雑学とかライフハックとかについて語りたい時用

I bake sweets once a month and always wear gloves for hygiene when giving them to friends. But I can't memorize recipes, so I need to use my phone. A friend told me that putting the phone in a Ziploc bag surprisingly still allows touch input, and I don't have to wash my hands every time. It's super convenient!

Here's a tip for when you spill a drink: if you place something absorbent (like a towel) over the spill and then use a vacuum cleaner to suck it up from above, it'll remove the liquid cleanly. I haven't tried this myself yet, but definitely give it a go!

This might be common knowledge, but I didn't know it. I ride a motorcycle, and it has drum brakes. I usually avoid riding in the rain, but the other day I absolutely had to travel by motorcycle and ended up going out. Since the road surface is slippery when it's raining, any sudden maneuvers increase the risk of slipping and falling, so I was being extra cautious, about 50% more careful than usual, with accelerating, turning, and decelerating. When decelerating, I started by applying the rear brake first, and then lightly applied the front brake, just barely touching it at first... or so I thought! Contrary to my intention, the front brake suddenly engaged with full force, making a "Screeech!!!" sound. I lost my balance and fell. Fortunately, I'm used to falling, so I avoided injury. Later, when I went to the dealer for a routine check-up, I mentioned, 'When I lightly pulled the brake lever on a rainy day, the brake suddenly engaged at maximum force.' The technician at the dealership explained, 'When brake pads absorb moisture, they can expand, increasing friction and causing that to happen.' Everyone, please be careful on rainy days...

I'm posting this because when I was about to open a retort curry pouch, people around me said 'Naruhodo💡 ̖́-' about how I did it. When opening, you usually use the cuts on the top left and right of the pouch, right? If you just tear from one side, doesn't it sometimes rip in a different spot than the other cut, or the front and back of the pouch don't align, making it hard to get the contents out? So! When opening, first fold the pouch in half vertically, aligning the cuts on both sides. Then, hold both cuts together and tear, and it should rip cleanly. When opening pouches with these cuts, definitely give it a try!

When curry and rice share a plate 🍛 If you make a 'dam' with the rice and push it towards the curry as you eat... You can finish the meal without the curry spreading too much, keeping the plate as clean as possible. I realized I started doing this without even noticing (ノ´∀｀*) I don't remember when I started, but someone pointed out my eating style. So, it's not a big deal or anything, just a very personal story.

Let me start by saying that I believe the developers who created the mechanisms behind cryptocurrency are geniuses. Honestly, I also admire Satoshi Nakamoto, the presumed creator of Bitcoin. However, the amount of electricity consumed for cryptocurrency mining and operation is insane. The "mid-sized nations" mentioned in the title are apparently countries like Thailand and Vietnam. This figure is based solely on Bitcoin, and there are many other cryptocurrencies out there. I haven't confirmed if all cryptocurrencies use the same mechanism, though. Due to the nature of the program, which utilizes mathematical properties that make it difficult to find simple solutions, it's almost unavoidable. Most of the electricity spent on mining is essentially wasted. Even when mining is successful, the result is just a "new number to start the next calculation," which doesn't directly fill anyone's stomach or solve any problems (though that's the nature of currency). I used to think, "With global warming being such a problem and energy consumption needing to be reduced worldwide, isn't it insane and wrong that just running currencies uses a nation's worth of electricity?" But nowadays, I feel like various AIs seem more concerning.

Well, it depends on the model, of course. When you need to charge quickly, some people might feel curious and want to check frequently, thinking, 'I wonder how many percent it's charged up to now?'. I'm one of those people sometimes. However! If you were to witness how much the numbers change when you turn the screen on and off while charging with a charging cable equipped with a watt meter that visualizes charging speed, I believe you'd stop wanting to check it so often. I've used many smartphones in the past, and without exception, all of them shared the common trait that 'charging speed dramatically slows down while the screen is lit'. Some models display a small 'Charging... 〇%' at the bottom center with the rest of the screen completely black, but turning off even that display and completely shutting off the screen resulted in a significantly faster charging speed. I highly recommend a charging cable with a watt meter. Even when the smartphone screen isn't on, as it gets closer to a full charge, the numbers on the watt meter will drop, allowing you to get a general idea of the charging status.

I'm not sure if this is true 😅 I think it was probably during the bubble economy era, but I couldn't find any information to back it up because the times are so old. Well, even if it's a false story, I don't think it's the kind of thing that would cause harm to anyone, so I'd appreciate it if you could overlook it as just a conversation piece 😅 When I was a student, I was talking with my homeroom teacher about how I wanted a PC but couldn't afford one because they were so expensive. The teacher told me, "When I was young, computer monitors were mainly monochrome CRTs, but color ones (though only about 16 colors) cost millions of yen, enough to buy a car. I bought one with my bonus and savings. Considering that, you're lucky now because even students can afford a higher-performance PC, including the monitor, if they work part-time." Nowadays, there are smartphones ranging from ¥1 to incredibly expensive models that require loans, and the price difference feels so huge it's like a bug. But thinking that a single CRT monitor used to cost millions of yen, it's possible to think that we can now buy much higher resolution, higher performance products at relatively low prices... maybe? 😅

You might think that since glass is colorless and transparent, letting through almost 100% of visible light (as it appears to us), it would also let through 100% of UV rays. However, UV rays actually get attenuated. This varies depending on conditions like thickness and surface state, but with ordinary glass, the transmittance is about 70% at a thickness of 5mm. For 12mm thick glass used in automatic doors, it's 50%. With laminated glass, it's almost 0% (meaning it can block almost all UV rays). I once saw an advertisement in a car catalog that said, "This car's window glass has a 99% UV cut rate!" I don't think they were lying, but it felt like a tactic similar to "unbleached XX (food)" – where they emphasize "unbleached!" even though "bleached XX" doesn't even exist, to differentiate from other companies' products. It's a way of advertising that isn't technically false but misleads consumers (when all other companies are doing the same without advertising it). In reality, are there cars that actually use window glass with less than a 99% or 100% UV cut rate?

I actually tried the method I often see in videos where you pinch a t-shirt in 3 spots to fold it. If you don't adjust the pinching points properly, it looks messy after folding. But it really works, and it's faster than folding normally.