Hans Howe

Massive Great Lakes Clean-up Underway – All Assets of Polluters Seized – Executives Face Decades In Jail, Personal Fortunes Attached, Estate Clawbacks To Cover 100 Years

Minnesota Researchers Find Microplastics In Beer Made With Great Lakes Water
Microplastics Also Found In Tap Water And Sea Salt From Around The World
Thursday, May 10, 2018, By Rich Kremer WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO

Microplastics. Florida Sea Grant (CC BY-NC-ND)

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found microplastics in 12 brands of beer made with water from the Great Lakes. The study also found plastics contamination in sea salt and tap water from around the world.

The study was led by UMN School of Public Health graduate student Mary Kosuth with assistance from microplastics expert Sherri Mason of State University of New York at Fredonia, and overseen by UMN School of Public Health associate professor Betsy Wattenberg.

The team sampled 12 brands of beer from large brewers and craft brewers from around the Great Lakes. In every sample microscopic plastic fibers and particles were detected. Most of the fibers were smaller than five millimeters in length.

Wattenberg said what was interesting about the beer samples was a discrepancy in the amount of plastic contained in the final product when compared with the water used to make it.

“The amount of microplastics detected in the beer didn’t necessarily match the amount of microplastics detected in the water that was used to make the beer,” said Wattenberg. “And that sort of suggests that the plastics can be introduced at different steps in the process of making the beer.”

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TAMPA BAY BRIDGE DISASTER ANNIVERSARY
by Betty Cracker May 9, 2018.
STOLEN PROUDLY FROM BALLOON JUICE

On this day in 1980, a fast-moving storm with high winds in Tampa Bay drove a freighter off course as it was approaching the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. In low visibility conditions, the freighter hit the bridge pier holding up the southbound span, causing a huge section of the bridge to collapse at its highest point. Several cars and a Greyhound bus went over the edge, killing a total of 35 people.

Here’s what the harbor pilot radioed to the Coast Guard just after the accident:
“Get emergency . . . all the emergency equipment out to the Skyway bridge. Vessel has just hit the Skyway bridge. The Skyway bridge is down! Get all emergency equipment out to the Skyway bridge. The Skyway bridge is down. This is Mayday. Emergency situation. (Nearly screaming) Stop the traffic on that Skyway bridge!”

Sweet Jesus. Imagine being in that car on the edge!

Another look at that car from the opposite angle:

One dude in a pickup went hurtling into the abyss, but his truck bounced off the freighter and into the water. That was lucky for him; it broke his fall, and he was rescued. IIRC, he wasn’t too badly harmed.
For several years after the accident, the formerly northbound bridge handled traffic in both directions while a new bridge was built. Here’s what it looks like now:

The old bridge was torn down except for a section on the south side, which serves as a fishing pier today.

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