David

I would like to establish some rules for forwarding email.

1
If the email starts with warning, and then tells a sob story, DON’T FORWARD IT. Read the message and send me the message.

The latest example is from my mother of all people. She sends me this forward about a guy who has been victimized by credit card fraud. I have to read 3 fucking stories about people I don’t care about before I find out the message is “Watch out for camera phones” because they can get your number.

2
If the email starts with a warning about something you have never heard of before. DON’T FORWARD IT until you verify that it’s a real concern. Here is a link to help you:
http://www.Break The Chain.org

My favorite example is an email that was a full page of 9-size font, what a waste of time. So after reading almost all the way to the end I find out this is about a spider called the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata). This spider does not exist on planet earth, yet the rumored death that this spider could inflict on you was enough to make countless people forward it to their friends and loved ones. By forwarding this story and others like it, you helped a real life computer spider to track thousands of servers. “So what’s the big deal?” You’re making the spam problem worse. The Computer Spider looks for all the email servers (the computer equivalent of a post office) who have had contact with this story. So now that the spammers know what post office you are using, they do the equivalent of sending messages addressed to “dear post office box holder.” However they are not a local business, they are the pushers of erectile dysfunction meds, other meds and all that other stuff you spend countless hours of your life deleting. For this I hate your ignorance, and the problems you create.

More to come as I have time.

The back and forth opinions of people who don’t know which expert to believe when it comes to nuking your sponge or washing it in the dishwasher, have led me to write this post for “Let’s Think Logically.”

First off, the question! Will zapping my sponge in the microwave kill the germs?

Of course the answer is YES, but there seams to be a lack of thinking on behalf of the public. For example: a dry sponge in the microwave can and will catch fire, and yes the fumes are toxic.

Next off; too short of a time in the microwave will not kill the germs. What will happen is you have now given the bacteria a nice warm (and hopefully wet to avoid fire) environment. For those of you who skipped your bio class, this is a perfect environment for germs to grow and multiply. Meaning the next time you use that sponge, expect your family to be less than courteous about sharing the bathroom.

Regarding the dishwasher… don’t place your sponge in the dishwasher. Remember the warm and wet thing from the paragraph above? Well your dishwasher does not get the water hot enough, meaning that you now just covered your dishes in a nice film of that stuff you were trying to kill.

So how long should I microwave the sponge? I don’t know, but people who supposedly have conducted research are in disagreement as to weather the number should be 2 or 6 minutes (or a number in-between).

Suggested Solution
Idea number one for the paranoid: Ditch the sponge all together and switch to paper towels and “Tuffys” (plastic or steel wool, I like plastic). Paper is a renewable resource your sponge is likely a polymer (that will not last as long as a plastic “Tuffy”), meaning it is a petroleum-based product causing you to pay more at the gas pump. You can even add an “anti bacterial” soap to get that extra sterile environment, but I am a person who believes in the power of my body and its ability to produce anti-bodies. Meaning that bacteria in small amounts might actually make me a healthier person.

Idea number two: Do what I do! For the kitchen counter and items I am cleaning that don’t go in the dishwasher, I use paper towels and whatever cheep liquid soap (Joy or Palm Olive) is available. For some jobs like washing pots and pans that have a real mess in them, I go right for that sponge (I like the sponge that is soft on one side and abrasive on the other). Then I place those items in the dishwasher. Now some of you at this point will be thinking “but dishwasher bad,” so I will explain the dishwasher. The dishwasher has cycles, and somewhere in the beginning or middle there is the soap cycle. The last cycle is almost always the rinse cycle, and it would be bad to have a germ filled sponge rinsing your dishes. Do I microwave the sponge? Only if it’s been left on the counter in something like uncooked chicken or pork juices for the last 6-12 hours (as it sometimes happens during the holidays when everyone finishes dinner and cleans up the next morning).