"Health & Safety" & "Carbon Emissions"
I hate hate hate it when I hear and read about "health & safety". 99% of the time, the subject matter will be about ONE or the OTHER - but not BOTH. However, the phrase seems to have been fixed into the public's lexicon so strongly that they're incapable of actually understanding the meaning of these words.

Example: "Health & Safety notice: ensure that the ladder is properly secured before climbing it". NO! This is wrong. It's not a "health & safety" notice - it's simply a SAFETY notice. Securing the ladder has nothing to do with health - aside from the generic sense of that if it's so unsafe that it kills you then it's also detrimental to your health. But if you want to interpret it like that then there'd be no point in using the "safety" bit at all, because then it'd all be about health.

PLEASE, for fuck's sake, stop bandying around the phrase "health & safety". Think about which of the two words applies more to the situation before speaking or writing. "For health reasons, ensure that you clean your hands with an antibacterial agent before handing food." See? JUST health - no satefy, because it's got bugger all to do with safety.


The other big hatred I have is when I read about "carbon" emissions. BOLLOCKS. Carbon is a solid element, which in its purest form appears black and powdery. Coal dust is carbon. Now... when was the last time you saw coal dust being spewed out as a waste product of our modern lifestyle? No? That's right: no-one emits "carbon". What they actually mean is carbon DIOXIDE (or monoxide) emissions. Learn the facts and get it right. Take some time to actually THINK before you speak and write, and understand the meaning of your words.

(phew!)
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:28, 11 replies)

They say carbon, rather than CO2,
because it allows them to make the numbers look smaller, just like when they quote the sodium content of food instead of the salt content. What you mention there is only one allotrope of carbon, graphite being dark grey and shiny and diamonds being clear and sparkly. Also a lot of diesel engines do pump out a lot of unburt carbon in the form of soot.

/pedantry.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:38, closed)

Yup
Thanks - I know of the allotropes. I just didn't think it was worth mentioning that power stations and the like are not ejecting diamonds as waste products :)
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:48, closed)

You forgot buckminsterfullerene and nanotubes

( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Fri 1 Apr 2011, 13:52, closed)

And graphene

( jme, Fri 1 Apr 2011, 15:06, closed)

But motor vehicles do emit carbon.
Depending on how much oxygen is present when fuel is burned, engins emit a mixture of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and carbon - the latter is why you end up with a noseful of soot any time you visit London.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:40, closed)

Bollocks.
The soot is there because chimney sweeps are just fucking lazy these days. I blame Mary Poppins.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:43, closed)

True
and all their apprentices are out twocking.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:48, closed)

The small amounts of carbon in car exhaust fall to the ground
As they're heavier than air. They are not spewed out into the atmosphere - and this is what the green lobby are talking about.

Anyway - I appreciate the pedantry :)
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:46, closed)

Carbon is certainly a denser material than air, but very small particles of it are light enough to be transported into the atmosphere.
They remain there because they are so light; the downward force of gravity acting on them is weaker than the force generated by the motion of the air.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:54, closed)

Not always.
Many of the small soot particles become airborne (for some reason, I felt the urge to sound like Samuel L. Jackson and say "Brownian motion - do you know of it, motherfucker?"), although the effects of these particles are ambiguous in relation to climate change. In some cases, they reflect sunlight, producing a local cooling (as seen after the Indonesian forest fires) and in other cases, their colour means they may heat up in sunlight and warm the air around them.

/ more pedantry.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Thu 31 Mar 2011, 22:54, closed)

Lovely :)

(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Fri 1 Apr 2011, 14:50, closed)