Fatigue fatigue
Much like the suffix "gate", which was added to anything vaguely smelling of scandal, "fatigue" is being added to the things we're are tiring of, ad nauseam ... I can understand survey-fatigue: "While there is nothing wrong with this level of determination to deliver better customer experiences, it is this continuous need for feedback that toes the fine line of tipping the respondents towards survey-fatigue."
There is also bestself-fatigue, as described by author Maggie Warrell. "Are you exhausted by self-help books, 'empowering' rhetoric, and the ever-spewing fountain of self-improvement palaver belched forth by our culture, much of it aimed like a nuclear missile at women? Then you may have bestself-fatigue."
But the best is this condition, spotted in a New York Times story ... "When cats have to stick their faces into deep bowls and their whiskers rub up against the sides, the experience can be stressful, prompting them to paw the food on to the floor, fight with other cats or grow apprehensive at mealtime," ... this, dear readers, is known as whisker-fatigue.
Gloating letter to ed
Go crap in hand
Hand-dryers? I'm not a fan. And a new study out confirms my worst fears. The University of Connecticut conducted microbial surveys of its own bathrooms to see if those low powered hand-dryers were sucking in poo microbes and then spraying them all over everything.
The turbulence of the flush sends particles of faeces into the air, where they hover in a miasmic cloud; when the dryers switch on, they pull these particles in through their intake, heat them up, and spray them on to your moist hands and other moist, hospitable surfaces where their bacteria can thrive.
An air filter which works by forcing air through a fine mesh and trading harmful particles, would help reduce this cycle.
(boingboing.com)
Video pick
Kurzgesagt, a Munich-based YouTube channel and science and existential maestros, are back with this brilliantly animated short on the history and future of time.
Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz