A crystal ball has nearly burnt a home to the ground in the US after a ray of sunlight was focused into a beam hot enough to start a fire.
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An investigation revealed that the cause of the fire was a glass crystal ball ornament that had ignited a couch after focusing a strong beam of light from a nearby window.“Homeowners should keep items such as crystals, mirrors, glass ornaments, and even bottles away from direct sunlight and particularly away from anything flammable,” the Delton Fire Department advised on social media.
“These items can act just like a magnifying glass and focus sunlight so that the energy, which would normally be spread out over a wide area, is delivered to a much smaller point.”
If they had a crystal ball they should have seen this coming?
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Reminds me of this video where the blokes keep getting burned by their glass balls – here & here & here & here …the important thing is that, once they were aware of the danger, they took steps to alleviate it.[/red]
Post of the month, this one.
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Can I be annoyed at the headline? The Crystal ball caused a fire that caused 320,000 worth of damage.
They way they say it, they make it sound like something about the crystal ball in the fire caused the damage.
BTW, where do bad rainbows go?
Prism.
But don’t worry, it’s a light sentence.
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. . . creates click-bait.
Or would that be clait?
y’all are really bad at making up words
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bye bye bacon (in California)
At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules.
You know…i buy bacon that complies with those rules. If they are willing to pay the (much higher) price, i bet a restaurant can get its hands on pastured pork products, too.
This strikes me as a great business opportunity for CA-based farmers.
I’m all for more expensive, humanely treated bacon/eggs/etc. One thing to eat meat, another thing to torture it.
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The article does say that CA farmers currently provide 45/255 million pounds of pork per year. And they need 20% more farm land to produce under the new regs. So it might be a little harder for CA-based farmers to step in and fill the gap. But they will be able to cash in even more in the future as there will be much less competition.
I honestly don’t care much about animal conditions, but factory conditions noticeably worsen meat and are very bad for the environment. I’m all for more humane conditions if they pollute less. And make more delicious meat.
I’ve seen the inside of a factory farm for eggs. I think most people would care if they saw it. It was disturbing. I wouldn’t go back.
But I’ve also seen a factory dairy farm, almost 2000 cows. And the cows are well treated and as happy as cows can be, and the farmers care for the animals. I’m there occasionally and enjoy walking around the farm. The problem isnt large scale farming, it’s how the animals are treated.
They must not raise veal.
I imagine they move the calf to a specific veal farm - but I really know nothing about dairy farming, so take that for what it’s worth.
Yeah. I have been purchasing pastured eggs for several years now. I don’t care a lot about the happiness of chickens, but even chickens shouldn’t be treated like they are on factory egg farms. I also buy milk from cows not treated with BST, not because I think the stuff is dangerous to me (I believe that it doesn’t end up in the milk) but because dairy cows have already been bred to produce too damn much milk for the overall design of the animal, and suffer as a result. I note that treating dairy cows with BST is illegal in Canada, so you likely wouldn’t have run into it. Other than that, I don’t worry too much about the ethics of dairy farming. I’ve been to a lot of dairy farms, and the animals are generally pretty well cared for and lead fairly normal lives for cows.
Some of the female calves are kept to replenish the herd. Some of the rest are sold to veal farms, and others are just slaughtered as babies.
Nothing brings out the good milk fed veal like dem little red Monsignor stripes.
Most female calves are kept as dairy cows; often at the same farm where they are born, but not always. Bull calves are typically sold within a few weeks of birth.
A few pedigreed bull calves will go to bull farms for breeding. Some (in the past most) will end up as veal. Nowadays with veal declining in popularity, many dairy bull calves will become hamburger or pet food.
It’s pretty rare for a dairy farmer to keep bull calves either for breeding or for any type of meat.