awful.

Not that other countries’ stamps are necessarily any better, although many are.

memes, personal

Unblogged October

Sun 1 Good grief, we’re 3/4 of the way through the year! Although it’s quite warm, it’s getting dark and dreary – the dismals (ie. SAD) are beginning to get me. Arrggghhhh!!!!!
Mon 2 It’s time to think about Christmas cards. As some here will know for the last 20 years we’ve had our own cards printed, as large postcards, often using one of my photos. We’re investigating something different this year; if it works it’ll still be a postcard but of some collage. We’re experimenting.
And as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, postcards work extremely well. Printed in bulk they’re cheaper than cards, they avoid all the faff of envelopes, and they hinder the writing of “family letters”.
Tue 3 A few days ago, when watering the plants on the study windowsill, I managed to water the scanner – rather more than I thought. In consequence it had some significant water ingress and despite mopping it out there was obviously water damage to the electrics as the scans didn’t properly. So buy a new scanner, which arrived today. It’s cheap and cheerful; not yet convinced about the quality of the scans, but it’ll do for a while.
Wed 4 N’s birthday. We went to dinner wih a long-time friend, and very pleasant it was – made better by it being our first social outing in in seems like forever.
Thu 5 Late abed last night, so had the luxury of a lie-in (well more like a good sleep-in) this morning. Consequently not much got done, except we did manage to audit the freezer – and just as well because the running log was 50% wrong!
Fri 6 How can the supermarket so comprehensively bugger up our delivery. 75% of what we ordered was just shown as unavailable. Of what we did get (ie. not a lot) we got milk which we hadn’t ordered, and double rations of two varieties of cat food. Central Customer Services didn’t know what had happened and had no reports of anything – but did help by creating a repeat order for tomorrow. Customer Services at the Fulfilment Centre rang me later on, but she still didn’t know what had happened and was demanding the warehouse find out – we both suspected a computer glitch. But everyone was duly apologetic and agreed it really shouldn’t have happened under any circumstances and we’d none of us seen anything like it before. Luckily, having worked so long in IT, I understand that these things can occasionally happen.
Sat 7 Fortunately today’s repeat supermarket delivery was fine, barring the expected odd couple of items unavailable. So a great cook-a-thon happened this afternoon – using all the old apples and tomatoes (not together), as well as making mincemeat & apple tart and a sausage and veg traybake for dinner.
Sun 8 At last the Jerusalem Artichokes have got a good display of small yellow sunflower-ish blooms. They’re only about 10cm across, but rather pretty. This isn’t surprising as they are very closely related to sunflowers; they’re all Helianthus spp.Jerusalem artichoke flowers
Mon 9 Having casseroled all the surplus tomatoes on Saturday, today they were turned into tomato & bean soup. Tomatoes pushed through the Mouli; onion & garlic sweated in butter; add the tomato, various seasonings & herbs, and a tin of blackeye beans. A substantial evening repast with some added grated cheddar and hunks of bread.
Tue 10 02:45. Fox barking out in the street. Can’t see it, but it sounds as if it’s a short way away. Actually I’m not sure there aren’t two – one in each direction. Probably territorial; it’s a bit early for fucking season.
Wed 11 Decided that my dermatology appointment scheduled for tomorrow would be a complete waste of time – it’s only a follow-up from January and there’s nothing worth looking at. So I cancelled it.
Thu 12 There’s something odd in the air round here at the moment. A couple of evenings ago one of the local pubs was burned out. It created absolute chaos at the time as it’s on a busy main road – and of course there was the usual crowd of sightseers. It’ll be interesting to see the conclusions of the fire investigation.
Then yesterday a family of beavers (2 adults, 3 kits) were released into an enclosure by the canal, about a mile away. Even the Mayor of London turned up! Said beavers are supposed to be re-engineering the water/marsh there, but I don’t see that there’s enough tree habitat for them. I hope I’m wrong, but I’ll give them 3-4 months before some thug has either culled them, or they have to be rehomed.
Fri 13 Our Christmas cards have arrived. They’ve turned out better than I expected. But you’ll have to wait to see them.
Sat 14 After a summer hiatus, another excellent literary society online talk, hosted by yours truly. We’re getting too good at this.
Sun 15 Why doesn’t it get any better? There’s always so much to do, and however hard you work you never seem to make any progress or reduce the length of the to do list. It’s almost always a case of you really need to do A urgently, but before you can do that you have to do B, and that needs C and D doing – but D can’t be completed until A is done! Arrggghhhh!
