A bombshell': doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body

It appears that much of the research on micro plastics has a false positive issue.
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Good general summary if you would rather watch a video: YouTube video discussion on micro plastics and PFASs: Claims starting from 2019 about the amount of micro plastics are people are consuming and that it is showing up in all parts of the body including the brain: Daily Consumption: No Plastic In Nature: Assessing Plastic Ingestion from Nature to People We consume up to a credit card's worth of plastic *every* week Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested – A pivotal first step towards human health risk assessment Accumulation in the body: Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains Levels of microplastics in human brains may be rapidly rising, study suggests Worries about false positives starting in 2025: Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics, U-M study reveals Avoiding and reducing microplastic false positives from dry glove contact Assessing the Efficacy of Pyrolysis–Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry for Nanoplastic and Microplastic Analysis in Human Blood PFAS still appear to be an issue, so it's not all good news: Our Current Understanding of the Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS TLDR: A common material used in Nitrile and latex gloves, called Stearates, has been contaminating research on the amount of micro plastics in nature. Also, the most common test used for detecting polyethylene aka plastic can be faulty due to human fat generating false positives. Caveat: The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. More research is needed.

The Cost of Closing the Strait of Hormuz. "Most critically for food security, the chemicals flowing through Hormuz are essential inputs to global food production—a vulnerability that standard analyses of chokepoint risk consistently overlook. Qatar and Iran are among the world's largest exporters of urea, the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer. The Gulf's cheap natural gas feeds the Haber-Bosch process that converts methane into ammonia and then into the granular fertilizer that sustains crop yields for billions of people."

Also: Helium Supply Shock and Semiconductor Volatility in the Context of the Iran War.

The very specific demands of Monte Carlo allowed several teams to devise weird and wonderful looking additional winglets for last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given Apple, Google, and other tech firms until September to introduce device-level protections that prevent children from taking, sharing, or viewing explicit images. "If businesses do not comply within three months, legislation will be brought forward requiring the protection to be added to all phones and tablets sold in the UK," reports The Guardian. "Tech firms that fail to do so could face fines, and their senior managers could be made criminally liable." From the report: "Today, I am calling on tech companies operating in this country to introduce vice controls that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images. Because this is not an impossible challenge," he said. "If they choose not, then we will act and we will change the law." [...] Under the changes, sexual predators will be prevented from being able to exploit and abuse victims through their devices, and children stopped from being able to access pornography, the Home Office said. Adults will still be able to take, share or view nude content once they have verified their age.

In the Commons, Melanie Ward, the Labour MP for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, said: "It's time to stop asking social media companies to make their products safe, and instead time to start requiring them to do so through regulation." Clive Efford, the Labour MP for Eltham and Chislehurst, said the "sociopaths" running social media platforms had no concern for the welfare of children. "The only message that they're going to listen to is if there's legislation put before this house that is going to act and send a clear message to them." The proposal is designed to sit alongside the Online Safety Act, which requires companies to have processes for removing material that is illegal or harmful to children.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• England captain considering his long-term future

• ECB continuing investigation into nightclub incident

Ben Stokes is highly unlikely to be included in England’s squad for the second Test against New Zealand after the 35-year-old asked for space and time to consider his long-term future amid the fallout from a nightclub incident in the early hours of Monday morning.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is determined to bring the latest furore surrounding the culture of the men’s Test team under control before the start of the Women’s World Cup on Friday, with a temporary end to Stokes’s time as captain expected to be confirmed when the squad is announced within the next 48 hours.

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Een 48-jarige Schiedammer die eind vorig jaar werd opgepakt op verdenking van aanranding en verkrachting in zijn beautysalon lijdt aan schizofrenie. Dat bleek dinsdag tijdens een zitting bij de rechtbank in Dordrecht.

Everything Wrong With the 2026 World Cup. “By far the most grave of those is a World Cup host starting a war against one of the participant nations, as happened with the USA’s attack on Iran at the end of February.”

Dinsdag was de eerste pro-formazitting in de zaak tegen zes verdachten van aanslagen bij joodse instellingen in Nederland. De jonge verdachten zouden niet hebben geweten wie hun opdrachtgever was en ontkennen dat ze wisten wat hun doelwit precies was.

Er is ook goed nieuws vandaag, want in de Tweede Kamer zijn we eindelijk verlost van dat verschrikkelijke GroenLinks en van die verschrikkelijke PvdA. Er is ook slecht nieuws, want we krijgen er PRO, oftewel Progressief Nederland oftewel PN voor in de plaats. Wie zich bij die nieuwe fractie niet aansluit is Esmah Lahlah (foto boven), die verhuist namelijk naar Amsterdam, waar GroenLinks en PvdA als aparte fracties meededen maar alsnog ook PRO genoemd worden. Dat is de Tweede Kamerfractie van Groep-Markuszower niet gegund, want die deden dan weer niet apart mee aan de verkiezingen of zoiets en mogen zich dus geen DNA noemen. Regeltjes, regeltjes, regeltjes, het zal kloppen maar het voelt niet goed of zoiets. Hoe dan ook, vanavond nog eens extra dansen op het graf van de PvdA, zaterdag zijn ze officieel dood.