#and that would've been fucking amazing

[reasonsforhope]

"Clothing tags, travel cards, hotel room key cards, parcel labels … a whole host of components in supply chains of everything from cars to clothes. What do they have in common? RFID tags.  

Every RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag contains a microchip and a tiny metal strip of an antenna. A cool 18bn of these are made – and disposed of – each year. And with demands for product traceability increasing, ironically in part because of concerns for the social and environmental health of the supply chain, that’s set to soar. 

And guess where most of these tags end up? Yup, landfill – adding to the burgeoning volumes of e-waste polluting our soils, rivers and skies. It’s a sorry tale, but it’s one in which two young graduates of Imperial College London and Royal College of Art are putting a great big green twist. Under the name of PulpaTronics, Chloe So and Barna Soma Biro reckon they’ve hit on a beguilingly simple sounding solution: make the tags out of paper. No plastic, no chips, no metal strips. Just paper, pure and … simple … ? Well, not quite, as we shall see. 

The apparent simplicity is achieved by some pretty cutting-edge technical innovation, aimed at stripping away both the metal antennae and the chips. If you can get rid of those, as Biro explains, you solve the e-waste problem at a stroke. But getting rid of things isn’t the typical approach to technical solutions, he adds. “I read a paper in Nature that set out how humans have a bias for solving problems through addition – by adding something new, rather than removing complexity, even if that’s the best approach.”   

And adding stuff to a world already stuffed, as it were, can create more problems than it solves. “So that became one of the guiding principles of PulpaTronics”, he says: stripping things down “to the bare minimum, where they are still functional, but have as low an environmental impact as possible”.  

...how did they achieve this magical simplification? The answer lies in lasers: these turn the paper into a conductive material, Biro explains, printing a pattern on the surface that can be ‘read’ by a scanner, rather like a QR code. It sounds like frontier technology, but it works, and PulpaTronics have patents pending to protect it. 

The resulting tag comes in two forms: in one, there is still a microchip, so that it can be read by existing scanners of the sort common within retailers, for example. The more advanced version does away with the chip altogether. This will need a different kind of scanner, currently in development, which PulpaTronics envisages issuing licences for others to manufacture. 

Crucially, the cost of both versions is significantly cheaper than existing RFID kit – making this a highly viable proposition. Then there are the carbon savings: up to 70% for the chipless version – so a no-brainer from a sustainability viewpoint too. All the same, industry interest was slow to start with but when PulpaTronics won a coveted Dezeen magazine award in late 2023, it snowballed, says So. Big brands such as UPS, DHL, Marks & Spencer and Decathlon came calling. “We were just bombarded.” Brands were fascinated by the innovation, she says, but even more by the price point, “because, like any business, they knew that green products can’t come with a premium”."

-via Positive.News, April 29, 2024

--

Note: I know it's still in the very early stages, but this is such a relief to see in the context of the environmental and human rights catastrophes associated with lithium mining and mining for rare earth metals, and the way that EVs and other green infrastructure are massively increasing the demand for those materials.

I'll take a future with paper-based, more humane alternatives for sure! Fingers crossed this keeps developing and develops well (and quickly).

#I do really wish it could be read by regular scanners already though #that's what I thought at first #and that would've been fucking amazing #but this is still pretty cool #electronics #science and technology #green technology #ewaste #landfill #lithium #lithium mining #human rights #environment #climate action #climate hope #rfid #rfid technology #rfid tags #good news #hope

[introspectivememories]

can't stop fucking thinking about sun/moon shuggy bc shanks is the sun always and buggy is forever the moon. buggy will never be the sun, he will never shine as brilliantly as shanks or anyone else. and the moon makes no light of it's own!!!! it only shines bc the sun's light reflects off of it!!!! buggy never shines by himself!!! he will never make his own light!!! buggy who is always second best, shining only from the light shanks gives him. even worse, you only ever see half of the moon illuminated at one time!!!! shanks who gives buggy the light he needs to shine but only for certain parts of buggy!!!! never all of him!!!!! buggy never shines fully and he never will bc buggy is the moon, he isn't a star or a comet or a meteor, he's a moon and moons don't shine by themselves. and buggy who devotes himself to shanks bc he wants to shine, by god he wants it so badly he aches somedays, but shanks is the golden child, shining with splendor, and buggy knows when to stop fighting a losing battle. he sticks around for years drawn in by the gravity of shanks' orbit until loguetown, and as his captain's head hits the ground, buggy feels himself splinter into thousands of little meteoroids. he leaves shanks standing in the rain and thinks to himself, i will shine by myself or i will die trying