Mon 16 Oh bugger! Woke up this morning with a headache and dizziness – so much so that I was slightly queasy. That scuppered accompanying N to her hospital specialist appointment. Bloody labyrinthitis.
Tue 17 Rinse and repeat – although some of the soapiness has been washed out.
Wed 18 It’s raining. How unusual! The Rosie Cat has just come in and she’s sparkling in the light from tiny water droplets in her fur, almost as if the kids have sprinkled her with glitter. Really a rather fetching look!
Thu 19 Oh God! It’s crap IT month. First a dead scanner. Then a dead printer. And today my PC won’t start. No time to try to find out what’s happening, so I have to try to do everything from the laptop, plus the backups (on the server) which, of course, didn’t run last night. I don’t need this!
Fri 20 What a nightmare week. I feel completely shell-shocked. I’d like to say I’ll have a quiet weekend, but if nothing else I need to investigate what ails the PC. First I have to extract the tin box from its corner. Lucky I had the laptop pretty much ready to roll – although I keep having to drag files off the backup server and install odd bits of software, so everything is taking extra time. But we’re getting there.
Sat 21 Result! After lunch I bit the bullet and attached my wounded PC. It was refusing to boot; clearly not picking up the boot drive. Ensure everything inside is firmly plugged; and it has power OK. Swap the two drives to see if the cables are dead; or maybe the boot disk. Nope. Nothing. So I wonder if the power cable is dead; try plugging into a different socket on the power distribution. Yes! Everything works. So clearly one channel in the PC’s power supply has died; but (for now at least) the rest are OK. And we’re back in business! Job done in an hour, including recovering the updated files from my laptop. Phew!
Sun 22 After all that rain and gloom the second half of the night was clear – at least it was crystal clear at 06:30 with Saturn shining really brightly in the western sky. It was, however still overcast at midnight, so we missed the display of Orionid meteors.
Mon 23 What happened!? I actually managed to pick up a project rewriting web material for the literary society I’d not touched for over a year, and which should have been done ages ago. That was after I’d spent ages on IT support for the society.
Tue 24 Spent half the day looking at new laptops for N and maybe a new PC for me. More money! We’re having an expensive month. Luckily we have the money – but not for long at this rate.
Wed 25 Wasted so much of the day, again, looking at laptops and PCs. Nothing much usefully achieved other than the grocery order.
Thu 26 So finally I managed to get our new PCs on order. Laptop for N, and a new high-spec PC for me.
After this I discovered that somewhere in the IT chaos I’d lost the records for half a dozen new members from the literary society membership database. So that wasted a good hour putting it right.
Fri 27 Things are definitely weird round here. I’ve never been one for dreaming a lot; I could go weeks or even months without being aware of a good dream. But recently – say the last month – that I’ve been dreaming much more than usual. Well at least much more than I am normally aware of. And it seems to be mostly before waking in the morning rather than the middle of the night. I’m not one for recording dreams, trying to store them in memory, or trying lucid dreaming, so I don’t have much of a handle on what these recent dreams contain. I just have this vague memory that they’ve all involved some bizarre synthesis of school, university and my former work – pick any two, or even all three. I cannot explain why this is happening. There’s no obvious trigger: no change of medication; I get really good scores from my CPAP machine; I don’t watch horror movies or read horror stories; I don’t eat late at night. But there must be something triggering it. It’s very odd.
Sat 28 All children should be microchipped at birth. Discuss over dinner. Well we do it for our cats, dogs, horses etc., so why not our kids?
And the rest of us can get a catch-up chip with our flu jab or the like.
Sun 29 Evening meal: Roast chicken thighs with pork stuffing, with bubble-and-squeak du maison; followed by apple & mincemeat crumble & cream. And a bottle of very nice Greek white wine.
Mon 30 It’s no bloody wonder the counrty’s in a mess. You book the guys to come and take away a pile of rubbish. Yes, they say, we’ll be there between 13:00 and 16:00. Are they? Not a chance. It’s now 19:40 and pitch dark, and they’re now supposed to be here in the next 10 minutes. Ah, door bell; they arrived as I typed at 19:45. One lad; but very efficient; here and gone in 20 minutes. Job done, apart from some sweeping up to do in daylight. Phew!
Tue 31 Is it my back? Or my bowel? Or my bladder? I can’t work it out, but it’s bloody uncomfortable. I foresee another trip to the doctors. One is not amused.