dust, photovoltaics, tar, and handwriting

Today I learned that when filter companies test filters, they buy Arizona dust for a test material, so we've accidentally been filtering the very thing filters are designed to handle.

In last year's news, some researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology invented a kind of solar cell that they figure we ought to all be able to print out someday on our inkjet printers. Since it appears that these things involve nanotubes and buckyballs, I think I'll wait patiently.

In fire decontamination news, I got to wondering about what's actually in smoke, and it appears that tar could be a product. Tar is pretty hard to wash out; I understand that the easiest way to get actual tar out of your clothes is to rub them with lard, and let it sit for a couple of hours, and then get the lard out.

Ok, so it's not like I was going to try lard on a whole quilt even if I were sure tar was the problem. I'm not going to try milk as a solvent, either, because I have a terrible time washing that out, too, plus it makes me sick. I'm going to stick with ammonia because I can make myself sick sniffing the greywater afterwards, so it must be doing something.

Also, minuscule is the preferred spelling of miniscule, and either one is a kind of medieval cursive.