#oh my god sun/moon shuggy makes me insane #me in the corner of my kitchen rocking myslef and whispering: he shines only with the light shanks gives him #and how crazy is that even in this buggy is still second best??? #and the moon is only illuminated a half at a time!!! shanks who provides but not enough!!! #never enough!!! #and the moon moves father away from earth every year! buggy who slowly distances himself from shanks until there's nothing left!!! #and the thing about meteors is that they burn up in the atmosphere!!! #but just for a moment they are the most amazing thing in the night sky #buggy who would've given up everything for shanks bc shanks was his roger!! #he would've followed shanks into hell if shanks asked him but shanks looks to him in lgtwn and says he doesn't care about the op #how heartbreaking it must've been for buggy to look at this boy he's followed since childhood bc lord knows buggy wasn't enough #but shanks who is the prodigy the golden child the favorite for as long as buggy has known him #and child!bug looking at all the potential shanks shows and looking at himself and realizing that he will always pale in comparison to shnk #that anything he achieves will always be in the shadows!! #oh the voices the fucking voices #one piece #buggy the clown #buggy one piece #op buggy #akagami no shanks #shanks one piece #op shanks #shuggy #shanks x buggy

[camellcat]

WTFFF I thought thirteen would be my new girl crush love of my life heart eyes wife you-came-after-twelve-you-must-be-better-than-they're-all-saying bbygirl and then I had to sit down and watch as she told a man who (if he were not a murderer, of course) literally every regeneration before her would've LOVED and FULLY SUPPORTED that "the systems aren't the problem. how people use and exploit the system, that's the problem. people like you" </33333 !?!?

#WHERE IS THAT POST THAT SAID NINE WOULD KILL THIRTEEN FOR BEING A CLASS TRAITOR #WHY WOULD YOU SAY “ERODE PEOPLE'S TRUST IN AUTOMATION” ALL WORRIED AND CONCERNED LIKE THAT??? #WHEN DID YOU START LIKING AUTOMATION OVER PEOPLE THINKING AND DOING THINGS FOR THEMSELVES??? #AND WHY ARE YOU TRAVELING WITH A COPPER??? WE HATE COPPERS?????? #did we FORGET into the dalek?? how about how he treated danny?? god there's so much more I can't even remember off the top of my head #(I understand soldiers are different from cops but c'mon don't even PRETEND twelve would've been any nicer if blue or danny were just COPS) #also a bit off topic bUT MAY I JUST TALK ABOUT ARACHNIDS IN THE UK FOR HALF A GODAMNED SECOND— #I know the companions are usually the ones to do the doctor's dirty work here but like #I just can't see the other doctors NOT having the business man lure the spider for being so fuckin annoying about it #like I was genuinely surprised when they had him do that whole song and dance about not doing it and then he actually just. didn't do it #the doctor LOVES fucking with evil rich business men this is PERFECT. plus why not get back at him for being awful to their companions? #absolutely gobsmacked thirteen let him act like that. I am wrong in thinking that the others would've shut his shit down a LOT quicker?? #anyways. I love jodie whittaker and it's just so upsetting to have her doctor do something so wildly off #THIRTEEN PLEASE I HAD SUCH FAITH IN YOUUU I WAS IGNORING THE HATERS AND FOR WHAT #I can SEE the other doctors in her still I can FEEL them they're there she's doing an AMAZING job but. oh my god. what did they make her do #I can't even say she feels ooc as a whole because jodie is bloody brilliant. it's just these... moments. that don't make ANY sense to me... #especially coming off of twelve?? I get the radical personality switch but that belief is a core part of the doctor. or at least I THOUGHT #thirteenth doctor #doctor who #I still love all of you who love her and reading ur posts/fics but I. will not be making any myself. I do not think.

