Solutions

[Truthy]

A medley of things I that came to mind in a few minutes (most of these are specific to the US):
- Make the FDA's premarket approval process easier in a lot of cases; contrary to what John Oliver would have you believe, a lot of their rules don't really do much to protect consumers, but impose premarket barriers that cost gazillions to surmount, giving advantages to big firms that can foot the expenses. One example is direct to consumer genetic testing. Another is generics manufacturing. Also, make it easier for drugs that have cleared Canadian or European regulatory hurdles to be brought to market in the US.

- Get rid of a lot of zoning laws in major US cities; make it easier to build high density housing. The goal is to increase the supply of small dwellings, including sizes that are available in Europe and Japan but are uncommon in the US.

- Find ways to incentivize replication research and publishing of negative results

- Destroy for-profit publishers like Elsevier. Not sure how to do this because it's really just a coordination problem. Everyone hates Elsevier and the like, but they're a schelling point in a lot of fields. I guess we either need a rich person to come in help them coordinate an escape from Elsevier or we need the government to do it.

- Downplay essays and high school activities in college admissions. I think they're dumb, waste students' time, and give advantages to wealthy students (more than exams do, anyway). Switch to an A-level or other comprehensive exam-type system. We could use the SAT for this, but everyone hates the SAT. Charles Murray (yes, that Charles Murray) proposed we use the SAT Subject Tests. I actually think that's a decent idea. However, I and virtually everyone else also hates College Board, so I'd prefer a federally-run exam system.

- Have high schools start later in the day. Stop depriving teenagers of sleep, stop trying to make teenagers go to bed earlier; they're not going to

- More breaks, gym, and recess time for elementary and middle school students

- Keep labor markets liberalized and flexible. Also do a bunch of things that indirectly help labor markets. E.g., improve public transport to expand labor market access for lower income people. Universal healthcare would be good for similar reasons.

- Every state should create non-partisan redistricting commissions

- Provide more funding to congressional staffs so as to reduce their reliance on lobbyists for labor and knowledge

- Apparently this one is very controversial (I got into a big argument with some friends about it a few weeks ago): increase House and Senate salaries. Given the skills these jobs require, I think we're paying well below market rates and I can't avoid the feeling that's creating a reduction in quality. Plus, as AOC pointed out, they need to pay for two residences (one of which has to be in expensive DC/Northern Virginia).

- Create free and open dataset and model banks for AI research (Facebook's ParlAI and others have made progress on this front, however).

How about hormones in the water because of birth control?

This one is starting to concern me a lot. And is it pollutants from birth control or plastics or both?

 

[El_Machinae]

Well, different things. Most of the damage from microplastics is actually the fine abrasion of polyester shirts, Etc. What I've done there is to make sure that my garments that get frequently washed are made of cotton. And those protect my nicer garments, so that I need to wash them less often.

Hormones. The best at home method I found is to flush before I pee. This means that my previous pee had 40 minutes of microbial digestion before I put it into the sewer system. Another trick I use is to not use water intensive activities (laundry, shower, whatever) when my City's water system is overflowing with a rainstorm. This allows there to be more retention time in the sewers for microbial digestion

 

[Truthy]

Well, different things. Most of the damage from microplastics is actually the fine abrasion of polyester shirts, Etc. What I've done there is to make sure that my garments that get frequently washed are made of cotton. And those protect my nicer garments, so that I need to wash them less often.

Hormones. The best at home method I found is to flush before I pee. This means that my previous pee had 40 minutes of microbial digestion before I put it into the sewer system. Another trick I use is to not use water intensive activities (laundry, shower, whatever) when my City's water system is overflowing with a rainstorm. This allows there to be more retention time in the sewers for microbial digestion

Not sure if you know the answers to these, but how much microbial digestion happens in your body vs in the toilet for 40 minutes? Why can't we count on enough microbial digestion to happen in the sewer system before the water is recirculated? Could municipalities just build some extra holding tanks where that could happen? And how can we diminish our own exposure, as opposed to just being less of a problem?

 

[rah]

I have a solution to social security insolvency. Just remove the cap on income taxed. Seems so simple to me. Not sure if it would completely bridge the gap or not.

Yes, it would hold off having to lower benefits for many many years. You could even keep the cap for the business contribution to not raise the cost of employment.

This one has been discussed and it's such a no-brainer, it's hard to believe it wasn't done a long time ago.

 

[El_Machinae]

Not sure if you know the answers to these, but how much microbial digestion happens in your body vs in the toilet for 40 minutes?

There is zero microbial digestion of your urine while it's in your bladder. Or "should be zero" if you don't have an infection. As to how much microbial digestion happening in your toiler, "basically none". But it should slowly select for microbe that can use estrogen (or whatevs) as an energy source. I'm thinking of a small marginal effect, but at least it's something.

Why can't we count on enough microbial digestion to happen in the sewer system before the water is recirculated?

Retention time, mostly. But it's why I delay my use of water when I know a storm is coming or has just come. It overwhelms our treatment systems. Also, the longer everything is in the sewer (within reason), the more time the microbes have available. Our cities don't focus on pulling birth control metabolites out of the water, or making sure the metabolites are degraded

Could municipalities just build some extra holding tanks where that could happen? And how can we diminish our own exposure, as opposed to just being less of a problem?

They could build larger holding tanks, but I honestly doubt it would be a cost-effectiving solution compared to other ideas. As to reducing exposure, no idea. I'm mostly concerned with the effects on the downstream ecology.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The ants are back though....googling new strategies now. They have also found a way into my bathroom as well.

