10 ms·
What Is Glitter?
- octosphere 8y agoWhat an ample time to post such an article. Some context: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/12/18/man-catches-thieves-using-fake-amazon-box-full-glitter-cameras/2347691002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/12/18/man-ca...
- rlglwx 8y agoI hate to be the bearer of bad news but that video was faked.
- usefulcat 8y agoSource?
- flardinois 8y agohttps://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/18/12/21/youtuber-admits-aspects-of-viral-homepod-glitter-bomb-video-were-faked https://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/18/12/21/youtuber-a...
- saurik 8y agoGoogle for "glitter package video fake".
- insteadof 8y ago> "I was presented with information that caused me to doubt the veracity of 2 of the 5 reactions in the video [...] It appears (and I've since confirmed) in these two cases, the 'thieves' were actually acquaintances of the person helping me." https://twitter.com/MarkRober/status/1075767629703372800 https://twitter.com/MarkRober/status/1075767629703372800
- scarejunba 8y agoIt wasn't faked. The incidents where the pickups happened at his place were real. However he paid people to place it on their doorstep and those people had an accomplice pick it up.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- reconbot 8y agoFaked and discovered to include fake reactions that were then removed, are different situations. Mark has been producing high quality educational and entertaining videos that encourage kids to get into science. I have personally watched kids go nuts over his Fluidized air bed experiments, and convince their parents to try it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My4RA5I0FKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My4RA5I0FKs It sucks there was fake content in there, but the device was real and the fake actions removed.
- darkpuma 8y agoI'm a bit more miffed that he didn't make it very clear he didn't create the device. I enjoyed watching the video of the guy who did, but I only got to watch that video because somebody in the last HN thread recommended it.
- mirimir 8y ago> ... didn't make it very clear ... Until I saw this subthread, I had no clue that he didn't design and build it. I don't recall any reference, even to a partner.
- reportingsjr 8y agoHe states in the video that he built it with someone else.
- mirimir 8y agoOK, thanks. Missed that.
- Reedx 8y ago2 of the 5 thefts weren't genuine, but the creator was unaware of that. That's not the same thing as faking a video. Here's the full explanation: https://twitter.com/MarkRober/status/1075767629703372800 https://twitter.com/MarkRober/status/1075767629703372800
- freyir 8y agoHe was caught using two fake reactions, and he owned up to those. But we can’t say if the others are real or not with any certainty. Personally, I thought the parking garage reaction looked like bad acting as soon as I saw it, so I’m still skeptical. He also initially claimed the package was placed in Illinois, but he edited the video after people called him out on it. And he presents the device as something he engineered himself, only briefly mentioning that someone helped him. Another video shows that the other guy, Sean Hodgins, actually built it (find the link in jtokoph's comment below). So who really knows? It wouldn’t be the first time something on the Internet was staged.
- jtokoph 8y agoLink to the other video: https://youtu.be/IpMxOmUcfOI https://youtu.be/IpMxOmUcfOI Its disappointing that Sean is getting absolutely zero credit. Mark Rober just keeps saying “I built”. There’s a link in the description but just suggests Sean has more build details. He could have at least brought Sean into the original video for some credit. Who knows, maybe this was the deal and Mark is giving Sean all of the ad revenue in exchange for the views/subs/credit...shrug
- sah2ed 8y agoYou are being over-dramatic. He clearly mentions Sean and even includes a couple of frames in the video of Sean working on the device's PCB. Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxhDk-hwuo&t=70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxhDk-hwuo&t=70
- minimaxir 8y agoRelevant HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734421
- IshKebab 8y agoI guess "ample" is a typo? Also this isn't a coincidence. This has been posted because someone saw that video and wondered what exactly glitter is. I also looked it up after watching that video.
- octosphere 8y agoNope. Not a typo. Here's the Wiktionary entry for it: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ample https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ample
- aidenn0 8y agoI fail to see how any of those definitions make sense in your original post.