[yashley]

EMILY NEARLY PLAYING A PALADIN TRYNA FUCK HER GOD VESH .....

#cr lb #4 sided dive #''IT'D BE TOO INTENSE TO COME IN AND BE LIKE EVER KINDA WANNA FUCK YOUR GOD??'' #WOULD'VE BEEN AMAZING #BRING HER BACK WITH THAT AND THEN BRING KASH BACK TO BE LIKE. ARE YOU FUCKIN KIDDING ME

[thelovers-2001]

Guess who finally watched Shred Force. Guess who's my a new favourite character to spin in my head. Guess who's going into the F/O LIST

#💬 meera is typing... #LOOK I WASN'T EXPECTING SHRED FORCE TO BE ACTUALLY AWESOME; I WAS BLOWN AWAY DUDE #The animation was CRAZY. CRAZY I TELL YOU. LITERALLY FLOORED BY IT. #Okay okay so Nordic Bunny #I absolutely knew he'll be a favourite #Considering the kind of characters I'll cling onto since I was a kid until now #Waaay before I begin watching; I see screenshots and thought 'Oh that's a character I'd love when I was a kid' #AND I WAS FUCKING RIGHT #Since I was a toddler; my favourite characters are always a villain and/or a robot #Nordic Bunny is absolutely that. #GRAAAH SHRED FOOORCE god it's so insanely cool god damn #I feel like the animation was the reason it never got green lit because it looks... #...really expensive to make for a animated TV show #Still; would've been amazing to see this as a full show fr

[beholdthemem]

I'm writing a fic set in November of 2019, and politics came up, so I tried to find a timeline of scandals that happened during the Trump administration to see which would've been the most recent to when the characters were talking.

Apparently the full total of scandals from January 2017 to November of 2020 is 945, and pulling up the full timeline crashed my phone.

#personal #if anyone's curious it would've been That Time He Demanded To Buy Greenland Over Twitter #(And Threw A Tantrum And Cancelled His Trip To Denmark When Denmark Told Him '1) Why The Fuck Are You Asking Us #And 2) Even If We Could We Wouldn't') #it's amazing how many of these I'd forgotten there's just so. fucking. MANY. #i am genuinely amazed we still have any credibility with other countries

[youngpettyqueen]

every day I wish we were in the timeline where Oliver Jones, Ginger Bayliss, and Margie Cutler got to stay on the show longer

#mash #oliver jones #ginger bayliss #margie cutler #I would've been happy with even just a few more seasons why did they have to go so soon #we were ROBBED #Oliver was a neurosurgeon and his energy with the Swamp rats was so good :( and him and Ginger?? #Ginger's energy was AMAZING #she was so good and so FUNNY #and Margie was fucking hilarious I LOVED her relationship with Hawkeye and Trapper #we deserved more screen time with them ill always wish we got more

[og-songbird]

12 year old me really read this and said I need this man carnally (she was correct)

#the hunger games #haymitch abernathy #i'll say it again i was SO RIGHT #but it'll still never not be funny just how utterly bad i had it for this guy #undiagnosed autistic 12 year old girl kind of obsessed #reading his scenes now is just like there he is!! oh he's so fucked up! you're doing amazing sweetie!! #I think if lil baby me knew i'd be back on my bullshit at 25 they would've been proud

[the-sufferer]

Aldnoah Zero could've been one of the greats and I will never be over it. I will die on this hill.

#i wanted this anime to be good and succeed so badly #it would've been amazing #the first episode is a dream #so much potential wasted #-rambling #HOW DO YOU HAVE THE GUY WHO WROTE FUCKING MADOKA MAGICA #LAY OUT A STORY FOR YOU #AND STILL FUCK IT UP SO BADLY #HOW #YOU HAD THE FRAMEWORK OF A GOD #AND YOU BUILT A FUCKING DIRT HOLE #HOW DID YOU DO THAT?

[babisawyer]

shauna being like jackie I really need you right now and then sobbing hysterically is literally me every week watching this friggin show.