Are there any colleges or universities near you that employ any researchers/instructors who are either entomologists or at least know something about ants? If so, they might have some effective suggestions that won't be harmful to non-ant life.

Well, the big problem with peanut butter is that I cannot fit my hand into the jar. If there was some type vertical seam that I could tear it open, I could then wipe my bread along it to clean it out.

1. Hire a child to clean it out for you.

2. Buy giant jars of peanut butter.

3. Lobby for peanut butter to be packaged like butter is - in oblong slabs covered in wrappers. I know I would find that much easier than jars, given that it took me TEN MINUTES to open the jar of peanut butter I'm using. Those things, plus the inner safety seal, were not made to be used by people with arthritis or other medical conditions that makes it difficult to open jars and bottles. I had to use a utility knife to get that safety seal off.

 

[civvver]

I did hear this cool life hack on the radio:

Imagine you go on vacation and the power goes out for an extended period of time and the stuff in your freezer spoils. But before you come home the power goes back on and the items refreeze. You really would never know the stuff is spoiled. What you can do to monitor the situation is fill a cup with water and let it freeze. Then place a quarter on top of the ice and leave the cup in the freezer. If it melts the quarter will sink and then it'll refreeze at the bottom or somewhere in the middle, depending on how much melting we get, and you'll know your freezer stuff thawed out.

 

[Samson]

Another trick I use is to not use water intensive activities (laundry, shower, whatever) when my City's water system is overflowing with a rainstorm. This allows there to be more retention time in the sewers for microbial digestion

Here they put a lot of effort into separating rain water and sewerage, and I think it works. I am amazed everyone does not do this as the treatment is so different, and quite expensive.

 

[El_Machinae]

Yeah, it makes sense that some places do that. I have no influence as to whether that happens here, so my actions are designed to help at the margin.

 

[MaryKB]

I feel universally switching to plant-protein is absolutely necessary right now for saving our planet. Completely getting out of raising animals for food would have such a dramatic impact on environmental sustainability, I don't feel this is even really a question right now of "should we?" but rather "why aren't we?"

 

[Birdjaguar]

I feel universally switching to plant-protein is absolutely necessary right now for saving our planet. Completely getting out of raising animals for food would have such a dramatic impact on environmental sustainability, I don't feel this is even really a question right now of "should we?" but rather "why aren't we?"

The tough part is the cattle lobby. It is products like the "Impossible Burger" that are the real threat to them. They convert meat eaters to "eat less meat" eaters.

 

[MaryKB]

Declare a national emergency and ban meat for consumption

 

[El_Machinae]

The tough part is the cattle lobby. It is products like the "Impossible Burger" that are the real threat to them. They convert meat eaters to "eat less meat" eaters.

The cattle lobby would have less money if you stop giving them money. You will still buy food, so it's not like the same dollars won't be stimulating some other endeavor

 

[jarred!]

@El_Machinae, waste treatment plants use aeration basins or similar processes to facilitate microbial activity, and what happens in your toilet or in the sewer on the way to the plant probably has a negligible effect.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The cattle lobby would have less money if you stop giving them money. You will still buy food, so it's not like the same dollars won't be stimulating some other endeavor

Their source of money is from ranchers and others that support the industry. Fewer meat eaters or less meat eaten is a direct attack on the industry. The best way to reduce cattle ranching is to eat less beef. It is a tough sell in the US.

 

[El_Machinae]

Not a tough sell to make on an off-topic discussion board, however!

I literally ask that people eat less pork and zero beef. Extend your impact by getting other people to follow your lead.

It's ironic that Bangladesh will be flooded because of beef eaters

 

[Synobun]

Meat protein prevents me from bleeding into a toilet every day so I'd happily break that proposed ban.

In-vitro meat would be great. I'm looking forward to when that can be commercialized. But that still looks like it's 20 to 40 years out, especially now that plant-based proteins are the growing fad. A good fad, but I was hoping that the attention would go to lab-grown meat. But I can see why it went to things like Beyond Meat instead. Easier to market.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I think petri dish meat will supplant but not supplant plant-meat when it comes available. It'll be less processed in the sense it will have less adulterants and salts and such and they'll likely be able to tailor its nutrient profile via genetic engineering to be healthier. It'll also taste better to a lot of people and require less resources to produce. Plant-meat is a stop gap in my opinion.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Meat protein prevents me from bleeding into a toilet every day so I'd happily break that proposed ban.

In-vitro meat would be great. I'm looking forward to when that can be commercialized. But that still looks like it's 20 to 40 years out, especially now that plant-based proteins are the growing fad. A good fad, but I was hoping that the attention would go to lab-grown meat. But I can see why it went to things like Beyond Meat instead. Easier to market.

People who need meat protein to live are not the problem. It is those rapacious meat eaters who consume pounds and pounds of it because it is a "tradition" and what they are used to.

Here are the per capita beef consumption numbers by country in 2016. I probably eat less than 4 lbs a year.

]https://beef2live.com/story-world-beef-consumption-per-capita-ranking-countries-0-111634

 

[Samson]

Where do you think cheese and milk comes on the scale of harm through beef and pork? I kind of assume that its impact is similar to beef, perhaps slightly better because of the better food conversion efficiency of milking cows but the 2 industries have so tightly bound together that if is hard to apportion the blame.

now that plant-based proteins are the growing fad. A good fad,.

I do not think you can call "relying largely / completely on plant based protein" as a fad, as that is what most of the population of the world has been doing for most of history, and is still in much of the world.