Impressive work by Brazilian scientists. They first noted that banana peels have elements useful in water filtration systems. So they made a filter from minced peel and measured the effect on river water, which showed a local solution from an abundant waste product can significantly reduce the risks from lead and copper.

Minced banana peel was applied in the preconcentration system and showed approximately 20-fold enrichment factor and the column was reused for 11 cycles without loss in the percentage of recovery. The proposed method was applied in the determination of Cu(II) and Pb(II) in a sample of raw river water and was validated by comparison with a standard reference material.

This reminds me of how an Ethiopian figured out how to wipe out the Rinderpest virus. Controls most successful are adaptable to human and environmental variation, not to mention inexpensive.

The method used to test and eliminate the virus had to be administered locally, which meant under uncontrolled environmental conditions by non-professionals.

This story can’t be real. It sounds like, at least for Mr. Wiener, the issue with being naked is about safety…

Public nudity, he explains, is legal in San Francisco and in recent years a group known informally as Naked Guys have shown unbridled enthusiasm for appearing in the nude.

“I see it pretty regularly, and unfortunately there are nudists who are not doing what they should,” Wiener told Reuters.

The nudists, who expose themselves most often in the city’s famous gay neighborhood, the Castro District, have got Wiener and others worrying about public health.

“I’m not a health expert, but I believe sitting nude in a public place is not sanitary,” he said. “Would you want to sit on a seat where someone had been sitting naked? I think most people would say, ‘No.'”

Wiener, who represents the Castro neighborhood, said he hears from merchants who fear the public displays may drive away customers, hurting the business’ bottom lines.

The argument that public displays in the Castro will drive away customers is like saying Disney should get rid of Mickey because some people are afraid of mice. Wiener must realize at least a little that “displays” are why the “famous gay neighborhood” has so many customers.

So let’s look instead at his argument on safety. Business is booming in other neighborhoods where safety is a very serious problem. I’m talking about three homicides in the Mission in just one week, including a cook. The last one was a block from the police station. And if Weiner is really worried just about seat cleanliness then maybe he should instead focus his worry on BART upholstery since it clearly brings many more dirty bottoms into the Castro:

Fecal and skin-borne bacteria resistant to antibiotics were found in a seat on a train headed from Daly City to Dublin/Pleasanton. Further testing on the skin-borne bacteria showed characteristics of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the drug-resistant bacterium that causes potentially lethal infections, although Franklin cautioned that the MRSA findings were preliminary.

High concentrations of at least nine bacteria strains and several types of mold were found on the seat. Even after Franklin cleaned the cushion with an alcohol wipe, potentially harmful bacteria were found growing in the fabric.

If only they could get rid of that disgusting fabric…

Interesting quote from the owner of a San Francisco restaurant.

Weinberg says in her blog that: “With a bazillion places online to tell us how badly we sucked, we do take it very personally”. “We scour the sites, cyber-stalking our customers.” She isn’t joking about the cyber-stalking.

When they see a negative comment, Weinberg and her team will track the customer through cyber-space to see what other restaurants they frequent and how they have rated them, before determining whether the complaint should be taken seriously. If they get the feeling that something should change, they change it. “Both online comments and in-house feedback usually reflect if the menu needs tweaking,” she says.

It sounds like they take the comment seriously because they take the trouble to track the customer. Then they determine whether it is a false positive. What restaurants need like a behavioral index tool. In other words they could save a lot of time if they had a simple reputation engine that gave them a score for an identity based on a list of other restaurants with comments from the same identity. Then they wouldn’t have to take every negative comment seriously, only the ones from identities they “respect”.

Then again this indicates a serious logical fallacy as a filter. It begs the question of how they respond to comments from identities they can recognize even without tracking them. Do they think it’s wise to judge the person before they listen to the message?

What if they designed a filter instead to be based on details of an event? When a commenter gives specific feedback about a taste, a detail that only a real patron could know, then they would know to take the comment seriously. A generic comment would be ignored. The flip side of this is that the restaurant would have to accommodate change in their menu and/or service to allow comments to be unique.

If they serve up a hot dish of key management, so to speak, then they can easily track the day and time the customer ate, and they can focus on the facts of the comment rather than the person writing a comment. A win-win; valuable feedback for restaurants and freedom (from stalkers) for their customers.

And just for reference, here is the restaurant owner’s FAQ, which might give you some insight into what she really thinks when people comment…

Q. Wow, Anna did you notice how big this space is? That’s a ton of seats to fill…

A. Yes a#$%##e I noticed how big it is.

Q: It really doesn’t look like you will be done by September. Or even this year.

A. Yes a###%^^e I noticed we are a little behind.

Q: Isn’t it like, impossible to find this many good staff?

A. Yes a$%$&&hole. It’s very hard to find good staff these days.

Q: Is that where the bar is going?

A. Yes a$$%%@e, that’s where the obviously brand spanking new bar is going. It’s right there in front of you.