We live in a world of constant change; a world into which new people arrive every single day. The world now looks completely different to how it did ten years ago, and yet within this simple fact of life there is a rather humorous irony:
There are some things that will simply never die. Here are 4 that stand out for me:
1: Insects.
We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics: Bill Vaughan
A few years back Russian scientists did a little experiment in which they attached several living organisms in a container to the outside of the International Space Station, including a mosquito. The mosquito was brought back to Earth an incredible 18 months later, still alive and kicking. The endurance of this small creature is an amazing testament to the power of nature, and an example of how bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Not that I am a big fan of mosquitoes mind you, but we should be grateful that they are extremely resilient and can endure lots of things in order to survive as they are part of the food chain and if you were a bird or a bat you would most certainly love them …at least 30 times per day or more. Yum….
2: Plastic bags.
Because we don’t think about future generations, they will never forget us
Henrik Tikkanen
It is well-known that plastic bags take a long, long time to naturally decompose. Scientists believe, in fact, that plastic bags take approximately 500 years to break down naturally. Unfortunately they are still the main type of package that we use today to carry our shopping and although many of them are now classed as being made from recycled material they cannot be recycled more than once. So landfill they end up in, to die a slow death for around half a century and to leach the toxins back into the environment and into our waterways. If we have to use them we should still make sure they are disposed of properly after use, or better still find a way to reduce any form of packaging that we can by using reusable carry bags like the reusable cloth bags,. As for now long after you and I are gone there will be some of our plastic bags buried deep in our lovely earth. Doesn’t it make you think about the legacy we are leaving behind for future generations?
3: Aluminium cans.
We live in a disposable society. It’s easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even give it a name – we call it recycling: Neil LaBute
Aluminium cans are notorious for being recycled, often when one thinks of recycling, the first thing one thinks about is aluminium. However, they also take a long time to break down naturally (scientists say roughly up to 50 years.). Aluminium cans can also be recycled and remade into other useful items. Alluminium is just one of those metals whose life cycle can just go and on forever.For this reason they are proof that one should save as much as you can, and get those cans to a recycling center where the metal can be put to good use. If you are really creative though, you can make all sorts of things with your cans from jewellry to ornate lampshades and I am sure much more. You never know when even the most trivial things can come in handy do you?
4: Data.
Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.
Tim Berners-Lee
Data can be stored for long periods of time, and will generally last as long as whatever it is stored on. It outlives solid materials, as it does not exist in any solid way, only as readable information. Here’s an interesting fact. Most of the data that you have stored and are working with today could still be around years and years after your death. So you have to be the living judge as to which data you want to make infinitely available and data you want to have deleted within any period of time. Infinitely available data as I have previosly mentioned is only around as long as the material that it is stored on is around. So you need to make sure it always backed up. So why is backing up so important? Well backing things up is an important part of increasing the lifespan of your data, and companies like Iron Mountain are the go-to people when it comes to data protection, including remote data protection. So take a lesson about survival and protection from the mosquitos, plastic bags and cans of this world. Back up your data. You never know when you might need it, including the most trivial stuff. And next time you worry about things like your laptop breaking down, you won’t be worrying about your data going to join the choir invisible too.
What do you know of the eternal life of things? Got any good ones?
img courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalegillard/2330092285/
Yeah i’ve always wondered if jpeg files would ever become obsolete or non-readable.. because as you know, we all got tons of jpeg photos for all our memorable moments… and imagine what would happen if they cease to exist
Felicia Gopaul recently posted..014 CET- How to be Successful in College
now thats an interesting thought Felicia.
Similar was our videos becoming obsolete so we paid to have them transferred to DVDs which will soon become obsolete too. Maybe we have electronic files of our movie memoirs. Or maybe they should all be floatig around in a cloud? I am not quite that savvy yet…phew tech is moving far too fast isnt it?
The thing is this… the old photos I have in albums dont cost me anything to keep and I know where they are and can easilyy just get the albums out to have a nice browse through. There is a lot to be said for proper photographs… but even these will have been printed with toxic inks and NOT recycled paper. These were not thoughts of the day many years ago were they?
Such an interesting list, really like your point on data. Data has survived all the ages since people had started to note or draw the things.
I can be technical, but not savvy enough.. lol! everything’s just moving fast. but yeah, maybe we should just print the good photographs, and even that requires some technical know-how. case in point: toxic inks! lol.
Felicia Gopaul recently posted..015 CET- How to make the most of your College visit
Yes thats a good idea Felicia. It is nice to have a few nice photos around the home and it would also be nice to just have a very select few good ones in a photo album. Photos can be printed without toxic inks and on recycled paper or paper from managed resources now so there is no excuse for us not to so.
I bet there are people with hundreds and hudreds of rather useless photos that are poorly shot and the photos mean very little most of the time so the use of technology to store the lesser quality ones is probably perfect for them.
I bet. .Technology is slowly turning physical papers, folders, envelopes, etc, obsolete.
Felicia Gopaul recently posted..015 CET- How to make the most of your College visit
HAha I say that about insects all the time. I swear, if an asteroid hit the earth right now, the dang insects would crawl out the crater like nothing happened. They’re pretty much invincible…
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hey TLBH Adam
ooooooh you mean one of those gnats will still be in my bedroom and just as I am falling asleep it will fly right past my ear zzzzzoooomm and thats after it just had lunch on me somewhere LOL bless em all large and the small :-)
Mind you if the asteroid has hit earth then I wouldn’t be in my bedroom would I ?
Many cans of Raid later, one of them electronic zappers, Off pesticide, mosquito coils … and them critters are still here. I’ve finally figured it out. They’re slowly trying to get me to poison myself to death!
horsetail weeds and that wild ivy type weed, I think its called bindweed, will never die. I am totally convinced of this because no matter how many times I pull them up they just keep coming back with a vengeance in my garden. Mind you I rather like the bindweed as it has the most beautiful large white flowers and the bees love it too.
when I let the bindweed grow in my garden it was a stunning sight with those huge white flowers. But then it went mad and began strangling everything is sight. Clipped it down and pulled it out whever I could Sue but sure as heck it comes back every time. Bindweed is just one weed that never dies you are right!
Interesting list. I’ve often heard that the half-life of an engineer or technology in general is 5 years. Look at VHS tapes to Video Discs to DVD players to Flash Memory to Streaming Media as an example. The question is not “will jpeg files go away”. The question is “how will I store the jpeg files” or any data for that matter. I just transferred a number of VHS tapes to DVD. Next I will need to put them to the cloud. The problem still exists, but now someone else will get to worry about keeping up with storage and format technology changes.
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Will Santa ever die? I really do hope so. He causes more misery in the world with kids not getting what they want and then throwing huge tantrums because they havent got a clue about the meaning of giving and recieving. And to top it all everything is junk that nobody wants or needs and ends up in landfill. The sooner Santa dies and xmas is over the better!
Well yes sue there is plenty to be said about Xmas and Santa ( who is a coke advertisement as we all know dont we?) .. It could do with a complete overhaul without any gifts or silly wasteful presents I totally agree.
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