- octosphere 8y agofully sufficient; abundant
- IshKebab 8y agoYes you have ample time, but it cannot be "an ample time". I'm a native speaker so I can't explain why, but trust me! You probably want to say something like "What an apt time.." or "What a fitting time..."
- ravenstine 8y agoIf you enjoyed that article, you might appreciate an episode of Forensic Files titled "All That Glitters is Gold" where an crime was solved by forensic analysis of glitter. Apparently, glitter is not as generic as one might think! And, there are glitter collectors.
- dangban 8y agoWhatever it may be, it's likely not safe for living things to breathe-in or to eat.
- seattle_spring 8y agoHearing about a thief asphyxiating on glitter is so beautiful it should be considered art.
- dang 8y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?
- djsumdog 8y agoI was wondering about that too: the safety considering how secretive manufacturers were. Intuitively, I'd think the particles are just too large to be a considerable risk. The photo of the man wearing a mask is because they're around it all day every day (+ OSHA I'm sure), but I'm sure people have though the same thing about asbestos or pink fibreglass insulation.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Flavius 8y agoIt's something that should be illegal. It's a health hazard.
- egwynn 8y agoYou mean like almost every other popular art supply?
- ineedasername 8y agoEh, yeah, unfortunately... the arts have a long history of using some very toxic substances. In their defense it wasn't always known at the time.
- djsumdog 8y agoI wonder how many common art and cosmetic materials would be approved if they came on the market today.
- ohadron 8y agoHere's a huge thread on Reddit trying to figure out which mystery industry is the largest buyer of glitter: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/a8hrk0/which_mystery_industry_is_the_largest_buyer_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/a8hrk0... No conclusive results yet, but I believe Reddit will deliver.
- cperciva 8y agoI thought the answer was right in the article: Automotive paint. They've got a lot of surface area to cover, and car companies want their vehicles to shine.
- ohadron 8y agoMakes sense and could be it, but somewhere in that reddit thread there's a car paint guy who claims they use pure aluminium particles and not just aluminium painter polymer.
- ken 8y agoI don't think automotive manufacturers would be worried about people knowing that their shiny paint contains glitter. Also, there are a lot of cars in the world, but most just get painted once. My first guess would be a consumable. Maybe food-related, where we don't expect (or want) glitter. The "toothpaste" guess sounds like it's on the right track. "Fast food" wouldn't entirely surprise me, either.
- jey 8y agoIt's still probably under NDA and the glitter suppliers are contractually forbidden from revealing their customers. It'd be up to the customer to reveal it.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- LowLevelHacker 8y ago
- pjc50 8y ago> I have no idea how humans figured out how to do that, or why it occurred to them to even try, but it sounds expensive. I had to check this wasn't Dave Barry writing. Anyway, this seems to have genuinely been a space age invetion, aluminised mylar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoPET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoPET (There is no item of "futuristic clothing" that pins a piece of visual SF to a particular point in history in the 1960s quite like this material. Especially when used for miniskirts.)
- anigbrowl 8y agoThis made sense in theory, but how could aluminum go from being not on the film to being on the film without at least some Scotch tape? “They evaporate aluminum and deposit it on it,” said Mr. Shetty. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum be evaporated? “It’s a very, very thin layer. They put it in a vacuum chamber, then evaporate the aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. “With heat,” his son added. “What are they evaporating out of it?” I asked. “Aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. I have no idea how humans figured out how to do that, or why it occurred to them to even try, but it sounds expensive. What's worse, the lack of understanding of high school science among journalists (Boyle's law and elements changing state are very basic chemistry) or the the lack of communication skills among scientists?
- bobthepanda 8y agoIs this a lack of understanding, or a narrative written with a supposed lack of understanding to effectively communicate to a general audience? The type of person reading this is probably not trying to relive a high school science class.
- anigbrowl 8y agoNeither possibility is good. I like science writers that know how to explain things, not ones that pretend to be stupid to pander to the reader.
