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If you were to drink improperly recycled toilet water, it could really hurt youbut probably not in the way youre thinking. Advanced purification technology so thoroughly cleans wastewater of feces and other contaminants that it also strips out natural minerals, which the treatment facility then has to add back in. If it didnt, that purified water would imperil you by sucking those minerals out of your body as it moves through your internal plumbing. So if its perfectly safe to consume recycled toilet water, why arent Americans living in parched Western states drinking more of it? A new report from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Natural Resources Defense Council finds that seven Western states that rely on the Colorado River are on average recycling just a quarter of their water, even as they fight each other and Indigenous tribes for access to the river amid worsening droughts. Populations are also booming in the Southwest, meaning theres less water for more people. The report finds that states are recycling wildly different proportions of their water. On the high end, Nevada reuses 85%, followed by Arizona at 52%. But other states lag far behind, including California (22%) and New Mexico (18%), with Colorado and Wyoming at less than 4% and Utah recycling next to nothing. Overall, we are not doing nearly enough to develop wastewater recycling in the seven states that are part of the Colorado River Basin, said Noah Garrison, a water researcher at UCLA and coauthor of the report. Were going to have a 2 million to 4 million acre-foot per year shortage in the amount of water that weve promised to be delivered from the Colorado River. (An acre-foot is what it would take to cover an acre of land in a foot of water, equal to 326,000 gallons.) The report found that if the states other than high-achieving Nevada and Arizona increased their wastewater reuse to 50%, theyd boost water availability by 1.3 million acre-feet every year. Experts think that its not a question of whether states need to reuse more toilet water but how quickly they can build the infrastructure as droughts worsen and populations swell. At the same time, states need to redouble efforts to reduce their demand for water, experts say. The Southern Nevada Water Authority, for example, provides cash rebates for homeowners to replace their water-demanding lawns with natural landscaping, stocking them with native plants that flourish without sprinklers. Between conserving water and recycling more of it, western states have to renegotiate their relationship with the increasingly precious resource. Its unbelievable to me that people dont recognize that the answer is: Youre not going to get more water, said John Helly, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who wasnt involved in the report. Weve lulled ourselves into this sense of complacency about the criticality of water and its just starting to dawn on people that this is a serious problem. Yet the report notes that states vary significantly in their development and regulation of water recycling. For one, they treat wastewater to varying levels of purity. To get it ultra pure for drinking, human waste and other solids are removed before the water is treated with ozone to kill bacteria and viruses. Next the water is forced through fine membranes to catch other particles. A facility then hits the liquid with UV light, killing off any microbes that might remain, and adds back those missing minerals. That process is expensive, however, as building a wastewater-treatment facility itself is costly, and it takes a lot of electricity to pump the water hard enough to get it through the filters. Alternatively, some water agencies will treat wastewater and pump the liquid underground into aquifers, where the earth filters it further. To use the water for golf courses and nonedible crops, they treat wastewater less extensively. Absent guidance from the federal government, every state goes about this differently, with their own regulations for how clean water needs to be for potable or nonpotable use. Nevada, which receives an average of just 10 inches of rainfall a year, has an environmental division that issues permits for water reuse and oversees quality standards, along with a state fund that bankrolls projects. It is a costly enterprise, and we really do need to see states and the federal government developing new funding streams or revenue streams in order to develop wastewater treatment, Garrison said. This is a readily available, permanent supply of water. Wastewater recycling can happen at a much smaller scale, too. A company called Epic Cleantec, based in San Francisco, makes a miniature treatment facility that fits inside high-rises. It pumps recycled water back into the units for nonpotable use like filling toilets. While it takes many years to build a large treatment facility, these smaller systems come online in a matter of months and can reuse up to 95% of a buildings water. Epic Cleantec says its systems and municipal plants can work in tandem as a sort of distributed network of wastewater recycling. In the same way that we do with energy, where its not just on-site rooftop solar and large energy plants, its both of them together creating a more resilient system, said Aaron Tartakovsky, Epic Cleantecs CEO and cofounder. To use a water pun, I think theres a lot of untapped potential here. By Matt Simon, Grist This article was originally published by Grist. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org.
