2021's Miseries: The Great Creatine Shortage

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 11/20/2021 08:56:00 AM
By now, it should be obvious to just about everyone that goods whose availability we once took for granted are in short supply. Blame COVID-19 lockdowns affecting countries where these goods are being produced, a breakdown in air/sea/land transport logistics, and so on. The pre-COVID-19 world was built on distributing manufacturing facilities where things could be made most efficiently, assuming fairly inexpensive shipping even across vast distances. Is that world now gone? We'll have to wait and see if and when the pandemic subsides. In the meantime, here's another not-quite-amusing example for those encountering these shortages:...
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Oil Crisis? Bah. UK’s Fake Tan Shortage

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 11/09/2021 03:11:00 AM
There are all sorts of unexpected but fairly amusing shortages occurring worldwide given supply chain snarls that are happening as the world deals with the ongoing pandemic. It seems that spreading out manufacturing and sourcing locations to far-flung areas of the globe makes less sense when logistical hurdles arise due to lockdowns as COVID-19 surges pop up again and again in various key countries. Take, for instance, ethoxydiglycol. This chemical sourced from places like (surprise!) China are in short supply in Europe. Without it, a lot of formulations for cosmetics cannot function properly. Ever wonder how UK celebrities...
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Bitcoin's Astounding Environmental Cost

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 11/01/2021 03:58:00 PM
 There's an interesting article in Fortune on the true environmental costs of using Bitcoin as a medium of exchange to replace cash, debit cards, credit cards, and other commonly-used payment methods. Given the enormous amounts of electricity needed for bitcoin mining, it is perhaps no surprise that estimates on the high end find it to be an unsustainable proposition. So much for using Bitcoin for everyday transactions?The [MoneySuperMarket] report states that each Bitcoin transaction consumes 1,173 kilowatt hours of electricity. That's the volume of energy that could "power the typical American home for six weeks,"...
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