- dekhn 8y agoEvaporating metals for surface deposition is a well-known materials technique, but I guess it's mostly us nerds who care. Like, I literally go to TAP Plastic and stare at the various aluminized mylars and think about maker projects that could use it, but I know I'm a rarity. That said most people who took photos of the solar eclipse this year were using aluminized mylar filters.
- tzs 8y agoGlitter can apparently be used to help solve crimes, according to Wikipedia's "glitter" article [1]: > Due to its unique characteristics, glitter has also proven to be useful forensic evidence. Because of the tens of thousands of different commercial glitters, identical glitter particles can be compelling evidence that a suspect has been at a crime scene. It links to this review article on glitter from a forensic point of view [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitter [2] https://projects.nfstc.org/trace/docs/final/Blackledge_Glitter.pdf https://projects.nfstc.org/trace/docs/final/Blackledge_Glitt...
- lucb1e 8y agoI'm curious what the answer to the title is but "aluminum metalized polyethylene terephthalate" doesn't exactly help me. Aluminium, okay, but what is the rest? The article goes on and on and on, rambling about how everyone likes it just like we once hunted for honey, what company it originated at, what kind of word it even is... thousands of words for a couple of interesting bits of information. This either needs a summary or some more concise writing.
- uryga 8y agoi felt like the article describes a whole bunch of the details – e.g. covering the plastic with vaporized aluminum (i believe this is what "aluminum-metalized polyethylene terephthalate" means); making plastic iridescent by etching microscopic patterns into the plastic and exploiting the way light refracts off of those; maybe others that i can't remember now. but to me that wasn't as interesting as the part where the glitter industry turned out to be weirdly secretive about the whole process.
- ars 8y ago* aluminum - obvious I hope * metalized - take a non metal material and cover it in metal * polyethylene terephthalate - this is simply PET plastic, also called Polyester, and is used to make fabric and bottles.
- aidenn0 8y agoThink "potato chip bag" (the kind that's shiny on the inside). It's a thin layer of metal sandwiched between two layers of mylar. The aluminum would be prone to tearing by itself, and the mylar would let too much oxygen through, thus spoiling the potato chips.
- alexandercrohde 8y agoFor those unaware, phthalates are linked to decreased testosterone and potentially other health effects. 1 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate#Endocrine_disruption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate#Endocrine_disruption
- mmagin 8y agoNot the same thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate#Identification_in_plastics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate#Identification_in_pl...
- alexandercrohde 8y agoMildly different, but still a pthalate. Guilty until proven innocent when it comes to endocrine disrupters imho. Commentary published in Environmental Health Perspectives in April 2010 suggested that PET might yield endocrine disruptors under conditions of common use and recommended research on this topic.[26]
- peter303 8y agoPreviously they used pulverized mica. Mylar is cheaper and more manageable.
- riskable 8y ago"Previously"? Mica powder is still used in a lot of glitter products. For example, glitter make-up is almost always made with mica powder. 3D printing filament with "glitter flake" is mica powder.
- robertAngst 8y agoI'll say it- The US Military And not because its particularly useful, but as a method to funnel money from taxpayers into a few glitter companies. They play along and everyone makes money. This passes the- "Why is it a Secret", "Why it can be a secret", and "Why they buy so much".
- Spooky23 8y agoI would not necessarily make that assumption. See: https://cyberarms.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/the-weapon-that-disabled-iraqs-power-grid/ https://cyberarms.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/the-weapon-that-d... Something simple like chaff could have all sorts of interesting properties depending on shape, size, method of manufacturing, etc.
- robertAngst 8y agoThis only further reinforces the idea though. They have a legitimate reason to buy it. Why not cronyism at the same time? This would explain the industry leading quantities as well.