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E-Commerce
When Paige DeSorbo was applying to colleges, her mom suggested broadcast journalism school. You would be a great news anchor, she said. DeSorbo agreed; she always loved reading off a teleprompter and ended up attending journalism school in upstate New York. Today, the Bravo reality TV star, 32, isnt exactly reading off a teleprompter, but she is constantly addressing the public. DeSorbo and her best friend and former Summer House castmate Hannah Berner parlayed their weekly Instagram Live musings into a podcast, Giggly Squad, in 2020. There, they bring comedic takes to everything from tariffs (chamoy pickles should have an extra tariff, they decided recently) to the appropriate level of closeness between adult men and their mothers. With more than 44 million downloads as of last year, DeSorbo and Berner have gone on tour, appeared on The Tonight Show, and are now translating their charming and satirical advice into book form, with How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously, out today. DeSorbo spoke with Fast Company about the strategy thats propelled her career so far: Choose a business partner like you pick a spouse I met Hannah my first weekend on Summer House, and we immediately hit it off. Not to jinx it, but we don’t see what we do as work because its just talking to each other. Of course, we have to make [business] decisions, but we don’t have a scheduled time during the week for that. We’re talking constantly and bring up work things the way we would any topic. We also have a shared Google Doc and Notes app. When things come up that youd normally text your friend about, we write it down and wait until the podcast. We call ourselves low-maintenance friends. We’re low-maintenance business partners, as well. Hannah and I have never gotten into a fight about anything business-related because we think of things the same way. There’s so many other areas where Hannah and I are completely opposite, but we feel like Giggly Squad is our baby, and we’re co-parenting. Its like getting married. Its the biggest decision of your life, and you have to choose wisely. Know when to sacrifice hair and makeup When we were about to start the Giggly Squad podcast, Hannah and I had to literally go open a Giggly Squad bank account. Doing that with her, I felt like I was 13 years old, but we were represented at agencies. We had to make sure Giggly Squad felt authentic, like the Instagram Lives wed been making before, even though we were making it more professional. That’s why we love our tour so much. On Instagram Live, you’re in the comments. With podcasts, you never get to interact with listeners. Our live shows are almost like we’re back in our Instagram Live days, but in person. When we first started touring, Hannah and I wanted to get our hair and makeup done [for every show]. This is the most non-Paige-coded thing ever, but Hannah suggested we do our own hair and makeup so we could nap during the day. I was like, that’s the best idea. I need to nap before the show. I’ll sacrifice hair and makeup. Now, we’ve gotten so good at doing it ourselves. Use your own voice When Simon & Schuster came to us to write a book, any Bravo person I talked to said you get a ghostwriter. But both Simon & Schuster and Hannah said it needed to be in our voices, because its comedy. We wrote the book fifty-fifty. Some of the stories are the same, but one version is from Hannah’s view and the others mine. It starts with how Hannah and I met. I love seeing her perspective. Then we have different personalized stories from our childhoods that have to do with our moms and growing up. We were influenced by magazines from when we were younger, full of quizzes, graphs, and charts. We wanted that element in our book because its fun and nostalgic for us. Now, I can’t imagine our book being written by a ghostwriter. Giggly Squad is so nuancedwe have so many inside jokes. Explaining that to someone would take too much time. Be fully present At this point in my life, in my early thirties, Ive got passion for my career. It is my number-one focus. Not to say that I don’t want to get married and have childrenI absolutely do. But it’s slowly [becoming] okay for women to say, I’m going to wait on that part because I want to give it my all. When Im doing something, I want to be fully present. With Giggly Squad, writing a book, and going on tour, I want to be fully present. The same goes for motherhood and being a wife. Dont believe the haters . . . or your fans Before I was on Summer House, I watched a lot of Bravo. When you’re watching it, you see people do things and think, That is so crazy! How do you not remember you’re being filmed? Then when you film a reality TV show, you forget there’s cameras there, and you become so close with production. When they’re in the room, you forget they’re producers. A producer told me, before my first season even airedhe was preparing me for it being on TV50% of people will like you and 50% will not. You can’t believe either [group]. You can’t believe your hype, but you also can’t believe the meanest thing anyone’s ever said about you. That was really good advice because when I started, I didn’t have that many followers on Instagram and didn’t think about that aspect. That helped me with all the social media reactions and opinions. Trusting your gut is the biggest partand not just with your career, but in your entire life. There have been so many times in my career where people have questioned Giggly Squad or what I was doing on Summer Houseanything. Knowing yourself and believing in your decisions and power is the most important career advice.
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E-Commerce
At first glance, your Kindle might seem like a no-frills reading device: straightforward, minimal, and focused on the basics. Kind of like an actual book, huh?But beneath its simple exterior lies a surprising range of features, tools, and tricks designed to make reading smoother, smarter, and more enjoyable.So, whether youre a seasoned reader or new to Kindle, here are five hidden gems to take your reading experience to the next level.Double-Tap to Turn Pages[Gif: Doug Aamoth]Amazon may have killed off physical buttons, theres a new feature that might help ease the pain.If youve got the most recent Kindle Paperwhite or the new Kindle Colorsoft, you now have access to double-tap functionalityavailable with the 5.18.1 update that dropped in March.It lets you turn pages with two quick taps to the side or back of your Kindle, making one-handed reading a far easier endeavor.Once your Kindle is updated to version 5.18.1, go to Settings > Device Options and toggle on Double Tap to Page Turn.Pinch to Adjust Font Size[Photo: Doug Aamoth]Im embarrassed that I didnt know about this sooner and, frankly, shocked I never did it by accident.For the aging-eyed among us, theres no need to dig track down your cheaters or dig through settings to change text size. Just pinch, baby.To try this, use two fingers to pinch or spread apart on the screen while reading. Itll instantly adjusting the font sizeeasy as that.Send-to-Kindle for Easy File Sharing[Photo: Doug Aamoth]One of my favorite features lets you can transform your Kindle into an all-in-one reading hub by sending documents, PDFs, and even web articles directly to it.Locate your Kindle email address in Settings > Your Account > Send-to-Kindle Email, and then email files to that address. Theyll soon appear in your library after syncing.You can also use the Chrome browser extension for web articles to streamline the process. And you can go to Amazon.com/MyK to customize your Send-to-Kindle email address to make it easier to remember.Export Notes and Highlights[Photo: Doug Aamoth]If you make use of the note-taking and highlighting features, Kindle makes it easy to export your musings via email.To use this feature, tap the top of the screen while reading and select the Notes and Highlights icon in the upper-right corner, which looks like a little notebook. From there, tap the share icon in the upper-right corner and youll find the option to email your notes to yourself or someone elsejust follow the prompts to complete the process.Whispersync for Voice[Photo: Audible]Why choose between reading and listening when you can do both?Whispersync for Voice enables seamless transitions between the Kindle version of a book and its Audible counterpart.Purchase both versions of a book with Whispersync compatibility, open it, and tap Switch to Audio or let the Kindle automatically sync your position between formats.You can also use Amazons Matchmaker feature, which scans your Kindle library and offers a discount price for to add audio to audio-compatible books.
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E-Commerce
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