#🐇 #yellowjackets #the amount of homophobia this week.....far too much #where the fuck is kristen/crystal lmfao who has her #I also was totally shitting on all the therapy but then shauna's stuff was like a punch to the face so thank you lottie!!! #idk how many episodes are left but like....do you think that misty will confess to destroying the black box and then because lottie is #getting her visions again and things kinda seem like they're going towards a cannibal ritual direction that they'll hunt her to possibly #appease the antler queen/save van/fix the adam issue?? #I'm getting the vibes heavily someone won't survive the main plot line and I think the van thing is too obvious #and the reddit thinks it's nat but they're literally never right about anything they said no one would actually care about the flight #recorder like tell that to dead kristen/crystal why the fuck would no one care about that????? #also so so amazed that it took this long for someone to get the shit beat out of them lmfao I thought that would've happened in the first #season and also I would've thought it would have been mari if I'm totally honest. like we're all thinking it #I'm also like really wondering if walter really is a cop or something or a PI tai hired or something idk there's something there #and like honestly I'm so bored of the two tai thing and the eyeless man like just explain it already I'm tired of waiting #I will say though so so funny the girls talking about how misty is insane and also hoping they can eat kristen/crystal

[fatherramiro]

personally i think all the boss fights in bg3 should have had disney villain songs

#you know orin's would've been amazing #personally i think cazador's would've been like 'in the dark of the night' from Anastasia #ive thought about this a lot #fuck it make the whole game a musical

[fdrsamericanflagduckfloaty]

i hate to say it but

southern motherfucking democratic-republicans

#a big mess in the tags #THAT PART IN THE SONG IS SO *bangs on table* #ITS LITERALLY????????? #AND YOU CAN *hEAR* THE CROWD IN THE BACK #YOU CAN *HEAR* THEM #ITSOSLSJISJHSIJDUFIUDHFUHUIGJHJIJBHNJIGHJBNJGIJN NJKGHN NJGIHJN BHNIJHN #ooooooooooh anyways i love their harmony and the OH right after where the audience chips in and says it too to make it even louder #really amps up the intensity #and the cheering from the first OH after Jefferson's/Daveed's rap is so amazing i don't care what anyone else says #you can just feel how tense it was in that crowd and how energetic everyone was #best villain song i swear to mf GOD #i also like the mixtape-y sound when they block out the curse #but if they didnt block it out i wonder if it would've been even BETTER #like its already so intense. and then a SWEAR???? oh my god #their colors also mesh so well with the villain feel. like #a dark velvet-texture magenta. #a dark dull blue with undertones of bold yellow. #a DARK blue-purple with hints of pretty royal purple #their fucking little dance together at the height of the chorus / Southern Motherfucking Democratic Republicans is SO good #the lighting makes it even better #i dont care what ANYbody says or thinks. that moment is not only the BEST in the song but also one of the best in the entire musical #if not THE best #is this me rooting for the villain trio/the Southern Mothefucking Democratic Republicans?? Yes. What about it #their name is so goddamn good and awesome #fuck everyone else. SMFDR for the win #we need a villainy movie on them RIGHT NOW thank you very much #hamilton #FINALLY the real tags #hamilton musical #thomas jefferson

[leatherbookmark]

According to Ellis, women are fascinated by male strength, but they have no opinions about male beauty. Insensitive almost to the point of being blind, they have a discerning eye for male beauty not greatly different from that of the normal male. (Forbidden Colours, trans. Alfred H. Marks, Penguin edition p. 94)

oh mr mishima you would be pleasantly surprised by kpop stans. perhaps even disgusted