- cududa 8y ago...ah yes the military glitter industrial complex
- starbeast 8y agoA highly effective tactical weapon in our long standing battle against the sea and everything that lives there. That damn sea, one of our oldest enemies and yet it still persists. We'll get the better of it yet though, the big wet bastard. Glitter production will help enormously and I am delighted to say it has almost doubled since our recent glitter marketing through social media and that article in the New York Times. edit - Some people actually like the sea and dare to speak against our mighty and patriotic glitter industry - https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/glitter-plastics-ocean-pollution-environment-spd/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/glitter-plastics...
- justinph 8y agoEasy answer: Pollution.
- dane-pgp 8y agoThis question reminds me of an interesting exchange in an episode of Daria: Ashley-Amber - How do you think they make glitter? Brittany - Hmm. I don't think we've learned that yet in science. Salesman - Can I help you, ladies? Ashley-Amber - Yes. How do they make glitter? Salesman - Why, they capture a moonbeam and crumble it up into tiny little specks of magic. Ashley-Amber (to Brittany) - Then we can save a bunch of money by doing it ourselves.
- Etheryte 8y agoI wouldn't be too surprised to find out the fast food industry uses some form of glitter to make things look tasty. If you imagine that for example most burgers are usually precooked frozen meat that's then reheated, getting it to look like freshly made can be quite a challenge.
- DonHopkins 8y agoUnicorn Meat has a lot of glitter in it. https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e5a7/ https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e5a7/
- jboles 8y agoGetting the plastic-based glitter to not melt or burn on the grill might also be quite a challenge.
- Etheryte 8y agoThere are edible types of plastic and having it melt once on the food product during reheating might be beneficial. I'm not saying this as a conspiracy theory or anything of the like, but rather pointing out that this could very well be one application.
- snorrah 8y ago“A way to make long winter nights slightly brighter, despite the offshore presence of Germans.” Well that came out of nowhere.
- jpindar 8y agoIt's referring to this, from earlier in the article: > A December 1942 article in The Times — possibly the first mention in this newspaper of the stuff — advised New York City residents that pitchers of evergreen boughs, placed in their windows for the winter holidays, would offer “additional scintillation” if “sprinkled with dime-store ‘glitter’ or mica.” The pitchers were to replace Christmas candles, which the wartime Army had banned after sunset — along with neon signs in Times Square and the light from the Statue of Liberty’s torch — after determining that the nighttime glow threw offshore Allied vessels into silhouette, transforming them into floating U-boat targets.
- tnuc 8y agoIt is allegedly mixed with bleach and used by the coal industry to make the smoke look white. People don't like seeing black smoke.
- crazygringo 8y agoAre you trying to start an urban legend or something? There are a million ways that doesn't make sense, but hey, at least you're being creative... :)
- ars 8y agoWhy would you burn glitter of all things? Glitter is plastic and aluminum. You could just burn those separately if that's what you wanted. What's the purpose in making them into glitter first? And in any case they wouldn't turn the smoke white. And there are better ways to get rid of black smoke (easier is add some air into the fire).
- pavel_lishin 8y ago> allegedly Who alleges this?
- JonasJSchreiber 8y agoI love the author's humorous descriptions > Metalization, he explained, is the process by which aluminum is deposited on both sides of the film. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum go from being not on the film to being on the film without at least some Scotch tape? “They evaporate aluminum and deposit it on it,” said Mr. Shetty. This made sense in theory, but how could aluminum be evaporated? “It’s a very, very thin layer. They put it in a vacuum chamber, then evaporate the aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. “With heat,” his son added. “What are they evaporating out of it?” I asked. “Aluminum,” said Mr. Shetty. I have no idea how humans figured out how to do that, or why it occurred to them to even try, but it sounds expensive.
- Fnoord 8y agoGlitter is terrible for the environment, and easy to avoid by not using it.
- elliekelly 8y ago> and easy to avoid by not using it Judging from this thread and all of the guesses re: the mystery industry that uses glitter perhaps that's a bit of an overstatement. How can we easily avoid something when we aren't aware of all the ways it's used?