Right, not too wet.

Can I throw in the contents of the vacuum cleaner?

I also heard hair is great for protein.

I bought coriander seeds this time.  I use it so much in cooking that I'm determined to get it right.

My rosemary was hell bent on taking over the Earth.  It had to be pruned with a chainsaw.

It's coming back nicely.

I've dumped the vacuum cleaner's contents into the pile, and they seem not to harm it.  Of course, in my area that turns out to be mostly dust blown into the house through the evaporative cooler, but there's also some alkaline stuff that comes off the pads in that cooler, because our water is extremely hard.

Of course, when my daughter is at home, most of the stuff the vac picks up in her room is hair - - -

This morning I threw in a failed effort at banana bread.  It had risen perfectly in the oven, but fell while cooling.  Don't understand why, it had been made just like all my previous ones.  Oh well, will cook up another one this evening.

Rosemary doesn't do well out here.

Cheers!

So this was discovered...

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Scientists in Britain and the United States say they have engineered a plastic-eating enzyme that could one day help in the fight against pollution.

The enzyme is able to digest polyethylene terephthalate, or PET — a form of plastic patented in the 1940s and now used in millions of tonnes of plastic bottles.

PET plastics can persist in the environment for hundreds of years and currently pollute large areas of land and sea worldwide.

Researchers from Britain's University of Portsmouth and the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory made the discovery while examining the structure of a natural enzyme thought to have evolved in a waste recycling centre in Japan.

Possibility of turning PET back into building blocks

Finding that this enzyme was helping a type of bacteria to break down, or digest, PET plastic, the researchers decided to "tweak" its structure by adding some amino acids, said John McGeehan, a professor at Portsmouth who co-led the work.

This led to a serendipitous change in the enzyme's actions — allowing its plastic-eating abilities to work faster.

"We've made an improved version of the enzyme better than the natural one already," Professor McGeehan said.

"That's really exciting because that means that there's potential to optimise the enzyme even further."

The team, whose finding was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, is now working on improving the enzyme further to see if they can make it capable of breaking down PET plastics on an industrial scale.

"It's well within the possibility that in the coming years we will see an industrially viable process to turn PET, and potentially other (plastics), back into their original building blocks so that they can be sustainably recycled," Professor McGeehan said.

I'd want to be extremely careful of enhancing the plastic-degrading properties of any bacteria.  Consider how many things today are made from various plastics - - I'd not want those items deteriorating until they are deliberately disposed of for destruction.  I can just imagine my keyboard collapsing as I'm using it - - -

SO MUCH stuff has plastic in it!

My IUD, for example!  Hearing aids!

Seriously??!!!

Have none of these scientists ever BEEN to the movies?!

Over my long, misspent career I have observed that an awful lot of "smart" people never think through what might happen if their pet idea of the moment were to be implemented.  Not just direct results, but also - and often far more important - the ripple effects.

"Every action has consequences.  Frequently they are not what was intended or expected."

Bud, could you do me favour and transfer a huge apology to Dot?

A massive catastrophe has occurred and I need to create a brand new forum.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do it, but I will be absent from Diverse City for a few days.

Dot gets upset if he feels I'm neglecting him.

And I WILL be for the next few days.

Watch out for ravenous bacteria hell-bent on devouring everything in sight!

Cheers.

Jenifer

I'll certainly convey your message, Jen'.

Whatever the catastrophe was, I hope you and yours are doing well!  Sometime, at your convenience, maybe you'll be able to discuss it, but in the meantime I hope everything works out well for you.

Take care!

A massive games site is shutting down their forum, so I have a lot of displaced and distraught refugees to house.

I also have to teach them all how to create an account and use the forum.

Long days, but my forum may be a little neglected for a few days.

And right when the Comey and Hannity shit hit the fan!

Renewable energy capacity set to exceed target Government said was impossible

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Australia's renewable energy capacity is set to exceed a target the Federal Government said was impossible to reach by 2020, according to new research from Green Energy Markets.

In its quarterly Renewable Energy Index, GEM said the amount of renewable energy generated in 2020 was set to exceed the original 41,000 Gigawatt hour (GWh) Renewable Energy Target (RET) that was in place before being scrapped in 2015 by the federal government led by then prime minister Tony Abbott.

The original RET was put in place to help Australia meet its 2030 climate change commitment to cut emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from 2005 levels.

It was replaced by a less ambitious target of 33,000 GWh after the Abbott government characterised the original RET as impossible to achieve, while arguing there was already too much generating capacity.

The GEM study — funded by activist group GetUp — found estimated eligible generation would hit 41,381 GWh by 2020, not only exceeding the current RET, but the original RET as well.

"The Coalition's argument that we can't go any further than the target they've proposed without imposing some kind of huge economic shock and threat to reliability is obviously not true because we're pretty much already there," Green Energy Markets director Tristan Edis said.

"[Energy and Environment minister] Josh Frydenberg himself is saying that all the extra renewable energy that is about to enter the system will substantially push down power prices."