#shrimp thoughts #my mother yesterday: is this all we are as women? to fawn over and get stupidly excited over men's bodies and what they have in their pants #because some kpop girlies were thirsting over jk on twt apparently. lady you are in kpop guy thirsting corner of the website #augh no but seriously while i loved confessions of a mask forbidden colours is... A Journey certainly #50 shades of misogyny in which all men are convinced women are the oppressing class except every time a female character appears #even if the narration is going out of its way to tell you the reader about how stupid and limited and suffering in its misery she is... #it's like. yknow if not for the stupid ass men and the misogynistic society this girl would've been happy. #eeeeevery single time i see female characters casually wondering if their partners have someone on the side -- which should be a deal #breaker but isn't -- and just bear it in silence instead of cutting the bitch off once and for all i am mentally looking into the camera. #shunsuke fucking. 'is amazed that 'and old person with kidney disease could do him so unwitting a bodily injury just because she was a #woman' and then the bodily injury is that she gives him her dead husband's necktie pin which he puts in his pocket and forgets about #and then later he puts his hand in his pocket and pricks his fingertip on it. this is what kinda person shunsuke is lmao #'i don't want to read the classics! they're all just old misogynistic white men!' diversity win! this classic has old misogynistic #JAPANESE men instead!

[juneviews]

looking at the bl industry’s history i’m surprised we got offgun in not me tbh like…offgun is The thai ship yknow? they’ve gone above and beyond anyone who came before and they’re setting impossibly impressive standards for other bl ships coming in. nobody compares, we’re spoilt. and!!! even their non bl/non ship activities and projects are amazing!!! incredible kings

THEY REALLY ARE!!! amen to everything you're saying, offgun's influence is NOT to be understated in the bl world! not only are they both incredibly talented on many fronts, take care of their fans in an unmatched manner, have invented so many of the cutest fandom things ever created, have the best professional and friendly relationship, and are LITERALLY the oldest bl pairing still together... but I've stated it before & wanna state it again bc you brought up not me, but they took an INCREDIBLE risk with this series. granted, when they signed onto it they didn't know it'd be this political & important, but p'nuchie & the crew have said that offgun really are politically aware, and frankly them staring in not me could've really damaged their reputation, seeing how censored & ignored by the thai entertainment industry the show was. so personally I am NOT surprised offgun starred in not me in the slightest, bc they were truly the only ship who could've done that 😌💅

xxx

#answers #offgun #not me #ngl every day I still wonder HOW I got so lucky with not me #not only it being an amazing show through & through - but then it having offgun - it having off & mond aka my two loves - #having first gawin sing & film who were already actors I loved and literally couldn't have been chosen better - #having papang & lookjun who became some of my ultimate underrated faves thanks to their roles in it #like the alignment of the perfect fucking cast AND the most incredible fucking story is the fucking luckiest thing that has ever happened #and the fact is: not me didn't even have to slay & I still would've loved in on principle bc of the cast. BUT IT STILL FUCKING DID!!! #anyways my weekly not me rant is over lol

[spring-lxcked]

rip to everyone who hated it but ruin still has a chokehold on me. started a new playthrough to look for secrets. gave william a self-indulgent SB verse. added ca.ssie and roxy to my multi. fighting every day to not add gla.mrock chi.ca. thinking abt it always and forever say i love you ruin!!

#—— ✧ ooc » #.tbd. #'but you said you hated the ending and the mim—' the what i don't know what you're talking abt #you mean the ending where we found out that van.essa escaped glitch and left his ass down there #and he was luring cas.sie to get him out/brainwash her but then roxy and/or greg.ory saved her? that ending? i love that ending #i've never heard of a mim.ic i don't know it i don't see it it's not canon to me the same way i pretend burnt.rap doesn't exist #no but in all seriousness ruin would've been amazing imo if the ending didn't suck #er well the endo part and mini music m.en are annoying as fuck but that's a gameplay gripe VS a story gripe #i could talk for hours abt how ruin proved that SB should've been more linear and less open #give me scripted linear horror or give me death. or something.

[kaythefloppa]

#wild kratts #pbs kids #kratt brothers #martin kratt #chris kratt #2d kratt brothers #2d martin kratt #2d chris kratt #all of them were good but had some issues #If I were to pick I'd probably go with Clever the Raven #Mainly because that episode's plot felt like it progressed the most naturally and felt more slice-of-life-ish #The info-dump on the ravens and the power suits were all really amazing to see and the part where the ravens just fuck with the villains wa #- hilarious #If it wasn't for the godawful Goat Suit that episode probably would've been my #overall it looks like we're in for a decent start to S7 #With there being over 40 episodes ordered for the new season I'm hoping that they don't pull quantity over quality